A/N: I don't want to throw off the ending by having an author's note, so everything is gonna be up here. Thank you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following. I loved seeing the reviews from the last chapter! I think I got four of them, which if I'm not mistaken, is the most amount of reviews I've gotten on one chapter in Togetherness. I hope you like this chapter, because like I said, I started working on this one back in chapter four or five. It's been in the works and edited again and again, so I worked hard on this one.

Again, thank you!

Three weeks. It had been three weeks since Fairy Tail had seen Gray, at least the real Gray.

They'd seen him come into the guild two other times since the day of the appointment, but each time had been much the same. He came in, acknowledged nothing, grabbed the first job he saw, and left again.

They'd tried to talk to Juvia, but she wouldn't tell them anything, either. She was still speaking of course, making small talk and putting on a happy facade, but they could tell she was hurting, and badly. Every time they came to visit, they could easily tell she'd been crying, what with her red, puffy eyes and the salt that Natsu could smell strongly. They wanted to ask if she had seen Gray at all, but they could tell she hadn't. The couple had spent these last three weeks isolated from one another. Obviously, no one could tell what Gray wanted, but Juvia desperately wanted her husband back. Hanging over the Fullbuster house was a cloud of grief and depression.

Porlyusica was also silent, because "this is between Gray and Juvia", although they could sense just a tiny bit of sadness and even regret from the usually just angry woman. Wendy had found out, too. Porlyusica had actually told her, unsurprisingly. Wendy wouldn't tell the rest of them what the problem was, either, though, for the same reason as Porlyusica. The poor girl felt unbelievably guilty and distraught about the situation and had been spending a lot of time with Juvia. The rest of the guild didn't know what they got up to, but they seemed to be helping each other.

Everyone had the same suspicion, of course, as to what had caused all this grief, but no one dared speak it aloud. Everyone desperately wished that what they were all thinking was not true. It couldn't be true! No parents should have to suffer through pain like this!

Lucy and Natsu were particularly affected, as well. Every time the parents looked at their beautiful daughter, they inadvertently imagined what it had to feel like going through what Juvia and Gray most certainly were, and every time the thought ran through their heads, they had to desperately hug their precious baby as well as each other.

The guild hall grew a bit quieter as the front doors slammed open and then shut again. The chill came again and the guild knew who it was. Gray had come back for the third time since the appointment. Would this be the time he stopped ignoring everyone and everything?

Gray didn't look at anyone, answering everyone's internal question. He just silently and darkly walked to the request board like every other time and barely spared a glance to a flyer before grabbing it and heading back out the door.

Lucy couldn't help but be saddened even more as she watched it. Nobody could. Gray had been acting like this for the past three weeks. Distant, cold, and not the man they knew.

Natsu grit his teeth. "So we're just gonna let him keep being his stupid self?"

"Natsu..." Erza warned.

"Don't you 'Natsu' me! You know he's being an idiot!"

"Natsu, he's working through something," Lucy remarked as she adjusted Layla's bottle. They didn't know for sure what Gray was dealing with, even if they had a clear idea, but they would've been stupid to not recognize his behavior from other difficult times in his life.

"Yeah, and he's leaving Juvia alone in the meantime. She still didn't say anything last time, but you and I both know she's hurting!" Natsu shouted.

Levy sighed. "But there's nothing we can do."

"I can go knock some sense into his thick head!"

Erza shot him a glare. "No, you cannot. We need to let him alone to figure this out."

Natsu scoffed. "Fuck that. I'm done with that." And before anyone could stop him, he was out the door.

It didn't take long for his nose to track the ice mage down. "Gray." Natsu said, trying not to let his anger seep through. The addressee didn't respond and continued his brisk walk away.

"Gray." Natsu repeated, letting a little emotion through. When Gray still did nothing, Natsu decided he was done playing games and made sure that Gray knew of Natsu's rage. He yelled to the stubborn ice mage, "Gray, damn it, stop walking and start talking!"

Gray paused for the slightest moment, then continued walking again. Natsu moved forward and grabbed Gray's shoulder. "What the hell happened, Gray!?" Gray tried to yank his shoulder loose from the dragon slayer's grip, and when Natsu responded by gripping even harder, Gray threw a punch backwards to his rival's face. Natsu caught his wrist.

The ice mage scoffed. "You guys just don't know how to let things alone, do you?" he said quietly, the first words he'd said to any of his guild mates in weeks.

Natsu was just about seething. "No, we don't! Because we're Fairy Tail and we don't let anyone in our family take on pain by themselves! So, what the hell happened!?"

