A/N: This would be my third project along with Chasing Scarlet and At the End of the Tunnel. This one (I hope) is going to be very different from the ones I've written. So if I update late or I'm busy, it's probably because I'm also writing the other stories chapter's as well. Hope you enjoy this story, it's kind of gonna be a long one.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters. This is purely fan-made and it has no association with canon stuff in the actual manga/anime.

The heat was getting intense with every minute that passed by. Natsu's oxygen tank was getting low and the family he intended to help was still on the other side of the building.

"NATSU!" One of the firefighters called out to his co-worker, waving his arm around to come back.

He turned to look at him, telling him to get out of the building through the window they came from. "I'M NOT LEAVING THIS FAMILY BEHIND!" He turned back to see through the fire.

The fire was getting more intense, getting much harder for Natsu to see through it as well as be inside it. "HELP US! WE'RE IN HERE!" He kept hearing the family's plead for help. Their voices were becoming hoarse due to the lack of oxygen and the carbon monoxide in the air.

"NATSU!" His partner kept calling out for him, this time when Natsu turned, he pointed at the roof. Warning him that it is getting weaker and weaker.

Natsu was now worried than ever, seeing the roof above him crumbling down bit by bit. "Shit!"

A Few Hours Earlier

The city of Magnolia, population of over hundred thousand, was finally becoming more and more awake as the sun came to the skies. Cars were everywhere, making their usual honking sounds, begging the other cars in front of them to move hoping to make it to their jobs or back to their homes after a long night shift.

In one of Magnolia's apartment complexes, laid a pinkette haired man, sleeping on the chair that laid out on his balcony of his apartment. "Darling." A loud but soothing voice of a female came from inside the apartment.

"Darling." She yelled out louder than her first, hoping this time he had woken up from his slumber. A red head women poked out from the open door, seemingly watching the man snore, moving the today's newspaper on his face little by little. "Darling." She came out to the balcony holding a spatula on her right hand and wearing an apron over her clothing, went up to him and shook him with he left none occupied hand.

As the pinkette was shaken lightly, the newspaper that was covering his face fell to the floor, scattering everywhere on the floor. "OI, NATSU!" She elevated her voice again, this time near his face.

The pinkette quickly woke up in a disarray accidently bumping heads with his beloved red head. "OW!" Both of them said at the same time.

Natsu now sat down, rubbing his injury on his forehead. He then saw the red head doing the same, but standing. "Oh, did I bump heads with you Erza?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I got to close to your face when I yelled to wake you up." Erza was still rubbing her face.

"What time is it?" Natsu stretched about, raising his arms behind his back.

"It's 8 a.m." Erza checked her watch.

"Something smells good," Natsu got up from his seat and started walking back inside with Erza. "What are you cooking?"

"Pancakes," she said as he let her go first back inside the apartment. As they went in, they continued to walk from the living room to that of the kitchen. "Your plate is right there." She pointed at the plate that was neatly set up.

"Ah sweet, thanks honey." He took the seat and began to dig into his food, chewing more than he can swallow as always.

"You want milk or coffee?" She asked as she flipped another pancake.

"Milk is good." He spoke as he chewed.

She set the stove temperature back on low so her pancake won't burn. She went across from where Natsu was, opening the refrigerator and taking out the jug of milk. She pour some in a small mug and gave it to Natsu. "Here you go." She placed it next to him.

He instantly grabbed his mug and jugged it all down. "Ah!" He said as he gulped most of it down.

"You're done eating already?" She turned look at the pinkette, stretching his arms again and hitting his belly like a drum set.

"Yeah," he got up from his chair, sliding it out and back in, got his dirty dishes and went to the sink. He began washing them. "I'm going to get ready for work." He scrubbed his plate, fork and mug spotless, drying them with a towel and placing them with the other clean dishes. "You're going to want me to take you to work today, right?"

"Yeah," she was finally done baking her pair of pancakes. She took her plate and sat down where Natsu sat before. "Apparently, Bisca had some other plans and won't carpool for today." She started chowing down on her food.

"Am I also going to have to take your subordinates as well to work?" He called out from the bathroom.

"Yeah." She answered with a mouth full.

"What are their names again? Kagura and..?" He waited for her to finish her sentence.

"Yukino," she said before chugging some of her milk. "You've only met them once, I can understand that you wouldn't remember their names of the bat."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He came out of the bathroom wearing a short sleeved white short, under it was a plain tank top. His bottoms were regular blue jeans and his shoes were the same as before.

"You left your firefighter gear back at the station?" She raised an eyebrow at his attire choice of wear.

"Yeah, they're too big to fit in any of the cabinets or in the wardrobe," he took the empty seat next to her, waiting for her to finish. "Then there's the closet but I doubt you'd want your clothes to smell like sweat and smoke, do you now?"

"Nope." She was finally done with her breakfast, getting up first before taking her plates to the sink and washing them.

"Shall we go, oh great doctor?" Natsu went from behind her, taking off her apron and placing it on one of the table's chair, revealing her white blouse and her black dress. He gently kissed her on the cheek, making her somewhat blush.

She turned around, instantly wrapping her arms around his neck and kissed him back in the lips, tasting the leftover bit of maple syrup on his lip. "Yeah, but we're forgetting something." Both of them stopped their kissing.

"Which is?" His face still closed to hers.

"Our lunches," she instantly broke of their embrace and headed for the refrigerator once again, this time taking out two bags of what seemed to be their lunches. "I prepared them last night before going to bed." She handed him his bag and continued on to the living room.

Natsu wasn't so far behind. He picked up his pair of keys, his wallet and his PDA off of the coffee table and headed towards the door where Erza awaited for him to open the door. "Mi lady." He opened the door, letting her go on out first like a gentleman he was. He locked the door using his keys, turning the knob left to right, and putting his keys back into his pocket.

Both the couple walked towards the buildings' elevator. Natsu pushed the arrow pointing down button, both waiting for the elevator to come back from the first floor to the ninth floor. "So who are we picking up first?" Natsu asked Erza. Both had their backs up against the wall, still waiting for the elevator that suddenly stopped at the third floor.

"Well, Dr. Mikazuchi only lives a couple of blocks from here," she told him. "I guess we can pick her up first."

"That's Kagura, no?" He guessed.

"Yeah." She quickly answered him.

"And Yukino?" He then asked for the next doctor's location.

"Dr. Agria lives near Saber Street, it's not far from here neither," the elevator finally came to their floor slowly opening up its doors. It was empty and soon both Erza and Natsu now occupied its space. She quickly hit the first floor button and the doors closed on their own once again. "It's like what? A couple minutes from here?"

"10 minutes," Natsu specified the time. "17 if there is a lot of traffic."

"Well that's oddly specific." Erza looked up, staring at the elevator's passage through the floors.

"I'm a firefighter," Natsu stared at the same thing Erza was staring at. "I've almost been everywhere in this God forsaken place." He continued. "Besides, not too long ago was there a fire near there."

"Seems like's there's been a lot of fire pandemics nowadays," her words hinted a bit of concern over them. "Lot more burn victims in our ER lately, is there a serial arsonist?"

"At first we thought that it was just random, you know?" He scratched his chin, voicing what he and the other firefighters have thought. "But then…"

"But then what?" She turned to look at him, now a bit more concern than she was before.

