*A/N- Alright everybody I am SO sorry about taking so long on this! If any of you also follow Bullet Holes you may have been expecting this. I just had to take a step back to try and pass high school and get my head back on straight after that shit put me through the ringer. But now as a college student who feels miraculously less like my head is filled with cotton balls infested with fire ants I am able to review this and pick it back up! I can't make any promises on regular updates for this one or the other three, but I can promise to do my best! I love this fic, after all!

Btw, this chapter of this fic is dedicated to tumblr user loveandlucky. For some reason in my mind this fic is associated with her, and I'm not sure how or why that came to pass, I'm not even sure she's read it. But what the heck, why not acknowledge it?

There was smoke and fire everywhere, the sounds of shouting filled the air as Wendy used her power to try and clear the smoke. The flames around her leapt higher, and she squealed in terror, clutching Carla closer to her chest. Swords clanged, people screamed, and somewhere, a madwoman laughed. Wendy crouched low to the floor, feeling Carla squirm and writhe in terror, but Wendy didn't dare let go, knowing if she did the cat would streak off somewhere and she would be left alone, and she didn't want to be alone.

"Everybo...y ru...its….Ora…..eis!" Wendy couldn't hear what the man was saying through the din, but shrieked suddenly when a large pair of hands picked her up by the shoulders. She kicked and screamed and did her best to bite before she realized who had her.

"Master!" She wept, face crumpling. "I'm so scared!"

"Wendy," he said, coughing. "You have to take Carla and get out of here. Run and don't ever look back, do you hear me?"

"Master I don't want to leave you!"

"You must! Do as I say! That's an order!" The next thing Wendy knew glass was shattering and she was being thrown through a window into the river. Carla clawed and screamed to be let go and Wendy obliged, following her to the surface for air and riding the current, sobbing, away from her burning guild hall.

Wendy shot upright in bed, dislodging Lucy's hand and the damp rag she'd been dabbing her forehead with.

"Did you have the nightmare again?" Lucy asked quietly, edging closer to Wendy. She nodded, biting back tears. Lucy took her hand gently and lifted herself onto the bed, pulling Wendy closer. "It's alright, don't worry, you're here now. No one can hurt you now." Wendy sniffled and buried her head in Lucy's shoulder, allowing a few tears to slip out of her eyes. They were absorbed into Lucy's shirt as she stroked her hair quietly, making comforting noises in Wendy's ear.

They stayed that way for several minutes before Wendy was able to calm down. Reliving the destruction of her old guild, Cait Shelter, in her dreams was always terrifying for her, yet Lucy always welcomed her with open arms, no matter what time of night, if she needed a hug afterwards. She smiled wetley for Lucy, letting her know she was alright, and Lucy smiled back.

"You did great last night. We really couldn't have done it without you!"

"It was nothing," Wendy said, "I wish I could have done more."

"Nonsense," Lucy replied, "you're still young, and with no training. Dragneel didn't know what hit him!" Wendy chuckled, blushing, glad she could have helped. Her eyes strayed over to the other sleeping women, and another part of last nights battle came rushing to her mind.

"Lyra was amazing! I've never seen anything like it!"

"I know!" Lucy replied in an awed whisper. "It was incredible! All I can say is thank the gods she's on our side or else we'd all be dead."

"...as if I could be on any other side," the siren in question muttered, then rolled back over. "I'm exhausted." Lucy and Wendy giggled, then got silently to their feet and left the tent, allowing the other three to continue to sleep peacefully.

"Oh wow," Wendy said. "Where are we?"

"An uninhabited island my father owns. No one knows about it, really, since he hasn't developed it, and it has this hidden bay which is the perfect place to hide from Dragneel while we make repairs!"

"It's beautiful!" Wendy said, "I can't wait to go exploring!"

"Whoa there Wendy, give yourself a few more days of resting. I don't want you conking out and getting carried away by ants or something."

"Hey, I'm not that small!" Wendy retorted, her cheeks puffing out in anger. Lucy smiled down at her.

