Chapter 80

It was nearly midnight when loud knocks woke Gajeel and Levy. Gajeel was out of bed instantly, knowing there were only a few reasons anyone would be disturbing them this late at night. He gave Levy a firm look, silently telling her to stay in bed, as he grabbed his pistol and tucked it into the elastic band of the sweatpants he usually wore to bed. He didn't bother putting a shirt on, knowing that this was urgent and needed his immediate attention. Igneel and Natsu were at his door, both fully dressed and wide awake.

"Boss, we got him." Natsu spoke first.

"Got who?"

"The traitor. Killer is still on the loose." Igneel supplied. "It was one of the guys that joined with that merger... from the McGarden family."

"What?!" Gajeel growled. "Who?" Dammit, it had better not be Jet or Droy. As much as he disliked them, he knew it would crush his wife if he had to kill one of them. And he didn't think they were stupid enough to cross him like this.

"Not who you're thinking, boss. Don't worry." Natsu said, knowing what Gajeel was thinking. He, too, was glad it wasn't Jet or Droy. They weren't bad people; they'd just made mistakes. "I've never met this guy. He worked in communications under Jet and Droy, and was switched over to guard duty for the safe house. We think he got information from our computers there."

"Shit." Gajeel sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Natsu, go get those two idiots and bring them here. I don't think they had anything to do with this, but we need to be sure." Natsu nodded and hurried off to do as ordered, and Gajeel looked to Igneel. "Get any information from this guy?"

"He's been silent since we got him to the mansion. Gray is working on an interrogation, but he's not talking."

"How'd ya get him?"

"Put up a new security system in all the family's computers. A silent alarm was tripped when access codes were overridden instead of put in. Found the guy in the safe house, still looking up targets." Igneel explained, and Gajeel realized he didn't give the man enough credit. That was an extremely brilliant move. "Gildarts is on his way. So's yer father."

"Alright. Go keep an eye on him. I'm gonna get dressed." Gajeel sighed, dismissing Igneel. He returned to the bedroom and went straight for the closet, ignoring Levy's questioning look in favor of getting dressed. He made sure to put on a suit he didn't mind getting dirty, because it was very likely he was going to take over the interrogation once he got down to the basement.

"Gajeel?" Levy asked quietly when he finished dressing. He walked back to their bed and sat down next to his wife. She looked worried, and he figured she probably heard him sounding angry when he was talking to Natsu and Igneel. She likely didn't hear the conversation, otherwise she would have said something about Jet and Droy by now.

"Shrimp, try to get some more sleep, okay? I'm gonna send Lily to watch after ya for a while."

"But..."

"Just go to sleep. Please. I'll tell ya what's going on in the morning." He sighed softly, leaning down to press a gentle kiss to her lips. She bit her lip after the kiss and gave a slow nod. He smiled lightly at this and pressed another kiss to her temple before he stood and left. He dialed Lily's number as he walked towards the basement, and told him to go watch Levy for a few hours. Don't let her leave the suite, just in case. Lily said he'd be there in a few minutes. Luckily he lived in the mansion, with his own suite closer to the guard barracks. Gajeel could rest easy knowing his wife and unborn daughter would be safe while he was taking care of business.

"Lily, do you know what's going on?" Levy asked, hurrying towards him when he entered the suite. She'd been unable to go back to sleep, and had decided to make some tea. She had a cute pink kimono-style robe on over her nightgown, and she'd barely been able to tie it shut due to her growing belly. Her hair was a mess and she looked sleep and very worried. This wasn't the first time Gajeel had left in the middle of the night, but it was the first time someone had come to their suite specifically to get him. Usually, it was a phone call that pulled him away... but tonight it was far too urgent to bother using a phone.

"No idea." Lily sighed, giving the worried woman a gentle hug. "But Gajeel sounded calm on the phone. Everything is probably alright. Please try to relax. It's not good for the baby if you're stressing out." He gently urged her to sit on the couch, helping her sit down when she struggled a bit. "Do you need anything?"

"Could you grab my tea off the counter please?" Levy gave a tiny smile to him. "I made some coffee for you. It should be done brewing soon."

"Ah, thank you." Lily smiled, moving to fetch her tea for her. He noticed it was chamomile, and he chuckled a bit. "Having trouble sleeping?"

"Well of course. Gajeel up and leaves in the middle of the night, sounding angry and not telling me what's going on... how can I sleep after that?" She sighed heavily, accepting the cup from him. He moved to make himself a cup of coffee, knowing it was going to be a few hours before Gajeel returned.

"He was angry? What about?"

"I don't know. I couldn't hear what he was saying, just the tone of his voice." Levy frowned. She'd tried to listen in on the conversation, but she had struggled getting out of bed. The conversation ended just as she got out of bed, and she decided to return to bed before Gajeel returned to the room. She sighed softly as she thought about it. She wanted to know what was going on, and he would usually just tell her. But this time he hadn't told her. Maybe it was just because it was urgent? He didn't have time to explain? She hoped that's all it was. She'd hate it if he started to hide things from her again 'for her safety.' She thought they were well past that. She was definitely in too deep to not know what was going on.

"I'm sure everything's fine." Lily tried to assure her. "Perhaps something urgent came up, but I don't think there is anything to worry about."

"I hope not." she sighed, taking a sip of her tea. "I'm going to stay up for him."

"Levy, you should really sleep." Lily tried to urge but she waved him off.

