Pressing a finger to his earpiece, Jellal waited a second before the other line picked up. "Hey, honey," he said softly, starting to walk back the way they came. Lucy instantly followed him back to the first car and through the entrance they came. "Yes, same place... M'kay."

Lucy's head tilt as she saw Jellal look her way. "Natsu wants to pick you up first, Lucy. Is that alright with you?"

Lucy smiled, somewhat glad at hearing his name. "Sure, no problem."

Jellal smirked and closed the car door, now being in the lounging car that held their way to the exit. Both of them passed the boxes of files and documents over into the opening. Jellal stuck his head out into the gushing wind to see Natsu's car already waiting with the window down. Lucy joined his side and grinned at the sight of Natsu's head sticking out of the car, grinning brightly at the sight of the blonde.

"Hey, Luce!" Natsu cheekily called out. "Come on over. The radio is playing some nice tunes right now!"

Lucy laughed and turned to Jellal. "I'm gonna climb over and hold on to the railing, then I'll go through the driver window, okay? Make sure I don't fall, please."

Jellal nodded and helped Lucy as she hopped over the railing and held her ground from the metal floor. Gripping the railing tightly with both hands, Lucy crouched herself low enough while Jellal gripped her arm. When she turned her head, she was almost nose-to-nose with her partner, who had a cheeky grin.

Natsu stretched out his muscular arm her way, carefully wrapping around her slim waist as she carefully let go one of her hands and gripped the edge of the window. "Good, good," Natsu nodded approvingly when her other hand gripping the railing slid down for her to lean more towards him. Jellal let go of her arm for her to move down far enough. "Keep hold onto the rail and we'll take it nice -!"

A sudden crash hit the back of Natsu's car and Lucy lost her grip on the railing before Jellal could reach her. Natsu held onto Lucy's waist in a vicegrip when the car had to force itself aside and away from the train and she screamed and gripped the window and Natsu's arm for dear life. Looking over, Lucy recognized the old Dodge crashing on Natsu's back fender, keeping up when Natsu twisted the wheel the other way.

"Fuckin' Trinity Raven!" Natsu screamed as he gripped Lucy's pants, trying to pull her in. "Hold on, Lucy! Don't freak out!"

Lucy was frozen solid, eyes shut tight as she gripped tighter to his arm and window. She could feel the grains of dirt hitting her bare legs and feel the vibrations of the car against her body. She wasn't freaking out, but she was really frozen on the spot.

"Lucy. Luce! Come on, Luce, look at me!" Natsu's voice urged her repeatedly, but the blonde shook her head and shut her eyes tighter, feeling tears swell up. "Luce, you're not going to get hurt, I pro -!"

Another blow to the back, making Lucy cry out in shock as Natsu tried to pull her in. Natsu mentally cursed when he saw the Dodge pull itself back and readied to hit again when a Dodge Challenger Hellcat raced up with Juvia on the hood, her blue hair flying from the speed.

Natsu's eyes widened when he saw Gajeel bring the car near the enemy and Juvia leapt from her brother's hood and onto Trinity Raven's car. Natsu could barely make out the blue dynamite stick in her mouth as she slammed her heel into the windshield, shattering it. Pulling the stick out of her mouth, Juvia shoved the stick into the wedge of the hood, making it stuck inside the ledge. With a lighter, Juvia held on tightly while the car swerved left and right, barely hitting Gajeel's ride as she got the wick to light up and spark without failure.

Gajeel made it close enough to his sister for her to jump back over to her original hood. With one hand, Juvia signaled her brother to drive over to Natsu's ride, to the driver's door; the Hellcat driver did as instructed, making their way to Lucy's aid.

Juvia flexibly slipped her body back into the passenger seat halfway, her upper body still hanging out as she reached over and grasped Lucy's hips tightly. Gajeel and Natsu kept at the same speed as the blue-haired woman used her arms to lift Lucy's frozen body up, having Natsu take the chance to grab under Lucy's thigh and pull her inside the car.

Natsu's head snapped to the Hellcat with wide eyes as Juvia saluted brightly before sliding into the car. Gajeel wasn't looking their way as Juvia smiled and rolled up the window, speeding off and making a large 'U' turn, going back to the lot. Behind them, a small explosion occurred from Trinity Raven's car as the enemy ride spun into a ditch. Erza's car sped ahead and honked to Natsu, signaling him to stop the car.

As he did so, all with Lucy trembling in his lap, Natsu slowed the car into a stop by a large pile of boulders, seeing how the train began to disappear around it. Parking the ride, Natsu's arms instantly wrapped around Lucy, his head bowed to see her eyes still shut tight and in a ball.

He wiped off a streak of dirt from her cheek and pushed strands of her now-messy away from her face. "Lucy, you okay there? You're not hurt at all, are you?"

Lucy, still shaking, cracked her eye open. "I'm...inside?"

Natsu couldn't help but crack a grin at her, nodding slowly. "Yeah, you're back in the car with me. You're safe now. Remember when I said you were gonna be alright?"

