TRIGGER WARNINGS: Physical violence, description of wounds
Hiya! I couldn't just let you all wait a week to know what's up, so here's an early 18!
I honestly got quite ahead of what I'm posting at this point, so I might give you two chapters a week for a few weeks.
Happy reading!
It took a lot of convincing, but Cana finally got Lucy to lay down on the couch, and despite everything, Lucy was exhausted enough that she fell asleep. Cana called Mavis.
"Cana, what's going on?" Mavis asked.
"They sent a picture of Natsu," she updated her. "According to the news channel in the background, it was taken just before 4AM."
"Tell me, Cana."
"He's been beaten up pretty bad," she summed up. "He's got a lot of bruising and bunch of cuts. And he's got some gnarly looking bleeding on his left side. Our guy is trying to track where it sent from, but I don't know how bad it is."
"Send it to me," Mavis requested.
"Are you sure? It's not pretty."
"I'm a doctor, Cana. I need to know what kind of injuries he has so I can be ready to treat him."
"Alright…" she placed the phone against her shoulder. "Dad. I have Mavis on the line, she wants to see the picture."
"She's the doctor, right?" Cana nodded. "Great. Hibiki, forward it."
"Are you sure?"
"We need to know the state of his injuries. We may not have six hours to get to him."
"You got it. Cana, give me the number." She had to look at the screen to give it.
"We're sending it now… My father wants to hear your assessment." Mavis hummed and turned on the speaker phone as Gildarts took Cana's phone.
"Lieutenant Clive," he greeted.
"Dr. Vermillion," she replied in the same fashion. There was a pause, then a pensive hum. "Looks like a fair bit of contusion," she finally stated, and Gildarts couldn't help being impressed at how composed she sounded, considering she knew the boy. "However, I think the lighting is making it look worse than it really is. There is swelling on his right eye and it looks like he's got a split lip too. Probably a few cracked ribs by the looks of it, but it's hard to tell on a photo."
"What about the cut on his side?" he asked when Mavis fell quiet.
"It seems… Well, I wouldn't say superficial, and it should probably have stiches to limit scarring, but I think it looks worse than it is. If you look at it," Gildarts looked at Lucy's phone, zooming in on the wound, "the blood is already starting to dry, which means most of the bleeding has stopped already." She fell silent for a moment, then added. "The cut seems to be… roughly five inches long, slim enough to have been made with a scalpel, probably half an inch in depth at most, and considering the location of the wound, the amount of blood and how it started to dry, I'd say they probably did that to him when they first called Lucy. It doesn't seem life threatening."
"That's reassuring. Do you think we will have enough time to get to him?"
"Yes. The look on his face tells me he's still doing just fine. His eyes are not even out of focus. He didn't lose too much blood."
"Thank you, Doctor," Gildarts said.
"Lieutenant," she called, before he could hand the phone back to Cana. "Look at his hands." Gildarts did and couldn't help a smile. Those were injuries even he could recognize.
"He didn't go down without a fight," he concluded.
"He certainly hasn't, not that I would expect any less from Natsu. But, fair warning. They might not be done beating him up. Not if he's hurt them too. Most of those injuries probably happened after he was tied up, not when he was taken. We need to get to him sooner than later. I doubt he has internal bleeding, but I need to examine him."
"Roger that. We'll be in touch, Doctor."
"One last thing."
"Yes?"
"I will be joining you. I'll put a special kit together for the injuries that I see, and I want to be able to treat him and properly assess him before we move him,"
"As much as I appreciate it, you are civilian and I…"
"I wasn't asking, Lieutenant," Mavis cut him off.
"I can't ask it of you," Gildarts mentioned. "And I can't ensure or guarantee your protection. But if you happened to be nearby, refusing your help would simply be absurd."
"I understand," Mavis replied. "Please have Cana contact me if you have more information concerning Natsu's health and wellbeing."
...
Natsu was fighting against himself to remain still. He had struggled against the restraints enough that his wrists and ankles were raw, and it hadn't been enough. He tried to make it look as though he was finally getting tired, but he was only biding his time. Gathering his strength. He would have let himself sink in the restraints to make it look like he was asleep, but last time he tried, the cut on his side had pulled painfully and his wrists had not agreed to it. So, he stood and glared at the masked people, hoping that Lucy was safe and wouldn't put herself in danger for his sake.
His entire body was throbbing with pain. He had been used as a punching bag for a while. One of them had a ring that had cut him more than once. His lower lip was sore and swollen and the taste of blood was still in his mouth from the punch he earned after head-butting one of the guys who came too close. His brow was still throbbing from that hit, and his eye was wanting to close on its own with the swelling, but that pain felt like victory. And there was the cut at his side. They had done that shortly before he realized they were talking to Lucy, slicing into his flesh slowly and deliberately. Natsu hadn't been able to do anything much about it. Any sudden motion could have made it so much worse. And when he yelled for Lucy, they had punched right back into the cut to shut him up and a hit to the jaw had almost knocked him out.
