Disclaimer: Shiningheart of ThunderClan only owns Nadeen and Derek. Any other OCs that randomly pop up too. Oda owns One Piece and Trafalgar Law. Good thing too, or else Law would live in my basement and never see the light of day. XD
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Chapter 2: Life Debt or Eternal Servitude?
Nadeen observed Trafalgar Law as he went about disinfecting and sewing up his subordinate's wound. His hands were quick and confident, yet at the same time gentle. He was taking great care to not cause this Derek person any more pain than he was already in. She didn't try to hide her observation either. Why bother when he'd probably know anyway? The other man that had brought her down, Shachi, only had a few nicks and scratches that even someone without medical knowledge could fix. So Law had literally thrown bandages and ointment at him, ordering him to clean himself up. Shachi didn't act like this was any different than usual, so Nadeen didn't react to it either.
Instead, Nadeen observed the room she was in. She probably wasn't the best person to judge, considering she didn't spend much time in medical areas, but this one looked fairly big and well-maintained. There were four single beds all pressed against one side, one of which she was occupying, while the other had bolted-down cabinets. The lights were controlled by a dial near the door so the brightness wasn't at any one setting, which was something Nadeen imagined was more for the comfort of the patients than the efficiency of the medical team. Though so far, Law was the only doctor she'd met on the giant yellow totally-not-conspicuous-at-all submarine...
She was pulled from her thoughts when the Surgeon of Death himself plopped gracelessly on the bed she was lying on. He would have sat on her hand if she hadn't jerked it away in time. He noticed and nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Reflexes are still good. You couldn't have been with the marines for more than a month if your motor skills are still intact."
There was an unasked question lying beneath the words, and Nadeen answered while he shined a light into her eyes. "Just that, actually. Three weeks ago was when they found me in a boat, without supplies and lost. Some stupid bird had taken my log pose while I was sleeping. Why? I've no bloody clue." She shrugged her shoulders for emphasis, wincing in discomfort when her skin rubbed against her bones. "If it was me, though, I'd take it for the shininess."
Law snorted at her words, setting up a machine that looked way too complicated to Nadeen. Complicated things meant they were expensive, and expensive things tended to not mix well with her. She tried to inch away from it subtly, but nothing could escape the eagle eye of Trafalgar Law! He raised an eyebrow at her and said, "You're not afraid of needles, are you? I need to put in some IVs to get nutrients back into your body." She knew her blush was showing because of how pale her skin was at the moment and shook her head slowly, trying not to make herself dizzy. His mouth quirked into a smirk. "Then why ever are you inching away? You're not afraid of me, are you?"
Nadeen actually took a moment to think over her feelings. She thought of all the rumors of him she'd heard on the last island, two or three weeks even before the marines had found her. Law hadn't even entered the Grand Line, but civilians had whispered tales of his cruelty and sadism and some were even afraid to speak his name. It was with surprise that she repeated her action of shaking her head slowly, frowning at her blanket in thoughtful curiosity. "You're a sadistic psychopath that enjoys his enemy's blood way too much, you experiment on innocent civilians if you have anything medical you want to test, and the last island I was on was too afraid to even say your real name, and just referred to you as the Dark Doctor or Surgeon of Death.
"But," and here is where she lifted her head to meet his surprised gaze, "but if you were planning on hurting me, then I wouldn't be here. You would have just left me there on that ship to meet the same fate as those marines. You wouldn't be wasting your supplies, which I know are already low, on an idiot like me who can't navigate worth shit without a stupid little hourglass." Her mouth quirked into a little half-smile. "Don't get me wrong, you're still creepy as fuck. But I guess I'm not as afraid of you as I probably should be."
She gnawed her lip worriedly as the silence grew. Law didn't move, either to put away the needles he'd pulled out or to continue on with what he was doing. He just kept those intense, stormy gray eyes locked onto her dark blue ones. She couldn't decipher what he was thinking, and she was afraid that she'd possibly just destroyed whatever chances she had of surviving with the Heart Pirates. His voice startled her when he spoke. "Stop that. You'll split your lip even more." She was so shocked that not only did she stop chewing her lip, her entire jaw dropped. His smirk grew bigger on his face and he almost teasingly said, "That's even worse. Your mouth with dry out and you'll dehydrate even quicker."
Her teeth clicked together when she closed her mouth and she watched, even more confused, as he went about setting up the equipment. "You... You're not upset that you don't scare me?" He shrugged wordlessly and took her arm to gently stab three different needles into her veins. "W-why?"
