Chapter 37

Lucy is not entirely sure how long she has been inside of the confinement room. There is no visible clock from her perspective. She has tried looking into Daphne's lab, but all she can see are computers and gadgets, some of which look complete while others seem close to it.

Suddenly, a timer over by Daphne's computer work station goes off. "It's din-din time!" she exclaims.

Din-din? As in dinner? If Daphne told her good morning maybe an hour or two ago, there is no way that it can be possibly be dinner time. Maybe it still is the same day that she has been kidnapped!

But speaking of dinner, Lucy is rather hungry. Not that she will admit it out loud to Daphne. She does not want that woman having any satisfaction.

All while humming to some tune, Daphne reaches down to a spot Lucy cannot see due to the window cutting her off. So she stands up to watch Daphne as she takes out two lunchboxes from a nearby drawer. She rises from her seat, sets the green one onto her chair, and walks over to the window with the black one in hand.

Lucy realizes that Daphne had all of it planned out that she even made sure to pack a second one just for her. She calculated when she would kidnap Lucy down to the day.

Daphne stands on the other side of the window, holding up the lunchbox. She uses a sweet voice as though she is talking to a dog. "Go to bed now! Go to bed!"

Lucy remains rooted in place as she stands in the middle of the room on the floor. The bed is still in the corner behind her. She will not turn her back to Daphne or even step back to still face her.

"If you don't sit on your bed, you won't get any din-din…" Daphne says.

Lucy refuses to budge. She will not give in to the ridiculous request.

Realizing she will not have any fun with this, Daphne harrumphs. "Fine. Have it your way. But if you make a move to escape, you won't get any din-din." So she walks over to the door and opens it with caution, making sure that Lucy will not get the jump on her. She quickly sets down the lunchbox and closes the door in a hurry. After locking it, she heads for her workstation to resume working and eat while she does.

After waiting a moment so she does not seem too eager, Lucy walks over and picks up the lunchbox. She carries it over to the spot she was standing at and sits down cross-legged. Then she proceeds to unzip it and looks at what is inside.

There are multiple sticks that have some sort of odd, brown food on each of them. Well, at least Lucy believes it is food. The clear plastic bottle is filled with a juice that appears to be super goopy. Finally, there is a wheat bread sandwich wrapped on plastic. She believes the sandwich seems safe enough, but she is not entirely sure about the other two items.

Just as Lucy is reaching for the sandwich, she hatches an idea. One that she hopes will dupe Daphne. She recognizes that the green leafy vegetable used is not lettuce. She can use that as an advantage. So she grabs the sandwich and unwraps it before taking her first bite. It tastes like a turkey sandwich with a little spin to it.

After more bites, Lucy scratches the left side of her neck. Then she gets the other side. She tries being subtle about scratching so hard since she needs her skin to turn red from irritation. "Uh, Daphne?"

However, Daphne completely ignores Lucy as she types away on her computer. She only spares a glance at a monitor that has a live feed of the confinement room that Lucy is inside of.

So Lucy keeps on itching before she starts coughing, too. Then she makes her coughing worse.

"If you need a drink, use the juice!" Daphne snaps, sounding irritated that her work is being interrupted.

"Wh-what did you put in this?" Lucy chokes out. It sounds like she might cough up a lung. Or maybe two.

"Turkey, Cheddar cheese, watercress–"

"I'm allergic"-she wheezes, dropping the sandwich onto the floor-"to watercress!"

Daphne goes into full panic mode, jumping out of her seat and racing over to the window to observe Lucy's state with her own two eyes. "I never read that about you!"

"I need"-she goes into a coughing fit-"help!"

"I don't know if I have any epinephrine around! I'm an inventor, not a doctor!"

Lucy keels over, keeping up a mix of wheezing and heavy breathing. She can only hope that her plan will work.

"Oh, no, no no!" Daphne races to unlock the door to Lucy's room and rushes inside. "You can't die on me! I need you!"

Lucy remembers the self defense methods that Capricorn taught her. She has recently brushed up on them ever since the first batch of photos surfaced. It helped distract her from thinking about the current situation. So Lucy acts now that Daphne is close enough to her.

With Daphne kneeling on her right side, Lucy grabs her top to bring Daphne closer to her. At the same time, she brings up her right knee and knocks it into Daphne's head. That is to disorient her. While Daphne is in a dazed state, Lucy quickly sits up and elbows her in the stomach to knock the wind out of her. For a final touch, Lucy uses her entire body to get Daphne into a lock as she applies pressure to her windpipe so she slowly loses consciousness.

