Chapter One
AN: Okay, so I know I said I would update Dance Through the Pain, Wild Angel and To Kiss a Wolf as soon as I finished Saving Levy, but I hit a road block with S.L. So since my main Fanfic is on hold and the others are all needing updated, I can feel the pressure building up on me. I had a new idea so I'm gonna run with it for a while. Read and review or don't. This one's purely for fun and cause the idea makes my heart heavy with joy.
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Seven years. Seven long and lonely years had passed since the day she walked away, her shadow fading from the door way as if erasing her very existence from his life. Her old stuffed cat lay abandoned in her favorite chair by the window. The long dead bouquet of roses turning to dust on her book covered desk. The letter she wrote lay untouched on the desk.
'Dear Gajeel,
It's been three years since we started seeing each other, two since we began living together, and I can no longer stay like this. We have fought constantly, out walls filled with holes and our furniture in crumbles. We tried to make it work, I know we love each other and I know we'll meet again, but I have decided to leave. I'm going to move to the town my mother was born in. Forgive me.
Love forever,
Levy McGarden
P.S. Please do not try to find me or contact me.'
And with that, she was gone. Seven years had passed and she never wrote or returned. Seven years and the house looked exactly the way she had left it when she walked out their door that cold, rainy day. The house had been left abandoned, Gajeel paying the bills from his apartment in the center of town, to await her return.
Big red eyes flashed from left to right as the small blue haired girl peered into the dusty darkness of the small two bedroom house her parents once lived in years ago. A sparkle of light from the floor caught the six year old's attention. Stooping down just enough to snag the small item from the dust, Bellakatra stared at the small diamond ring in her hand. Tears filled her eyes as she slowly turned to leave the long forgotten home.
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Meredy laughed as she ran down the street, her long term boyfriend, Rogue, chasing after her. The small pinkette turned to peer over her shoulder at the raven haired man behind her. His smile made his heart falter as she sped through the quiet sun filled streets. She turned the corner heading towards their apartment, when suddenly a small child ran out in front of her. Meredy slid to a stop, slamming into the child and sending them both toppling to the ground. The child yelped, trying to get away, but Meredy's hand closed on her small wrist.
"Hey! What's the rush?"
"Run!" The child yelled, trying to break free again.
"What?" Meredy pulled on the child's arm trying to keep her nearby.
"Meredy watch out!" Rogue's voice filled the air as a big black animal barreled towards the pinkette and the child. Rushing forward, rogue's foot collided with the face of the wild canine sending it flying back down the alley with a yelp. "Grab the kid and run!"
Gajeel had just emerged from his apartment door when the yells of his young brother hit his ears. His coffee cup fell to the ground as he rushed down the street towards the commotion. Her turned a corner to find the eighteen year old and his girl fighting off a large black wolf. The beast slammed its jaw shut on Rogue's shoulder, causing the teen to cry out in pain as his girlfriend screamed, but stayed back. Even though Gajeel found it strange that the usually feisty woman was docile and distant during the attack, he didn't have time to question it as he rushed past her into the fray.
His body slammed into that of the creature sending them airborne, rolling across the sidewalk moments later. Pain filled his body as it met the concrete full speed, but he pushed himself up from the ground to rush the beast a second time, pinning it to the ground. His large hand clasped tightly around the wolf's snout and slammed it's head into the hardness under them. He struggled with the creature for a few more minutes before a plastic covered metal cord wrapped around the animal's throat. Animal Control had appeared.
Getting up from the ground, Gajeel watched as the town's animal control officers wrestled the wolf into a cage. As he dusted off his jeans, he turned back to his little brother as the EMTs cleaned and dressed his wounds. Rogue looked as tired as Gajeel felt as the older boy went to sit next to him.
"What in the name of Mavis were ya thinking wrestling with a wild beast like that?" Gajeel scolded.
"Didn't have a choice. Running wasn't an option."
"Why's that?" Gajeel asked as Rogue turned to look at the pink haired beauty behind him.
