I would have like to have this out two weeks ago, but I got hit by convention flu and was out of commission for half a month. I'm still dealing with the aftermath. My vacation is almost over. Help.

Hyphen: I'm back and so are the spaghetti! Briefly, but to good effect. Thank you!

31. Misery loves company
(Everything is cherries on top)

The mess hall was empty save for Saki, lazily doodling away on her sketchbook with a mug by her side on the table. It wasn't coffee for a change, and it was, in fact, the reason she was drawing there and not her room, because Mack had lured her in with the sweet smell of Hilda's tea. Funny how that little reminder of her mom was enough to get her in a good mood. By the time she tried to slap for the third time a mosquito on the table, though, she was regretting not staying holed up in her quarters. At the same time, Mack dropped something metallic in the galley.

"Will you stop that?"

Uh oh. He sounded cranky. "No!" She replied. "They're hounding me!"

With a swift motion, she downed the contents of the mug and picked it up along with her things, then went to drop it off in the sink.

"You're exaggerating," he said, glancing at the mug. "Does that mean you're done slamming a maul against the table?"

"It was my hand."

"You might wanna get that checked."

"Why do you pick on me so much?" She looked back at the mess hall apprehensively, trying to find out if there was just a mosquito or a few of them had conspired to attack her legs even through her jeans, the savages. "And where are they coming from?"

"Because you're conveniently close by. And they come out after the rain. It's how bugs work."

"Do they? My hometown was kind of cold and dry. Everything had a tendency to kick the bucket there."

"Right, sometimes I forget you're a country bumpkin."

"Ooh, we're feeling sassy today, aren't we?"

She intended to give him a lovingly disapproving look, but instead she noticed his arms. His sleeves were rolled up as he chopped peppers with a dexterity that had everybody on board respectfully terrified, and she saw a red mark on his arm. "They got you pretty bad, huh?"

"That's nothing. I've always been a mosquito magnet. Coconut paradise was fun."

"I can't imagine," she said with a grimace. She sometimes missed Felicia, but not the hours of sleep she had lost trying to fall unconscious only to hear a menacing buzz next to her ear and jolt awake. "If you need me I'll be…" She said as she started to walk away, but she trailed off as a thought crossed her mind and stopped under the doorframe. "What if that's it?!"

"What are you talking about?"

She tossed her things on a chair and stalked back towards Mack, pulling on his upper arm to drag him out of the galley. "What if it's the mosquitoes? We have to tell the captain!"

"Saki."

"Yeah?"

"Have you thought that everybody in town would be sick if that was the case?"

She deflated like a balloon. "…No."

"Do you feel sick at all?"

"…No?"

"Then let go."

She did, puffing out her cheeks in frustration and crossing her arms in frustration. He was right, but she just wanted to be useful, darn it. "What hour is it?"

"Not sure. Past midnight."

"Why are you cutting peppers now?"

"Who was doing laundry last week at three in the morning, you cheesy scoundrel?"

"Point taken," she replied. "I'm going to see how that nerd's doing."

"Shout if you need help," he said, and his offer was much appreciated, because peer pressure was one of the few things that could convince Law to course correct his attitude.

She strolled down the hallway with no hurry at all, until she turned around the corner and she heard something clash against the floor up ahead. She reached the sickbay in a matter of seconds, but she didn't get to open the door before someone else did on the other side.

Thankfully, this one opened inwards, so she didn't get a faceful of door. But since cosmic equilibrium was a thing and the forces of the universe had to balance each other, she was run over by the person who had gotten to the door first, who happened to be the captain she was looking for, and also happened to run her over, and they toppled down to the floor together.

"What are you—" Both started at once before stopping, and it could have been common decency what made them shove each other away before they started arguing, but since they didn't have much of that, it could have also been the need to stay slightly professional, be taken seriously, or more importantly, not be found in a compromising position by someone else in the crew, who no doubt would spend the next few weeks making fun of their nonexistent romantic relationship. She wasn't even catastrophizing. Penguin had had the misfortune of being right at the bottom of the stairs when Bepo swerved the submarine the other day, and Shachi had tripped and fallen on top of him from upstairs. They didn't hear the end of it until they docked and the guys had something else to distract them that wasn't poking fun at the easiest target.

"What are you doing here?" Law asked, still sitting on the floor.

"I missed you too," she replied, not bothering to get up or move away, either. "Finding out what that noise was. What were you doing?"

He leaned forward for emphasis. "It's a virus."

She did the same on reflex. "You found out? How?" She was smiling until she remembered their previous conversation. "Shit, you said that's bad."

"It is, but his fever's been going down for a while now. I think I might have found something that works."

"How?"

There was a brief pause. "Throwing half the spaghetti at the wall at once. Something stuck to it." He shrugged. "I don't know what, but he had nothing to lose at that point. You can't do this to just anybody, though. A less resilient person would have imploded from the cocktail."

She smiled again and put a hand on his shoulder. "I know I don't say this often, but I'm proud of you."

"Thanks for the condescendence."

"It feels great when it goes in the other direction, now I get why you do it so often."

"Why are you on the floor?"

Mack had just arrived and looked more than a little puzzled. In the small pause that ensued, Saki and Law looked at each other with the same doubt written on their faces, but before any of them could come up with an answer, Mack amended his question. "Know what, I don't need to know. Is something the matter?"

"What hour is it?" Law asked.

Mack's reply was immediate. "Do you two share the same braincell?"

"I like to think I lend it to him sometimes."

