~

"I thought you wanted to live by on your own. So why are you asking for my help?!" Ace questioned letting his temper get to him.

"Oi Ace that's not nice-" Sabo interjected, clearly not liking the tone.

"You heard him too right Sabo? He said he wanted to be able to live alone so he should learn to do things by himself!"

"I am sure he didn't mean it like that." Sabo then turned to Luffy who looked on the verge of crying. "Luffy-"

"Fine then! I will leave and live on my own! I don't need your help!" Luffy yelled getting equally angry as Ace who was ready to throw hands with his younger brother.

"Fine!"

It was the harshness of the memory that woke Luffy up from his long slumber. He was disoriented. He saw that in his dream nearly every day but this time it felt different. Luffy wondered what was different, he was still in that hellhole so what had possibly changed.

Strange... Luffy thought, it doesn't hurt.

He focused on his lack of pain and tried remembering why it didn't hurt. Had he finally died? Or did someone give him painkillers again so he could be ravaged beyond recognition? Either way he was not looking forward to opening his eyes and finding out. But the more Luffy focused on why he wasn't in pain, he felt something on his face, in his arm and then some things all over his body and then there were sounds that he had never heard before and that triggered the memories from before he collapsed.

Now his eyes were wide open and he tried to take in where he was. The surroundings looked all metal. That something which he felt was on his face was a mask thing and there were rounds things stuck on his skin, even his clothes were different. Luffy looked around more, trying to gain some sense of orientation because if not that, he would spiral down panicking.

He heard footsteps and no sooner two guys came in. They didn't look all that old but Luffy didn't recognize them and that was enough to put him on guard but when his eyes went to their clothes and the mark on their jackets, Luffy was out of control. It looked like the same mark he had on his thigh.

Before the men started noticing, Luffy had gotten on his feet on the bed he was lying on and had started detaching stuff from himself. He wanted to get out of there and wanted to get out fast.

"Oi calm down-" The one with red hair started saying but Luffy threw his mask thingy at him. It didn't reach him but made him back up.

"I am getting out of here! Let me go!" he yelled.

"Stop it!" The other yelled when Luffy threw his pillow in feeble attempts to make the two older boys back up. Where was that grumpy teenager who helped Luffy? He didn't want to see unknown people anymore. He wanted to hide behind his hat.

His hat...

"WHERE IS MY HAT?!" Luffy yelled, startling both the guys and making them stop in their tracks. Luffy was absolutely angry at the misplacement of his hat and he no longer cared about getting out but wreaking havoc so he launched himself at the taller one and started throwing punches but he was just grabbed from under his arms and held up at a distance.

"Call Captain, Shachi." And the redhead left. Luffy was still thrashing in his grip when there was a voice from behind the guy who was holding him.

"What the fuck?" Luffy took the guy's distraction as an opportunity and lifted his arms up his head and wriggled out of the grip. Once his feet landed on the solid floor, he dashed to the side making for the exit but the guy caught him by the collar and lifted him back up but now Luffy was facing the person with the new voice. It was the grumpy teenager. "I go through the trouble of saving your ass and you have the nerve to thrash around in my sub? In the med bay of all places?"

Luffy stilled. He heard the other two guys mumbling a 'shit' and 'he hasn't slept enough that's why he's so cranky.' He looked back at the teenager who was glaring at him through his obvious tiredness.

"You guys go. I will take care of this little shit." Law said and Penguin let down Luffy who didn't run anymore. "And get me a coffee. Strong. I'm going to need it."

They both left and Law sighed shifting Kikoku on his shoulder. He put his sword aside and took the boy by his shoulders, forcing him back on the bed.

"Don't fucking-"

"Don't touch me!" Luffy finally snapped out of his stilled horror and backed away in the corner of the bed. Law saw the fear in his eyes and wondered why it was there.

"If I don't check your vitals and if they are not normal then you can die. It was already hard enough to keep you alive for this long, give me a break." Law explained in hopes that the boy would understand but Law got confused with his next words.

