Stupid Brick

Summary: Some god out there obviously hated her. That was the only explanation for how she wound up on an S-class job with her father.

Warning: swearing

Disclaimer: I don't own

AN: I have never had a concussion before and only have experience through my brother (who honestly should be wearing a crash helmet 24/7).

The entirety of the guild was gathered in the guildhall, waiting for some kind of announcement that Master was going to make. Given that the S-class trials weren't for another few weeks, no one really had any idea what this could be about.

Cana was seated on a table near the bar partaking in one of her favorite activities aside from music and dancing- drinking. She'd already managed to get down nine barrels and was working on her tenth. As far as she was concerned there was no point in getting worked up until they all knew what was going on.

Nervous chatter died as the miniscule guildmaster took the stage.

"Attention everyone." He began needlessly," It has come to my attention that all of you brats tend to stay in your own circles and hardly interact with anyone else- so to rectify this I have come up with a-shall we say- bonding activity." Oh man this couldn't be good- that smirk promised pain.

The small man walked over to a small bingo cage, " In this cage are the names of everyone in the guild- I am going to spin this until two names come out and those two people will be assigned a job together. There will be absolutely no swapping partners." Makarov said, eyes roaming onto Juvia, Jet, and Droy respectively.

"Alright, let's begin." Makarov spun the small wire cage around until two small balls rolled out," It seems the first is Happy and Gray!"

Everyone ignored Juvia's sobs as the matching continued.

Cana was barely listening as Master rattled off the pairs. This didn't actually seem like a bad idea; it might be nice to work with someone different for a change.

"Carla and Bickslow!"

The brunette started mentally going through her checklist of things she needed to handle before going on a job. Let's see, she needed to check in at Griffith's to let them know…

"Wakaba and Evergreen!"

Damn that was a funny pair! Now, she had to drop off her rent money before she left, just in case she ended up with someone more destructive and wound up needing to pay damages (or bail- that could happen too).

"Wendy and Juvia!"

As she took another gulp from the barrel, the card mage idly wondered when she was going to get called.

"Cana and Gildarts!"

She choked. Cana sputtered violently as she tried to get the beer out of her lungs, with somebody helpfully pounding her on the back. Had that seriously just-!

Fuck.

Seriously just- fuck. What even were the chances she would get paired up with her old man? How… how was she supposed to do this?

After everybody had been paired, Master plucked several of the marbles off the table and put them back into the wire cage.

"One more thing!" He called out cheerfully," For the S-class wizards- one of you is getting an S-class job! Now, lets see who it is!"

Cana stared as the little cage rattled, praying to every god she had ever heard of that her luck couldn't be that bad. As the little ball rolled out, Cana felt a bead of sweat run down her face.

"And the job goes to Cana and Gildarts!"

It was official- all gods that existed hated her.

"So, I guess it's you and me, huh?"

oOOOOo

Gildarts was pretty open about all of this, and he couldn't say he was exactly disappointed in his assignment. Cana was a nice girl and had been nominated for the S-class trials four times, so she was definitely strong enough to hold her own. That said… her reaction to hearing his name left him pretty apprehensive. Seeing her choke like that… had he done something to make her dislike him? They'd never really interacted before, but what could he have done to warrant that reaction?

"So, I guess its you and me, huh?" He said, trying to be cheerful as the brunette recovered her composure. She really had grown into a beautiful young woman- a far cry from that wide-eyed little girl he remembered.

"Yeah, I guess so." The shocked girl responded, before shaking off whatever was bothering her. "I guess we should go grab the job info and then pack."

"That sounds about right." The crash mage agreed, watching as the card mage strode over to the bar to grab the flyer from Mira (and damn, but that transformation had been a surprise).

She somehow managed to dodge guildmates, drink a beer, and read the job request all at the same time as she returned to the table.