"The last 4 fires," he continued, processing and telling Erza about earlier events. "They all originated from the same place and had the same pattern in ignition."

"Which is?" Erza asked.

"You're not going to believe it but…" Natsu held his breath, holding in his light chuckle. "It's with a crystal ball and a T.V."

"A crystal ball… and a T.V?" She looked at him with a serious face, trying to see if he was serious or not.

"Ok, ok, ok," he released his laughter. To her dismay, she was slightly irritated by it, making her nudge him with her elbow in the gut. "OW!"

"I really wanted to know, Natsu!" She stopped.

"Alright, but that was true though," he massaged his stomach with both of his hands. "Anyways, the point of origin is a bit messy but it turns out, someone throws a Molotov into the house, whether it'd be a child's room, the living room, the garage or the kitchen."

"A child's room?" Upon hearing that a Molotov was thrown a child's room somewhat made Erza a bit unnerving.

"Yeah, a little girls room to be exact." He said.

"Is she and her family alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, they weren't in town when that happened." He answered.

"Thank God," She sighed, relieved of the news. "Are the cops on the case?" The elevator finally stopped at their designated floor and out both went. A couple of feet and they made it to the main lobby of the apartment building. The color is just the usual beige and the all of the mailbox centered the right wall, depending on position.

"Yeah, we have to report the fires that have the same M.O or pattern." Natsu finally responded her. He walked towards the main desk which was just a regular type of school desk. On it, had the ledger which contained all the signatures of the tenants in the building. He, with his right hand, picked up the pen that had fallen onto the chair and wrote down his and Erza's name under the check-out print.

"That's good." She then changed the subject to that of PG. "Looks like they're still remodeling the main lobby's desk." Erza looked at the drapes that covered the main lobby's desk and a couple of bulky men and women coming in and out as they switch out the old and splintering wood for the new and smooth wood.

"NO! NOT THERE!" Yelled a short lady from behind the drapes. Erza and Natsu both looked at the lady's shadow figure, waving around her arms back and forth. "THIS GOES HERE YOU DIMWIT!" She continued to harass and command the workers.

"We should get out of here before she starts commanding us." Natsu gave out a weak wry laugh.

"I SAID NOT THERE!" She yelled once more, causing both Erza and Natsu to sweat drop.

"I'm right behind you on that one." Both Erza and Natsu vamoosed out of the building. As they headed out the main doors', the loud beeping of cars ensnared their ears.

They began to walk in their right direction, holding hands and standing close to each other. Couple of another feet and they made it to the building's parking space. "Where'd you park the car yesterday?" Natsu asked, looking over from the entrance at all the parked vehicles. Different shapes, different colors, all the more which irritated Natsu slightly.

"In the same spot as usual." Still continuing to hold on to his hand, Erza walked towards one of the corner of the parking lot. There, a black sleek 2014 Honda Civic was parked. Its body style was that of a Sedan.

Natsu let go of Erza's hand, sliding his hand into his pocket and taking out his keys. Upon closing in on the car's door, Natsu finally found its key, inserting it, twisting it and opening the door. He clicked on the Unlock symbol on the side of the door, letting Erza in on the passenger side. Once they sat down, they closed their doors, put their lunches in the back seats of the car. Erza put on her seatbelt whilst as Natsu turned on the engine. Soon as he turned on the engine, Erza pressed on of the buttons from the side door, causing it to put the window down. Natsu did the same and finally put his seatbelt on before switching the gear from Park to Drive.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Erza looked at him turning the gear.

"Hmm?" He looked at her, trying to figure out what she meant by that.

She then opened the car's glove compartment, taking out a prescription bottle. It looked like any pharmaceutical bottle, orange container with both a white lid and white label. "Your medicine for motion sickness." She then tossed them at him.

"That's why I could always count on you, ya know?" He smiled at her making her blush at his sight. He opened the lid and took out 2 pills.

"Here." She then got one of the water bottles that was left in the car's cup holders. There was always one or two water bottles for Natsu to use to gulp down his medication.

He put the pills in his mouth first, then reached in for the water bottle she handed over. "Thank you." He put the lid back on the prescription bottle, putting it between his thighs and opened the water bottle's cap, chugging it down all of it in one go.

"Now with that over, shall we go now?" She said.

"Yeah. So… Dr. McCheese? Right?" He asked, pressing down accelerator pedal and turning the driver's wheel to the right.

"If you're referring to Dr. Mikazuchi, then yes, we go pick her up first." She said, reaching and uncovering the visor's mirror, using it to fix her already beautiful tied up scarlet hair.

Natsu made a few other turns, finally reaching the streets of Magnolia and into the crowded streets. "Your hair is fine, Erza." He waited for the traffic light to turn green.

"I know, I know but," she said, constantly tying up her in different ways. "Just can't seem to find the best way for it."

"Should've just kept it the way it was," he leaned on his curled left fist. "It was very pretty the way it was before."

"I suppose." She put her back into a ponytail, heavily sighing out.

The traffic light turned green, signaling the cars to continue to their paths. It wasn't long before they've stopped at another red light. "Jesus Christ," Natsu heavily sighed, leaning more towards his seat. "Why is it that this goddamn city always has traffic in this time of hour!?"

"Calm down, it's about to be 9." She looked at her wrist watch.

"Exactly what I mean." He grunted about.

Green was a go again. "Turn right in this corner." Erza said.

"Gotcha."

Several minutes passed, Natsu kept on beeping and hollering at the cars in front of him, telling them that they drove slower than snails. Erza kept herself occupied in her book, Emergency Doctor by Edward Zeigler and Lewis R. Goldfrank, M.D., the title read. She had immersed herself almost halfway through the book already in a rather short time.

"This the place?" Natsu asked stopping both the car and Erza's train of thought.

She put her book in between her legs and somewhat leaned towards Natsu side of the seat, looking at the apartment complex. "Yeah this is the place," she then noticed her resident. "Oh there she is."

The dark haired woman with a white headband with a white ribbon tied at the middle in a bow, pointing straight up, walked towards them, seemingly spotting their car out of the bunch. "Dr. Scarlet!" She greeted her through Natsu's window.

"Come on in, Dr. Mikazuchi." Erza unlocked the car's doors.

She opened the left side back door, taking the seat right behind Natsu. "If I remember correctly from the last time we've met, you're Mr. Dragneel, right?" She asked, closing the door.

"Yeah, Kagura right?" He greeted her, locking the car's doors once again.

"Yeah." She answered.

"It's ok if I call you by the first name right? I don't know how to pronounce your last name." He asked her, driving back into the traffic, going to get the other resident.

"Sure, I get that a lot." She allowed it.

"Saber Street now, right?" He turned to look at Erza again.

"Yeah."

…

After several excruciating minutes passed by, the traffic along the roads of the city began to reduce. The streets weren't as crowded as before but the process of going from one place to the other was still the same. Natsu continued to complain about the other drivers' way of driving, while Erza and Kagura talked casually about work, checking up on their patients. "Oh for Christ sakes man!" Natsu stopped the car dead in its tracks, causing Erza and Kagura to end their conversation to see what the fuzz is about. "THAT WAS MY RIGHT OF WAY, YOU ASSHOLE!" Natsu put his window down all the way, taking out the majority of his head, chest and one of his arms, yelling at a motorcyclist who passed the traffic lights red at the intersection, crossing the road from left to right.