"You're one of them." When Luffy saw the confusion on Law's face, he pointed at the sign on Law's hoodie, proud and stark. Law got the meaning and understood that he would have to use a much gentler approach with the kid - one he was out of depth in.

"Look at it closely." Law said and brought lifted the boy's patient gown just enough to expose the mark on his thigh. "They are not the same."

"But they look the same."

"Mine is a direct rebellion against the bastard's who put yours on." Law pointed out where the differences were and Luffy seemed to have calmed down and his hands went to his head and he was stiff again.

"Where is my hat?" Luffy asked in a low voice, he judged he could trust Law.

"Ah." Law got up and went out of the curtain and came back with the hat. "Here. I had it cleaned and repaired." He handed the hat back to Luffy whose eyes had lit up at just the sight of it.

Luffy eagerly took the straw-hat and put it on his head. "It just doesn't feel right without it."

"Is it that important?" Law found himself asking before he could even think about it. Luffy hummed and Law took that as a yes and began cleaning up the small space Luffy had thrashed around in.

Law first attached everything that was attached to Luffy, glared at the kid for the animalistic way he had undone his IV so Law had to attach the needle in his other arm. When he was done, he grabbed Luffy's med board and sat down in his chair in front of the computer. "What's your name?"

"Luffy." Law wrote it down.

"Age?"

"Eleven."

"You're kidding." Law uttered looking up from the board. "You look seven at best."

"Nope! Shishishi!" Rolling his eyes Law wrote it all down.

"Damn you're just a child."

"And you're just a teenager." Luffy laughed. "Though you look like you have lived long enough that you are tired of the world."

Close enough.

"How long were you in that place?"

"Two years..."

"Any known illnesses or family history?"

"I don't know."

"Ok then how do you feel?"

"Weird＂

"Elaborate."

"And hungry." Law was going to ask him to elaborate again but Luffy had started talking on his own. "I don't know. I feel weird."

"Can you tell me where you feel weird?"

"All over."

Law rubbed his eyes. This was getting nowhere. "Have you ever been to a doctor before?"

"Nope!"

Oh god this was going to be difficult.

"I am going to check some things and take some more tests so sit still and let me do things." Law gathered the supplies. "Open your mouth." Law poked a stick on his tongue and pushed it down to get a better look at the back of the throat. It seemed ok but he knew there was no way it actually was ok. "Lift your arm." He placed a thermometer under his arm and put it back and attached a BP apparatus to Luffy's other arm. Luffy kept flinching when Law put the stethoscope to the boy's chest and back, listening for any abnormalities in the chest cavity. "You still have a fever..." He muttered to himself taking a look at the thermometer.

"Hey when is this going to be over, I wanna go home." Luffy pouted and kicked at the sheets.

"About that...you won't be going home-"

"What?! Let me out! I knew you were with them!"

"Hey hey calm down, let me finish first."

"Ok."

"So you are severely malnutritioned which means that during your time in that place your body grew weaker and there are a shit ton of things that need to be brought on the right track before I can allow you to walk out of here."

"How long?"

"It depends on you actually, how well you respond to the treatment plan and how willing you are to actually recover. If all goes well then some time over six months."

"Six?! I can't meet my brothers for six more months?! I will get better on my own! I don't want to wait around!" Luffy started to pull at his IVs and machines and catheter again. "I'm leaving now!"

"You will do no such thing." Law warned but Luffy was not listening so he decided to threaten him. "Do you want me to cut off your arms and legs when you have collapsed even when I have warned you about it?" Luffy stopped for a second and glared at Law who was a little taken back by the intensity of the look he received.

"I don't care! I am going!"

"Then why did I go through the trouble of saving your life if you are going to just throw it away anyway?!"

"That's your problem. You said you couldn't turn your back on my situation."

"Listen here you little shit." Law grabbed Luffy's face in his hand, easily and made him look at him. "You will obey me or I will kill you before your recklessness has a chance to. Understand?"

