Yay another chapter! I'm so happy to finally be writing again! Sorry it's been taking a long time to post new chapters. I'll be working harder to get chapter done now!
It had been a month since we arrested Cobra, and I still wasn't allowed to interrogate him. In fact, nobody had interrogated him yet. He just sat in a prison cell everyday, waiting to be interrogated.
Even after a month, I still refused to call Jellal and ask him to come home. He still didn't even know I was pregnant, and it was starting to become slightly obvious. It could easily be mistaken as me eating slightly too much cake though. Jellal did his job wherever he was, and I did my job. It was all so simple for me. Well, that's stretching the truth way too far. I had recurring nightmares every night, I was pregnant with a child that wasn't my fiancé's, I had stitches in my hand, and I just needed someone there for me.
Speaking of the recurring nightmares, this chapter starts off with me dreaming.
After being beaten for what seemed like forever, I was finally alone on the ground with my back against the wall, knees tucked against my chest, face buried in my knees, and my arms wrapped over my head. Tears flowed freely down my cheeks, and I pressed my face tighter into my knees to muffle my sobs.
Suddenly, I heard footsteps coming toward me. When they were only a couple feet away, I quickly scooted to the side, expecting to hear the smash of a beer bottle against the wall. There was no sound of shattering glass.
I flinched when I felt a hand on my shoulder, and the hand quickly disappeared. Cautiously, I looked up and saw someone I had never seen before. He looked as if he were just a few years older than me. Feeling wary about him, I scooted to the side again.
"It's alright, I'm not going to hurt you like they did," he whispered, "I'm going to help you get out of here."
"Who are you?" I shakily asked.
"I'm Cobra. Your father wants me to hurt you, but I'm not going to."
"He'll kill you if he finds out," I mumbled.
"Come with me. He won't find out, I promise," Cobra held out his hand, and I tentatively took it.
He helped me off the ground then put his arm around my shoulders, holding me close. We quietly went to a different floor, one I was rarely on, and he led me to what I assumed could be his room.
Later, I found out it actually was his room.
"You can hide in here for now. Your father and Rusty Rose are going to the bar in a couple minutes," Cobra slightly smiled.
"You promise you'll help me?" the fear echoed in my voice.
"I promise, Sweetie,"
We sat down on his bed and-
For the fact that what happened next would be awkward to write, I'm just going to skip to the next scene of the dream.
I ran out of Cobra's room crying; I ran all the way to my room then locked the door behind me. Sitting next to the door, I sat in the same position I had been in when Cobra had found me, and I cried for hours.
Eventually, I cried so much that I threw up, so I had to leave my room to get the cleaning supplies. Soon after I exited my room, I ran into Cobra again.
I jumped back, "S-stay away from me."
He just simply laughed, "It was hard for me to believe that you were so vulnerable until I met you! Your father said it would be easy to manipulate someone like you, and he was 100% correct. And now look at you... You're a scared, pathetic, worthless little girl."
Tears rolled down my face once more, and I whispered, "Don't forget, I'm also a freak."
Cobra laughed even more, "Yes, you're a freak. You're a scared, pathetic, worthless, freakish little vulnerable girl. And you're mine for another hour."
Suddenly, I jolted awake, letting out a scream; I already had tears in my eyes, and my sobs were nowhere near quiet. I sat in bed crying for about twenty minutes before I realized that I was being held in a familiar comforting embrace. When I looked over, I was surprised but glad to see Jellal.
"What are you doing here?" I whimpered, burying my face against his shoulder.
"Meredy called me," he responded quietly, "Don't worry, I made my own decision to leave. I was told that you haven't been getting a lot of sleep, and I wanted to make sure you were alright."
"Thank you," I barely managed to whisper, "Thank you for coming home."
I cried against his shoulder for about another hour. When I finally calmed down, Jellal slowly let go of me then crawled onto the bed and sat next to me. He put his arm around me, and I cuddled up against his side.
"Erza, how long have your nightmares been this bad?" Jellal asked softly.
"Since a week before you left," I sighed.
"Why didn't you tell me? I could've stayed," he frowned.
"That's why I didn't tell you; I didn't want to hold you back," I hid my face in my knees.
"Look at me, Erza," Jellal slightly shifted.
I just barely looked up at him, and he lifted my head more to prevent me from immediately hiding my face again.
"I won't ever blame you for the outcome of my decisions. Yes, you are a portion of the reasons I make my decisions, but it's not all you," Jellal leaned over and kissed me.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you," I whispered when he pulled back.
