Everything's Fine Right?

by thatcoolguy17

Definitely Modern AU. Natsu Dragneel is a simple firefighter and his loving wife he adores, Erza Scarlet who is a simple doctor. Living in the city of Magnolia, they encounter many situations that can leave them emotionally hurt or physically hurt. Can they survive the difficulty of actually being human? More characters would be introduced later in the chapters. Slight OOC. Rated T

2. Chapter 2: A Drunken Mess

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail neither its characters, this is purely fan-made nor it is associated with either manga or anime.

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"You fucking idiot, stop pointing around that gun like that!" Laxus unholstered and drew his gun at the man. He saw he that his movement was rather impatient, walking at near the end of the patient's bed. "This isn't you!"

"I'm sorry Laxus, but I can't do that!" The red haired man pointed the gun again the badly burnt and bandaged man. "Not after all the pain this bastard has brought to many people…"

"I swear to God, Gildarts!" Laxus put his gun near his right eye, aiming at him. "If you pull up that gun one more time at him, I would not hesitate to shoot you!"

"Go ahead." He drew it up once more, provoking his friend to fire his gun. A small tear seeped out of his left and down it strolled his cheek it went.

No use, he couldn't bear the thought of shooting his friend. "Fucking bastard, stop it!"

"I'm sorry Laxus." Gildarts placed his finger on the trigger.

A few days earlier…

Natsu was coming back to his consciousness. His vision was rather blurry and his hearing was hearing the sounds of turned on TV. "Ow, my head…" He placed his hand over his head. He felt the small bandages on his face that covered a few of his burns from the accident.

His vision had even out and saw himself inside the very hospital his wife worked at, in his own room. To his right, he saw the TV turned on to the news were the reporters were reporting the massive fire he and his team were trying to put out; it seemed they were successful in doing so. He also saw his firefighting gear neatly folded on one of the seats near the window.

Although he was focused on his right side, a small gentle snore caught his attention from his left. "Wha-" He quickly turned his head and saw his wife, Erza sleep next to him.

Her head rested on her hands on the left side of his bed, leaning on it while she sat on one of the chairs that were near the window and door. "Zzzzz…" She snored lowly, almost inaudible.

Natsu smiled and put his hand on her head, petting her hair. "Huh, obviously you'd be the first person I find when I woke up." He continued to pet her hair.

"Hmm," she too was waking up from her slumber. She yawned and stretched her arms above her head and opened her eyes. "Oh, hey Natsu…" she greeted him. Within seconds, she realized that her husband had woken up. "NATSU!" She quickly got up from her chair and instantly went to hug him.

"Hey, Erz," he said, embracing her for a bit before his body started to ache from his pain. "Ow, ow!"

"Oh, sorry," she quickly stopped her hugging and came down from the bed. "I'm just happy that you're ok."

"You know me Erza," he got comfortable again on his bed. "I'm always going to be ok."

"Speaking of ok," she looked at his leg. She had looked at his medical report before falling into deep slumber. "Are your legs ok?"

"My right leg feels tingly," he looked specifically at his right leg. "All in all though, they feel fine."

Erza walked up to the end side of the bed. She grabbed the clipboard which hanged from the end side of the bed. With her right hand, she took out the pen from the top of the clipboard and poked at Natsu's leg. "Can you feel this?" She said as she continued to lightly poke at them, primarily his right one.

"Yeah, I feel that." He clarified her about the poking.

"Hmm, ok." She went to the clipboard to examine what the doctors wrote about Natsu's current condition.

"What's it say?" He asked her. He then saw her grip the pen she sued to poke him a bit harder, making him a bit worried.

"Well," she turned to the next page and scribed down. "The ME report says that your right fibula, tibia and lower calcaneus were damaged during the fall from the 7th floor to the 5th floor and the debris landing on your legs, mainly on the right leg." She continued reading the rest of the report to him. "Your gear seemed to have absorbed most of the damage done to your back, but they only put ointment for the burns and bandages as well."

"That sounds pretty serious… the first part anyways." He looked at her for a few seconds before looking back at his right foot.

"It is," she put the clipboard between her left arm and armpit. "In a couple days, the main injury to your leg should heal. Afterwards, you're going to have to start physical therapy."

"Physical therapy!?" He said as he thought about his junior year of high school at Magnolia High. During a football game, another player from the opposing team had tackled Natsu from behind his right leg, causing serious damage to both of his anterior and posterior ligaments. "Ugh…" He hunched his head into his chest, pouting.

"Hey," she moved in closer, sitting down on the bed, moving her hand closer to his, feeling his warmth. "Don't worry, I was with you back in high school, I'm with you again here."

Although he was still a bit sad, her words were rather encouraging to hear, making him give her a rather nice and bright smile. "Thanks Erza, what would I do without you?"

"Hmm," she leaned in, giving him a kiss on his cheek. "Now, I have tons of work I have to do and lots of patients I have to save." She got up from the bed and proceeded to leave the room. "I'll come back during my lunch break, ok?"

"Got it," he said to her. "Wait, Erza."

She placed her right hand on the side of the door, helping her stop in the midst of her tracks. She turned to look at her husband. "Yeah?" She answered.

"Can you go and give me crutches?" He asked, somewhat sweating.

"You can't walk right now," she put her right hand on her hip. "Your leg is sprained, remember?"

"I know, I know, but…" he hunched over, putting his arms around his stomach. "I really need to use the bathroom."

"Oh, hold up give me a minute." She went out of the room and went to the nearest nurse's station on the floor.

She walked about four rooms to the left of Natsu's room until she finally made it to the nearest nurse station. She saw a rather familiar brown haired nurse who so happily wore cat ears. "Already embracing the Halloween spirit there, Millianna?" She said to her, startling the nurse to look in the direction she was coming up.

"Oi, hey there Erza!" Millianna greeted the red. While she sat on her rolling chair, with a simple move, she quickly came to the nurse's table where Erza stood in front of. "Yeah. What you need?"

"I need a pair of crutches." Erza requested of the nurse.

"Alrighty," She went behind the desk, getting the pair of crutches that were on the shelf. "Here you go." She said, showing it to Erza. "For your husband?"

"Y-Yeah," she leaned over the desk and grabbed the crutches. "How'd you know?"

"Nurse Gossip gets around quickly around here, ya know?" Millianna told her.

"Figured much," she sighed about the sudden news. She remembered she had a patient on this floor and quickly skimmed through the pile of files to look for the patient's medical file. "Hey, Millianna."

"Yeah?" Millianna was on the computer when she answered Erza.

"Where's my patient's file?" She asked, leaving the pile of files alone now.

"Oh, after the chief heard that your husband was here from an accident, he had told your assistants to watch over your patients." Millianna revealed to her that much.

"Really? That was nice of them to do so," she was rather surprised at that news. "So, does that mean I have a free day?"

"I guess," Millianna continued to type on the keyboard. "So why'd you need those crutches?"

Her last question made her remember why she was here in the first place. "Crap, gotta go." She quickly turned around and went back to her husband's room.

As she walked in, a rather unpleasant and familiar smell of smoke entered her lungs. "What the he- Juvia?" She saw the bluenette take a seat near one of the chairs next to the door.

"Oh, hey there Erza," she greeted the doctor as she came in. "Juvia was wondering why you have those crutches?"

"Oh, these were for…" she quickly scanned the room for Natsu, who seemed to have disappeared. "Where's Natsu?"

"Oh, he went to the bathroom over there." The bluenette firefighter pointed at the door that was on the far side of the room, opposite of where they stood.

"OI, ERZA!" Natsu yelled from inside the bathroom. "YOU THERE!?"

"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO WAIT UNTIL I GOT THE CRUTCHES YOU IDIOT!" She yelled from the outside. Her yelling got the attraction of a few wandering nurses and doctors from outside the room, staring at her. She ignored them though.

"Sorry!" He apologized for not following her orders. "I really needed to go to the bathroom though!"

"Huh…" She sighed but didn't seem no longer to scold her husband. "Ok, well I brought your crutches now."

The sound of the toilet being flushed was heard from inside the bathroom. Seconds later, the faucet sink. Soon came out Natsu from inside the room. "Oh, thanks." He said, approaching her by dragging his right leg.

"Here, let me help you." She put the clipboard back in its place, placed the crutches standing still on the side of the bed and helped him. She put his right arm over her neck and continued to walk him the rest of the way.

"Thanks." He placed himself under the cover as before.

Erza immediately turned to look at the bluenette. "How's Macao doing?" She asked about his current condition.

"Juvia doesn't know…" her eyes stared at the floor, releasing a small but noticeable tear. "As I told Natsu before he ventured into the bathroom…" She wiped away her tear from her left cheek. "The doctors told Juvia that his survival rate is very low."

"How low?" Erza asked, taking the seat next to Juvia and put her right hand on Juvia's left shoulder in hopes of trying to comfort the firefighter.

"Juvia can't seem to recall the numbers given to her by the doctors…" She continued to sob, covering her eyes with her rather worn out firefighter gloves.

"Pfft," Natsu's rather loud grunt made both girls stare at him, putting his arms across his chest. "Macao is one tough S.O.B, he's going to pull through in no time."

"Juvia hopes you're right about that…" Juvia still sobbed.

Just as Juvia's sobbing had subsided, a few more guests joined the party. "Yo!" Laxus the commanding officer of the MPD came in first, followed by Gildarts who was in the same rank as the officer but for the Fire Department, and then came in two other grunt cops, one held what seemed to be a sketch book and the other stood in front of the door, almost as he's guarding it. Last but not least that came in was a familiar black haired, leaned and muscled firefighter, Mest.

"Afternoon chiefs, Mest, and officer," Erza greeted them as they came in. "I could understand why Gildarts and Elfman are here but…"

"But what?" Laxus tried to figure out what Erza was getting at with her sudden assumption.

"Why is the commander of the police force," she then looked at the other two officers. "A police sketch artist and another officer, who seems like he's guarding the door, here?"

"Well," Laxus fixed his hat, uncomfortable about the news he's about to give her. "Mest here found something at the crime scene that was rather… disturbing."

"And what does this news have to do with you all barging in here?" She continued to press on with her questions.

"Well, Mest told that as he pulled out Natsu from the debris that was on top of his legs," Laxus retold the events of what occurred a few hours ago. "Natsu had said somethings to Mest, and was also the one that identified the disturbing thing he had picked out."

"Can you skip to the point?" Erza didn't like to be stuck in idle.