"I'm not afraid of dying so your threats mean nothing!" Law was irked. He grabbed a syringe with painkillers and sleep medicine, and uncapped it, bringing it to the connector of the cannula.

"Ok then, prepare to die." He injected the stuff in Luffy's veins. The said boy looked shocked from Law to his arm, slowly understanding what was happening. He began to take out the cannula again, obviously panicking.

"What did you do?!" Luffy felt himself getting sleepy and for once he was really scared that he was going to die. He thought that maybe he should have kept his mouth shut and let the grump take some tests and cure him. He hadn't met his brothers in two years surely he could withstand it for a couple of months more.

"Relax, it was just something to ease your pain and put you to sleep. Scared you though, didn't it?" Luffy heard the teenager say but his voice was echoing in Luffy's head.

"Asshole..." Luffy said, energy being drained from him and his head falling back when sleep overtook him.

Fucking idiot, Law thought and settled the boy back in the bed.

The next time Luffy woke up, he wasn't so panicky. He instantly remembered where he was, what happened to him and the joke that sadistic teenager played on him to scare him to stay put. Luffy noticed there were more tubes attached to him now. They looked like clear liquids. He noticed his savior sitting where he remembered him sitting before he was put to sleep. Luffy wanted to gather his attention to tell him that something wasn't right and that his chest felt heavy and it hurt too much to breathe but his voice was caught in his throat. He opened his mouth again and moved his arm to reach the back of the chair the boy was sitting on but it wouldn't reach. The movement hurt too.

Luffy coughed.

"Did you just cough?" The teenager was onto him in under a second with his stethoscope. He pushed the round piece on Luffy's chest and listened. "Cough again." And Luffy did.

"It hurts..." He was finally able to say. Law wanted to ask where it hurt but Luffy was already pointing to the right side of his chest where his lung was.

Law pressed a button on his desk and spoke in the mic. "Peng, get the x-ray machine here. ASAP." they had a small x-ray machine that could be carried on wheels easily. It was very convenient. While the machine was being brought to him, Law put aside any metal there was on or beside the chest of the boy.

"Captain." Penguin got Law's attention and the latter was immediately at work. He had an idea of what was going on but he wanted to be sure. He adjusted the machine's x-ray particle focus on Luffy's small torso, pushed the film in and fired the particles. He didn't need to wear his protective suit because this was probably the first time he was using the machine so it was safe.

Law got the film out and attached it to his computer that immediately started reading the film and prepared to print the x-ray. Penguin took the machine back and Law retrieved the x-ray, one look at the abnormal webbing in the lungs and he sighed. This was not good but not surprising either.

Luffy was looking at him through teary eyes, asking the question that he couldn't voice. Law rubbed his forehead and put the x-ray aside.

"It's not really a surprise given the conditions they were making you live in but one of your lungs is close to collapsing." Seeing the alarm on the boy's face, Law regretted his word choice immediately. Well he couldn't have said it any other way since he normally didn't give a fuck about others but he could have been a bit more sensitive. "There is nothing to worry about, this heals faster than you think. Can I go on with the procedure or would you still like to die?"

Law didn't expect an answer as he had already started preparations for a effusion extraction. He prepared the gauze, anesthesia, syringe, alcohol, everything and set the tray beside Luffy who was beginning to have labored shallow breaths and was shivering.

"Try to keep breathing steadily and do not jerk away at anything." Law warned and first cleaned the chest area he would be performing on, next he injected the anesthesia in the nerve endings and in the lining of the lungs so the kid wouldn't feel the pressure or pain of the thickass needle in it. There was fluid build-up between his lung and its membrane, luckily it wasn't much but this still needed to be taken out and assessed before or if it became a bigger problem.

Luffy was watching Law intently and reflexively twitched and moved away from him when he saw the thick needle. Law sighed and stopped for a second.

