It had been a day in a half since they had left the Enies Lobby as it had crumbled and fallen into the sea and everyone was on edge. He was no different as he patiently waited for the young woman lying on Robin's bed to awaken. He folded his hands in his lap for what must have been the millionth time in so many minutes.

Or was it hours? As he began to get more and more agitated as he thought over the events that had occurred within the past twenty four hours.

Robin had left them and been captured by the military. Her childhood friend that she hadn't seen on more than ten years had appeared at Enie Lobby at the same time that they had and after hearing Robin declare that she wanted to die, had lost her temper and shouted out.

"That isn't going to happen, Robin. I forbid you to die and leave me alone again!" Drawing his and that of his nakama's attention to her.

His first over all impression of her wasn't all that great.

Sure she had a pretty face, long silky black hair, and her eyes were the prettiest stormy green/turquoise that he'd ever seen before in his life. But she was also painfully thin, sickly almost, and surely she hadn't much strength in her.

Man had he been wrong.

The moment that she had stepped up, he'd felt it. Like a weird pounding in his chest. He'd gotten a strange fluttering sensation in his gut and as he looked at her again, this time more closely, he'd seen it. His sharp eyes zeroing in on her before narrowing just a little bit.

He only got like this when he'd found a new crewmate. Usually.

However this time, he'd gotten like that because he'd found something better than a crewmate. Better than a mere new friend and ally.

He'd found someone to follow.

A captain of his own.

He didn't think he would ever find another aside form his older brother Ace. Yet here she stood. This frail, sickly and weak looking young woman was one of his. Yet he wasn't completely sure if she was worthy of him.

And in a moment of doubt he had sealed everyone's fate with a deal that he'd been sure that she wouldn't been able to fulfil.

Again he'd been wrong. He had been an asshole in those doubt filled and stressed moments and he fucking knew it.

Even now, the memory of his own doubt filled words uttered so arrogantly, set his teeth on edge. "If you can save Robin, then I will give up my rank as captain of the Merry- I will give up my friends and crew and abandon my dream and follow you to the ends of the earth. Can you do it? Can you look me in the eye and tell me honestly that you can save her?"

Her green eyes had met his own stormy grey and she had responded to him words without any hesitation whatsoever. Damn near bowling him over.

"Watch me." She had dared him.

And with that she was gone, throwing herself headfirst off of the courthouse and using a speed that was rare even among normal humans to race up to where Robin was and met the blade of the Spandam bare handed, viciously striking again and again and driving him back away from Robin while he and the others had watched in slack jawed disbelief for a moment before he had then grabbed everyone and threw them all into the fight to help.

The fight had taken almost five hours. And in the end his own battle had been the most drawn out. and he'd almost died twice or rather he would have if it wasn't for Usopp's sharp shooting.

When he had returned to the Merry to finally regroup with the others he had been more than a little bit impressed with the fact that not only was everyone alive but they had suffered minimal damage. With of course the exception of Robins childhood friend and himself.

Chopper had been in a frenzy trying to treat her because her injuries had been the most life threatening. And after a little while managed to stabilize her, sort of, before he had begun treating Luffy who was already healing himself. But then everything had been shot to shit when she had suddenly started hemorrhaging a few hours ago.

She had nearly bled out before he could really do anything to help her. And once he had finally managed to stop the bleeding, he had left the cabin in a weird sort of daze.

Luffy would be lying if he said that he wasn't furious right now.

Kay was supposed to be his captain. The one person in the world with the exception of his brother that he would follow unquestionably, and without complaint. And she had almost killed herself simply to fight in a battle that she'd had no business being in in the first place.

Looking back down at her, he couldn't help but notice how very young she looked. Robin herself was in her twenties, and this girl was at least seven or so years younger than her. Making her around his own age give or take a year or so.

That was much too young for a girl to have wound up in the family way without a boyfriend or husband. And far too young for her to have seen and done as much as Robin had told them all she had.

