To Protect and To Serve

Chapter 28

One night about two days later, Gray and Juvia woke to the sound of crying. But they were not the cries of a their newborn daughter as they first suspected. They were cries of their eight year old son whom they had recently been reunited with. They went down the hall to his room and found him tossing and turning in bed, still asleep but crying.

"Dad I'm sorry!" He sobbed. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

"Winter wake up. It's okay." Gray said moving to his bedside.

"Help me Mom! Help me! Help me!"

"Winter wake up."

He gently shook the boy which woke him from his bad dream. He sat up panting and almost jumped from the bed so he could run away but then Juvia came over and embraced him softly.

"It's alright Winter." She told him gently. "It's us. We're right here. We're not going to let those people hurt you anymore."

He was having another nightmare. One where he was back with the Hughs. Back to Giles beating him up without mercy and Mary just flat out ignoring his pleas for help. That's what the poor boy had lived with for seven years and even though he was now away from those people for good, they still haunted him.

"Where are they?" He asked once he was able to speak.

"They're in jail." Gray told him. "Locked up and far away from you."

"They'll get out." He trembled like a leaf in the arms of his true mother. "They'll get out and they'll find me."

"No they won't." Gray cautiously motioned to hug his son along with his wife. "They're never getting out and they're never going to find you."

"She won't let me go." He protested. "She'll never let me go. Never! She'll come back and get me! She owns me!"

He whimpered until Juvia hushed him and hummed a little tune that eased him back to sleep. They tucked him in again, placed a kiss on his forehead, then quietly slipped into the kitchen so they could talk.

It broke Gray and Juvia's hearts to see how afraid their son was. To see all the damage that those two monsters had done to him. They would have given anything in the world to erase all memory of that life from his mind. Anything to get rid of the trauma. Unfortunately it wasn't possible for those awful memories to just disappear and they hated it.

"I just don't understand it." Juvia said to Gray. "How could they just take our baby and hurt him for all those years? Didn't they care at all about his suffering? About ours?"

"One of the hard truths about life Juvia is that some people just have no heart."

"I hate them!" She cried angrily. "God forgive me but I hate them and I wish they were dead!"

"You're not the only one who wishes for that."

"I can't stand to see him like this. Always so scared that they'll come back for him. Maybe we should take him to a counselor?"

"Good counselors are hard to come by. A lot of them just sit there, do nothing, and repeat textbook crap."

"Honey I know how you feel about shrinks but there are plenty of good counsels out there. Counsels who sincerely want to help."

"What if they deem him as crazy?"

"They won't say he's crazy. Numerous victims of abuse and/or abduction have seen counselors and they have never been deemed crazy."

"I just don't know about it."

"Well what else can we do Gray? These nightmares are not going to go away by themselves and Winter can't just suddenly get over the fact that he doesn't live with those people anymore."

"I don't expect him to. I know he's in for a long recovery."

"Then let's make it easier for him by having him see someone. We could at least give it a try. What do we have to lose?"

"Alright. We'll take him to a counselor but whoever we take him to, we're doing research on them first."

"Of course." She assured him. "You know that lawyer who's representing Natsu? She's a counselor for battered women. Maybe she knows someone who can help us."

"Do you trust her?"

"Natsu and Lucy trust her so that's good enough for me."

"Alright. We'll call her up and see who she recommends."

"Thank you dear." She kissed his cheek.

"Speaking of Natsu and Lucy, do you know how they're holding up?"

"Last I heard they're both hopeful and that's a good sign."

"What about Nashi?"

"According to Lucy she's desperately missing her father and is so scared and confused. The poor thing." She sighed. "You know she's going to have to testify."

"You think she'll be up to it?"

"I have no idea."

"Well she's Natsu's kid so obviously she's tough."

"But she's also a seven year old girl who loves both of her parents even though one of them is completely insane."

"I hope you mean Touka."

"I do." Juvia replied with disdain in her voice. "I just can't believe she's doing this to him. Her own husband. To abuse him and then try to get him arrested? To try and take away his child? Oh Gray darling, I'd rather die than do any of that to you."

"I know." He took her into his arms. "You know it's cases like these that remind me how lucky I am to have married you."

"Ditto." She giggled. "Do you remember the night you proposed to me?"

"Yeah it was right after you told me you were pregnant and you were all in tears because you were scared that I would leave you."

"That's what all my friends told me. Except for Lucy. Hence why she's the only one I'm still in contact with. But the others told me that you once knew about the baby you would say the two little words I feared most. 'We're over.' "

"Well I did say two little words when you told me that. You broke crying and said 'I'm pregnant' so I said 'Marry me.' "

"And it was one of the happiest moments of my life."

They shared a laugh, followed by a kiss, and together they went back to bed.