He had been walking home from work when he heard someone call for help in a back alley and had not thought about it twice before rushing down. Then five people had dropped on him. He tried to fight them off. Knocked two of them out before a sixth member had snuck behind him and bashed the back of his head with a pipe. He had been too disoriented to keep fighting and by the time his vision cleared, they had him tied up and tossed in the back of a van. Then they had had the good sense to knock him out before bringing him to where he was now.
It looked like an abandoned building, smelled like mold and dust and rust, but he was kept in a small room – maybe an employee room of sorts – and a spotlight had been shining in his face for a while, making it hard to see the people who were there with him. He heard his captor for the first when he called Lucy. Lucy… He clenched his fist. He hadn't known who they were talking to at first. Assumed it would be Zeref, though very few people knew they were related. But then he had heard Lucy's name. Five hundred thousand. It was insane. Why would they ever assume a teenager working part time in a fast food chain could have that sort of money?
It must have been… Hours ago, now. There were no windows, no clock or nothing to tell him was time it was. He heard someone mention that she had finally called but needed a bit of a push, then said something about a TV earlier, but he had no idea where it was – or if it was even there. Despite his miserable state, he was ready to hit whoever came in reach – but no one had since the call to Lucy. He bit his cut lip, his mouth filling with the taste of blood, to refrain from provoking them. He had to be ready to fight as soon as they'd try to move him. A voice spoke, and Natsu's focus tuned on it.
"You're out of time… Do you now? Good girl." They were talking to Lucy. That meant it was 10AM. "You are to bring the money to…"
"Stay away from them!" Natsu yelled, pulling against his restraints despite the pain that shot through him. "Don't give them anything! You hear me, Luce? Don't do it!" He saw three people moving toward him. "If you hurt her, I will kill you all! Lucy!" A door opened and a silhouette stepped outside before it closed.
"Will you shut up!" one of the one in front of him yelled, swinging. Natsu narrowly dodged it, barely having any room to move, and launched forward, slamming his head in his. His teeth jarred and his vision blurred from the impact and he never saw the next hit coming.
...
Lucy couldn't believe they had let her sleep until almost 8AM. She woke up to her phone ringing and recognized her father's number. She refused the call without even thinking about it. Cana had then forced her to eat something and Mavis and Zeref had showed up less than twenty minutes later with coffee for everyone, as well as a duffel bag filled with money – in case Hibiki couldn't trace them in time
Hibiki had been able to track the text message from Natsu, but there had been too many buildings in the area where he could have been to send out a team. They still had positioned a few people around the area to look for suspicious activity, and Mavis and Zeref both decided to go over there for a 'stroll in the neighbourhood'. Then Gildarts had taken the lot of them to a closer location to be ready to act.
At 10AM sharp, Lucy's phone rang and she picked it up in a heartbeat. "You're out of time," the voice warned.
"I have it," Lucy said. "Five hundred thousand dollars."
"Do you now?" He actually sounded surprised. Probably because Jude had said she hadn't called back. "Good girl. You are to bring the money to the…" His voice got buried under Natsu's voice and Lucy had to cover her mouth to keep from calling out.
"Stay away from them! Don't give them anything! You hear me, Luce?" There was a brief pause. "If you hurt her, I'll kill you all! Lucy!" There was a dull sound and Natsu's voice was gone.
"As I was saying, you are to bring the money to the local swimming pool. There, you are to put it in the women's change room's sixth locker to the right in the last row and use the padlock in there to lock it." Hibiki motioned to Lucy to hold him on the line.
"What then? How do I know you'll return Natsu? How do I know he's okay?"
"When you leave, someone will verify the amount. Then we'll send you the address where he is from this phone. And I'm sure you heard him. I would hurry if I were you." The line cut.
"Tell me you got him," she asked, turning to see Hibiki. He was leaning close to the screen.
"I got him," he sighed in relief. Gildarts looked at the building and spoke in his radio.
"We have a location. Everybody, be ready to move in."
"What about me?" Lucy asked. She knew Zeref was nearby, ready to rush her to the drop off location if needed.
"You stay put. I don't want to risk them seeing you here. Cana?"
"You got it," she nodded. There was no questioning. Cana would watch over Lucy.
"Hibiki, stay tuned to the cameras. Let us know if you see anything suspicious." And with that, he left.
Lucy wrung her hands nervously and twice, Cana swatted her hand before she could start chewing on her nails. Fifteen minutes felt like hours when there was chatter on Hibiki's radio. "Someone, call an ambulance." It was Gildarts voice. Cana whipped her phone out of her pocket and sent a message. "Two male suspects apprehended," another voice announced. "Copy that," came Gildarts answer. "Chasing a suspect around the back," another voice declared. "Lieutenant, there's a woman named Mavis Vermillion claiming to be a doctor trying to cross the perimeter," someone else said, and Cana grinned. "Let her through," Gildarts ordered with a smile in his voice. "The ambulance is gonna be at least ten," he added.