"It would be better if you didn't look." Luffy tried not looking but his curiosity and fear were making him open his eyes every time.

"Captain do you want-oh" Penguin had arrived back to ask Law about food but saw that his gloves were still on and he had worn a mask now. He was going in for a minor invasive procedure.

"Good timing. Cover his eyes and distract him." Law ordered and Penguin went to work immediately. He pulled a chair and sat close to Luffy's head and pulled the straw hat from the boy's head to cover his eyes or his general vision so he wouldn't be able to see what Law was doing.

"Hey kid, I wouldn't ask if you're ok or anything because well I can see it's not ok but you are in capable hands." Law heard Penguin talk to Luffy and took this chance to insert the needle in his chest, moving it to where the effusion was. "Don't try to look, it's easier that way."

"Yeah I have your entire lung in my hand so you better not look or I'm going to sever it and sell it in the black market." Law said darkly, laughing cynically in the end.

"Law! Stop it, he's panicking." Law shrugged. It wasn't his fault the kid didn't appreciate his humor and Law didn't like fidgety patients to begin with, felt that they needed to be taught a lesson and scaring them worked best. "He's just kidding. Hey look at this." Law heard shuffling but kept doing his work, extracting the liquid and air stuck in that suckish place and draining it all in a bottle for sampling later. "My whole arm was blown off in an explosion once and this guy here reattached it! Can you imagine he was just thirteen!" Law smiled a little under his mask and kept going, more than halfway through. He heard a soft choked whining from the kid. "It's ok, hey he just looks and behaves like a heartless asshole-" Law cleared his throat, audibly at that but Penguin continued, "-but he's really not bad so try and calm down, he won't do anything bad. The worst is already over."

The worst is already over.

Law briefly looked at Penguin to see what kind of face he was making while saying things like these and he was a little surprised to see a fond smile.

Law concluded the procedure with cleaning the entry point again and putting the syringe away. He covered the bottle with a lid, quickly scribbled the name, time, date and sample type on it before putting it away. He cleaned the area once more and taped gauze on it. He pulled his gown back down and pulled the sheets back on and left to get the new medicines that would help heal the lungs for now if this was the extent of the illness that is.

"Im hubgry." Law heard the boy say once he entered that section of the infirmary again. He was clearly talking through his tears.

"No solid food for now. You're already getting nutrients through the IV, feeling hungry is just a faulty brain signal." Law said adjusting the medicine in the IV and then adjusting the IV flow.

"But I want meat..." Luffy whined and Penguin suppressed his laughter. Law glared at them both.

"I'm the doctor here and what I say, goes. You will get meat when your body can handle it."

"You're mean." Luffy pouted. "And grumpy. And bossy."

"Whatever Luffy-ya."

"I'm Luffy, I think I told you my name. Are you a dumb doctor who can't remember stuff?" Penguin burst into full blown laughter.

"I know what your name is. The 'ya' is an idiosyncrasy on my part."

"What's an idiot sink racing?"

"What did I do to deserve this?" Law mumbled pulling off his gloves and mask, throwing them away.

The older boy was having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that he picked up another kid off the road even though it was temporary. He just couldn't bear the thought and imagine what the next few months would be like since the boy just talked non-stop and idiotically at that too, something that was a complete hundred and eighty from Law's behavior.

"Good job distracting him Peng, you can go."

"What about food? Chef said something about fish today."

"Later. I have to assess this fluid first." Law showed him the bottle filled with the fluid he extracted from Luffy's lung.

"You got it."

When Penguin left, Law set up his station, that is, a petri dish, microscope, different chemicals and tools in the small space of the separate room Luffy was in. The kid would be sleeping soon anyway so Law had hopes that he would be able to work without interruptions.

"Don't fight the sleep when it comes. Your body is weak right now." He told the boy and sat down to start the process. "And do not disturb."

Law first put a few drops of the fluid on the glass slide and prepared it before putting it under the microscope and examining its contents. Looked like a strain of bacteria, a staph.

