Thanks for the reviews everyone! I'm so encouraged when I read them, especially as I'm still uncertain how the story will turn out. Feel free to point out stuff you don't like about the fic too. Thanks once again. :)
A Simple Matter of Faith
"Sanji! Breakfast! Sanji! Breakfast! Now! Now! I want breakfast now!"
Luffy's enthusiastic chant flittered through consciousness and roused him awake. He yawned, clamped his eyes shut and tried to go back to sleep but with the racket going on, it was quite impossible. And it was beginning to slowly dawn on him that breakfast wasn't usually a meal Luffy had to ask for. Sanji was always up before everyone else to see to the morning meal.
"Sanji!" Luffy's voice took on a serious edge all of a sudden, somehow having even more urgency than before. "Hey, Sanji! It's not funny. Wake up!"
Zoro sat up blearily, rubbing sleep from his eyes. "Could'ya keep it down, Luffy? Try'in to sleep."
Their captain was slapping at Sanji's face and shaking his shoulder, looking puzzled but with increasing alarm. "Zoro!" He looked over once he realized his first-mate was awake. "Something's wrong with Sanji! He won't wake up."
The slight apprehension in their normally fearless captain's voice finally triggered him into full wakefulness. He went over and shook the cook roughly. "Oi! Dumbass!"
But Sanji remained silent, his eyes closed, completely unresponsive. He only whimpered softly and tried to curl away when Zoro accidentally brushed against his injured hand.
"See? See?" Luffy poked at the cook's side repeatedly with a finger, as if he needed to provide more evidence for his claim. "He won't wake up."
Zoro frowned. The feverish flush across Sanji's chiseled cheekbones was even more pronounced in the morning light, vivid against the impossible pallor of the rest of his face. A brief touch with his hand against his forehead confirmed his fears.
The stupid cook was burning up.
"Luffy, get Nami. Quick."
Luffy stood staring down at the cook's unconscious face for a moment longer, then he nodded and catapulted out of the room, screaming Nami's name.
Zoro growled, annoyed. "Stupid cook." Slipping an arm beneath the thin shoulders and another under his knees, he lifted the limp form from the hammock and carried his crewmate across the room, dumping him unceremoniously on the couch.
Sanji barely stirred, not even when the voice of his darling Nami-san sounded as she came into the cabin. "What's wrong?" Usopp echoed her question as he followed her in.
He shrugged and knelt down by the couch, taking the cook's arm and pushing back the sleeve to show them. The bandage was still neatly bound but dark stains once again spotted the white linen. "Asshole's been hiding his injury for weeks. Now it's worse."
"A lot worse." He snorted as he worked the bandages loose. The last piece of dressing came free, leaving the wound clear for all to see.
They froze. Usopp gasped and covered his eyes behind his hands, taking an involuntary step back. Nami's face paled and she bit her lip. Only Luffy gave voice to his thoughts.
"Cool! What the heck is that!" He exclaimed, curiously reaching out to poke at the swollen flesh, excited as he always was when he encountered something new and interesting.
"Don't." Nami slapped his inquisitive hand away, suddenly all business-like. She knelt down and took Sanji's arm gently, examining the wound more closely. "It's an infection." She said, her voice tight. "And it's not good."
Zoro had to agree with her on that. If possible, the injury looked even more ghastly than it had last night. The swelling was much worse, stretching the skin taunt and straining the ragged edges of the gash. The colour hadn't improved either, redness giving way to a hideous purple shade.
"Are there other injuries?" She asked without looking up, checking Sanji's temperature and pulse, but she inclined her head towards Zoro so it was clear who she directed the question to. "Is anything else wrong with him?"
The swordsman scowled. Why this woman thought he cared to know anything about the cook was beyond him. He was about to answer when his captain beat him to it.
"Yeah! He won't wake up!" Luffy bounced up and down on his toes impatiently, pouting. "Hurry up and make him better Nami. I'm hungry! I want food! Food!"
"Hey, uh…Luffy." Usopp gripped his shoulder with both hands to stop him, urging him to be quiet. "Now's not such a good time, ok?" He gestured meaningfully towards Nami with his long nose, frowning worriedly.
Luffy blinked and stared at his navigator. She sat completely still on the ground, head bowed so that her face was hidden by the fall of her orange hair. The silence in the room was only disturbed by the harsh sounds of shallow, ragged breathing from the man on the couch.
"Nami?" Luffy must have finally sensed the gravity of the situation, for his voice was quiet.
She nodded but didn't answer him. She didn't look at any of them. Then she took a deep breath and said softly but clearly. "Zoro. Get your sword."
Trained by habit, his hand was already automatically reaching for his weapons by his side, lifting a blade a few inches from the scabbard before he stopped. "Why? What do you want with them?"
She paused, almost as if considering. "You're right. We don't have to use a sword." Her voice trembled. "Usopp? Could you get the meat cleaver from the kitchen? I think Sanji-kun keeps it in the drawer near the stove."
"What!" All three of them cried out in unison, suddenly realizing her intentions.