"What?"

"It's past midnight," Saki replied before Law could ask more.

Law took a deep intake of breath, contemplated something with his eyes fixed on a porthole, and muttered hesitantly, "Do you think that doctor would be awake now…?"

"No," was the automatic answer from Mack and Saki. Unlike Mack, she smiled when she said it, because she found Law was kind of cute when he was being dumb.

Saki was glad when Mack intervened before Law could plead his case, because she had a big urge to blurt out what she was thinking.

"Go. To. Sleep."

Law looked like he wanted to say a lot of things. Mack looked like he dared him to say them. A battle of will power raged for a handful of seconds, and Law even got to the point of opening his mouth to retort before a miracle made him rethink his life choices.

"Alright," he said, at last.

Saki watched how Law got up to leave, not fully believing what she was seeing and marveling at Mack's superpowers, though he sent one last reticent glance towards his sickbay.

"I'll go get you if one of the machines starts beeping funny," Saki said to reassure him.

He nodded and made for his room in silence, visibly less worried.

"I think the stress broke him," Mack mused.

"It had to happen someday." Though Law was kind of indestructible in everybody's eyes, they knew he had his limits. Of course he did. He was just a human and it bothered him to no end.

"By the way," Mack said, casually, nudging towards her and then pointing in Law's general direction, "might want to keep a larger distance if you don't want people to talk."

"Oh, come on!" She groaned. "You know it's not like that!"

"So you say. So do Shachi and Penguin."

"See? They know what's up!" And she added for good measure, "Which is nothing."

"You're telling me to listen to Shachi."

Saki didn't want to think of how ridiculous that sounded. "…Yes."

And then, the second miracle of the night saw fit to grace Mack, who snorted, and after a perfunctory restraining effort, laughed out loud and left.

Saki didn't know what bugged her most: that he had ended up making fun of her, in the end, or that Shachi was, indeed, right.

—

Law woke up woefully late, to his standards at least, and it only happened because Bepo went looking for him a while after everybody else had eaten breakfast. He thought he detected some concern on Bepo's face as he yawned.

"Sorry, I overslept," he said with a pasty mouth. "How's the situation?"

"Same as yesterday, but I think you should take a look at Mack. He says he's fine, but he's got a nasty bug bite."

That put him on work mode instantly. "Where is he?"

"Washing dishes in the galley. I'll leave him to you, he got prickly when I told him to tell you. I think he doesn't want to bother you." And then he whispered, "Please don't tell him I told you. I don't want to eat beet."

"I won't."

Despite the reassurance, he still sounded uneasy. "I'll be with Saki. She looked like she was about to keel over dead when I brought her coffee an hour ago."

He felt slightly guilty for having her on guard duty so he could sleep, but he doubted they would have let him stay awake even if he had refused. Law knew a lost cause when he saw one. "Give me five minutes."

Bepo nodded and went ahead, and Law ignored the protests of his body to stay down and walked to the bathroom to splash water on his face. He congratulated himself for his own laziness when he realized he didn't even have to change his clothes because he had simply whited out on his bed the moment he got to his room the night before. It was genius.

He greeted the guys that were still lingering in the mess hall and studied them momentarily. Shachi and Penguin were off to the side staring at a writing pad and talking in a hushed tone, and Jean Bart was mopping the floor. They were in high spirits, and he didn't see anything that suggested their health was taking a turn for the worse. Law thought that was good and that that island was turning him paranoid.

With a maneuver worthy of a professional gymnast to not step on the floor that Jean Bart had already cleaned, he arrived to the line that separated the mess hall from Mack's realm and toed it.

"Mack," he called out, keeping a safe distance.

Heaving a sigh, Mack turned off the faucet, wiped his hands on his apron, and said, "I'm fine and Bepo's a busybody."

Law mentally apologized to Bepo. Though Mack seemed genuine in both health and annoyance, Law had a duty to make sure. "I believe you. Now let me see it."

He'd thought it would take more convincing, but Mack relented. He was trying to be cooperative, then. Sometimes it was hard to gauge. "It's just a mosquito bite and you have better things to do. It doesn't even itch."

Upon closer inspection, it did, indeed, look like a bug bite that had gone slightly out of control. A wide area surrounding the center had taken on a red color and felt hot to the touch, but it didn't look particularly worrying. Some mosquitoes could do that.

"Do you get this sort of reaction every time?"

"Depends on the mosquito, but it's not the first."

"Does anything else feel odd? Are you tired, does something ache…?"

"I am getting rather tired, yes," he said blandly, and he didn't need to spell out that it had nothing to do with his arm for Law to catch the drift.

He cleared his throat awkwardly as he let go of Mack. He was definitely getting paranoid. "You can lower the inflammation with ice, if it bothers you. And if you—"

"Feel weird I'll tell you, yes, yes," he said wearily. "Now go worry about someone who needs it. I hear Saki was at her limit."

She'd pulled worse all-nighters, he thought, and his gaze went over the coffee pot to the side when something occurred to him. "Who made the coffee today?"

"Me."

Law hurried to the sickbay, perhaps faster than was needed, but he wasn't going to stay near Mack until he caught on to what he had inadvertently implied. He was known for throwing sharp things at people sometimes and Law felt that he had already pushed his luck enough that morning.

The door was unlocked and Bepo was already inside when he arrived, but that didn't stop Saki from jumping on the chair she was sitting on and accidentally dropping her blanket on the floor.

