Care So Much

The crew waited in the galley in a tense silence, unsure of what to say or even how to say it. Their eyes would track to the infirmary door every now and then, only to flicker away. Sanji was making a light snack and preparing for breakfast while everyone nursed a drink and Zoro cleaned the blood off of Brook's sword.

All attention snaps to the door when it opens and Chopper comes plodding out, shutting the door and leaving the musician inside.

"He'll be okay," Chopper assures them. "Brook just needs some time to get himself together."

There is relief as the tension ebbs away, but there are still questions silently directed at the doctor about the newest member's well-being.

Chopper sighs, placing the book he'd brought out, tags sticking out of the pages, on the table, taking a seat next to Robin. "You don't understand what kind of miracle it is that Brook can function like a normal," eyes around the table are rolled, "if a little eccentric," Chopper concedes, "person. Enforced unwilling isolation over longer periods of time aren't healthy for human minds, or any social creature really. This book," Chopper pats the book he'd brought, the one Robin has opened to read the marked passages, "is a study on trying to help people recover from such situations and dealing with the psychoses that develop in the victims."

"So?" Usopp ventures to ask.

"Many of these victims had troubles with social interactions to an astonishing degree," Robin says, eyes not leaving the book. "They were insane. Some quite violently so."

There are shudders at the memory of the ship full of men barely clinging to life in the foggy night, the one with its crew's blood splashed across its decks… and their musician. It had shocked them to have to fight against their newest member to save the lives of the other crew. They weren't strangers to death, but they also didn't condone killing when the other side had given up.

"Right, and the longest any of the recorded victims had been isolated was six months," Chopper sadly continued. "Brook was alone for one hundred times longer than any of those cases. Longer than any of us were even alive."

And they are starting to truly realizing that what Brook has been through is beyond what they can imagine because they haven't even been alive long enough to grasp that stretch of time.

"But he can't have been alone the entire time, right?" Franky asks, subdued for once.

"Right. Brook told me he encountered other occupied ships, but that's what makes Brook's general state of mind more amazing," Chopper says. "We're the only ones who've been nice, treated him well, in fifty years. Everyone else either fled in fear or tried to kill him, yet he's still able to be nice to us, to bond and have positive social interactions with us. He does well with us, but all of those negative interactions and years of isolation have left their marks on his mind."

"So why're you telling us all this, Chopper?" Luffy asks. He doesn't get it, but he's trying because this has to do with his crew's happiness and safety.

"To help explain my reactions earlier."

They all turn to the infirmary door in surprise. They hadn't heard the door open nor the usual distinctive clack of Brook's heels on the floorboards to bring the musician out and to his position leaning on the wall next to the doorway. But they do notice the stiff way Brook holds himself, how his gaze remains on his feet and thin arms clutch at bony elbows, how the blood has been wiped off his bones, but still stains his only outfit, not a drop of it his.

"I try, but I'm not always all here. There's no use in hating the past, what's happened to me." Brook laughs, but it's bitter and hollow and not like him at all to them. "I've already done that and gotten nowhere, but sometimes… sometimes it catches up to me. That's when it's hard to still be sane. I… the conditions were just right… no, just wrong earlier and I lost myself. There… there were a few occasions where I-I wiped out entire crews back then. They would come aboard while I was sleeping and they-they'd open the coffins of my crew, my nakama," Brook pauses, emotion choking his non-existent throat, "and root through them without a care." They could hear the cold fury at such actions in his voice. "In my fury, I'd chase them back to their ships and then… then I would prepare another ghost ship to haunt the Florian Triangle," he whispers, horror at his own actions apparent. "I was so afraid of losing what little I had left of them that I maimed and killed others. With that fog and how they had trapped you all and were going to kill you, I just… snapped. I went back to that horrible person I never wanted to be again!" Brook sobs,folding in on himself even further. "I'm sorry."

A rubbery arm loops around Brook's spine and pulls him to kneel at the table and be embraced by his seated captain.

"It's okay, Brook," Luffy soothes, face pressed into his musician's ribcage. "You were scared of being lonely again and mad that they tried to hurt your nakama, but don't worry, we're not gonna die. Not until we accomplish our dreams. You don't have to kill anyone to protect us."

The rest of the crew gathers round to add their own embrace and Brook cries because he has nakama again and they care so much.

Author's Note

And that's as angsty and/or dark as I'll write. You probably won't see much of anything like this again in here, but do tell me how you like it (I still don't know how I feel about this myself). No clue how accurate Chopper's medical stuff is (I'm too lazy to research and mind stuff is inexact/circumstantial anyways), but Brook had it bad for a very long time, so there's bound to be some dark crazy in there buried very deep under his in-the-moment general happiness. And I do think Brook could wipe out a crew as his appearance would throw people off/scare them and his high speeds allow him to strike before enemies know what's going on, taking out many without them realizing it. Not all crews who make it to the end area are Supernova level or even sailed all the way through Paradise as they could be from a Grand Line island, meaning Brook could be stronger (that's my excuse anyways).