บท 16: Wake Up Call

Warm.

As I wake up, that is the first thing that I notice. I feel so content and warm that I snuggle deeper into my pillow wanting to just stay there as long as I can. I scratch my nose as it itches, and before I know it, it itches again. I start to wake up more now. Taking in a deep breath, the smell of wood smoke and spices overtake my senses.

Oddly calming despite my dislike of smoke. I settle deeper into the pillow, inhaling the smell. Something tickles my nose, like a fly fluttering around so I swat at it. I can hear slight giggling coming from nearby. Another tickle with another swat by me followed by more stifled giggles.

(Hmm? Ok, what's going on?) Quiet shushing with another giggle follows more stuff landing on my nose. (Oh, so that's what's going on. They want me to slap myself awake. The little scamps.) My nose starts itching like crazy, but I ignore it. The giggling quickly stops and with it a renewal of the tickling. I clench my hand under the covers trying to ignore the itching while waiting.

(Almost, just a little bit more…) When I can sense that whoever it is starts leaning in close to me, I take in as deep as a breath as I can.

Erupting out of the covers, I let out as mighty of a roar as I can to scare whoever has been plaguing my nose with itchy stuff. Natsu and Happy are holding onto each other in fear as I wave my arms wildly at them while still roaring.

Before I know it, I feel like I'm falling and my roar turns into a shriek as I fall. Waving my arms in panic at the sudden turn of events I forget to catch myself as I land face first into the floor. Pain explodes across my face as I feel more than hear odd, loud, crunching sounds. I cry out loudly as I turn over to get off of my face.

Tears well up in my eyes at the stabbing pain. My legs thump on the floor, but I don't care as I hold onto my face with both hands.

"Ow." is the only thing I can say as my throat muscles clench up tight from the pain radiating all over my face. I can hear loud rambunctious laughter from two different voices. Ignoring them, I just squeeze my eyes shut as I lay there in suffering. I'm gritting my teeth to keep my from crying at how much it hurts.

Warmth starts falling down my face and a familiar taste enters my slightly open mouth.

Blood.

(Oh shit.)

I take my hands off my face to see blood covering them. Using my bloodiest hand to cover my face again, I use my other one to push myself up into a sitting position up against the couch. The laughter abruptly stops.

"Krysti? Are you ok?" I hear Happy's voice quiver in uncertainty.

"No." I whine out at them in a muffled voice. Tears are streaming down my face along with blood as I turn to face the two males and soon their eyes bug out. (Looks like they see the blood.) I remove my hand from my face and wipe both of them on my pants. After somewhat cleaning them, I pull the neckline of my gown up over my face to start wiping off the blood.

Pain explodes from my nose as soon as I touch it and I let loose a loud howl, "FUCK! OWWW! OW! FUCK! MY NOSE!! OWWW!!", before I could stop myself. Quickly letting go of my nose in favor of less pain, I squeeze my eyes shut again waiting for the throbbing to die down. Frantic footfalls zoom around me and I open one eye to peek at the activities.

Through the wateriness of my eyes, I realize that I'm laying on the floor again and I can feel the blood sliding down the back of my throat.

The dragon slayer and the cat are running around like crazy, throwing stuff around like they are searching for something. The throbbing my nose lessens and I open both of my eyes now.

(Damn, never had this happen before. Hope I didn't break it. Although I'm pretty sure I did.) Raising the neckline of my gown again, I carefully start wiping the blood off of my face while avoiding my nose. A cry of triumph takes my mind away from cleaning the blood off of me.

I see Happy flying right at me with a cloth in his paws, with a frantic look on his face. Before I can say anything, the cloth is thrown in my face. Normally, this would never been a problem, but unfortunately this was not a normal situation.

I let out another cry in pain that even to my ears sounds like a stuck pig as the cloth sets off a new wave of throbbing agony. I yank it off quickly and curl up into a ball with my arms around my head to protect my face from more abuse. Intended or not.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I hear a voice cry out. I ignore it in lieu to focus on easing the pain. (Ow, dammit. This hurts.) I hear more voices talking that I continue to ignore. Two strong arms wrapping around me jostles me and causes my nose to bump into my legs. Stabbing pain lances through me and its all I can do to not faint. My vision is blurry and I see a pink and blue blur in front of me.

(What's going on…? )Sunlight and wind is felt on my face. But the blurs stay in place. I hear rapid thumping, and my head throbs with it. My body feels like it is being jerked around rapidly and my vision darkens. The pain lessens as darkness overcomes me.

____________________

It was another normal morning at the Fairy Tail wizard's guild. Mirajane was behind the bar, serving food and drinks. Levy was with Lucy chatting about their favorite books, Gray was busy talking to Cana while she drank heavily. Macao and Wakaba were talking about the good ole days and everyone else were going through their morning routines.