"I'm awake!" She said as soon as she noticed him. The doubt on Law's face must've been plain to see, because she retorted, "Wipe that suspicious look off your face! I was telling Bepo the guy regained consciousness a couple hours ago, but it didn't last."

"And you didn't wake me?"

"I didn't have the time. I barely was able to check on him, make sure he was awake, and then his eyes closed again. The fever was gone. Besides," she said, putting a finger in front of her to warn him to stay quiet. "Do you hear that?"

The only sound was that of the machines attached to the patient. "No."

"Exactly. Your things that go beep aren't making any weird noises. It was more important that you…" She couldn't finish the sentence, because a yawn that seemed to originate in the deepest recesses of her soul found its way out, and he felt a little bad for not believing her at first. "Are you going to see the doctor?"

"Yeah, as soon as I check up on the patient."

"Colin," she said as he passed her.

It took a few seconds for him to register the word. "Is that his name?"

"Mm-hm. Was barely the only thing I could get out of him. I told him where we were, and he said he's from another village in this island, then the lights went out again." She leaned down with an effort to pick up the blanket, and she didn't fight Bepo when he took it from her as she tried to fold it, put it over her shoulders, and gently pushed her in the door's direction. "You're quick to get rid of me, fluffball." She shifted inside the blanket, that almost got to her feet, and started walking. "Good night," she said, absentmindedly, and she was out in the hallway when Law heard her stop for a second, possibly because she'd just noticed what she had said, and uttered a curt, "Fuck."

Bepo shared an amused look with Law and said, "I'll take over when you're out." He followed Law to the operating theater, but stayed outside while he worked. Fur had a tendency to get everywhere. Heartbreaking as it was to admit, Bepo wasn't sanitary.

"Thanks. I'll try to be quick, but I don't know how long it'll take. I need to ask about some equipment I don't have."

It didn't take Law long to check his vitals and change the IV bag. The inflammation of the lymph nodes had gone down considerably, too.

"Can I go in if he wakes up? It must be scary to be in there all alone."

Law smiled at Bepo. "Of course. Anyway, the treatment seems to be working, so I don't think you'll get any unpleasant surprises."

"Good job," Bepo said, smiling back.

And though the mystery wasn't solved, Law wasn't a detective, so he couldn't help but feel a tiny bit of pride. Bepo had that kind of effect on people.

—

Marina's previous day had been spent getting acquainted with the castle town and organizing the groups that would go investigate down the mountain. She wanted to have a good grasp on the situation before sending them out, so aside from speaking to some citizens and one of the investigators working in the castle, she decided to be an early riser and make an incursion to the lower town by herself to see with her own eyes how the rest of the island was faring. So far, the people of the castle town didn't seem too concerned with the epidemic, but both the scientist she had spoken to and the prince didn't share the same opinion.

Warning her soldiers to be ready to go out in the afternoon, she left the safety of the castle.

The path to the lower town was a long, wide staircase that sank into the clouds hanging below the sunny castle level, and she had to pass a heavily guarded checkpoint to leave the area. Nothing remarkable happened, aside from the uncomfortable chill that set in her bones while she crossed the cloudy stretch. She felt relieved when she reached sea level without having tripped even once on her way down the stairs, and considering that at some point she could barely see her boots, it was no small feat. She felt even better when she went inside a produce shop to ask some questions and she regained the body heat she'd lost on the trip.

She spent her morning going here and there, talking to whoever could spare her a second, and while the amount of people on the street was scarce for a town that size, she confirmed her suspicions that it was a mix of caution and cloudy weather what was keeping people indoors. They didn't have any qualms about crowding in the same place, though, if the two pubs she found during her walk were a sign of anything. She thought it was strange that they were so full so early in the morning, but a bit of questioning brought to light that many patrons were people who had business outside of town and couldn't work until the epidemic was under control. Nobody wanted to risk catching something while carrying cargo and bringing it back, so while the lower town wasn't officially closed off, contact with the rest of the island was minimal. Going farther for recon seemed inevitable at that point.

Marina noticed some dirty glares thrown her way when she left the pub. She took note of them, just to be cautious, but it didn't really matter. There were people who had trouble with the law everywhere. As long as they weren't committing a crime, she had more pressing matters to attend to.

The weather, though? That was managing to get on her nerves. In the span of three hours, Marina saw the rainclouds break about five times and got rained on at least another four. The wind kept blowing water at her eyes, and it was currently sunny and raining. She was ready to chuck a chisel at the sky and face the gods when she arrived to her next destination, so she decided that divine defiance could wait until she saw if the encounter panned out. She had gotten the address from a local, who had pointed her to someone they thought could help. Marina hadn't gotten much new intel so far, but one of the remaining doctors in town could surely tell her something useful that she could then relay to the prince. He was on the frontlines of the battle, so to speak.

As if the gods had read her mind, knew her intentions and were adamant on making clear who called the shots there, when Marina knocked on the clinic's door and the doctor opened it, she also came face to face with one of the last people she wanted to cross paths with.

She felt the blood drain from her face as she recalled her last run in with Trafalgar Law, and though she refused to find some solace in the fact that he made the exact same face when he saw her, it allowed her to calm down somewhat. This was not an enemy she could afford to show weakness in front of, but neither had been expecting each other. It could've been worse.

She instinctively moved her hands until they hovered over the chisels on her belt, and the pirate's hand that had a grip on his sword twitched, ready to use it. Neither moved from their respective spots, instead choosing to try to set the other on fire with a glare.

