Sorry about the long wait guys. I've been pretty busy lately with school starting and after school activities. Ughh, Springboard sucks. We've recently had to write a short story in English and I'm like 'Yes! I can do this," but they gave us a bunch of guidelines and by the time I finally decided on a story, I had like one week left to do it, and before that was just me being unmotivated/busy. I was having trouble making this chapter flow into this next part and keeping it long enough and all that. No new news, I still don't own Fairy Tail. Oh, and if you guys want, I'll post my story on my page, still have to type the last part though. Anyway, just tell me if you want me to in the comments. And I'm so sorry to all of you who were stuck waiting. I feel awful. Oh, I almost forgot, I'm starting a new part with this chapter where it's going t obe like a long story arc so each will start with the same part and then continue with a subchapter. Enjoy? Mathmaddy (who is no longer good at math)

When lucy finally woke up, she realized that she was in a bright, white room. The hospital. That was strange, she thought, I don't remember coming here. Suddenly, she thought back to what she had thought was a dream about the dream Natsu's. He must have taken her here right?Wait, did that mean he had acted like the Natsu's in her dreams? Wait, did that mean that he wasn't ignoring her anymore? She looked around the room. She saw many of her guild-mates, but Natsu wasn't there. She wished she had his superior sense of smell, because then she could tell if he'd been there since when he'd brought her. Not that he'd been there in the first place, she reminded herself.

"H-How did I get here?" asked Lucy, testing her theory as to why she was there.

"Oh, uhhh," Erza looked torn. "Someone found you in the river and called the guild since you have that mark on your hand," she said simply Many of the other guildmates, mainly girls, looked up at her questioningly. She just gave them a look and they went back to what they were doing.

Lucy caught on and had a feeling that she was lying but was her explanation really any more believable. I mean, according to her, multiple Natsu's' carried her to the hospital, not to mention the gentle, kind ones that only appeared in dreams, she thought, upset. "Thanks for waiting you guys," Lucy said genuinely, but determined to figure out if it was a lie. "So, how come someone else was at the river?" she asked curious, and pushing the subject.

"Maybe first you should tell us why you were in the river," Mira stated coolly, covering for Erza. Lucy tried to shy away from that topic, but when Mira kept pestering her she finally gave up. "Well, you know, I was at the party, and then I decided it was kind of, you know, loud there, so I uh, decided to take a walk on the bridge. You know, the one by my house and uh, well, I can't exactly remember the rest," she lied. She knew very well that she jumped off that bridge. And she was about ready to kill the person who had saved her. Why couldn't they just let her be? Let her out of this miserable, dream Natsuless world.

For a time, it seemed like Natsu was acting more and more like the ones in her dreams, but now, she didn't know what to think. After all, it seemed like he had grown cold and heartless towards her. He did kick her off the team for being weak after all. She had always thought they were friends, and perhaps even more than that, but now, she didn't know what to think.

Later that day, Lucy was released from the hospital. She sat in her room wondering what she should do. Man, it was so quiet without Natsu around, she thought. She got up and started to make lunch, but was surprised when she didn't find all of her food gone and her fridge stuffed with fishbones. She pushed the thought away and got out some food. Without even realizing it, she noticed she had made the food really spicy. It burned her tongue, and she just left it there. Things were so different now that Natsu wasn't by her side, and she felt lonely, so she decided to go to the guild.

When she was at the guild, Lucy ordered a milkshake and sat at the bar. She looked around the guild and noticed that her usual team wasn't there, so when Levy entered, she called her over.

"Hey Levy!" She smiled, even though that wasn't what she felt like doing. The last thing she wanted right now was for her best friend to worry about her. "So, I was thinking of going on a mission later, and, well, I was wondering if you wanted to come with me?" Lucy asked the mage. She needed to quickly find a different team, being solo just didn't feel right to her.

"Sorry, but later I was going to go on a job with Gajeel and Lily," the blue haired mage apologized.

"It's fine, I wouldn't want to keep you two love birds apart," Lucy teased, forgetting herself briefly.

"No, you've got it all wrong! We're just friends."

"That's what all lovers say at first." At the mention of lovers Mira came out.

"Who loves who?" she asked, trying to catch up on the conversation.

"Levy and Gajeel, they're just so adorable together." Lucy added a tiny squeal at the end, fangirling her favorite couple.

"No, I said that I don't love him!" Levy shouted, a little too loudly. Gajeel must've finally heard over the ruckus of the guild, because he came over.

"Oi, who does the shrimp love?" he asked trying to act nonchalant but failing miserably.

"Not telling," Lucy said stubbornly, she wouldn't just sell out the fact that Levy loved Gajeel, especially not to Gajeel. That was something Levy needed to tell him, if she ever decided to.

"Come on, this is important," he whispered harshly.

"If you want to know so bad, you should figure it out yourself." she chimed before turning her back, leaving an angry Gajeel to stalk back to his corner.

Lucy went up to the request board shortly after, going to choose a job she could do on her own since Levy wasn't coming. She spotted an excellent job she could do with the old team, but…No, she was so tired of not having a team holding her back. She grabbed the quest anyway, knowing fully well that she would need someone more powerful like Natsu to help her, even after all of her intense training a year ago. Who needed Natsu anyway she thought. She headed off towards the mission, she would prove him wrong. She would prove Natsu he was wrong.

A Crappy Inn (Natsu's Location)

Natsu looked up from the crappy inn he was staying at. They had just finished the job and were staying there for the night, planning to return to the guild the next day. Well, he and Happy were. Gray had already left, taking the train, something Natsu refused to do, especially since lately his sickness had gotten worse.

He had a slight feeling that something was wrong, although he didn't know what. He couldn't stop thinking about Lucy. That was one of the reasons he had rushed this job so much. He was worried that she would get in trouble again without him there. He had left Erza there to protect her but still, what if she tried to kill herself again? What if he got back and he figured out she died? What if this was all his fault? He wasn't able to sleep the rest of the night with the questions floating around in his otherwise thoughtless mind.