Resubmitted: Had two issues with double paragraphs. I think it's all in order now.
The morning Juvia was due to return from her mission Laxus sat at a table with Freed in the guild, although his teammate had been talking Laxus found himself ignoring him to eavesdrop as Juvia and Gajeel arrived.
"Is everything okay," Levy kissed Gajeel and looked over at Juvia concerned as she sluggishly moved toward them, looking a bit pale.
"I had to pick up this one's slack on the mission," he griped, gesturing toward her "I don't know what is going on with you rain woman, but you were rocking it out the last few jobs and then you were almost completely useless this time around, and I aint buying that you're only tired."
Juvia looked toward him, but more past him, both Levy and Gajeel reacted at the same time as the water mage dropped. Gajeel caught her and lowered her to the floor, Mira rushed to throw some ice in a towel and hurried over, "What happened? Did she get hurt?" Most of the others in the guild had risen from seats and moved closer, trying to see what had happened but Laxus couldn't see past the crowd.
"I don't know, I was just talking to her and she got kinda glazed over and went down," Gajeel explained, "the entire mission she seemed kinda off, but she kept saying she was fine and just tired."
Kinana called out from behind the bar, "We have Porlyusica on the way, Mest went to grab her."
Mira placed the ice on Juvia's head as they waited the impossibly long minute until Mest teleported back in with the old woman. "What is it?" the woman snapped in her usual grumpy demeanor.
"We aren't sure she just passed out, they just walked in from a mission," Levy said, "Gajeel said she was feeling tired and not acting herself."
"Hm, I need you to move her to the infirmary," the woman said making her way in that direction. Gajeel scooped her up from the floor and walked carefully behind Porlyusica, Laxus peered over as they passed and he saw a pale and sickly looking Juvia, her lips look chapped and slight dark circles shadowed her eyes.
Freed turned to continue their prior conversation but saw Laxus looking uninterested so they sat in silence. Laxus waited at the table with Freed, he wanted to hear what the diagnosis was for Juvia but the time ticked by incredibly slowly. After what seemed like forever he heard an angry Gajeel shouting and being forced from the room followed by his angry wife, "Gajeel she kicked you out because you couldn't calm down, and yelling at her does not help anyone," Levy scolded.
"Well she's a quack, ain't no way in hell she is right so get a real doctor in here," Gajeel fumed and paced as he continued to yell.
Mira calmly walked over and asked, "is she okay? What did Porlyusica say?"
Levy gave a meek smile knowing Gajeel was about to erupt again, he growled and murmured, "Says it's exhaustion and dehydration, that could be, but she says Ameonna's pregnant and that ain't even possible." What had been nothing more than a whisper across the room hit Laxus harder than any other possible words.
Laxus struggled to swallow the drink he just took, knowing it wasn't impossible and also knowing that bringing that up at this moment would probably cause a riot. Thoughts rolled through his head as he contemplated what to do at this point, If the old hag was right Juvia was sick because of a pregnancy that neither of them planned on, he knew he had to speak to Juvia when she woke up but getting in that room without raising too many eyebrows might prove difficult.
Suddenly and idea emerged from the pandemonium in his brain, "Hey Freed, I need a favor."
"What's that?" he asked.
Laxus waited as Freed hung out across the room between the job board and the hallway to the infirmary, after about ten minutes he nodded to Laxus signaling that he was done. Wakaba stood and smacked a rune wall, turned and went straight into another, as guild members stood one by one chaos erupted as they were all trapped in invisible boxes like a bunch of street mimes. Crossing the room quickly and as stealthily as possible he walked into the hallway and straight to the infirmary door, Turning, Gajeel looked for Freed to pummel him until he took down the walls but he was already long gone.
…
In the infirmary Juvia laid in the bed looking slightly better than she had when he last saw her, Porlyusica scowled at him from across the room, "is another dragon slayer here to yell at me and tell me I am wrong?"
"No." Laxus sat next to Juvia, "I'm here to say you're probably right."
"Oh?" she asked, curious, "and why is that?"
"Because if she is, then it's my kid." He said solemnly.
Being so focused on Juvia he almost hadn't heard Makarov come in, he hadn't hit a rune barrier coming from his office on the other side of the infirmary, the door clicked closed softly and Laxus turned to look at him, "Hey Gramps."
"Laxus?" he asked confused to his grandson's presence there.
"Or should I say Great-Gramps?" he joked softly, unsure of how else to process the situation.
"Oh?" Makarov looked between Laxus and the sleeping Juvia, "so you are the one? I can't say I would have expected that, I assumed Gray would be in here instead of you." Walking forward he put a hand on Laxus's shoulder, "and how are you handling that?"
"I can't say I know yet. I just want her to wake up so I can talk to her." Laxus admitted.
Makarov gave a nod, "I think you're getting that chance," motioning toward Juvia, her eyelids fluttered and she groaned softly.
Laxus watched Juvia as she woke, although still pale and tired she smiled faintly. Porlyusica approached and looked the girl over once more, explaining the situation. "Child, you seem to have passed out returning from your mission, I have looked you over as best I can and you have no substantial injuries from the mission and your ailments seem to come from dehydration and exhaustion. Are you eating and drinking normally?'