The doctor pushed up his glasses, oblivious to the murderous atmosphere, and inspected Marina. "An officer? That's rare." Finally sensing some tension in the air, he glanced at the two. "Do you know each other?"

"You could say that," he said through clenched teeth.

The Surgeon of Death was in the island at the same time a plague was killing people left and right. Marina didn't waste any time putting two and two together. "Are you involved in what's going on?"

"Why should I answer you?"

Marina grabbed one of her chisels, mind made up now that she had a better target in front of her than the clouds, as he unsheathed his nodachi. The clash was imminent.

Out of nowhere, a surprisingly strong hand grabbed Marina's wrist, another grabbed the pirate's, and they looked in confusion at the old doctor who had dared to step in.

"That's enough, both of you! Where do you think you are? This is a clinic!"

Marina felt the heat rising to her cheeks. Alright, maybe that hadn't been the smartest thing to do, but it was for a good cause. "This man is dangerous pirate!"

"And you're a very rude young lady!" The man barked back, leaving her speechless. "Who do you think you are to come to my workplace and attack another doctor?"

There were few things that made Marina's blood boil hotter than condescension from her elders, particularly when it reeked of male chauvinism, but the last statement put a lid on her temper and suffocated it, at least temporarily, in favor of astonishment. Not exactly because she was surprised that the man was trying to protect a hardened criminal while being a dick to her, that was just another Wednesday for her, but because… he was sort of right. She realized that, for all intents and purposes, it had never sunk in her mind that Trafalgar Law was, indeed, a doctor. The same doctor who ran away with a heavily injured Straw Hat, only for said kid to reappear a few days later in the ruins of Marineford like he hadn't been seconds away from death the last time she'd seen him.

Slowly, Marina lowered her weapon, still eyeing the pirate in case he made any threatening move, but though his hand didn't leave the hilt of the sword, she saw his shoulders relax. It was a compromise she could live with.

"My apologies," she said to the local doctor. "I am here in the name of the World Government to gather information about the disease affecting the island."

The man's expression softened. "See? That wasn't so hard. You're here for the same thing." He smiled and let their wrists go. "Let's all sit down and have a talk like adults. I'm sure we'll learn something interesting."

"That won't be—" She started.

"I'll come back lat—"

"Now," he continued in a tone that didn't accept any discussion, ignoring them and gesturing towards a room inside the clinic, "go sit in my office while I make some coffee."

Being realistic, Marina didn't have much of a choice but to talk to the doctor if she wanted to find out something new, and she had already started off on the wrong foot with him, but she had no clue why the pirate also did as he was told and stayed. He made no effort to hide his distaste when he walked into the doctor's office, so she allowed herself the same level of pettiness, and both had the same idea of dragging the chairs as far away from each other as they could without looking downright comical. The scraping sound they made against the floor prompted the doctor quipping from another room, "Don't scratch the floorboards!"

Marina massaged her forehead. She didn't know why her life was full of overbearing older people and longed for the day she could be a granny that had given away all the fucks she owned three decades prior.

She thought they'd stay there in awkward silence until the doctor saw fit to come back with the coffee, but no, Trfalgar Law, Surgeon of Death, wasn't merciful enough to stay silent.

"So did your bosses decide to help, or are you just here to tell them who they should shoot?"

He wasn't looking at her. Apparently, the painting of a lake hanging on the wall was more interesting than her face.

She bristled at the unfounded accusation. "Unlike you lot, we work to make citizens' lives better."

He snorted quietly. "I'm sure you do."

He had no right to say that, and he had no right to make her feel that his sarcasm had a point, however minuscule. "And what are you doing here?" She retorted. "Why are you so interested in that disease?"

"Because I have a sick man on board," he replied harshly, sparing a glance at her.

Marina's breath caught. "You…?"

"It's not your brother," he said before she could find the will to ask, and looked away from her again.

She swallowed the knot in her throat. "…That's good to hear."

Marina thought the conversation had died there, but he went and reanimated its corpse.

"I had the impression that you didn't have a lot of sympathy for him."

The words felt so unfair that she didn't notice that he didn't sound accusing anymore. "That's not true."

"Well, good for you. You're still alive, so the feeling must be mutual."

The heart she hadn't had in her chest for months, now, skipped a beat, and she felt it anyway. The hole in her torso felt as foreign as the first day, as did the idea that its contents were in someone else's hands.

"Are you here to help?" Marina asked, unwilling to let that subject go on.

"Not really. I'm here to ask about some equipment I need to run tests, but if what I find out can help others, so be it."

That sounded believable. "There are doctors in the castle town working tirelessly to find a treatment. They are testing them in one of the affected villages."

It was news for him, it seemed. He looked at her with interest. "Any results so far?"

"One worked in the lab, but not in practice, and samples are scarce. It's not going well."

"That's…" He was lost in thought for a few seconds, and Marina felt the weight of being completely out of her depth. She had no idea what he could be thinking, or any medical knowledge, for that matter. "I have a general idea of what it is. At least, the strain I have on board."

"You think there's more than one? What—"

He dismissed her. "Wait until the doctor's here. I don't want to repeat myself."

Marina sank back in her seat. "Fine." And after contemplating his motives, she asked, to make sure, "Do you really need to be here, to save that patient of yours?"

He completely ignored her question, so she had to assume he didn't. He already had inkling of what he was up against, and he had said he'd come back later when the doctor invited her in, so he wasn't in a hurry to find out more, unlike her. What was driving him, then? Curiosity? Goodwill? Was she being naïve, considering that option?