"Nothing happened!"

"Gray, you and I both know that something happened at that last check-up! You've always been an ass, but these last few weeks, you've been worse than usual! You've ignored all of us! You haven't even thrown any punches other than the one from a few moments ago! You've just been coming in, grabbing the first job you see, and leaving again!"

"Just leave me the fuck alone."

Natsu ignored him. "But that's not the worst thing you've done since this started! The worst thing you've done is abandon Juv-"

"Shut the fuck up."

"Damn it, Gray! You shouldn't leave your family alone! I don't care what happened-"

"GOLD DIED, GODDAMNIT! HAPPY NOW!?" Gray whipped around and punched his rival in the chest, needing something to hit. Natsu fought his instinct to punch back. He couldn't see Gray's eyes, but he could smell the bitter, salty tears about to stream down his cheeks. Gray lifted his fist to punch again, but then he let the clenched fist fall to his side. He released his fingers from their own trap and seemed calm for a moment, but that moment was gone in an instant. He turned to a nearby wall and sent his pent-up anger towards it in the form of a fist. Cracks formed on the wall, but neither boy could muster any care for the damage. Gray punched the wall again, and screamed out, "It's not fair!" He leaned his head against the wall as a feeling of defeat overpowered him. He pounded again, more lightly, as silent sobs racked his body. Through gritted teeth, he repeated in a small voice, "It's just not fair."

Natsu stood in silence. It was all he could do right now. He couldn't feel surprise at the news. It was the only logical reason they could think of to explain Gray's and Juvia's behavior, not to mention Wendy's and Porlyusica's.

"Why?" Gray finally asked no one in particular, half a shout and half a whisper. "Lucy's pregnancy went by without a hitch! Apparently the world could only have one happy pregnant lady and one happy baby at a time!"

Now Natsu was annoyed. He knew that Gray was frustrated, but that was no reason to basically blame Natsu's wife and child for his problem. "Lucy and Layla have nothing to do with this," he said, still trying to distill as much of his anger as possible.

Gray threw his fist into the wall again. "What was I thinking!? Of course it's not your girls' fault! I probably didn't take good enough care of her! Or fucking karma's decided to fucking show up and is punishing me for being a damned fool and pushing her away for the first several years we knew each other! I hurt her! I don't deserve her, a child, a family! All I do is hurt them! It's my fault! I'm to blam-"

Natsu whacked Gray in the back of the head. "Wake the hell up, Gray! It's not your fault! It's not anyone's damned fault! Stop being such a Goddamn... fucking... Idiot!" Gray turned around and tried to punch Natsu in the head, but Natsu caught his fist in his hand. "Look at me, Gray!" Gray hadn't even realized that he was looking down, but now that he knew it, he didn't want to look up. "Look at me!" Gray begrudgingly looked up to see his rival's furious face. He actually cowered a little at the look. "You listen to me! I know it has to hurt, losing Gold like that! I can't even imagine the pain you must be feeling! But did you even think about the pain that Juvia's feeling!? She's lost her child and her idiot fucking husband!"

"What the hell are you talking about!? I'm right here!"

"Yeah! Right here, trying to leave on another damn mission! You're abandoning her!"

"I'm not abandoning her! I'm just...!"

"You're just leaving her to deal with the loss by herself! Did you ever fucking think about her before you decided to skip town and run off on fucking missions!? Gray, she misses you! She wants you home! We've been trying to help her how we can, but she wants her damn husband! She wants the goddamn love of her fucking life! A bunch of us are trying to help but we can't! None of us can really help her get through this! None of us have ever lost a child before even getting to meet them! You two need to help each other get past the grief!"

Gray was no longer angry, but his face was almost more tense as he finally broke out into the streams of tears. Natsu had never seen Gray cry so openly and it only made him feel even worse for his friend and even more thankful that Layla was perfectly healthy and that nothing had gone wrong. "I... I can't, Natsu! I'm just not strong enough! I can't!"

"Gray, what do you think I've been trying to tell you!? Of course you aren't strong enough! That's why you have to go back home and talk to Juvia!"

Gray squeezed his eyes shut, no longer able to look Natsu in the eyes before rubbing frustratingly at them, the tears continuously flooding them. "I-I'm sorry..."

"Don't waste your time apologizing to me! Go apologize to your wife! Deal with the heartache together!" Gray punched Natsu in the chest, this time in a more brotherly and thankful manner, and in the next second, he was darting in the direction of he and Juvia's house.