Chapter 4
Levy's POV
The morning after Rogue came over was the morning of the hearing for the restraining order and I was not looking forward to it. I was comforted by the fact that I would have my mom Rogue and Lucy by my side and there would be security to protect me, but I was still scared to be in the same room as him. I got ready and put on one of my maternity shirts on and decided that I was going to straighten my now bright blue hair. I walked out my room and texted Rogue and asked him if his dad was going to bring him or did, we have to get him for the hearing. I walked to the kitchen to grab breakfast and saw my mom had already fixed a bowl of cereal and was eating at the table. I sat down with a granola bar and took the vitamins that the doctor had told me to take at the doctor's appointment last week.
I checked my phone before we left and Rogue said that his dad was bringing him because he wanted to be there for it too, and then I called Lucy and asked if we needed to pick her up but she said she was driving too. I got in the car with mom and we drove to the courthouse, the entire car ride was silent, and I could tell Mom was nervous too. I started fidgeting with my hair, and then I felt my phone go off, so I pulled it out and saw that Rogue had texted me. "Hey, don't worry about anything, everything is going to work out, and ask your mom if you can go somewhere with me and Dad when this is all over please?" I smiled and then said, "Hey Mom Rogue wants to know if I can go somewhere with him and his dad after the hearing is over, can I?" I saw my mom smile and she said I could. I texted him back and told him that Mom said I could and then put my phone up as we turned into the parking lot of the courthouse. I got out of the car when Mom parked and looked around to see if I saw Rogue's dad's truck. I saw it close to the front of the building, so I walked over to see if he was still in it, but he wasn't.
We walked in and I looked around trying to find Rogue or Lucy, I saw Rogue standing with his dad by the wall, they both looked like they weren't sure where to go. I walked over to Rogue and gave him a hug and asked if anyone had told them where we needed to be. "No one has even talked to us yet, I'm not sure what to do." I nodded and looked back to see what Mom was doing and saw her talking to someone at a desk. I assumed she was asking where we needed to go, I still hadn't seen Lucy, so I decided to call her and ask where she was. When she answered the phone, I could tell she was lost, "Hey we are standing near the front entrance, Mom is trying to find out what we need to do." Lucy thanked me over and over for helping her find out where to go. After a few minutes Mom came back and said that she had figured out where we needed to go but we would wait for Lucy to show up before we went. We waited a couple more minutes and finally Lucy showed up. She ran over and hugged me and then we all walked to the courtroom we had been assigned to.
As we walked Rogue was beside me the whole way and the I felt his hand grab mine, I held his hand a felt a smile grow on my face. I had Rogue to support me and Willow through it all, and that gave me a sense of comfort. We got to the courtroom and when we walked in my mom and I were told to go to the front table and Rogue, his dad, and Lucy were told to sit in the front row of the "audience" area. I hugged Rogue and went to sit with my mom and wait for the lawyer, I looked over to the defendant side where Gajeel would be and saw his mom sitting at the front desk and I assumed their lawyer must have Gajeel in a private room talking to him because he wasn't with her.
After about fifteen minutes our lawyer showed up and Gajeel walked in with what I assumed was his lawyer. "He confessed to his lawyer about leaving the bruise on you, we should be able to get the order no problem." I nodded feeling encouraged by that, but I was still worried about asking for him to not be able to see Willow. We waited for another few minutes and right before the judge walked in, I turned to look at Rogue and he gave me a comforting smile, then it was time for everything to start.
The judge got to the podium and we all sat down and waited to see who he would call first. He asked my lawyer to come forward and say why we wanted the restraining order. He went over everything briefly and then the judge called Gajeel's lawyer up to say why they were fighting the order. "We are fighting the restraining order because we do not believe Mr. Redfox voicing his voice on the fate of his child should be grounds to order a restraining order." I hadn't thought of that, I started to get nervous again, but just being in the same room as he made me nervous too.
I was the first to be called up and when I walked up, I saw Gajeel's mom glare at me, I got up to the stand and took a deep breath and waited to be asked any questions. "Ms. McGarden, why do you believe that Mr. Redfox should be kept away from you and not have a say in the decision about his child's fate?" I figured that would be the question, I took a deep breath and started talking, "I believe that he should be kept away from me because he has made threats to hurt me if I did not abort the baby. And while I was in a relationship with him, he did cause physical harm to me, I believe my lawyer has provided a picture of a bruise in the shape of a handprint he left on me during the relationship. I do not think he should have a say in the decision about the baby because I intend to raise it without his help I do not intend on seeking child support or asking him to be involved in her life once she is born."