He had told her that Mack was well without any prompting from her, so she couldn't rule out that there was some empathy somewhere inside. Why he was choosing to exercise it with her, she didn't know. The cynical part of her brain said there had to be something else. This man ripped her heart out of her ribcage. She couldn't afford to lower her guard.

"I have a proposal that will benefit us both," he said, all of a sudden. "Care to hear it?"

She was wary, but she didn't lose anything by listening. "Go ahead."

"I give you samples from my patient, and you get them analyzed in the castle. I don't have the proper microscope to see viruses, and they are rare. It's unlikely there are any in town."

So that was what he had come to ask the doctor.

"And in return?" She asked.

"You tell me what they find out, and you and your men leave my crew alone while we're in this island. We won't bother you, either."

Marina thought it over. Setting ethical concerns aside, she couldn't afford the luxury of going after the Heart Pirates while she was also looking into that matter. Not having to worry about arresting them, or her squad suffering an attack, would lift a huge weight off her shoulders.

"It sounds reasonable," she admitted, "but I can't promise that ceasefire. One of my superior officers is in the castle town with his own squad, and I have no say over what he or his soldiers do."

"Who's that?"

"Commodore Flagel," she said with a grimace.

But the pirate grinned rather darkly, instead. "Really? I wouldn't mind running into him."

Marina had to exert all her willpower to keep down that she wouldn't mind them running into each other, either. "If that's not a problem to you, I agree to your terms."

"Then we have a deal."

Marina felt like she had handed the reigns of her life to some obscure trickster god of the Grand Line and he had no intentions of handing them back. So much for throwing chisels at the sky.

With a deep breath, she steeled herself to say something else. She didn't know if she could trust the man with the information she had, but Mack's safety depended on him, and if he was half the captain his crew thought he was, he'd do something with it.

"Is Lucky Clover still sailing with you?" She asked.

He was visibly surprised at her question. "What about her?"

"It's not safe to keep her in the crew. We—"

She was interrupted by the doctor walking in, balancing three cups of coffee, and Marina could practically feel the burning intensity in the pirate's stare when she decided it was time to keep quiet.

'Later,' she whispered, and he turned his attention to the older man, but Marina didn't miss the tension in his posture for the remainder of their little reunion.

—

Law returned to the Polar Tang with so many things on his mind that he had basically forgotten about the disappointment of not having the type of microscope he was looking for in town. It went without saying that he wasn't too happy about the Marines doing the rounds outside and having their security depend solely on the word of Mack's sister, but he had no choice, for the time being. He thought he had salvaged the situation pretty well, all things considered. That little run in could have ended in disaster.

The warning Marina hadn't been able to deliver thanks to the doctor was making him uneasy, though. They had agreed to meet later, in the evening, and he'd hear the rest of it then. He didn't like how it had come out of the blue. She had no reason to care about his crew other than Mack, so if she had brought Saki up out of nowhere, it meant that whatever she wanted to say involved the whole crew.

He tried his best to put it out of his mind for the time being. He would find out in a handful of hours, anyway.

The silly drizzle that couldn't decide between stopping or going on made the cobblestones slippery, and lost in thoughts, he wasn't paying any attention to his footing. In retrospect, he probably never understood Saki's plight better than when his foot accidentally slipped forward, and he kept his balance because he was an adult human being with outstanding motor control, only to trip against a protruding cobblestone and fall on his side.

And of course there had to be someone around when it happened.

"Aw, I almost got to catch you this time."

His pride felt wet and extra bruised when he looked up and saw Saki extending a hand towards him with a strangely sympathetic smile. He had expected more glee. He wasn't sure if he liked the pity better.

She'd had the forethought of putting on a jacket with a hood this time to keep her hair from the rain. "Told you this was shitty pavement."

Law didn't need the help to get up, and most importantly, his ego didn't need any more dragging through the mud, but he was self-aware enough to know that rejecting her hand would only make him look more ridiculous. Also, it wasn't that long ago that she wouldn't have offered a hand to come in contact with his if it killed her, so he had to take it. It wasn't because he wanted to.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her.

He felt a bit disappointed when she let go to put her hands in front of her in a placating gesture, and it bothered him that it bothered him.

"Okay, don't worry, alright?" She said, which, predictably, had the opposite result. "We were waiting for you to come back, but since it was taking a long time and I was the only one who knew where—"

"You're rambling."

"I'm rambling," she repeated as she nodded. Someone hadn't had a coffee yet. "As I said, don't worry, he says he's okay, but you should take another look at Mack."

All alarms went off in his mind. "Does he feel ill?"

"Lightheaded and tired. He doesn't have a fever, but that bite on his arm is boiling."

"Alright, let's go," he said, nodding as he started to walk. Thankfully, the sub wasn't very far away. "What about the patient?"

"Colin," she reminded him, and added with the smallest bit of yearning, "Sleeping soundly. I left them both in the sickbay with Jean Bart watching the door, but I don't doubt Mack will be somewhere else if he really wants to."

He headed straight towards the sickbay, with Saki trailing quietly behind, and found Jean Bart sitting in front of the door, blocking it with his entire body.

"Just in case," he offered as an explanation as he let Law in and Saki stayed outside.

Predictably, Mack hadn't put up any further resistance. He did look tired and a bit pale, and he either didn't have the strength to stare at Law disapprovingly or didn't want to, which was concerning.

"Okay, I'm back. Let me see your arm."

