Natsu was just getting into the car when his phone went off. Looking at the caller ID he saw it wasn't a number he knew. Accepting the call he pressed the phone up by his ear as he closed the car door behind him.

"Hello?" Natsu said as he pushed the key into the ignition.

"Hello" said a familiar voice that Natsu figured he should probably recognized but didn't "This is Lucy" ah well that answered his question.

"Heartfilia?" Natsu asked as he turned the key, he didn't know any other Lucy.

"Yes" she said matter of factly before saying "I found something interesting."

"Really?" Natsu asked "Well I learned some stuff too, about the tattoo."

"Great" Lucy said before continuing what she had been about to say "So as I was saying, I got the tox screen back for the body and-"

"I'm going to stop you right there for a second" Natsu said, cutting Lucy off. He didn't really intend to be rude by he had just looked at the time on the car's dashboard and had saw that it was past seven, and he was starting to hear his stomach growl. His first priority was finding or getting food.

"What" she said with a huff and Natsu could feel her irritability from across the town "Do you think what you learned was that much more important? Because unless you found the murderer than I'm pretty sure you didn't find anything better than what I did."

"I didn't mean to be rude" Natsu said "I just realized how late it was and that I hadn't eaten anything yet."

"Oh" he heard her say "It is pretty late, but that doesn't give you the right to interrupt me."

"I know, I was just going to ask you if you wanted to eat at that diner that is right across the street from the museum. I figured that if you hadn't eaten we could get together in person to exchange what we found" Natsu said as he began to head towards the diner. Even if she had already eaten, he didn't have any food left at home so his best bet was eating at the diner tonight.

"I guess that's a good idea, I have eaten anything yet" Lucy said before asking "But geez, that means I'll have ate out twice today."

"What you have a problem with that?" Natsu asked as he stopped at a stoplight "There has to be something there you'll deem acceptable."

"There is but still…"she said before trailing off.

"Listen; think of it as multi-tasking. We're eating and exchanging information" Natsu said "We're getting two things done at once."

The line was quiet for a few seconds before he got his answer "I'll be at the diner in five."

"Well I'll be there in about ten minutes" Natsu said as the light turned green.

"See you then" Lucy said before promptly hanging up.

/

Lucy slid into a booth before surveying the diner. It wasn't empty, there were two other customers, and she was beginning to think the best word for the place was desolate. But according to the sign they had the best pie in the state so how bad could the place really be.

While the diner was right across the street from her job she had never once been there before. Natsu wasn't there yet but what did she expect, he did say it would take him about ten minutes to get there. When the waitress approached her and offered a menu she almost told her she was waiting for someone else before realizing that it wasn't like the two of them were eating out together, together. They were just two colleagues who were meeting up to discuss the details to a case.

Taking the menu she looked over the options and had just made up her mind to get a salad when Natsu walked in. He must have noticed her relatively quickly since he immediately headed for the booth she was sitting at. He slid in across from her and asked "I forgot to ask earlier but how did you get my number? I don't remember giving it to you."

"Ahhh yes" Lucy thought as she felt her cheeks heat up slightly, she had figured that question would have been coming sooner or later. "After I finished a quick look over of the body I figured I should call you to tell you what I found. But then I realized I didn't have your number so I had to call my boss so I could call your boss to find out your number."

Natsu stared at her for a few seconds with an unreadable face before asking "You do realize that there are phone books, right?"

"Yes, I carry one on me at all times" Lucy said with a sigh before asking "So do you want me to tell you what I found out or keep giving me ridiculous advice."

"I don't know" Natsu said as he took the menu from the waitress "But I do tend to enjoy ridiculous things."

"So do want to solve this case or not?" Lucy asked as she rested her head on her hand.

Natsu hummed before turning to the waitress "I'll take the usual Gloria."

"I swear to god Natsu you're going to turn into chili at this rate" the waitress, Gloria apparently, said as she took the menu back from him before turning to Lucy "And have you decided?"

"Oh, um, yes" Lucy said as she picked up her menu and handed it back to the lady "A caesar salad please."