"Er…Nami…" Usopp found his voice first. "You can't mean to…to…amputate Sanji's arm. I mean…I mean…Think about it!"
"Argh! Nami! You want to chop off Sanji's arm!" Luffy's eyes were round with horror.
She looked up at them abruptly with an angry toss of orange hair. "You think I want to?"
There was pain and regret in her voice but her eyes were fierce and determined. She stood up to face them, her hands clenched into tight fists. "The infection is spreading, poisoning him! It'll kill him if we don't stop it now!"
As to support her point, Sanji moaned and tried to curl around his pain, his thin frame shuddering as a sudden spasm rippled through him.
"Don't you see? We have to cut off his arm before it kills him."
"That's true, but…" Usopp was nodding his head slowly, his face twisted with consternation.
Zoro watched the discussion go on between his crewmates, not really hearing any of it. The world had gone silent.
Nami wants to cut off Sanji's arm. He felt sick.
He knew the reason why the cook fought only with his feet and had often laughed at it. Although he sometimes thought Sanji too prissy about not hurting his hands, he knew how important they were to him. They were the key to his dream, they represented his dream. His dream, the very thing that gave everything he ever did meaning.
To take that away from him…
But without the amputation, he might die.
His dream or his life.
Zoro closed his eyes and drew a deep breath. No one should be made to make that choice other than the cook himself. And it was obvious Sanji was unable to do that at the moment.
Right there and then, Zoro made up his mind.
Have faith…
"We don't know that for sure."
They spun as one to look at him. Zoro nodded resolutely. "We don't know for sure the infection would kill him."
"Are you serious?" Nami cried in exasperation, shaking a finger at Sanji's comatose form. "Look at him! His fever is so high, he's slipped into unconsciousness. Any more of this, he'll die! What more proof do you need?"
"He'll get better. We've got to give him a chance!" Zoro glared at the navigator. "He'll fight this infection off and get better."
"Well, you can't know that for sure either."
"He'll get better." He repeated. "I trust him."
And he was surprised that he really meant it. Although he habitually scorned at Sanji's weaknesses, he recognized his strengths too. The stupid cook was too damn proud to be defeated by a mere infection.
At the very least, he believed this about his crewmate. He had to.
Nami gritted her teeth like she was at the end of her patience. She shot the others a glare. "Talk some sense into him."
Usopp gulped and fingered his nose nervously. "You know, Nami…Zoro may be right. But of course you may be right too…"
She let out a low exasperated growl and took half a step towards the couch.
He hardly knew what he was doing. The metallic ring of his sword leaving its sheath was loud in the small cabin. "You are not touching him."
Nami stared at the slender white katana pointed at her in disbelief. Then, her face twisted into a mask of outrage. "Luffy!"
Their captain did not answer, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with her. In fact, he gave no indication he heard her at all. He had taken off his straw hat and held it tightly between his hands, staring at it absently with the strange faraway look he sometimes had in his eyes.
"Fine!" She exploded, storming towards the door. "But I tell you," She leveled an accusing finger at Zoro. "You're letting him die!" And with that, she slammed the door and was gone.
Zoro turned to Usopp. He must have looked terribly intimidating for the sharpshooter took one look at the sword still held in his hand and backed towards the door, laughing that strained laugh of his. "Go…go ahead, Zoro. I know you're right."
The room was deathly silent after Usopp left. He hesitated, still gripping his katana, and cast an uncertain sideway glance at Luffy. It was one thing to point his sword at his crewmates, and another to point it at Luffy.
It was mutiny to raise a weapon against the captain.
"Zoro." Luffy's voice was quiet, a somber tone he rarely used.
"Yeah?"
"We're risking a lot, aren't we?" He was strangely thoughtful, the dilemma of the situation showed plainly in his dark eyes, as surely as it waged war in his Zoro's own mind.
His dream or his life…
"Yes, yes we are."
"Promise Sanji won't die?"
He sighed. "He won't, I promise." The alternative was too terrible to contemplate.
Luffy nodded, then pulled the straw hat firmly over his head and flashed his first-mate his trademark confident grin. "Then make him better, ya?" It was as if the seriousness had never been.
He groaned. "It's not so easy, Luffy…"
"It can be done." He smiled, still jovial but with a hint of the earlier seriousness which showed his unspoken support for Zoro's decision. "I trust you."
Trust never felt this much a burden. But he found himself nodding and smiled back.
"Hey, do you think limes will help?" Luffy asked suddenly.
"Limes?"
"Yeah! Like that time with Yosaku." He beamed excitedly. "It made him better!"
"Uh, I don't think…"
"I'll go find some!"
"Wait! Luffy!"
But his captain was already bouncing out of the cabin, on a headlong rush to the storage room, crashing noisily into things along the way with that single-minded blindness that always seemed to strike him whenever he was seized up by an idea.
Zoro sighed and pressed a hand over his eyes. He could feel a headache coming. He turned and frown at the figure lying unconscious on the couch.
"Look what you got me into, you bastard."