TITLE: Who Wants To Live Forever
AUTHOR: Lady Lark
PAIRING: Bulma/Vegeta
RATING: PG
WARNINGS: Death, angst
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the rights to any of the DBZ characters contained within. This is based off of the song "Who Wants to Live Forever" by Queen (covered by Dune). 
NOTES: I am going through some difficult times right now and need a catharsis. This story is it.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to Mia Skywalker for beta'ing this.
* = Song Lyrics

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Who Wants To Live Forever
part 4

~~~~****~~~~

*But touch my tears with your lips 
Touch my world with your fingertips 
And we can have forever 
And we can love forever 
Forever is our today*

Bra was due at any time and Goten was more anxious than the mother-to-be was. Bulma had been confined to her bed, but she still held court over her family.

Much to Vegeta's consternation, their bedroom had become the family room. A couch and several chairs graced the room. There was even a small table that had an unfinished puzzle on it. Next to Bulma's side of the bed was another small table with blueprints, notes, tools and half completed inventions. A TV was placed in one corner so that one could see it from any angle in the room and their bed had been moved so that Bulma could see out the doors of the balcony to the grounds below.

Bra waddled into the room and sat next to her mother on the bed.

"I am really getting sick of being fat and clumsy. How did you stand it Momma?"

"I didn't," replied Bulma ruefully, thinking back on her pregnancies. "I hated being pregnant for the same reasons you do. I felt fat, ugly and undesirable. And unlike you, in my first pregnancy I didn't have my husband around to reassure me. In fact, when your father saw me pregnant with Trunks, he demanded to know how I had gotten so fat!"

"But Daddy changed though."

"Yes he did. But not right away and not overnight. Even after I had given birth to Trunks, he barely acknowledged me or his son."

"You are exaggerating, Woman. I acknowledged you as annoying all the time," Vegeta interrupted from the balcony doorway where he was leaning, arms crossed.

"Whatever, vegetable brains."

"What your mother is not telling you is that I was training to fight those androids your future brother told us about and couldn't be worrying about a brat at that time."

"That is still not a good enough of a reason!"

"Quiet, woman. It is in the past, and the past is gone." 

"I know, Vegeta. But it still makes me angry," she glared at him, "If you start acting like that again, I'm going to slug you one," she vowed.

"And I would let you. Now you need rest."

"I'm fine."

Bra gasped suddenly and clutched her lower back.

"But I don't think our daughter is. Is it the baby, honey?" Bulma asked.

Bra nodded biting her lip in pain.

"Vegeta, go get Goten and call Dr. Yamamoto."

Bra gasped again.

"Are you sure you want to do this here, baby? You can go to the hospital if it would make you feel better . . ."

"No, Momma," Bra replied slowly as her first contraction passed. "Goten and I decided a long time ago that I would have the baby here. We want you to be the third person to hold our child, after Goten and myself of course."

"Okay, honey. But next contraction, try to breathe deeply. It will help with the pain."

"Thanks."

Bra's labor progressed through the natural stages - from silent endurance to shrieking obscenities. Poor Goten didn't know what to do about the banshee that was his mate. But Vegeta stood back against the wall by Bulma's bed chuckling. He was enjoying watching Kakarot's brat's discomfiture. Dr. Yamamoto and his nurse were trying their hardest to soothe the mother-to-be and the anxious father while making sure that the labor was proceeding smoothly.

"Push honey," Goten pleaded.

"You fucking push. You're the asshole who got me into this mess. Goten, I swear by all that is holy that I will never let you lay another finger on me," Bra yelled between contractions.

Goten looked stricken so Bulma called, "She doesn't mean it. All women feel like that."

"Yes I do mean iiiiiiiiitttttttt!!!!!" her voice rose in pitch as another contraction hit.

"Bra, I need you to push when the next contraction hits," Dr. Yamamoto told her.

She nodded and began panting in preparation for the next wave of contractions.

When they hit, Goten raised her up into a crouch and Bra held her breath and started to push.