Sighing, he bowed his head for a moment and then looked at her again before unlacing his fingers and reaching out to brush some of her dark hair away from her pale face. Jesus her skin was practically translucent underneath all of those cuts and bruises!

"What am I going to do with you?" He wondered aloud. She didn't respond to his question, but then after all the blood loss that she had experienced, he didn't really expect her too.

Sighing again, he tried to push aside his anger and frustration and simply settled himself back in his seat as the cabin door slowly opened and he looked up to see Sanji standing there with a few plates perfectly balanced on his head, and along one of his arms and on the tips of his fingers.

"Hey. Chopper said that you both might be hungry. So I fixed some food for you both."

Luffy didn't say anything, he merely nodded his head at the blond and let him know that it was okay to come in. Sanji entered the room and was careful to close the door behind him before crossing it to set everything down on the medium sized table not too far from either the bed nor where Luffy sat.

"How's she doing?" Sanji asked, curious to know how their latest stray was feeling. When Chopper had finally visited him in the kitchen, only he, Nami and Zorro had been present to hear the shocking words that explained the hemorrhaging from before.

And they had all been understandably upset. Nami had started to go and get Robin when Chopper had stopped her and told them not to tell her. At least not until her friend brought it up. Sanji thought that he really meant, 'if' she brought it up as Chopper had gone on to explain that Robin had suffered enough trauma for a while. She didn't need to know about her friend right away because there was nothing that she could do about it now anyways. Everyone had been quiet, but had reluctantly agreed with the ship's doc to keep their mouth's shut about the topic for now.

After all, going to save Robin had cost the young woman dearly.

Pirates didn't have families in the conventional sense. At least most didn't. Which had more to do with them being outlaws and having bounties on their heads than not wanting families. Though there were a precious few that managed to find someone accepting enough to settle down with.

Luffy's older brother Ace, and Usopp were proof enough of that.

Still, children were incredibly rare among pirates. And the loss of one was felt as keenly as a blade to the heart. He had no doubt that the woman would have a difficult time of things. He just wondered if Luffy realized how hard things would be for her.

"She hasn't woken up yet." Luffy finally said after a few heart beats of agonizing silence. Sanji glanced at him and frowned slightly when he noted how anxious and angry the younger man was.

What is eating him? He wondered before recalling Luffy's words to her before she had launched herself off of the building to go to Robin.

"Luffy... You do know that when she wakes up she'll...probably be in a bad way. If she knew about her condition, she may be angry and hurt and might even lash out in her grief. And if she didn't know-" Sanji only bothered to mention this to his friend because Luffy had a habit of sometimes acting so rashly towards others whom were hurt in a bad way, that he more often than not wound up with his foot in his mouth. And Sanji doubted that the woman would like his young friend to be a little ass towards her once she awakened, assuming things when it may not be what had actually occurred.

Luffy visibly tensed, his mind turning the last of Sanji's words over in his head at such high speeds that it was almost impossible for him to wrap his head around the concept. I mean, the woman had been in the family way, how could she not have known about her condition?

"Luffy?"

"She looked so pale...and sickly when I first saw her back at Enie Lobby... So weak- I didn't think when I spoke... But goddamn it how could I have-" Luffy finally seemed to break and buried his face in his hands, and began to cry right in front of him.

More than a little bit alarmed by the nonsense that his friend was saying, it took him more than a moment to piece things together before moving to his captain's side and quickly tried to calm his friend since he very much doubted that the small cabin could handle being trashed during one of Luffy's temper tantrums.

"Hey, calm down. You couldn't have known about her being pregnant before the fight. She didn't look it nor did she say anything or show any concern about her condition- it wasn't like you deliberately antagonized her into fighting along side us."

"But I did..." Luffy said quietly. "Don't you recall what I said to her?"

Sanji scowled and was about to call Luffy an idiot when he stopped as he thought for a moment before realizing just what the hell Luffy was talking about.

