To Protect and To Serve

Chapter 29

The next day, Gray didn't have to work and it was very beautiful out so Juvia suggested he spend the day by taking Winter and Sylvia out to the park. He agreed and he wanted Juvia to join them but she insisted that she needed to clean the house today. So he invited Lucy and Nasha in her place. However Juvia did not stand behind to clean the house. Today she planned to pay a visit to someone.

It 10:00 AM when she pulled up in front of the women's prison center. She rolled down the window of her car and pressed the button on the buzzer.

"Who is it?" The voice on the machine answered.

"Juvia Fullbuster to see Mary Hughes."

"Is she expecting you?"

"No."

"Alright."

The guard let her in and after security checked her for weapons, they allowed her to sit face to face with Mary Hughes. They sat at a table in a cell where a guard was posted at the door.

"Never thought you'd be the one to visit me." Mary said in an aloof tone. "So why are you here? Come to tear out my throat?"

"No that's what my husband wants to do to you and I don't blame him for having that desire." Juvia said coldly. "I'm here because I want to understand you because if I can understand you then I can forgive you."

"Forgive me? For what?"

"You know very well what. You took my child and you abused him."

"I never beat up on him. That was my husband."

"But you just sat back and let him hurt Winter, so that makes you just as guilty."

"What do you want from me?"

"I want to know one thing. Why did you take my son?"

"Why do you care? You have him back."

"I have him now but you took seven years of his life from me and my husband. We weren't there when he took his first steps or when he said his first words, we missed his first day of school, we missed seven Birthdays and Christmases. We'll never get any of those back."

"You had another baby."

"That doesn't change anything. For seven years we went through life never knowing if he was alive or dead. And to make matters worse you didn't even give him proper love and care. He's going to need therapy for what you did."

Her eyes were so full of rage and hate. 

"But I know that making you suffer won't help us heal. I have to forgive you and it'll be easier if I can understand your actions. So why? Why would you do something so horrible?"

"You wouldn't understand. You don't know what it's like to want someone to love you and that someone never does. You try and you do everything to make that person happy but it's never enough! He's the only person you love and he doesn't love you back! He's all that makes you happy and one day he decides to leave you! He's your only happiness and so you do whatever it takes to keep that happiness!"

"Even if it means stealing someone else's happiness?!"

"Yes! You had a loving husband and you could always have another baby! I needed that child more than you did!"

"You heartless bitch!" Juvia stood up with angry tears.

For a moment, Mary feared that Juvia was going to jump across the table and strangle her. The guard readied himself to restrain her if necessary, but he wouldn't have to.

 "He was my son! Not some bargaining chip or insurance policy! He was an innocent child who deserved to be loved and cared for by me and his father! You should be ashamed of yourself for what you did to him! And if you ever come anywhere near my children, God help me, you won't have to worry about my husband because I'll kill you myself!"

Mary was left speechless. She wanted to say something, anything to prove that she wasn't intimidated. But she couldn't. She was afraid. Afraid of this normally gentle woman who most would assume was incapable of harming anyone. But Mary now realized that this woman had the ability and the will to kill someone if it meant protecting her child.

"I am sorry that you feel unloved but do not ever think that gives you an excuse inflict pain on to others. Especially on to my family. My husband and my children are everything to me. There is nothing in this life that I love more. They're my only happiness and there's nothing I wouldn't do to keep them safe from people like you. So stay away from my family. Understand?"

Mary still didn't say anything but Juvia could tell by the fear in her eyes that she understood the threat.

"Glad we understand each other." Juvia then took a deep breath and calmed herself down. "I really am sorry for what you've been through and I forgive you for what you've done. But remember I won't forgive you twice."

Juvia left the prison after that. She went straight home, fixed up the house, and started to cook dinner for her family. 

"We're back." Gray called as he entered the house with Sylvia in his arms and Winter following close behind. The poor man was now sporting a black eye.

"Oh my goodness, what happened?" Juvia asked when she saw her husband's face. 

"I taught Winter how to play baseball today and it turns out he has a really good arm." Gray said. 

"Sorry about that." The boy apologized. "Are you mad?" 

"No I'm not mad." Gray assured him. "It's nothing an ice pack can't fix. To tell you the truth I'm impressed. I wasn't able to throw a ball the way you did until I was eleven. You might actually have a future in the big leagues."

Juvia quickly loaded a few ice cubes into a pack and then carefully placed it over his eye. 

"Does it hurt bad darling?" Juvia asked.

"I've had way worse babe, and you know that all too well."

"Good point. I seem to recall a time you cut your hand punching a car window."

"Why did he do that?" Winter asked.

"He found out our classmate and hockey athlete Lyon Vastia had asked me to prom. And he was jealous."

"I was not jealous. I was protecting you. I found condoms in his car and I learned from his teammate Toby that he had booked hotel reservations that night, I knew what he was planning."

"That's no reason for you to pull him out of his car and beat him up."

"I heard him in that car bragging about 'you know what' and I guess it pushed me over the edge a little."

"A little?"

"I only gave him a few bruises."

"You're lucky he didn't want to press charges."

"Only cause you sweet talked him."

"To keep you from spending a night in jail."

"You guys have lost me here." Winter said. "What's a prom? And what are condoms?"

Gray and Juvia blushed upon realizing that they had said to much. Then they all started laughing and when their laughter died down, they proceeded to wash up and sit down to a nice dinner as a family.