Law gave her another amused look and asked, "Would you rather I swing my nodachi at you until you beg for mercy and convince you to be afraid of me?" She shook her head quickly and waved the arm not being held in front of her face, as if to ward off the possibility. Law chuckled at her refusal. "Then stop asking about it. If you're not afraid of me, I'm not going to go out of my way to scare you." Nadeen gave a sigh of relief that Law either didn't hear or chose to ignore. The second one, most likely. "Now, one of these IVs has a sleeping drug in it. You'll be conscious for about another half an hour before you sleep, and I'd like to spend that half-hour furthering my understanding of your... position, so to speak."
Nadeen started to gnaw on her lip again, but a warning look from the pirate captain made her stop. "Um... Would it be best if I started from the beginning?" Law nodded and linked his fingers together to lean his chin on them. His gaze didn't waver away from her, and she fiddled with her blanket to keep from looking into his eyes. "Well, the first thing I feel like I should do is explain just why you have about as much of an idea of my last name as I do." She smiled a bit bitterly at her hands, especially her left one. "Ya' see, the first thing I remember is servitude. Not slavery, because it was illegal where I grew up, but definitely servitude."
She felt Law shift next to her and wondered if what she'd said caused him discomfort. Food for thought later. "The old lady who raised me said I was left on her doorstep in a basket, a note pinned onto me. Not my blanket, not my basket, me." She raised her left hand and flexed it slightly so the pirate captain could see a tiny scar in the space of skin between her thumb and forefinger. "The note said that my name was Nadeen and that I was the son of a monster. That was it. As I grew up, I tried to get a better understanding. The old lady, who told me to call her Nana, wasn't much help. There wasn't any woman on the island that had my eyes or hair, and pale skin was so common that it didn't help me. So the genetics solution was out.
"Next, and this was probably just my stupidity, I tried to track down any woman that acted like me. I was a reckless idiot, always striving for fun and adventure. I'd leap off of the nearby cliff if someone dared me to. Just my luck, I was dared to almost every other day." A bark of laughter left her coughing, and Law passed her a full cup of water without a word. She nodded thanks and downed half of it, more to sooth her mouth and throat than necessity. "I couldn't really describe what Nana saw me as. I was treated better than what the other servants got. When they screwed up, they got yelled at and, depending on how big the screw up was, fired. I got scolded and a slap on the wrist, and sometimes I got grounded."
Nadeen yawned slightly, and took a glance at the clock on the wall. Twenty minutes had passed without her noticing, so the drug was only just starting to take effect. She decided to use the short, short version before she passed out. "Long story short, once I was old enough, I decided to leave and try to figure out who my parents are. Been at sea for about five years, ate my devil fruit three years ago. Marines hate me, pirates dislike me, and civilians don't know me well enough to make an honest opinion."
Law was silent for an entire minute as he thought over her words. Through her muddled mind, she discovered that she hadn't really told him all that much. About her Nana, her childhood, and a bit of her public image. Probably nothing he'd be satisfied with. But he was the one who drugged her up, so it wasn't her fault. He sighed a bit and shook his head. "You do realize the odds of finding two specific people in the whole entire world are astronomical, right?" Nadeen gave a small 'mhm' of acknowledgement and cuddled into her pillow. Law actually went as far as to bring her blankets up near her chin, though he didn't tuck her in. 'Ha, it'd probably ruin his image to be seen tucking a patient in...' Nadeen thought with a slight smile. "I just have one question that you didn't answer. Earlier, you said you owed me your life. What did you mean by that?"
She struggled to keep her eyes open and her mind focused, but it was becoming more and more difficult to do. "I already explained how you could have just let me die out there. Benguin and Pepo freed me from my prison, sure, but the ultimate decision was with you. So now I owe you a debt. And that debt will stay with me until I somehow save your life." She gave a slurred laugh and whispered, "Have no idea how 'm gonna do that, though, if ya' toss me away like everyone else does..." And with that, she slept.
Law stayed in his seat, just watching the woman who'd somehow invaded his submarine. Well, perhaps invaded was too harsh a word. It wasn't an invasion if he invited her onboard. And while he didn't go, "Hey, wanna go for a ride? Hop on board for a dream vacation!", he kind of did invite her, when he told Shachi to take her to the infirmary. And she did bring up a point. Why was he wasting medical supplies on some girl he'd never met before in his life when he knew just how low on them they were?