"Okay then" Gloria said as she scribbled something down on her note pad before saying "It'll be out shortly."

As she walked away Lucy turned back to Natsu and asked "So you come here enough to know the waitresses' names and for them to know yours?"

"Hey I'm a single guy that has almost burned down my apartment whenever I try to cook anything more than ramen" Natsu said with a shrug "I've learned to find the cheapest and best food in Magnolia."

"So then, do you know if their pie is really as great as they claim?" Lucy asked, still remembering the sign from when she had walked in.

"Oh yeah, they have the best apple pie" Natsu said getting a dreamy look on his face, the best way to his heart was definitely through food. Not that she needed to know that at all.

"So who should start first, you or me?" Lucy asked as she reeled Natsu back from his wistful staring.

"With what, our favorite pie fillings?" Natsu asked, still apparently still focused on pie.

"No, which one of us should talk first about what we found?" Lucy asked again.

"You should go first" Natsu said "You were the one who called me to tell me what you had found out."

"Okay then" Lucy said before taking a deep breath "But I have a lot to say."

"Well we have time to spare waiting for our food, so I don't think it will be a big deal" Natsu said with a shrug.

"Uh-huh" Lucy said before starting off from the very beginning "So when I got back to the lab a tech had finished testing the blood I had gotten from the victim. He honestly didn't have too much in him at the time. Traces of alcohol and cannabis were found in his system but with so little amounts he wasn't intoxicated but maybe tipsy at most."

"So our victim wasn't high or drunk when he died?" Natsu asked.

"Yes, so it rules out the theory that it was just an unfortunate accident due to the victim being intoxicated" Lucy said as Natsu nodded.

"But that doesn't get rid of the theory that it was an accident, right?" Natsu asked.

"Actually on the tox report something else was found in his body that would suggest otherwise" Lucy said.

"And what exactly was it?"

"50 mg of doxylamine was found in the victim's blood" Lucy said.

"That's a, um what do you call, a sedative?" Natsu asked.

"Yes and it was almost half the recommended amount" Lucy said.

"So that's bad, at least I'm guessing it's bad" Natsu said as he tapped his finger on the table.

"Well if the victim wanted, or if someone else wanted him, to be knocked out for a good amount of time where he wouldn't wake up no matter what then, well, they accomplished that" Lucy said as she watched Natsu's brow knit together.

"So you're telling me this might have been a murder" Natsu asked as he folded his hands together.

"It's a possibility, normally if someone is taking it as a prescription it's only recommended that they take twenty-five milligrams" Lucy said as she began to bounce her leg up and down, she was beginning to feel the earlier excitement coming back.

"Okay then, we might have a guy who got knocked out before being what, drowned while he was asleep?" Natsu asked, his one eyebrow quickly rising.

"It's a possibility since the victim would have been so out of it they might not even had been aware they were even dying" Lucy said feeling a little bit sick as he thought what might have actually happened to this man "So I decided to get the water tested."

"Why?" Natsu asked "What can the water help us with other than whether or not he drowned?"

"Well after I thought of what might have actually happened if this was a murder I came up with an…idea" Lucy said, pausing for a few seconds "I thought I should test the water to see if it matched with the water in the river the body was found in."

"And what did you find out?" Natsu asked as he leaned forward.

Taking a deep breath Lucy answered "I found it was most likely not from the same source."

"So?" Natsu asked, confusion spreading on his face.

"So it means the body might have been drowned at one body of water and brought to another one, the river" Lucy said.

"Do you know what kind of water the victim was drowned in?" Natsu asked.

"Yes, it was salt water" Lucy said "Which means the most likely place he was drowned at was by the docks."

"At least we have a possible crime scene, and now a suspicion it was murder. A dead body doesn't drown in one place and gets up and walks to another in a few hours" Natsu said looking more and more concerned.

"I have some more things to add" Lucy said as Natsu looked back over at her "The victim's phalanges, or fingers, had numerous different remodeling's on them. I'm guessing the victim got into a lot of fights, particularly fist fights."