"The birds then," she amended. "They would worship you as their god." Wendy chuckled.

"I would always find my way back to you guys," Wendy said, smiling. Lucy felt her heart soften. She really loved this child.

Lucy glanced back out at the Layla and sighed. It could be worse, but they'd taken damage, and it would likely take several days before her vessel was seaworthy again. She cast her eyes around, looking for the nearest person who would be able to give her an official prognosis on her ship. Gajeel was about ten feet away, carrying a pile of tents up to the grassy area near the forest to start setting up camp.

"Gajeel!" Lucy called, getting his attention. She jogged over to him, wincing as the sudden motion jarred her wounds. "What's it like on the ship?" She asked. "How long will repairs take?"

"About four or five days, from what I've seen," he replied, dropping the tents on the ground for someone else to deal with. "But I haven't been down to the lower decks, I just grabbed the tents so people could start setting up camp."

"I'll go back with you to start assessing the damage," Lucy said, and Gajeel nodded. "Wendy if you're feeling up to it you can start setting up camp, but don't push yourself!"

"I'm on it!" Wendy replied. "And I'll only do that if you promise the same! You're still hurt, don't make it worse!"

"I promise," Lucy said. Wendy grinned and skipped past them to the tents Gajeel had thrown down.

"I don't know how in the hell that kid has all that energy after everything she did last night," Gajeel said as they walked away.

"I think she's putting on a brave face. She had the nightmare again." Gajeel grimaced. Almost everyone on deck knew about Wendy's nightmares. It was hard to not after the first few times she woke up screaming. No one mentioned it to her though, they all were in agreement that it would be wrong to bring up something so traumatic if she didn't bring it up first.

They boarded a rowboat with a few others and paddled out to the ship. As they got closer the damage became clearer, and Lucy was struck with a mixture of dread and relief. It wasn't as bad as it had been last time, but they would still be anchored for several days, days that would make them late for their delivery, and Father was already angry with her. She climbed the rope ladder onto the ship first and stood watching everyone work for a while, deep in thought. It might be possible to still make it. She had planned a few extra days in case she'd had to make evasive maneuvers to avoid Dragneel, but they would be cutting it close.

A horrendous yowl broke her out of her reverie, and she walked, befuddled, to her office and opened the door. A streak of white with a splash of pink streaked past her and up the mast to the crows nest. Carla, no doubt looking for Wendy. Plue came after her, though he instead just ran in circles around Lucy's feet, and jumped up and down, asking to be picked up. She obliged her little dog, and had to shove his face away when he attempted to lick all over her face.

"Hey, hey, enough, enough, I'm alright," Lucy laughed, setting him back down so he could run and play. She looked to her right, inside her office and groaned. The ship tossing in the storm had displaced and broken many things, so she set about putting it right. She had just set up the second chair in front of her desk when Loke walked in.

"Yikes," he commented, looking at the books and other items strewn across the floor. "It looks pretty rough in here, Lucy." He added, pointing to it.

"Indeed," she sighed, picking up one of her encyclopedias and placing it back on the shelf after smoothing the bent pages. Loke stooped down and picked up her compass, passing it to her merrily, like he was presenting her with the key to the city.

"Here you go!"

"Thank you so much," she replied idly, inspecting it for cracks, happy when she found none.

"So the ships pretty bad," he said, "but I've also seen it worse. There's a lot of damage, but it seems to be superficial damage. She took on some water in the hold," he held up his hand when Lucy started, "but none of the merchandise was damaged."

"Oh thank the gods," Lucy said. Loke nodded.

"It should only be a few days. I would hesitate to sail before all the repairs are complete, but if we really have to to make the order on time, the small repairs can wait."

"No, no, you're right. We have some time, I scheduled some extra just in case something like this happened, so repair as much as you can yourselves."

"You got it," Loke replied. "Do you need any help in here?" He asked. Lucy shook her head.

"No, you go take care of the rest, I'll handle my office." He ducked out and Lucy continued to clean, setting her things back up the way they went, and checking to be sure that the important documents remained in tact. She bent over to pick up another encyclopedia, groaning at the way it stretched the skin on her back when another voice startled her.

