A always I do not own Fairy Tail it belongs to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for their use in my own creative expressions *bows*

The watermelon was passed around and it wasn't long before everyone at the table seemed to be in too much of a food coma for the awkward conversations to keep going although a few people were talking among themselves quietly. Levy ate her slice of the juicy red fruit with slow small bites, she felt a prickle on the back of her neck and turned her head to look directly into the eyes of the white haired girl Lisanna; she seemed to be peering at Levy with as much curiosity she was sure was in her own expression.

"Does anyone want any more dessert?" Mira asked as she stood and held up the nearly empty watermelon platter. Grunts and groans answered her from around the table; everyone seemed too stuffed for seconds.

"Supper was wonderful Mira, like always," Kinana complimented. "Let me help you with the dishes…" She stood as well and started stacking the empty plates in neat piles to take back to the house.

"I had lots of help," Mira replied cheerfully. "You don't have to do that, sit and enjoy yourself, we can handle it."

"No, I insist, it's the least I can do since you went to all this trouble." Levy felt a swell of fondness towards the other girl, she was so nice.

"But-," Mira started but before she could protest any more Cobra cut her off. "It's ok Mira; it is her job after all."

The table went silent from everyone except the kids, who took the opportunity to sneak off with their hands full of watermelon while their parents weren't paying attention. Kinana's hand had frozen in mid reach for an empty salad bowl from across the table, she was now glaring down at her boyfriend with a look that was somewhere between hurt and rage.

"What?" The man seemed clueless as to why everyone was looking at him.

Kinana said nothing, but snatched up the bowl and added it to her collection. "Excuse me," she muttered, almost too low for Levy to hear. She lifted the stacked dirty dishes and turned on her heel, stalking back to the house.

"Oh dear." Mira absently picked up her baby from Lisanna's lap and also went back to the house, another woman that Levy had figured out was Elfman's wife followed her.

"Dumb ass," Gajeel mumbled under his breath and Levy looked at him in surprise, he was sitting back in his chair, arms folded across his chest. Rogue on her other side nodded in agreement but didn't say anything. Levy caught Lucy's eye from across the table but the other girl looked as uncomfortable with the turn of events as she felt.

Just then a white head popped up from Lucy's lap, Plue also took advantage of the fact that his owner's attention was momentarily somewhere else and decided to go scavenging for leftovers. With a yip he jumped up on the makeshift table and before Lucy could react quick enough to catch him started running around sniffing empty dishware in search of supper.

"Plue!" The blonde girl exclaimed and tried to reach for him but she and Natsu had reacted at the same time.

"Come here you rat!" He shouted and jumped up to catch the dog before he could run off, in their hurry neither had seen the other move and their heads collided sideways with a force that knocked them both back.

"Lucy!" Levy jumped out of her own seat and rushed over to her friend's side with concern while the rest of the table erupted into chaos as others tried to catch the small white dog. He was too fast and found a half-eaten hotdog from one of the kids' plates, snatching it up with fierce little growl he jumped off the table and took off into some bushes to eat his prize.

"Are you ok?!" Levy asked when things quieted back down.

Lucy was sitting back in her chair and holding the side of her head with a grimace of pain. "I think so," she grumbled.

"I'll go get an ice pack." Lisanna took off towards the house quickly.

"Bring two!" Wendy called; she was inspecting the lump on Natsu's head that matched the one on Lucy's.

"Where did Plue go?" Lucy suddenly looked around in alarm but the movement brought on stabbing pain.

"Calm down," Levy replied soothingly. "He can't get too far, they will find him."

"Here." Lisanna pressed a bag of frozen peas into Lucy's hands and helped hold it against the side of her head. "Better?" The taller girl asked.

"Much," Lucy replied weakly. "Thanks."

"No problem." Lisanna passed the other bag of frozen vegetables to Wendy who tried to do the same with Natsu but he waved it off.

"I'm fine," he protested. "Takes a lot more than that to scramble my brain." He stood up out of his chair. "I'll go get that dog."

"Wait!" Levy called but he had already rushed off.