"R-Right," Laxus turned to look at Natsu who was listening in to the conversation. "Your husband saw the serial arsonist we've been trying to catch."

"Wait a minute," Erza then turned her attention to that of her husband's. "You saw the arsonist?" She then turned back to look Laxus. "Does that mean he's endangered!?"

"We don't know that for sure," Laxus tried to answer her questions as best as he could. "That's why we're here, to ask Natsu some important questions."

"Oi, Natsu." Gildarts tried to get the injured firefighter's attention.

Everybody saw that Natsu was rather stuck in a trance like thought induced sequence. Erza went up to him, and quickly went to her husband's side. "Honey?" She asked grabbing and holding his right hand.

Natsu remembered. Even though he was mostly half conscious, he could remember the set of events that occurred exactly how they went down. "…"

Flashback…

Natsu was coming back from his little slumber, finding himself laid out on his back on the floor. He felt a slight ill like pain shivering up his spine; his oxygen had broken his fall but left him with an agitating pain. He was disoriented, his eyesight was seeing double of everything while his hearing was heating echoes of the screams of the family he intended to save. His back was burning up with every second laid on the floor, the oxygen tank made no difference in height gap between his back and the floor. He tried getting up but the fall took a toll on him. He wasted his breath trying to turn to either left or right side. He looked up and to his surprise a fellow firefighter was in front of him, upside from his point. "H... Hey..." He weakly said to him, stretching out his arm towards him.

Suddenly the firefighter stood over Natsu, looking down on him. On his right, Natsu noticed the firefighter carrying something rectangular. "HELP US" "PLEASE!" "SAVE US!" All of the voices emitted from the thing he carried.

Natsu didn't know if he was hallucinating those voices or not. He took one quicker look at the firefighter that stood in front of him. Right there, he knew he was impersonating a firefighter. He then looked into his eyes. Like a scorched Earth, his eyes were red. No one on his team had peculiar eyes like his. "W... Who are... you...?" He mustered up the words, coughing into his mask.

The man with red eyes came closer to Natsu, lunging on one of his knees and facing Natsu face to face. "You already know about me," he gave out a short wry laugh. As much as Natsu wanted to knock the man out, he couldn't. One of his legs got stuck under burning rubble, eating away his fireproof gear. To add to his situation, he can barely see straight and had trouble staying up. "You are in no shape to fight me, now be a good boy and stay put while you burn in this pit of hell." The man stopped lunging, walking away from Natsu and heading into another corridor. He left the rectangular box still emitting the cries a few feet away from Natsu.

Present

"…"

"Natsu, honey?" Erza tried once more to get his attention. His trance made her spine tingle slightly, fearing what he was thinking in his head.

"HEY, NATSU!" Gildarts yelled once more, this time snapping him back to reality.

"Red eyes…" Natsu lowly said to them.

"What now?" Laxus didn't really catch what he said, prompting him to ask Natsu to repeat themselves.

"He had red eyes," Natsu spoke louder and clearer than before. "And firefighter gear as well."

"Firefighter gear?" Both chiefs' eyes were close knitted, confused at that particular information given to them by the firefighter.

"What do you mean by firefighter gear?" The sketch artist asked him, seemingly stopping his hand which was drawing. "Like whole body outfit or just gear like oxygen tank or head gear?"

"Like everything, everything," Natsu, with the use of his left hand, moved it up and down from his head to the lower half of his body, sort of like he's telling them about the attire of the arsonist's. "From top to bottom, he looked exactly like one of us!"

"Hmm…" Gildarts put his hand under his chin, thinking.

"What is it?" Laxus turned to look at Gildarts.

"Remember that one dry cleaners that was robbed near the Fire Station that we use to clean our uniforms?" Gildarts asked him about that certain burglary.

"Oh, I remember that burglary," Mest knew what the Chief was talking about. "The owner there got shot and according to owner and her daughter, the man took all the money and-"

"And took one of our uniforms." Juvia ended the retelling of that anecdote.

"Yeah." Both Gildarts and Mest said in unity.

"Are you even sure that case and the certain string of fires are connected?" Laxus had his doubts but he's a policeman at heart, he had to be sure before just going with assumptions and gut instincts. "I mean, that could just be coincidental. The store was robbed, what? 7 months ago? And the string of fires started to occur not even 2 months ago. Not enough for the DA to make the connections."

"Oh come on Laxus," Gildarts tried to persuade his cop friend-fellow. "Are you really sure you want to go down that road? Draw bridges for God's sake!"

"Sorry, but until we have more evidence about them being the same person," Laxus lowered his cap. "I can't take that big leap."

"I have an idea." The sketch artist took everyone's attention.

"What is it officer?" Laxus and the others attention where reverted to the sketch artist.

"Why don't we just compared what Natsu saw and what the owner saw?" The sketch artist proposed his idea to the others, hopefully they take it in.

"Not a bad idea you have there, kid," Gildarts smacked the sketch artist's back, causing him to fluster a bit and his hat to somewhat come out of his head. "How about it Laxus?"

"Hmmm, I suppose that'd be better than assuming." He huffed and sighed.

"Alright, Mr. Dragneel," the sketch artist took one of the empty chairs next to Juvia, placed it next to the bed and sat on it. "You're going to have to tell me specifically how the eyes-"

Suddenly, one more party joined, yelling and interrupting the artist mid-sentence. "I FOUND YOU GUYS!" Came in another firefighter, the same one female firefighter that was able to identify the source of the fire in the apartment complex. She panted, very quickly as if she had run all over the hospital.

"Whoa now," Gildarts had gone up to the firefighter. "Take it easy, what's the hurry, Evergreen?"

"I-It's… huh… Macao…" She said, holding onto her gut and taking in deep breath. "The doctors… said… huh… he's… failing!"

"WHAT!?" A sudden amount of gasps and sudden sobbing of Juvia was heard throughout the room.

"I'm going!" Gildarts said, dashing out of the rom faster than he entered it.

"I'm going too!" Both Mest and Laxus rushed off into the hall, following the fire department's chief.

Without much say, both female firefighters quickly followed behind both males, leaving the one cop guarding the room and the other continuously still asking questions about the arsonist's face features.

"Now, where were we?" The sketch artist was getting back to the topic at hand, looking at both Erza and Natsu.

…

Like a rat in a maze, Gildarts and the others right behind him were running around the hospital, dodging patients and doctors alike. The red haired behemoth finally found the staircase which led right directly to ER room in which his fellow wounded firefighter Macao was receiving his care.

He pushed in the door to the staircase and made his way to the first floor. Although, the door did not rest as the others made their way down as well. 1, Gildarts saw the number right above the door as he stepped on the last step of the staircase. He went through the door, turned right and immediately saw his grunt firefighters huddled about in the middle of the hall. "Hey!" He called out to them as he ran towards them.

"Yo boss." A rather tall, muscled white haired man, was the first to greet him as he and the others got to their position in the hall.

"What's… the… current… situation?" The chief stopped right by them, putting his hands on his knees as he hunched over to take a sudden burst of breathes. Right behind him stopped the other firefighters and the police chief, doing the exact same thing he was doing.

"Just before Evergreen left to tell you," a rather small male firefighter spoke from the huddled bunch explained. "The doctor was immediately called back in before he could tell us any more information on Macao."

"Huh…" Gildarts was no longer in benched position and proceeded to face his men as he stood straight. "Thank you Eve for the information. I hope he's doing okay…"

"You don't sound rather optimistic at the moment, boss." The muscled male firefighter who greeted him earlier, seemed to have noticed his boss' change of tone.

"I kind of don't, Elfman," he took one of the seats that was placed near the ER. He took his helmet off, revealing his red hair, and laid his head on the wall. "Not since my wife died."

It's been at least 6 almost 7 years since his first wife, Cornelia died. Died of Leukemia. He and his 21-year-old daughter, Cana took it very hard. He hardly goes home nowadays and when he does, Cana is laying on the floor drunk and passed out. But for the last 2 months, she had gone to AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, to try to get her act straighten out. His co-workers and a few distant family members know of what he's been going through.

"Cheer up, Gildarts," the blonde cop took the seat right next to him, patting his shoulder in hopes of if doing something to liven him up. "I mean this might not actually be your worst year yet."

Gildarts facepalmed at his remark. "W-Was that somehow supposed to make me feel better?" He asked, hoping it wasn't much of a rhetorical question.

"…it did the opposite didn't it?" Laxus sweat dropped.

The firefighters all slightly laughed out at their little skirmish. It wasn't until they all quieted down and realized that someone was coming out of the ER room in which their fallen comrade was being treated in.

"How is he Doctor?" Gildarts got up from his chair along with Laxus and stood in front of his firefighters like he was leading a pack of wolves.

"…" The doctor looked down on the floor and fixed his glasses.

His uncomfortable silence made the firefighters worry a bit. "Doctor?" Gildarts tried once more in getting information out of him.

"I don't really know how to say this…" The Doc could barely look at them.

"Oh my…" Without much, both Evergreen and Juvia started to sob, a few of the men silently sobbed, and Gildarts and Laxus could only stare in awe.

Gildarts broke down, falling to his knees and started to punch on the floor. "DAMMIT!" The flowing stream of tears falling down from his cheeks hit the floor under him. "Dammit… dammit…"

"I-I'm sorry," the doctor apologized for the information. "This might sound insensitive but I have a lot of paperwork to do." He started to walk the opposite direction but soon stopped. "His body is in there, if you want to say a few words before we put him in the morgue… "

He walked away now, leaving the sobbing firefighters to themselves.

"Gildarts…" Laxus put his hand on his friend's shoulder, looking at his emotionally broken friend. His hat covered his eyes and the only visible feature in his face were two small but still able to see stream of tears. "Come on man, it's… It's going to be okay…"

…

At a common bar known as the Strauss Bar, sat Gildarts already a couple of drinks in. "Keep them coming Lisanna…" Gildarts asked for another shot.

"I think you've had enough already there Gildarts." A white haired lady, cleaning one of her beer mugs, clarified on the amount of drinks she had already given the scarlet haired firefighter.

"NO!" Although his tone said no about his current situation, the way he moved around his small glass cup suggested otherwise. "GIVE ME MORE!"

"I think it's about time I called your daughter to come and pick you up." She stopped drying her mugs and went out to the back.

"Yyyy-you have a funny face." He said to the other customer who sat a few seats away from him.