"YOU SNOOZE, YOU LOSE PAL! GIHI!" The motorcyclist said, before he disappeared deeper into his lane.

"Tch, bastard," He went back into the car, putting his window back the way it was with only a few inches opened. He turned to look at the women, staring at him as if he was some type of mad man. "What?"

"You stopped the car right in the middle of the street with ongoing traffic." Erza said.

"And?" He said.

"Shouldn't you, like, start moving the car?" Kagura said from behind.

"Right." He nodded, turning back to face the front windshield and pressing down on the accelerator pedal, passing the traffic light which just turned red.

Wasn't long before he made a few turns and finally made to their next destination: Saber Street. It was a nice street, it didn't have that many large buildings, complexes or any business type towers. The street had some restaurants of the sort though, ranging from buffets to coffee shops. "So where does this lady live at?" Natsu asked, breaking the conversation between his wife and her co-worker.

"Over there by the coffee shop." Kagura was the first to answer, pointing at the brown colored brick apartment complexes.

Natsu slowed the movement of the car, gentle pressing down on the brake pedal with his right foot. He parked right beside the pavement, right in front of the building. "She had greyish to white hair didn't she?" He saw a familiar face near the building's front doors.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you'd remember that part of her appearance." Erza furrowed her eyes, locking them at Natsu who fixed himself in his seat, leaning his back more into his seat.

"Don't think too much of it," he yawned, putting his hands in between the back of his head and the seat, making them seem like pillows. "Besides, like you said, I've only met them once. Kind of hard to think of something that's barely vague?"

"…you know what? I'll take that excuse." She said, going back into her book.

"So you're actually going to give me the benefit of the doubt right now?" As much to Natsu's dismay, it's one of the fewest times where he won an actual argument against Erza.

"Yeah," she said, multitasking between conversing and reading. "This is one of the fewest times where you actually use your brain."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Natsu happily grinned.

"She's coming." Kagura pointed out.

The young doctor came out of the building. The first thing she saw was 2 familiar co-workers in the same car. She slowly approached the car at the end of the pavement. "Hi Dr. Scarlet. Hi Dr. Mikazuchi. Hi… um Mr. Scarlet?" She said into Natsu's opened window.

"Good Morning, Dr. Agria." Erza was the first to greet her.

"And it's not Scarlet, it's Dragneel. Natsu Dragneel." He clarified her last bit.

"My mistake," She then opened the door. Kagura scoot over to the right, putting Erza's and Natsu's lunches on top of hers on her lap. Yukino took over her seat, seemingly putting her seatbelt over her chest and into its socket lock. "I forget that we've only met once."

"Yeah," he turned to look at the back, moving the car backwards to get out of the parking space between 2 other cars. After a few seconds of flailing forward and backward, the car made its way to the street again. "To the hospital, right?"

"Where else?" Erza said.

"Got it."

…

It didn't take that long to get to the hospital after the traffic subsided. The streets weren't as loud as before and Natsu no longer hollered at them for being slow. As for Erza, she continued to read her book while her two co-workers chit-chattered about in whispers. They were getting closer and closer, moving feet by feet. Upon finally arriving to the hospital, the loud sounds of ambulance sirens echoed in the streets. A few nurses and doctors gathered about near the ER entrances, waiting for EMTs to open the ambulance's doors. That was the last known thing before Natsu turned into the hospitals parking facility.

He passed a few cars, making his way to the end of the lot, finally finding Erza's parking space. DR. ERZA SCARLET were written on the parking space's wall. He steadily parked the car back to front, the back facing the wall while the front faced the inner street of the parking facility. Just as he turned off the ignition, both girls in the back got out, Yukino being the first to get out while Kagura placed their lunches back were they were, closing the doors leaving Erza and Natsu alone in the car.

"Why did you turn off the car?" She looked at him, puzzled to what he was going to do next. "Don't you work today?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's just…" His face suddenly turned slightly green and his arms covered his aching stomach. "Motion sickness is kicking in now, so I rather just walk it to the fire station."

"You sure?" She asked.

"Yeah, besides it's only a few blocks away from here." He assured her.

She leaned forward toward him, kissing him in the lips for a goodbye. She could still taste the leftover syrup on his lips. "Be careful ok?" She broke away the kiss.

"I always am." He replied with smile across his face.

"Are you going to want me to pick you up? I'm usually the one that gets out of work much early." She asked, about to open her door to get out of the car.

"Yeah. What? You think I'm going to walk it back home!?" He raised his left eyebrow, releasing a slight chuckle as well.

"Right." She didn't try to argue back.

She opened her door and got out. Before closing the door right behind her, Natsu called her. "Hey, you're forgetting something." He held her lunch bag near face.

She instantly went back, only putting half her body back in the car to get her lunch from her husband. "Thanks." She kissed him on the cheek, grabbed her bag and continued on her way to the hospital.

She closed the door and walked with her co-workers. From the parking foundation to the elevator, Natsu could only stare so much from behind the wheel. He leaned more onto his seat, putting his right arm over his eyes and heavily sighed. "Jesus Christ, I should get going."

He immediately grabbed his lunch from behind the front seat, opened the door, getting out, pressing the button on the door making a loud but short sound and closed the door behind him. He walked from his car to where he first entered inside the parking lot. He made it to the not so crowded side lines of the street, turning right and heading towards his destination.

For more than 10 minutes or so, the streets were once again crowded with cars. "Thank God I'm not driving anymore." He said walking and looking at the street from the corner of his eye.

The sun was out, making the city shine bright beautiful. Although Natsu was a firefighter, he couldn't stand the sweat dripping down from his forehead. Every once in a while, he would have to raise his left arm and wipe the sweat from his forehead. Wasn't long before he finally made it to the station.

As he went inside, he noticed one of his co-workers washing one of the fire trucks. "Hey Macao." He greeted him. Macao was the veteran firefighter in their team, he's been here as long as their captain, which was roughly about 15-20 years since their early twenties.

Macao dropped the sponge back into the bucket, wiped away his hands with one of the towels laying on the floor and went towards Natsu. "Yo." A simple one word was all.

"Where's the other fire truck? Is team 2 on another case?" Natsu looked at the vacant spot next to the fire truck.

"Yeah," Macao then used his towel to wipe away the sweat from his forehead. "Those monkeys from last week started yet another fire again at the zoo."

"Again?" Natsu was baffled. When they went to stop the fire the first time, the monkeys had already spread the fire from their cage all the way to the petting zoo. No animal was harmed but a few of the zoo workers were burned, not mild burns but a few burns that'll make a few marks. "How did they do it this time? The same way as before of with the liquor that those drunks throw in their cages?"

"Probably," he chuckled. "If you're looking for the rest of the team, some are in the weight room and a few aren't here yet."

"Ah," Natsu simply nodded, going in. "Well I guess I'll go change. I'll probably just be in the weight room."

"Right." Macao just stood there next to the bucket, watching the pinkette man walking towards the door and into the changing room, leaving him where he was before he got here; cleaning the damn truck.