"Looks like we have some kind of cursed statue summoning fire-breathing zombie dinosaurs- not a sentence I ever thought I'd read. Travel alone is going to take three days at minimum. How about we meet back here tomorrow before we head out?"

The Ace nodded approvingly," That sounds great- seven work for you?"

The brunette nodded," Yeah, I'll just have to stop by the studio to let them know I won't be coming in for a while."

"Studio?" Gildarts asked curiously.

"I dance," Cana explained," I've been filling in for a friend of mine teaching the past few weeks since she broke her leg."

The redhead blinked for a moment before smiling," What do you know- we're bonding already!" He said cheerfully, causing the girl to let out a laugh, giving him a smile of her own. For a moment Gildarts was struck with the strangest sense of deja-vu- he'd seen that smile before, but where?

"Alright, I'll see you tomorrow Cana."

As he walked away, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was missing something. Why had Cana's smile felt so familiar? He mulled it over the entire walk home; whatever it was he was missing, it was important, if only he could figure it out.

oOOOOo

To say Gildarts was dumbfounded would be putting it mildly.

The mission had gone fantastically- Cana was a lot tougher than he had given her credit for. Fearlessly beating down the fiery hell beasts without so much as batting an eye. She had figured out exactly where the weak points on the damn things were and how to hit them efficiently. Then she had figured out how to destroy the statue that caused this entire clusterfuck. And she had done all of this in a fraction of the time it would have taken him to figure out the same.

So, after making it through swarms of fiery undead lizards and destroying the damn statue with barely a scratch on her- what does her in?

A fucking brick.

A fucking brick fell from fucking nowhere and cracked her in the head hard enough to knock her out. What kind of comic book bullshit was this?

Well, at least it seemed like she was coming back around, he thought as he carefully pulled the dazed girl into a sitting position, heavily supporting her.

"You okay Cana?" He asked cautiously, carefully taking in how her eyes couldn't seem to focus on anything. Probably a concussion.

"That's not my name." She said kind of spacy," Everybody calls me that, why does everybody call me that? Mama calls me Rebecca, what do people call me Cana for? Though everybody calls me that and I call me that, so maybe it is my name."

Despite the situation, Gildarts had to hide a smile; she definitely had to be concussed to be babbling like that.

"Rebecca- you know I've always liked that name," He said conversationally," Would you like me to call you that?"

The girl shook her head," Cana's fine." She chirped before blinking owlishly up at him," What hit me?"

"A brick." He said calmly, finding her concussed state more than a little bit funny and felt that if she wasn't worried than he shouldn't be either. He'd bring her to a doctor to get checked out, but for now he couldn't really do much.

"…stupid brick." She said indignantly, pouting like a child denied candy, it was adorable.

"I think you're concussed."

"…Stupid concussions. Always say stuff you don't wanna say and I got lotsa stuff I shouldn't say." She rambled.

"Oh? Like what?" He asked amused, not expecting her to actually answer.

"Like that you're my dad." She continued, ignoring him as he choked on his own tongue in shock. "Mama told me to tell you, but I didn't tell you- it's a secret so shhh." Cana blinked rapidly, before her eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed against her shellshocked father.

oOOOOo

Cana groaned at the splitting headache as she slowly came to. Her head was pounding, and her mouth tasted like ash- how much did she drink last night? All of a sudden, all the memories slammed to the forefront of her mind making her eyes fly open as she staggered to a sitting position, only to start retching violently.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah." All of a sudden, a strong pair of arms were supporting her, steadying her shaky body as she tried to make the world come into focus.

It took a moment for the rapidly spinning world to stop and another for her to get her bearings, all the while Gildarts soothingly rubbed at her back, trying to get her to calm down.

Some god obviously hated her. That was the only explanation. She had gone on an S-class job with her father and in the aftermath of that mission she had gotten concussed and had blurted out the secret that she had kept for so long.

Gildarts cleared his throat before speaking quietly," You okay Cana?"

