Hello again! Still trying to get through these building chapters but this is probably the second last one and then things will get exciting again, hoping to do some big writing on this story in July when I take some time off, so enjoy!

As always, I do not own Fairy Tail, it belongs to Hiro Mashima and I thank him for it's use in my own creative expressions *bows*

Lucy opened her eyes and stared at the pink ceiling above the tiny bed, the Aspirin was finally starting to kick in and the pounding in her head wasn't quite as strong as before. Even though her headache was almost gone she still felt embarrassed by the whole situation, it seemed like her and Natsu couldn't be in the same room together without it turning into a disaster. She reached up and softly prodded the hard lump that was forming on her forehead; she was going to look like a unicorn for the next few days. Great.

She wondered what time it was and the little girl's room didn't have a clock anywhere on the walls; this would have been an awesome time to have a cell phone but it was stuck in her purse back at the other house. She sat up and swung her feet off the narrow bed, she didn't feel dizzy like she had before so she stood all the way up. Lucy walked to the door and opened it slowly, peeking outside; there was no one in the hallway.

She was about to step out and go find Levy to apologize for losing her temper with her earlier when she heard footsteps and then someone talking loudly. She pulled the door closed again quickly before she could stop herself and then felt like an idiot; why was she being so jumpy?

"We really need to find this guy." Lucy was about to open the door again but the sound of Natsu's voice made her hesitate. "We should have kept sitting on the apartment; we knew he was going to go back."

"We don't have the man power to sit at both places." Someone much quieter answered, she thought it was Cobra but it was hard to tell through the door. She leaned in closer and put her ear against the crack between the door and the frame. "But you are right; we should have never moved them out of the apartment."

"That's not what I said," Natsu replied. They had stopped right in front of the door, oblivious that she was on the other side. "We could have caught the guy without putting Lucy and Levy in danger, now we might have lost that chance."

"That's the problem with you and Laxus sometimes, still thinking like cops when you should be thinking like the men you are hunting."

"Using innocent people as bait is not how we do things." Natsu sounded like he was starting to get annoyed. "And if you don't like it you can take it up with the boss."

"Gentlemen, please." Lucy recognized the cocky tone. "You're forgetting about the bottom line."

"Maybe you can enlighten us Sting," Cobra retorted. "What is it we are missing that you caught with your vast knowledge of Fiore's criminal undertakings?"

"Now, now, there's no need to be an asshole about it. What Rogue brought up before, that we should be asking ourselves why, why go after one witness and not the other, that is what we should be trying to figure out."

"I don't know Sting, maybe when we find him we can ask, but first we need to find the shooter and that isn't going to happen without taking risks."

"Not those kind of risks, not endangering the lives of innocent people."

"How do we know they are innocent? Gajeel was set up, what if the girl knows more than she is telling. How much do we know about either of them, they could be luring us right into an even bigger trap."

"No way," Natsu replied firmly. "They can't be involved in something like that."

"And you can tell this after just one day?" Cobra obviously wasn't buying it.

"My gut says so and it hasn't been wrong yet."

"That confidence is going to get you killed one day," Cobra retorted. "I may not have the same moral high ground you do but at least I won't die an idiot."

Lucy was leaning against the wooden door intently listening to their conversation when suddenly there was a loud thump of impact and the door shook on its hinges. She jumped back with a squeak of surprise, nearly tripping over a toy cradle full of dolls that had been left in the middle of the floor but she was sure no one in the hallway would have noticed over the sounds of what she thought was a very physical shoving match.

"Enough!" There was no mistaking Laxus' angry growl over the other racket and it was like hitting the mute button on a stereo. "You all have better things to do, now go."

Mumbled apologies followed the hurried footsteps in the hallway and then it was quiet again. Lucy felt the dull headache starting to return and rubbed her temples, trying to digest what she had just heard. She had told Levy that she wasn't sure if she trusted them, from what Cobra had said the feeling was mutual, at least for some of them. She was a little surprised at how quickly Natsu had jumped to their defense but then again he was more than a little bit crazy.

It sounded like there was no one lurking in the hallway anymore; she opened the door slowly and peeked outside, the coast was clear. She crept down the stairs, trying to decide if she should keep going and sneak out right to the cops. She turned a corner and found herself in the kitchen.