"Kat wouldn't have been able to keep up and carrying her would have weighed us down." Meredy piped up.
"Who the fuck is Kat?" Gajeel growled whirling around to face the girl.
A small child squirmed in the pinkette's arms. Her blue locks fell over the girl's arm like a river to pool around the child's waist. Scrapes covered the kid's legs and a bite, most likely from the wolf, dripped blood onto the sidewalk from the child's arm. She almost reminded him of Wendy, Meredy's cousin, but her hair was lighter. A familiar light blue, one that brought forth an image of a girl who haunted his dreams. Levy.
The child whimpered turning her head to peer up at him. Gajeel felt his heart stop as he stared into the child's face. Her soft skin, the gentle curve of her jaw, her nose, and the way her eyebrows furrowed as she looked at him, perfect copies of the face he missed so much. But it was her eyes that gave him pause. As her cheeks puffed out in a perfect impression of Levy's scowl, his red eyes stared back at him from the face of a child. The small child smiled a sharp toothed grin identical to his own and reached for him.
"Daddy!" a child like version of Levy's melodic voice rang in the man's ears as he stared at the miniature version of his ex mixed with a few features he knew so well from his bathroom mirror.
Gajeel took the child from Meredy so the girl could help Rogue with his shirt. He stared down at the child, wondering what to say to her, when the pinkette suddenly asked, "Kat, what do you mean Daddy?"
"I found him. This is my daddy. I've been looking for him for days!" The child smiled.
"I ain't yer dad. I can't be." Gajeel grunted looking away.
"Baby, where's your mom?" Rogue asked the kid.
"At home." she said looking at him.
"Where's home?"
"732 North West Tenrou Street, Crocus," the girl's answer was well rehearsed so she could remember it in case she got lost.
"Rogue, get the truck. Her mother must be worried sick if she's been gone days." Gajeel sighed. "Oi, kid, how did ya get to Magnolia from Crocus?"
"Walked." The three adults stared at the child. She couldn't have walked. Crocus was twenty three miles from Magnolia. There were acres of forest between the two towns, no set path, the child would have gotten lost, starved, or been attacked by a wild animal.
Gajeel looked around him. They stood just blocks from the house had shared with Levy all those years ago. He stared down the alley in front of them, a direct line from the house to where they stood. A sudden chill ran over his spine as he looked back towards the girl.
"Kat, where were ya heading when ya left to find yer dad?"
"613 East Iron Street, Magnolia," another well memorized address. One that belonged to the same house Gajeel still paid for but avoided
"Can ya read, kid?"
"Mommy taught me to read my books."
"Can ya read addresses and street signs?"
"Oh, no."
"How were you going to find your dad or the house?" Meredy asked.
The child reached into her pocket and pulled out a photo. In the photo an older, brown eyed version of the little girl stood grinning outside of a small house. In her arms was a small stuffed kitten with a key wrapped around its neck, but it was the man in the back ground that made everyone gasp. Gajeel's face smirked back at them. His face glowed with youth and joy. It was a copy of the photo Levy took the day they bought the house.
"Where did ya get this?" Gajeel asked.
"Mommy gave it to me. See it says so in the back," the girl flipped the picture over so he could read the back of it.
'My sweetest Bellakatra,
This is the only picture I have of your father. We spent three happy years together, two of which were spent inside this house. Gajeel Redfox was and will always be the only man your mama will have ever loved. I wish I could have stayed. I wish I would have known about you before I walked out of that door and left him behind. I know your daddy would have loved you. Maybe one day you'll meet him.
Love Mommy.'
The note to the little girl made Gajeel see red. He knew Levy meant well by not telling him about him daughter after they broke up, but damn it, she should have told him. Suddenly, Gajeel had an idea. He felt his lips curl into a sharp grin. Rogue and Meredy backed up as they took in his evil grin.
"Rogue, get the truck."
