To Protect and To Serve

Chapter 6

The next day after work Juvia started looking into hiring a detective. None of the ones that she and her husband had hired before because they only searched for two weeks. She needed someone new, someone reliable, someone who actually wanted to help her. One of the names she found was Jellal Fernandes, a local detective. About a year ago he searched a suspect's house without a warrant for evidence that would lead him to where he was keeping a girl he had abducted. He found the girl but because he had broken the law to do so he was suspended for a year. She didn't know why but she had a feeling that he was the detective she needed. So after getting the address to his apartment, she went to see him on Saturday.

Knock-knock!

"Coming!" The apartment door was answered by a man with a tattoo over his eye.

"I'm looking for Detective Fernandes." She said.

"That's me, what can I do you for?"

"My name is Juvia Fullbuster and I need your help."

"Um...I don't think you really want my services ma'am. I don't know if you heard about my suspension last year."

"I did but you're not suspended anymore right?"

"No but they have me doing desk work and my boss has advised me against taking any cases. I could direct you to a more qualified detective."

"Wait can you hear my case out first? Please?"

After sighing for a minute he invited her inside, offered her drink which she declined, and they sat down to talk.

"Alright so what's the problem?" He asked her.

"Seven years ago my one year old son Winter was stolen from me and my husband. The police only looked for him for a short amount of time, I don't even think that they put in any effort. I've tried to get over it but I can't. I just can't."

"What exactly are you asking me to do?"

"I want you to find my son."

"With all due respect Mrs. Fullbuster, how do you know that your son is still alive?"

"I don't know but I can't go on with my life until I know if my son is alive or dead. I keep having nightmares and flashbacks, I want to move on but I can't until I know what happened to my boy."

"But why do you want me to find him?"

"Because I don't think anyone else is willing to help me. I mean really help me."

"If you don't mind me asking what does your husband think about this?"

"My husband thinks that this will only make things worse and maybe he's right but we need closure."

"I'm sorry Mrs. Fullbuster but I can't help you. If I open up a case like this the bosses will have my ass."

"Please you're my only hope."

"I'm really sorry. Really I am."

"Sure. You're sorry. That's all I've ever heard from the police. I'm sorry! You're sorry! Everyone's sorry but they're not sorry enough to help me!"

"There's nothing I can do Mrs. Fullbuster, I wouldn't even know where to start."

"Do you have children detective?"

"No. Unfortunately I haven't known the pleasure of fatherhood."

"Then do you know what it's like to have someone you love taken away from you? For them to just suddenly disappear, vanished, gone! You spend your whole life trying to find them, you beg people for help but they just ignore you so you're on your own! You're scared to death of what's happening to them or what they've been through or if they're even still alive? Because that's what my husband and I have been living through! Can you imagine how horrible that is?"

Jellal flinched at her words and started to feel empathy. After a moment of silence he finally spoke.

"Alright I can't make any promises but I'll try."

"You will?"

"Yes."

"Oh thank you. Thank you so much. You don't know how important this is to me."

"I think I have pretty good idea. Now tell me everything you remember about the day your son was taken and don't leave out a single detail."

After Juvia explained the events that took place that night, Jellal sent her home but promised to discuss the case with her tomorrow afternoon. Later that evening he went to a dinner date with his red headed girlfriend, District Attorney Erza Scarlet where he told her about the case.

"Jellal you can't get involved in this. The chief will kill you if he finds out." She said.

"You think that I don't know that? You think I want to do this?"

"Why are you doing this? You don't even know this woman but you're willing to risk pissing off the bosses for her."

"I don't know her but I know what she's going through."

"What do you mean?"

Jellal looked down at his hands pitifully as painful memories that he had spent trying to block out came back. He had never told anyone about this, not even Erza but they had been together for so long he figured that if he couldn't tell her about it then who else could he tell.

"Erza I never did tell you why I became a detective in first place did I?"

"No...I don't think you have. Are you going to tell me now?"

"Yes. Twenty years ago I had a little sister who was probably the sweetest kid you'd ever meet. Whenever my parents weren't around it was my job to look after her but one day when she was five we went on a camping trip and our parents told us not wander into the woods but I wouldn't listen. I went in there and she went with me, I turn my back and the next thing I know she's gone. I run back to tell my parents what happened, they call the police and they look for her for only one damn week! It destroyed my parents and it killed a part of me."

"Oh Jellal."

"I begged the police to keep searching. I begged them! But they just ruled her dead and maybe she was dead but if that was the case then we needed to bury her body so we could have some closure. Years later when I went into the police academy my father got sick with cancer and before he died he asked me to promise that if anyone ever went through what we did that I would try everything I could to help them. That I wouldn't just brush them aside like the other police did to us."

"Jellal is that why sometimes you do things like when you broke into that suspect's house?"

"Yeah. I became a detective because part of me hoped that somehow, someway, I could find out what happened to my sister so that my parents could finally rest in peace but another part of me wants to make sure that no one has to go through what I've been suffering through for twenty years. I was desperate Erza, I thought that if I hadn't of acted then and now that family would lose their daughter forever and would never know what happened to her and now I'm going to try and make sure that woman doesn't have to suffer never knowing what happened to her son."

Erza took hold of her boyfriend's hand.

"You know something Jellal, I don't care what they say about you. You're the best damn cop Magnolia has."

She smiled at him, he smiled back, and they shared a kiss before preparing to eat their meal.