"Don't worry about him, he has a hard head." Sting hadn't joined the others who were either helping clean up from the meal or find the little dog.

"I noticed," Lucy replied dryly and gave him a sour look.

"Come with me into the house, it will be much quieter." Lisanna and Levy each took a side and escorted Lucy up the walk way with Wendy bringing up the rear. She led them past the living room and into the same hallway that Laxus had pulled Gajeel into earlier.

"This is my niece Makayla's room." Lisanna pushed open a door and suddenly they were in a completely pink and ruffled world. "You can rest in here for a while; I'll go get you some Aspirin." Wendy followed her back down the hall.

"Thanks." Lucy sat down on the bed,Levy stood beside her, she lowered the bag and poked at the goose-egg that was beginning to form. "How does it look?" She asked the other girl.

"Ahh…" Levy didn't really want to tell her best friend that she looked terrible with mussed up hair, a red face, and a large lump coming out of the side of her head.

"Don't say it, I can tell from your face." She groaned and replaced the cold bag before lying down sideways on the narrow bed. "At least this is almost over."

"What do you mean?" Levy asked, not understanding the comment.

"Tomorrow is Monday, you promised that if by Monday they didn't find out who was trying to get you that we would go to the real police." Lucy closed her eyes, all the bright pink in the room was adding to her headache.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Levy answered quickly. "We don't know what they've found out yet."

"What are you talking about?" Lucy glared up at her through half opened eyes. "Don't you think if they knew anything they would have told you by now?"

"I don't know," Levy admitted. "I think they are trying to protect us by not telling us everything, to keep us from worrying."

"Or it's because they don't know what they are doing." Lucy sat back up angrily. "The last two days have been awful! We're homeless, jobless and NOTHING seems to be getting done about it."

"That's not fair," Levy answered back, surprising even herself by how defensive she was feeling. "They at least found me before that guy did."

"How do you know someone is really after you? And if they are you should have just gone to the police like you said you would instead of these guys."

"Someone broke into our apartment Lucy, I wasn't dreaming that up." Levy was starting get past annoyed and defensive and into angry. "They've saved our lives at least once."

"And it's their fault that we are in this mess in the first place; if that guy hadn't been in that alley then you would have never been in danger in the first place."

"That's not true, it's not his fault." Levy couldn't believe that Lucy was being so judgmental all of a sudden. "What is your problem?"

"I didn't have a problem until yesterday," Lucy spat back. "And now our lives seem to be full of problems and you promised that if we didn't find anything out by tomorrow we would go to the real police, you PROMISED." She emphasized that last word.

Levy bit her lip nervously. "I know I did, but I don't think it's what we should do anymore."

"Well maybe you are ok staying with these people but I'm not," Lucy replied.

"Common Lucy, you don't mean that…"

"Yes I do!"

There was a soft knock on the door and they both looked up. Lisanna entered with a glass of water and couple white tablets. "I brought you some Aspirin." She held her hand out to Lucy. "Hopefully they make you feel better."

"Thanks." Lucy's tone was anything but grateful but she took the pain pills, tossing them in her mouth and washing them down with a long drink of water. "I want to be alone for a while." She practically growled as she lay back down on the bed, this time kicking her shoes off and curling into the fetal position.

"But Lucy…" Levy looked at her friend but she had already closed her eyes like she was done talking for the time being. She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up at Lisanna's sympathetic expression.

"We will let you rest," Lisanna answered for her. Levy sighed and followed her out of the room.

"She's just grouchy because she's got a bad headache. Give her a little bit of time and she will feel better."

Levy wanted to explain to the other girl that that wasn't the case but she didn't know her well enough to reveal something so personal. "Thanks again for everything," she replied instead.

"No problem." The other girl flashed a smile and it made her whole face light up beautifully. "It gives us a chance to get to know each other better." It was like she had just read Levy's thoughts.

"I should go help find Plue, or with the dishes or something," Levy tried protesting.

"The dog is playing with the kids, don't worry they won't get too rough with him. Mira has more than enough help with the clean-up, trust me."

They were back out in the living room where Wendy was standing waiting. "Natsu wouldn't take anything for his pain either, I swear it's like he's made out of a rock or something."

