"How could you allow her to get hurt?"

The swordsman's attention turned from the woman laying on the bed, to the man standing in the doorway, his usual cigarrette absent from his mouth, something very rare, the swordsman noted.

"I didn't allow anything, you shitty cook. It was an accident." The tone in which Zoro was speaking was as cold as ice, and said cook could feel it.

"Alright, you damned marimo, let me rephrase. How could you let such a severe accident happen?!" The blonde-haired man yelled, taking a step further into the room.

A second later, a blade was pushed to Sanji's throat. Glancing down at the blade, and then back to the wielder, his eyes widened. Upon looking into the swordsman's eyes, all he could see was hate and malice, but there was something else, pain?

"Do not step one more foot in this room. I don't want you, or anyone else near her." Cold. Matter of fact. Zoro's tone spoke volumes.

"What gives you the almighty right to dictate who can and can't come near Nami while she's in this state!" Sanji yelled, grasping the blade at his throat, squeezing.

Drip.

Blood began sliding down the blade and dripping onto the floor.

"We all care about her! Not just you, you shitty swordsman! If anyone is unworthy of coming near her, it would be you, bastard! You're the one who didn't protect her!"

The grip on his blade loosened, and Zoro looked down to the floor in shame.

"No, more." A hoarse voiced croaked.

Both men turned their attention quickly to the red-headed navigator laying on the bed buried beneath a mountain of blankets. Sanji rushed to her side, kneeling next to the swordsman at her bedside.

"Nami, are you alright?" Sanji asked frantically.

"No, more, fighting. I can't stand it." Nami's voice was so small. She couldn't muster enough strength to get her voice about a broken whisper. Both men felt as if their hearts were tearing.

"What do you need Nami. I'll get you whatever you want." Sanji kept talking, hoping to lighten the mood again. All the while, Zoro just sat there, staring down at the woman he had failed. The woman who depended on him to have her back. He had her life in his hands, and nearly allowed it to be destroyed.

"Out. Both of you."

Sanji and Zoro turned to the doorway with wide eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Sanji growled, standing up to take a protective stance in front of Nami.

An eyebrow was raised at the cook's sudden hostility.

"Tch. As much as I would love to take advantage of your crew's sudden...set-back, I owe straw-hatter a favor. So if you'll excuse me, I must tend to Nami-ya's wounds before she dies."

"You're telling me Luffy sent for you? There's no way. Chopper is the one who's gonna tend to Nami's wounds."

A chuckle came out of the dark-haired man standing before them.

"Your ship's doctor is in no better shape. I just visited him."

"You're lying!" Sanji yelled, pointing a finger at the enemy captain.

"Oi, Oi. No shouting. That is the last thing that will help Nami-ya right now. Calm down, black leg-ya."

Sanji quickly turned around to stare at Nami, who, thankfully, had fallen back asleep and hadn't heard him. But, he did notice how her breathing was labored, and her face was alarmingly red. Turning back to Law, he stared at the man for a good minute before nodding.

"Please do everything in your power to heal Nami." Turning to face Zoro, he nodded his head toward the door.

"Let's go. We need to let him work."

Zoro, who had stayed silent through the entire exchange turned a hard look toward the enemy captain.

"You better save her, Trafalgar." Were the only words he uttered, walking past said man, closing the door behind himself.

Turning back to Nami, Law took the seat where Zoro had once sat and began checking the young woman's pulse. After that, he pulled the blankets back and froze.

"Blood. And a lot. What the hell happened to her exactly? Straw-hatter merely said she was in an accident on the battlefield. This though, speaks of more than that." His gaze went back to her face, and how flushed it was.

With practiced hands, Law took a pair scissors and began cutting through the fabric of Nami's sweater, noting the peeling sound of the dried blood as it was ripped along with the threads of the sweater.

Sighing, Law pulled his sleeves up and grabbed a pair of medical gloves out of his bag and put them on.


