A/N: Hey Hey peeps, sorry it's been so long but life has been happening with job hunting in all...you know adult stuff. lol Anyway sorry for taking forever to update, but i'm going to try and post as often as i can but please be patient with me. Anyway here's Chapter 8 and i hope you like it. ;-}
Phoenix slowly opened her eyes, her lids feeling almost as heavy as rocks at the moment. She blinked a few times, her vision still blurry before it became clear and she saw Gajeel asleep himself in a chair next to her, not that she knew who he was. She hesitated as she slowly sat up in the bed she was in looking, at herself making sure she was ok. From what she could see on herself she was perfectly fine overall, but she did feel a slight lingering pain all over her entire body. She then focused on her surroundings. She looked like she might be in a motel room, she didn't seem to be restrained and the mysterious man in the chair beside her didn't look like he had hurt her, but he did look a bit on the...scary said to her. She was about to get out of bed and leave the room, but something in her gut told her to wake him up, but instead she shook it off and slowly got out of the bed, but a sharp pain quickly hit her, like a knife to the chest making her gasp lightly as she placed her hand on her chest and squeezed her eyes shut.
Taking a deep breath and a moment to compose herself she once again looked at the man asleep in the chair and this time decided to go with her gut feeling. Slowly and hesitantly she reached forward and put her hand on his arm and shook it gently. He made a light grunt, which made her quickly pull her hand back as he slowly opened his eyes revealing their bright red color. He blinked a few times and then looked at her sitting on the bed.
"Phoenix?" he said sleep still in his voice "you're awake."
"Um...yeah." she said nodding as she cautiously looked at him "how...do you know my name?"
He looked at her surprised for a moment before nodding to himself almost a reminder.
"That's right...you don't know who I am right now." he said as he stood up from his seat and she jumped a bit moving back onto the bed as she looked up at him one of her fists clenched as if ready to fight, but he held a hand up in surrender.
"I can help you remember. I promise I won't hurt you." he said, a slight tinge in his heart that she looked at him at the moment like he was an enemy or a bad person "will you let me help you?"
She looked at him, but slowly nodded. With her confirmation he slowly reached his hand out to place it over her ear, which made her flinch a bit, but she let him anyway. When he settled his hand over her ear he just looked at her seeing that intense gaze before it slowly turned into the soft one he always remembered her giving him, only this time with a slight frown.
"Hi Gajeel." she said as she reached up and grabbed his hand pulling it away from her ear. She hung her head a bit just looking at his hand as she held it, her touch soft to his sending warmth and comfort to him as the Phoenix he knew sat before him "guess I forgot about you again huh?"
"It's all right." he simply said as she let go of his hand
"I know...you'd think I would have gotten used to this by now." she said looking out the window next to the bed she was in "being that this happens to me almost all the time."
He didn't know what to say to that and just opted for being silent as he looked down at her. She simply sighed and then turned her attention back to him with a gentle smile. "Well, no point in dwelling on that, at least I remember who you are now. So...where is everyone else?" she asked
"Lucy, Erza, Wendy and Carla left about an hour ago to get breakfast. Same with Natsu, Gray and Happy." Gajeel said sitting back down in the chair he was in.
"Why didn't you go?" she asked him
"I didn't want to leave you alone." he said blushing slightly as he rubbed the back of his head "someone had to keep an eye on you and make sure you were all right. You've been out for the past few days so-"
"Past few days?!" Phoenix said surprised "how many days?"
"...about 3." he said looking at her
"Oh my God." she said thinking to herself as she sighed and shook her head "that's never happened to me before.
"Yeah...I know." Gajeel said and they were both silent before she slowly got out of bed "Where are you going?"
"To brush my teeth and then go get breakfast." she said happily
"Phoenix you're not doing well, you should be in bed resting." he said
"I've been in bed asleep for 3 days Gajeel." she laughed "I think i've gotten enough rest...now...where's my bag?"
She looked around before spotting in on the floor in the corner and grabbing it and going into the bathroom.
"Phoenix-" Gajeel began annoyed as he followed her.
"He's lying to himself if he thinks otherwise." Gray said looking at everyone at the table as they ate, Lucy mainly messing with her food instead of eating it.
"Oh come on, we can't give up yet." Natsu said looking at everyone at the table "There's got to be something...anything!"
"Natsu-" Erza began
"We couldn't have come all this way for nothing!"
"Enough Natsu!" Erza scolded making him gasp as he looked at her "you too?!"
"That's enough Natsu! Isn't it clear to you yet?!" she said with slight anger "Phoenix has been doing nothing but humoring us this whole time!"
"H-humoring us?" Natsu asked confused and then looked at Lucy when he heard her make a whimper like sound
Gray just closed his eyes, not wanting to look at Erza or listen for that matter to what she was about to say.
"She didn't come on this journey actually looking for help...she did it because she knew we wanted to, because Gajeel wanted to...because we were the ones hopeful in finding something that would help her!" Erza said standing from the table keeping her serious expression on as she looked at Natsu, his own expression changing to that of hurt as Erza used all her will power to hold back the lump in her throat. "Do you understand what i'm trying to say Natsu?"
He went to say something till voice interrupted his train of thought, and he looked seeing Phoenix walking into the dining area they were in, Gajeel not far behind her.
"What am I saying that's so wrong?!" Gajeel asked "and I wish you would just understand that."
"I just want to go back to Fiore, Gajeel." She said till he grabbed her arm stopping her from walking, making her gasp lightly and turn to him.
"And i think we should keep looking for someone to help you!" he said "That was the plan remember?!...we already tried Fiore, there's no one there who can help!"
Phoenix looked at him and just shook her head as she hung it "Please...let's just go back."
"No!" he said sternly "I'm not giving up on this!"