Lisanna started to dial the phone just as her brother came in to check on his boss. "Hey sis," he greeted her as he came down the stairs from the second floor. "How's Gildarts doing out there?"

"He's stupidly drunk now," she said, waiting for Cana to pick up the phone. "I'm calling his daughter right now so she can pick him up."

"I don't blame for trying to forget the day by flooding himself with alcohol," Elfman sighed. "Better than what I did."

"Crying yourself in the bath tub is much more mature than drinking yourself to death," she gave him her honest opinion on his way of grieving. "Come on Cana pick up."

Cana finally picked. "Hello?" She asked.

"Cana, its Lisanna." She answered.

"Yeah? What's up?" From her line, Lisanna could hear the brunette yawn.

"Can you come and pick up your dad? He's stinking drunk at the moment." She requested of her.

"My dad is drunk?" Cana couldn't remember the last time her father had gotten drunk. It's probably been years.

"Yeah," Cana's tone made Lisanna realize that she wasn't caught up with today's events. "Did your father tell you what happened today?"

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Your dad didn't tell you that Macao died today?" She gave her the sudden news through the phone.

"Macao died?" Lisanna heard Cana's sudden burst of shock through the phone. "Oh my…"

"Yeah, I'm sorry." She apologized.

"Yeah, yeah," she could hear the small but audible sobs coming from Cana. "I'll… I'll go pick up my dad right."

"Ok, thank you." Lisanna said right before hanging up the phone.

"She's coming to pick him up?" Elfman asked as he sat down on the bottom staircase.

"Yeah," she turned around and headed back into the bar. "Well I got to head back, keep an eye on her father if he does anything hasty."

"Alright sis," Elfman got up from his seat and headed back upstairs to their apartment. "If you need anything just holler."

"Alright."

As she entered the bar, Gildarts had fallen asleep on one of the billiards table. "At least he's not throwing around beer mugs and breaking stuff…" She lowly said to herself, grateful that Gildarts did not act like the other type of drunks that pass through her bar.

"Hey ma'am, serve me another drink will you?" The man with the funny face asked the bartender, putting the mug by his face.

"Sure will." She proceeded to give the man his request.

20 almost 25 minutes had passed by and a certain long haired brunette with a white long sleeved jacket came into the bar. "Hey." She greeted Lisanna the bartender.

"Your dad is right over there," she pointed at the first billiards table right at the end of the room. "Are you going to need help with taking your dad?"

"No I got this." She stretched her arms out, making a crackling sound as she did. She walked towards her laying drunk beat father and carried him on her back.

"Whoa, Cana." Lisanna was astonished the brunette's monster strength.

"What? My sponsor from AA told me I should exercise," She said, explaining how she got the muscle to pick her dad like a bird's feather. "So I did."

"Oh well see you around then at campus." Lisanna said goodbye toward her.

Cana opened and exited out the bar while carrying her father. Her car, which was a dark 2007 Toyota Corolla, was only a few feet away from them. She walked towards it, opening the right backseat door and placing him there. His sleep state body took up the whole back. She closed it and immediately went around to go to the driver's seat. She turned the engine on and drove off.

After 20 minutes or so, she turned, driving into the alley and making it to the 5 house to the right which had a garage. With her car keys, she simply pressed the OPEN button and well, the rest is self-explanatory. "Huh…" she turned off the car, closed the garage door and looked back at her snoring father. "Well we're here."

She got out of her seat and opened the car's left backseat door. "Come on dad," she proceeded to carry him on her back once more, kicking the car door in and closing it. She walked along the rugged path which led to the back door of the house. She got her keys, opened it and had gone inside with her father. "Looks like the tables have turned, eh, dad?" She made her way through the kitchen into the living room and up the stairs. The first room to the right was her father's room. She kicked open the door, revealing his rather clean room.

"Okay dad," she threw her drunken father onto the bed. "Goodnight."

Suddenly, her hand was grabbed by her father's. "Don't leave," he may be drunk but he was still pretty much aware of what was happening. Her daughter turned to look at him. "Please."

She saw his eyes get watery, managing to keep a straight face together before falling apart once more. "Ok." She smiled at him.

She took a seat to where he laid his head, prompting her to put his head on her laps and hugged him like a mother would hug her son after he hurt himself too much from a straining activity. "First your mother… and now Macao…" He clinched onto her jacket, wetting it with his tears.

"I know dad; I know…" She stayed with him until his sobbing stopped, finally going into deep slumber.

…

Back at the hospital, Natsu was all alone in his room. Erza had left a while ago, and the only thing he could grieve Macao's death is by watching reruns of the X-Files on channel 12, which was excruciating.

Suddenly, his door was opened slightly, showing a man with blue hair and an odd tattoo overlooking above and under his right eye. "Hello there." He greeted as he came in, closing the door behind him.

"Who are you?" Natsu looked at the odd man. From his appearance, Natsu could see that his fashion was rather classic in taste, wearing a nice black leather jacket and dark pants.

"Oh, how rude of me," the person in front of him got a chair from where they were near the door and placed it right at the end of the bed and sat down on it reversed. "I'm Jellal Fernandez, I'm your wife's boss."

"Jellal?" The way Natsu's tongue said his name sounded weird to him. "That's an odd name."

"So is Natsu, so don't start taking shots at me boy." Jellal told the pinkette.

"Fair enough," Natsu crossed his arms around his chest. "Seems like you already know my name."

"Well I did look through your files," Jellal admitted to Natsu about how he knew his first name. "And I'm sorry about that."

"No problem, considering you're a doctor and all," Natsu didn't seem bother by that bit of information. "Now, if you started saying my social security number and what not, then we'd have a problem."

Both men laughed at the small joke. "Don't worry," Jellal stopped his laugh. "Your medical history can only provide so little."

"So, you're my wife's boss?" Natsu got back on track. "So you're like the super doctor?"

"No, I'm just the Dean of Medicine here at Magnolia Hospital," Jellal specified his rank amongst the others. "Basically, I'm everyone's boss."

"Heh, so what's a guy like you visiting me for?" Natsu questioned the man's motives.

"Erza wanted me to check up on you one last time before I left." He told him.

"Figured much." Natsu sighed.

"I also heard about your fellow firefighter friend, my condolences." Jellal had heard off Macao's passing. Word does travel fast around the hospital.

"Hmm, thanks," he took his words in his mind. "I guess."

Jellal then turned to look at the TV, to see what the pinkette was watching. "And now back to the X-Files marathon…"

"The X-Files? You're watching that?" He turned to look back at Natsu.

"Unfortunately," Natsu put his head back onto the pillow. "If I hear that theme song one more time, I'm going to kill somebody…"

"Why don't you just change it?" Jellal sweat dropped at his threat.

"THE DAMN NURSE TOOK THE REMOTE CONTROL!" He yelled.

"Give me a minute," Jellal got up from his chair, took it and placed it under the TV which hanged in the corner of the room next to the door. He stepped on the chair, standing on it and to the far right bottom of the TV he pressed the power button and turned it off. "Better?"

"Much better." Natsu took in a heavy breath.

"So have you experienced denial yet?" Jellal blurted out to Natsu.

"W-What?" He confused at what the bluenette told him.

"Denial," he talked to Natsu as if he knew what he was talking about. "You know? 7 Stages of Grief."

"Oh," Natsu finally understood his funny talk. "That, I don't think so."

"Well like the name suggests, there are 7 Stages," Jellal put the chair back near the end of the bed and sat down in the same position. "The first is Shock, the second is Denial, third is Bargaining, fourth is Guilt, fifth is Anger, sixth is Depression, and last but not least, Acceptance."

"Maybe it hasn't hit me yet…" Natsu lowly said. "Then again, I wasn't really that close with Macao, like my boss, Gildarts, was."

"It will eventually," Jellal told him. "I guess."

"You talk like you have experience on the topic," Natsu could feel that Jellal tried to sympathize with him. "Did you lose somebody close to you?"

"My father," Jellal said. "Died before he could see the man I've become."

"How did he die?" Natsu asked, hoping he'd get an answer of the sort.

"I was 11 at the time. It was after me, my mom and dad came out of the movie theater," he started the life event from long ago. "As we cut through the alley, a mugger came by shot my mother and father, taking their jewelry and leaving me be with them. Although, I had gone to get help, an ambulance came by a few minutes later…"

"What happened next?" Natsu asked.

"Well by the time the ambulance made it to the hospital, my father died but my mother barely survived," Jellal heavily sighed, still a bit overwhelmed at his anecdote. "It's been almost 19 years since I last saw his face."

"Well at least you knew your father…" Natsu looked down at the bed.

"What do you mean by that?" Jellal wondered the meaning of his words.

"I never met my father," Natsu now began his story. "It was always just me and my Grandfather, Igneel."

"You lived with your Grandfather?" Jellal continued with his own questions now. "What happened to your mother?"

"Igneel told me she died in a car crash when I was 2 years old," he explained the situation with his mother. "My father abandoned us right after I was born, so there's that as well."

"Wow, I didn't know that…" Jellal's stomach quenched.

"That's alright," Natsu understood how Jellal must've felt. "Ah well, it's getting rather late, shouldn't you be heading home?"

"Well I got no one waiting for me at home, so I could practically leave any time I want to." Jellal answered his question.

"I guess." Natsu couldn't argue with that statement.

"Hey, you know how to play chess?" Jellal just blurted out.

"The black and white pieces? No," Natsu answered. "But I do know how to play checkers."

"Eh checkers ain't that fun." Jellal said his opinion on checkers.

"What? Afraid I'll beat you?" Natsu smirked, hopefully his way of persuasion would convince Jellal to challenge him.

"Afraid? Tch, fine I'll play in Checkers." Jellal got up from his chair and went out of the room to get the board game which resided in a cabinet near the nearest nurse station.

He came back 5 minutes later, with the board game at hand. "Seat right there." Natsu pointed at the end of the bed.

"Your leg is there though." Jellal said.

Natsu then crossed his legs, letting the Dean of Medicine sit where his legs once resided. "There, now stop whining and let's get to it!" Natsu was pumped.

"Huh, fine," He annoyingly sighed. He sat, where Natsu requested, in the same way he did, with his legs crossed. He laid the board and checker pieces in the middle space between the two of them. "I'll take the red pieces." He said as he claimed all the red checker pieces.

"That means I get to move first." Natsu claimed the black checker pieces.

Both men placed their pieces in their respective opposite color positions on the board. "Not that I need the first move anyways." Confident, Jellal placed his last piece on the board at the same time as Natsu.