After I told my side of the story I was asked to sit down and then Gajeel was called up, he walked up with a bored look on his face and I knew then he wasn't taking this seriously. "Mr. Redfox, do you admit to causing harm to Ms. McGarden while you were in a relationship and making threats to harm her if she did not abort the baby?" My lawyer asked pacing in front of Gajeel at the stand, "I do, I don't want to have any responsibility to the baby and I don't want her to go through with having it and I think she should listen to me because I'm the father of the baby even if she doesn't want me to act as the father." My lawyer nodded and then asked, "Are you aware that you could be sent to juvenile prison for threatening harm to another individual, and then be transferred to prison upon your eighteenth birthday?" I watched his eyes get wide and then he got control of his emotions and he responded with a dull no.
After he was done at the stand Lucy was called up and asked to share what she witnessed. "I was there when Levy told Gajeel about the baby and he told her that he didn't want to have anything to do with her or the baby. That evening Gajeel texted me and asked me if Levy had listened to him and was going to abort the baby and he would know if she didn't. After Levy got the temporary restraining order Gajeel texted me again and said quote "That little bitch got a restraining order and now I have to go to court to defend myself, she better be glad she thought of that. I guess that means she is keeping the stupid baby too." End quote, after that I asked him to stop texting me about his problems with Levy because she is my best friend and I didn't like hearing him trash talk her."
Rogue was called up next and to be truthful I was worried about his testimony because he had actually attacked Gajeel for what he said. "The morning after Gajeel found out about the baby, I heard him bragging to his friend that he had told Levy that she better gets rid of the baby in our first period class." He said when he was asked to share, Gajeel's lawyer then stood up and asked, "And is it correct that you punched Mr. Redfox after hearing that?" Rogue nodded and said "Yes, my anger got the best of me and I did punch him in the face when I heard him say that." The lawyer nodded and said he didn't have anything else to ask Rogue.
After everyone shared, we had to wait for the judge to come to a decision but first we had to tell him the terms that we wanted on the restraining order. My lawyer stood up and began talking, "We want the restraining order to be on the terms of he can not contact Ms. McGarden or her mother, he cannot come within 100 yards of her, and he cannot see the baby once it is born." I heard a gasp come from Gajeel's mom at the last one and then my lawyer sat down and waited for the judge to tell us what he had decided on. The judge walked out and then it was just left with us and the security guards.
We waited ten minutes for the judge to come back to tell us his decision, and when he did, I began wringing my hands not able to wait to hear what he said. "I have decided to grant the restraining order against Mr. Redfox on the ground of threat of physical harm and abuse. Gajeel Redfox may not come within 100 yards of Levy McGarden after the hearing, and the child when it is born, and he may not contact her or her mother, this order will last for three years and may be renewed after that if necessary." He hit the gavel on the podium and then walked out. I was so relieved I broke down in tears and just cried, he couldn't hurt us now.
I felt arms wrap around me and looked up to see Rogue had come and was hugging me, I leaned into him and then I heard someone shout. "You're really going to date that bitch after you saw what she did to me?" I felt Rogue tense up, but I grabbed his hand and said, "Don't do anything, he can't hurt us anymore, he's just mad he didn't get his way." Rogue stayed tense but he didn't do anything, after a few minutes he let me go and stood up and asked if I was okay. "I'm much better now that its over and I know he can't get to me or Willow." Rogue gave me a small smile and then took my hand and I walked over to see Lucy.
"I'm happy for you Levy, I know that your going to feel safer now, and I'm also very happy for you and Rogue. I have been waiting for this for about four months!" I laughed at her and turned to see Rogue's face had turned red which made me laugh even harder. I looked over to see my mom was talking to Rogue's dad and walked over to hear what they were saying. "So, from the way Rogue says it we are going to be grandparents together, I hope everything works out for our two kids. This past week is the happiest I have seen Rogue, I'm happy he has found someone to make him happy." I giggled as Rogue groaned and then waited to hear what embarrassing thing my mom had to say about me. "Levy has been extremely happy too, she was never like this with Gajeel, of course I never approved of him anyway, and as we see Mama knows best." I shook my head and laughed at my mom, we all walked out of the courtroom and the lawyer walked over to us and handed me a stack of paper that I looked, and saw was a copy of the restraining order. We thanked him for everything and then he walked away.
