Author's Note: Hey guys, didn't think I'd update this soon!
Well, nothing new from me here, so let's get on with it!
"WHERE IS HE!?" Natsu had gotten word of the news: his father was in critical condition.
"Mr. Dragneel, your father doesn't have much time," The doctor explained, quickly as he could. "He is in his room."
Quickly walking both Natsu and Erza, they stumbled onto his room, where they saw Igneel, now strapped with more tubes than before.
"Dad!" Natsu ran to his father's side.
"N… Natsu…" Igneel, on his deathbed, weakly said as he looked at his son and at Erza, who was at his side, both with worrisome faces on them. "E… Erza."
"I'm here dad," Natsu held his father's hand, grasping his last few moments. "I'm… I'm here."
"Didn't think… this… was how…" Taking in raspy deep breaths, Igneel struggled to keep his body alive. "… we… were going to… meet again…"
"Everything is gonna be alright dad," Natsu, as hard as he tried to keep his façade, the tears rolling down his cheeks had begged to differ. "You're a stubborn old oaf, you can't die."
"Natsu…" Igneel spoke, much weakly than before. "I never told you… how proud I was… how proud your mother was… I wish I was there for you more than I could've been…"
"And you will!" The stream of tears now flowed more like waterfalls. "You can't die! You… can't die yet dad…"
Erza placed her hand on Natsu's shoulder, tryinger her best to comfort the man. A tear had escaped her eye, seeing this painful and emotional interaction between father and son.
"I love you son, and know that… I always will watch over you…" He turned his glance to the red head. "Erza… beautiful young lady… please protect my son… make sure he stays safe… watch his back from this world for me…"
"Yes Mr. Dragneel." Erza sniffled, accepting the man's request she had given him.
"Stay strong… both of you…" His heartbeat changed. From constant beeping to one straight line, Igneel had passed, dying with a great smile his face.
"DAAAAD!"
The only thing coming from the room now was the sounds of sobbing and the a heart monitor's haunting sound.
No more than half an hour had passed, and they took Igneel's body down to the morgue, where his body would be examined.
Natsu was in silence now, after a while of constant sobbing and begging for his father to not die. He didn't say a word, as he sat quietly in the lobby.
Erza walked in the direction of the doctor who had managed to keep Igneel alive for as long as he did. "Doctor?" She called out to him.
"Oh yes, Ms. Scarlet, if I remember correctly?" He placed down the clipboard, shaking the woman's hand.
"Yes, I wanted to know a little more of what happened to Mr. Dragneel, if I may ask." She was curious to say the least.
"Well, to be honest with you, I'm not entirely sure myself as well," the doctor now grabbed another clipboard, it was Igneel's. "You see, as Igneel's doctor and those before me, Igneel had stage 3 lung cancer and the cancer itself had already spread in his body. What he had experienced earlier had been a sudden heart attack and we don't know if it was cause by the cancer in his blood stream or if something else had caused it."
Something else huh? It didn't seem like a coincidence that Igneel had suddenly died to Erza, just as Jellal had started his rampaged filled vendetta. She was hoping she was wrong however, had it been something else, she knew there would be an open investigation that'll probably involve more cops. "I see." She simply replied.
"Our medical examiner is examining as we speak and we should be able to let you both know of his prognosis, until then, I hope you and Mr. Dragneel just wait patiently for any news," the doctor said. "I have more patients to see, so if you can excuse me please."
"It's no problem doctor, thank you again."
And with that, Erza walked back to where Natsu was seated. She took the seat next to him.
He was still quiet, she had wondered what was going through his head.
"Natsu," she placed her hand on his leg. "The doctor said that the medical examiner is conducting his examination, he'll soon be done and he will let us know of what they find."
No bulge or reaction from him.
"Natsu, baby, everything will be okay." She now tried to comfort the man with words. And yet she knew the man wouldn't respond, a coping mechanism it must have been for the recent trauma.
"I… I'm sorry Erza…" Natsu had finally replied.
Erza sighed with relief. "You have nothing to be sorry about." She placed her forehead with his, gently as the two mourned for the fallen.
After a couple of minutes with no silence from the two, the same doctor from before had came up to him. "Mr. Dragneel, Ms. Scarlet."
"Doc," the two got up from their news. "Can I finally take my dad's body? Have a proper burial for him?"
"Most certainly, our medical examiner found no wrong doings, only that the cancer had finally taken its toll on your father, causing cardiac arrest as a result of the cancer in the bloodstream." The doctor revealed.