"It's alright, you don't need to apologize. I just want you to know that you don't need to be afraid of holding me back," he smiled, "Now, about you getting shot a month ago... How's your hand healing?"
I held out my hand for him to see, "I kept on accidentally breaking the stitches open, and Gray kept making go back to the doctor to get more."
"How'd you manage to break them open so many times?" he asked, looking at my wound that was very slowly healing.
"W-Well... In the middle of the night, I'd randomly freak out. Plus, sometimes I'd wake up and imagin-" I stopped mid-sentence and hesitated, "And imagine that my father were still here."
No, I'd imagine that Cobra was here.
Jellal could tell that it was a topic I wanted to avoid, so he changed the topic, "How's Ultear doing?"
"She's almost allowed out of the hospital now, and she has nearly all her memories back. The only memories she's missing are what all happened to her that day. Also, she still won't give anyone any information on her parents. She nearly ripped Gray's head off when he asked for the doctors. Who knows what made the doctors too scared to ask her," I rambled.
We stayed up talking to each other until it was time for us to get ready for work. According to Jellal, I had woken up at 3:00am, so we had talked for around four hours.
After I brushed my hair and changed into jeans and a black T-shirt, I sat in the living room, waiting for Jellal. He entered the living room a few minutes after I did, and he sat next to me on the couch.
"You were talking in your sleep," Jellal suddenly commented.
I froze for a moment then nervously asked, "What did I say?"
"I couldn't make out the words. It was soon before you woke up though," he kissed my cheek.
Calming down a bit, I stood up and straightened out my shirt, "Shall we go to work now?"
Before he could respond, I felt really nauseous and ran to the bathroom. Almost the second I got in the bathroom, I threw up in the sink. Jellal came in behind me and asked what he could do to help. I just shook my head slightly before throwing up again. A few minutes later, I stopped vomiting and sat up from my slouching position over the sink.
"Are you okay?" Jellal asked almost hesitantly.
"Y-yeah," I cringed as the taste of vomit lingered in my mouth.
"Okay... I'll clean the sink while you go get something to drink," he responded.
"It's fine, I can clean the sink-" I began to protest. Jellal grabbed me by the shoulders and carefully directed me out of the bathroom.
"I'll take care of the sink," he assured me.
I nodded and walked out to the kitchen. After checking the cabinet for cups and finding none, I looked in the dishwasher to find that they were all still dirty. Sighing, I turned on the kitchen sink and drank straight from the faucet.
Jellal came into the kitchen just after I finished drinking some water. He lightly kissed my forehead, "Shall we go to work now, or do you feel like you need to stay home?"
"Let's go to work, I'm feeling much better now," I forced a smile.
Jellal nodded, and he followed me out of the house. I tossed him his car keys before getting in the passenger's seat. Most of the drive to FTBI was silent, but I spoke when we were near.
"Am I allowed to interrogate Cobra? Meredy and Gray wouldn't let me, and nobody has interrogated him yet."
"Yes," Jellal started.
"Good, can you make sure Meredy and Gray know you said 'yes'?" I responded.
"On one condition," he continued, "You can interrogate him as long as you'll allow me to be in there with you."
"Fine," I sighed, "Thank you."
We pulled into the parking lot then walked to the building.
"By the way, nobody knows I came back yet," Jellal stated.
I smiled, "Well this will be a surprise for them."
Just as we entered the building, we heard an excited shriek of surprise.
"Jellal! You're back!" Meredy ran over and hugged him.
"Welcome back, Jellal," Mira smiled from behind the front desk.
"Hi, thank you," he looked down, "Meredy, you have a really tight grip right now, and it's getting hard to breathe."
"Sorry!" she jumped back and smiled at him, "Did you hear that Ultear's almost allowed out of the hospital?"
"Yeah, Erza told me. That's great though," Jellal responded, "Oh, and yes, Erza is allowed to interrogate Cobra now as long as I'm there with her."
"Alright. Do you want to do that now or later?" she slightly tilted her head.
I looked to Jellal curiously; after all, it was partially his choice too.
"Let's wait a little longer, I want to say 'hi' to everyone first," Jellal decided, "Is that okay with you Erza?"
"Yeah," I smiled.
Meredy started to walk toward the elevator, and we trailed behind her.
She called back to Jellal, "I think you need to talk to Erza again about apologizing too much."
Jellal looked to me questioningly, and I awkwardly looked to the ground.