He almost sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose as the answer came to him. She'd stirred his curiosity. More than one time on the entire journey, from North Blue to where they were now, it had gotten him and his crewmates in trouble. Yeah, they always came out, if not good, then at least better than whatever was trying to hurt or threaten them, but some of the things he put his men through scarred them for life, whether mentally or physically. Derek still sometimes has nightmares of that stampede that nearly killed him...
The captain cursed himself and his damned curiosity to the pits of hell and stood up. He'd come back on her again in two hours. Until then, it was better to lounge and think in his office. He did one more precursory sweep of the infirmary and spared the unconscious female a single look before leaving with the lights off. He wandered the halls aimlessly, passing by random crewmates that called out greetings or reports of the supply movements. Normally Law would have stopped and listened, maybe even helped if he felt so inclined to.
Instead, he passed on by and didn't react to any of them, even when Coryn, the chef, asked loudly what got his panties in a twist. Normally that would have earned either a bashing upside the head with his nodachi or even just a middle finger, but Law didn't want to bother with them. He sensed more than saw or heard his crew's confusion and worry about this. He eventually got to his office and locked the door behind him, not wanting to be disturbed.
Law loved his office. More than his private quarters and even more than the infirmary, which was seriously saying something! It was a comfortable size for him, not too big but not too small. There were two chairs and a desk in the middle of the room, papers and little odds-and-ends that he'd collected over the months scattered all over. His favorite part was his collection, though. Wall to wall bookcases reached the ceiling, so tall that he had to stand on his chair to get to the top two shelves. He had books ranging from medicine to psychology to philosophy to history to geography. Anything that wasn't informational, like fiction or myths, was kept in his room.
He pulled a random book from one of the shelves without even looking at it and sat in his chair with a sigh. He'd at least look busy if anyone would come see him. Nadeen hadn't told him much before the drug had made her go under. He knew when she'd first eaten her devil fruit, how long she'd been with the marines, and why she was out at sea. None of that helped him decide what to do with her now, though.
And what was with that last mumbled bit before she fell asleep? Not only did she mix up Penguin and Bepo's names, she said something about being 'thrown away', or something to that effect. Now what was he supposed to do with that? That little hole in his information would bite and wriggle and itch at him until he could get it filled, and who knew when that would happen? It was like she'd planned it that way! ... Did she? Was Nadeen smart enough to know exactly what to say to keep him interested long enough to keep her around? He didn't know her well enough to decide on that, though he was usually a good judge of character from first meetings.
Law groaned aloud and slammed his head on his desk hard enough to leave a mark. He needed to know more. But how...? He sighed once again and went to his door, sticking it out to see if anyone was nearby. Luck was on his side, for Shachi was heading towards his door with a box that Law noted contained books. He gave a sharp whistle to catch the man's attention, but instead made him jump and drop the box, spilling them everywhere. "Oops. Sorry, Captain!" he apologized sheepishly.
The pirate captain left his office to help and shook his head. "My fault. No need to apologize." He looked at one of the books in his hand and tilted his head slightly in surprise. It wasn't a title he recognized, and that meant he didn't have it. Same for the next two he looked at. "Where did you find these? I just ordered Penguin and Bepo to find food and medicine."
Shachi shrugged as they finished packing the books back up. "Dunno. Penguin just shoved 'em at me and told me to bring 'em to your office. Then he went to the infirmary to see if that Nadeen chick was awake. I'm guessing not, though, since you're here."
Law hummed in understanding and took the entire box from his subordinate, tucking it under one arm and using the other to turn Shachi around and shove him in the other direction. "Speaking of, go get him and Bepo for me. I'd like to ask them some questions about what happened on the ship." Nadeen had already given him a basic overview, but he'd like to know what they had to say about it.
The engineer waved over his shoulder in lieu of giving a verbal response, leaving Law to take the books into his room. He cleared a space for the box on his desk. While he was waiting, he might as well sift through and organize his new prizes. By the time Penguin and Bepo knocked on his open door, he had two sizable stacks of fiction and non-fiction. "Erm... Captain?" Penguin said nervously. "Before you start scolding us for saving Nadeen without your orders, I just want to say... Bepo's fault." He pointed at the accused and took a half-step away, as if leaving room for Law to yell.
The polar bear's head whipped around to glare at the boiler-suited man while Law smirked, hiding it under the disguise of reading the summary of a book. This could prove fun. "Was not! You're the one who told her we'd free her if she could help us find the stuff Captain wanted!" Penguin blinked at Bepo in surprise, not expecting the outburst, and Bepo seemed to realize it before bowing multiple times and saying, "Sorry! So sorry!"