"Y-you tricked"- she gasps for air-"me!"

Acting more like Natsu than a lady, Lucy lets out a big, "Duh!"

Daphne looks as though she might combust. She is trying her best to wiggle away, but no such luck. Not much later, her struggle stops when body comes to a still.

Lucy holds her pose a bit longer before loosening her grip and tossing Daphne to the side. She checks for a pulse and finds it. Then she quickly jumps to her feet and backs away just in case Daphne is faking and is about to strike.

Daphne does not even twitch.

Seizing the opportunity, Lucy makes a break for the wide open door. She rushes outside the confinement room, swings the heavy door shut behind her, and locks it. Turning her back to the door, she looks around the lab for an exit. There are no signs by the doorways so guessing will be her best bet of finding a way out.

Lucy wastes no precious time looking for her cell phone. It can be retrieved later or a new one can replace it. She wants to put distance between herself and Daphne as quickly as possible. So after discovering two storage closets, Lucy finds a door that leads out into a hallway. She takes it at a running pace.

She is still wearing sports bra, tight running pants to her calves, and running shoes. At least she is dressed for running. Lucy makes a sharp right and keeps going down the hall, finding it splits into a left and right. She goes left without looking right.

There are three doors, all of which are locked. So Lucy turns around and goes straight before going left where the hallway leads. She spots a broken exit sign that is pointing her in the right direction. Hope swells inside of her. She has a better chance of escaping now more than ever!

Lucy sees double doors open ahead. Before making contact with one of them, she puts her arms out to push against the metal bar. Rather than opening the door, she smacks into it. She takes a step back, fighting the rising panic inside of her, and tries pushing the other door. No such luck. Then she tries doing the opposite and pulls the metal bar. The door opens inwards, and she runs out once the gab is big enough.

From the lack of light and the here and there placed lit lamps, it is night time. Her eyes begin to adjust to the darkness. What hits Lucy the most is the smell of fish and water. She can think of a few places she might be that are not super far from her apartment. Not sticking around any longer, she picks up her pace and heads towards lit buildings that are blocks away. She will be able to get help that way.

Car lights rounding the corner cause Lucy to slow her pace into a jog. She does not want to draw unnecessary attention to herself. She needs to seem like a jogger out on a night run.

But when the car goes under a street light, she notices that is a police vehicle. It is a wonderful sight to see! Lucky Lucy is back in the game!

"Hey!" Lucy shouts, waving her arms around to get attention as she quickly approaches the vehicle. "Hey, I need help!"

As if the driver spots her, the vehicle slows down, but still heads for Lucy. As she crosses the street and makes her way over to the driver's side, the door opens up and the officer steps out.

Lucy stops in her tracks, processing the familiar face that she is seeing. What are the odds of it being him?

A/N Part 1: I'm proud of Lucy getting herself out of her situation! She can rescue herself! And I wonder if anyone can guess who the male officer is…

A/N Part 2: I'm back from Matsuricon, and I had a blassst! It was fun to cosplay Blair from Soul Eater again! But I had a ton of fun with Lucy from Fairy Tail! I'm excited to do another version of Lucy for Ohayocon that'll happen in January! And that con will be my tenth one so I'm super excited :D

Guest: Pffft, not if Lucy can help it :D

TigerArrowgirl: Omg, I've done the accidental hold my breath thing, too XD That's a good reaction I think! And more to come for sure :D

Anon: Haha, Lucy's Nanny Squad hasta step up their game! And I totally want more cute moments, too! I'm excited to get back to that even though I really do like this arc! Pffft, of all villains, Daphne seemed like she totally would have a monologue moment XD So that was fun for me haha

Clue132: I love VF, and the author of that is my twin :D She's greaaaat! With how busy my life is now, it's hard to find time for other things. Most of my extra time goes to writing my fanfics and personal works! But I hear that anime is a good!

Galeshipper: Some of those do sound familiar! I know I've read at least 2. I think XD If I do have extra time, I do try reading. But I'm just so busy right now… :P

MelodicSecrets: Omg, don't go bald please! (not that anything is wrong with being bald) But I'm happy that you're feeling those emotions! That's a good thing! And it's been fun using Daphne! :D

Fairy Tail Lover: AWWW, THANK YOU :D I'll admit, I did consider adding in Gray, but nah… If he found out that Lucy had been involved, he woulda busted her out. But I couldn't think of a reason for a connection with Daphne since he works at the pizza place…

Katie1043: Yay, that's good to hear! And thanks for reading it!