"Well that would go along with him being a part of a gang" Natsu said as Gloria came over and placed their food down onto the table.

"So you did found out that the victim was part of a gang?" Lucy asked.

"Yep" Natsu said "But you weren't done talking about what you found on the body."

"There isn't much else worthwhile. The cause of death was drowning. He was drowned in salt water and then the body was moved to fresh water for some reason. Different remodeling done on the bones suggests that he probably was involved in many fights during his lifespan" Lucy said "Sedatives were found in his system as well as low amounts of alcohol and cannabis. There isn't much else to tell, so tell me what you found."

Placing the spoon he had picked up back into the bowel Natsu began "I met up with my friend and showed them the picture of the tattoo. They were able to tell me that it belonged to a gang known as Tartaros which is kind of like a sub gang of a much larger gang known as Spriggan 12 which is run by a man known as Zeref."

"Isn't he that infamous crime boss or something?" Lucy asked.

"Yeah he's pretty high up there on the list of most wanted criminals. But that's beside the point; he probably doesn't have a hand in this" Natsu said "According to my friend Tartaros is in some kind of internal turmoil right now. They've had a lot of problems lately so their off their guard right now. So with all of these dead bodies of their members showing up around town, it might just be due to all of that."

"Still does that really back up why so many bodies have been showing up recently?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know" Natsu said "But I'm thinking if I can find out more about whatever it is Tartaros is fighting about this will make a lot more sense."

"Wow, with all of this new information, this is starting to sound like it's going to be a pretty big case" Lucy said glancing over at Natsu nervously biting her lip. She remembered what the police officer and Natsu had been talking about earlier that day, would Natsu be off the case if it turned out to be too much?

"Yeah" Natsu said with a sigh "I'm thinking I'm going to have to tell not only my boss but yours."

"Why mine?" Lucy asked, what did she have to do with the case suddenly becoming much bigger than what it had originally thought to been.

"Well this involves a gang which could end up getting pretty messy for anyone involved" Natsu said.

"So that means that someone might get sent after me?" Lucy asked, as her faced paled slightly.

"Probably not" Natsu said quickly in hopes of calming her "But we should probably tell our bosses about this, tomorrow though."

"Why not now?" Lucy asked.

"Because this has been a long day that feels like it's been dragging on, plus we have food right in front of us that we should eat" Natsu said as he gestured at the food on the table "We'll tell them tomorrow morning after we get some sleep. We've had a busy day."

"I guess you are right" Lucy said, the day had honestly felt like it had dragged on forever, maybe this is what it's like when you have a deadline you have to follow for examining a body.

"Well than" Natsu said "Let's dig in; we can talk more about this tomorrow."

/

As Lucy wrapped a towel around her head she heard the phone go off. Water still clinging to her skin from the shower, she walked into her bedroom and picked up her phone from her bed. She read the caller ID, it was her father or as he contact name was in her phone, Jude H.

Accepting the call she said "Hello."

"Hello Lucy" came her father's usual monotone voice "How have you been? Has anything happened at work recently?"

Repressing a sigh she answered him "I've been fine father. I actually was recently given an opportunity to work with the FBI. I'm examining a victim from a criminal case, not examining an age old body."

"That's nice Lucy" Jude said no sign of any emotion in his voice "I know how much you've wanted to work with the police and such to help catch killers. Good for you Lucy, your mother would be very proud of you."

Lucy felt herself getting choked up after that comment, Jude tended to keep conversations far away from her mother, rarely mentioning her except maybe on her birthday "Yes I know father, I'm doing what she would have wanted to do if she was alive." One of the main reasons Lucy had eventually decided to major in forensic anthropology was so she could pursue the career path her mother had never been able to do.

While her mother had been perfectly qualified to do the job no one seemed to want to actually hire her, and when she had been given an opportunity to work in a lab after she had given birth to Lucy she fell sick before she could even go in for her first day. The outlook after that hadn't looked good at all.

"You're following in her footsteps Lucy" Jude said "You're being the women she had always wanted to be."

