After what seemed like hours, the jinzouningen were finally loaded into the transport van, ready to be taken to the hospital. After the initial phase of placing them onto the stretchers, it was really quite easy; at least rolling them down the hallway wasn’t too difficult of a task. Unfortunately though, the stretcher that Juuhachi-gou occupied was now held together by nothing more than duct tape. It wheezed and clattered the entire way to the van, and Mirai Bulma was certain that it was going to collapse any moment. That would be just another incredibly bad omen for this upcoming surgery, and she didn’t think she could handle any more of them. Everything was already going wrong and they hadn’t even reached the hospital yet. She could only imagine what might happen once they actually got there. If the earlier events were any indication, the jinzouningen would be dead within an hour.

Dr. Cho’s assistant was driving, so she made certain to lock the stretchers in tightly, just in case there was an accident. The girl had proven herself to be a bit clumsy already, and Mirai Bulma hated to think about what her driving skills were like. She wrapped her left hand around one of the belts and looped it around the metal of the stretcher, clipping it into place with her other hand. She pulled it as tightly as she could so that the jinzouningen would not be jostled too much on the journey to the hospital. Not only would this be uncomfortable for them, but she was a bit concerned about them waking up as well, which would not be very pleasant considering they would be all be trapped in a small, contained area. Vejiita would be accompanying them as a guard, but she didn’t want to be inside a vehicle with him and the jinzouningen when they started blasting attacks at each other.

The fight between her son and the younger Trunks had eventually stopped. Piccolo had been the one to end it, stepping nonchalantly between the two of them and grabbing both of their ears as if they were naughty six year old boys.

They were standing out in the yard with everyone else now, as far away from each other as possible. Both had matching scowls and she could see a noticeable difference in the color of their ears where Piccolo had grabbed. She imagined it was quite an excruciating experience --- it had been the first time in years that she had heard her son howl in pain. The last time that she had actually heard him cry out like that was when the jinzouningen of their time had still been alive. Since then, there wasn’t much in their world that could provide any kind of danger to them, except for maybe falling debris in the broken cities. But Trunks had always managed to keep himself from getting hurt; he was almost invincible in her eyes. So she was quite surprised --- and also quite satisfied to hear him howl like that. The bickering between the two versions of Trunks was getting tiring, especially when they were trying to do something important. If Piccolo hadn’t gone over there and taken care of things, she was certain that she would have slapped them both until they stopped yelling at one another.

The cause of their argument --- a rather petulant Tayhei, stood somewhere in between them, with Bra clutching her hand. Bra seemed as though she were about to cry as she watched them load the jinzouningen into the vans and lock the doors. Mirai Bulma wondered what the problem was quizzically, before seeing Vejiita out of the corner of her eye. The Saiya-jin prince was waiting beside the door of the vehicle impatiently, glowering at everyone. In Bra’s eyes, it probably looked as though her father were leaving her again, which made Mirai Bulma feel sick to her stomach with guilt. It was her fault that Vejiita was going along to guard them from the jinzouningen. She had asked him to do it, never even thinking about Bra’s feelings. She would never want to hurt the little girl though, and as she stared at her watery eyes, she began to think that perhaps she should ask someone else to take Vejiita’s place.

She leaned back against the van and crossed her arms, chewing absentmindedly on her bottom lip. There really wasn’t anyone else that could do the job, though. Normally she would have asked her son --- he had experience with the jinzouningen and knew how to handle them properly and disable them. But Trunks appeared to have other things on his mind, and she doubted that he would be able to guard over them properly. And she would never even consider asking the younger Trunks or Goten; the two of them were very powerful, but she would never but want to subject them to that kind of danger. She also could have trusted Gokuu or Gohan to do the job, but she really felt that they would both be too soft on the androids. Vejiita was the only one that she would trust to be vicious enough.

Turning to face him, she put the toughest expression she could muster on her face. Her deep blue eyes glinted, as if daring him to argue. “Vejiita, go and tell your daughter that you are coming back. She thinks you’re leaving her again.”

He gave her a disgusted look.

She slammed her fist against the side of the van and snarled at him. “Quit being so damn prideful and stubborn and get over there before she actually starts crying.”

Vejiita glared at her again. For a moment, he stood completely still, as if still challenging her. Then he shrugged and stomped over to Tayhei and Bra, his hands down and clenched at his sides. She couldn’t help herself from feeling a slight rush of power as she watched him stalk away. He was one of the strongest fighters in the universe, yet he was still a bit frightened of her. She smiled to herself, feeling rather smug. After all this time, he was still afraid of her. She could remember the days when she could get him to do anything --- go shopping with her, wear pink shirts, wash his hands before dinner. It had made her feel insanely powerful at the time to be able to do things like that without having to exert any kind of physical strength at all. It was just one of the many things that she missed about her husband. Ever since he had been killed, she hadn’t felt powerful at all. She just felt sick and weak and useless.