With a sigh, Mack rolled up his sleeve. The mark was still there and the red area hadn't gotten bigger, but it had taken a more alarming color.

Law conducted a full examination, and other than the general ill feeling Mack had and the bite, there weren't any other physical symptoms. He took a blood sample and another from the bite area, thinking he could send some with Marina later, and gave Mack some paracetamol.

"You should take the rest of the day off," he said. "You may be developing something, even if there aren't many signs yet."

"I just feel a little sluggish, that's all," he grumbled, but to Law's surprise, who was ready to argue if needed, he added, "Tell Saki to add the diced meat to the pot in an hour and let it simmer for another two. I'll be sleeping it off."

"Give us a shout if you notice any changes."

"Yeah, yeah."

Mack walked out of the sickbay dragging his feet, and Law put on a new pair of gloves to go into the operating theater.

If there was a good chance that the illness was transmitted by an insect, he was going to inspect the patient until he found the bite. He had assumed he'd been bitten by a flea sometime when he was going off the theory that he had the plague, and he hadn't been looking for one in the first place – there had been more alarming signs to catch his attention and the diagnose seemed clear cut – but finding something close to what Mack had on his arm was a priority at that point.

Sure enough, after a few minutes he found a few bite marks, but none that looked a fraction as bad as Mack's. Hell, he was sure everybody in the sub had a few like those of the patient already. His hopes of a revelation were squashed.

Still, if the mosquito theory were true, there were two possible options: either the virus was endemic and had suddenly mutated, so the locals' natural resistance wasn't enough anymore, or it had been introduced from outside; maybe brought in with a foreign ship. Epidemics had a tendency to start like that.

He took more samples from the patient to give them to Marina, thinking of what to do when she showed up. He was confident to assume she'd come alone, since she didn't seem the type to want to mix her subordinates in shady business, and he realized that, in his urgency to make sure that Mack was okay, he had forgotten to tell him that she was in the island.

Well, it was no use bothering him while he tried to rest. He'd tell the others about the Marines in town as soon as he was done with the patient, though, and then he could go back to worrying about what Marina had not told him and what to do if Mack was up by the time she showed up. He was fine. He had a good grip on this.

Then the guy on the operating table twitched, and Law dropped everything in hopes to catch him awake.

—

Saki was pacing up and down the submarine with enough insistence to drive a wedge in the middle of the hallway. She had finished cooking Mack's stew, left it sitting on the stove with a note for anybody who was still hanging around, which most guys weren't, and barely tasted it herself when she remembered with a little bit of unease that she had left an unfinished drawing when she had gone to check up on Law the night before. She had returned the sketchbook to her room, right?

…Right?

She left her plate in the sink and made a dash for her quarters at such speed that she might as well teleported.

She looked on her desk, inside the drawers, in the chest with her clothes, under her bed and even the mattress, searched the tiny bathroom with ever increasing dread and stared at her hands once or twice to make sure she hadn't unknowingly been holding it for the last twenty hours.

It was gone.

That was when the cold sweat set in.

She squeezed her brain for any memory that could help. The last time she'd been drawing she had been… in the mess hall? She ran upstairs again and found Bepo helping himself to some stew instead of the sketchbook. Not that Bepo's angelic face didn't bring her joy on most occasions, but in her current state, not even his smile when he said the food was really good made the panic subside.

"Did something happen?" He asked, worried.

"I lost my sketchbook."

"Oh." He wasn't worried anymore, so clearly he didn't understand the gravity of the situation. "Do you want to buy a new one? I need to buy paper, too."

"I need to find it," she whined, dropping on a chair. She couldn't believe she had been this stupid. "I need a new one," she admitted with a whisper, lowering her head to the table and hiding it under her arms.

"We'll find a quality one. Did you take the other one out?"

"Not that I remember."

"Then maybe one of the guys has it. We can ask them later, when they're back."

"Bepo, dearest, I know you're trying to make things better, but you just sunk me to the bottom."

"Why?"

He really didn't get it. "I don't want anyone to see it. It's embarrassing."

"Were you drawing salacious things?"

She raised her head, alarmed. "No!"

Bepo shrugged. "Then what's the matter? You draw very well."

"It's trash…" She mumbled before hiding again.

If misery loved company, she must have set up a party, because someone else had to join them and witness her meltdown.

"What's going on?" She heard Jean Bart ask.

"My life is over," she replied.

"She lost her sketchbook."

He grunted. "Shachi found it this morning, but you weren't around for breakfast, and he said he'd give it back later."

"Nooooooo…"

"So you aren't coming with me?" Bepo asked her.

"Are you going out?" Jean Bart asked Bepo. At this point, nobody was paying attention to her whining."Captain just told me that there were Marines in town. And a woman called Marina. Does it ring a bell?"

"She's here? Then I guess I can wait until tomorrow," Bepo replied. "She's Mack's sister. I think she has anger issues."

"I see."

"I'm going to check on Mack and bring him something to eat," Saki decided, suddenly standing up, and though a part of her deeply cared about Mack, her lizard brain was urging her to run to the men's quarters and look for the missing piece of her sanity under the bedcovers.

She was going to play it cool. It was one thing to wallow in misery in front of Bepo, but Mack didn't have the patience for that sort of tomfoolery.

Resolving to not act like a desperate madwoman, she knocked on the half-open door of the men's bedrooms carrying a bowl of stew. When there was no response, she cracked it open slowly and took a look inside. Mack was just sitting up and groaning under his bed.