"You sound very confident about that." Natsu said to him, starting the game by moving his far left red piece diagonally.

"Hey, you don't get to be boss around here unless you have that trait." Jellal moved second, placing his black checker piece opposite to that of Natsu's.

"Well you work with my wife," Natsu moved the next red checker, which was next to the one he moved earlier. "No one can boss her around."

"I…" Jellal thought through his next move. "I… have no rebuttal for that statement."

"Then you have met the Hell hath no Fury side of her…" Natsu waited for Jellal to move his piece.

"If you're talking about her bossy and stubborn side of her, then yes, I have met it…" Jellal could still picture Erza's first day at work. He remembered the scarlet haired doctor threw a clipboard at him for refusing her advice on a patient. He chuckled at the thought.

"Nope," Natsu moved the very first piece he had moved. "Well I guess, that can be that side." Natsu could still remember that he had accidentally eaten some of her cake. She was so mad at him, she didn't talk to him for a whole week, even after apologizing to her a thousand times. "She can express herself more or so, back at home."

"I don't really like talking bad about someone behind their backs…" Jellal sweat dropped, now taking his turn.

"Talk bad? These are more like compliments," Natsu moved his red checker, taking yet another black checker piece away from Jellal. "Besides, she'd know when we would talk bad about her."

"What do you mean by that?" Jellal was a bit confused at his last verbal comment.

"She has like this Sixth sense," Natsu further explained his earlier statement. "Whenever anyone talks ill about her, she'd know. Whenever I do something behind her back, she'd know." He looked back through his thoughts. There was a time he had told her a white lie about how he was sick and missed her piano concert but instead he went to a friend's party back when they were still in high school. The next day, without her saying much, Natsu knew by her face expression that'd she knew what he did and scolded him. From that day forward, he told her everything he does before doing so. Well sort of.

"It's your turn." Jellal told him, reverting the pinkette back into their reality.

"Oh, right." Natsu scratched his head and moved his third piece taking another black checker piece.

What seemed like minutes to them was actually hours, continuously playing game after game, and either one winning or losing.

"OK, this will be the last game." Jellal said, as he rubbed his eyes with both of his hands.

"I guess; we're tied 499 to 499." Natsu had counted the many games they've won.

Just as they were setting their pieces, a third party joined in, entering the room. "Hmm, Dr. Fernandez? What are you doing in here?" A familiar scarlet haired female with a black jacket, a white blouse underneath it and blue jeans with low top heels carrying a medium sized black purse on her right shoulder, said as she opened the door, letting a cold breeze into the room as she did.

"Erza, what are you doing here?" Natsu asked his wife, who stood in front of both men.

"It's 7 a.m., almost 8." She said, telling them the time as well.

"WHAT!?" Jellal suddenly stood on top of the bed and checked his wrist watch. 7:58 a.m. "HOLY CRAP! WE'VE BEEN PLAYING SINCE 10 P.M, YESTERDAY!"

"You've been playing… checkers all night?" Erza said it in a tone which sounded a bit awry.

"Well, not anymore," Jellal got off the bed, leaving the checker pieces on Natsu's bed. "I'm very tired."

"Guess we're going to have to play the tie breaker later I guess." Natsu stretched his legs out, moving the board and board pieces along the bed with his legs.

"Well, I'm going to take a nap in my office," Jellal put his hand over his mouth, covering his yawn as he walked out. "See you Natsu."

"See you." Natsu waved back at Jellal, leaving his wife and him alone in the room.

"Oh, Erza." Jellal stopped in the midst of his tracks, calling the scarlet haired doctor.

"Yes?" She turned to look at the bluenette doctor.

"I finished your report, so you don't have to worry about." He said as he started to walk again.

"T-Thanks." She thanked him, just before he disappeared into the crowd of other doctors and nurses. Erza turned to look back at her husband. "What was that?"

"You act as if I cheated on you with him," Natsu put his arms under his backside of his head. "We were just conveniently playing checkers almost all night, without knowing the time. Nothing more."

"… I guess." Although she still felt somewhat weird of the thought of her husband and her boss together. Nothing happened besides playing a harmless board game. She did however turn slightly red, fantasying about Natsu and Jellal.

"I know that face," Natsu could see his wife's rather red glowing face. "Y-You just fantasized me and him together, didn't you!?"

"I-I DID NOT!" She put her hands over her cheeks.

"YES YOU DID!" Natsu couldn't believe, out of all the dirty things she has thought about, that his own wife fantasized about him and her boss doing naughty stuff with each other.

"Ok, I'll admit," her face was no longer red of embarrassment and her thoughts no longer dirty. "I did. Just a little bit, nothing but harmless… foreplay?"

"I can't… believe my own wife… just pictured me with… another person…" Natsu pouted, turning to his left side so she couldn't see his fake tears that came out of his eye sockets. "And specifically… her boss…"

"I SAID I WAS JUST A LITTLE BIT!" She exclaimed. "I'm sorry…"

"I-It's ok, I guess." Natsu turned back to face her, stopping the façade tears. He still felt overwhelmed a bit.

"Can we just go ahead and skip to another topic?" She requested of him, hoping to avoid any further questions about the earlier topic. "Please?"

"Hmm… OK. Just this once though." He gave her a free pass.

"Ok, thanks." She said. Without much, she started to pick up the fallen checker pieces and proceeded to do pick up the rest from the bed.

"You don't have to do that, I was gonna do that." He told her, stopping her from picking up the rest. He took the bag away from her and proceeded to do it. It was his mess.

"You don't have to, I could've done it." She said to him as she watched as he picked up the pieces from the bed.

"Ah, don't worry about it, I have a broken leg not a broken arm," he told her. "Besides this is my mess."

"I guess," she went to put her bag on one of the chairs. "Right. Macao's wife called just before I came here."

"And?" He put the last piece inside the bag.

"She wanted you to give a eulogy at Macao's funeral which is 2 days away from today." She said, taking out a pen and paper from her bag.

"A eulogy? Why didn't she ask Gildarts?" He was astonished at the news given to him. Like he had told the Dean of Medicine, he wasn't that close to Macao as Gildarts was.

"She tried calling him but…" Erza stopped mid-sentence.

"But what?" He asked, hoping to get more out of her.

"He didn't answer," she said, finishing her earlier sentence. "She called him about ten times before she gave up."

"Did she tried calling his daughter, Cana?" He asked her.

"She did," she took one of the chairs and placed it next to the bed. She sat on it, facing Natsu. "Cana told her that her father had gone to the Fire Station."

"Let me guess? She then called the fire station and I don't know, Elfman answered, telling her that the boss hasn't checked in yet?" Like a mind reader, Erza nodded, confirming the scenario he had just given her.

"I've also tried calling Elfman's sister, Lisanna." Erza told him.

"What for?" He asked her.

"To see if he wasn't at her bar," Erza further explained why she called Lisanna. "Usually, he would try to drown himself with a bunch of beer just to forget a day like yesterday."

"He probably is," Natsu started to mess with the bed's control, hoping for it to hunch it over. "But he probably went to an unfamiliar bar that we all don't know about- HELP ME WITH THIS THING!"

Erza from her sitting position, simply moved his hand away from the bed controls and did it, finally making the bed go into a nice position where Natsu didn't have to hunch his and straighten it out. "You're probably right about that." She said to him.

"Thank you," Natsu thanked her for the assistance. "I appreciate that you're here but, don't you have other patients to look at besides me?"

"Today is Thursday," she told him the date. "I don't work on Thursdays, remember? Or did the accident jumble your brain up a bit?"

"Oh ha-ha, very funny," he gave her a straight but annoying smirk with his arms across his chest. "I forgot today was Thursday."

"Mm hmm," although, she did feel a bit sly at first at his excuse, she accepted nonetheless. "Well, I'm going to the store that is a few blocks away from here, need anything?" She stood up from her chair.

"Is it that store that's next to the Mexican Restaurant?" He asked, hoping that's where she's headed to.

"You're craving a Torta aren't you?" She instantly guessed what he was appetizing. He simply nodded at her, confirming what he was craving. "Well, I guess I can go get you one." She grabbed her purse and carried it on her left shoulder as she usually did. "Might as well buy those beef tacos I like from there as well. What kind of Torta do you want, honey?"

"Milanese meat-filled torta, please." He requested of her.

"Ok, got it." She turned and started to walk out of his room.

"Wait," he called out to her, stopping her before she took anymore steps. "Can you turn on the TV? I want to see the morning news."

"Certainly." She said, grabbing the first chair she saw and placing it right under the TV. She climbed up the chair, stretched her arm out and pressed the first button to the left, turning the TV on.

Natsu heard a rather familiar theme song that annoyed him yesterday. "Oh for god sakes, change the channel please."

"Something the matter?" She turned her head, seeing her husband from the corner of her left eye.

"Yesterday, the damn nurse left with the remote control, leaving the TV with this channel yesterday on," Natsu had his hands cover his ears. He could still very much hear the theme song of the X-Files and his wife, Erza. "A whole damn marathon of this damn show. I can't believe this program is still at it."

Erza moved to the next button on the TV, changing the channel to a news station. "There you go."

"This is Mirajane Strauss, reporting live on Channel 14's Magnolia's News Station…"

…

"Boss?" A grunt cop entered the Chief's office who seemed to be taking a nap on the mass amounts of paper on his desk.

"W-Who is there?" Laxus woke up, having one of the pieces of paper latch on to his cheek. He looked at his door and saw the police officer peeking his head into the small opening of the door. "What is it, corporal?"

"You might want to turn your TV on, boss." The corporal advised his boss to do so.

"Ugh," he rubbed his eyes before reaching for the remote control that was right in front of him on his desk. "This better be good."

He turned it on, playing Channel 14's morning news station. "We have received some new information from an anonymous caller about the fire from yesterday," Laxus suddenly bursted out of his seat. "If you all don't know, yesterday afternoon, an apartment complex in Lamia Avenue was set on fire, causing serious damage to its 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th floors. What seemed like an accident was actually an intentional set fire by a mysterious arsonist who has also started fires stemming from almost 7 months ago. He uses a Molotov to set these blazes. His identity still hasn't been discovered yet by the authorities so keep your eyes on mysterious people…"

"Is this shit playing on any other channels?" Laxus immediately turned off his TV.

"Yes sir, but only channel 14 was the only station that received the tip call." The corporal answered his boss.