"If you can save Robin, then I will give up my rank as captain of the Merry, I will give up my friends and crew and abandon my dream to follow you to the ends of the earth. Can you do it? Can you look me in the eye and tell me honestly that you can save her?"

"Oh shit- I forgot about that." Sanji said under his breath before asking in a shocked/slightly hysterical tone, "Were you serious? Did you actually mean every word that you said to her?"

"I'm a lot of things Sanji, but technically a liar isn't one of them." Luffy finally calmed down enough to say in a somber tone as he lifted his hands to wipe at his face, wanting to get rid of the traces of tears that had been there mere moments before.

It simply wouldn't do for him to fall apart like this. Not when his captain would need to rely so heavily on his strength until she was better.

But he didn't have any way to gauge how long it would take her to become well again.

How long did parents mourn their lost children? Especially those that were never born in the first place? A few months? No that didn't seem right.

Robin had told them a few hours after they had left the navy behind that Kay was a person who valued all life. It took something extreme for her even to consider the justifiable killing of another. And there were very few exceptions that she would even consider.

But that by no means meant that she went out killing people willy nilly or anything. In fact Robin had stressed that she was a lot like Luffy in that regard and it took a lot to well and truly piss her off.

Luffy for all his faults knew that he was a killer.

He didn't really joke around when he decided to get his hands dirty. He'd killed navy officers and other pirates alike, mostly in self defense or in defense of his nakama, but there it was. He killed.

And sometimes he even enjoyed it.

But it took a lot to drive him to that sort of vindictive rage.

He supposed that it was good that his captain valued life as she did. Or as Robin claimed she did. He didn't want anymore deaths than necessary on her conscience. He could live with the guilt and shame, but he wasn't so sure that Kay could. So from now on if there was anyone in need of killing, he'd kill them to prevent her from having too.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't really notice that Sanji hadn't said anything since he had replied to his question until he was suddenly jerked out of his chair so that his feet were barely touching the floor as the blond practically snarled at him.

"You goddamn punk! How dare you! How dare you start this adventure of yours if you weren't going to stay and finish it! We gave up our jobs, our homes, our old lives to follow you!"

"Do you think that I don't know that, Sanji. I do. And I think of it often-" Sanji suddenly clammed up to listen to him, wanting him to tell him the real reason why he had made the woman that promise. He just...needed to understand. "I'm always lying awake after a bad battle thinking, 'If I wasn't here, who would lead them?' or 'If anything happened to any of them- I would never forgive myself.' I may have said those words yesterday at the spur of the moment, but I have my reasons. You've traveled with me for years Sanji, you've put up with my shit, my recklessness and stupidity."

"I'm good at those things, but yesterday when I said those words- do you know what she said back to me? 'Watch me.' Just that. I dared her to jump into the fray when she should have been somewhere safe. Those two words absolutely bowled me over. I knew then, just like I knew when I collected the lot of you- that she was one of my own... But more than that, she is someone that I myself would follow."

"I've only ever willingly followed my brother the same way that you and the others follow me. And now I've found someone else to follow, I need you to understand just how fucking important that is! I need you to understand that as someone I care about- as one of my crew and friends, I can't simply go back on my word. We aren't the only ones affected by what happened yesterday, dammit. She was too. She not only helped up declare war and wrest Robin back form those fuckers, but she lost something that she can never get back! We owe her. I owe her. And if it means spending the rest of my days as a lowly subordinate to her every whim, then that's just how things will be. I can live with it. It won't kill me."

Sanji felt his prior anger at the idiot completely fizzle out as he slowly released him from his grasp and let the man that he'd followed beyond the Grand line fall back to his previous place in his seat and simply stepped back for a second as Luffy tugged at his vest, trying to straighten it out some before Sanji finally said.

"I see. So that's what's going on. I can't say that I completely understand, but I think that kinda do. Basically she swept you up like a storm at sea," Luffy thought for a moment before merely shrugging his shoulders, not really understanding the analogy all that much before Sanji then tacked on, "Well even if she doesn't kill you, Zorro or Nami certainly might."