Mirai Bulma couldn’t hear what he said to Tayhei, but she doubted that it was anything even remotely cordial. The young girl let go of Bra’s hand, but kept her eyes on Vejiita the entire time, glaring fiercely at him. Bra though, looked completely joyful that her father had wanted to talk with her, and was gazing up at him with an adorable smile and dancing deep blue eyes. Bulma felt her heart ache when she saw him reach down and place a gentle hand on the little girl’s head, guiding her away from everyone else. Despite what she had accused him of earlier, Vejiita really was a good father. The way that he acted around Bra only further proved it. He may have made some mistakes with Trunks, but that was only because he hadn’t learned how to care for someone yet. He couldn’t help but adore Bra, though. Even if he wasn’t willing to admit it, his actions certainly showed it. It made her wonder again what it would have been like if Vejiita was still a part of her life.

Damn woman. Vejiita thought darkly as he led Bra away from the others. She thinks she knows everything. Always telling me what to do. It wouldn’t be half as bad if she didn’t have that shrill, awful voice. I can deal with a lot of things, but I can’t put up with her yelling. And not only that, but she embarrassed me in front of all of these people. Now they all think that I bend down to the requests of a pathetic human woman. She could have waited a little while longer, exercised a bit of patience. I would have gone to talk to Bra eventually. I didn’t need to be told to do it.

He looked back to assure himself that they were sufficiently far away from the others. The last thing that he needed at the moment was to be humiliated yet again. These stupid humans seemed to think that if you caved in just once, you were going to be soft for the rest of your life. If they only knew how much time he spent building up his defenses and making his mind and heart just as strong as his body. He wasn’t going soft with age or showing any signs of kindness and compassion. He was simply doing his duty as a father right now. There was nothing more to it than just that. And if anyone so much as snickered at him when he went back to join the others after this, he wouldn’t have second thoughts about burning a hole straight through their chest.

He turned to face his daughter again, and looked down at her little face with a calm, cool expression. He refused to be affected by those big, watery blue eyes or that cute smile that she had on her face. She had managed to charm him into many things in the past, just like her mother had been able to do. In fact, Bra had been the first person that he had ever truly hugged for no reason --- before then, he hadn’t even had the urge to touch anyone in that gentle manner. He had hugged Trunks before, but he was about to die then and felt it was necessary. Bra had the power to make him want to do these things just because --- just because she looked so adorable, or because she let her bottom lip tremble as if she were about to cry. But at the moment, he was going to keep himself strong. There would be no smiles or hugs today; he didn’t care how badly his daughter wanted them. He gave her a stern frown. “Do you know where I’m going, brat?”

She nodded briskly at him and answered in the same crisp tone that he had asked the question in. “You’re going to help Mirai Bulma-san.”

“Hai. I have to guard over her to make sure that the jinzouningen don’t do anything to hurt her or anyone else.” He told her calmly. Many parents would feel that this was a time to soften their words and protect their children, but Vejiita wasn’t one of them. He prided himself on being straightforward and honest everyone, including his children. He wasn’t going to tell Bra that this surgery was nothing and everything was going to be fine. If he did, he would be flat out lying to her and he didn’t want to do that. Besides, she was strong enough to handle the truth. She knew that danger was out there. And she knew that he was one of the people that regularly fought that kind of danger. “We’re going to the hospital so that she can fix the damn things, and there are going to be a lot of innocent people there. I have to go so that I can protect all of the doctors and nurses from getting butchered. It’s important that I go.”

He didn’t know what he was expecting her to say then, but her next words caught him completely off guard. In fact, they affected him so greatly that he snapped his head around and could just barely keep himself from letting a shocked expression fall on his face.

“I don’t blame you for what happened to Mama.” She said carefully and suddenly. “I know that it wasn’t your fault. You’d do anything to protect her. I don’t think that it is your fault at all that she’s gone. But I don’t want you to go away too.”

Vejiita felt his heart suddenly sink down to his feet. Of all the things that he was straightforward with and honest with, Bulma’s death had not been one of them. He had not chosen to speak about it, not chosen to acknowledge it in any way. He hadn’t told his daughter anything about it, didn’t even give her the privilege of knowing how her mother died or why. Instead of doing the honorable thing and telling his daughter what had happened out there on those snowy fields, he had chosen to ignore it, ignore her. He had broken a promise when Bulma died. He had promised to protect her. And because he hadn’t been able to keep that promise, he deemed himself unworthy to be Bra’s parent, to be her guardian. He had failed her, broken a promise that obviously meant a great deal to her. He thought that by ignoring the situation completely, he was doing the right thing. He didn’t think that it was right to be a parent until he had worked out what was going on in his own head and in his own heart.

