To Protect and To Serve

Chapter 3

Gray had gotten a job working as an artist and had become very successful. In fact he was the best in all of Magnolia. After selling a few paintings to wealthy art collectors he was able to buy a nice house for him and Juvia to live in. It had three bedrooms, one for him and his wife, one that was going to be turned into a nursery for their new baby, and one that was Winter's room. They had set up a bedroom for Winter and every Birthday and Christmas they would buy a present for their son and leave it there for him to have when he came back.

Things weren't as bad as they were when they lost him and it started to get better when Juvia got pregnant again but they were still hurting and they felt guilty too, blaming themselves for what had happened.

"So what did the doctor say?" He asked his wife when she came back from her doctor's appointment.

"It's a girl." She said smiling.

"I guess Gray Jr is out of the question huh?"

"I'm afraid so darling."

"Well at least we know how to decorate the nursery now. You wanna go out and celebrate?"

"Gray you know I can't drink."

"Who said we that we were going to drink? I was thinking that maybe we could just go out and eat cake."

"Yeah just what I need more fat. Maybe some other time, I have to grade papers tonight."

"Okay, listen I'm going to meet with Natsu. You okay with that?"

"Are you going to drink?"

"Possibly."

"Is somebody sober going to drive you home?"

"Yes."

"Then I don't mind. See you tonight."

She kissed him and went upstairs to grade papers. She worked as a school teacher at Magnolia Elementary School, the kids loved her and she loved them. Parents were always saying that she had a natural way with kids. Working as a teacher had helped her as she grieved over her son's loss.

Gray closed the door and locked it tight then drove over to Natsu's house. He knocked on the door which was answered by Nashi.

"Hi Uncle Gray." She greeted with a smile.

"Hi sweetheart, where's your daddy?"

"He's getting ready right now. He should be down in a minute."

"Okay, I heard you passed your spelling test. Your Auntie Juvia and I are very proud of you. Oh hang on and I think I have something in my pocket."

He pulled out a stuffed bunny rabbit with a ribbon tied around it's neck.

"Oh he's so cute. Is he for me?"

"Yep."

"Oh thank you Uncle Gray."

She hugged the stuffed rabbit close and kissed it. Another thing that helped him and Juvia heal was helping Natsu take care of his daughter. They always jumped at the opportunity to babysit her and sometimes they would spoil her but she wasn't a brat or anything close to one.

"Daddy look what Uncle Gray gave me." She said excitedly when Natsu came downstairs.

"Oh that's nice. Did you say thank you?"

"Uh-huh."

"That's my girl. Now go upstairs and play with your new friend."

She did just that leaving Natsu alone with his friend.

"How are you holding up?" Natsu asked him.

"Better. I don't drink as much as I used to."

"What about Juvia?"

"She's been smiling at lot more, she still has nightmares but I'm sure once the baby gets here we'll be completely healed."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Gray smiled at his oldest friend but then gave a look of confusion when he noticed the huge bruise on the side of Natsu's jaw.

"What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your jaw. It looks like somebody took a swing at you."

"Oh...I just tripped over one of Nashi's toys and fell down stairs."

"Ouch. I better keep an eye out for toys when my baby gets here."

They got into Natsu's car and drove to the pub to have a few drinks.

"So how's the art business treating you?" Natsu asked Gray.

"Pretty good. I just sold one painting to an art museum and I'm gonna use the money to get Juvia a surprise."

"What kind?"

"I don't know but something good."

"Man I can't believe how devoted you are to her. When you two first met you didn't want anything to do with her."

"Time changes." Gray went quiet for a moment.

"What is it?" Natsu asked.

"I didn't know if I should tell you this but...I don't really see the harm now."

"What?"

"Juvia ran into Lucy at the market yesterday."

"Lucy? Lucy Heartfilia?"

"Yep."

"Oh...I haven't seen or heard her from her since we broke up. I wonder how she's doing?"

"Juvia said that she was doing fine. You know I have to ask...Why did you cheat on her all those years ago?"

"I don't know Gray. I was young and stupid and drunk. We all did dumb things when we were younger."

"That's for sure. How do you think Juvia and I ended up with Winter?"

The two men laughed and took a few sips of beer. They didn't drink so much to where they got drunk but to be on the safe side they took a taxi home. It was real late when Gray got back to the house. The lights were off which meant Juvia had gone to bed. He decided to watch a little TV before going to sleep. He had just sat down and turned on the TV when suddenly he heard Juvia screaming.

"My baby! My baby! My baby!" She was having another nightmare about losing Winter. Gray jumped from the chair and ran upstairs to his bedroom where his wife was tossing and turning in bed screaming  "My baby! My baby! My baby!"

"Juvia wake up! Honey wake up it's me!"

As soon as she opened her blue eyes and woke up she started crying. Gray put his arms around his wife and held her as she cried.

"It's okay Juvia. It's okay." He soothed her.

Juvia's hands went to clutch her belly.

"We can't lose this one Gray! We just can't!"

"We won't."

"I find it hard enough to recover from the first time we lost our child, if it happened a second time I don't think I could survive!"

"Hey we're not going to lose this one okay? Nobody's going to take her away from us. Not this time."

"Why Gray? Why did someone take him? Why? What did we do to deserve to lose our baby? Was I a horrible mother? Was I too young? Did I not care enough?" 

"No. Listen you didn't do anything to deserve what happened to us." 

"Oh Gray I'm so afraid." 

"Shhh... It's alright, it's alright."