Wasn't long before Natsu was already in his standard blue clothing uniform. He put his other clothes in his yellow fading colored locker along with his lunch. As soon as he closed and locked the locker a familiar long blue haired girl from his team was going through her locker. "Hey Juvia." He greeted her. Juvia is the only female in their team but does as much work as the men in the team, maybe even more on some occasions. She was roughly the same age as him, which was 25 years old.

She closed her locker halfway, peeking a bit to look at her fellow firefighter. "Juvia says hi." She greeted. Most of the time, Natsu didn't mind her weird way of speaking.

"You just got here?" Natsu put his left foot on the sitting bench, tying up his loose shoelace.

"Yeah. Juvia would've gotten here sooner if she didn't have to argue with stupid boyfriend." She slammed her locker door.

"Whoa," he sweat-dropped, slightly nervous at the atmosphere. "Remind me never to get on your bad side right there Juvia."

She could only stare at Natsu, thinking to herself whether it was a compliment or an insult. "Hm!" Is all she said before leaving the area to Natsu.

"All women are different..." He muttered to himself.

Just as Juvia walked out, another familiar face from his team came inside the changing/locker room, male. He had a broken line tattoo that ran across his face from one cheek to the other. His hair was 3/4 black while the rest had white, tied up in a ponytail like knot. "Oh, hey Natsu." He greeted the fellow pinkette.

"How's it going there Toto?" Natsu greeted him. Like earlier, he was also roughly the same age as him, maybe a year or two older than him. He switches from handling the water hose to rescuing people inside burning buildings and such.

"For the last time," he dropped his bag near his feet, picking at his lock. "It's Totomaru. Using Toto for short is weird, it's what my mother used to call me."

"Right, won't happen again." Natsu promised. He then started to walk towards the same exit, leaving the firefighter for himself in the locker room.

The next room was the weight room. He saw Juvia on the treadmill going at least 2-3 miles per hour on it. "WHY WON'T THIS STUPID SHIT COME OUT!?" A loud male voice by the vending machine yelled, making Natsume loose his train of thought. He turned to look at one corner of the gym, looking at the long green haired buff man, shaking the vending machine.

"You do realize that shaking the vending machine would only cause more trouble than resolving what you need?" Natsu told him.

"Eh what?" The big man turned and looked down on the small man talking to him. "Oh it's you, pink hair."

"What's up, Orga? No pun intended." Natsu crossed his arms around his chest. Orga was roughly 4 years older than Natsu. He's usually arrogant but once you get to know him, he's not a bad guy even for his appearance.

"Whatever," he turned back to the vending machine and continued his shake like tantrum on the machine. "GIVE ME MY DAMN DRINK!"

"Allow me," another and last remaining member of their group appeared. He went in between Orga and the vending machine and suddenly positioned himself in a fighting like stance. With a simple yet lightning fast jab, his right palm went through the machine, startling both Orga and Natsu with their jaw dropping eye popping faces. "Here you go." He threw one of the energy drinks at Orga, and opening his own.

"God damn, did that not hurt, Bacchus?" Orga looked at the deep hole in the machine.

Baucus gulped down the majority of his drink already. "No." He wiped away the little remaining red dye of the juice he had sipped down from his lips. Bacchus is prideful in his martial arts and despite his size, he was easily as strong as Orga and is exactly the same age as Natsu.

"The Chief ain't going to be too happy about his machine looking like this..." Natsu felt somewhat overwhelmed just by looking at the big hole in the machine, seeing the sodas and the rest of the energy drinks inside it.

"What's this about my machine?" The Chief came from the locker room. He was a tall man, his hair matched the same color as blood when it reaches oxygen and had a few burned areas overlooking his face however they were very unnoticeable.

"Speak of the devil..." Bacchus muttered to himself.

The chief then approached his machine near the huddled men, and no words were said. Only gestures of "who" "what" and "how" were waved around with his arms and with fake tears. Without hesitating, both Natsu and Orga simply pointed with their eyes towards the suspect. "Bacchus! THIS IS COMING OUT OF YOUR PAYCHECK!"

"If it wasn't for me, Orga over here would've completely destroyed it!" Bacchus gutted Orga with his elbow, making the green haired man slightly gasp for air.

"Hey, don't try to shift the blame on me!" Orga, with his right hand, smacked Bacchus in the head causing a small but visible bump on the head.

"WHAT ABOUT YOU NATSU!? WERE YOU THE NEXT PERSON TO TRY THE MACHINE OUT ON THE DAMN BOXING ARENA!?" The chief said to Natsu who was just a victim of chance.

"What!? No. Nothing like that sir." Natsu sweat dropped.

Suddenly, the sirens in the fire station sounded off, quieting the bunch of men and signaling all the members of their team of a fire. "Sir!" Macao entered the weight at the same time Totomaru came rushing in.

"Right, let's go team!" The chief said.

All of them quickly went back into the locker room and changed as they moved about. Time was of the essence at the moment. Everybody, almost all in fireproof gear and uniforms, huddled near the fire truck. "Where is the fire?" The chief asked, clicking in his head gear's belt.

"Not far," Macao answered, getting in on the shotgun side of the truck while the chief got on the driver's seat. "It's an apartment complex a few blocks away from here."

"Is Team 2 on its way?" The chief asked, starting the engine. The rest of the crew held on from either the sides or from the back, ready once they're on the scene.

"Yeah, they're farther from us since they had an earlier fire on the zoo grounds." Macao said.

"The monkeys?" The chief knew about that incident as well.

"Yeah." Macao chuckled.

"Are the paramedics on the scene?" The chief pressed on the pedal to go out.

"They were the first to arrive on the scene." Macao replied.

"Good."

The chief instantly turned on the loud sirens and quickly charged the truck into the ongoing traffic. It wasn't long before the majority of cars being on the street moved to the sides, letting the fire truck go by easily.

They arrive at the scene. The sidewalk in front of the burning apartment was filled with people. From people recording to others being in awe. The firetruck came to a stop, parking right behind the the paramedics ambulance treating the burned and wounded. Luckily for them a fire hydrant was near the burning building and Natsu and Juvia quickly got the hose down and connected it. "OK people, stand back!" The chief said, getting out of the truck and quickly dealing with the growing crowd.

Another pattern of sirens were getting near the burning complex, however, the sound was a bit more distinct than that of a fire trucks. At least 3 or 4 white and black cars with the logo of MPD standing for Magnolia Police Department, parked next to their truck. 2 policemen were in each car, a total of 8 men came out of their cars. A few came to join the chief in controlling the crowd while the others just looked at the increasing blaze.

"What's the current situation, chief Gildarts?" A blonde cop with a similar scar near his eye went and asked the firefighter.

"Currently on it," he then turned away from the crowd and back to his fellow firefighters. "Dragneel, Lockser, and Maru!"

Both Natsu and Juvia gave the fire hose to Macao and Orga, going on their way to the boss. Totomaru was the first to go in the cheif's direction. "You three, prep up. You're all going in to check if there's any remaining people in the building. Chop chop!" Gildarts clapped his hands, signaling them to move quickly.

"Isn't there supposed to be another team of firefighters?" The blonde asked as he saw the three rapidly go back to their truck.

"Yeah, they had another fire earlier at the zoo," Gildarts said. "They'll be here soon."

"Alrig- HEY GET BACK BEHIND THE DO NOT CROSS TAPE!"

