Chapter 25

Collateral Damage

Lucy rubbed her tired eyes and sat down on her large bed, not giving crap about wrinkling her evening gown. Every day had become taxing to her and she couldn't keep up with everything that had happened so far. Her father had just publicly announced her engagement at the party without even warning her. Acgnolia hadn't even proposed to her – not that she was planning to say yes yet – but now, everyone came up to her to congratulate on the big news and all she could do was smile politely.

Acgnolia didn't even react to the big announcement and gracefully accepted all the congratulations. It was as if he was already expecting this. Could that be it? Did he and her father plan this together and sprang this on her because they knew she would say no? No… She would expect this kind of move from her father but not from her boyfriend.

'You left the party without telling me, my dear fiancé.'

She saw her future husband leaning against her door frame and it irked her that he came in without knocking.

'Probably because I'm sick of people not including me in any decision when it's my life.'

He walked in and closed the door behind him. When she heard the lock clicked, she jumped slightly. The sound was oddly ominous to her ears. As he moved closer to her, she stood up from her bed, not wanting him to tower over her like a bad omen.

'Why are you acting like you don't like the idea of being my wife? I thought you love me.'

Just then, she felt bad for acting like he was a stranger ready to pounce on her instead of a loving boyfriend.

'Of course I love you, Acgnolia. But that's not enough to be tied down just yet. I mean we haven't been together for that long and I'm still 18, for crying out loud!'

A smile left his face and his green eyes grew cold. She knew that look. It was the face he made when he didn't like what he was hearing. What followed after was usually not so pretty. She could feel herself trembling a little but she wasn't about to back down. This was her life and she didn't want them to get the complete control over it.

'Be careful, Lucy. It's starting to sound like you are doubting our relationship.'

His voice, then, turned soft and beguiling, 'think about it, love. You will get everything you could ever desire. As my wife, everyone would fear and respect you. You'll be like a queen.'

She shook her head violently. What he was saying sounded completely crazy to her. What made him think she wanted that kind of life?

'No. I'm sorry, Acgnolia but there's no way this wedding is happening so soon.'

She felt a sharp pain on her left cheek and fell back on her bed in shock. She could stare at Acgnolia's angry face – his face getting ugly and scary. What just happened? The answer was very clear from the way her swollen cheek was throbbing madly. Her boyfriend, the one person she had ever loved, just slapped her; hurt her physically; laid a hand on her.

Her heart felt numb. She didn't want to accept that her lover was capable of hurting her but the proof was starting to bruise. She didn't realize she was crying until a stray tear fell between her lips and she tasted salt. Her world was starting to close on the man who was sneering viciously at her for rejecting his non-official proposal. That was when she understood something. This was not a man she wanted to be with forever.

The waiting room of the hospital was occupied by a bunch of people in fancy get-ups including a woman in a wedding gown. They could not even sense several pairs of intrigued eyes from other people. They were standing around a girl in lilac dress who was sitting on a chair with her face in her hands.

A few people who knew the up-and-coming band were openly staring at the group and a couple of them were even taking pictures and filming the clearly mourning people. Still, Freed and others did not care about the publicity shit-storm that was sure to come soon. Right now, they were more concerned about what had happened right before the incident. The only eye-witness to the crime was still too shaken to utter just one word.

Bickslow pulled the slightly trembling blonde girl into a tight hug and glared at their friends. Since they had gotten to the hospital, the poor girl had been bombarded with questions after questions. Taking the hint from protective Bickslow, they all quieted down and spread themselves across the room. Bickslow understood they were just worried but he had never seen Lucy in this state before.

When everyone had heard a gunshot and someone yelling, they had run outside to see a horrifying scene of Laxus lying in Lucy's arms. They couldn't pry the bloody body of Laxus from Lucy's grasp until medics had gently coaxed Lucy into letting Laxus to be carried into an ambulance.

'It's ok, Lucy. Everything will be fine. Laxus is too cocky to let one bullet wound defeat him.'

He could feel the front of his thin white shirt getting wet but he was just glad Lucy was finally responding. Soon, she was sobbing quietly in his arms. Bickslow had kind of had a feeling that Lucy and Laxus crossed that friendship line long ago but he hadn't proof until he had seen how lost Lucy had looked with bleeding Laxus clenched in her embrace.