"I'm alright now," she mumbled, nodding when he fixed her on his lap, carefully sitting her up on his lap and pulled her against him. Running his arms up and down her back, trying to soothe her shakes, Natsu kept the smile on his lips. "How did I get in here?"

"Juvia-chan," Natsu said simply. "I guess you were in shock to realize what happened. That's okay, Luce, don't worry about it."

Lucy's trembling eased, and that fuzzy feeling returned into her belly. Exhaling softly, the blonde tightened her hands in her lap and nodded. "I guess you lost your race and the job, Natsu...and it's my fault for not getting the stuff, right?"

"No, I did win," Natsu grinned brightly, making her brown eyes blink up to him. "I won the fact that you made it back in one piece, Lucy. That's what I cared about most for tonight, silly!"

Lucy sniffed back a half-sob-half-laugh as she wiped the dust from her cheeks and wrapped her arms around Natsu's neck, hiding her face in his scarf as he returned her hug with a grateful chuckle.

"Natsu, is Lucy alright?" Erza's voice came on the radio, sounding urgent and worried and it made Lucy grin a bit bigger. She briefly heard Jellal's voice in the back, making her realize that he made it safely to his wife's side.

Natsu leaned back on his chair and exhaled with a relief. "Yeah, she's just a bit shaken up," he said. "She's fine. Juvia and assbutt helped out getting her in."

"Oh, thank God. I saw Trinity Raven's car get hit with a bomb," Erza sighed gruffly. "Gajeel's car is going back to the lot with the drugs, so we should just get back to the garage and check Lucy over."

"'Kay, Erza," Natsu nodded and switched the station to a pop-oriented tune, one of the songs Lucy would be found humming to herself while she helped cleaned the apartment. Tilting his head down to the blonde, he offered a grin. "How about one of Mira's burgers with some fries, and maybe something for dessert. I'll have you pick out what you want, 'kay, Luce?"

"Can I stay here? I still can't feel my legs too well," Lucy flushed with embarrassment. She really can't feel her legs from the adrenaline, but she didn't want to make Natsu uncomfortable by remaining on his lap the whole ride back.

However, Natsu remained cheery and happy about it. "Sure, not a problem! I think I'll take a drive-thru trip, though. Kinda hungry already."

"But..." Lucy frowned, her brow twitching, "I thought we were gonna get something at Mira's."

"Gotta prepare my stomach for dinner with a snack!" The pink-haired man snickered brightly before readying the engine, shifting gears.

Along the now neon-lit streets of the city, the Dodge Challenger Hellcat sped through the red lights, following Jason's convertible with ease. Ignoring the honks and people screeching at the driver, Gajeel grumbled under his breath while Juvia had her feet on the dashboard, peeking into the backpack with puckered lips. Boze's Nissan Silvia was following them from behind, and Gajeel would peek to the rearview mirror to make sure they were still with them.

Juvia peeked to the driver, her glossy lips curling a little bit into a smile. Closing the backpack and dropping it under her seat, the blue-haired woman poked the man's stiff cheek playfully, her cheeks filling with air.

"Nii-chan," Juvia cooed to him, hearing him grumble again and tilt his head away from her touch. "Nii-chan, don't be so grumpy with Juvia, please. We won the race and got the job, you should be happy!"

"The fuck you made me help out Salamander and that blonde chick for?" Gajeel snapped, making the woman smile bigger and rest her head against her seat. Tangling her fingers through her now-messy hair, she pushed her ruined bangs out of her face. "Ya know I still wanna ram his head with my car, squirt. The hell you make me do!"

"Nii-chan always listens to Juvia. Besides, Juvia made a promise to Natsu-san about making sure his partner wouldn't get hurt," she explained with a pleased look on her face. "Juvia met Lucy-chan before the race, and Juvia likes her already."

"Ya like anyone from that sorry mother fu -!" Gajeel grunted when his step-sister smacked the back of his head, briefly reminding him of using such language about her acquaintances. "Psh! If the chick got her act together, she could've made it back in the car just fine."

"It was her first job, Nii-chan," she pointed out with a happy sigh. "Remember when Juvia had her first job with Nii-chan? When the man hit Juvia to the ground and was about to jump on her with the knife, Nii-chan came and saved Juvia, like a good big brother."

"You blacked out for a few minutes, because the fool hit you on the head, Juvia. That was different," Gajeel grumbled under his breath, not really liking how she was bringing up something he didn't like. "The girl just froze on the spot because of Trinity Raven."

"Either way, Juvia made a promise and she kept to it, like Nii-chan does with Juvia," she sang and sat up on her seat, seeing Jason's ride turning the corner. "And Juvia wanted to get back at them for what they did to Juvia's friends and nearly killing Toto-sensei last year."

Gajeel snorted a chuckle, spinning the wheel to make a sharp turn. "Where'd you put the bomb, squirt?"

"Half of it was able to fit under the hood," Juvia smiled brightly. "Did you see Juvia shatter the window with her heel? Ikagura is sure going to have a bone to pick with us now."

"Good. Bitch needs a taste of her own medicine."