Days had passed since Law had first met Ace, and everyday he disappeared into the forest with Luffy trailing behind him, and every night he returned without Luffy. Luffy would eventually stumble in and fall into a dead sleep, and she would treat his wounds. Corazon would just silently watch her, as would Ace, until she was finished, and then she moved on to Ace to heal him, but more often than not he would send her away. Then she would cuddle next to Cora-san, and they'd all fall asleep.

This time she was worried though, neither of the boys were back, and it was dark. She frowned, and made a decision, "Come on Cora-san. We have to go find Luffy and Ace." she said. Rocinante looked at her in surprise. She'd always let them be before. He saw the worry in her eyes, eyes that usually were cold, and he was up in an instant. He handed her a note that asked how they were going to find them. She smiled, and closed her eyes, sending out her senses before pinpointing the two boys by another kid. "I have them. Come on." she said.

Rocinante was a bit blown away. She had observation Haki, and such great control at her age. He followed her.

They traveled through deep woods, filled with alligators, and other beasts. They took turns defending themselves, until, finally, they reached a tree. The first thing that they heard was Ace yelling at Luffy, telling him that he was an idiot, and could have died.

Law was behind him in an instant, "Tell me what happened, and let me at him." she said quietly, causing Ace to jump.

"L-law." he stuttered, then frowned. "It wasn't our fault." he said, drawing her attention, unintentionally, to the blonde haired boy next to him. She glared at the boy who stood protectively in front of Luffy. She saw him tremble, but gave him points for not bolting. She advanced on him, and was just about ready to toss him out of the way when Ace pulled him out of her path. She looked at the damage to Luffy's body. He was lying on the ground, covered in bandages. She stripped him of his clothes, and the bandages so that she could work on the actual injuries. "Room." she uttered. She'd taken to always carrying a medical kit around with her. It had become a necessity since Luffy and Ace often came back with severe injuries. First she used her powers to drive off any bacteria or toxins in the wounds, and then she pulled out a needle, and thread. She stitched up his injuries with neat little sutures. She could feel the boys eyes on her. Luffy didn't feel a thing. She'd shut down his pain receptors in order to fix him. She needed to buy more numbing agent.

When she was finished she re-bandaged him, and helped him sit up, then turned to Ace. "Tell me what happened." she said.

Ace held the blonde kid back from speaking by lifting a hand. "We have a secret stash of money, because Sabo and I want to leave and become pirates, but to do that we need a boat. We accidently stole from the wrong thugs. They were Blue Jam's men, and they captured Luffy because he's an idiot. Then, instead of telling them where the gold was, and saving himself, he refused to say anything, and let them beat him almost to death." Ace paused there, "Why did you do that Luffy?" he asked, his tone biting.

Luffy looked down, "I want to be friends, and friends don't give away other people's secrets. If I'd told them, you wouldn't have been my friend. I'd rather be dead than alone. Law has Cora-san. And she is my friend, but she is more like a grown up sometimes." Luffy said.

Law saw a strange look come over Ace's face right before he turned his back on Luffy, "So what you're saying, is that you need me?" he asked quietly. She could see a look of hope in his dark eyes.

"Of course!" said Luffy loudly.

Ace smiled blindingly, then schooled his expression, and turned back to Luffy, "You are our friend." he said, "So you won't be lonely ever again." he said.

Law took the opportunity to stand up and approach Ace, "Does that mean that Blondie over there is Luffy's friend as well?" she asked.

Ace looked confused, then he grinned, "Yup." he said, then moved out from between them. "Hey Sabo, this is Luffy's sister Law." he said.

"Nice to meet you La-" Sabo was cut off when Law activated her room, and stole his heart. "What!" Sabo exclaimed. He frantically patted his chest, but found no hole. He looked at the heart in her hand, still beating, and fainted.

Ace burst out laughing. Law smiled evilly. She put the heart in her medical kit, in a special padded pouch. She then turned to look at Ace, "Are we all friends now?" she asked. She was really tired of Ace letting, and often causing, Luffy to get hurt. Ace nodded, and held out his hand to her. She shook it.

That was about the time that Cora-san got really emotional and started crying, albeit silently. He proceeded to scoop them both up in a bear hug. Ace wiggled, and wiggled, but couldn't get out, so he gave up and hugged the huge crying man back. Law kissed his cheek and wiped his tears away, "Calm down Cora-san." she said. Luffy decided to join the hug, and shimmied up Cora-san's back, and wrapped his stretchy arms around all of them. Luffy nuzzled his cheek against Ace's, and then Corazon's.

Corazon let them down, but retained possession of Law. She didn't mind, and her cheeks pinked lightly. Rocinante looked at Ace, and then reached for his note pad, sitting with Law in his lap. She saw that he was going to write Ace a note, "Cora-san. Use your words." she said.

Ace looked between them confused, "I thought he was mute." he stated, sitting cross legged facing Rocinante.

"He's not. He just doesn't really like talking in front of people he doesn't know." she said.

Ace nodded, and then looked at Corazon expectantly. Cora blushed, "Er, I was just going to write, say, that I will help to protect you guys from Blue Jam if I can." he said.

Ace felt a bit stunned by the deep voice that came out of the tall blonde man. When Law had said her explanation, he'd assumed, that Rocinante didn't like speaking because he had a high voice, and had been made fun of for it. He looked at the man with different eyes. He could see that the man was muscular, his strange heart patterned shirt showed off his chest after all. He'd never really noticed before. The man was really clumsy, he knew that. He'd seen that. Ace wondered why Law called him Cora-san. Rocinante had shaggy blonde hair, and looked a bit dopey. His blue eyes were kind though, and usually smiled at people. Every now and then he would were strange make-up, but Law usually murmured something, and then he'd get a sheepish look on his face, and he'd wash it off, other times Law would look nostalgic, and call him Corazon. He'd never heard her call the man by his name.

