The Good Tails

Father?!

"Gray! Get your  butt in here!" Gajeel cried from the infirmary. 

Gray looked up from his breakfast. Gajeel was there, leaning out of the infirmary with his face all red. It took Gray  half a second to realize what was happening. When the scream pierced the air, he jumped up from his seat and ran. 

"Juvia!" He cried as he ran in. 

His wife was there, lying on the bed. Juvia had been bedridden. Her body was more fragile that Gray could ever have thought. Her face was paler than ever, and beads of sweat ran down her face, slowly disappearing as the rain woman started to turn to water. It was her arms that first revealed their watery base.

Gray grabbed her hand, and he could feel the coolness of the water on his skin. "C'mon Juvia! You're no longer a rain woman!"

She screamed, and Gray could barely feel her squeeze his hand. Her eyes wouldn't open at all. Gajeel watched from the door. The pain on Gray's face was evident. He wouldn't look away from his wife's face. He was tense, and all he could do was hold her hand.

Juvia screamed again, this time her sides started to turn back to water. Gray rested his hand on her stomach, hoping his ice could keep her watery body together.  He could do nothing but watch as his wife screamed again, and her stomach tensed. Gray flinched as he felt it. Juvia cried out again, and stopped. Her body relaxed, and her head fell back to the pillow. Gray stood up.

"Juvia? Juvia!" Gray ran his hands over her head, and came to rest on her cheek.

Juvia slowly opened her eyes, and the first person she saw was Gray. She tried a smile, but she couldn't keep it up. She looked down at her stomach. "Gray-sama, the baby..."

Gray looked. And there it was. The baby. Resting in a small pool of water, its own body seeming to melt into it. Gray gently picked up his child, and her body slowly took on a stronger form. Gray could see how pale her skin was, and how it held onto its crystalline shine. There was a small tuft of dark blue hair and within each strand there was a clear drop of water. Gray turned to his wife, their child in his arms.

"It's a girl. We have a daughter." Gray smiled at Juvia.

But her eyes had closed. The sweat on her face had formed into clear drops, no longer fading into Juvia's body of water. Her head had lolled to the side, and her chest heaved with each breath. Gray sat down next to Juvia on the bed. As he held his daughter in his arms, he could feel her tiny heart beating. And he was relieved. She hadn't made a single sound, not even a whimper. Gray rested his head lightly on his daughter's forehead. She was there. Juvia was there.

Gajeel grinned at the two, and quietly left the infirmary. This was their family. Not his.