Love Me Not (Gale) {Fairy Tail FF}

Chapter Fourteen

 “AH!” I was thrown back into consciousness with a great force, leaving me in a cold sweat and breathless. My entire body ached, but there was only one thing I could think about. “Ga—jeel?”

“Levy!” Lucy gasped, grabbing my hand. I was laying in an extremely soft bed in a room somewhere I didn't recognize. “How are you feeling?”

“I feel fine,” I lied, trying to smile at her without wincing.

“You're definitely not fine,” Wendy said, entering the room. “You have four broken ribs, three other fractured ones, and some internal bruising. You're going to need a lot more rest before you can be up walking around.”

Lucy's eyes watered as Wendy spoke, and she squeezed my hand a little tighter. “I'm sorry it took us so long to find you,” she whispered, and I could tell she was trying not to cry. “If we had come sooner, you—“

“I'm alright, Lu-chan,” I said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. “I've been banged up worse than this before.”

“Thank God, you're awake,” Makoto sighed in relief as he came through the door. He held a small bouquet of yellow roses, and handed them to me when he reached the bed. “I was starting to get worried. First you, then Gajeel—“

“Shh!” Lucy snapped, cutting him off with a warning frown.

“What do you mean?” I asked, forcing my body to move. Much to Wendy's dislike, I adjusted myself into a sitting position in order to look at all of them. “Makoto?”

“I...” he trailed off, looking to Lucy as if he were afraid to say anything.

“Lu-chan, what aren't you telling me? What about Gajeel?”

“Levy, you were hurt pretty badly,” Lucy said, meeting my eyes. “We wanted to give you some time to recover from the worst of your injuries—“

“So we've been keeping you sedated for over three days,” Wendy finished. “If you had been awake, the pain would have been next to unbearable, so we all decided that was what was best for you and your recovery.”

“And what about Gajeel?” I asked, not really caring about myself.

“He—he—“

“He's missing,” Master Makarov said. My eyes shot to where he stood in the doorway, and widened.

“Missing? Wh-what do you mean?”

“After Wendy treated you, she gave us all a report on the extent of your injuries,” Master told me, “and Gajeel didn't take it so well. He went after Devil's Shadow before any of us could stop him. Not even Lily is with him—and we haven't heard from him in three days.”

“He went after Devil's Shadow?!” Oh no! No no no! I didn't get to tell him about the magic that his body absorbed! What if something horrible happened to him?!

“I'm afraid so,” Master sighed.

“We didn't want to tell you until you had recovered some more,” Lucy said, shooting Makoto a dark look.

“W-we have to go after him!” I exclaimed, jumping out of bed and dropping the flowers Makoto had given me in my urgency. I realized my mistake as soon as my feet touched the floor, and my legs gave out underneath me. Luckily, Makoto was standing close enough to save me from hitting the hard floor.

“Levy!” Wendy gasped, rushing over to me. “You can't get out of bed!”

“I can't just sit here and do nothing!” I snapped. “You don't know what happened back there, so you have no idea how much trouble Gajeel might be in!”