"I know. But..." Luffy glanced back at Kay and sighed again, "I can't break my promise to her. And at the same time I can't simply ask her to join the crew here on the Merry. It would cause no end of trouble, especially since no one would know their ranks anymore. I figure that even if she does let me stay on as captain, I would still follow her wherever she went. Even if she ordered me not too. Not only that, but from the looks of her, both before and after yesterday's fight- she's been going without for a while now. I can't help but wonder how she's been taking care of herself. She's frightfully thin for someone her age. Fragile, ya know? She'll need time to get better. months, maybe even years of round the clock care. It wouldn't be fair of me to ask you guys to help with that when there is still so much to do. So much out there to see..."

"Luffy-"

"Zorro will make a good captain for you. And I'll ask Robin what she wants to do, but I'm betting that she might leave with us. She'd worry otherwise. You know how girls can be. And if she does leave with us, then that will make you the first mate. You'll have a lot of new responsibilities, but something tells me that you will be fine. And if there's ever any time when you wanna meet up or if you need help- all you'll have to do is use one of those snail thingys and I'll come running even though I'll probably have to drag her with me."

"Y-You really do think a lot of those things?"

"Of course I do. I'm your captain, and I worry about the lot of you." Luffy said with a small grin as Sanji bowed his head to him and let a small wistful smile grace his own lips before saying,

"Then I should thank you."

"Huh?"

"Thank you for bringing me out to sea, thank you for taking me on this great adventure, and most of all, thank you for being my friend."

"Hey you don't have to thank me for those things Sanji, I was happy to do them." Luffy said as he tried to wave the man's words off. But when Sanji looked at him again, he could see that it meant something to the blond to thank him for those things, so he dropped his hand and merely looked away as he heard Sanji head back towards the door.

"I'm aware that you were happy to do them, but I thought i'd get thanking out of the way while I could. Because Zorro and Nami really are going to kill you." He said before slipping back out of the room and closing the door behind him. Leaving Luffy to his thoughts as he leaned back against the door from the other side before noticing that everyone but Robin had gathered around the room.

"You guys heard." It wasn't a question. Sanji knew that everyone had heard their whole conversation. Their expressions spoke volumes.

Zorro looked like he wanted to kill something, Franky looked- well, saddened by the thought of Luffy leaving them. He was a new addition to the crew and didn't know the younger man that well, but in the few weeks that he'd been with them, he'd like to think that he had become good friends with the young captain of the Merry. Nami was crying quietly, unable to believe that Luffy was going to so blatantly rip apart what he had helped them all to create together. And Copper...well, he seemed the calmest of the group aside from Sanji, but the cook figured that that may have to do with his quick and analytical mind.

He supposed that it was easier for the doc to figure out what was making Luffy's mind tick. The two did seem oddly in tune with each other, so it wasn't an impossibility.

And then there was Usopp. He looked like he was in shock over the whole thing, but he wasn't saying anything, so Sanji wasn't one hundred percent sure what he was thinking.

"He's decided that Zorro will take his place once he's gone-" Sanji started when Zorro snarled.

"Oh hell fucking no! I'm not taking his place, no one is! He isn't going anywhere!"

"Then what do you propose that we do? He's dead set on keeping his word."

Everyone was quiet for a moment or so before Franky said gleefully, "We could shanghai them both. If he goes where she goes then it only stands to reason that we keep her aboard the ship. Yeah?"

Everyone looked at the cyborg for a second before Zorro asked Sanji how much longer it would be before they would need to dock somewhere and get supplies. Upon hearing Sanji's reply, the swordsman grinned evilly and exercised his first and last order as the Merry's new captain.

"Okay people, we're shanghai'ing Luffy and our new friend. Lets get somewhere way out at sea and drop anchor for a bit so that we can talk sense into our favorite idiot's thick skull. And if that doesn't work, we'll take him out on deck and beat the hell out of him."