"His head definitely is." Lisanna grinned as she teased. "Let's go find somewhere to chat where we won't be interrupted." Levy followed them timidly, glancing over her shoulder back towards the hallway before stepping outside into the sunlight.

Yomazu and Kawazu made it back to the warehouse where their temporary base of operations had been set up, luckily Zancrow wasn't there so they could prolong having to face him until they had something better to tell him. Kawazu pulled the phone bill out of his pocket and typed the number into his phone. The call went straight to the voicemail of a sweet sounding girl by the name of Lucy which was the same name on the top of the phone bill. He disconnected before it could start recording a message; going straight to the messaging system meant that the phone was probably turned off for now, but it didn't mean she wouldn't eventually turn it back on.

He pressed another button his phone and waited for it to connect. "I need a tracer put on a phone number." He didn't bother with a greeting; he wasn't sure which one of the hackers that Hades employed he had gotten anyway. "This is the number." He read it off the bill again and there was silence on the other end of the phone while the techie tried tracing it.

"It's shut off right now but I put an alert on the number so we will know if the phone gets turned on," the kid replied. "Is there anything else you need sir?"

"No, you just keep an eye on that number and let me know as soon anything changes." He pushed the end button without hearing the reply.

He looked over at Yomazu who was gazing at the picture he had collected from the apartment. "It's a shame." It was like he could feel Kawazu's eyes on him. "She's almost too pretty for us to kill her."

"Pretty?" Kawazu raised an eyebrow, he wouldn't call the blue haired chick in the photo pretty but then he realized he was probably talking about the roommate. They were assuming that wherever the girls were they were together, so the roommate would have to die a long with the witness, especially if she knew about Nirvana as well. Yomazu was right, that almost was a shame.

"You never know, the boss might let us keep her for a while."

The other man looked up like he hadn't thought about this himself and shrugged. "What is our next move?" He asked instead of replying.

"Let's assume that they are with one of the Dragons. We find out where they live and go ask around, someone has to have seen something."

"That sounds like a stretch, I don't think the boss is going to like it that we haven't found out anything useful yet."

Kawazu held back from snapping on him, his partner had a bad habit of stating the painfully obvious. "Then we are just going to have to find something before we call him." Or he calls us, he added silently.

Gray was just straightening out his desk and getting ready to head home when Mest walked into the room.

"I thought you would want this right away, it was easier to just bring it to you myself." He handed him another confidential folder.

"Great, I'll just add it to the pile." Gray replied dryly.

"You are welcome." It was like Mest hadn't even noticed. "It's been a busy last few days, I'm looking forward to sitting on my couch and enjoying what is left of the long weekend."

Gray snorted. "This from the guy who volunteers for extra shifts on weekends like this."

"What can I say, I like being in the action. Say hi to the family for me." He strolled back out as quickly as he had come in. Gray settled back down in his chair and opened the file, skimming quickly over the report. There wasn't much new in there that Mest hadn't told already over the phone although he found the witness statement from the attacked neighbour to be interesting. It was hard to believe that the guy wouldn't remember anything about his attackers other than the fact that they weren't Gajeel Redfox. He heard someone else enter the room and looked up to see Erza.

"I didn't think that you would come back here tonight," he sounded surprised.

"Well, I thought it was my turn to work late tonight. Hand over the files Gray, go home and take some time off."

"You don't have to ask me twice." He closed to folder and put it on top of on the pile on his desk. "These are all yours." He slid them over to her side and took the suit jacket from the back of his chair. "Are you sure about this?"

"Of course." Erza picked up the pile and held them under her arm. "Now go." She watched as Gray hurried out like the building was on fire and sighed.

The truth was that she wanted to bury herself in something to keep from thinking about Jellal. She raised her hand and almost subconsciously touched the spot on her neck where there was still a dark purple mark hidden by the high collar of her shirt. Suddenly the idea of going home to do her work wasn't appealing to her either; there would be too many memories and reminders for her to be able to concentrate like she would have to. She pulled her chair out and put the files back on the desk, it was time to settle in for a long night.