"I brought you something to eat. Were you able to sleep?"

He looked better, to be fair, though he still needed a few more hours. The moment he shook off sleepiness once and for all, he'd be a new man. "Yes, I feel much better. I told you it was nothing."

"Can't blame me for caring. Don't worry about dinner tonight, no one's going to die while you're out of commission." She passed him the bowl, and when he took it, she noticed the redness of his arm was much fainter.

"I'll take your word for that."

Discreetly, she took a good look at the room. There were beds done, beds half undone, beds without sheets, and what looked like ten beds stitched and welded together so Jean Bart had somewhere soft to sleep. Her sketchbook was nowhere in sight. Dammit, Shachi.

"Looking for something?"

"My dignity."

"After all this time?" He made a mess when he tasted the stew, and Saki feared she had messed up the last part, but he explained, "I forgot the bay leaves."

"Oh? I thought it was good. Bepo said so, too."

"Did you, now," he said, but despite the dry tone he sounded a little grateful. "Did Captain find out anything yet?"

Saki blanked out momentarily. Maybe it hadn't been such a great idea to volunteer to tell Mack the news.

"About that… Hm."

"I'm not going to like it, am I."

"You're sister's kind of here."

He stared blankly at her. "You're shitting me."

She sighed. "It's true. I just found out, but I can go get the details and come back."

"Please do."

"At your service," she said, bowing down, and she was about to leave when Mack stopped her.

"Saki," he said, sounding grave. "What would you do in my place?"

That was a very good question.

Saki thought of the siblings she didn't even know if they were alive, of the life she had now, of all the people she'd said goodbye to one day just to never see them again. If she had to put everything on a scale, she didn't know what would weigh more for her. But she had never had to make a choice that hard before. Things just… happened, regardless of her input.

She didn't like seeing her friends sad.

"I would try to make up with her. I think she misses you too." She said after what felt like a lot thinking for nothing. "I mean, I wouldn't do whatever it took to set things right if it was too much, but… I think I'd owe to myself to try. Life's too short to be upset with the people you love."

Mack stared down for a moment, thinking hard on something. "That's the bottom line, isn't it?" He looked up at her. "Don't let it get to your head, but you're not as dumb as you make people think you are."

"I love you too, Mack. Be right back."

—

He wasn't going to tell her that Colin was drifting in and out of consciousness, because he suspected that she'd want to speak to him and he had dibs on that. That was all Law knew for sure as he waited on the deck for Marina to show up.

The last remains of sunlight had faded a while ago. She was late, so he couldn't discard that she had thought their tentative alliance better and would be going back on her word.

He wished he could wind down for an hour to take a nap with Bepo on the deck. Not that Bepo would be against it, but he felt it'd be irresponsible of him.

The creak of the door and unmistakable clack of heels against wood told him that Saki had just come out, and the sudden lack of noise, that she had stopped as soon as she did.

He looked in her direction. She was clasping a sketchbook against her chest, and if he didn't know better, he'd say she was hesitant to get closer. She was wearing the jacket again, so she meant to stay outside for a while.

"Hey," he called out. "Are you going to draw?"

She let out a long sigh and finally got closer. "It's too dark for that, silly."

He leaned back on the sub's railing. "Is something wrong?"

"I lost my sketchbook," she blurted out, clearly distressed.

"Aren't you holding it?"

"Yes. Now. I misplaced it yesterday, I've been looking for it all over, and it just appeared on my desk. I don't know who took it. Jean Bart told me he saw Shachi with it, but he denies it."

Law thought back on the day. He hadn't been around the others much until the evening, but he recalled something. "Come to think of it, I think I saw him and Penguin riffling through some kind of book this morning."

"I knew it," she said, but she wasn't angry. Instead, she sounded mortified.

"I'm sure they wanted to give it back from the start," he said. He didn't believe it, but he didn't want to add fuel to the fire. He'd have a word or two with them about handling other people's things, though.

"But they looked through it."

Law scratched his head. "Is it so bad? You show your art all the time."

"Yes, but these aren't good. They're unfinished. They're crap."

This was a new experience for Law. She was usually so proud of what she made that he didn't know where that insecurity came from. "I find that hard to believe."

"I'm a hack."

"I'm not sure I know how to console you."

"Ugh. I didn't come here for reassurance, I just wanted some air." She looked down at the sketchbook, and after a stretch of silence, she said, "You're staring."

"Can you blame me for being curious?"

She considered her words before offering, "I can show you if you promise not to tell anybody."

Color him interested. "Sure."

She glanced at him, and began to look for a certain page in the sketchbook before she changed her mind, closed it, and shoved it at him like she didn't want to see what he'd do with it.

"You don't have to do it if it pains you so much," he said, amused at her reaction.

She put her elbows on the railing and propped her head up on her hands, refusing to look at him. "Shut up. It's not like that."

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, he opened the sketchbook at a random page and started passing them. He recognized some of the drawings from seeing the finished versions, some familiar sceneries, practice bodies, designs she had started and clearly scrapped midway… he didn't know what was so bad about those, and guessed it was an artist thing. He had the aesthetic sensibility of a newborn mole, so he couldn't relate.

And then something caught his eye. There was a portrait of Bepo sandwiched between two landscapes. It made him smile. And the more pages he passed, the more familiar faces he saw. Some from people they had met in their travels, some from the other members of the crew. A woman that looked a lot like Saki, but definitely wasn't her. There was one of Penguin and Shachi hanging out in Niva's inn. One of Mack sharpening knives with a keen eye. He saw himself leaning against one of the palm trees of Amazon Lily.