"I know father" Lucy said, sitting down on her bed, the phone call wouldn't last much longer it was only about five to ten minutes her father would take to talk to her once a week. She knew if she really wanted to talk to him she could call him but she wasn't particularly warmed up to the idea of her dad and her being buddy-buddy yet. If he wanted them to have a decent father-daughter relationship he would have to make the first steps after giving her the cold shoulder for years after the death of her mother. But when the day came for her to trust him again she would call him and not wait for his call.

"Well Lucy I will let you go to sleep" Jude said.

"Mm-hmm" Lucy said "Good night father."

"Good night Lucy" Jude said before the call promptly ended.

Setting her phone on her nightstand, Lucy got up and went over to get out something to sleep in. It was a little after nine and she was about ready to pass out. After Natsu and her had finished their little show and tell they had ate their food in relative silence, it wasn't awkward surprisingly. They even talked about some things that didn't involve the case, but they only asked each other about what other kinds of things they had worked on.

Natsu told her about some of his more interesting cases and she told him about some of the different age old remains she had looked at. It had been rather pleasant and Lucy had decided that Natsu wasn't that bad of a person and that he might actually turn out to be enjoyable to work with.

But there was no use in thinking about work anymore. She could worry about what the outcome would be of telling her boss, and Natsu's too, that the case had gotten a little bit deeper than originally expected in the morning. Throwing on a pair of sweat pants and a shirt, she slid underneath her covers and let out a content sigh.

She was excited still. The adrenaline that had built up in her throughout the day, from the case earlier that morning, to being told she would be working with the FBI and every piece of new information she had found while examining the body that would lead to the discovery of how the victim died. It all gave her a feeling of excitement that crept into her chest.

The thought that this case could put her name out there, possibly, was enough to make it hard to sleep. She was doing what her mother had always wished to do and was succeeding. Despite all of her excitement she was able to slip off into sleep.

The next morning Lucy was out the door quickly. She wasn't sure when exactly Natsu would tell his boss what they had figured out but she figured she would tell Porlyusica the minute she walked into the lab.

As she stared out the bus window she heard her phone ding. Slipping out from her pocket she saw she had text, from what she guessed was Natsu. He must have saved her number; she figured she should probably do the same considering.

"Called my boss and told him that we needed to speak to him and your boss about some things. Supposed to meet them in his office" was what the text read.

Texting his back she sent him "Okay then I should be there soon."

She put her phone back into her pocket and tried to figure out where she would need to get off when her phone went off again. Taking it back out she saw Natsu had texted back.

"How exactly is soon?"

"Like ten minutes, probably" Lucy texted him back before turning her attention back to the map. At least she would only need to wait out one more stop past her normal one to get to the FBI building.

About fifteen minutes later Lucy was walking towards Makarov's office. A few agents sent her some looks but other than that they didn't say anything to her.

As she stood outside of the office she wondered if she should knock or just walk in. Porlyusica had just walked in when they had come the first time but Makarov had said something about knocking, so she was about to knock on the door when it flew open to show Natsu's face.

"Oh good, you're here" Natsu said before stepping aside so she could come in "I was about to go looking for you."

"I was only a few minutes late" Lucy said as she saw Porlyusica and Makarov standing off to the side, both with unreadable expressions.

"So what is it that you two wanted to talk to us about" Porlyusica said "If you had figured out how the victim died you would have left your findings on my desk Heartfilia."

"Well I did find out how the victim died Dr. Porlyusica" Lucy said holding up her hand to defend herself before her boss cut her off.

"Well than why didn't you? If you're finished you can return to your normal work" Porlyusica said, annoyance creeping into her voice, she had never been a patient person for as long as Lucy had worked for her.

"Well you see Dr. Porlyusica we're here to talk to you about the case because while we know how the victim died, we still need to examine the body, right Heartfilia" Natsu said as he turned around to look at Lucy.

"Yes we still need to examine the bones and such since there is a tinsy possibility that..." Lucy said before she paused when she saw how the two of them were looking at her with curiosity spreading across their faces, well now was a good time as ever to throw Natsu under the bus and make him finish her sentence "Natsu why don't you tell them."