He realized he'd been staring when Rocinante blushed, and looked away, mumbling something. "What? No, that's fine. I'm sorry I was just thinking about what I know about you. Not much I'll admit." he said.

Rocinante winced, "Yeah... about that... um..." he broke off when he saw Sabo had woken up. He set Law on the ground, and stood up, moving over to Sabo. "Hello. My name is Rocinante. Call me Roci." he said extending a hand. Sabo saw the giant man approaching him, and trembled.

When he was introduced he calmed down a bit, after all, if Ace wasn't scared, he didn't need to be. "A pleasure Roci-san. I am Sabo. If you will excuse me, I will ask young Luffy to guide me back to your house, as they so kindly offered to hide me there with them." he said after shaking the huge hand presented to him. He then picked himself up, and he and Luffy set off.

Corazon watched them, and then set up a silence barrier encompassing the two black-haired kids sitting near him, and himself. He sat down. "Well. I suppose I will tell you about me, and then tell you what I know and suspect about you." he said. Ace nodded in acceptance. "Alright. First, my name is Donquixote Rocinante, I am the younger brother of Donquixote Doflamingo. We were once Tenryuubito, and by birthright, I still am. However, when I was young my father, a kind man, took us away from there. He didn't believe that we were better than anyone else. He nor my mother did, I believed the same as they did, but Doffy didn't. He believed that we were better than all others. Mother died quickly of disease, she had a poor immune system, and couldn't handle the shock. Doffy blamed father for that."

"The commoners blamed us for all of the tragedy in their lives as well, and they attacked us constantly. They blinded Doffy in one eye. Doffy killed our father, and I ran away. I was picked up by the Marines, and adopted by Sengoku. I became a Marine myself. After a while, I was told of a covert operation to bring my brother down. He was a cruel, and evil person, and they wanted evidence on him. I was sent, not only because I was related to him, but because I volunteered. I found him, and refused to speak. He came to think of me as mute. I started wearing make-up so that I didn't look like him. He promoted me to the highest officer seat below him. It is entitled Corazon, the Heart Seat. I worked for him, and gathered evidence for the Marines. Then, Law came. She was dying, and wanted to take out as many people as she could before she died. She wouldn't leave no matter what I did to her. I was cold to her, until I heard her full name. It was then that I knew I had to speak to her, to get her to leave no matter what the cost." he said.

"Why?" Ace asked.

Law answered, "My full name is Trafalgar D Water Law." she said.

Roci nodded, "To a Tenryuubito, a carrier of the name D is like the boogey man. They have always been harbingers of change, and change is the most threatening thing to the nobility of this world. Doffy would have killed her if he had known, it didn't matter that he was training her to take my spot. She was being trained to be his right hand man, she was his favorite after me, but he would have killed her without hesitation. So things led to things. I talked to her and eventually we ended up running away and looking for the Ope-Ope no Mi. We eventually found it and stole it from the Marines. In the process, I was severely wounded, and Law took a note to the Marines, but the one that she handed it to was actually Vergo, one of Doffy's men, and the former Heart Executive. Doffy found us, and to protect Law I put her in a trunk and silenced it. I would be dead if not for her quick thinking. She used her powers to pull all of my organs out, and make it look like his shots killed me. She then escaped, and healed me, and we sailed to a nearby island where I contacted Sengoku. Garp then moved us to this undisclosed location because, technically, we are both fugitives."

Roci took a huge breath, then continued, "Now what I know about you. You are nine. You aren't related to Garp, but you are his grandson, just as Law is. You have a severe distrust of people. I believe that it stems from who your father is." Right as Ace was about to speak Rocinante held up a hand, "I met your father. He was a good, kind man. He did everything he could to protect his crew, your mother, and you. You look a lot like him, but I can definitely see parts of you that are your mother, like your freckles. I know that once you trust, you make an incredible friend, and a reliable ally. I will tell you this, and whether you listen or not is up to you, Gol D Roger is a father that I would be proud of, because he was much like my own dad. Even after he found out who I was, he didn't care, he talked to me, and told me about how happy he was that he was going to be a father. He gave me a picture that they hadn't taken off of him. It was your mother. She was beautiful. Once I asked him why he had turned himself in, he was never actually captured. He laughed and said, 'I'm dying. I will soon die, and won't be able to protect my love, and our child. This way I could talk to Garp, ask him to protect them.' he laughed out his booming laugh, 'Did you know? A girl will be Ann, and a boy will be Ace.' he'd said to me. He told me that the gender didn't matter, he would love them the same, and how his only regret was that he wouldn't get to see you. I could see the love in his eyes. For you, and your mother." he said. Then he stopped talking. He hadn't talked that much in years.

Ace was silent for a few moments. Law could see that Cora-san's words had reached him. He opened his mouth, then closed it again, before opening it, "Can I have the picture?" he asked. Corazon smiled, and nodded. Ace thanked him, then looked down. "Did he know that she was going to die?" he asked softly.

Rocinante shook his head, "No, she wouldn't have died if she'd allowed the birth do go as normal, but she used the force of her will to keep you inside of her until it was safe. She sacrificed herself for you, as Roger had sacrificed himself for you both." he said.

Ace started to cry, "Thank you." he said. They waited until he had stopped crying before making their way back to Dadan's house. They all slept like logs.