When I had come to, my entire being throbbed with immense pain. The back of my head, my knees, my hands, my arm, my stomach...my stomach? Oh, no! Is my baby okay?!

Dread fills me and I open my eyes, blinking roughly under the fluoresces.

"You're awake?" A soft voice asks. "That's very good."

I try to sit up. I think I'm on a bed? I'm not entirely sure. The room I'm in looks ridiculously similar to a hospital room. Wait...I think I am...Since there was an IV tube strapped to my right arm.

"Where...where am I?" I groan.

The nurse giggled. "You're in the hospital, Miss. Unfortunately, you've been admitted in. You've got some terrible injuries, and the doctor thought you should be awake before we relocate that arm of yours. "

"Relocate...?" I repeat in a mumble, my mind suddenly flashing back when it happened.

Heat shot through my bones as if my body was also sent back in the memory. I groan, wanting to roll myself off the bed.

"Yes, you were brought to us by two Council soldiers. They said were attacked by an unknown face." The nurse approached my bed slowly. "You received trauma to the head, which will make you confused and in tremendous pain. I advise you to take it slow until we get you on some morphine--"

"Is my baby okay?" I cut her off.

"Pardon?" She blinks in puzzlement.

"My baby! Is my baby alright?" I repeat myself, my voice raising.

"I'm sorry, Miss, but there wasn't a baby with you when they brought you in..." She said before trailing off, eyes widening in realization. "Oh Kami..."

"I see you're awake!" A broad man suddenly sauntered through the doorway. "How are you feeling---"

"Doctor, we need to talk!" The nurse assaulted the doctor, tugging him out the way he came, back into the hallway, speaking in hushed whispers.

I'm quickly greeted with silence, only the faint beeps of the heart monitor I was seemingly strapped to, sounded. With my good hand, I pull myself up. My body screams with agony and I have to pause for a brief second before resuming my pull-up. I hiss out, sliding my legs off the right side of the bed, which lead me to face a window with thick blinds shielding me from the light shining through. I grip my left arm, which was currently in an arm sling. It's still dislocated...ugh...this is why I hate hospitals. You wait a very long time to just get admitted, and then hours to get a diagnosis. I should thank Lahar and Dorinbolt, they probably used their extensive titles to hurry the process.

"Well, uh, Miss Heartfilia, it seems we'll have to push through without morphine, for now. We'll bring you in for scanning and then get an OBGYN in for you, " the doctor and nurse file back inside. "..."

I glance over my shoulder as the nurse hurries to me.

"You shouldn't be getting up in your condition!" She pressed her hands on my back.

I recoil at her touch, screeching out, "Don't touch me!" I heave off the bed quickly, but I stumble into the rapidly beeping heart monitors and accidentally crash into them, causing them to roughly hit the walls behind them. Something snapped within my chest and this half-buried emotion clawed out, fanning through my veins.

I fall to my knees, gasping out as the spiked pains shock me tenfold. I cradle my left arm over my stomach and chest as I hunch over, practically folding myself, I cry out in a strangled sob.

"Miss Heartfilia!" The doctor then rushed to us.

He attempts to help me up and place me on the bed again. I had other ideas. I take hold of the heart wires taped to my chest and rip them off. The stings didn't hurt as worse as the deepening dread of losing my baby or the numbing heat in my shoulder.

"Please stop, Miss Heartfilia!" More hands grabbed at my good arm.

"Get me the benzodiazepine dose! Now!" The doctor yelled at a nurse passing by the doorway.

I shove the nurse and doctor away, hating their pulling touches. I grab the IV stand and shove it at the doctor, planting him on his ass whereas the nurse grabbed the pole, yanking the stand away from me entirely.

"Please calm yourself, Miss Heartfilia! You are making your condition worse!" The doctor quickly scrambles to his feet.

I didn't feel so good at this time, my neck suddenly with this piercing pain. Like acid, it burned to high extent.

"What's going on here?" A powerful voice enters the room.

"Sir Lahar! She's entering a violent trauma! She needs to be subdued!"