"Well, the good news is, we now have a new piece of information, which is the tip call," Laxus fell to his chair, taking out a heavy sigh. "Bad news though, the media is going to tear us apart."

"I hear you sir," the corporal agreed with his news. "Do you want me to go to the station and get a copy of that anonymous call?"

"Yeah, take someone with you as well." He gave the cop the 'Go' button.

The corporal closed the door behind him, leaving Laxus to his thoughts in his office. "Dammit!" He slammed his fist on his desk. The gust from the hit managed to scatter his papers and blow them away from his desk. He looked at the knuckle part of his hand; it was a red shade type of color overlooking it.

"RING!" Suddenly, his office phone started to ring. It was on the right opposite side of his computer on his desk. He reached towards it and answered.

"Yeah?" He groaned as he answered.

"Boss?" A male officer answered the other line.

"This better be important, corporal." Laxus rubbed his hand over his face. Slightly agitated at the current situation.

"It is, the sketch artist compared the two sketches," he said over the phone. "You know from the burglary of the firefighter suit and the face your friend saw?"

His eyes glimmered with shock. "And? Did he get a hit in the database?"

"Are you mind reader? Cause he did." The grunt officer affirmed the assumption.

"That's fucking great," Laxus tone finally changed. "What's the bastard's information!?"

"His name is Ben Richards," the officer said. "When he was in prison, they called him Zancrow."

"Zancrow?" Laxus could've sworn he heard that name before. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

"He was that sorry kid that burned down his high school back in 2007," the officer clarified. "He got out almost a year ago."

"A year ago? The fires started a few months ago though." Laxus scratched his cheek.

"Maybe something happened between the span of when he was released to when the fires started?" The officer asked.

"I really don't care," Laxus disregarded the motives. "Doesn't change what he's done."

"What was that?" Laxus could hear that the officer was talking to a third party. "You found out who the burnt body was? Angelica Rue? Ok got it."

"Hey, what's happening corporal?" Laxus tried getting the officer's attention back to the phone.

"We just got confirmation on our burnt victim," the officer explained over the phone like he's doing. "Angelica Rue."

"Wait, wasn't it that one teenage girl who identified Zancrow as the school's arsonist?" Laxus eyebrows furrowed.

"Yeah," he said. "Guess we should've seen this coming."

"Do you know his whereabouts?" Laxus asked.

"Nope," the officer said. "Ever since his release, he's been under the radar."

"Well fuck…" His office phone had another caller waiting for him. "Does he have any relatives?"

"Nope," the officer said. "Mother died a few years ago and father has been locked up in a secure Asylum in Tenrou City."

"Huh," he sighed, dropping to his chair. "Could this day get any worse!?"

"Is that a rhetorical question sir?" The officer asked before answering.

"No it was not," he assured him. "Well does have a previous address before he went down the radar?"

"Are there any reasons to check why we should check previous address sir?" He questioned his boss's peculiar insight.

"Just do it, dammit!" He yelled through his phone.

"Ok, ok…" The officer quickly went back into his notes and skimmed right through them. "Oh! Right here in Magnolia City he used to have a previous address with his uncle from the mom's side of the family. It's 3481 W. Sun Avenue."

"Good work, maybe they might know where to find him." He said.

"You're going there now aren't you sir?" The officer said on the other side of the phone.

"Yeah, it's not that far from here," Laxus said. "Meet me outside will you?"

"You want me to go with you? As back up?" The officer said rather nervously. "I'm only a sketch artist…"

"Don't worry, I just need you there with your sketches of the arsonist," he said, assuring the officer. "Nothing much."

"THEN CAN'T I JUST LEAVE THE SKETCHES OF THE SERIAL ARSONIST ON YOUR CAR!?"

"No buts, let's go." He hanged up the phone. He got of his chair, got his badge off his desk, proceeded to his coat racket to get his brown jacket and got out of his office.

As he got out, he could see his fellow officers somewhat slack off. A few of them are bundled up, gossiping like teenage girls would during lunch break. Others are either hold up in their desk duties, talking on the phone or eating their lunches. Although it did somewhat bother him that his officers are slacking off, it also gave him a small smile on his face.

He passed through the desks and to the farthest corner was a staircase. He went down the flight of stairs. At the bottom of them were the MPD's front entrance. As he exited out the building, the familiar curly black haired sketch artist beat him to his own car who wore a similar outfit like his; a white buttoned up shirt, blue jeans, black Vans, and his badge as a necklace. "Officer Riley." He greeted as he approached his car.

"Huh," he sighed as his boss turned off the alarm and opened the doors to the car with his key remote. "I still don't know why I should've come…" He opened the door, taking up shotgun position in the car.

"I needed someone for backup," he said as he closed his door and put the key in the car. "It's a rough neighborhood over there."

"Is that why we're in your car and not in a standard cop car?" He asked.

Laxus turned his key and turned the car on. "Yep, if anyone asks who we are, just say we're house inspectors." He drove off into the parking space.

"Fine," he agreed with those terms. "Just for your information boss, I've always been behind the desk. Never actually shot a gun before 'til now."

Laxus turned right, exiting the parking lot and entering the streets of Magnolia. "You probably won't need your piece for this, I doubt we'll run into trouble."

"Maybe but Sun Avenue is still dangerous," Officer Riley had some doubt in his voice. "It's in gang territory and they do not take kindly to any cops."

He turned left. "Like I said, if the time comes which I doubt, we won't need our pieces." He stopped the car at a red light.

"I'm just saying, boss." Riley turned to look at his window. Not much to see besides an old run down building and a few merchant stores to both sides of the run down building.

"Yeah, yeah," the light turned green and Laxus, along with officer Riley, continued on to their destination. "Just keep your weapon in your leg holster, and put your badge in your pocket."

"Alright."

After driving for nearly half an hour, they made it to what seemed to be a gang torn up neighborhood. The majority of the Sun's houses had boarded up their windows, a few teens seemed to be taking their seats in most, if not all, front porch staircases. All they could do is just stare at the officer's which seemed to be the only expensive car in the whole block.

"Here it is," Laxus parked right in the empty slot of the house. "3481." He flipped the keyhole once more, turning it off. He turned to look at his 'partner' who had already taken of his seatbelt and quickly opening the door. He soon followed, getting out of the car and setting foot in the front lawn.

"Out of all the houses, this one is the only nice looking one." Riley commented on its appearance.

"Remember the plan, eh?" He looked at the officer as they walked towards the door.

"House inspectors, got it." Riley answered, stopping right in front of the door.

Laxus knocked on the mahogany wood door. For several seconds, he continued to knock until and elderly man opened the door. "Yes?" He said lowly but high enough to be audible.

"Mister Masterson?" Officer Riley asked to see if that was the man's identity.

"Yes?" He answered. "To whom am I speaking to?"

"I'm house inspector Laxus Dreyar and this is my associate, Daniel Riley," Laxus introduced himself and Riley as expected. "We're here about your nephew, Ben Richards. Is he here with you?"

"Oh is this about his apartment?" He asked, opening the door more and revealing more of his appearance. Slouched and in bed robes. "He said he wouldn't go back there unless someone stopped the leaking of the water that comes from the apartment above his."

"Yeah about that," Laxus scratched his head, improvising a lie. "You see in his form, he gave us a false address for no apparent reason. And we checked under his emergency phone number and saw your name. I was hoping you could give us his real address so we could talk to him face to face."

"Well because of the leak, he lives with me," the elderly man gave them his nephew's whereabouts, which was with him. "But I'll be happy to give his address so you can fix the leak at his apartment com-"

"WAIT HE'S HERE WITH YOU!?" Laxus yelled, puzzling the elder man.

"Y-yes," he said, backing up a bit slowly. "Would you like to talk to him? He's in the basement, doing his inventions."

"Inventions?" Both officers said at the same time. By their exchanging looks, they seemed slightly worried at what kind of inventions the boy was doing in the basement.

"Y-yes…" The elderly man seemed more and more confused at their exchanging looks.

Laxus took of his badge from his pocket, showing the elder in the most comprehensive but discrete way. "C-Cops?" The elderly man stared at the badge.

"Yeah," Riley responded, revealing their true status. "The thing is, cops aren't really loved around this area."

"Cause of the gangs right?" The elder man gazed back at them.

"Yeah," Laxus nodded at that. "Anyways, we believe your nephew is involved in a series of arson attacks and suspected murder."

"So you mean to tell me that he's the serial arsonist on the news?" The information didn't seem to surprise the elderly man.

"A suspect." Laxus loosened the label a bit.

"Should've seen this coming," the elder man sighed, moving his head upwards and massaging his neck with his right hand. "Ever since he got out of jail, he's been on edge."

"Sorry…" Riley apologized. He tried to show some sympathy toward the elderly man.

"Eh, I'll go get him for you." The elder man left the door open and started to walk back towards the end of the hall where stairs leading to the basement were located.

"Thank you." Laxus said as the elder stepped foot on the first stair.

"Didn't think we'd find him that easy…" Officer Riley whispered toward his boss.

"Yeah…" Although Laxus agreed with Riley, his gut instinct told him another story.

Suddenly, within the minute, a gunshot was heard from the basement. With quick reactions, Laxus and Riley equipped their guns to their hands and ran towards the staircase. "POLICE! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" Laxus said as he and Riley went down.

A gunshot was fired at one of the stairs, stopping both cops in their tracks. "DON'T MOVE! I-I GOT A HOSTAGE DOWN BERE!" He threatened them.

"Shit…" Riley cursed under his breath. "What are the chances that the old man is actually dead?"

"What are the chances if he's still alive?" Laxus spoke in the same lone tone as his fellow officer. "We're not going in there guns blazing! Besides…" He looked down at the stairs. "He has the best vantage point to kill us…"

"Nngh…" Riley grunted. Although he agreed to a certain point with his boss's reasoning, he still would like to charge in there.

"HEY BEN!" Laxus called out to the suspect. "IS YOUR UNCLE OK?!"

"Y-Yeah!" Ben answered, looking down on his uncle who was behind the couch bleeding out.

"THAT'S GOOD!" It seemed as though Laxus was negotiating, well tried. Suddenly, before Laxus could continue the conversation, both cops heard a window being smashed.

With that opening, they quickly went down the stairs. Laxus noticed that Ben had quickly escaped out the small window while Riley quickly tended to the elder man. "I'm going after him, stay here and call an ambulance!"