"I can see the head!"

"Push, honey."

Bra glared but said nothing but continued to push.

"It's away!" cried Dr. Yamamoto as the baby slid from Bra's womb into the world. He handed the child to the attending nurse who proceeded to clean out the infant's throat and begin the Apgar test.

"What is it?" Goten asked from his position beside his mate.

"You have a very healthy little girl with a tail, Mr. Son," the nurse replied with a smile.

"A little girl. We have a little girl, Bra! I am so proud of you!"

"That ni. . ." Bra started but another contraction hit her.

"What!" cried Goten.

Dr. Yamamoto examined Bra's cervix and smiled.

"Mr. Son, it looks like you are about to be the father of twins!"

"WHAT!?" Cried Bra and Goten in unison.

Vegeta couldn't contain his amusement any longer, "You mean, you idiot, that you didn't sense him? I've been feeling ki from both of the brats for months," he laughed.

"It's a boy?" asked Goten stupidly.

"Of course it is. Now help my brat in birthing him!"

"Yes Sir!"

The birth of her second child was much quicker than his twin's. After the afterbirth had been born and disposed of, the new additions to the Briefs' family lay nestled in their grandparents' arms.

"What are you going to name them, baby?" asked Bulma looking down at her grandson.

Goten replied for his wife, "Well, I thought that we would name them after their grandparents."

Vegeta predictably misunderstood, "No descendant of mine will ever be named after Kakarot!"

"Not Goku, Daddy," Bra laughed. "You and Momma. Meet Bulma and Vegeta Son-Briefs."

Bulma's eyes watered, "Thank you, honey."

Vegeta leaned over and kissed away his wife's tears.

"None of that now, woman. Look at your legacy. They are true warriors."

~*~

Her grandchildren were two months old. Her wedding anniversary was a month away and she knew that she wasn't going to make it until then.

She had pneumonia and she could feel her lungs filling up slowly. She could hardly breathe and coughs were wracking her body. But she had one more thing she wanted to do before she died.

"V -Vegeta," she croaked.

"What, woman?"

"Can you," she managed before her body was convulsed with coughs. "Can you take me to that place, one last time?"

Vegeta regarded her for a moment. She had grown so frail. Her body was little more than a skeleton. Her hair had paled from its aqua color to the color of the summer sky. But her eyes, her clear blue eyes, were as glorious as ever. He knew what she was asking from those eyes.

She didn't want to die in a bed. She wanted to die has she had lived, free and adventurous.

He couldn't deny her last request.

Gently, as if cradling a feather, he picked her up into his arms and floated out of the balcony doors. He flew unerringly to the place he knew she wanted to go: the cliff by the ocean where he had proposed to her.

It was nearing sunset and the sky was beginning to cloak itself in color.

He settled her in his arms so she could watch the sunset unimpeded.

She was wracked by another coughing fit before she spoke. "Thank you, my love. Thank you."

She watched the sun slip beneath the waves illuminating the sky in vibrant hues and she felt herself fading away along with the light of the sun.

Vegeta felt her ki slipping away from him. He tried to hold back his tears, but found that he couldn't.

She felt something wet upon her cheek and looked up to see him crying silently.

She feebly raised her hand to his cheek and breathed, "Shhhhhhhhhhh. . ."

He clutched her hand to his face and kissed her palm.

"Forever, Keeper of My Heart."

She smiled weakly, "Forever. . ." and her voice trailed away. Her arm fell limp and her ki faded.

Vegeta leaned over and whispered in her ear before the last of her ki dissipated.

"I love you."

Her ki vanished and her eyes closed. Vegeta felt a part of him leave as well. He looked up at the heavens and saw that the sun had slipped beneath the horizon.

"Farewell. I will join you in time, my Queen. Until that hour, wait for me."

*Who wants to live forever 
Who wants to live forever? 
Forever is our today 
Who waits forever anyway?*

~~OWARI~~