"I'm fine. I can't sleep, even if I wanted to. The baby's kicking my ribs." she huffed a bit, rubbing her stomach. "I'll be fine, Lily. I just... want to wait for him."

Gajeel returned to the suite several hours later, tired and covered in blood after 'interrogating' the traitor. He ended up being the only guy to not get the memo when McGarden and Fairy Tail merged: skip town or join Fairy Tail. He didn't know he had the choice, and was extremely resentful of that. He was trying to undermine Fairy Tail's authority and power in an attempt to seek revenge. He was good at hacking, and found suitable targets, but he didn't have the balls to actually go after the targets he found. Apparently, he had this in his head for a good while but couldn't actually do anything about it. And then he was approached by a stranger, who had been watching him for a while. They teamed up for this.

The traitor revealed that much. But damn it all, he refused to say who the actual killer was. Or if the killer knew about any more targets. Gajeel had beaten him within an inch of his life when he realized he wouldn't be getting the info he needed.

Gajeel partially blamed Jet and Droy for this. It was their responsibility to communicate with their family, when the merger was going on, after all. But, to be fair, they did announce it at a big family gathering where every member was required to show up. The guy either didn't attend or didn't pay attention and, since very few people chose not to join Fairy Tail, nobody really talked about the choice.

The Don had since ordered that every former McGarden family member be interviewed to make sure they understood they weren't being forced to stay. Luckily, Gajeel made sure that these members didn't have much access to sensitive information. The ones that did had already been interviewed by Gajeel, himself, and put through training. The rest? Well, they had guard access at most.

As for the traitor... well, obviously, he was going to die. A slow and painful death. With every victim's family watching... no, with the whole family watching, maybe? Gajeel was still trying to decide how to do it. It was a traitor, and he wanted to make an example of him... but he didn't want the family to fear him like that. They would fear that any small infraction would be seen as treachery. Gajeel didn't want that. Perhaps just the victims' families, after all.

But nothing like that would happen until they found the killer. That was Fairy Tail's top priority now.

Lily nodded at him when he walked into the living room. Gajeel nodded back, before spotting his wife sleeping on the couch. He raised a brow at Lily.

"She wanted to wait for you. I couldn't convince her to go back to bed." Lily sighed softly, shaking his head as he looked at the sleeping Levy. He'd tried several times to get her to bed, but she was a very stubborn woman.

"Sounds like something she'd do." Gajeel sighed, knowing she'd likely been worried since he left. And his wife was nothing, if not stubborn. "I got it from here, Lil. Go sleep."

"Yes, sir." Lily said in relief. He was exhausted. He nodded once more to Gajeel before leaving to catch up on his sleep. Gajeel waited until he was gone before walking over to where Levy was sleeping.

"Shrimp, that doesn't look comfortable at all." he sighed softly, knowing she was likely to have a pain in her neck the next morning because she was using the armrest as a pillow. He reached out and gently scooped his pregnant wife up into his arms. Even with the added weight of the baby, she was still quite light in his arms, and he carried her with ease. She whined cutely at being disturbed but didn't wake up as he carried her back to bed. He made sure she was comfortable in bed before heading to take a shower. He needed to get all this dried blood off.

Mavis, the blood was caked on pretty good. Gajeel was scrubbing at his arm when he heard his little wife step into the bathroom, having woken up after hearing the shower start. He turned an unamused stare to her when she opened the shower door.

"Levy, go back to sleep." he frowned at her. She looked so tired, and he just wanted her to get some rest. But she shook her head defiantly, looking him over. He didn't bother trying to hide all the blood on his hands, which he was trying to scrub off. She was used to it by now, and it no longer scared her. She was just glad none of the blood was his.

"Can I join?" she asked quietly. Gajeel just sighed softly and nodded. If she wasn't going to sleep, she might as well join. She quickly pulled off her nightgown and got into the shower with him, and he couldn't help but stare at her with soft eyes as he looked her over. She was quite heavily pregnant now, in the middle of her sixth month. Her very round stomach got in the way a lot, but he absolutely loved it. He couldn't wait to meet their little girl... and seeing her like this only reminded him of how important it was to keep her safe, especially with this killer still on the loose.

Levy took his hand after a few minutes, and started helping him scrub all the blood away. They were silent as they both worked on getting rid of all the blood. When it was all gone, Levy looked up at her husband, her eyes asking the question she didn't need to voice. What happened?

"We had another traitor." Gajeel sighed softly, pulling his wife into his arms. "He was working with the serial killer we've been trying to catch. Caught the traitor, but the killer's still on the loose."

"Maybe the traitor being caught will scare the killer off?" Levy questioned hopefully. The whole city has been scared since this killer came around. Very few people knew the victims were part of Fairy Tail, so the entire city, basically, was on lock-down.

"Don't want him to run off." Gajeel said quietly. "We need ta kill him. Or he's just gonna keep killing people. If not here, then elsewhere." Levy nodded somberly at this. She'd not thought of that. "I'm workin on it, shrimp. Don't worry." he promised, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "We'll get him. I swear."

I don't have much to say for this chapter, but I hope you guys liked it! I'm trying to get back into the M/TH updates, but I still don't have enough chapters written in advance. That said, today is my last day of work for the summer, and I have a week to myself before I move back to school... so keep your fingers crossed and ask for my muse to return to me next week lol.

Thanks for reading! Please tell me what you think! Getting 3 comments on my return is a bit disheartening. I know some of you probably just didn't know I came back, but still...

-Nerdy12