The brunette swallowed before shakily nodding," … yeah I think I am."

The man took a breath," You… before you passed out you… you said some stuff."

Cana stilled- should she play dumb? Say she didn't remember-?

"You said I was your dad."

No, she was going to face this.

"…I remember. I'm sorry I dropped it on you like that. Its… that's not how I ever wanted to tell you."

She chanced a glance at the older mage, only to be met with her father's shocked face. Something about the look in his eyes made her want to curl in on herself.

"You- you're really my- "

Cana just wordlessly nodded.

Gildarts speechlessly opened and closed his mouth, not sure what to say in response to a bomb like this. He had a daughter. He was holding his adult daughter and he might never have found out she was his if she hadn't gotten hit in the head with a brick.

"You- you said that your mom wanted you to tell me…" he trailed off, he always made sure that he left a way for him to be contacted if this ever happened which meant that whoever had mothered his child had deliberately kept him out of her life.

"She… she told me who you were before she died… I came to Fairy Tail to find you. I just- things just kept getting in the way when I tried to tell you."

"You said that your real name's Rebecca."

Cana nodded, not sure why that was what he chose to focus on. But for Gildarts… for Gildarts that was the last piece for the whole puzzle to click into place. He had an eighteen-year-old daughter with a smile that was so familiar named Rebecca, and the only person who he had ever told about that name…

"You're Cornelia's daughter, aren't you."

The brunette blinked in surprise before nodding," Yeah, yeah I am. How did you- "

"She named you Rebecca. We… of all the women I've ever been with she's the only one I ever loved, and we talked about having kids. I… I told her that if I ever had a little girl, I would name her Rebecca." Gildarts felt her stiffen in surprise as he spoke," Your mom- Conny hated it so damn much. Wanted to name any little girl we had 'Arcana'."

"That's my middle name." Cana interrupted quietly.

"I- I'm so sorry Cana." Neither was sure what the crash mage was apologizing for.

The two just sat in silence for what felt like hours, before Cana gently pushed him away from her.

"You don't have to worry Gildarts I don't expect anything from you- things can stay the way they are, it just… it feels like a weight has been lifted off my chest. But… if I can say this just once- I'm glad I met you Dad."

The Ace couldn't breathe, he just stared at the beautiful woman that shared his blood. He remembered seeing her for the first time, a beautiful little girl smiling up at him like he was the greatest thing in the world to her. Of that same little girl in the flashes he'd seen over the years. He felt tears come to his eyes as he pulled his child as tight to him as he could.

"Cana- will you let me be your dad? Will you give me the right to love you?"

Cana was surprised but leaned into her father's chest as she answered," You've always had it … Dad."

The dam broke as father and daughter sobbed like toddlers as they clung to each other. After a while Gildarts realized that he had something to do as Cana's father. Without any warning he stood up, making Cana yelp in surprise as her father was suddenly carrying her bridal style.

"Well let's go Princess- we need to get you checked out. That brick hit you hard."

Cana gaped for a moment before struggling to get down from her father's hold," Let me down dammit! The brick hit me in the head not the feet-!"

"But Daddy can't take any chances with your safety Princess! There's roots and bones and rocks and all sorts of things- what if you trip and break something? Or what if- "

Gildarts kept on rambling on about the dangers that walking posed to his precious little girl as he headed back to the town that had hired them, if Cana stopped fighting after a few moments and Gildarts held her a little closer than he necessarily needed to neither said anything.

AN: I'm not quite sure about the ending but I'm overall pretty happy with how this one translated from my head to the page. I saw the idea of doing jobs with someone they don't normally work with done a few times and decided to combine it with a concept of her blurting it out after a concussion (I came up with that one in the first few chapters but dicarded it- glad I worked this out!). I also went a little heavy praising her skill but she's my favorite character and I wish we saw more of her throughout the series.

The line 'the brick hit me in the head not the feet' came from a Bleach fic called Breathing Lessons.