"Right! Of course! We can't just stand here, we have to hurry!" Chopper rapidly took charge, asking him to pick Sanji up – carefully – and move him into the kitchen. Luffy was sent to get one of the mattresses, and Robin heaved up blankets and comforters from the girls' quarters with a long chain of hands while keeping the door as tightly closed as possible. Usopp helped Nami with the tiller, trying to keep the ship sailing smoothly through the storm, which left Zoro holding Sanji. He knelt down so that Chopper could reach. The doctor's small hoofs carefully prodded the limp body, using a stethoscope and thermometer and checking Sanji's eyes seemingly all at once, so fast did he work.

"Zoro," the reindeer asked, sounding both determined and apprehensive, "what happened to him?"

While Zoro gave the doctor the short version, which took a while, Chopper directed the work in the kitchen. The stove was, water heated, the mattress arranged with blankets and put as close to the fire as possible, between the stove and the table.

With the bustle around him, Zoro finally started relaxing. He felt exhausted, far more than this day warranted. Sure, the island had been a pain, but nobody had tried to kill him – he was not going to count the furry armored pigs. He refused to. But he could still feel that fatigue in every muscle that only came after he pushed himself to his limits.

After he finished explaining what he hoped were the full extent of Sanji's injuries – he might have missed something – Chopper boggled at him.

"What?" he asked the doctor.

"Wow. Sanji is really strong to survive all that!"

Zoro wanted to object that, no, Sanji was really dumb to get into all that, and really lucky to survive, but looking down at the cook's pale face and the doctor's wide, shining eyes, something stopped him.

"Yeah," he only said. "He is."

"Of course he is!" A dripping Luffy plopped down next to them, studying Sanji's still form. "Chopper, how do we fix him?"

The others were uncharacteristically quiet, going about their assigned tasks, their focus obviously intent on the little group in the center of the room.

"Oh! Yes - I know what to do, it's good, I'll make medicine for him. But first… he's very cold." Chopper's voice wavered a little. "His heart is really slow, and… it could stop. If he doesn't get warm, but not too fast, just… carefully." Zoro remembered Chopper's island, how cold it had been, and imagined that this was not just something the reindeer knew from his textbooks.

Luffy tilted his head, obviously waiting for more. Chopper drew himself up to his full height – or as full as it got in his regular form – and very firmly went on.

"Right. First he needs dry clothes. Robin, maybe you could find them for him?" She nodded, and moved silently from her place at the table to head to the men's quarters. "Then we need to put him there, where it's warm." Chopper pointed to the mattress. Luffy quickly picked Sanji up from Zoro's arms, carrying him over to the indicated spot as if he didn't weigh anything at all. "He's been cold so long, we can't make him too hot all at once."

The doctor then turned to Zoro. "And you!"

"Me?"

"Yes! Zoro, you're bleeding!"

"Oh, that." Zoro looked down at himself, finally somewhere where he had enough time and light to fully assess the damage done by the diving and swimming and landslide. There was no doubt about it. He was definitely bleeding, and his shirt was ruined. But it was just scrapes and bruises, nothing to worry about.

"It's not 'oh that'! You're hurt! Take off your shirt."

"But…"

"Now!"

Luffy snickered. Nami mumbled something about men and idiots.

"Fine." Zoro pulled his soaked shirt off, accepting the towel Robin had just returned with.

While he dried himself off, getting the towel covered in blood and mud, Chopper got Sanji as dry as he could with Luffy's help. Robin showed even more ways her powers could come in handy when they had to get the unconscious cook into the dry clothes.

Zoro looked over to where Nami and Usopp were struggling with the helm. Nami was staring intently ahead, relaying short commands to Usopp. Together they did their best to control the heaving ship. A thought struck him, and he asked. "How'd you find us anyway?" He had seen the light, and hadn't it been coming from the crow's nest? Which was where Usopp climbed down from right after they landed. So the sniper probably had something to do with that.

His hunch proved correct. Usopp struck a pose as best as he could while still handling the ship. "With my Usopp Emergency Beacon that I made!" Then he must have felt the glare that Nami was aiming at him, because he hastened to add, "And Nami, she said it would be fastest to search like that." He started on a tale about meeting a giant with a lighthouse, but then the ship tilted, and both he and Nami were forced to grab the tiller and fight the waves again. Zoro was just about to offer to help them when Chopper got his attention again.

"Come here," Chopper ordered, all doctoral efficiency. Sanji was arranged under the blankets now, looking at least as pale the sheets he lay on in the flickering light from the stove's fire. Zoro noticed the worst of the cook's scrapes and burns had already been treated with some kind of aromatic salve, and a bandage was wrapped around his head.

Zoro obediently sat down where the reindeer could reach him. With the same impressive speed he had shown when diagnosing Sanji, the doctor bandaged his torso. "Just so you don't bleed everywhere," Chopper clarified when he was done with the simple procedure. "I'll clean them out later, but you'll be fine for now. Right now you have to help."

"Help?"

"Luffy, you'll help too?"

"Of course!"

"Sanji needs more heat," Chopper explained. "He's getting more stable, because he's strong, but I want him to wake up so… so he can get medicine."

"And supper! I bet he's hungry."

Luffy's enthusiasm was infectious. "Yeah! Supper!" Chopper chorused, then caught himself. "No! Not now – you have to warm him up first." Luffy pouted a bit, but didn't argue the point, strangely distracted by his cook's unresponsive state. "If you stay with him under the blankets, that's good. One on each side, it will be warm enough, and not too fast, and I can go make something for when he wakes up."

