In the morning, Zoro was off at the front desk to sign Vivi and Luffy out. He hated staying in the hospital too long.
Vivi woke up to see Zoro was gone. She sat up to look around for him frantically. Her thoughts immediately went to the worst possible things that could have happened to him.
She forced herself onto her feet.
Right then, Zoro came back into the room to find Vivi trying to leave.
"Hey, Vivi! Sit down; you don't want to strain yourself."
She sighed in relief, sitting back down. Luckily, she was only being paranoid.
"Don't worry. As soon as Luffy wakes up, we're leaving."
Zoro looked over at Luffy and grinned.
"Want me to wake him up?"
Vivi shook her head, but that didn't matter much as Luffy woke up right then.
"Morning, Zoro!" he greeted.
"Hey, Luffy. We're ready to go when you are."
Zoro gestured to the wall, where a pair of Luffy-sized crutches were waiting.
"The doctory brought these in for you."
"Cool! Crutches! I can play with them without getting into trouble!" he exclaimed excitedly.
"Uhh...yeah. Just grab 'em and let's go," he replied, offering his arm to Vivi.
"Okay!" Luffy grabbed the crutches and stood up with them. "Let's go!"
Vivi grabbed Zoro's arm and stood up.
Zoro had gotten the both of them laying down and gave them their pain medicine. Sure that Luffy was okay, he went into the living room and sat next to Vivi.
"Hey, Vivi," he greeted, handing her paper and a pencil. "You doing better?"
She took them from him and responded with, 'Yeah, I'm fine.'
"Hey, uh, I'm sorry if this is a little weird for you, but Luffy told me that guy said something to you before he left. Do you remember what it was?"
Vivi shuddered and looked down at her lap. She remembered so clearly she could almost hear his gravelly voice telling her, "You were my favourite".
'Yes,' she wrote reluctantly, 'he said I was his favourite and that my bullet wound was just a warning.'
Zoro frowned at the words for a moment, wondering what the man had in store for Vivi.
"We might have to move again," he said thoughtfully.
'Sorry,' she wrote to him before grabbing his hand.
"Don't apologise, Vivi. I'm glad to help in any way I can," he told her, smiling and stroking her hair reassuringly with his free hand.
Blushing a little, she subconsciously leaned into the touch.
"All I can tell you is focus on something happy and try to rest," Zoro concluded with a shrug.
Vivi looked up at him. She could feel her face heat up when she started to think about him, and she looked back down to hide it. It was a sort of confirmation to her that she was certainly developing some strange feelings for this man.
Zoro, however, had other ideas. Thinking she was getting a fever on top of everything else, he put his hand on her forehead.
"Geez, now you're getting sick."
She chuckled silently and shook her head.
"Just to be safe, I'll get your some medicine on the way back from work. You're definitely getting a temperature."