This is going to be tricky to get rid of.

Law felt eyes on him when he moved from the microscope to scribble down his findings on his notepad. He got up altogether and put half of the fluid in an analyzer to be sure that it was indeed a bacteria. He hadn't been wrong before but this was a situation where if he was wrong, it could cost the boy his life after a hell lot of pain and suffering from collapsed lungs.

"I-I don't feel too good..." Law looked at the boy who voiced the words weakly, his hands on his mouth and abdomen.

Ah shit.

Law grabbed the bucket from the boy's bedside and handed it to him just in time to see him puke out stuff that he should not have in his system. One painful thing about this particular illness was that muscle movements that induced vomits didn't cease when the contents of the stomach had been emptied but continued well for a few minutes and nothing would come out but gagged whines and painful whimpers and it would keep on hurting for a good twenty minutes afterwards too.

When the kid was done, Law wiped his mouth and gave him a medicated mouthwash to rinse out the aftertaste while he examined the vomit. Mucus. He concluded that the lungs were in a shape worse than he thought. He just hoped that the boy would be able to recover from this and it won't leave a lifetime of pulmonary weakness.

Law increased the dosage of the nausea medicine in the IV and went to retrieve the sample readings from the analyzer. It was a bacterial staph. He was right. Law low-key pumped his fist in the air at being right and got down to administering the correct variations of fungus to counter the bacteria.

"What I am giving you will make your skin itchy at some point down the road so tell me as soon as that happens." He informed his patient who nodded. He looked tired and about ready to fall asleep so Law left him alone after he was done adjusting all the IVs and taking all the necessary notes. "Press this button if you need anything or if you don't feel good or it starts to hurt anywhere. But try to sleep."

Law cleaned the area, made the list of supplies used and headed to the lounge where there was just Bepo who was busy in a book.

"How long till we arrive in Flevance?" He asked his navigator, taking a seat beside him and pulling out his phone to see the time and date. When they had set out from Swallow Island, Law barely had the correct orientation, then the emergency wake up today and Law was completely out of it.

"A few hours if there are no strange currents." Law hummed in response and just on cue, the chef arrived in the lounge and seeing Law he went to prepare some food for him. Once Law had eaten and had his dose of coffee, he found that he had nothing to do, he could obsess over the kid's treatment but he had just made sure that everything was perfect. He could prepare for Flevance but that was already done too. Without thinking, Law had already leaned on his furry friend as was always the case when there were just the two of them and with no time to spare, the doctor had fallen asleep.

"I swear he likes you more than he likes any of us." Shachi commented arriving in the lounge with Penguin.

"Suimasen!" Bepo sulked immediately and the noise made Law furrow his brows in his sleep.

"Bepo don't move! I'll get captain a blanket." Penguin ran quietly to get Law's weighted blanket and put it on him. "Strange, where is his sword? He never parts with it."

"Must have left it in the infirmary. Had it with him till then." Shachi replied.

"He's stressed." Bepo informed.

"Has a pretty good reason too." Penguin stated.

"Yeah I mean if I were to be going back to my hometown which I had to abandon to save my life because of some stupid plague that was not even contagious or anything, I'd probably be stressed too."

Law groaned and everyone stiffened thinking he had woken up but he shifted more against Bepo, now laying his head on the Mink's thigh and turning on his side, pulling the blanket closer.

"Just let me take a picture and then we'll leave him alone." Penguin said taking out his phone, silencing the camera shutter and snapping a photo of Law's sleeping face.

He made a mistake though.

The camera flash was on.

And the next thing they knew, Law was running behind them in the whole sub and when he had finally caught up with the two idiots, he tied them together with handcuffs and made sure they forcibly drank enough water infused with tabasco sauce to cause them...problems.

"Just be glad I'm not amputating you." Law muttered and went to resume his sleep which he was having a hard time getting so he spent the time putting away the last of his stuff because they would be at Flevance soon.

Law was not looking forward to that.

~