Lahar, huh? I twist to see the man in Councilman Guard attire. He was looking at me firmly, observing me silently. "Miss Heartfilia, you're safe here. Please, calm yourself so these people can help you recover."

"I just want to go home! I've had enough of this! I want to go home!" I shout, nearly tripping over the IV cords. My feet tangle with the tubes and I fall.

Arms wrap around me suddenly. Warmth surged through my body in a calming feel. The arms held me closely to a warm chest. I couldn't see anything except the Council Guard cloak because part of my face was smushed against the chest.

A tiny prick suddenly punctures through my right bicep. I snap my head toward the sudden stab, realizing the doctor I threw the IV stand at held a medium-sized syringe with some kind of clear liquid half gone.

"I'm sorry, Miss Heartfilia, but you need to calm down."

My eyelids became heavy and I lost feeling in my limbs. The voices around me become muffled.

"Will she be alright?"

"Of course, it's just a sedative...."

My mind completely becomes fuzzy and sleep overtakes me again.

~

~

In the waiting room of the hospital that Lucy was admitted, Yukino, Sting, Midnight, Cobra, Rogue, sat almost impatiently. Dorinbolt and Lahar had been sitting with them, giving them what they knew, but the Council guards weren't entirely sure about how and if the wounds inflicted upon Lucy.

It was more unnerving when both guards disappeared. Yukino wouldn't stop asking the receptionists and other nurses/doctors to give them the information she wanted.

They all responded, "I'm sorry, I can't give you confidential information like that." They said this because Yukino wasn't Lucy's blood.

Yukino nearly lost her cool several times.

"Would you stop pacing? You're not making anything better." Midnight twirled his braid with his index finger.

"I'm worried about my friend! They're not telling us anything!" Yukino nearly burst into tears, plopping in the seat next to Sting, who both Lector and Happy. The exceeds were silent, for the first time, Lector didn't talk for a long period of time. Happy was staring at a fish he brought along to give to Lucy, as a "get well" gift.

"I'm sure she's alright, Yukino. Lucy is strong. She'll pull through." Rogue reassured his white-haired friend with a small smile.

"I know, but anything could've happened! She and the baby could be more hurt than Dorinbolt or Lahar expressed before--"

"Did you say 'baby'?" Dorinbolt appeared behind Yukino and Sting's chairs, causing both persons to twist around vividly.

"Dorinbolt! Is Lucy okay?!" Yukino raised in her seat, on her knees digging into the chair's cushion, palms slapping against the back of the chair.

"..." The dark-haired man frowned, glancing briefly at the cream-colored tiles.

"She's not." Cobra interrupted, frowning deeply. He stood with his arms crossed.

"Get out of my mind!" Dorinbolt growled, glaring at the felon before turning to Yukino. "But, he's right. Lucy...is unstable at the moment. She suddenly attacked the nurse and doctor tending to her. They had to subdue her for now. She won't be open to visitors for a while."

"She's okay, though?"

"More or less..." Dorinbolt raked his fingers through his hair, breathing in and out deeply. "What's this about a baby? Lucy's pregnant?"

Yukino's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "You didn't know...wait...did she not tell you?"

"Of course she didn't," Cobra said. "Why would she tell them? It's none of their frickin' business!"

"And it was never any of yours, either!" Dorinbolt retorted harshly, nearly finding himself at the burst of anger and discomposure.

"Hello! We were there when she found out! Well, more of Cobra reading her mind and then--"

"Thank you, Midnight, for the unnecessary commentary," Yukino says rather too sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "All that matters is that she and the baby are safe. It doesn't really matter who knows, as long as they both are alive and healthy."

Dorinbolt dropped the beginning argument. "I agree, Miss Agria. I can't say much about the baby, though. We'll know once they run tests."

"Tests? What tests? She's pregnant! Like going on three months, or at least that's what she's told us." Sting said, suddenly becoming unsure, glancing at Yukinofor confirmation.

"I don't know myself. They kicked me and Lahar out the second they got her subdued."

"Wait, seriously?" Midnight said, raising an inky eyebrow.

