AN: Ack, sorry for the delay, there's been a lot going on. I hope you are all safe and healthy out there. Enjoy the chap : D

Putting it all Together

Luffy lies flat on the bed with his arms tucked behind his head as Chopper cuts through the bandages wrapped tightly around his torso. The position kind of pulls at the wound but he likes the feeling of fresh air on it after so long being bound up. Even though it kind of stings.

"Luffy, put your arms down." Chopper orders and with a pout the rubber man pulls them down to his sides. The bandages scritch scratch against one another and stick to his skin in some places where the blood dried and hardened. He winces as Chopper tugs some loops free that remain stubbornly caught even after being rubbed at with a damp washcloth.

One thing Luffy has got to say for having a doctor on board- it's gotten a lot easier to go through bandage changes. Nami's great and all, they all take such good care of him (too good, honestly) but Chopper really knows what he's doing and it shows when, in moments like this, all Luffy has to do is lie still and let him work.

"...Are you going to tell me what happened?"

"Huh?" Luffy pulls his gaze away from the ceiling and tilts his head toward where Chopper's bent over his torso, working diligently. It's getting easier to stay still and not pay attention as the heat of the day edges off into the cool desert night air. He's heavy and melty in the satisfaction of a big meal for dinner. Sanji didn't even have to make all of it which was a nice break for him.

"I asked you to please tell me what gave you this wound." Chopper repeats and Luffy hums in acknowledgment.

He'd thought it'd be pretty obvious but maybe not.

"Crocodile did it."

"Okay, but a little more context, Luffy." Chopper sighs. "It helps me treat things properly if I know the nature of the injury." The diminutive doctor explains. "I don't want to have missed anything. What kind of weapon was used, when did it happen, how was it treated? That sort of thing."

"Oh." Usopp and Nami walk in then, laden with books from the library. Nami had insisted that the sniper check out a section devoted to ship repair and Usopp looks ecstatic with arms full of presumably valuable finds. "The first fight, when I let Crocodile grab me off the crab. He fought me for a couple minutes, then got tired of me and stabbed me with his hook."

Chopper's hooves still and the chatter from the pair goes silent. Everyone stares at him like he just told them he's decided to become a marine.

That thought alone makes him burst into laughter and the life is back in the room, if a little bit forced from what it was. Chopper freaks and tells him he can't shake like this with his bandages undone and Nami shakes her head at him like she always does, a fond smile hidden as she turns away.

"What then, Luffy." Chopper asks again when things have calmed down. It feels good, the way the little doctor washes his chest down with a washcloth. It'd all been tightly restrained for what felt like forever and the feeling of clean makes him want to stretch out and breathe and - "Luffy, hold still!"

Ah right. "So then he threw me in quicksand, 'coz he thought I was gonna die anyway- but I didn't!" ("Obviously," Usopp stutters somewhere nearby, going for prideful but coming out anxious). "It took me a couple o' hours and I think I slept for a little bit because when I came out it was night, like, dark night, and I don't think I was climbing out for that long, but anyway I got out but the sand tried to suck me back in! That lady with the turtle, Miss Sundae, right? She pulled me out and asked me about my name. I dunno, I think I was dreaming." he shrugged and Chopper shoots him a glare. Right. Staying still. "Ah… so that falcon guy showed up, Miss Sundae beat him up earlier but he fed me and took me to a doctor." He snickered. "They kind of freaked out about me, but they fixed it up and I got some meat and then falcon flew me across the desert to catch up to you guys!"

He nods with finality because that's how he got the wound they're talking about so there isn't anything else to say and Nami looks a little tired from the story anyway. She does that sometimes but he was hoping she'd stop now that Chopper was doing his bandages instead of her.

"Is that it?" Chopper probed, "It looks like it was irritated further than just a typical fight…"

At that point Sanji strode in with Zoro by the ear, the latter snapping at him irritably.

"Chopper, I found this one training again out in the courtyard, where should I-"

"Oh, that might be because of how I figured out how to hurt Crocodile." Luffy starts, Sanji and Zoro might even like to hear this! Logia devil fruits are gonna be all over the place anyway, he's sure. "See when he stabbed me he went through that barrel of water from the old man in Yuba, got his arm all wet, and then when I grabbed him I could hold him! Before that he just burst into sand whenever I tried anything."

"Uh, just put him in the other bed, Sanji. I'll check his stitches in a second."

"What's going on here, Nami-san?"

"Ah… Luffy's telling Chopper how he got his stab wound."

"So I decided that I had to have water next time, cause water made him solid and stuff." He explains, idly twisting his feet as he stares at the ceiling. Somewhere in there Chopper starts working with the stitches again and swashes alcohol all over the wound. He bites his lip and Zoro swears for gin as Sanji wrestles him down into one of the cots.

"But to make sure he couldn't take it away I swallowed it all. It might've opened the hole a little more when water started leaking out."

"Of your stomach?" Usopp shrieks, incredulous, and Chopper whimpers and pulls away from the wound, like he's scared to touch it.