Bickslow saw Gajeel took a seat beside Lucy and gently rubbed her back. The normally snarky man looked a little worse-for-wear tonight. His blazer, along with Bickslow's, was discarded somewhere. In the corner of the room, Freed was held tightly by Mira, their honeymoon long-forgotten.

Though they were sitting separately, their bodies were facing the door to the emergency room. The blinking red light on top of the door indicated that the operation was still in progress. After harassing the poor nurses who were manning the reception, they finally accepted that the operation would take more than an hour and that they would have to restrain themselves if they didn't want to be escorted out of the hospital by the security.

'Do any of you guys want coffee? I'm going to get some water for Freed.'

Lucy lifted her face from Bickslow's chest when she heard Lisanna's tired voice. The normally chirpy girl got a frown on her face and while that wouldn't look odd considering the situation but the girl looked slightly more frustrated than sad. But it could have been the trick of Lucy's eyes because the next second, the frown was replaced by genuine sadness.

She felt Bickslow shook his head above her and Gajeel might have replied wordlessly from her side because Lisanna nodded her head and left. Lucy pulled away from Bickslow and sat properly on her chair with her hands on her lap.

'What if he couldn't make it?'

Both boys looked at Lucy who was staring at her bloody dress. Her slim shoulder looked like it was carrying the weight of the world. That was the first time she said anything ever since they got to the hospital. Gajeel gulped before answering, his voice hoarse with worry.

'I… I'm sure he will make it through, Lucy. He had to.'

She fisted her dress and exhaled brokenly. While she started talking again, she was still clearly shaken.

'There was just so much blood.'

Lucy whispered. She still hadn't looked up at them again the whole time.

'And it's all my fault. It's because of me that he's in that room right now. If only…'

The words trailed off and the boys started shaking their heads even as they knew she probably couldn't see the gesture.

'It's not your fault, Lucy. Don't say things like that.'

Lucy slammed her palm on her lap and looked up. Her red-rimmed eyes looked wild and for a second, they thought she was going to have a meltdown. Instead, she spoke again with a strange calmness that sent the chills through their bones.

'You don't understand, ok? It's all MY fault. If only he had never met me. If only I had left him alone. But it's ok. I'll deal with this.'

Gajeel moved to rub her head but before he could, the blinking light they still noticed from the corner of their eyes stopped and the door opened to reveal a doctor flanked by two nurses on each of his sides. They were still in their surgical wears.

As one, they all stood and nearly broke into a run to get there in a hurry. The doctor pulled down his mask. His poker face gave nothing away and they all breathlessly waited for the stoic man to say anything at this point. When he spoke, his expression still remained unchanged.

'The operation went fine. The bullet hit an artery which explains why there was so much blood. He probably passed out from blood loss. But it didn't hit any main organs. Right now, he's heavily sedated but he'll probably be awake after 12 hours.'

Everyone looked visibly relief at the news but the guilt in Lucy's eyes didn't lessen one bit.

'However, I can only allow one guest at the time. Maybe you can arrange some sort of visiting schedule?'

Freed stepped forward and bowed deeply. The doctor, who was clearly used to people reacting differently, pat his shoulder and left.

Someone cleared her throat uncomfortably and everyone turned to look at Lucy.

'I'm going to head back home now that I know he's ok. I'll come back in the morning and I'll take over the shift.'

The boys opened their mouths to argue, each wanting to not leave Lucy by herself but Mira was the first to response.

'Of course, Lucy. For now, Freed will stay with him while you freshen yourself up. Then, you can switch at 8am. How does that sound?'

'Ok. I'll see you later.'

With a wave of her hand, she rushed out of the hospital. It was only after Lucy left that they voiced their disagreement. Freed was the first one to argue against his wife.

'Lucy clearly needs someone with her right now, Mira. I mean I love her but she's clearly not in a right state of mind right now.'

Mira, while normally would have yelled back her opinion, spoke softly.

'She needs this. She needs to have some rest tonight. If she pushes herself too much, she'll snap.'

Instead of going back to her apartment, Lucy hailed a taxi and told the driver to drive them to the Headquarter. The driver didn't even blink at seeing a customer in a blood covered dress or asked her a thousand questions, bless his heart.

When she entered the building, Kianna who was sitting behind the reception desk stood up in shock and ran to the blonde.

'Oh my god, Miss Heartfilia. Are you ok?'