"You groan like an old person with aching joints."

"Capricorn!" Lucy replied warmly, smiling as he ducked into the office. He was several inches too tall to fit under the door frame. "Is there something you need?"

"I came only to ask after your health, and see if perhaps you'd like some tea."

"I'm fine," Lucy reassured him, "and I'd rather just keep working, I'll take a break later."

"Alright," he said, "but don't over-exert yourself."

"I won't," Lucy said, smiling. As soon as she was gone she sighed heavily and leaned her hip against the desk. These people are exhausting, she thought. She had to keep reminding her that they worried not because they thought she was a child, but because they loved her. It would be hard not to worry after what they'd seen, even though it had happened before. Lucy knew they were all haunted by the fact it would happen again.

If she'd watched what happened to her happen to one of them she was sure she'd be the same. Even though Wendy still wasn't allowed to watch, she'd seen the after effects, being the ship medic, and Lucy didn't like the look in her eyes when she first began treating Lucy's wounds. So, Lucy tried to be patient with her crew, even though she really was fine, because they were worried, and they had every right to be. It was still exhausting to constantly be told to be careful and to constantly reassure everyone she knew that she was fine. After a few second she started cleaning again, and by the time the others were breaking for lunch she had cleaned a good chunk of the office.

~*Isotherm*~

"Oh damn," Natsu muttered, looking at the holes in the Lisanna's side. "This is going to take at least a week to repair."

"I agree," Erza said, "so we might as well start now and get to work. We've no hope of catching Heartfilia before she delivers those goods."

"Damn!" Natsu shouted, kicking a splintered piece of wood.

"Relax, Natsu," Gray said. "They'll be other shipments."

"Besides," Wakaba said, helping Macao carry a box of food up from the flooded stores, "we'll need the time to figure out how to deal with that siren they've got."

"If there is any dealing with it," Macao added.

"I've never felt anything like it," Cana said, stopping next to their group. "It was like drinking a hundred barrels of whiskey."

"Only a hundred?" Gray asked sarcastically.

"Shut it, Gray, you know what I mean."

"Wakaba is right," Laxus added, coming in from nowhere. "We'll never be able to do anything if we can't find a way to resist that siren, and somehow I doubt it'll be as easy as jamming our fingers in our ears." He slipped away again, and with that everyone seemed to think the conversation was over and went on their own ways to deal with the damage to the Lisanna. Natsu's office was a mess. Most people would say it always was, but he could tell the difference, so he set about moving things into their proper place.

"It looks like the storm left your office completely untouched," Mirajane giggled standing in the door.

"Haha, very funny Mirajane," Natsu said, tossing a book from one end of the room to another.

"You know Gray said that he could use some help downstairs," She said.

"Like hell he did."

"I think you had better go check and see," Mira insisted smiling sweetly. "I'll stay up here and clean your office."

"No thanks," Natsu said, throwing something else across the room. Mirajane marched in the room and grabbed him by the shoulders, marching him out of the room by force.

"Now you don't worry about this mess," Mira said, "you just go handle the repairs and I'll clean this up." Natsu grimaced.

"I'm not getting a choice here am I?"

"Nope!" She smiled, then slammed the door behind him. Does it really bother her that bad? Natsu wondered as he walked down the steps to the hold. I know she;s been buggin' me to clean it up for ages, but geeze. When Natsu reached the bottom of the stairs to where everyone was sloshing through ankle deep water Erza called out to him.

"Natsu, I thought you would be cleaning your office."

"Mira kicked me out," he said, shrugging. Laughter echoed throughout the room.

"It's about time that place got a good cleaning," Gray said, "it was filthy."

"Shut up, Ice brain."

They worked until lunch moving things from the flooded hold to higher decks, then sat around and ate lunch on the sandy shore. Even Natsu had to admit that this was a beautiful island. He might go exploring some time, if he got the chance. It didn't seem to terribly big, but also not small. Mirajane did not emerge from his office for lunch, and still refused to let him in. He shuddered to think what she was doing to his system of organization, but he didn't dare refuse her. That would not work out well for him.