"It's over Gajeel!" Phoenix said looking up at him, silencing him by her sudden outburst "It's done...it's been done for years. It's been done since this whole damn thing started!"
"What do you mean?" he asked
"There is no help for me-" she said closing her eyes "Before ending up in Fiore I spent all those years looking for help. Going to doctors, getting the same answer over and over again and yet...I felt like I was never finding what I was really looking for. The news the doctors gave me didn't come as a surprise to me, but I still felt like that wasn't what I was looking for to begin with. When I made it to Fiore...and found you again-" she paused as a light smile made its way onto her face "I was so happy!...I felt like I found my cure. I felt like I found what I had been searching for all this time!"
Gajeel stood there frozen as he watched her speak. She had been looking for him, this whole time. Without even realizing it and yet he had stopped long ago after they had separated.
"I was never trying to look for a cure Gajeel because there's isn't one!...I gave up on that years ago...what I was looking for was comfort in the little bit of time I had left! I was looking for you! I didn't realize it then, but I realize it now! I just want to be with you for whatever time I have left."
"But...you said you wanted to look for help-"
"That's what I thought to, till I found you...and then you wanted to go and look for a cure. A-and then Natsu, Gray, Lucy...and Erza...and Wendy wanted to help too even after you asked them. You gave me a slight glimmer of hope that maybe there was something out there, but I knew in my heart there wasn't...and yet still I tried to be as hopeful as all of you, but the truth is I didn't want to hurt any of them...or you by telling you I gave up on this a while ago."
"But maybe there is, Phoenix...maybe we're just not looking hard enough or seeing the right people-" Gajeel said in somewhat of an angry tone and yet pleading at the same time
"No there isn't, Gajeel!" She snapped "Just stop...Please! I'm dying...There's nothing that can be done about it! It's. Over...don't make this harder than it has to be."
Gajeel felt like his heart had stopped, everything in his body tensed. He wasn't even looking at her anymore, but at the ground. Everything felt so unreal to him at that very moment, yet he was more than aware he was in reality.
"Please stop doing this to yourself" she said in a voice that was low, but yet loud enough for him to hear "all of you" she added looking at the table where Natsu and the gang were, seeing Lucy with her head hanging "Please stop doing this to yourselves...let's just go back to Fiore."
She stood there for a moment and sighed lightly, before closing her eyes. "I'm going to get some fresh air, I'll be outside for a little while." she said as she walked away grabbing an apple off of the table before she left, glancing once more at the frozen Gajeel sadly before leaving the dining area.
Gajeel could hear his pulse lowly in his ears. His body still tense as everything registered to him.
'i was never looking for a cure!'
'i gave up on that a while ago!'
'i was looking for you!'
Her words just kept buzzing in his head like an angry swarm of bees getting louder and louder along with her voice and his pulse.
'It's over!'
'It's been over since this whole damn thing started!'
It just kept getting louder and he could hardly hear his own name being called by Erza who was trying to catch his attention and Gray who was trying to do the same. At this point he could start to feel his body slowly start to tremble as his pulse and the words got louder and louder till suddenly it was silent in his head, till a whisper came through.
'I'm dying...there's nothing that can be done about it!'
"Gajeel!" he suddenly heard and his red eyes shifted quickly to look at Natsu who was now suddenly standing next to him, wide eyed. Gajeel looked down at his hands seeing them trembling before he just clenched his fists, his eyes and his expression intense.
"Gajeel...this is enough." Erza said stepping in as the voice of reason once more "In the end we have to do what makes her happy. It's only right that we bring her back to Fiore like she wants."
"What makes her happy." he finally said after his period of silence "if you think we should make her happy...then you should know that her dying doesn't make her happy. Feeling like she has no other option but to wait and die doesn't make her happy." he said his eyes intense with a glare as he looked at her catching her a bit off guard "Dealing with intense pain everyday doesn't make her happy, so you tell me how going back to Fiore, where all this will probably happen will make her happy because it doesn't sound like anything good comes out of doing that! None of that makes her happy!"
"But being with you does!" said Erza sternly
"I'm may comfort her, but I'm not the only thing that makes her happy." he said
I understand what you may be feeling now...Trust me I do!" Erza said as the memories of Jellal came to mind."
"Hardly." he said annoyed "you don't know her like I do-"
"You may not have said it, and maybe you don't even want to believe it, but it's more than obvious that you care more for Phoenix than even you might believe, Gajeel!" Erza snapped, her words feeling like a blow to the gut.
"The truth hurts, Gajeel but in the end you have to see that so long as she's with you she is more than willing to face all those fears and more, so long as you're by her side!...and I know more than any of us...you're hurting the most, but in the end it's about what she wants and she wants you with her...in Fiore."
Gajeel's heart sank with her words. Just like Phoenix for years he gave up on the idea that she held a special place in his heart. He just shrugged off the feeling he had as just being a close friend, but deep down he knew the truth. He knew that everything Erza was saying was true, but how could he accept it? How could he accept Phoenix dying, how could he accept just going back to Fiore and waiting for her death to happen with her? No matter how it was put he couldn't see it as the right thing to do. He's made countless mistakes in his lifetime that he regretted but he knew if he let this go, it would be the thing he regretted the most, the reason why he wouldn't be able to live with himself for the rest of his life.
'Gotta be fate or something that brought us back together for a reason, right?' he heard her voice in his head again. He looked at everyone again before quickly turning around and going after Phoenix.
"Dammit! Gajeel wait, just give her some time to herself!" Gray shouted as he ran after him, everyone following suite as they abandoned their meals.
A/N: Hello again peeps, hope you enjoyed that. Anywho please ignore any typo's or misspellings you might see and please comment, i'd love to hear what it is you have to say. TTFN ;-}