A/N: Thank you all for your patience and kind reviews. Let's just say that the last four months have been... distinctly hellish and leave it at that. And now, at long last, without any further ado, I give you... a new chapter.

Chapter 28: The Right Thing to Do

Laxus stared at the ceiling of the guildhall. He wasn't really sure what he was doing there. It wasn't that he'd been expecting to just be abandoned where he fell but… he'd been banished from the guild. He ought to just be in the hospital. He had no right to be in the Fairy Tail guildhall.

"That was a really stupid thing you did, you know."

Laxus nearly levitated. He had only just woken up and hadn't realized there was even anyone near his bed. Ultear watched his flailing with feigned disinterest, but Laxus had known her long enough to spot the undercurrent of amusement. He lay back again with a sigh.

"'Stupid' covers a lot of things I've done lately – you're going to have to be more specific."

"Using Fairy Law after being banished from the guild should have killed you. There are safeguards in the spell that ensure no one outside of Fairy Tail can use it. A fact that you are perfectly well aware of."

Laxus didn't meet her eye.

"It needed to be done. The old man was right – Dad really did lose his mind after Mom died. He would have killed everybody." The sigh escaped Laxus in a long, unexpected rush. He hadn't wanted to believe, hadn't been able to bring himself to accept the truth until he saw Magnolia burning with his own two eyes. Until he heard the bright insanity dancing in his father's voice as he spoke. It had hurt even more than he had expected it to – like someone was tearing something deep and precious out of his chest.

Ultear just snorted, but a smile was trying to sneak onto her face now.

"What a moronically Fairy Tail answer. It's nice to see you finally got your head out of your ass."

"Is everyone alright?" Laxus asked, blithely ignoring that comment. He'd had several months to work on straightening out his priorities and worry about how Freed, Bickslow and Evergreen were getting on without him.

"Well, nobody's dead, if that's what you mean, though Gajeel did give it his best try. If it hadn't been for Wendy, there would have been casualties."

Laxus didn't quite sigh in irritation, because he did care that no one from Fairy Tail had died, but Ultear also knew that that wasn't what he had meant.

"How are Freed, Ever, and Bickslow?"

"Freed sprained his knee, Evergreen got some burns which should heal without any significant scarring, and Bickslow is currently blind," Ultear rattled off, watching his face carefully.

Laxus had been nodding along until she got to the part about Bickslow.

"What do you mean blind?!" Laxus tried to rocket upright in bed and then remembered why that wasn't a good idea. All his muscles protested in unison. He fell back down gain, his muscles spasming slightly.

"I said 'currently.' Wendy says it's not permanent." Ultear casually adjusted the sling that was holding her left arm immobile.

Laxus sighed. He recognized this passive aggressive pattern.

"You're still mad at me, aren't you?"

Ultear looked up from her sling and gave him a long, cool look.

"I don't care that you got Evergreen to turn me into a stone statue. I'm not even overly upset that you tried to use the thunder palace on Magnolia. But Gray and Lyon got trapped in one of Freed's word spells together, and I don't know if I can forgive you for that."

"Ah." Laxus looked away. That was one of the fights he'd been particularly interested in during the Battle of Fairy Tail when it had been happening. The Ice Djinn Trio rarely fought amongst themselves. They generally presented a unified front to the world. Obviously Ultear was the strongest of the three since she was S-class, but which of the others was stronger – Gray or Lyon? Static or animated magic? He'd been rather disappointed with the apparent results. The two had done seemly nothing for several minutes, then Gray had cold clocked Lyon, and that had been it. Boring. Laxus had moved on to being mad at Bickslow for losing to some little twig of a new girl. At the time, he hadn't even felt the smallest smidgen of regret. Now, just thinking about it made him feel sick.

Laxus had been there the day that Ultear, Gray, and Lyon had arrived. The young Ice Djinn Trio had refused to let each other out of their sight for days. Maybe even weeks. He remembered their eyes – large and haunted. Gray had been the hot-head of the group – quick to pick fights and throw magic at anyone who looked at them the wrong way. Lyon had been quieter but equally dangerous to anyone who so much as breathed a wrong word about his sister and brother. Ultear had been overprotective of her brothers to the point of practically being feral. All they had left in the world was each other. Laxus had been able to see it in the desperation of their every move. Years and trust and friendship had sanded the jagged edges smooth, but even close to a decade later that core of desperation was still there.

"I know-" Laxus stopped and cleared his throat when his voice cracked unexpectedly. He tried again, "I know it's not enough, but I am sorry. For what I did." He hesitated. Even after months of introspection and nearly sacrificing himself for the guildmates he'd harmed, the words were hard to force passed the lump in his throat. "It was… cruel. I'm sorry."

Ultear was silent. Laxus hadn't really expected her to say anything, but he'd needed to say the words. There were still a lot of words that needed to be said – to Ultear, to his grandfather, to Bickslow, Freed, and Ever –, but those would come later. The silence continued to stretch on for an uncomfortable five minutes before Ultear finally broke it.

"Hurry up and finish sleeping off that backlash. We need all hands on deck to help with the rebuilding." She looked away and fiddled with the edge of her sling again before turning to go.

Laxus blinked, and his eyebrows furrowed,

"What?"

Ultear glanced back at him over her shoulder,

"I told you it was a moronically Fairy Tail thing that you did. Welcome back to the guild, moron." The corner of Ultear's mouth ticked up ever so slightly. She walked away before Laxus managed to form any sort of response.

Laxus lay back and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. Then he closed his eyes. If he was going to help out with the reconstruction, he needed to rest up.

He wasn't forgiven. Maybe he'd never be forgiven. But he was being given a chance.

Laxus couldn't ask for more than that.

A/N: The next chapter will be posted on Friday since this chapter was so long in coming.