"Lucy, are you feeling better?" Mira was transferring left over macaroni salad into smaller to-go containers, a few of the other women from the BBQ were also bustling around the kitchen but she didn't see Levy anywhere.

"Yes, thank you."

"I think that they are heading back to Gramp's pretty soon, but you should come back for supper again next week."

Lucy heard the sound of the patio door open and looked over to see Levy walk in.

"Levy! I was just telling Lucy that you have to come back next week so that we can get to know you better."

Lucy had been ready to apologize to her about what happened before but now there were too many people around and she still wasn't sure what to think about the argument she had heard in the hallway. Levy tried to catch her eye but Lucy looked away, it was going to be an awkward ride home.

Levy was touched by what Wendy and Lisanna had said, it made the anxiety she had been feeling about her situation lessen a little. "Do they always take cases like mine?" She asked, hoping that her new friends would tell her more about the Dragons.

"No," Wendy answered. "Usually it's finding out information, or finding people, or both. It's not always gunfights and safe houses; most of the work they do seems pretty boring. Not that I do any of that stuff, I just file things and talk to the clients. Mira used to do it but then she had another baby so I'm filling in for now."

"It's still more exciting than most other jobs," Lisanna mused wistfully.

"Where do you work?" Levy asked.

"I don't really work, unless you count babysitting my nieces and nephews." Lisanna sighed. "I've taken a couple night classes but we're on break right now for a few weeks."

Levy was even more envious of the white haired girl, she had always wanted to go to college and had been accepted by the literature department during her last year of high school but when her parents died she dropped out.

"So I know we said we wouldn't talk about it if you didn't want to but Kinana told me that Eric told her that when you were running away from that guy in the alley that you hit Gajeel in the face with your purse."

Levy felt her cheeks start to heat up; she had left that part out of her story when she had told it to Laxus earlier so he must have found out from Gajeel, and now that she remembered it she was embarrassed about the misunderstanding.

"Yeah I did." Even though she had been scared out of her mind at the time she remembered the surprised look on his face right before her satchel had connected with his nose and started to giggle, Lisanna and Wendy joining in.

"I've never even seen Gajeel smile before," Lisanna admitted. "He's always so serious and never says anything, like a big dark statue."

Levy thought about it, she had seen him smile in the same alley right after the guy shooting at them had drove off, before she had hit him with her purse. "How long have you known him?" She asked.

"He joined the agency almost three years ago I think but he knew Laxus and the others before that, since they were all teenagers."

She was about to ask another question when she heard someone clear their throat behind her, without looking she knew there was only one person it could be because of the timing and she really hoped he hadn't been eavesdropping on the last parts of their conversation.

"It's time to head back to Gramp's." He didn't sound like he had heard them talking at least but Levy did want him to see her red face.

"I'll go get Lucy," she replied and took off back to the house as quick as she could without actually running. She could have sworn she heard one last giggle behind her as she sped walked over the green lawn and into the house.

"Levy!" Mira was standing in the kitchen. "I was just telling Lucy that you have to come back next week so we can get to know you better." Levy was glad that her roommate must have been feeling better.

"Oh, ah…"

"Ready to go?" Levy turned around and saw Gajeel was putting his gun back in his ankle holster; his interruption saved her from having to answer.

"Ready when you are." Sting and Rogue appeared, also re-holstering their weapons with Natsu not far behind.

"Like I was talking to you," Gajeel muttered but he turned and headed back towards the front door and Levy wondered why he seemed to be in such a sour mood. She looked at Lucy again and smiled but the blonde girl looked away quickly and avoided catching her eye, Levy's stomach fell when she realized that she must still be upset with her.

"You are welcome here any time." Mira appeared in front of her and swept her into a crunching hug and then did the same to Lucy. "Remember what I said about next weekend!"

"I've got your dog." Lisanna came into the kitchen nestling a tired looking Plue. "I think the kids wore him right out."

"Thank you." She handed him over to Lucy who placed him in her purse gently so he could take a nap.

"It was nice to meet you," Lisanna told them both. "I hope you can visit again soon."

"Are you coming?" Came an impatient call from the front door, when the girls got outside he was standing beside his truck impatiently while Sting and Rogue were getting into the SUV.