Before Riley could speak, Laxus had already dashed up the stairs. "H-He… has a… Molotov with him..." The elder man coughed up blood.

"A Molotov?" Riley looked at the elderly man. He continued to cough up blood. He quickly took out his cellphone and dialed the emergency number. "Yeah this is officer…"

It didn't take much for Laxus to catch up to Ben. "Ugh… Huff…" Both of them panted around the block. Several minutes have passed and neither are giving up from running, even while in their exhausted states.

Laxus then saw the young man enter an abandoned convenient store, about 4 stories high. He stopped and quickly reached in to his jacket's inside pocket. Empty. "Shit!" He cursed under his breath. "Left my fucking phone in the car…"

He looked back at the building. "Well, let's not keep this fucker waiting…"

He slowly walked into the building. The dust mostly covered everything from the flooring to the wall, to the furniture. "ACHOO!" He sneezed.

"Is the big 'ol cop allergic to the little dust?" Ben's baby-talk voice quickly alerted Laxus, raising his gun and waving it around to all directions, not missing his weak spots.

"Is the little 'ol arson afraid of a cop that he has to hide in the shadows?" He retorted back. He looked around and saw the stairs. He hurried his pace, placed his back on the wall and slowly went up the stairs.

"I'm surprised you found me that easy…" Ben laughed in the shadows.

Laxus quickly went from an open space dusted area to a crowded dusted place. He seemingly walked in between a path through the mess of garbage, meshed up chairs and desks and god knows what else. "To be honest with you," his gun was pointed forward but his eyes looked around his surroundings. "I didn't think we'd find you this easily. Lucky for us, you had to have a leaky roof above your apartment to have spent your time with your uncle."

"Unlucky mass of amount of certain events, my friend." He said.

"Last time I checked, we were never friends." Laxus found the stairwell to the third floor.

"Oh right, I killed your firefighter friend," Ben started to laugh under his breath. It then grows loudly. "MUAHAHAHA!"

"Tch, you fucking…" Laxus tried to control his temper. The third floor wasn't as bad as the second, but it was easier to walk around.

"Oh, did I struck a nerve there?" He continued to push Laxus' buttons. "Good, good."

"Yeah you did," Laxus saw the stairwell leading to the fourth floor. He did the same thing as he did as he went up the stairs. "If I didn't have any moral codes, you'd already have a bullet in between your eyes but your hiding in the shadows." He entered the fourth floor. "Coward."

"What the fuck did you just call me?!" Ben said out loudly.

"Oh, did I struck a nerve?" Laxus turned the tables around.

"Would a fucking coward burn his own school down!?" He yelled once more at the cop. The echoes in the building made it hard to pinpoint his location.

"Hmpht, yeah." Laxus simply answered.

"Grrrr!" Ben began to angrily grunt.

"I mean what? The kids over there pick on you? What did they call you?" Laxus neared the fifth floor's staircase. "The same thing in prison? Zancrow? Cause that's a pretty fucking pathetic excuse to burn down the school."

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" He continued to utter the same words.

"And what about that girl, eh? The one you killed back at the apartment building," he pressed on. "Did you kill her because she ratted you out? Or because she refused to suck that little dick of yours?"

"I SAID SHUT THE FUCK UP!" He yelled it once more.

"YOU'RE STILL A FUCKING COWARD, YOU KNOW THAT!?" Laxus reached the top.

Suddenly, Ben jumped from outta of nowhere. In the scuttle, he managed to knockout Laxus his gun, and continued to hit him in the face with his left gust while his right hand occupied an already lit Molotov. "FUCK YOU!"

Although Laxus was incline to hit him, he didn't want to risk the Molotov falling on either, so he continued to block his face with his arms. "Nngh…"

"What's the matter!?" Ben continued his barrage of hits. "Ran out of backlash!?"

"You were the first one!" He retorted back.

"GRR!" He grunted. Surprisingly, a small opening appeared and Laxus used the opportunity to quickly kick the back of Ben's head and pushed him off.

With now a bigger opportunity, he quickly crawled to his thrown weapon near the wall. He grabbed it, jumped at his back toward the floor and aimed his gun at Ben who was still trying to get up. "Hands in the air!"

"Try me bitch!" Ben stood up, holding the Molotov over his head.

Laxus could only point his gun at him and stare at awe. "Why you little…!"

"Hahaha, you can't do it can you?" His maniacal laugh sent goosebumps up Laxus back. "All that talk about putting a bullet in between my eyes was all shit, wasn't it!?"

"Tch." Laxus, still having his gun pointed at the boy, slowly got up from the floor.

"I could already hear the news line, Chief Cop killed by Serial Arsonist," he smirked. "Or would Suspected Serial Arsonist killed by Chief Cop sound better?"

"I mean it! Drop the Molotov!" Laxus said once more.

"Hahahahaha! You know what I don't fucking care!" He waved around the Molotov, contemplating whether to kill the Blonde or kill himself.

"You know…" A familiar third party joined in. "None of those options sound good at all."

"What the-?" Ben turned around and saw the other cop that was at his uncle's house.

"Riley?" Laxus was surprised to see the sketch artist here. And at the right time.

"Drop your weapon you fiend." Riley ordered, pointing his gun at Ben.

"Tch." Ben was now surrounded from both his front and back, and his sides weren't much help considering they lead nowhere to but a wall.

"Are you gonna do it!?" Laxus asked once more.

Without hesitation, Ben turned around, quickly about to throw the Molotov in his hand.

Shit! Everything went from high paced to almost all of time going slow for Laxus. He didn't want to shoot the boy. But a shot was fired. Was it by his gun? No. No steam came out from his gun. The bullet entered Ben's right hand, going through it and shattering the bottle. The Molotov's liquor was set into flames, and all of it landed on Ben.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" A loud inaudible cry came out of Ben's mouth. His whole body underwent the flames in seconds.

Laxus perception was back to normal and he could hear the boys cries. "Chief!" Riley called out, snapping him back to reality.

Without hesitation, Laxus took his jacket and quickly used it to take off the flames. "You're not dying on my watch!" With the help of Riley, both cops succeeded in taking of the flames.

The fire did a huge amount of damage to the boy. His upper body all burnt and crisp and a rather unpleasant smell of cooked meat flew in the air. "We need to call an ambulance!" Riley said, turning to look at Laxus.

"I don't have my phone with me!" Laxus said.

Riley quickly pulled out his and called. "Hello!? We need an ambulance down at…"

…

"We have breaking news here at Channel 14," the bar's TV was tuned up all the way. It grabbed the attention to all of the people in the bar, particularly a red head. "This is Mirajane and we are live right here in front of this abandoned convenient store near Sun Avenue where a shooting between Chief Officer Laxus Dreyar, Sketch Artist Officer Daniel Riley and suspected Serial Arsonist & Murderer Ben Richards took place." The camera turned to look at an ambulance which carried the arsonist in. "As you can see here, Ben Richards is being taken to Magnolia's Hospital where he's going to get treatment for his badly burns…"

Suddenly, the red headed make stopped pouring his drink into his mouth and placed it on the table. "Hey barkeep, call me a cab will you?"

"Certainly."

…

"AH AH AH!" The pinkette squirmed around his bed as his red headed wife adjusted his leg cast.

"If…you keep squirming like this…it's going to hurt much more…than the pain you're feeling right now!" She said, trying to hold down his leg cast.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He apologized but his apologies didn't help much as he continued to squirm. "It really hurts!"

"Your recent X-rays showed that your tendon is out of place and it could easily be fixed if you let me put it in place!" She told him once more his leg's current condition. "So please, take a deep breath and let me do this."

"O-Ok, I'll do that. I trust you," he held his breath, stiffened his body and finally let his doctor-wife do her job. She slowly took of the cast, revealing his purple bruised skin with a few burn marks here and there around it. She wrapped her hands around the area of the bone and in a quick manner, twisted the bone back in place. "GIYAH!" Natsu yelled in pain.

"Don't worry," she grabbed some lotion and spread it around his leg before wrapping it in newly fresh bandages. "The pain will cease soon."

"Y-Yeah?" Natsu cringed his teeth, still feeling the pain.

"Yeah." Ezra happily responded.

"Sorry for making you work on your off day, Erz." He apologized once more just as he laid his back, back into his bed.

"It's alright," she accepted his apology, taking her seat back near his bed. "At least it was with you that I worked on." She tried to see the bright side of this.

"Yeah well that's true." Natsu scratched his head.

Suddenly a third party voice from behind the door in his room called out. "Dr. Scarlet, you still there?" A man's voice was heard.

"You can come in." Both Natsu and Erza said in unity.

The mysterious man opened the half way, revealing himself to be the Dean of Medicine, Dr. Jellal Fernandez. "Hello, excuse Mr. Dragnet but I'm going to have to borrow your wife for this."

"On her off day?" Natsu raised his eyebrow.

"It's okay Natsu," Erza got herself up from her seated position and proceeded out the door. She turned to look at him before leaving. "It's probably not that important."

"Define important," Jellal rhetorically asked. "See you Mr. Dragneel."

"See you," He waved goodbye, seeing them go out the door. "Maybe I should take a nap…" His eyes were watery once he yawned.

Out the door, Jellal and Erza walked far enough from the room and into a solitary lounge in the hospital. "So what's so important?" She broke the silence.

"Have you seen the current news?" Jellal went to the coffee maker.

"Not really, I've been here all day with my husband, we ate lunch and watched normal TV together," she told him. He then turned to look at her as he drank his dark coffee from his maroon colored plastic cup. "You seem off edge. Is something the matter?"

"Well I was taking a nap before I received a call from the police, so yes I am a bit edgy." He put his cup of coffee on the coffee maker's desk.

"The police?" The sound of shock escaped Erza's mouth. "Why did they call you?"

"They found him already." He said, wiping the crust of his eyes.

"The arsonist!?" Her voice grew a bit.

"Yeah, but he's pretty burnt up," he laughed at his own comment. "Ironic."

"What does this have to do with me?" She asked him, hoping she can cut to the chase.

"They asked for the best doctor in this hospital." He said, grabbing his cup of joe once more.

"They're bringing him here?" She continued on with her questions. "And I'm flattered that you consider the best doctor here."

"Correction, they are here," he sipped his coffee. "And yes, you are my best doctor but are you up for the responsibility of being his doctor?"

"Is my integrity being questioned here?" She asked, this time crossing her arms across his chest.