Luffy readily agreed, and was about to slip under the covers when Chopper started. "Oh, no! You're wet!"

"Here, Doctor." Robin offered him a pile of dry clothes. She had brought more than just Sanji's outfit back from the men's quarters. "I thought you might want those."

Meanwhile, Zoro was trying to convince himself that this was not the dumbest thing he had ever heard. Acting as a human hot water bottle? That was what Chopper wanted his help with, when there was a storm outside and Sanji was clearly breathing and everything? Because he was, wasn't he?

Zoro distractedly accepted the dry change of clothes as he leaned over to check. He couldn't be sure until he was practically leaning on the supine body. Maybe keeping an eye on the cook wouldn't be so bad. Not after all the trouble he had gone through to get his charge this far in one piece. Besides, it would be dry, and warm, and neither of those things sounded too bad. Maybe he could even nap for a bit. That was probably exactly what he needed.

Zoro and Luffy were both mostly dry when they took the places Chopper had directed them to. The rolling motions of the waves made it hard to lie still, Zoro discovered. Luffy clung to Sanji's body with a yelp. "Cold!"

Well, that was definitely true. It was also only to be expected, and easy to disregard as he turned, slinging one arm over the frozen cook. He could feel the faint but regular heartbeats reverberating through the slender chest. Thus anchored, he let himself relax further. It wasn't bad, warm and cozy except for the big chunk of ice cold Sanji under the blankets with him.

As soon as he closed his eyes, he started drifting off. The familiar noises of creaking wood and voices all around him, the steady rhythm of the heartbeat so close to him, the dull ache in strained muscles – it all made him so comfortably sleepy. There was nothing more he could do now. His nakama were here, he had found Chopper. Everything would be all right. With that last thought, he let go of wakefulness, and slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When Zoro awoke some indeterminable amount of time later, the ship was much more stiller and quieter. All around him the atmosphere was what he had come to expect after a storm – deep exhaustion laced with triumph at having once again conquered the waves. He shared that feeling in some vague way, even though he had apparently slept through the worst. Hushed voices somewhere close told him that the rest of the crew were not asleep yet, but were probably gathered around the table right by the mattress.

That didn't explain what had woken him up. The poke at his head did, though. "Oi Zoro. Wake up, Zoro." Zoro looked up to find the little doctor at his head, his hoof ready for another poke.

"Eh? What do you want?"

"Good! You're awake."

Zoro grunted his assent to that. On the other side of the mattress, Luffy was stretching and rubbing his eyes. Sanji was still asleep, but his body felt warmer. If he turned his head, he could just see three pairs of feet under the table. Chopper turned his back on the mattress, getting something from the closest bench.

"I just finished this. It's medicine." The doctor held a cup, but from his position that was all Zoro could make out of it, other than that it had a faint bittersweet smell. "We have to wake Sanji up, and make him drink it, as much as possible."

Luffy's hands snatched the cup from the reindeer, and the captain sniffed the contents with a curious look. "What is it?"

"Don't drink it!" Chopper snapped, and right in time. The cup was already halfway to Luffy's lips.

"Aww, I just want to taste it!"

"No! It's bad for you!"

"You want to give Sanji something bad?" The dark head cocked quizzically.

"No!" Chopper's arms were flailing, and Zoro reached over to claim the cup from his hungry captain while the two of them sorted this out. The china was slightly warm to the touch. His nose wrinkled as he took a deeper whiff of its contents. Not something he would have wanted to taste, but then again he didn't have Luffy's appetite.

"It's just bad for you, you're not sick!" Chopper could probably see Luffy was not exactly following his reasoning, for he ended the discussion firmly. "I'm the doctor."

"Yup," Luffy agreed amiably. "The best doctor."

"Good! So do as I say, moron!" Chopper was trying not to split his face grinning as he basked in the warm glow of Luffy's compliment.

"Okay. Sanji's gotta drink that stuff, and we don't. I got it!"

"You and Zoro can take care of that, right? I have to go make something for his eyes too."

A voice from the table interjected a question at that. "Hey, Chopper? How… how is he doing with that? His eyes?" Nami was subdued, clearly worried. Zoro could understand why. When she had left them, Sanji had still been perfectly fine except for a few minor burns, and that problem with his eyes. He was a bit worse now, but no word on whether or not the blindness had passed. Zoro had told Chopper he thought it hadn't, but with all the other things going on at the time it had been a bit hard to tell.

Chopper hesitated before answering. "I… I don't know. I can't tell before he wakes up." The reindeer scowled at the floor from under the rim of his pink hat. "But I'll make something great for him, and… and he should recover."

"Hey, Chopper." Luffy's voice was quiet, but filled the room in a way that commanded immediate attention. "We'll take care of him here. You make him medicine, and I know he'll be fine. He's strong, that guy."

The little doctor listened raptly, and nodded with newfound determination. "Yes! He's strong, I know. He'll be fine."

Luffy smiled, as if the doctor's response had been an affirmation of already established good news. "Great!"

Zoro just sat up, the cup of medicine in one hand, and set about making sure Luffy's conviction and his doctor's words would become reality.

To be continued.

Almost finished now! It's been great fun having so many of you come here and let me know what you think - I appreciate each and every comment I've gotten. (LittleShadow - you're a great reviewer! And Lady K, not writing is punishing me!) I'm really thrilled that this fic has been enjoyed by more than just its intended audience of one.