"Follow us back to the house and keep your eyes open. I'm going to take the long way just in case." He was telling them.

"Yes sir," Sting acknowledged with a mock salute to the temple, Rogue just nodded before slipping behind the wheel.

"Wait!" Levy turned in surprised when Lucy called out. She walked past her and Natsu, who was holding the passenger side door to Gajeel's truck open expectantly. "Can I ride with you?"

Levy wasn't sure who was the most surprised between her or Sting. "Ah, sure," he stammered and it was the first time she had seen him at a loss for words. Natsu didn't hesitate before letting the truck door go and following her to the other vehicle.

"Who invited you?" Sting muttered but he was ignored as Lucy and Natsu got into the back of the SUV.

"Levy?" The sound of Gajeel's voice snapped her out of her disbelieving stare and she wondered how many times he had called her name before she noticed.

"I'm coming." She turned back to the truck and jumped into the vacant front seat.

It was an uncomfortably quiet ride on the way back to the safe house; Gajeel stared straight ahead concentrating on the heavy Sunday traffic and Levy watched out the window. There was tension in the set of her shoulders but Gajeel didn't think that it was his fault for once, which was as surprising as Lucy's decision to ride with Natsu and the Twins.

He didn't know much about women but he figured that whatever had happened between them at Laxus' couldn't be good for their plan. He was sure that even though they had gotten off to a rocky start that Levy trusted them enough to know they would do whatever it took to keep her and Lucy safe but the other girl was unpredictable.

He looked over to where she was sitting on the seat next to him staring out the window like her puppy had run away and he couldn't help the increasing familiar protective urges rise inside him while he fought like hell to stamp them back down. He tightened his already tight grip on the steering wheel and forced himself to look at the road ahead; getting worked up over something that didn't even involve him was stupid enough but making them crash because he wasn't paying attention would be worse.

"Do you want to listen to music or something?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth he regretted opening it at all.

She glanced over at him like she had forgotten he was even there. "I'm good, thanks," she replied quietly.

The light ahead of them turned red and Gajeel slowed down to a stop. The drive was starting to take forever because of the traffic and the sooner they got to Gramps' the better.

He heard Levy sigh and again it tugged at the heart-strings he wasn't even aware existed up until now. Was it the meeting tonight or the case in general that had him wound up tighter than he had felt in a long time?

"What's going to happen tomorrow?" He almost didn't hear the soft question; she had turned from the window to look at him.

"Ah…" He tried to think of the right way thing to say without giving away too much information but enough so that she would be satisfied and stop staring at him. "We are following a lead tonight that will hopefully give us more information about who we are looking for." The light turned green and they started creeping along once again.

"So you might be able to catch him then?"

"We will do everything we can to keep you safe," he said carefully, echoing the same thing he had told her before. "And yeah, we will catch him." The cynical part of him was groaning inwardly for making such a corny promise that he wasn't even sure he would be able to keep but the small smile she gave him was enough for the other parts to slap it down.

It was distracting enough that he momentarily forgot that he was supposed to be paying attention to the road; out of the corner of his eye he saw the light right in front of them quickly flashed from amber to red and he reflectively slammed his right foot on the gas petal to narrowly avoid crashing into the small car in front of them.

"Shit." He cursed under his breath at his own stupidity for the near accident; it was then that he realized that hitting the breaks was not the only reflex that had kicked in. His right arm was stretched over to the seat beside him; the palm with all fingers extended pressed against Levy's chest in an attempt to keep her from slamming forward into the dashboard. His hand looked gigantic against her upper body, big enough to cover almost the whole area and he was unintentionally copping a feel.

"Sorry," he muttered, bringing his arm back in swiftly and latching it back onto the steering wheel so it couldn't go wandering again, looking straight ahead so she couldn't see his embarrassment.

"That's ok… Ugh, not again." He looked over long enough to see her bend over to scoop up the contents of her satchel off the floor of his truck; it must have fallen from her lap when he hit the break. The light turned green and they slowly started moving again; no more chit-chat he decided crossly, from now on he was only going to speak when absolutely necessary. It was a quiet ride the rest of the way back to the old man's and Gajeel was happy for it.

PS- That chapter a couple weeks ago nearly wrecked me but the new one has me hoping for a better outcome! Happy reading my friends!