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Levy sat on the edge of the hospital bed crying into the shoulder of her best friend, Jet. Droy, Jet's boyfriend, stood in the doorway to Levy's hospital room talking to the police. It had been two weeks since Kat went missing and Levy couldn't stand the fact that she couldn't go look for her baby girl.
Levy sat in the office of Dr. Mirajane Strauss to discuss her treatment options. The white haired beauty of a doctor had left to check on her blood work, leaving the blunette alone to think of the man she left behind. When Levy had gotten the news that she had a tumor growing in her heart, she knew she couldn't put Gajeel through that. She chose to leave. Now she sat here waiting to find out what they could do to cure it.
Dr. Mira walked back into the office looking upset. Levy looked at the floor expecting the worst. "Well, Miss McGarden, we won't be able to start any treatments for about eight to nine months, I'm afraid."
"What, Why?" Levy looked up at the kind hearted woman questioningly.
"Well,if we start now, it'll harm that little bundle of joy growing inside you."
"I'm pregnant?"
"'Fraid so."
Since the day Levy had heard she was pregnant, she had regretted not telling Gajeel what was going on. Now her precious six year old daughter had vanished just as the end of her second battle with the cancer was in sight. Chemotherapy had left her bald and weak as she begun preparations for surgery. This time, she was going to have a heart transplant to rid her body of the cancerous cells. The donor heart had arrived that morning and she had limited time to do the surgery before the heart was sent to the next person on the list.
"Levy, you have to go through with it. We'll find her, but you need your health to do that." Jet whispered, his breath tickling her bare head.
"I know. I just hope she's safe."
"I'm sure she is." They sat in silence for a moment, until the door opened causing them to turn around.
In the doorway stood four figures. A small, pink haired woman who looked to be in her late teens stood holding hands with a tall, dark haired man with deep red eyes. Behind them stood a mountainous man covered in piercings with the same dark hair and red eyes as the young man before him, but it was the sleeping blunette in his arms that caught Levy's attention.
"Bellakatra," she whispered, getting to her feet.
Gajeel stared, broken hearted at his one true love. Levy was paler than ever before, her eyes sunk in and tired looking. Her nose was red from crying and her body slimmer. She wore a light mint green hospital gown and had a bright orange scarf wrapped around her head. As she took a step towards them, Gajeel noticed Jet, her long time friend, rush towards her in time to steady her as she lost her balance. It was clear to everyone that Levy was very sick.
"Oi, Shrimp," Gajeel's voice startled the sick blunette into looking up at him. "Get yer ass back in that bed before I take my daughter and leave."
"Gajeel," Levy breathed as Jet lifted her from her feet and gently set her back down on her bed.
"So this is why ya ran. Ya were sick and didn't trust me to look out for ya?" Gajeel looked out the window of the room, out into a court yard, where he could see a pink haired burn victim told jokes to a paralyzed blonde as she wrote in her journal.
"Gajeel, it wasn't like that! I had to move to Crocus for treatment and I couldn't ask you to leave the life you built for yourself just to watch these treatments either save me or kill me!"
"THE LIFE I BUILT FOR US!" the man suddenly yelled, waking the sleeping child in his arms. As Kat began to cry, Gajeel sighed, "Jet, Rogue take Kat to the park for a while. Her mom and I need to talk. Meredy there's a twenty in the glove compartment of the truck. Make sure she gets something healthy to eat and a juice to drink."
The men took the little girl and quickly exited the room, followed by Meredy. Levy sat with her arms wrapped around her legs, tears in her eyes. Gajeel sighed and sat down beside her on the bed.
"How could ya think I wanted that life without ya in it?"
"It was your dream, Gajeel."
"And I told ya, a musician is only as good as his muse. I haven't been able to write any new songs without ya by my side, Shrimp. I've been working for Makarov again, teaching the orphans to play guitar."
"I'm so sorry, Gajeel. I should have told you."
"Ya should have told me a lot of things."
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AN: If I promise Levy won't die will you let me live?