Yep, just another normal day.

Until a sudden crashing from the entrance catches everyone's attention. Natsu is standing there breathing heavily with a bloodied and unconscious Krysti in his straining arms. Looking frantically around, he sees Mirajane and rushes over to the bar.

"Mira! Krysti fell and got hurt! She needs help!" he shouts out anxiously. He lays down the hurt brunette gently, trying not to hurt her more. Everyone rushes over to see what happened to their newest member.

"Oh my! What happened to her!?" Mira exclaims.

"Its all my fault!" cries out an obviously upset Happy. "I was trying to wake her up by using my tail to tickle her nose when she suddenly shot up and then fell on her face." he starts crying harder and flies into Lucy's arms, seeking comfort.

"She needs to go to a hospital!" calls out Macao.

"Jet!" cries out Levy.

"On it!" he answers, before straining to pick up the plump woman and using his magic, speeds off to the hospital as fast as his namesake. Following close behind him was most of the guild that was there this morning. Thankfully, it was a slow day at the hospital so there was no wait when an exhausted Jet makes it to the lobby.

The nurses quickly take charge of the injured woman and they take her deep into the building while leaving Jet in the lobby. He takes a seat while stretching out the aches in his arms and back, unused to carrying anything while running. A few short minutes later, the majority of the guild shows up at the hospital. Jet moves over to them as they catch their breath from their frantic sprinting.

"She is already admitted, there is a doctor with her right now." He tells them calmly.

"Thank god!" Natsu shouts out in ragged relief. Seeing all the blood on Krysti and having her pass out on shook him up more than the others realized. Erza clamps her hand on the dragon slayer's shoulder.

"Tell us exactly what happened. From the beginning." she demands in no uncertain terms and a hard stare on her face.

"Y-yea." he starts off a bit shakily, still catching his breath and terrified of the look the red-head was giving him.

"She was sleeping on my couch and Happy and I thought it would be funny to wake her up by having her slap herself awake. We used Happy's tail to tickle her nose. She swatted at it a few times before she shot up out of the couch roaring at us. Before we knew it, she fell on her face and it wasn't until she sat up that we saw all the blood." he ends in a guilty tone.

Lucy, Levy, and a few others gasp at the mention of the blood for they were too far back to see the brunette's blood covered face and clothes.

Taking a deep, calming breath, Natsu continues, "Happy found a rag for her face, but she kept screaming in pain. I did the only thing I could think of and that was bring her to the guild. She passed out along the way." He looks down at the ground sullenly at this point. A nurse with a clipboard walks in at this point asking for Jet.

He, along with the rest of the guild, surround her within a blink of an eye to find out what's going on. Looking uncomfortable as she glances around nervously at the crowd of people surrounding her, she focuses on Jet before speaking.

"The young lady that you brought in will be fine. She just has a broken nose and the doctor is setting right now." At this news, a collective breath is let out in relief. The nurse continues on in a professional manner.

"She is however going to be in a lot of pain, so for now we have on strong painkillers. The doctor believes that it will be best for her to stay the rest of the day and the night to help make sure that nothing else happens while her nose is at this tender stage. Is any of her family present?"

"We are her family." Erza states. The nurse blinks at this.

"Um, no. I mean her blood relations. We need them to fill out some forms." the nurse replies back a bit hesitant. Erza shakes her head in denial.

"She doesn't have any blood relations. We are the only family she has." she clarifies. The nurse nods at this, used to the way family works with Fairy Tail, before she hands Erza the forms.

"Please complete them the best you can. Leave it on the counter there and I'll be back to pick it up later." The nurse then bows a bit before going back into the hospital. After hearing the good news that the brunette will be ok, most of the guild members trickle back out of the hospital to update the rest of the guild. Just before Levy leaves, she stops and hurries back to Natsu who is still staring at the floor with clenched fists.

"Oh Natsu, before I forget I wanted to give you this." she hands him a bag that she was carrying on her shoulder. The action brings him out of whatever thoughts he was having.

"Huh?" he says before picking up the bag and sniffing it. "What is it?"

"It's the reward money from the Changeling spell mission. Well, most of it. I took enough for rent and a few other little things." Levy explained.

"I can't take this Levy. You're the one who solved the message, not me. It's yours." Natsu states as he pushes the bag back towards the short girl. Levy smiled and stepped back from Natsu as she shook her head.

"You said you were planning on using it to help Krysti. I want to help her too, that's why I'm giving it to you." She giggles before adding. "At the very least it will help with the hospital bills."

The pink-haired man gives Levy a big open-eyed grin before saying cheerfully, "Ah! Thank you, Levy. This will help out a lot."