Lucy gave her a barely there smile and asked her if anyone else was in the office right now since she didn't have her badge and key card with her currently. The receptionist nodded furiously and ran back to call someone to pick the blonde up.

A minute later, a large man came out of the elevator to see Lucy and to his credit, he didn't panic. He merely nodded at Lucy to follow him to the office. When the elevator door shut, Lucy, frustrated at the lack of reaction from her colleague, turned towards him sharply.

'Judging from your lack of reaction, I can assume that you've heard of the shooting, I hope.'

'Yes. We came here as soon as we heard of the incident. Except Erza and Jellal. Their phones are switched off so, I just left a voice mail.'

Satisfied, Lucy nodded and started at the steel door.

'Heard anything back from the CSI? Have we got any information?'

With a ding, the door opened and they exited to be greeted by a sight of people running around. Orga put his hand on her back and guided her towards the conference room. The other agents were all sitting with various papers spread all across the large table. When the heard the door closed, they all looked up from the table.

Orga picked up a paper from the bunch and handed it over to Lucy.

'For now, we only know that the shooter was probably hiding in the forest behind the car park and waiting. We found some footprints from about 100 yards from the body. They found a bullet shell from about 5 feet away and it appears the shooter used a 0.32 caliber pistol. This is only a preliminary report and they're waiting for the bullet from the hospital.'

Lucy nodded her thanks to Orga and took a seat while reading the forensic report.

'How's Laxus?'

Lucy put the paper down and clenched her fist.

'He's out of the wood now. But it's the why I'm worried about right now.'

Sting, being the only person to know about their affair, looked at her knowingly. He could only imagine the pain she was feeling right now.

'Maybe they meant to shoot you and he got in the way?'

Lucy shook her head at Sherry's reasoning.

'No. It's because he's my lover and Acnologia knows.'

Someone choked on whatever they were drinking. Well, she had figured that at least one of them would be shocked by the news.

'What I wanna know is if they purposely shot without killing him or if that was a mistake on their part.'

The room grew silent at her question- each thinking of which would be the possibility. Half the time, derange psychopath like Acnologia could be completely unpredictable.

It was because of the total silence in the room that the ringing of the telephone sounded much louder than it usually was. Lucy, who was the closet to the phone, was the one to pick it up.

'FBI Miami Headquarter. Celestial speaking.'

A low chuckle could be heard from the other side of the phone. All the muscles in her body tensed up at the chilling sound. There was only one man she knew who can make something as innocent as laughing to be sinister.

'Hello, darling. Tell me. Did the lover boy survive the shot?'

Lucy grinded her teeth so hard it was a wonder they didn't turn into dust. The other occupants of the room were staring at her but she could only focus on the familiar voice of her husband.

'You… bitch. You have a lot of nerve calling me.'

Acnologia tutted and Lucy wished she could reach him through the phone so she could throttle the SOB.

'Language! I'm shocked, baby. Is this how you talk to your husband?'

Rouge, who finally got a clue on the identity of the caller, signaled Levy who was sitting behind her laptop. There were no words needed at the time like this for the team as brilliant as theirs. With a thumps up, Levy quickly tried the trace where the man was calling from.

'Husband? Do us and the whole world a favor and jump off a fucking building. I swear I will track you down and when I find you, you will wish you have never done all those shits you did.'

The humorless laugh was a sure sign that he was quickly losing his patient.

'Now, now. No foreplay during business call, love. Also, he's at the hospital because of you. I wasn't about to let my wife fucking some dumb blonde. You're like a trouble magnet - bringing chaos everywhere you go, driving men crazy with those deceptively innocent eyes. But only I know what a slut you are deep down.'

Lucy stood up from her chair and spoke softly through the phone, her voice shaking with uncontrollable anger.

'Fuck you, you bastard. My life turned into a fucking mess all because of you and you have the ball to say I'm the one at fault? I wish I had never met you.'

'YOU ARE MINE! YOU KNOW I'M A POSSESSIVE MAN. YET, YOU SLEPT WITH OTHER MEN. SO, YES, I'M KILLING ALL OF THEM, ONE BY ONE. THIS IS YOUR PUNISHMENT!'

The yelling from the other side was so loud that all everyone could hear him without the speaker on. Then, his voice dropped and he was speaking normally again as if he hadn't just threaten bodily harm to someone.

'This time is just a warning, Lucy. If you stop seeing him, I will make his death… less painful. Because you see, my little black rose, we belong to each other. You can never run away from me, little girl. You'll see me sooner than you think.'