I turned back to Rogue and asked, "So where is it that we are going?" He smiled and said, "I was going to ask my dad to take us to the river, we could get something to eat and have a picnic?" I grinned and told him that I thought it would be fun, so I hugged my mom bye and followed Rogue and his dad to the truck. Rogue helped me get in the truck because it was high and hard for me to get into being pregnant. I sat in the middle between him and his dad as we drove through town.
"I'm so glad that's over with, waiting to hear the results of that was so hard to handle. I didn't expect him to act like that after it though, I didn't think he would care." I said to Rogue as we drove to the river, his dad had stopped to get us lunch and he was going to drop us off and come back when Rogue let him know we were ready. "I kinda expected it, he has a bad temper every time I see him, he seemed angry." He wasn't wrong, I'm not sure what I saw in Gajeel at the time when I dated him. I wouldn't change it though because now I had Willow and I was so excited to meet her.
When we got to the river, we said bye to his dad and then started walking to find a place to sit and eat. I was a little nervous because I had never really been alone with him. Our parents were always there when we hung out even if they were in a different room. And now he wasn't just my friend, he was my boyfriend now, but I was so happy about that. We found a bench to sit on that had a nice view of the river too.
Rogue's POV
Dad had told me to just text him when we were ready to go and he would come get us, my house wasn't far from the river in town so he was just going to go home and get some work done while he waited for us. I was relieved with the outcome of the hearing and I wanted to take Levy out to celebrate being safe from Gajeel. Recently she has seemed really tense and on guard everywhere she went but now she seemed relaxed and at ease.
We sat down on the bench and ate our lunch in a comfortable silence, the weather was perfect for something like this and Levy really seemed happy to be away from everything. She had a constant smile on her face and ever so often she would rub her bump and smile bigger when I assumed Willow kicked. "Is she really active, like does she kick you a lot?" I asked after I finished eating, Levy looked over and nodded. "Sometimes she makes it hard to concentrate in class because she is so active, yesterday in second period she was seriously doing somersaults!" she seemed so happy talking about Willow, it made me feel happy too but there was still that fear of whether I was going to be able to take on the responsibility of being a dad for Willow.
"Levy, I just thought about something, I know this sounds crazy because we just got together yesterday, but how is it going to work me being her dad when we don't even live together?" I hadn't thought about that yesterday, but most parents live together when they raise a baby. I watched her face scrunch up in thought , "I haven't really thought about that either, I have already told my mom that I was talking to my teachers about doing my school work from home when she is born so that I don't have to go straight back to school for a couple months at least, but it may end up being a whole semester. But I don't expect you to do that, I doubt the teachers will let you since you're not her biological dad, maybe you can just come over after school?"
This was going to take a lot of thought and figuring out, I couldn't move in with them and wasn't sure I wanted to yet, I mean we had just started dating yesterday. I hadn't even kissed her yet, she was my first girlfriend, the only girl I have liked before her moved away before I could tell her how I felt last year. Minerva was the only girl I had really liked before Levy but when her mom died her dad moved away and obviously took her with him and we hadn't talked since.
"You know when we go back to school tomorrow Juvia is going to freak out, Lisanna probably will too, Lucy has already freaked out but I'm not sure she has stopped yet. She keeps texting me to ask how everything is going, I think she forgets that she also has a new relationship to maintain." Levy said, it seemed like she was trying to break the thoughtful silence. "Honestly her and Natsu have acted like a couple since they started high school, they have just finally gotten the title. Juvia will be jealous that Gray hasn't asked her out, he always complains about her clinginess in first period. I told him he needs to just tell her a yes or no and then it would get better."
"But if he tells her yes it might get worst because they will be dating, but at the same time if he tells her no it may also make it worst because she is so in love with him I'm not sure if she will take no for an answer." I laughed because Levy was right, I don't think Gray would ever escape Juvia, "The poor guy will probably never get away from Juvia. And you can never separate Sting and Yukino, they are attached to each other at the hip. Dad thinks they are going to get married as soon as they graduate, because they have been talking about it, but they are only juniors."