Even with the findings, Erza had trouble believing what the doctor had said. Though, part her wanted to believe that it was a natural cause of death. Would leave a lot less of a mess for her and Natsu, at least to her concern.
"So," Natsu sighed. "That's it then, huh?"
"Unfortunately, your father was a great person Mr. Dragneel," the doctor complimented. "I have the paperwork for you so we can release the body to you, if you care to sign over here."
"Yeah, no problem."
"Hey, I need to use the bathroom, is it okay if I just let you do what you need to do?" Erza asked.
"Yeah, go ahead. I'll be waiting right here, doing this." Natsu answered.
And with that Erza ventured out, though not to the ladies room.
She walked around, hoping to find the surveillance area of the floor. Now where is it?
Erza continued to walk around and soon enough she found it.
With some luck and some sneaking around, she made her way into the room. Surprisingly, no guard was here, probably out on patrol.
Knowing her way around computers, Erza had gone through the surveillance between the last couple of hours.
She had to skim through most of the surveillance, time was of the essence. She had no idea when the guard will come back.
After a couple of minutes or so, she finally found what she was looking for, though she didn't want to find it. A blue haired man, tattoo on his face: it was Jellal. "That motherfucker…" Her hand formed a fist, angry for discovering this. Angry for everything that has happened.
With an anguish sigh, Erza deleted the footage. She didn't need no one else poking around like she did. It was not to do any favors for him but just to ensure that she would be the one to deal with him without interference.
After all that, she left the room, still sneakily around and returned back to Natsu.
…
Laxus had now more than a couple of boxes with many stuff. Felt like he was moving, when he was simply moving some stuff out of the house.
Some of the rooms now felt half empty, at least to him now. It made him a bit sad to say the least but somehow, it also made him a bit happy, knowing that this was one of the things he had to do to help him move on.
"So doc, do you always go out of your own way to help your patients like this?" Laxus had company of course, Dr. Lucy Heartfilia, his police appointed therapist.
"Just call me Lucy, Mr. Dreyar," she affirmed him, moving some boxes around. "And I'm am just happy to lend a hand to anyone of my patients."
"Please, call me Laxus," losing the formalities after awhile, Laxus continued to place more stuff in the half empty boxes. "So that's it then? Just wanna be a sport about?"
"Well," she half admitted to him. "Truth is, remember when I told you I also knew Levy McGarden?"
"Yeah, told me something about the book clubs she and you attended, correct?" He knew there was something more to it than just helping out.
"Well, I just felt like maybe since she and I were friends, that maybe this is something that maybe she would've wanted me to help you with," Lucy wholeheartedly told the truth. "Help me, help you, mourn her properly."
Laxus was at a loss of words. He stopped, for a moment.
"Are you okay?" Lucy can see the man was surprised by what she had said.
And suddenly, Laxus chuckled as he wiped a tear that had strolled down his cheek. "That was… well that was just the most Levy thing I've heard in awhile."
"Oh?" He took her by surprise.
"Thanks Doc- I mean, Lucy, I honestly thank you for this, all of this." Laxus shot he a smile. Lucy lightly blushed, smiling back at the man.
The two had shared a tender moment, not just as patient and doctor but also as friends now. Their conjoined laughter filled the room, happily accompanying each other on this very activity.
Laxus now slightly blushed at their small interaction, though not noticeable. "Ahem, we should, uh, continue on."
Lucy noticed the change in Laxus' awkwardness, she knew, or at least in the back of her mind, that Laxus didn't mean to get all tender, at least not now. "Oh, yes definitely."
After another hour or so of, Laxus was half done and it was getting late. He turned to look at his watch on his phone. 11:37, it read.
"What time is it?" Lucy asked, as she almost stumbled trying to move around the room. Boxes everywhere and it was only half of what Laxus needed to move.
"11:37." He read out loud.
"Oh shit! I have to get going, I think I may have overstayed with my help." Lucy quickly got her stuff.
"No, no, not all," Laxus moved his way to his doorway along with Lucy. "I really appreciate you helping me with this, I really do." He opened the door for.
"It's no sweat." Lucy readied herself, jacket and all.
"Hey, I also wanted to say that I'm sorry about that awkwardness earlier," Laxus figured much about his sudden change. "It's been awhile."
"No, no, you don't have to apologize for anything, I get it, I do this for a living, ya know?" Lucy gave the man an assuring smile.