"No, I'm asking because this is the same arsonist that put your husband in this hospital," he told her. "So I'm asking you one last time, are you up for the responsibility, yes or no?"

She no longer had her arms crossed. From what he could see, she turned her hand into a fist, exhibiting anger. "As a doctor, I am sworn to do my job and save my patients… but…" She looked down, thinking her words. "Nothing would make me happier than choking the life out of that bastard, so no. Get the second best doctor here, ok?" She turned around and started to walk away.

"Hmm, ok," He said, accepting her answer and finishing his coffee. "Oh, one more thing."

She stopped before opening the door to get out of the lounge. "And what's that?" She said without turning.

"Don't mention this to your husband." He said, throwing his cup into the trash bin near the hospital couch.

"I won't." She continued her walk.

It was a short walk but it seemed long to her. Her surroundings, the people around her, everything seemed to have slowed down. Her thoughts wondered about, contemplating what had just happened. Coming back to her senses, she realized she stopped right in front her husband's room.

She walked in and saw Natsu turned his back away from the door. "Natsu? Are you sleeping?"

He raised his hand, showing that he was still alert of his surroundings. "Yeah, I was thinking of taking a nap but…"

"But what?" She asked, closing the door behind her.

"I'm starving…" She could hear his loud stomachaches from where she stood.

"Heh," she chuckled. Her stomach started to growl as well, synchronizing with his. "Guess we're both hungry."

"Hey, what time is it?" He turned back to look at the door.

"Hmm," she brought her hand to her face and stared at her wristwatch. "It's about to be 6."

"Thanks." He said.

"Well I guess I can go get something to eat," she grabbed her jacket and purse from one of the empty chairs she had left them on. "Something from lunch room or…?"

"Surprise me." He didn't really care at this point like he did in the morning and afternoon.

"I was thinking Thai food." She said, pressing her index finger on her bottom lip.

"Good enough for me." He said, stretching his arms above his head.

"Alright, I'll be right back then." She put her purse or rather shoulder bag in place and left out the door.

She took several turns before facing an elevator. And right at the exact time it came up to her floor. She saw a few people come out, leaving the elevator to herself. She pressed the bottom left button and continued on her way.

No more than a few seconds, and she came to her designated floor: The Parking Lot. Just as she reached her car, her Spider-Sense tingled. "What the…" She turned to look back at the hospital's elevator. She stared at it, not noticing a few sweats drops coming down from her forehead to her cheek. "M-Must've been nothing." She shook it off and took out her keys.

Back inside the Hospital, primarily the main entrance. The familiar buff red headed sort of drunk man came in, wearing shades and a baseball cap to obscure his identity. He came up to the main desk. "Can I help you?" The desk manager asked.

"Yeah, I'm looking for someone." He said, leaning forward on the desk.

"Sir," her nostrils seemed to have picked up his alcohol smell. "Have you been drinking?"

"I may have had a small shot or two," he lied. "But no, I'm not drunk if that's you're intended question."

"Doesn't matter," she waved her hand in front her face, obscuring the smell away from her. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

He then showed her his firefighter emblem badge. "Does this convince you otherwise?"

"Firefighter?" She stared at the golden badge.

"Now, can you take me to the arsonist?" He asked once more.

"I'm not sure if you shou-"

"Please?" He interrupted her, almost begging her to take him there.

Even with all that alcohol in the air, she could through the man. "… Ok, follow me this way."

"Thank you."

She called somebody beforehand to take over the main desk. Within the minute, she got off her chair and proceeded to show the shady firefighter to the arsonist's room.

First, they took the elevator, pressing the number 5 on the button. The same floor where Natsu's room occupied. It wasn't long for the elevator to reach the floor level. They continued their walk, taking turns from right to left. Finally, the disguised firefighter saw the room, which was obvious considering 2 cops guarded the room. "I'll take it from here miss." He told her.

"Excuse me?" She stopped walking.

"Where the cops are, that's where the arsonist is right?" He stood in front of her, talking lowly enough for her to listen to him.

"Y-Yeah." She confirmed.

"Ok, then take my advice. You don't want to be here." He continued to walk, leaving the desk manager where she stood.

He took off his cap and shades. "Hey there Chief Gildarts." One of the cop guards greeted him.

"Where's Laxus?" He asked for his cop friend's whereabouts.

"He's probably down at the Hospital's lunchroom." One of the guards said, looking up and scratching his chin.

"Yeah he and Officer Riley did look pretty beat up from trying to catch this bastard." The other guard clarified.

"That's good." Gildarts said lowly.

"What was that?" The guard asked. Before they knew it, Gildarts dashed into the arsonist's room.

"What the-!?" One of them said.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" Gildarts took out what seemed to be a 9mm handgun, pointing it at arsonist.

"What are you doing!?" They quickly reacted with them taking out their guns.

Their actions suddenly caused a sudden uproar of people. "Oh my god!" One of the nurses screamed at the situation. The doctors and patients that were walking around are now either hiding behind the nurse's station or inside other patients room.

"Chief, I don't like where this is going…" The guard said, aiming his gun at the veteran Firefighter.

"THIS BASTARD DOESN'T DESERVE TO LIVE!" He said, keeping his aim at the arsonist.

"Boss, are you there?" The other guard tried to communicate through chest walkie-talkie.

"Hmm, what's up?" Officer Laxus responded to the guard.

"Chief Gildarts is here," the guard poked his head into the room, watching the firefighter's actions along with his partner. "And he's taken the Arsonist as a hostage..."

"PFFT! WHAT!?" He spits his food out of his mouth.

"What's wrong boss?" Riley asked as he chewed and enjoyed his lunch food.

"Gildarts is here," he responded to Riley. He got his napkin and wiped the pieces of food in his chin and lips. "We'll be right down there!" He hanged up. "Let's go!"

"What's the hurry?" Riley asked, dropping his fork onto his plate.

"Gildarts has taken Ben hostage." He told him.

"Oh shit." He and Laxus quickly got up from there table and headed on up there.

So they could get there faster, they took the emergency stairs located near the lunchroom. It didn't take long for them to get to the fifth floor. They hurried their pace than before considering the floor's halls were sort of clear.

They made it to the room, where the men took cover near a cart. "What's the current situation?" Laxus asked the guards, as he and Riley took cover in the same spot.

"Not good, he's in there waving his gun at the maniac!" The guard said.

"He has a fucking gun!?" Laxus and Riley said at the exact same time.

"Did I not mention that?" The guard tried to recall his exact words.

"You didn't mention anything about a goddamn gun!" Laxus yelled at the guard.

"S-Sorry sir!" He apologized for the lack of information.

Laxus turned his attention to his distressed friend inside the room. "…"

"You going in there or what?" Riley asked.

"You know? For a sketch artist, you're really attentive at these things." He said.

"I'm usually behind a desk or a sketch pad," Riley replied. "I'm usually able to see through people and some of their bullshit."

"Ah." Both men including the guards looked through the door.

"He needs a friend in there, so go. I got your back from here," Riley saw that his boss holstered his gun away. "What are you doing!?"

"I'm doing it my way!" Laxus got himself up from his crouched position and proceeded to walk in the room, unarmed.

"DO YOU NOT FEEL ANY REMORSE FOR WHAT YOU DID YOU SHIT!?" Gildarts said, not leaving his aim of off the arsonist. He then heard footsteps come inside the room. He turned and saw his blonde friend, with his armed race.

"Gildarts, what are you doing?" He continued to put his arms and hands above his head.

"WHAT THE FUCK THIS IS LOOK LIKE I'M DOING!?" He retorted back. He kept walking forward and backward around the end of the arsonist's bed.

"Gildarts, man, you like shit!" Laxus saw his appearance. His hair was sort of messed up and a rather unpleasant scent of booze reeked into his nose. "And what's that smell? Ar-Are you fucking drunk!?"

"I… I may have had a few too many before I came here to confront this bastard…" His toned lowered. With his other hand, he wiped away a few small drops of sweat that had come down from his cheek.

"Oh my fucking God…" Laxus was now rather nervous at this point as his blank face showed. He's never dealt with calming down a drunk person, let alone a drunk friend. "Are you insane!?"

"At this point," his red eyes haven't locked off of Ben. "I DON'T FUCKING CARE!"

Back outside the room, the guards and Riley could hear the conversation between the two from where they were. "Alright guys, I'm going to need one of you to put the rest of the people from this floor in rooms, while the other goes back to the main floor and use the hospital's loudspeakers to inform the rest of the civilians to go into rooms and lock their doors."

"Y-Yes sir!" Both men got up from their crouched positions and walked out in different positions.

Riley looked back at the room, staring intently and continued to listen on the conversation.

"Gildarts, you know exactly what you're doing is wrong!" Laxus continued to calm him down. "You know that!"

"I-I know, but this fucker took away my best friend!" Gildarts continued to hesitate as he aimed at the man.

"I'm your friend too!"

In the main floor of the hospital, everything and everyone were calm, almost as if they knew nothing of what was happening. The guard stumbled onto the main desk. "Excuse me, can I borrow your microphone." He asked the new lady that is currently replacing the one that escorted Gildarts.

"Hmm? What for?" She asked as she continued to type into her computer.

"Do you not know what is going on at the moment?" He asked her.

"Am I supposed to know?" She looked away from her computer one bit to look at the guard. She could see his sweat drip from his forehead, like he was running a marathon beforehand. "I-Is something the matter?"

"There is a very drunk firefighter with a gun taking the serial arsonist as hostage," he told her in the best manner he could. "Now, give me the microphone, please."

Without question, she turned her chair and grabbed the microphone which was linked to all the loudspeakers in the hospital and handed it over to the guard.

"ATTENTION MAGNOLIA HOSPITAL RESIDENTS!" The speakers all sounded from all across the hospital.

The loud noise also managed to wake up the pinkette from his sleep. "…mmm… What the…" Natsu yawned, stretching his arms above his head. He then noticed 2 nurses were in his room, looking at the loudspeaker in his room.

"THERE IS A DRUNK FIREFIGHTER WIELDING A GUN AND TAKING THE SERIAL ARSONIST AS A HOSTAGE!" The guard continued on with his announcement. "DO NOT BE ALARMED! THERE IS ALREADY A FEW COPS TAKING CARE OF THIS SITUATION! IF YOU'RE OUT IN THE HALL'S OF THE HOSPITAL, PLEASE GO TO THE NEAREST ROOM AND LOCK YOURSELF AND OTHERS UP! WE WILL ALERT YOU WHEN THE THREAT IS NEUTRALIZED! THANK YOU AND HAVE A NICE DAY!" He gave the microphone back to the desk clerk.