"Hey Levy, can I ask what happened to your dad?" I had never heard her talk about a dad and her mom never mentioned a dad either. "Oh, I'm actually adopted, my parents died when I was about six months old and I didn't have family willing to take me. I went into the system and about three months later mom adopted me because she lost her baby and her husband had left her because of it. She decided that she wasn't interested in getting married and decided to adopt a baby and that just happened to be me." She talked about it like it was nothing, every time I thought about my mom I got upset, it always arranged from mad, sad, or confusion. "I'm actually sorta adopted too, my dad is my biological dad, but my mom adopted me when she married dad, and dad adopted Sting when they got married. My biological mom didn't want me, but Dad did, so she gave birth and then left us, Dad met Mom not long after I was born and she had actually just had Sting about six months before meeting him and Stings dad passed away a week after he was born. And then they got married when I was three and Sting was four, and I have really only ever known her as my mom."
I watched her face turn to shock, not many people knew that Sting and I were only half brothers, which shocked me because we had different last names, it was obvious. "I had no clue, but now that I think of it it's pretty obvious since you have different last names." I chuckled and nodded, "Yea I'm not sure how no one realizes it, we don't even look alike. I mean he has always been like an actual brother to me but we both know the truth about everything, they told us at the end of middle school, so it is still pretty new to us." She nodded and then took my hand before talking. "I think that's part of why I can't stand the idea of not having her and keeping her, I lost my parents when I was little and I don't think I could ever put a child of mine through that."
We spent a couple hours at the river talking and just hanging out, getting to know each other, it was amazing. We had a great time but we had to go home to get ready for school tomorrow, the hearing had taken a while and so by the time my dad was on his way to pick us up it was five in the afternoon. When dad got there, I helped Levy get into the truck and got in behind her. I held her hand the whole way back to her house, it was crazy how much more comfortable I was with her after just a few hours with her. When we got to her house I got out and then helped her get out too, I walked her to the door and then looked back to see if my dad was watching, thankfully he wasn't. "I will see you tomorrow morning Lev, have a good night." I hugged her and then quickly gave her a kiss and then walked away.
I got in the truck and heard my dad chuckle, "I saw that you know" I put my face in my hands as it turned bright red. "Shut up dad." He started laughing and the started the truck to go home, the drive home was quiet, and I was thankful for that. My dad is a huge tease and he likes picking at Sting, Mom and I, I'm not sure where I got my seriousness from because in every other aspect I am exactly like my dad. He didn't keep his hair long like I did, he actually bugged me to cut mine a lot, but I liked it long and was not ready to cut it off.
When we got home, I went straight to my room because I knew Dad was going to tell everyone that I had kissed Levy and I would never hear the end of it. But I couldn't stay in there the whole night, I would eventually have to get food or go to the bathroom and someone would see me and say something. I somehow got through the night with minimal teasing, but I was just ready to go to school to see her again.
Levy's POV
My heart literally stopped; did he really just kiss me? He ran back to the truck as soon as he pulled away so I walked inside still in a state of shock, I couldn't believe that had happened. "Mom, I think Rogue just kissed me for the first time." I said walking into the living room, she turned around and gave me a confused look. "What do you mean you think? How can you think someone kissed you?" I sat down beside her and said "Well I am still in shock and disbelief that it actually happened so I'm honestly not sure that it actually happened. Can you pinch me?" My mom laughed at me and then slid over to me and said, "It happened sweetheart, I saw it. How is Willow doing with all the excitement?" My eyes widened at the first part of what she said and then I looked down at my belly, Willow had been pretty active today now that I thought about it.
Mom asked if I was hungry after teasing me about the kiss with Rogue, I told her I wasn't really, but I would eat if she made something. When she got up to cook, I went to my room to fold some of the clothes we had for Willow, Mom had mentioned a baby shower, but I wasn't really sure if I wanted to have one. I mean I would love all of the things for Willow but that was a lot of attention on me I wasn't sure I wanted. I didn't have very long before I needed to decide though, Lucy and mom wanted me to have one, and Juvia did too.
At dinner Mom brought up the shower and asked what I thought about it. "It would be really helpful, and fun I'm just worried about all the attention that would be on me. And I really don't want a lot of people touching my stomach, I already feel like a whale." My mom laughed at me and said, "We can have a sign at the door saying not to touch the belly without asking and a little attention on you is good every so often!"
Eventually Mom talked me into having the baby shower and she said it was going to be in a couple weeks. After dinner I texted Lucy and Rogue and said, "Mom has convinced me to have a baby shower, I'm going to die." Lucy then called me to talk my ear off about the baby shower, we talked for about an hour and then I told her that I was going to go to bed early because I had been getting less sleep recently because of Willow.