"I don't remember seeing you drawing these."

"I know your faces, I don't need to stare at you to draw you," she retorted, embarrassed, and still without looking at him, extended an arm towards him and made a grabby hand. "Give it back."

"What if I don't want to?"

She turned around immediately. "Law!"

But he was already handing it back, proud to have gotten a rise out of her. "You have a rare talent."

She sounded almost shy when she replied to the compliment. "Thanks." And then she went back to normal. "I know."

He laughed a bit at that, but it was cut short when he noticed that Saki was looking down at the docks. "Someone's coming. I think it's her."

"Let me handle it."

"Do you want me to go inside?"

He thought about Marina's warning, still in the air. If she had anything to say about Saki, he'd rather she was there to hear it in person. "No, you probably want to stay."

He could sense some confusion coming from her, but she didn't question him.

Marina walked to the edge of the dock and eyed the gangplank with mistrust, and while Law wouldn't know if it was bravery or recklessness what made her do it, she walked up until she was standing on the main deck.

"My subordinates have orders to ignore you," Marina said. "If anybody asks, we haven't seen you."

Law took out a small pouch from his pocket and handed it to her. "These are labeled samples from the infected patient and from someone else that may be developing the illness."

Her brow furrowed as she took it. "Is it spreading?"

"It's too soon to know. I suspect mosquitoes may be the vector."

She nodded in understanding. "Very well. I'll report back once I have something." She looked at Saki, who was a couple steps behind him. "I see she's here."

"Is that a problem?"

"No, of course not."

"What's going on?" Saki asked stepping forward a little.

"We know who you are," Marina said, point blank. "That's why your bounty went up to seventy million for no apparent reason."

Saki's grip on the sketchbook tightened, but she didn't say anything.

Law wasn't sure anymore that he had done the right thing, telling her to stay. He tried to divert Marina's attention from her. "What do you mean, who she is?"

"You don't need to play dumb. We investigated her past and family connections after you crashed into the base. The government knows her mother was one of Ohara's devils."

"My mother was a good person!" She snapped. "She didn't harm anybody!"

Law felt like he had to tell her to calm down, but couldn't bring himself to. Saki's knuckles were white, and he wouldn't have put it past her to punch Marina in the face if she said the wrong thing again.

But surprisingly, she didn't.

"I agree," Marina said, "I looked into her as well. Why she was arrested, I don't know. I don't make the rules. And that's why I want to warn you. Cipher Pol is going to be after you, and will do anything to get to you."

"Why?" Law asked. "She has nothing to do with her mother's research. I'm sure you also were able to dig up as much."

"For whatever reason, the World Government is adamant about erasing all the bloodlines from Ohara," Marina explained. Law had the impression that she didn't like much what she was saying. "You've been lucky so far – between the incident at Enies Lobby, the preparations for the war, and the aftermath, the intelligence agencies have been too busy to do anything about you. But soon the dust will settle."

"Why are you telling us this?" Saki asked, though Law already had a pretty good idea of her reasons.

"Because my brother's sailing with you, and as long as you're in this crew, you pose the biggest danger to him in this sea."

Saki stayed unnaturally silent after that, Law felt like he had heard enough. "Thanks for the warning. We'll keep it in mind."

Marina shook her head, but didn't insist. "Good luck with your patients."

She left as quietly as she had arrived, and Saki watched her go until she disappeared down the street. She was expressionless, a far cry from when she had come out to the deck a few minutes earlier, and an old reminder from when they had first met and didn't know how to be open with each other.

But Law didn't need to see anything else to know what she was thinking. "No."

There was no outward reaction. "But…"

"You aren't leaving this crew, no matter what. Understood?"

Her blank expression cracked, and she shut her eyes very tightly and nodded, and Law realized he had probably screwed up when he decided to give her a reassuring pat in the back then, because she started wiping off tears with her sleeves like there was no tomorrow.

"Um," he started, at a complete loss, "don't worry, we—"

"I'm fine," she said forcefully. "I'm fine."

Law felt like a loser to have the crying girl reassuring him. He was fairly sure the script wasn't supposed to go like this.

"I've had an idea for a while," he said, still patting her back awkwardly. "I wasn't counting on this, but it could save us the trouble, too. I've talked about it with Bepo a couple times and he thinks it's a good idea, because it'll make travel much safer—"

Saki sniffled. "You're rambling."

She was also smiling. That was good. He'd take her laughing at him if it made her feel better.

"I'm rambling." He took a deep breath, smiling back just a smidgen. "Will you keep me a secret too?"

She looked calmer now. "That goes without asking."

"I've been thinking about becoming a Shichibukai."

Saki stared at him like she hadn't heard him right, and after a few seconds her mouth fell open. He thought that was going to be all when she smiled again and laughed nervously. "You're insane."

"I'll take that as approval."

"How do you go about that? You're going to send the government a polite request?"

"You're not too far off the mark."

"Okay," she said flippantly, not bothering to hold back an incredulous smile. "Whatever you say. I'll go along with it. Has worked for me so far."

"Good. You can stop worrying about it then. You're here to stay."

Her expression changed into something softer. "I'll have to trust you on that, too."

And though he would never dare to say it, Law thought he'd be damned if he let anybody else vanish in front of his eyes. He had already lost too much, and he would do anything to preserve what he already had, no matter the cost. It was the least he could do, for himself, his friends, and those that were already gone.