"Yeah. I guess. But it stopped and I fought him for a little while but even with all the water I couldn't do it right." Luffy clenches his fists and loosens them just as quickly but Chopper doesn't seem to notice. "He used his sand powers to dry out the whole battlefield- me too! But I missed this one time when I was squirting and I guess after he left it all fell back in top of me." He shrugs and then grins at Chopper's panicked demands for cooperation. "Lucky, huh?"

"Yeah. Very lucky." Nami mutters.

"O-Okay," Chopper stutters and he's almost done now, Luffy can tell. "I guess that a leak through the abdominal wall would indeed aggravate the wound. I've never actually read about something like that happening without obvious repercussions…"

"This is only your first adventure with us, Chopper, but you'll learn quick." Nami shook her head as she set her books on her bedside table. "Luffy is a medical phenomenon- no matter what we do."

"Hey, wait-" Usopp cut in and ignored the glare Nami shot him. "If that water, uh, fell back on you? Then why did we have to be there the first night with, like, three gallons of water?"

"Huh?"

"You kept waking up the first night," Sanji explained. "Dehydrated as banana chips. We took shifts with the water."

"Oh. Thanks!"

"There probably wasn't enough water there to completely replenish him." Chopper helped Luffy sit up and motioned for him to raise his arms above his head. "Especially with the poison and the ambient temperature he'd need even more water than usual." He began wrapping Luffy's torso up with a new roll of bandages, obscuring the stitch work he'd just redone with a few layers of white cloth.

"Oh- but I wasn't poisoned yet?"

"Wha- then when did you get poisoned?" Nami snapped. "How many times did you have to fight him?"

"Three!" Luffy gave a resolute nod. "Slippery croc didn't want to stand still and let me beat him up! He kept running while I was down."

"Good thing he did." Zoro muttered but Luffy plowed on.

"After the water fell on me and I wasn't so thirsty anymore I chased him! Some marines told me where he went and I found it- but had to take a nap- but then I went in and found him, and the King and Miss Sundae! They were all talking about this big rock and the tomb was falling apart! Took too long." He grunted as Chopper pulled the bandages tight and tied them off.

"And you got poisoned there." Usopp figured out, to which Luffy nodded. "That'd still be bad after everything that happened. Where'd you get the antidote from?"

"The antidote?" Luffy straightened his arms over his head as Chopper switched to heavy point so that he was tall enough to slide the castle supplied robe over his patient's head.

"Yeah, how'd you get rid of the poison if not with the antidote?" Usopp asked with incredulity.

"I didn't get rid of the poison." Luffy poked his head out of the top of the robe and wrestled his arms out through the long sleeves. "There wasn't time to. Croc was trying to pull the whole cave down on top of us so I had to fix that first."

"How could you do that first?" Nami cut in. "Poison, Luffy. You could've died without the antidote? Try to pay better attention to things like this. Next time you get hurt like that, poisoned, I mean, or some injury that's time related, like, bleeding out or something? Next time try to prioritize getting that fixed before you go around beating people up. Things like that will beat you before the fight's over anyway."

"Poison will sap your strength away." Sanji added in.

"That's why I had to hurry. I was slowing down- but I wasn't gonna stop!" He pumped his fist to show his determination. "Croc thought he could outlast me, the whole fight, every one of them, he was just trying to knock me down. If he did it one more time I wouldn't have gotten back up in time. All the rocks would've caved in and it'd have took me ages to get out of that. Too late to save Vivi's country! I'd rather fight with poison and win than stop to get rid of the poison and lose it for her." He cast a stern gaze over all of them to make sure they were all listening to this part (as though he hadn't held the entirety of each's attention from the moment they walked into the room). "We said we'd save her country, I said she should risk more than herself! Saving her treasure is more important than saving myself so I was prorietizing things right by beating up the sand croc!"

There was a beat of silence. All of them trying to swallow that. Because their captain had pretty much just said that he'd meant what he said about risking more than one life. He'd been absolutely certain of his every action, completely okay with dying right here, just a few islands into the grand line, if that's what it took to save Alabasta for Vivi.

Even though none of them had doubted it, it came as a stern reminder to each of them- just in case they had forgotten.

"In any case, it's pronounced 'prioritizing', Luffy, you're saying it wrong." Nami said and Zoro snorted.

"Does it matter, witch?"

Luffy laughed at them both and Usopp lurched off his perch on the edge of his cot, spreading his arms wide and pronouncing that Luffy reminded him of a brave knight he had heard about when he was young, who would always complete his quests.

"No matter the cost, he fought his way to the end! Knowing that riches and glory awaited."

"I don't want any of that stuff." Luffy put in as he laid back down, tucking his hands behind his head and yawning. "Ahhh just wanna go back to the Merry now."

Usopp changed the tale immediately.

"Knowing that the end of the hard road on which he journeyed there awaited his castle with his friends, waiting loyally to prepare him for his next adventure!"

Luffy fondled that thought for a spare moment as Chopper packed away his supplies and someone blew out the lamp and someone else hissed at Usopp to be quiet. They'd been proving it the entire journey thus far, even if this had been the first time really in practice. He could have taken care of himself before but now, when he hadn't been able to, his crew had watched over him. No matter what he risked, no matter what he spent in a fight, they were always ready to pick up the pieces at the end and put him back together.

AN: Aaaaannnnnd we're done with Alabasta! On to Skypeia : ) Let me know what you think~