Laxus heard her heartrate raise suddenly as she stammered about not being able to eat much lately. He noted her nerves and realized she must be worried about what he would say to her. He held up a hand to stop the old woman from talking and looked to Juvia, "before she finishes this conversation with you, I am going to tell you I am in here because I already know what she is going to say, it's fine just answer her honestly."
Juvia stammered, "yo-you know? I guess I was right then. I wasn't sure before I went on my mission, I was just late, I felt crummy the first day but the second day was awful, by the fourth day my water attacks wouldn't hardly work and Gajeel was so angry with me…" she trailed off with a soft sob.
Porlyusica spoke harshly, "If I can finish now? As you suspected you are with child, your inability to eat or drink normally caused you to be ill and dehydrated you, therefore your water magic was inaccurate and subpar." Pointing to a nasty green pasty drink she continued, "if you take the proper precautions, we can keep symptoms under control and you shouldn't have this problem again, although I would suggest not going on any further missions for your safety, being a water mage puts you at a disadvantage during pregnancy with easily becoming dehydrated, but I also do not know how your water body form would impact the situation you would be wise to avoid all magic for the time being."
Juvia began to cry, "I'm so sorry." Laxus turned to her looking puzzled, "I didn't know and now you are sitting here seeing how badly I have messed things up."
"No." he spoke sharply but remained calm, "I am just as responsible for this, we weren't careful and here we are. We'll do what we gotta do, whatever than means, I never really planned on the kid thing."
"Well," taking a deep breath, "I will just end the pregnancy then."
"No." He gave a stern look, "you aren't doing that on a whim, this is a decision that you can make if you really want to, but really I don't think you want to do that," he did his best to be supportive despite him feeling panicked at the moment.
"I can't work as a mage," she began rambling again, "we weren't even dating, it was just…it wasn't supposed to be like this."
"But it is," he had no idea how he sounded so together and confident when his world was falling apart. "We don't have to figure it all out sitting here, we have some time." Glancing over his shoulder at his grandfather, "Can we find something for her to do in the guild for now?"
"I believe that would be possible," Makarov answered, giving a smile, "you wouldn't be the first person unable to use magic here inside the guild."
"Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yes." Makarov smiled. "You should take your time talking this over, but know that you will be supported here, you're family."
Laxus cleared his throat, "Unfortunately going to have to deal with the raging metal head out there, he'll want to kill me and possibly you." She laughed weakly, "now hook the mom-to-be up with all those nasty looking green drinks so she can survive this thing and then we can get her out of here."
Porlyusica murmured under her breath about dumb humans as Makarov approached his grandson, "You did well Laxus, although the situation may not be ideal you are stepping up to take responsibility."
After Juvia cleaned up and took her concoction to calm her nausea Laxus followed her out to the main hall, Laxus called Freed via lacrima to disable the rune barrier just before they emerged, Gajeel sat grumpily just outside the hallway and rose to his feet as they approached.
"What the hell were you thinking being a jerk and locking me out of the infirmary you son of a bitch?" Gajeel screamed.
Juvia looked back at Laxus and he shrugged, "I didn't want to be interrupted."
"What's the verdict Ameonna," Gajeel demanded.
"Can I do anything to help, Juvia?" Gray came toward Juvia causing Laxus to bristle.
"You can leave her alone," he snapped.
"Who the hell are you talking to, no one asked you," Gray snarled back.
"I am telling you what she needs," Laxus leaned toward Gray.
"Stop, both of you." Juvia said, "He's right, I need rest right now. I am exhausted."
Gray and Laxus both pull out chairs, Juvia turns to sit in the one Laxus is still holding on to.
"What the actual hell is going on here, why is Laxus even here?" Gray looked around confused as Gajeel waited for his opportunity to break into the hectic conversation.
"The question is, Frosty, why are you here?" Laxus raised his voice again, "I have every right to be here."
"NO. You don't" Gray rebuked.
"Yes," Juvia said softly, "he does, because we're having a baby."
"There's no way, you told me just last week that you weren't dating anyone, did you lie to me?" Gray questioned.
"Turns out that isn't a requirement," Laxus stated.
"How long has this been going on?" Gray snapped.
Juvia looked up at Laxus before answering, "since shortly before Alzack and Bisca's anniversary party."
Gray wavered, "Holy shit, that was three months ago. You were leading me on?"
Laxus boomed, "NO. She didn't. I heard her turn you down time after time, now if you don't say you led her on before then you can't possibly say she did to you. Now, I need to sit down and talk to the mother of my child who is nothing to you- and then you're gonna calm down and leave her alone because you missed your chance, no CHANCES. She is entirely too good for you and I know that because she's too good for me too, but I am better than you because you were an asshole to her for years." With that he took Juvia's hand and turned to Gajeel, "we have some things to figure out, but you should come by and talk in a while." Heading out the door together they left their guildmates staring at a furious Gray and trying to piece together the events that exploded in front of them.