"Did you really have to add the last part?" She asked grabbing and putting the microphone back where it was on the table.

"Yeah."

Within minutes, the so calm main floor had its doctors and patients run around. From pushing to hitting, many tried to get out of the hall in hopes of avoiding the situation at hand.

At the same time that happened, word got out and one of Magnolia's Police car was stationed outside, quickly sorting out the mess of people coming in and out. Another was stationed near the parking lot's entrance doing the same thing as the first patrol car.

"What the hell?" Erza said as she drove by the entrance of the hospital. Just as she neared the Parking lot entrance, she was stopped by one of the cops.

"Ma'am, going to need you to come back until this whole thing is sorted out." He told her as she rolled down her window.

"What's happening?" She asked him.

"There's a firefighter in the serial arsonist's room, taking him hostage," he told her the current situation. "The boss is trying to calm him down."

"A firefighter!?" She instantly thought of her husband. Did he find out the arsonist was here already?

"Ma'am, you ok there?" He saw her brows furrowed, indicating some hint of nervousness.

"I need to get in there!" She told him.

"No one comes in or out at the moment." He told her.

"You don't understand, I'm a doctor." She showed him her credentials.

"Sorry, not even doctors are coming in or out." He told her once more.

"My husband is in there!" She tried convincing him once more.

"My brother is in there too but I'm not worried." He told her once more.

"He's a firefighter, it could be him!" She said, hoping that could convince him otherwise.

He stood there trying to process the new given information. "This is Officer Scott; do you have any confirmation on the identity of the mysterious firefighter?" He spoke to his walkie-talkie.

"The identity of the drunken firefighter is Magnolia's Fire Department, Chief Gildarts, confirmed by Officer Riley," one of the first responders by the front entrance clarified. "Over."

"Roger." He said.

"Chief Gildarts? Oh thank god." She sighed in relief that it wasn't Natsu with the arsonist.

Back at the arsonist's room, Girdarts continued his repetitive walk at the end of the bed. "There's nothing you can say that'll change my mind right now, Laxus!"

"Don't do this!" Laxus repeatedly told him once more. "What would Macao think of this?"

Gildarts stopped walking and turned to look at the blonde cop. "…what did you say?"

"What would Macao think of this!?" He uttered the words once more towards Gildarts.

"DON'T. YOU. DARE. GO. THERE!" He now pointed his gun at Laxus.

"Nngh," Laxus was surprised at this situation. His friend held him at gunpoint now. Laxus was rethinking of equipping his gun now, but continued on with his pieces of words. "But I am!" He told him. "You're being a damn hypocrite! You're using his death to justify this! THIS ISN'T WHAT HE WANTED YOU DAMN BRUTE!"

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" He held both of his hands up by his head, almost like he was covering his ears to stop listening to Laxus.

In his disarray state of mind, Gildarts waved around his gun. From pointing at Laxus to pointing his gun back at the arson, who is now awake and aware in his oxygen incubator. Laxus was now fully aware that he might not be able to talk him down. "You fucking idiot, stop pointing around that gun like that!" Laxus unholstered and drew his gun at the man. He saw he that he quickly recovered from his sudden migraine and his movements began again, this time however, in the most impatient way he's ever been. "This isn't you!"

"I'm sorry Laxus, but I can't do that!" The red haired man pointed the gun again the badly burnt and bandaged man. "Not after all the pain this bastard has brought to many people…"

"I swear to God, Gildarts!" Laxus put his gun near his right eye, aiming at him. "If you pull up that gun one more time, I would not hesitate to shoot you!"

"Go ahead." He drew it up once more, provoking his friend to fire his gun. A small tear seeped out of his left and down it strolled his cheek it went.

No use, he couldn't bear the thought of shooting his friend. "Fucking bastard, stop it!"

"I'm sorry Laxus." Gildarts placed his finger on the trigger.

Like back in the building, Laxus' perception slowed down. He turned his head slowly to the left, only to see a crutch at the side at him thrown, passing right beside him. Gildarts, in the same manner, turned to look at Laxus only to find out that the wooden crutch had reached and hit his hand, knocking off his weapon. With the impact, the gun flew from his hand, slinging into the window and meeting its end.

"What the hell!?" Both of them said, turning their attention toward the assailant.

"You dumb bastard!" A certain loudmouthed pinkette said coming in slowly with the other crutch still underneath his right armpit. "The hell are you doing here waving around a gun like that!?" He blatantly asked Gildarts. "And you! Why didn't you stop this big dumbass!?" He turned his attention at Laxus now.

"Eh what?" Seeing as Gildarts was disarmed, Laxus holstered his gun, although he was still surprised to see Natsu. "H-How did you even get past the security guards and Officer Riley!?"

"I knocked them out with one of my crutches," he started to walk towards Gildarts. "Like this."

"Wai-" Without much, Natsu raised his right crutch, hitting Gildarts in the head, knocking the drunken behemoth out for the count.

"Damn idiot," he sighed as he put his crutch back into place. "This the arsonist punk?" He turned to look at the burnt arsonist.

"Nngh… what are you going to do?" Laxus sweat dropped as both men gazed into each other's eyes.

The arsonist's red eyes, from his sclera to his pupil and iris, grew wider, remembering Natsu from his encounter at the burning building complex where he murdered the girl Angelica. "Y-You're… still… alive!?" Because of his extensive burns, he had trouble trying to speak

"Hmm…" Natsu turned away, not responding to the man in anyway and simply started to walk back toward his room. He stopped right next to Laxus just before leaving the room. "Macao's funeral is tomorrow, just for the heads up."

"Yeah, his wife had called me in the morning." He answered.

And just like that, Natsu left the room, leaving the regretful friend, the serial arsonist and the drunk firefighter in there. Just as he left, Laxus went up to the knocked out Gildarts, putting the cuffs on him and carrying him out of the room.

As he came out, Riley, who was on the floor, seems to be coming back from his sudden slumber. "Ugh… did Natsu really just hit me? And with his crutch? On the head!?" He said rubbing his face with his hand.

"Call it in." Laxus sighed back, taking a seat next to where he placed the knocked out drunk.

"10-15." He radioed on the walkie-talkie.

"10-4," the police stationed near the hospital's main entrance affirmed. "Alright guys, threat is in custody. We could let these guys back in."

Several hours later…

In a holding cell back at the main Police Station, Gildarts laid down on one of the holding cell's benches. His forehead and his eyelids started to wince up and downward, his breathing became hoarser than before. "Ouch…" He weakly said, placing one of his hands over his forehead, trying to stop some sort of head pain.

"You awake?" Laxus stood waiting near the wall behind the bars, holding a cup holder tray with two coffees in it.

"Give me a minute…" Gildarts insisted.

"Understood," Laxus continued to wait. He then nodded at the guard, getting the keys and opened the holding cell for Laxus. He came in, closing and locking the cell's door behind him once more, taking a seat next to his friend. "How you feeling?"

"Like a fucking train hit me really hard…" He continued to groan. With his right middle finger and thumb, he massaged his forehead. "Tell me…"

"Hmm…" Laxus looked at Gildarts, waiting for his question.

"I… didn't kill him… right?" He asked him.

"No." Laxus answered.

"Thank god…" He placed both his hands on his face, taking a deep breath. "My memory seems… to be very… vague at the moment."

"But you know what you did kill?" Laxus asked him.

"What?" He asked, still trying to remember what he did in his drunken rampage.

"Your brain cells." He chuckled.

"Huh… fucking smartass." Gildarts chuckled with him. With his eyes finally opened, he took a seat where he laid.

"Here," Laxus handed him one of the cup of coffees. "Figured you might have needed one of these once you've woken up."

"Thanks." He grabbed it, sipping the dark coffee from the cup.

"Also, I pulled some strings, used some of my favors…" Laxus straightened out his back, looking up at the ceiling.

"And?" Gildarts asked, hoping to get the rest out of him.

"And you're getting released tomorrow," Laxus got his coffee, drinking some before finishing his sentence. "Wouldn't want you to miss Macao's funeral."

"…" Gildarts looked down at his coffee. "T-Thanks."

"Don't thank me," Laxus got up from his seat. "Here, Macao's wife also wanted you to write an eulogy." He handed him a notepad and a pencil before walking back towards the cell's door. "One more thing."

"And what's that?" He asked, putting the notepad and pencil on the bench as well as the guard opened the cell's door.

"You're going to have to retire earlier than what you were intending to." He said looking back at Gildarts.

Without much thinking, Gildarts brought a rather small but gleeful smile on his face. "I've been at this game for a long while now, haven't I?"

"Yeah."

…

Back at the hospital, everything seemed to be back to normal. The halls were back to being filled with patients, doctors and nurses alike, the sounds of nurses typing and gossiping all around along with phones that keep on ringing.

"Oh," Erza gasped, looking at the time at her wristwatch. "Going to have to leave in a bit."

"Already?" Natsu already misses her with the frown he gave her.

"Don't worry, I'll be back tomorrow to pick you up before the funeral." She got up from her chair, placing it back with the rest of the others.

"I guess," he pouted, slouching right back into his pillow. "Hey Erza."

"Yeah?" She asked, getting her things ready before she left.

"You think… you think I'll go in a rampage like Gildarts if something ever happened to you?" He asked her, looking down and rubbing his neck.

"I don't know," she said placing her bag on her right side. "The human mind works in very different ways but…"

"But what?" He could hear the rather hesitant tone in her voice.

"But, I don't think so," she said, walking towards the bed and taking a seat next to him. With her both of her hands, she held his. "I've known you almost all my life Natsu, and if there's one thing I know, is that your love for me is greater than your rage instincts." She placed her hand on his cheek, soothingly petting him.

"I guess that works for me." He chuckled.

"Ok now, I have to go, the nurses over here start tripping about visiting hours and what not,' she got off of the bed and walked over to the door. "Goodnight now, see you tomorrow.

He nodded. "Love you." He told her.

"Love you too."

---

Author's Note: Sorry for updating late. Hopefully, this is as much of out of character I can get, hope you still enjoy it. Anyways, chapter 3 might take a little longer to make but hopefully I can upload it before Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate. But in the meantime, I'm going to make a bonus chapter for the funeral, so there's that. Thank you for waiting patiently, I appreciate it. Bye and Happy Holiday's to all.