Juvia, Natsu and Totomaru quickly put on the back-pack oxygen tanks equipped with mask-inhalers, slowly extended the ladder to reach the burning apartment level floor and quickly proceeded in. This still felt like regular fires to them, always the tip of the iceberg compared to that Hell's fire.

Not even a second inside the burning complex and Natsu was the first the start dripping sweat into his gear. "ANYBODY STILL HERE!?" He yelled in front him, seeing a river of fire through the floor's main hall.

"NATSU, OVER THERE!" Totomaru patted him on the back, getting the firefighter's attention toward the crumbled door.

"Help... somebody... help..." A barely audible and hoarse female voice was heard from behind the rubble blocking the doorway.

"MA'AM PLEASE STAY CALM AND STAY WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW!" Totomaru yelled out, hoping the intense heat didn't cancel out his yell. "WE'RE ABOUT TO TAKE THIS RUBBLE OFF RIGHT NOW! COME ON GUYS."

"RIGHT!" Both Natsu and Juvia said.

All three firefighters came close to the doorway, taking off the burning wood from different sizes. After what seemed like an eternity to them, the rubble was all off revealing 2 civillians; a mother and her baby. "Come with Juvia, she'll take you to the exit." Juvia quickly told the lady and she quickly complied, taking her hot but gentle hand.

"Chief?" Natsu put his walkie-talkie like communication that hanged from his helmet near his ear.

"Yeah?" A static voice can be heard.

"Juvia is coming out with a mother and kid, tell the paramedics to be ready." Natsu said.

"Got it, oh and Natsu, Team 1 is already here and clearing out the rest of the other floors." The chief quickly told him over the microphone.

"Got it, we'll be done with this floor in a bit, we just got to make sure-"

Suddenly, a loud explosion in their floor occurred. From the outside, the many pedestrians behind the cross tape could only awe in shock while looking at the increase black smoke and shards of glass from different floors falling from different heights and crashing down on the sidewalk in front of them. Juvia along with the mother and her daughter held on to the ladder, being shaken up from right to left due to the explosion. "Natsu? Totomaru? Anybody hear me?" The chief wanted a response.

"What the hell is going up there, Gildarts!?" The blonde cop asked him, somewhat concerned over the loud explosion that occurred a couple seconds ago.

"Not entirely sure." Gildarts was about to run back into the fire truck to put on a gas tank and go in himself before finally receiving a response.

"We're... ok... chief." A coughing Natsu said.

"You had me worried there for a second boys." He said, talking in his communication while looking directly at the 7th floor of the building.

"Don't be," Natsu looked at his fellow firefighter, Totomaru, holding on to his mask trying to catch his breath. "I don't know what caused that explosion but it seems to me that this floor is clear."

"Yeah? Well then get out of there!" Chief yelled of the communicator.

"Alrig-" Just before Natsu was able to finish his sentence he heard multiple screams coming from the corridor of the floor.

"HELP US!" "PLEASE!" "SAFE US!" Were yelled and screamed at the same time.

"You heard that too right?!" He turned to look at Totomaru, still wheezing.

"Yeah... but we're in no condition... to go... for them..." Totomaru said.

"You aren't but I am," Natsu quickly dash from from the side windows to the corridor. "I'LL BE THERE IN A SECOND! JUST HOLD ON."

"Oi, Natsu, what the hell is going up right there!?" The chief called from the communicator once again.

"There's still a few civillians left!" Natsu yelled through the communicators, telling him what the fuss was all about.

"A few more!? I thought you said you were clear!?" The chief yelled back.

"No-" Another explosion occurred, but only a weaker one than before. It shook the building tumbling both Natsu and Totomaru to their knees, burning their hands. Although they had gloves on, the heat was still intense.

"That's it, I'm sending Macao to get you both out!" The chief said, ending the discussion upon hearing the explosion. "MACAO!"

Before he knew it, Macao was already on it, climbing up the ladder to enter the pit of hell. "COME ON GUYS!" He called them from the window. He saw them, Natsu was already up trying to find away to the family while Totomaru quickly came to the window.

The heat was getting intense with every minute that passed by. Natsu's oxygen tank was getting low and the family he intended to help was still on the other side of the building.

"NATSU!" Totomaru called out to his co-worker, waving his arm around to come back.

He turned to look at him, telling him to get out of the building through the window they came from. "I'M NOT LEAVING THIS FAMILY BEHIND!" He turned back to see through the fire.

The fire was getting more intense, getting much harder for Natsu to see through it as well as be inside it. "HELP US! WE'RE IN HERE!" He kept hearing the family's plead for help. Their voices were becoming hoarse due to the lack of oxygen and the carbon monoxide in the air.

"NATSU!" His partner kept calling out for him, this time when Natsu turned, he pointed at the roof. Warning him that it is getting weaker and weaker.

Natsu was now worried than ever, seeing the roof above him crumbling down bit by bit. "Shit!"

Before he knew it, instead of the ceiling crashing down on him, he was the one going down. The floor beneath him caved in, and could only stare at his friends as he fell from heaven. "NATSU!" There were no words, just silence surrounding Totomaru's lips.

He landed on his back and his air tank started to leak, making the oxygen go faster than before. Totomaru and Macao looked from above, looking at the hole that caved in almost 2 floors down. As they peeked down, they saw Natsu but unconscious. "WE HAVE TO GET DOWN THERE!" Totomaru yelled.

"HO-" Before Macao can muster up words another explosion occurred this time in their floor.

"What the hell is goin-" The chief's voice was then cut off by the explosion and his eyes caught both of his firefighters crashing through the window and falling down on the pavement, the crowd gasped as they hit the floor. "Shit!" The chief, a few officers, some paramedics and firefighters from both teams quickly went to their fallen comrades' aid.

"Natsu... is... still... in there..." Macao faintly said, slowly losing consciousness. His and Totomaru's gear were badly degraded, all burnt out due to the explosion. Their faces matched the black smoke that continued to leak from the windows of the building.

"What!? Is he still alive!?" The chief said, staring down at both of his firefighters. Totomaru was the first go unconscious, slowly closing his eyelids.

"Don't… know…" Both their head gear were taken off. Macao coughed up blood.

"Sir, I'm going to need you to stay conscious." The paramedic tending to Macao's wounds.

"W... Why?" Macao could only stare at the medic. A young male, probably not even in his mid-twenties yet.

"There's a piece of wood sticking out of your stomach," the paramedic told him, inspecting it from all sides. "Your fireproof gear is what preventing you from bleeding to death."

"That... figures..." Macao could only chuckle at his situation. He then stared up and saw the chief. "Natsu... is on the... fifth floor..."

"Fifth floor? How'd he get from the seventh floor to the fifth floor?" The chief said.

"The floo... floor beneath him caved in..." Macao weakly said. A little stream of blood leaked from his mouth.

"TEAM ONE! GO IN AND GET NATSU! I'M NOT ABOUT TO LOSE ANOTHER FIREFIGHTER!" The chief yelled his command.

"RIGHT!" Team 1 said in harmony. They quickly entered the building through the front doors leaving the rest in the middle of the street where they dragged both fallen members.

"Cheif, we have to get them to a hospital." The paramedic said.

"Well then get to it!" He yelled at him.

"G... Gildarts..." Macao weakly said, catching his breath little by little. Gildarts hated seeing his best firefighter and best friend in this state, it made him seem useless.