Natsu sent her a look before saying "We believe based on what we examined and discovered yesterday, that this might possibly be linked to other unsolved cases."

"How many?" Makarov asked suddenly, glaring down at Natsu as if he knew what he was about to say.

"Sixty seven" Natsu said as he waited for Makarov to reply.

"And how do you know these cases are related and how were you able to find them in such a short period of time?" Makarov asked again.

"Because this body might be kind of sorta linkedtothatonetheoryIhad" Natsu said, smashing together his words in hopes that Makarov wouldn't notice.

"What?" Makarov asked anger beginning to form on his face.

"Because they might be linked to that one theory I had a few months ago about the bodies with the same tattoo being connected" Natsu said as he waited for the fury that would soon erupt.

"I thought I told you to drop that theory" Makarov said, coldness in his voice.

Before Natsu could come to his defense Lucy did "Sir listen, while Natsu didn't listen to you isn't it good that he kept following his gut and continuing with this theory behind your back. He might have discovered something big since it turns out the tattoo all the victims have belongs to a gang-"

"The tattoo is a gang tattoo?" Makarov asked as he turned to Natsu.

"Yeah" Natsu said avoiding his gaze "According to one of my sources it belongs to the drug ring known as Tartaros. They are part of the larger group Spriggan 12."

Makarov took a deep breath before saying "So I take the two of you called us here today to tell us about that then. That this might involve one of the largest drug rings in the city, hell probably the entire country."

"Yes?" Natsu answered cautiously.

"Please sir we have proof that the man was definitely murdered and was at least involved in some sort of job or something that caused him to get into fights" Lucy said "That should be enough to at least keep this case open."

"And what is it that you found Dr. Heartfilia?" Porlyusica asked.

"The victim's phalanges show numerous remodeling's that matches up with someone who has experienced hand to hand combat numerous times before. Also water was found in his lungs which means cause of death was drowning. But what is unusual is that the water found in his lungs match up to water that would be found in the bay, not the stream the body was found in. The victim was drugged before he died due to the high levels of doxylamine present" Lucy said, barely pausing to take a breath.

"So what exactly is it that you two are trying to tell us?" Porlyusica asked "You've most likely figured how the victim died, what else do you need to do?"

"What I think they're trying to tell us Porlyusica is that they want to continue with this investigation" Makarov said.

"Yes that's exactly what we're trying to say" Natsu said "We can't keep having dead gang members showing up around town in the masses. We need to get to the root of the problem. Plus sir, please consider all that could be accomplished by pursing this case. The identity of the leader of the drug ring could be revealed and best case would be us even being able to overthrow the gang itself and get rid of one of the Spriggan 12's many branches."

"I understand what you're trying to say Dragneel" Makarov said "So I'll allow you and Dr. Heartfilia working together on continuing this case."

"Really, you'll allow it?" Natsu asked.

"Yes I'm-"Makarov said before being cut off by Porlyusica.

"Makarov, you can't just expect me to let one of my scientists continuing working on this case considering the danger that is now present?" Porlyusica said.

"Listen, I know that some of the things you may seem on T.V. may scare you but I assure you Dr. Heartfilia will be perfectly safe. Unlike in T.V. shows, the scientist or whoever is examining the body, they rarely get targeted. So it's unlikely they would come after her, if they would come after anyone it would be Dragneel."

"Thanks for making me feel better sir" Natsu muttered as Makarov ignored his comment.

"So then Dragneel, let me set some standards before I let you loose" Makarov said, drawing Natsu's attention back to him "If this case starts to look too much for you to handle I will take you off the case and substitute you for more qualified agents. Do you understand?"

"I hear you loud and clear sir" Natsu said "I promise to be on my best behavior."

"Please don't make me regret this Dragneel" Makarov said with a sigh as he watched Lucy and Natsu leave the room.

"Well than Heartfilia" Natsu said "Ready to go take down a gang."

"I do think that would look very nice on my resume Dragneel" Lucy said with a laugh "So I think I will assist you."