"Secured the male suspect who tried to run," came the second voice. All was silent for a moment. "Found two more male hiding inside," someone else announced. "They have been apprehended."
"That's five," Cana noted.
"They were all men. There is someone else," Lucy assured. "They told me to leave the money in the women's room. They have at least one woman on the team."
"We suspect there is a female accomplice who may be on the premises," Hibiki relayed. "Everyone proceeds with caution," Gildarts ordered. "Hibiki, dispatch a team to the pool. Tell them to be discreet." "Roger that," he replied and quickly called another team. "All the suspects have been rounded," someone else announced. The sound of the ambulance finally reached Lucy. There was more chatter on the radio as the ambulance took Natsu and the five suspects were taken to the station. Cana's phone chirped and she grabbed Lucy's hand.
"Our ride's here. See you later, Hibiki," she added and dragged Lucy outside. Zeref was waiting for them in his car and they both got in the back seat.
"Where's Mavis?" Lucy asked when Zeref drove away.
"She got in the ambulance with Natsu," he informed them. He didn't want to tell them that Natsu hadn't seemed conscious when he was carried outside, or that Mavis's hands had seemed covered in blood. Natsu would be okay. There was no need to worry them.
...
They got to the hospital and waited outside the emergency care. Zeref asked one of the nurses for an update on his brother's condition. It was a long while before she returned, telling them that he was stable, but they were still stitching him up and had more testing to do. Lucy had slumped against the wall, gazing into the space. Cana had gone to get coffee. Zeref moved toward Lucy and extended a hand. It took her a moment to look up at him.
"That can't be comfortable," he told her. "Let's have a seat on the chairs."
"I don't want to be comfortable," Lucy argued. "He wasn't." So Zeref sat on the ground next to her. It must have been Highschool since he last sat on the floor somewhere.
"You know he wouldn't care for that," he reminded her.
"I know," she sighed. "I just wish I could do something more."
"There will be time for that," Zeref reassured her. "He'll need your help while he recovers."
"There will be plenty of doctors around," Lucy argued.
"I doubt it. Natsu hates hospitals. He'll get discharged as soon as he can. Earlier than reasonable, really." Lucy looked at Zeref for the first time since he sat. Natsu… hated hospital? The same Natsu that had spent the night of his birthday at her bedside, only wishing for her to wake up before he had to leave for school? Zeref looked up and quickly stood. Lucy turned around and saw Mavis walking their way. This time, she took Zeref's hand to stand.
"How is he?" she asked, meeting her halfway through the waiting room
"He's gonna be fine," Mavis reassured her, guiding them out of the way.
"Don't sugar-coat it for me," Lucy insisted. Mavis glanced at Zeref, who nodded ever so slightly.
"He was beaten pretty badly," she explained. "Lieutenant Clive said they were still hitting him when they walked in. He's got head trauma, bruised ribs and his shoulder was dislocated. There is bruising and superficial cuts over most of his body." She looked at Zeref when she said the last part. "And they cut him again on his side, a lot deeper this time. It didn't hit any vitals, but it will leave a scar." Lucy had covered her mouth with her hands and tears were flowing down her cheeks. "But I assure you, he will be fine. In fact, he's awake and wants to see you, Lucy."
"You go," Zeref nudged her toward Mavis. "I'll let Cana know."
"One last thing, Zeref. When Lieutenant Clive gets here, please tell him that Natsu is willing to answer his questions, but he really should rest."
"Will do," Zeref nodded.
"Thank you. Now, come with me, Lucy."
"Didn't you say he should be resting?" she asked, but still followed her through the halls.
"He won't rest until he sees you," Mavis told her. "He's so stubborn."
Lucy couldn't help a smile. That sounded just like him.
So that's 18! Hope you all enjoyed it.
Like I said earlier, I might be posting two chapters a week for a little while, so you can still expect the Monday update as usual! See you all then!
Valerioux: I think it's a fair portrayal of how she would react, I'm glad you enjoyed it too :) I hope you enjoyed that he went down swinging. Because how else, really?
Bookwork129: I think Lucy's trauma is part of why she was able to compose herself and seek help this time. I do love this Natsu a lot too, but I'm looking forward to a story where he can be his usual goofball lol
Darkvampirekisses: I can't say you're wrong lol
SailingNotSelling: Is that soon enough ^_^
CodenameMise: I'm glad you think so! That went from 0 to a 100 real fast, but I couldn't just let anyone ruin their prom haha
Clairessa88: Well, here's some more for you :D
Copperreign12: Hello fellow canadian! I'm glad at least someone gets me lol I love that you're enjoying the story because I love writing it :D Thanks for the review, you rock too, eh! ;)