"What is it?" The chief said, trying to muster up a fake smile.

"If I don't... make it..." He coughed up more blood.

"Hey, hey don't talk like that," a small tear went down the cheif's cheek. "You're gonna make it, alright?"

"If I don't make it…" he started having problems breathing, but still mustered up the strength say a few words before the paramedics came and took him. "You tell Romeo, my son, to be strong… and my first wife, Rosa, that I'm sorry…"

"Macao…" Gildarts looked straight into his friend's eyes.

"Promise me…" He said.

"Ma-"

"Promise me!" He said once more, much louder than before.

"I… I promise!" He assured his dark blue haired friend.

"The first ambulance is here," the paramedic said. "We're taking him first." He pointed at Macao.

"Y-Yeah, you do that," Gildarts agreed with that. "Juvia go with him, please. I need some of to be there for him while I stay down here for Natsu."

"Ok." She said.

More paramedics came, with a gurney to put Macao on. Slowly, one of them lifted him from his shoulders while the other hurried and carried him from the legs, gently setting him on it. Within seconds, they put him in the truck while Juvia hopped on and closed their doors. "He's gonna be alright." The blonde cop said.

"I really hope you're right, Laxus." Gildarts said, looking at the ambulance going away.

"Holy...!" Totomaru widened his eyes coming back from his unconscious state, gasping for air in his lungs.

"Hey, good morning sunshine." Bacchus mockingly said to the fellow firefighter.

"It's afternoon... dumbass." He retorted back.

Back inside the burning building, Natsu was coming back from his little slumber, finding himself laid out on his back on the floor. He felt a slight ill like pain shivering up his spine; his oxygen had broken his fall but left him with an agitating pain. He was disoriented, his eyesight was seeing double of everything while his hearing was heating echoes of the screams of the family he intended to save. His back was burning up with every second laid on the floor, the oxygen tank made no difference in height gap between his back and the floor. He tried getting up but the fall took a toll on him. He wasted his breath trying to turn to either left or right side. He looked up and to his surprise a fellow firefighter was in front of him, upside from his point. "H... Hey..." He weakly said to him, stretching out his arm towards him.

Suddenly the firefighter stood over Natsu, looking down on him. On his right, Natsu noticed the firefighter carrying something rectangular. "HELP US" "PLEASE!" "SAVE US!" All of the voices emitted from the thing he carried.

Natsu didn't know if he was hallucinating those voices or not. He took one quicker look at the firefighter that stood in front of him. Right there, he knew he was impersonating a firefighter. He then looked into his eyes. Like a scorched Earth, his eyes were red. No one on his team had peculiar eyes like his. "W... Who are... you...?" He mustered up the words, coughing into his mask.

The man with red eyes came closer to Natsu, lunging on one of his knees and facing Natsu face to face. "You already know about me," he gave out a short wry laugh. As much as Natsu wanted to knock the man out, he couldn't. One of his legs got stuck under burning rubble, eating away his fireproof gear. To add to his situation, he can barely see straight and had trouble staying up. "You are in no shape to fight me, now be a good boy and stay put while you burn in this pit of hell." The man stopped lunging, walking away from Natsu and heading into another corridor. He left the rectangular box still emitting the cries a few feet away from Natsu.

Natsu could only stare at the man, leaving him dead in his tracks. "Sh-shit..." Natsu started to inhale some of the carbon monoxide, knowing now that his oxygen tank had nothing more to give him. Several minutes passed, his will has not broken and has not yet succumbed to the weariness. At the same time, the cries were no longer heard from the strange box. He took a quick peek at it and to his surprise the box was on fire thanks to the burning debris next to it.

"THERE HE IS!" One of the men from Team One spotted the fellow pinkette firefighter, stuck under the rubble. He and two others, a female and another tall muscled man came to his aid.

"WE'RE GOING TO GET YOU OUT OF THIS RUBBLE!" The big man quickly, along with the woman began taking off the burning wood that blocked him from moving.

As they were hurrying, the other male was already clinging on Natsu, preparing to take him out. "Don't worry Natsu, they're almost done." He then was pulled closer by Natsu, tugging him from the firefighter's helmet.

"It... was... a trap!" Natsu said in his ear. "The ar... arsonist from before... he was here..." He then pointed at the rectangular.

The firefighter turned to look at what he was pointing at. A large rubble, nothing but burning wood. Just as he was about to turn back, he noticed a lesser fire. He went near it, leaving Natsu were he was before. "This is..!" He quickly put the fire off of it.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING OVER THERE!?" Said the big man, as he carried and threw 3 large pieces of untouched wood on the side.

"IT'S SOMETHING THE COPS MIGHT WANT!" He retorted back. The lingering flames on the box ceased to exist and brought it next to Natsu who was still conscious despite in his state.

"OK! PULL HIM OUT!" The female firefighter signaled him the green light.

Several seconds after he was notified, the leftover debris over Natsu's foot was lifted, freeing him from his grasp and was dragged out of it. The firefighters let the debris fall and rushed over to help Natsu, helping him stand up and walking out. The muscled man saw the big gash in Natsu's oxygen tank. It wasn't releasing any oxygen indicating it was empty, the fellow firefighter gave him oxygen from his tank, lending it to him as they got out. Right behind them were the rest of the firefighters from Team One that came in to look for their fallen comrade suddenly appeared.

As they approached the exit, they noticed that the last remaining injured firefighter, Totomaru, was nowhere to be seen and that a third ambulance siren had just stopped where the first few parked. "PARAMEDICS!" The chief quickly yelled at them, making them more much faster than before. "OVER HERE!" He started to run past them, helping the firefighter from Team 1 move the injured firefighter.

The team of paramedics hurried, taking out the gurney and going towards the trio. The rest of both teams and police officers huddled over them, from all over the place, they began to spur out questions concerning about the occurring events. "Natsu are you ok?" and "How did you fall?" were all said from different people in the group, making Natsu's occurring headache worse.

"I'm going to need you all to step away from the injured firefighter." One of the medic's said as they walked over to them, still bringing the gurney.

"You heard them, go back and continue to subside the fire!" Gildarts commanded. With such a simple command, they all followed and returned to man the water hoses.

The police returned to watch the crowd and control and Gildarts stood there next to the medics and Natsu. "It looks like he suffered a few first and second degree burns on his legs, hands and some slight places in his face," Said one of the medics on the scene, inspecting Natsu. "Gonna have to remove the gear before we do anything else."

"Is that alright chief?" One of the medics asked.

"Removing the gear? Yeah that's fine," The chief said to the trio of medics. He then placed his hand over his mouth and chin. "Is he going to be alright?"

"Other than a few burns, probably a sprained leg and a concussion, yeah." One of the medics honestly told him.

"Good," the chief saw take Natsu into the ambulance, closing the doors behind them and turning on their sirens and leaving the scene. He turned back and saw both teams doing as they were told. ""Goddamn… I'm down 3 men…" He muttered to himself.

"Oi, chief!" The blonde cop called out to him, and by the way he looked, it seemed urgent.

He rushed toward him, he was near his cop car. On his hood laid something, but from Gildarts position, it was blocked by him. "What's up Laxus? By the way you sounded, it seemed important." He said.

"One of your men, Mest, handed us this thing." Laxus then showed him a boom box like device.