Down in the ship's kitchen, no one said a word. Zoro sat in a corner, his eyes shut, almost in a meditative state. Sanji busied himself with washing some leftover dishes from the night before. Luffy was uncharacteristically staring out the window, lost in thought. Robin was upstairs in Chopper's infirmary, sitting with him while he recovered from the care Law had provided.

Brook and Franky were off doing other things to keep themselves busy on the ship.

"Luffy.'' Sanji suddenly spoke, turning to face the young captain.

Luffy broke out of his thoughts and turned to face his cook.

"How did you know to call Trafalgar?"

"Ah, well, his vivre card that he gave Nami showed that he was close, so I called him. With Chopper hurt, there's no way he or Nami would've survived. I had no choice."

Sanji nodded, taking another drag of his cigarrette.

"I suppose we need to count ourselves lucky that Trafalgar-san was in the area to offer his assitance. Otherwise, I believe we would be almost, dare I say, doomed."

Everyone turned to see Robin standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

"Robin! Please, take a seat, I'll make you some tea." Sanji cooed, ushering the raven-haired woman to a seat at the table.

"Thank you, Sanji." She smiled.

"What do you mean, doomed, Robin?" Luffy asked, taking a bite of a cookie that was laid out on a plate in the middle of the table.

"I saw Chopper's wounds. While Law was working on him. Far too much blood for me to stomach. I had to step out into the hall as to not distract Trafalgar-san. I can only imagine Nami's wounds are of the same severity, if not more so."

Zoro's eye twitched, listening to the woman talk about the severity of the two's wounds. Just thinking about when Nami got hurt made his blood boil.

Flashback

Zoro, along with Nami and Chopper, had set off into town to get supplies. The rest of the crew stayed behind to watch the Thousand Sunny.

How foolish they were. The entire town had wanted poster posted everywehre. And as luck would curse them, a local marine patrolling noticed them, and alerted the calvary. So they did what pirates do when faced with such opposition.

They ran. Fast.

"I'll hold them off while you two head for the ship!" Zoro yelled, drawing his swords.

"Be careful, Zoro!" Chopper yelled, running in the direction of the ship alongside Nami.

Cannons were being shot off every which way. The sound of gun-fire rang in the swordsman's ears as he fended off approaching navy forces, intent on taking their crew in.

The farther Nami and Chopper got, the more Zoro relaxed. But in that split second of ease, he noticed a bullet whiz past him, and the shriek that pierced his ears had him turning around to see Nami on her knees, next to Chopper, who had seemed to collapse.

"Zoro! Chopper's been hit!" Nami cried, trying to help the young reindeer up. In doing so, Nami did not the marine behind her, sword raised.

"NAMI!" Zoro yelled.

"Wha-" Turning to look up, Nami's eyes froze in fear.

Slash!

As though he were watching everything in slow motion, Zoro witnessed the marine slice Nami across the chest, blood staining his sword as he did so. Her body, her small, fragile, body, hitting the hard concrete of the ground beneath her.

Quickly disposing of the marines surrounded around him, Zoro ran to the marine towering above the navigator, blade hoisted above his head to deal the final blow, when Wado Ichimonji pierced him through the chest, stopping all movement.

The marine turned his head to see an enraged Zoro, the look in his eye chilled the marine to the core.

"You-You're Roronoa Zoro!" He gasped, coughing out blood. Without even offering a response, Zoro pulled Wado Ichimonji out of the marine, and kicked him away Nami.

Quickly dropping down on one knee, Zoro hoisted an unconscious Nami, and a barely conscious Chopper onto his back and he ran toward the ocean, where the Thousand Sunny waited.

End of Flashback

Zoro felt nothing but sorrow and regret for not being able to protect the two. He knew this was all his fault and the crappy excuse he gave the cook earlier was just a lie that he kept telling himself as to not go insane with guilt.

The creaking of a door opening caught everyone's attention.

"Law." Luffy breathed.

Ah! Done! This was insanely hard to write but I'm pretty proud! Chapter 2 will be coming soon! I can't just focus on Teasing. I would get burnt out way too quickly. Please R&R!