Law chuckled loud enough to get their attentions and lowered the book, showing his amused expression. "You're not in trouble, least of all for giving me a new subject to study." They exchanged uneasy glances at the wording, and Law's smirk widened. "No, I actually wanted to ask you to run through what happened when you found her. She gave the basics, but no details."
His first mate and engineer played a quick game of Rock Paper Scissors to see who'd go first. Predictably, Bepo lost. It must suck to have paws. Penguin stepped back to let Bepo speak. "I heard her first. We were running through the hallway, looking for the infirmary or kitchen, and she called out to us. When we went to find her, she was in a prison cell. The room smelled..." He crinkled his fuzzy nose in distaste and growled uncharacteristically. "It smelled horrible, Captain. Like sweat and blood and vomit and things that should only be done in the bathroom. They didn't treat her very nice."
Well, that was an understatement. From the sounds of it, she probably didn't have any furniture, toilet or bed. Leave it to his oldest friend to point it out so innocently, though. Law made a mental note to take a full body check instead of just looking Nadeen over. He motioned for Bepo to continue, but it was Penguin who spoke next. "We did the basic pleasantries, exchanging names and such. Then I said we'd get her out, but we still needed to look for supplies. She offered help, but said she couldn't do much with her seastone-cuffs still on. I hadn't noticed them before she held her hands up. Maybe it was just the dark?" He shrugged once before continuing. "So Bepo bent the bars and she led the way to this big ol' room. I think it doubled as a medical ward and the cafe. Had food and medicine in the same cabinets."
Bepo took over once again, the distasteful look back on his face. "There was a basket of fruit on one of the tables, and Nadeen went at it like I go for fish or you go for coffee." Really now? That was seriously saying something. The only times he ever lost his decorum was when coffee was involved. He'd once actually put someone in the hospital for daring to go near him before he had his morning cup. "Nadeen said that they hadn't really been feeding her, just some bread and water once a day."
Penguin scowled and cracked his knuckles, like he wanted nothing more than to bust those marines' heads in. "They were planning on a slow death, no doubt. The beatings, the malnutrition, the lack of proper hygiene... I don't know what she ever did to them, but they better hope to God it was something horrible, like mass murdering crippled babies! No one deserves to die like that."
Their protectiveness of their new acquaintance honestly surprised Law. He knew they'd feel a little bit of responsibility for her, but nothing like this. He hummed lowly and leaned his chair back so it stood on two legs. Nadeen had failed to mention any of those things to him. Was that technically lying by omission? He finally decided that, no, no it wasn't. He'd wanted her to start at the beginning and she had. The captain excused his crewmates and stared at the ceiling, deep in thought.
Bepo and Penguin stood outside their captain's office, occupied with their own thoughts as well. Neither made a move to go anywhere else, but Law wouldn't hear them anymore even if they blasted cymbals on loud speakers. His office was sound-proofed to keep his studies from being interrupted by his crew's antics. Penguin broke the silence first and scratched his head. "You don't really think the captain is gonna 'operate' on Nadeen, do you?"
The polar bear immediately shook his head and answered as confidently as if Law had told him himself. "No, he wouldn't. It would make this entire venture pointless, and Captain never does anything without a point. I'm more worried about what will happen to Nadeen after she's healed." Penguin nodded in agreement and crossed his arms, tapping his fingers along his forearms. "Part of me hopes Captain allows her to join." Bepo confessed sheepishly.
Penguin stopped drumming his fingers and blinked at his comrade. Yeah, he'd been thinking the same thing, but that Bepo was the first to voice it, shy and non confrontational Bepo... He finally sighed and shrugged, letting his arms drop and walking away. He ended the conversation by throwing the last few words over his shoulder. "Whatever he decides, he's the captain. Nadeen is just a woman we decided to help. She's unimportant in the long run of things."
Bepo hummed and went in the opposite direction of his human friend, his steps soft and muffled. He didn't wear shoes like the humans, as that made his paws feel awkward and clumsy, so he was one of the stealthiest when it came to stalking on the sub. He knew that Penguin didn't mean offense, and even understood. Nadeen's fate was in Captain's hands, but Bepo wasn't worried. Whatever Captain decided, they'd stand behind him like a good crew was supposed to do... 'I wonder if Nadeen knows any female bears...'
WORDS: 3850
PAGES: 7
Me: So, Law's part seemed kind of awkward to me. I still have a hard time getting into his head. To me, he's a laid-back kind of dude that doesn't really care if people fear him or not, so long as they respect him. I went over this as much as I could without boring myself, so tell me if there're any mistakes!
Edit: Some grammar things were corrected.