"What about it?" Gildarts raised an eyebrow.

Laxus raised a finger, holding him on his comment. With a simple tap on the boom box like buttons, the thing started to play. ""HELP US" "PLEASE!" "SAVE US!" The voices escaped from the box. Gildarts eyes widened as he heard the voices going from one ear to the other.

"This is…," Gildarts eyes shivered. "This is a prerecorded distress call!"

"Yup." Laxus only nodded. From the looks of it, he came up with the same conclusion as the firefighter.

Gildarts just kept listening to voices. With each voice, it kept sending goosebumps up his spine, until something came to his mind. "Before the whole explosion happened, Natsu heard a few people still stuck in the building," he then turned off the recorder. "These could've been what he heard."

"So the fire was premeditated then? Figures." Laxus sighed, leaning his back against his car.

"You think this is the work of the serial arsonist?" He asked the cop.

"That's a big escalation though," Laxus stared Gildarts, raising an eyebrow at the firefighter. "From multiple house fires to an apartment fire, that's one heck of an escalation."

"THEN WHO ELSE WOULD IT BE!?" Gildarts yelled back. With his yell, the cops, his firefighters and a few people in the crowd gave both Gildarts and Laxus shocking looks.

"Gildarts…" Laxus could hear the hurt in his friend's voice.

"He's the only one that is currently mocking our line of work!" He said, this time he lowered his voice.

"Hey, if the bastard left some more evidence like this," Laxus pointed at the recorder. "Then we'll definitely catch his ass." He reassured him. "So just chill."

Laxus patted Gildarts on the shoulder. "I guess that makes me a bit better." He tried putting up a fake smile but Laxus saw right through the firefighter.

"Hey, your men, they are going to be just fine as well, rest assured." Laxus said, looking straight at the red head.

"Oh I know they're gonna be fine, it's just…" He looked down on the floor, using his right hand to scratch the back of his neck.

"Erza?" A slight chuckle came out of both men.

"Yeah." Gildarts laugh receded.

"Oh come on now, she's a big girl, she can take on what just currently happened to Natsu." Laxus said.

"Really?" Gildarts was trying to comprehend if the blonde cop was serious or not.

"…in a parallel universe?" Laxus seemingly added a bit to his earlier sentence.

"Seriously though, those 2 have been together since they were kids, I'm surprised she's very protective of him." Gildarts admitted.

"And you can barely keep a marriage," Laxus said. "This is what? Your seventh divorce that's happening to you?"

"That is a different topic my friend." He tried to shut the cop.

"Yo! Boss!" Bacchus called out to him.

Both men looked at the firefighter. It seemed as they were conversing, both teams had managed to cease the fire from the building and had already started their investigation of the fire. Only a mixture of both gray and black smokes came out from the building. Gildarts proceeded to walk towards the firefighter near the firetruck. "What's up?" He asked him.

"You and the cop over there are gonna want to see what we discovered, boss." He said, pointing at Laxus.

With a simple gesture, Gildarts turned to look at the blonde and tilted his head, telling him to come over to the conversation. Laxus quickly told one of the other cops to look after the crowd and the already on-scene news cast team. After a couple of moments, he rushed towards their position. "What's up?" He said, fixing his hat.

"We found something in the fifth floor you guys might want to see…" Bacchus was slightly disturbed at what he looked at before telling his cohorts.

"Speak up!" Gildarts told the firefighter.

"We found something in the fifth floor you guys might want to see!" He elevated his voice more. "I-It's quite disturbing…"

"Fifth floor? Did the fire not originate from the seventh?" Gildarts was slightly shocked at the first piece of news revealed to them.

"That's what we initially thought as well, but further investigation led us to believe that the fire now originated on the fifth floor, not the seventh." Another voice entered the conversation.

Both men turned to look at the firefighter. It was one of the firefighters that helped take out Natsu, Mest. "Are you guys' definitive about your analyses you've just given me and Laxus?" Chief raised an eyebrow, just trying to be sure of their findings.

"Definitely." Both firefighters said.

"Ok, since we've sorted all of that, what about the disturbing part?" Laxus got back onto topic.

"Come with us." Bacchus got off from his leaning stance and with Mest leaded both the chief and the cop in charge into the building.

They walked through some burnt rubble and carefully went up the stairs since the fire put the elevator out of commission. After walking up the 5 sets of staircases, they made it to their floor destination. Like the first floor, they walked through some rubble from cracked walls to badly burnt furniture. They made a few turns and finally made it to where some firefighters were huddled up. They entered what seemed to be the 516 apartment room. "Over here!" Called out the female firefighter from Team 1.

They passed the living room and into the apartment's bedroom. "Holy shit!" Gildarts was the first to notice the disturbing thing that Bacchus mentioned.

"Please do not tell me that that is a body…" Laxus put his hand over his mouth, disgusted rather than shocked.

"Unfortunately, it is." The female firefighter fixed her glasses.

A moment of silence ensnared the room. "The media must not be informed," Laxus broke the silence. "You."

"Me?" He pointed at Mest.

"Yeah, go back down into the street and fetch me one of my guys. We're going to need to secure the building and call down a few of the CSI's down back from the Department." Laxus told him.

"Right!" The firefighter hurried out of the room, carrying the important message.

"Well, at least you can scratch off the serial arsonist of that list, Laxus." Gildarts told him. Even though the fire was no longer lit, the heat was still there, making him slightly sweat.

"I don't think so boss," the female firefighter walked towards the right side of the bed. She kneeled down and started picking at pieces of shard. "Pieces of an alcoholic beverage are on the

"Oh god," Gildarts put his hand over his mouth, acting like he was about to throw up. "S-She was molotoved!?"

"Oh…" Laxus felt the same nauseous affect overwhelm him. "Please tell me this person was dead before she was ignited…"

"Do I look like a damn coroner!?" She made her hand into a fist and waved it around her head. "And, yes. Signs indicate that the ignition point was that concentrated and then spread about throughout the whole building. A Molotov is one of the fewest to make this much of a ruckus."

"Are you sure Evergreen?" Gildarts asked once more, just to be on the safe side.

"Positive."

...

"Dr. Scarlet." A blue haired male with a white overcoat and distinctive red tattoo under and over his right eye calmly said as he entered the doctor's work area.

"Yes Dr. Fernandez?" Erza said, while scribbling and finishing up on a patient's report.

"Why aren't the reports of your patient yesterday on my desk yet?" He soon got out of the doorway and made it to her front desk.

He glanced and saw how messy her table up close was. Sticky notes everywhere, papers in different files and others were scattered. The only thing unscathed out of the bunch was a picture of her and Natsu. The picture was taken on their 3rd anniversary, when they had gone to Paris for a bit. The picture of them was both taken next to the Eiffel Tower. "Is there any reason why you're looking through my table intently?" She broke the doctor's silent induced thought sequence.

"Right," he got back on track. "Your reports, why aren't they on my desk yet?"

"I'm finishing it up right now." She scribbled down more on the paper with her black pen.

"And you couldn't finish yesterday because…?" He awaited an answer.

Erza then slowly put the pen down and stared at the nagging doctor. "Because yesterday, our patient had multiple occurring seizures due to her epilepsy," she said toward the man. "Unless you think paperwork comes first-"

"You know what, forget I asked," he cut her off midsentence. "Just turn them in when you're done writing them, right away."