"I just wanted to clear the air, that's all," Laxus let out a sigh of relief. "You drove here right?"
"Ah no, I usually take the train when I come to the Northside of Magnolia," Lucy told him. "I will see you at our next session tomorrow, correct?"
"You know it," Laxus affirmed her. "Take care."
"Will do!" And with that, Lucy stormed off.
Laxus closed his door and realized how much of a mess his living room was with all the boxes. "Jesus, I didn't even realize how much stuff she had…" Laxus blew out some air, staring at all the boxes.
He started moving them to the garage, one by one.
As he moved stuff, he noticed a set of keys that were not his on the table. Different types of keys, almost mimicking the astral signs. He inspected and realized that they were astral signs. He then also realized that these keys were probably Lucy's, indicated by a keychain picture of her and an unknown old man. "Ah shit." He couldn't believe she left her keys here.
With the keys here, he couldn't help but feel a bad feeling. Though, he only felt those during the job, just staring at the keys had made him feel a sort of way. "Maybe, she'll come back for them?"
He sat down and looked at the time. 11:50. A couple minutes had only passed since she left. And he knew the next train around this time doesn't arrive until 12:30.
Having a bad feeling and her leaving her keys, Laxus knew not to ignore that feeling. He got the keys, his regular black jacket, his side piece and made his way to the train station.
…
Lucy had arrived at the train station. 12:11, her phone told her. She knew the train wouldn't come here until 12:30.
She knew she had to wait in the meantime.
As she waited by the bench, she saw a couple of guys come by, and simply by the smell, these guys were obviously drunk.
"Oh, hey baby." One of them called out to her, another had cat called her with a whistle.
Lucy didn't want to give the men any of her attention, staying quiet, clenching onto her purse.
"Hey shorty, you got some nice legs." The men walked closer, admiring her body figure of course with there insensitive remarks.
She continued to stay put and quiet, not giving them her time of day.
"Whatya doing here all alone?" The three men surrounded her now.
"Come on blondie, answer us." The one behind her got close to her ear.
He suddenly grasped her butt but suddenly Lucy was prepared, she stomped on the man's foot, armed herself with her purse, smacked the one to her right and quickly dashed out of there.
"YOU BITCH!" They ran after her, catching up to her.
Lucy tried running as best as she could but was suddenly tackled down. "AH!" She yelped as one of the assailants held her down. "PLEASE NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!"
"Oh no baby, the fun is about to start." He brought her up, holding her arms to her back.
"NO! NOOO!" Lucy begged, crying as the other two began to undress her.
One of the rip her shirt while the other began to bring her jeans down.
"NO PLEASE!" She begged.
"Now, now, be a good girl and take it." The man behind her calmly told her, grinning and laughing as the men begun.
"Hey!" Suddenly a fourth voice joined, follow by gunshots to the air.
The men, including Lucy now almost stripped apart, looked in the direction and saw that it was Laxus. "LAXUS!" Oh how Lucy was filled with joy when she saw the man.
"Release her before I put bullet holes in all three of you! NOW!" He threatened.
Lucy was quickly released and quickly made her way to Laxus.
"Now, put your hands in the air where I could see them!" Laxus showed them his badge.
Upon knowing that the man was a cop, the three drunk men now started to run, disobeying the orders of the cop.
"Why you motherf-"
As much as he wanted to run to them, he had to attend to Lucy, who much to his surprise, can see her exposed black bra with a ripped shirt. She had tried her best to cover herself with her jacket but wasn't enough. He could see the fear and tears on her, thank God he followed his bad feeling.
"Are you hurt?" He stayed by her side. He took off his jacket, placing it on her. Much bigger and covered her much better than her own jacket. He then embraced her, sighing with relief.
"I'm… I'm alright." Her tears now dripped on his shirt. Better on him than those strangers.
"Thank God." He held her, making her feel safe.
"How did you know to come over here?" As much as she enjoyed his presence, she wondered why he came all the way over here.
He reached in to his pocket and taking out what made him come all the way over here. "This."
"My keys?" She was caught of guard. She hadn't realized that her keys weren't in her purse, almost as if outside forces had known this was bound to happen and her knight had come and saw the signs of help.
"Yes, that and a bad feeling," Laxus told. "Being the cop I am, I just knew something bad would happen and I rushed all the way over here."
"Thank you," they continued their embrace. "You saved my life."
"Just doing my job."