"I had a good reason to apologize that time," I mumbled, "I was apologizing for nearly killing them because some asshole from my past knew how vulnerable I am, and he took advantage of that."
"But... You're the one that got shot, and didn't you say he threatened someone's life?" Jellal pointed out.
"Not just someone's life, your life," I replied.
Jellal sighed, "Okay, I can see why you apologized, but I'm sure they understand."
Meredy, Jellal, and me took the elevator to the top floor, so we could talk to mostly everyone else. As soon as we got off the elevator, Natsu stopped what he was doing and hid behind Lucy.
"I promise I didn't do anything this time, Erza!" he exclaimed nervously. When Natsu saw Jellal by me, he calmed down a bit, and I laughed.
Jellal looked at me questioningly, but before I could respond, Gray came over to talk to him.
"Hey Jellal, welcome back. I'm sorry about shooting Erza's hand by the way," Gray stated.
"No hard feelings," Jellal responded, "Erza already explained it to me."
We sat down at the same table that Natsu and Lucy were at.
"Jellal, you aren't allowed to leave again," Natsu stated, "Erza gets really scary when you're gone."
"I wasn't that scary," I argued before Jellal could respond.
"That's easy for you to say," Lucy mumbled, "Ow! Erza, why'd you kick me?"
I smiled innocently, "What are you talking about, Lucy? I didn't do anything."
Lucy looked at Jellal and whined, "Make her be nice!"
Jellal sighed and put his arms around me, pulling me close, and he kissed me. He pulled back, and I tried to lean in to kiss him. However, Jellal held me away from him, "Nope, not until you promise to be nice."
I pouted and looked at Lucy, "I guess I'll be nice..."
Immediately, I looked back at Jellal, but he shook his head, "You'll have to mean it."
Turning back to Lucy, I sighed, "I'll be nice to you now."
When I turned back towards Jellal, he moved his hands, and I gladly leaned in and kissed him. I rested my head on his chest and listened as he and the others had a conversation. My only mistake then was falling asleep.
It's been a few weeks since Cobra last... Paid a visit to my room. That's the longest he's gone without being near me. Maybe he left for good? Cautiously, I left my room and went to the kitchen to make dinner.
"Erza, make some extra food, we're having a couple guests tonight!" my father shouted to me from the living room.
"Rusty Rose and...?" I mumbled, "Who else is friends with them?"
When I finished making dinner, I dished up four plates and set them out on the table.
"Food's ready!" I called to my father and his friends then took my usual spot at the table.
Once the three of them came in the room, I immediately froze.
"Cobra, you can sit by Erza," my father gestured toward me.
"What?" I exclaimed, "Why can't he sit by Rusty Rose?"
"Erza, shut up and be nice to our guest," my father growled.
"Why should I? It's not like it's his first time here!" I protested.
My father gave me the look that said I was going to be in big trouble later, so I stopped talking and awkwardly looked down at my hands.
A few minutes later, I was silently picking at my food and my father grumbled, "Eat your food, Erza."
"I-I'm not really hungry," I whispered.
"Then go back to your room," he retorted,"Or... Actually, you can show Cobra around the house."
"I really can't," I quickly replied, "I-I have a lot of homework to do."
"Sucks to be you," my father retorted, "Now, go."
Sighing, I got up and led Cobra out of the room. I folded my arms across my chest and walked to the floor that my room was on. Then suddenly, I was shoved against a wall, and Cobra grabbed my wrists so I wouldn't be able to hit him.
"Erza," Jellal shook my arm. I flinched, and I could feel my body trembling; I buried my face against Jellal's chest as I felt tears return to my eyes. He put his arms around me and lightly kissed the top of my head. He whispered so the others couldn't hear, "Erza, it's okay. You're safe now."
I slightly nodded and bit my lip. Wiping my eyes, I sat up straight and stretched.
"Are you okay?" Jellal asked, worry in his voice.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It was just a dream," I mumbled.
"Do you want to do that interrogation now?" he asked.
I nodded, "Yeah..."
Yay! Jellal's back!
Heh, and I'm back in a mood to write. I'm going to be doing a lot of writing again, and who knows, I might get back to posting weekly chapters once again! I'm so excited! Anyways, I hope it wasn't too awful being patient with me. I am really sorry about how long it's taken me to post chapters; there's just a lot that's been happening lately. Anyways, I'll try to have another chapter by next weekend.
Please leave a review and let me know what you thought of chapter eight.