"Think nothing of it Natsu, anything to help out a friend." she chirps very happily while holding her hands behind her back. "Tell her that I hope she feels better soon! I'll be by later to visit!" she shouts out while almost skipping out of the building with Jet and Droy following close behind her like lost puppies.

Silence soon falls as the last of the Fairy Tail members depart which leaves Lucy, Gray, Happy, Erza, and Natsu in the lobby.

They go and take seats at different points of the lobby, waiting for news of their newest friend. Erza already completed the forms since they don't know much about Krysti, medically at least.

The nurse quietly retrieved the forms without alerting any of the anxious people as to when she has taken them. Close to an hour passes in silence, as each of the team members are lost in their thoughts. Footsteps echo in the hallway and everyone lifts their head up in expectation, hopeful for news. A middle-aged looking gentleman with slight graying at the temples of his blonde hair walks in. He looks up from a clipboard that he is carrying to look at the people in the lobby.

"Friends of Krystina, I'm assuming?" he asks in a low gentle voice. Shooting up from their seats, the Fairy Tail guild mates rush over to surround the doctor.

"Is she ok!?" Gray loudly exclaims. Not fazed in the slightest, the doctor laughs in the same gentle tone.

"Yes, she will be fine. Her nose was only broken, so we put her on some strong painkillers while we were fixing her nose. It was enough so she wouldn't feel it. Everything is fine now, she just needs to stay tonight to let everything set." he explains calmly. As he spoke, everyone's face sprouts a happily relieved face.

"Can we go see her?" asks Happy as he floats just behind Natsu.

"Is she awake?" asks Lucy at the same time.

The doctor looks at them both before addressing their questions, "Ah, yes. She is awake, but I wouldn't suggest visiting her today."

"Eh!? Why the hell not!?" loudly asks a fuming dragon slayer. At this the doctor looks slightly sheepish which worries the others.

"Well, uh… it seems that she doesn't have much tolerance for painkillers. As I said, we put her on some fairly strong ones which knocked her out as to allow us to set her nose. She woke up not soon after we moved her to her room…and uh… well…" he trails off unsure how to proceed.

"Well?" asks Erza in a very stern tone. The doctor takes a deep breath before he plunges in.

"Well, the painkillers have caused her to be very, I guess we could say loopy?" he says with a slightly nervous laugh.

"Loopy?" asks Lucy in a soft questioning tone.

"Yes. Loopy. She is completely out of it. She has been talking to the nurses, but is not making any sense at all. I can't understand anything she is talking about. She kept getting out of the bed despite multiple times telling her to stay put. It if wasn't for the fact that we put restraints on her, she would probably be trying to dance around the halls." he says in an almost defeated voice. Hearing this, the rest of the group become slightly mortified and exasperated.

"That sounds like Krysti alright." says Happy in a sagely way.

"We would give her some pills to let her sleep it off, but I'm leery of giving her more medication with the amount of painkillers in her. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but with her reaction towards the painkillers, I don't want to add any possible complications that might arise." The doctor explains.

"That sounds like a good idea, who knows what she would do under additional medication." agrees Gray before he slightly blushes at some thought he had while he stands there suddenly shirtless.

"What are you thinking about, pervert!?" Natsu scolds, noticing the blush on his rival's face.

"I'm not thinking about anything, flame-brain! And who are you calling a pervert?" Gray retorts in a louder voice. Immediately the two are butting foreheads as usual when they are having fights.

"You're the pervert, droopy-eyes! You're half-naked with a blush on your face, that makes you a pervert!" Natsu almost shouts back.

"Like you're one to talk ash-breath! You're practically half-naked yourself with that open jacket you wear all the time!" Gray shouts angrily back. As the two boys growl at each other, Erza walks up between them and with a loud clang, hits them both hard on the head. They both fall face first to the ground with their butts up in the air and one leg twitching.

"Quiet both of you! This is a hospital. A place to rest and recover. Not a place to fight. Understood?" she barks out quite loudly. The hospital staff along with Lucy and Happy shrink back in fear at the armored red-head, not daring to contradict her that she too is being loud as well.

"I am sorry for the disturbance that these two ill-mannered boys have caused. I won't let this happen again." Erza states with her usual no-nonsense manner. The doctor looks askance at the two boys just pulling themselves up off the floor before coughing to try to clear the awkward air. Clearing his throat, he takes a deep breath and regains his professionalism.

"If you can come back tomorrow morning, the medication should've run its course and we can put her on much weaker painkillers as she heals. She should be ready to be discharged by then." explains the doctor. Erza nods in agreement.

"Ok, we will be back tomorrow to pick her up.

Thank you Doctor…" she trails off slightly.

"Shibiwa. Doctor Shibiwa."