But he hadn’t thought about what it meant to Bra.

He never stopped to think that his actions had hurt her, scarred her. While he was busy worrying about himself and trying to mend his own heart, hers had been slowly breaking. And when he had left, intending on sorting things out on his own, it had just about destroyed her. That was why her deep blue eyes looked back at him with such astounding maturity and cynicism. She had had to grow up much faster than she had originally planned, because in her mind, she had just been abandoned by everyone that was supposed to love her. Her mother had died --- and she never even got a chance to say goodbye. That had torn her up inside, hit her with a kind of sadness that no little girl should ever have to experience. And as an instinct, Bra had clung to him, hoping that he would fill the gap that was left by her mother’s death. But instead, he had pushed her away. He had abandoned her as well.

His daughter had a right to be scared. She had a right to look at him with those big blue eyes full of unshed tears. She had a right to hold onto the hem of his shirt so tightly that her little knuckles began to turn white. It might seem silly to the average person, to someone that didn’t take the time to look deeper. After all, he was just going to have a short stay at the hospital to watch over the jinzouningen. But in Bra’s eyes, it was much more than that. Bra had a reason to be frightened of anyone leaving her at any time. She had already experienced much more of that than the average little girl and it had taken its toll on her. She was already jaded, already preparing herself for the worst. And she was acting this way because of him and his selfishness. If he hadn’t acted the way that he did after Bulma’s death, if he had reached out to her instead of pushing her away, perhaps she could have kept her childhood.

It was too late to fix things, though. It was too late to start coddling her now. He had wanted his little girl to grow up and be strong and she had. As young as she was, she had already toughed inside, already let her heart begin to ice over. It made Vejiita sad to think that he had lost the little girl that he had cared for so much, but he had to be realistic. If he wanted to raise a child to be strong and be able to fight against any opposition in life, then he had to start now with the little things. He had to show her that not everything goes as it was planned, and that there is never anyone there to fall back on. There is no one in this life that you can count on. No one can ever love you so unconditionally that they will never leave. Whether it be because of anger or because of death, there was no true love in this life. Not even between a father and his child.

That was what he firmly told himself, but as he stared at her face and into her eyes, he began to doubt his own thoughts. Because he did believe in love. Somewhere in the vast, cruel darkness of his heart, there was a part of him where unconditional love not only existed, but flourished. It was that small part of him that had held Bulma so tenderly in his arms at night while she was sleeping, captivated by the curve of her face and the softness of her skin. It was that small part of him that rejoiced in every victory that his son ever achieved, and was flushed with pride whenever he saw Trunks assume a fighting stance. It was the part of him that had fallen in love with Bra the moment that he saw her cuddled in Bulma’s arms --- this tiny baby that had her mother’s hair and eyes. It was small, so small that it was nearly invisible, but this part of him did in fact exist. It was his most private, heavily guarded secret: The Saiya-jin no Ouji had learned to love.

Why shouldn’t he be able to hold her? Why shouldn’t he be able to gather her in his arms and tell her that everything would be okay? Why shouldn’t he be able to tell her how much she meant to him, how much she reminded him of the beautiful person that her mother used to be?

“I’m not going anywhere, Bra.” He told her gruffly, refusing to believe that his mind was running over these thoughts. Not here, not now. Not in front of everyone that respected him and looked at him as an emotionless warrior whose only concern was fighting and winning. He couldn’t be thinking these gentle thoughts right now, but it was so hard to remain stoic while he was looking into his daughter’s tearful eyes. It was hard to keep him from bending down and wrapping her up in his arms, hard to keep his heart from stubbornly aching in his chest. “I will come home.”

“And you’ll stay?” She asked tentatively.

“Hai.”

“Good.” Bra asserted, then the tears in her eyes shone even more brightly. “Because I love you.”

The words were right there. He wanted to say them so badly that his throat burned and the backs of his eyes began to sting. It would be so easy to say it, so easy to just let the words slide out of his throat and into the open summer air. But when he opened his mouth, the words would not come. He couldn’t even force them to come out, couldn’t even force anything to come out. He had been trained too well. He had been raised to believe that there was no such thing as love, no such thing as someone that you cared so much for that you would die for them. He had been raised to believe only in fighting and power, strength and the glory of a victory. That was all that had been in his heart and in his mind until he came here to this planet, and met the woman that changed his life forever. And even though he now knew that things like love and happiness existed, he still wasn’t able to display them. He never would be, no matter how many people he allowed to touch his heart.