She saw him leave her room. "Will do." She replied all late.

She sighed and leaned more onto her desk chair. Thank god it was one of those that spin, she usually starts spinning when a lot of stress is eating her apart. "Huh…" She heavily sighed looking directly at her ceiling. She then looked back down at her paper trail of a mess on her desk. "Dammit, I wanted to be a doctor to save lives, not do all this paperwork crap!"

Suddenly, someone knocked on her door which slightly startled her. "C-Come on in." She stuttered.

"Doctor Scarlet?" A nurse slowly came in, only opening the door halfway and only her head peeked in. The nurse had a particular white to blonde short hair.

"Yeah? Did something happened to one of my patients?" She easily jumped out of her chair.

"No, no, it's not one of your patients," she quickly assured the scarlet haired doctor. "But it's another one, in the ICU."

"The ICU?" Suddenly her eyes widen. Only people with ill like injuries or sickness are usually there. People with high risk jobs are also treated there usually, especially those in the line of work of Police or firefighter which instantly made her think of Natsu. "Does this patient have… pink hair?"

"What? No, this person has white and black hair," she raised an eyebrow at the pink hair she mentioned. "Apparently, he says he knows you."

"Black and white haired…?" She muttered to herself. Instantly, a name came to her mind. "Totomaru?"

"Yeah, that's the patient's name." The nurse said.

"Why is he in the ICU?" She asked the nurse. Suddenly, a folder was thrown onto her desk, nearing the computer's keyboard.

"It might be easier if you just look at the file right now." The nurse then closed the door and left Erza isolated again in her room, leaving her with the firefighter's file.

She skimmed through the file only to have her eyes widen. She instantly put the files in her armpit, and dashed right out her door.

After several seconds running down the stairs, which seemed faster than taking the elevator, she finally made her way to the ICU. A few burned victims were in it. "Must've been from the fire…" She said to herself. She walked around until a familiar colored haired man caught her attention.

"OW!" Totomaru said as he was being bandaged up by the male doctor.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to stay still please." The doctor said, putting some type of oil ointment on the man's face.

"You're hurting me though!" He said to the doctor, still struggling around making it almost impossible for the doctor to put the medication on him.

"Maybe if you stopped shaking, the possibility of me putting this aloe-vera more gently is more likely to happen." The doctor suggested, still had some of the ointment at the tip of his right hand fingers.

"Mm… fine." He pouted like a child, but he knew the doctor was right. He put his arms across his chest and stiffened his face. Gently, the doctor placed the ointment on his face.

"Totomaru?" Erza finally intervened after witnessing both the doctor and Totomaru stopped acting like children.

"Erza?" The doctor stopped putting the ointment, letting the firefighter turn and look at the red head. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here you idiot." She couldn't believe that he said that, after 3 years, you'd expect a friend to know where you work.

He then straighten out his back as he sat. "I don't mean it like that, I mean, what are you doing here in this part of the hospital? How did you even know I was here?"

"A nurse told me that you called me," she raised an eyebrow, this time she put her arms across her chest. "What? You suddenly have amnesia now as well?"

"Well he did fall from the 7th floor and only has a concussion." The other doctor said.

"The seventh floor?!" Erza was astonished. Not many people can survive a fall from that high and have minor bruises like him.

"Most of his gear took the damage for him." The other doctor continued on with his work.

"Go figure." Erza said.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," he said coming back to his original topic. "No, it's because, I didn't think you'd actually come," he scratched above the wrapped bandages over his forehead. "I thought you'd be handling some other patients."

"I was earlier but before I came here, I was doing some paperwork." She said.

"Paperwork? I thought all of you were doctors!?" He now scratched his cheek.

"We are," she elaborated. "The paperwork is to keep in a count for our patients."

"And their symptoms." The other doctor added. Ironically, he was doing paperwork of his own.

"Geez…" Totomaru just laid back on the bed once more.

"As I was reading your files," Erza took one of the seats and sat right at the end of the bed. "There was something that caught my eye…"

"The other firefighter?" He instantly knew what the topic was.

"Yeah… was it-"

"No, it wasn't Natsu that was caught in the explosion with me," he instantly assured her. "It was Macao."

"Macao? Is he alright?" She couldn't believe it. Before his divorce with his wife Rose, which was almost a year ago, he, her and their son, Romeo, would go fishing; just to pass the time and have fun.

"When the explosion occurred, a piece of wood, big one, flew right into his abdomen…." He tried to hold back his tears. "I'm… trying to be very optimistic right now."

"I-I have to go check up on him." Her skid the floor as she quickly got off of it.

"Juvia is with him," he stopped her in her tracks. "You should go check up on Natsu instead."

She froze up, standing there letting the flow of time go through her. "N-Natsu?" She turned to look back him. In her mind, she was really hoping she heard wrong.

"Yeah," he looked at her. With her face frozen like that, he could tell that she was trying to process the new information in front of her. "No one told you your husband was here?" He asked her.

"No! What happened to him!?" She asked the fellow firefighter.

"Before the explosion came about, Natsu and I had heard another family, begging for help," he told her like if it was a story. "I was in bad shape from an earlier but weak explosion and my gas tank was almost out, his wasn't and was still in better shape." He tried to recollect the rest of the memories and continued again. "He went to go check up on it, it wasn't before Macao came through the window to come check up on us."

"What else happened?" She asked him.

"And I went to Macao's location, from where we were, we watched Natsu stare into the fiery hall," he closed his eyes, helping him remember the next part. "Then I pointed out to him that the roof above him was weakening."

"And then?" In her mind, she tried visualizing the events, predicting what would happen next. Nervous on the inside, all of the conclusions to all possible outcomes do no favor to her.

His eyes were still closed. Like a psychic trying to picture the future, Totomaru instead tried to remember the last bit of info from his brain. "Ah," he snapped his fingers. "The floor below him caved in!"

"But I thought you said the floor above him?" She now questioned whether the fall didn't cause anymore head injuries.

"It's what I and Macao initially thought until, well, the floor under him took him down with him." He said.

"Oh god… I have to be with him right now!" She quickly dashed away, startling the other doctors, nurses and patients.

"At least I'm alright." Totomaru said to her before she completely left the vicinity of the ICU.

"Just shut up already." His doctor advised him.

After several minutes of hind search, Erza managed to find a nurse who saw the man descripted as Natsu. Room 507, Erza thought to herself as she sprinted around the hospital, going from corridor to corridor. There it is!

She decelerated her pace as she made herself closer to the room. She then controlled her breathing, slowing down her heartbeat. All the things that Totomaru said to her made her worried a bit, her hands trembling, her thoughts were scattered and small drops of sweat dripped down on her forehead. This was the first time she's ever been scared in her life.

From outside the window, she can barely see anything. The curtains were unfolded and made the vision to look in blurry. She sighed and knew she had to face her husband dead on. Slowly opened the door and walked in. "Natsu?"

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, if you're following either Chasing Scarlet or At the End of the Tunnel, your patience is noted for as I would be updating either one soon today. Hope you enjoy this, chapter 2 of this story will soon be updated, stay tune. And sorry if some characters are a bit out of character, it's hard trying to bring their emotions on a realistic scenario (in human ways that is) they've never been in.