Under the Weather

Summary: Gildarts has always gone overboard on the occastions when Cana got sick and he was determined not to embarrass her by overeacting only… this time it definitely wasn't an overreaction.

Disclaimer: I don't own

AN: Took a few liberties with symptoms.

Gildarts smiled as he spotted the guildhall at the end of the road. While it was slightly embarrassing at first that his own lousy control necessitated such extreme measures, he couldn't deny it stroked his ego to some extent. It was like the city was rolling out the red carpet to welcome him back home. And of course, once he reached the guildhall his pride and joy would be waiting with one of her best hugs.

Only when he reached the guild, he didn't see his baby girl.

Trying not to overreact, because when it came to his little girl, he had the tendency to do that, he casually asked Master," So… where's my little girl? She on a job?" He tried to appear nonchalant, but when everyone in the vicinity winced in unison he felt his anxiety grow.

"What's wrong- is Cana okay?"

Macao answered nervously," She's… she's just been under the weather the last few days is all."

That made his anxiety spike. Sick? His- his baby was sick? He had to go get her! She must be so miserable without her Daddy there to take care of her.

"Gildarts calm down." Master snapped," Every single time she's gotten sick you overreact- she'll be fine."

The red-haired man took a deep breath and then slowly tried to release his anxiety. Master was right, she had been sick before and she always recovered. Him overreacting never did anything except humiliate her.

"Either way- see you all later. I'm going to go home." The crash mage said shortly, giving the guild a wide fake smile, before hightailing it out of there as quickly as he could without looking like he was rushing.

Cana was his pride and joy, his darling little princess. He always tended to react badly whenever she was sick or injured, he just… he hated seeing her be unhappy. Hated it even more when there was nothing in he could do to make her feel better. A couple months after she had first come home, she had started sneezing and at first he hadn't been too worried, but then she had thrown up and he had rushed her to the hospital. Turned out she had a cold and Master had almost killed him for all the damages he'd caused in his panic.

And then there was the time she caught strep and he had bothered poor Porlyusica so much with questions and freak outs that she had temporarily banned him from setting foot in her house. Then there was the time Cana had gotten her tonsils removed and he had filled her small recovery room with so many flowers none of them could breathe right with the perfume in the air. When she had been working on lifts in her ballet class and her partner had dropped her; he had nearly cried when he saw the thick purple bruises inked across his baby's skin, and it was only her begging that convinced him not to pull her out of classes. And the time when Laxus had taken her on an S-class job (without asking his permission) and she had broken her arm… yeah it had taken a lot of people to stop him from killing the blonde.

The point was he had a history of overreacting whenever something was wrong, and he did nothing but embarrass her- this time would be different. He wouldn't make a scene, he wouldn't freak out, he wouldn't go kidnap doctors to have them check her over. No, all he was going to do was be a normal loving father, who took care of his sick child with the standard hot soup and checking her temperature every few hours.

Still the anxiety was tugging at his stomach- he wasn't going to be okay until he saw her and made sure that she was okay and even then, he wasn't going to feel better until she felt better.

There was the house! Why the hell had the trip from the guildhall been so damn long?!

As soon as he stepped inside and spotted his daughter on the couch his heart immediately jumped into his throat. Cana was a tough cookie like her mom, she shook off aches and pains like water off a duck's back, never one to complain no matter what was going on, so the sight of her curled up on the couch sobbing in pain was completely and utterly terrifying.

Her hair was plastered to her face with sweat and her usual olive skin was almost white. She didn't even seem to realize he was there at first until he was right by her side, then she was practically crawling into his arms.

"Daddy it hurts so bad." She sobbed into his neck making him freeze- she hadn't called him daddy in years. He carefully placed a hand on her sweaty forehead and Gildarts was pretty sure his skin had gone white.

"Baby you're burning up." He whispered hoarsely; eyes wide.

He didn't even think, he just started running towards the hospital with his little girl in his arms, trying desperately not to jostle her. Whatever was wrong… whatever was wrong it was bad.

He sure as hell wasn't overreacting this time.

oOOOOo

Turned out it was her appendix.

A nurse in the emergency room had taken one look at Cana when he had made it to the hospital and had immediately taken her from him. What happened next was a blur of yelling and people asking questions he couldn't answer. Eventually one of the nurses had slapped him until he could see the world again and told him they were taking her into surgery, and that someone would be by to give the details to him.

Later when all the chaos had subsided and everything was done, he held his baby's hand as he sat next to her bed, watching the steady rise and fall of her chest.

Apparently, he'd gotten to her at just the right time, her appendix had only been a few hours shy of rupturing, and he might not understand medical jargon, but even he knew that would have been really, really bad.

But there was nothing to worry about now, she should wake up in another hour or so and the surgery had gone great. The nurses were calling her 'the poster child for appendectomy'. So… why was it still so hard to breathe?

He distantly heard the door open, but he didn't turn around, he didn't think he could take his eyes off of her even if he tried.

"I heard what happened," the gruff voice of Master Makarov said from somewhere to his left.

"They- they said everything went great and that she's going to be okay. It… it's a pretty routine procedure." The crash mage responded shakily, what if he had been just a few minutes too late? How much worse could this have been?

"Gildarts, you can't possibly blame yourself for this- "

"Yes I can."

He could feel the eye roll on his back, but yes, he could and would blame himself for this. His baby had gotten sick and if he had been there when it first started, she probably would have gotten treated a hell of a lot sooner.

"Master… Master I don't think I'm going to take a job for a couple weeks. I- I just… I just don't want to take my eyes off of her for a while."

Things were quiet for a moment before the older man responded," … I completely understand. But Gildarts… these things just happen. No amount of foresight can prevent a cold and no amount of caution can keep you safe forever. I know how horrible it must be to see your child lying there and to not be able to help, but Gildarts… it was your quick thinking that potentially saved her life. You were there for your child when she needed you most- Cana is a lucky girl to have a father as great as you."

If Master said anything else the Ace didn't hear, because at that moment Cana's nose wriggled in the way it always did when she first woke up. Blinking her beautiful purple eyes against the light, she groggily scanned the room until her eyes landed on him.

"Daddy?"

His heart skipped a beat as he heard her call him that again," Hi baby." He said gently," Go back to sleep sweetheart- everything's okay now."

She gave a sleepy nod, "Okay." And almost immediately fell back to sleep.

He wasn't going to let her out of his sight for a while, but… everything would return to normal eventually. She was alright and that was the most important thing.

AN: So this came to me in the middle of the night, I wrote this down on a piece of scrap paper then crashed. He definitely would be the type of parent to go overboard during sick days, but… Gildarts is a good dad who just wants the best for his baby. I took a few liberties with symptoms, because I've never had my appendix out and I don't know anyone who has so if I got anything wrong I apologize. My understanding is its more like a flu the first day or two and then it gets bad.

Also Cana is fifteen here if you were curious.

Please tell me what you think!