A couple hours, a few brawls, and a food fight later, and everyone was feeling tired and lazy, but Erza insisted they all go and begin to bail water, or the Lisanna might be sunk completely by tomorrow morning. No one dared contradict Erza when she decided on something, so they all boarded the rowboats and some buckets and set to work bailing water. They had most of it out by sundown, and the lowering water level in the hold revealed another small leak no one had noticed, so Erza was right. They made a quick repair to that hole, and then loaded up their camping gear and went back on shore, setting up camp for the night so they didn't have to sleep in the forest again. No one was eager to repeat that experience. When they left for the night Mirajane left with them, but still refused to let anyone, even Natsu, peak their heads inside his office and look at what she'd been doing. He'd resigned himself to a clean office and never being able to find anything.

X

It was morning, and Fairy Tail was already hard at work, at least, as hard at work as Fairy Tail could be. There was still a good deal of slacking off and brawling, but there was still work getting done, so Natsu wasn't upset. Mostly because three of the brawls so far had involved him. Everyone knew, though Natsu was loathe to admit it, that Lucy Heartfilia and they Layla were long gone, and they wouldn't catch up to her on this trip, so there was no point in hurrying. Because of this Natsu was in a rather foul mood all morning, which attributed to his brawling.

"Is there any sense of what Heartfilia might be doing?" Erza asked, holding him up by the collar of his shirt after breaking up his second fight with Gray that morning.

"No," he huffed. "Nothin'. It's weird."

"Maybe that siren muddled your tiny brain," Gray said. Natsu reached out to grab them, but Erza pushed them farther apart.

"Enough," Erza snapped. They both stopped squirming and looked at her with wide eyes.

"Yes ma'am."

"That is strange though," she said, dropping the both of them on their asses and tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Maybe she's stopped to take a break as well?"

"I dunno. She's not planning anything."

"Maybe we landed a few more hits on the Layla then we thought we did and they sunk?" Gray suggested, climbing to his feet. Natsu remained seated, still thinking.

"I don't think so," Natsu said. "We would have noticed a shipwreck, and rubble probably would have washed up on shore. Not to mention it feels like she's still alive." Gray and Erza nodded.

"Well when she starts planning something again, you'll know. So, until then we might as well work on the ship. And no more fighting." She added sternly. Natsu and Gray nodded, and she walked away, issuing a few orders to people standing around doing nothing.

"Remind me again why she's captain and you're not," Gray teased.

"Shut up, Ice Queen," Natsu grumbled, getting to his feet.

"I'm finished!" Mirajane exclaimed suddenly, flinging the doors to Natsu's office open wide. "Natsu, your office is finally clean!"

"Gee, thanks Mirajane," he sighed.

He stepped into his office, followed by several curious bystanders, his ears filled with their awed comments.

"Wow, Mirajane," Wakaba said, "it's almost like an entirely different room."

"Yeah we never thought we'd see Natsu's office looking this clean." Macao continued.

"I honestly feel sorry that you even had to lean it," Cana said, taking a swig from her flask. "It couldn't have been easy."

"Yeah, Natsu's a real slob," Laxus said, looking around the room, impressed.

"You could be neater, Natsu," Freed added, coming up to Laxus's shoulder.

"Leave Natsu alone in here for two minutes and it'll be ruined," Gray commented. After a round of affirmations from the crowd Natsu lost his temper.

"HOW COME EVERYONE IS TAKIN' A SHOT AT ME?!" The crew assembled in his office laughed together. "ALL'A'YA NEED TO GET BACK TO WORK AND QUIT BEIN' MEAN TO ME!" The crowd roared with laughter again and dispersed.

"Now Natsu this clean had better last," Mirajane warned. She left his office and went below decks, probably to check out the state of the kitchens.

Natsu sighed heavily and thudded down into one of the chairs, looking around defeatedly. He'd have to spend the day going through everything without displacing it so he'd know where to find everything. An indignant meow sounded as Happy slid into the room and looked around.