"Yes, seriously...what I'd like to know, why weren't you two with her? She's your guardian!" Dorinbolt turned back to the felons.

"I guess she was embarrassed about dragging two men into a maternity clinic. People would get the wrong ideas, my good sir, " Cobra nodded with a sarcastic grin speaking his second sentence.

Dorinbolt rolled his eyes. "This is the exact behavior I warned Lahar about! I knew we should've chosen Scarlett instead!" The man sharply turns around only to be face to face with Lahar.

"Yet, if we had bombarded Miss Scarlett with the petition, she would have destroyed them with her absurdly blunt logic, " Lahar said, brushing past Dorinbolt with a stone face. "And then they wouldn't have a chance to live again."

Dorinbolt sighed heavily. "I hate it when you're right."

~

"Dammit, that dragon!" Taft curses from his perch on the roof of a building.

As they were ordered to find the girl, use the given spell on her, and then bring back whatever it was Ivory saw. The girl was walking alone, and then that stupid, stupid dragon intervened! They could have been done with this mission by now!

"Patience, Taft, " Grimm glowers at the green-haired male practically shaking with agitation. "We must do this right. Any slip we make, we will fail. Lady Evanora will have our heads."

Grimm, too, was anxious. Those injuries inflicted upon the Heartfilia descendant seemed fatal. He deeply hoped that the injuries weren't life-threatening. They needed her alive. He wasn't keen on displeasing his Lady.

"Keh, I know! Why do we have to wait?! We've been sittin' pretty for years and now months! And for what? Some ass-bitten vision dear old Ivory foresaw!" Taft bit his harshness directly at the lavender-haired woman, although she couldn't have cared less of what he said of her.

"Insulting a woman's age is unbecoming, Taft, " Ivory calmly said. "And my vision isn't ass-bitten, as you may call it. My visions bring power beyond most are capable of imagining."

"Ha. Yeah, right. If you bring us such "power", then why are we still rotting in that underground shit-hole?!" Taft glared at the woman with such loathing eyes.

"I don't think I like your tone, halfling." Ivory's tone hardened, but she made no move to glare at the man.

"Halfling? HALFLING!!? Call me that again, you stupid bitch!" Taft shouted, conjuring two embedded athames that glowed brightly with the dark green summoning symbols around his palms.

"Oi! Knock it off, Taft!" Grimm commanded boomingly, causing the younger male to pause his almost deadly assault. "Do not raise your blades to Lady Ivory. Have you forgotten what happened the last time you challenged her?"

Taft growled, squinting a glare at the old man and then at the lavender-haired goody-two-shoes before sending the blades back into his locker.

"Fuck you." The male spat acid, curling his upper lip, bearing his animalistic teeth.

Grimm clenched his jaw as Taft repositioned himself on the building's ledge. He hated Taft's vulgar vocabulary. And such, he cannot change Taft's choice of words, but he could at least persuade him away from near-violent brawls. There are those who are...half-breeds. They seem like normal humans, but they have some type of physical trait of an animal spirit their ancestor mingled with long ago. Taft inherited the fangs of a deadly piranha. And because of this abnormal trait, he is called "Halfling".

"Forgive him, Lady Ivory."

"Forgiveness is earned, not given, " She scoffed lightly. "We have our task at hand. Mother set our path on the Heartfilia. Once we have her in our grasp, I'll cast the spell mother entrusted to me, and only then will we go back."

"Yes, of course, Milady."

"Such loyalty you have toward my mother, Grimm."

Grimm became confused, but nonetheless, he answers: "Lady Evanora saved me from an unblinking death, I owe her my life."

"Yes, yes it seems you do..."

"I'm not sure I quite understand what you are implying, Milady." Grimm's eyebrows scrunch together in confusion.

Chuckling, Ivory grinned. "I'm merely immersing in conversation."

"Oh."

"You needn't about my reason for the topic, let's resume our observing and then strike. I'm keen on losing sleep for stakeouts." Ivory said rather bored.

"Of course, Lady Ivory..."