Even after he hang up, Lucy stood still with the phone against her ear. She didn't know how long she was standing like that when someone pat her shoulder. Lucy jumped and slammed the phone back to the dialer.

'I'm sorry, Lu-chan. I couldn't find where he was calling from. He must have intercepted the line.'

Lucy shook her head and without looking at anyone, left the room. And this time, she was really ready to sleep it off on her comfortable bed.

Sleep didn't come to her until she saw the first break of sunlight through her open window and all the darkness had lost to the light; at least in this room. Even then, she could only fall asleep for half an hour because the reminder that she had to go to the hospital made her practically jump off the bed.

She didn't even bother with concealing her possible panda eyes. Nothing killed your morning like a fact that your ex-husband was out to murder you and your boyfriend could be the first to go.

She wasn't expecting Laxus to be awake when she got to the hospital. What more surprising was there was no one next to his bed. Tired blue eyes softened when they took her in and the corner of his lips tilted upward slightly.

'Hey, blondie. Heard you had quite a scare last night.'

A sob broke from her throat and her eyes filled up with unshed tears. She clasped her hand on her mouth to quiet the noise but Laxus opened his arms and the dam broke free. She laid her head on his chest as gently as she could and wrapped her arms tight around his torso. His usual scent of fresh, summer rain was mixed with hospital smell but Lucy still breathed it in greedily.

Warm, heavy hands rubbed the small of her back comfortingly and that brought more tears and sobs from her. She couldn't believe she was in his arms again after seeing him get shot last night. She was never gladder to hear the steady heartbeat under her ears than right now.

'It's ok, baby. I'm here.'

Lucy pulled back from his warm embrace and her moist brown eyes roamed over his pale face, taking in all the scars and small imperfections on his handsome face. Her fingers ran over the lighting-shape scar over his right eye that he had gotten under his father's hands.

'You don't know how much I missed seeing your gorgeous eyes,' her fingers traced slowly across his strong cheekbones to his lips, 'and your annoying smirks.'

This time, a real smile graced his face and Lucy's heart clenched at how happy he looked. His large hand swallowed her smaller hand that was still touching his face.

'I knew you love me.'

Inhaling sharply, she opened her mouth to tell him this was not the time for this conversation when the door opened again and both of her bandmates more or less rushed in. Lucy pulled her hand away from his grip and stood straight.

'Shit! You're really awake. Thank god.'

Two large bodies slumped on the chairs beside the bed. Like Lucy, they both had dark circles under their eyes and from the look of their wrinkled tux, they hadn't gone home at all.

'Yeah. Did you actually think I'll leave this world without saying a proper goodbye to your ugly faces? And of course, getting my last kiss from this spit fire.'

Lucy yelped in surprise when she felt a slap on her buttocks and turned to glare at the smirking big jerk.

'Can you guys try to dial your flirting to the minimum? Some of us find it nauseating.' Gajeel groaned from his chair.

Lucy gasped, 'we're NOT flirting.'

Bickslow chuckled and rubbed his eyes tiredly. 'We all know you guys are hooking up. You're not as subtle as you think.'

Totally flabbergasted that they knew about their secret affair, Lucy turned to Laxus but he just shrugged his shoulder. It wasn't his idea to hide it in the first place anyway.

Gajeel put his feet on Laxus's bed and slid further down his seat to get more comfortable, ignoring the glare from the blonde patient. 'All joking aside, do we know anything about your shooter? The police won't say anything to us.'

The lightheartedness in the room was filled with thick tension – at least it felt like that way for Lucy. Her throat closed up and she felt like there was a devil dancing on her chest. She knew that once she told them the truth, things would never be the same again. They would never see her again as just Lucy; the sole female drummer from the Slayer who was also their friend. She didn't want to lose that part of her life but she had lied to them long enough. It was time for the truth now.

She cleared her throat to clear the lump and said with a firm but quiet voice, 'actually, there's something I need to tell you. But first, I just wanna say I'm so sorry and I never meant for any of this to happen.'

F/N: I can't believe I haven't uploaded this story for over a year. I'm soo sorry to keep you waiting. Here's the new chapter and I'm already on working on the next one. If you haven't read it, I've started a new LaLu story called Hell on Earth. Please check it out and I'll see you guys soon with a new chapter. Mwah!