"I know buddy, I know," Natsu replied. "But Mira insisted." Happy meowed sagely and hopped up onto the desk and curled up to sleep. "Hey you lazy bum! Get off your ass and do something! Where've you been all day anyway, probably asleep!" Happy sighed heavily and ignored him. Natsu got up and began opening drawers, grumbling under his breath about lazy cats.

~*Geostrophic Wind*~

Lucy's crew was hard at work all day the next day, they had a deadline to reach and all of them were desperate to avoid the consequences Lucy would suffer if they were late. The tables were turned now, with Lucy insisting that everyone not push themselves too far and to take breaks and all of them insisting they were fine. A part of her was telling herself it was about time she got a taste of her own medicine, ignoring reason and working when she knew she shouldn't be, and she made up her mind to treat everyone tomorrow with a surprise.

There were perks to being the only one on the ship who had visited this island before, and she'd carefully chosen not to tell her father about this island's main attraction when she'd surveyed it the first time. When she'd done it she'd known she was taking a huge risk for a potentially minor pay off, but she was also fairly certain that her father would neither sell the island nor ever visit it. Besides, if he ever found out she could always make up some buyable excuse for why she hadn't noticed it. Lucy grinned to herself as she tied off ropes and repaired the ship's wheel. This was going to be a good surprise.

Everyone took lunch at different times, and Lucy ended up taking hers with the newly awakened Juvia, who was sitting in the shallow water near the shore. She said being in the water helped her regain energy faster, so Lucy sat next to her, holding her food up so the water wouldn't touch it.

"You and Aquarius were amazing last night!" Lucy said. "I'm sorry for pushing you so hard."

"It's no problem, Lucy," Juvia smiled. "If you hadn't we likely would have been captured or killed. You didn't have a choice." Lucy was silent, knowing she was right. She still didn't like pushing her people so hard, though.

"Wendy was impressive as well. I wasn't paying much attention but from what I understand we all owe Lyra and Wendy a lot." Lucy nodded.

"You all were incredible," Lucy said, hiding her wince as the salt water splashed up onto her back.

"How's your back, Lucy," Juvia asked, not fooled.

"It's a lot better. One of my wounds tore open during the fight so I've been trying to take it easy so no one will worry, but it would seem everyone is working extra hard to pick up my slack." Lucy sighed. Poor Aries had been working herself ragged, and looking like she was on the verge of tears the entire time. Then again, Lucy knew why he was working extra hard, even though she wished she wouldn't. She knew Loke was keeping an eye on her, however, so if she pushed herself too hard he would be there.

"I wouldn't worry about them, they just want you to be alright."

"I know," Lucy said. "I just don't want anyone to over work themselves."

"Like Aries?"

"Like Aries." They were silent for a few moments, in which Lucy watched Scorpio carry Aquarius into the water, she'd obviously had the same idea as Juvia. He walked in much deeper than either of them had and sat down with Aquarius in his lap so they were both neck deep in water. Lucy looked away, not eager to find out what was coming next. Those two had a bad habit of being overly-affectionate in public. Juvia either didn't notice them or was just ignoring them.

"I'm sure Loke will look after her," Juvia said, voicing Lucy's own thoughts.

"I was thinking," Lucy started, "can you keep a secret?" Juvia looked at her strangely and nodded.

"I've got a surprise in store for the rest of the guild, but I need to check it out to be sure before we get there, are you up for the hike?" In loo of answering Juvia splashed back into the water, submerging herself completely, and then sitting back up.

"I think I'm good." Lucy chuckled and stood, helping Juvia to her feet. "Alright, let's go."

They hiked for about thirty minutes, Lucy making sure to take frequent breaks to allow Juvia to rest. When they arrived Lucy cracked a relieved smile, glad to see everything was as she remembered it.

"Lucy," Juvia smiled, grinning, "this is brilliant."

*A/N- I'm so sorry! I know this took forever! I hope you liked it!