Chapter 8: Preparations

"Do something, damn it! It's still way too early!" Sanji yelled at the small reindeer, silent tears rushing from his eyes.

Chopper squirmed.

"I… I'm trying… I'm trying…"

On the small bed in front of them lay their navigator. The redhead was cringing in pain, clutching her stomach tighter with each contraction that shook her small body. The sheets around her abdomen were tinted crimson red.

"I wanna go see Nami!" Luffy's voice sounded from the door. "I wanna help her!"

"Just stay where you are, damn it", Zoro barked, "That's the best way to help her!"

The swordsman slammed the door shut behind him and quickly walked over to the bed, balancing a huge bowl of fresh water.

"Just put it over there. T-Thanks…" Chopper stuttered, already dabbing a wrinkled cloth in the cold liquid and gently placing it on Nami's forehead.

She was panting heavily, sweating all over. When another contraction hit her, she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Sanji scowled. The pain she was enduring right now had to be so much more intense than anything he had ever felt. It made all of his insides turn to see his beloved redhead like this and not even being able to help her the slightest bit.

"Just hold on there, Nami-san. It'll be all right…" he pressed out through gritted teeth, lightly touching the navigator's shoulder.

Yet she showed absolutely no reaction to his touch whatsoever. She had gone into a high fever two hours ago, and around the same time the contractions had started. At the beginning, Nami had still noticed most that happened around her; the panicky look on her face had burnt itself deeply into Sanji's mind. Yet she had gradually drifted off into a trancelike state, only screaming and shaking in pain.

Chopper scampered around the bed, checking Nami's vital status with a worried look on his face to then return to the foot of the bed and once more inspect her abdomen.

"What is it, Chopper?" Sanji questioned, noticing the torn look on the small reindeer's face.

The little one simply shook his head and gazed down for a minute.

"It… it doesn't look good…", he stuttered, and hesitantly added: "I'm… I'm afraid…"

A bone-shattering scream suddenly erupted from Nami's throat as another contraction struck her and sent rivers of blood gushing out of her.

"What the…", Sanji gaped at the new pool of red liquid forming around the navigator.

Chopper carefully took a small white towel and, lifting Nami's long shirt, exposed a small, pink, blood-stained bundle and gently wrapped it in the soft fabric. The navigator was whimpering, tears freely flowing down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry…" the little one whispered, holding the small bundle tightly in his short arms.

"What the…", Sanji yelled in a daze. His mind seemed to have blanked out. "Somebody do something!"

"It's too late…", Zoro said lowly, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall. "There's nothing anybody could do about it now…"

"Shit…", the blond cook spat, looking over at his Nami-san.

The tears were still flowing from her closed eyes.

She would not look.

As long as she had not seen it, there was still the possibility to deny…

She awoke with a start.

So it had all just been a dream.

With a relieved sigh, Nami attempted to sit up, only to be stopped by a stinging pain running through her stomach. She carefully brought a hand to it and rubbed it lightly.

Was it just her imagination or had it really been bigger before? Faking a smile on her worried face, she slowly shook her head. It had to be just her imagination.

"Nami! You finally woke up…" the little reindeer had entered without her noticing and was now smiling at her comfortingly. He scurried over to her bed and nervously looked at her after checking her pulse and temperature.

"Y-You know, N-Nami, i-if you want to talk… We all… we all want to help you through this…" he stuttered, his gaze alternating between her face and the wooden floor.

Nami frowned. What could he possibly be talking about? It had all just been a dream, hadn't it?

"Help me…through what?" she asked tentatively.

Chopper sadly shook his head. She must have gone into a state of denial. It was typical for what she had been through, and still, it made things so much worse.

"You… you know, the… baby…" he stuttered once more. As he registered Nami's uncomprehending look, he added: "We're all… so sorry… I'm sorry… I wish… I could have done more…"

Nami closed her eyes at the bitter truth. It had not been a dream after all, then. There was no use in denying what had proven to be true, no matter how much it hurt.

"…Chopper?" Nami asked, opening her eyes and looking at her small nakama with a pleading look. There was no need to voice her question. He understood. Even without words.

"A… a girl… It was a beautiful little girl…" he whispered.

Nami gasped as she opened her eyes. Her whole body was covered in cold sweat; even the bed sheets felt damp.

Her eyes stung. From crying herself the night before, she figured. They had to be crimson red and puffy, she thought to herself. With a shaky hand, she rubbed her stomach, driving away a small, stinging sensation.

Her mind had to be playing tricks on her again, she thought, as she felt the size of her abdomen. Things like these happened when patients went into denial; she had heard Chopper talk of this before. The brain played tricks, made that person believe things her or she subconsciously wished for in order to avoid the hurtful truth.

A single tear escaped from her eye and ran down her cheek. It felt like it was the only left after what would be the first in a row of long, sleepless nights of mourning.

Quietly, slowly, the door opened, and the ship's cook entered, a mug of hot, steaming cocoa in his hand. As his gaze fell upon his beloved navigator, registering that she had awoken, a relieved smile grew on his face.

"Ah, Nami-san, you finally woke up!" he gracefully walked over to her bed and placed the mug on her bedside table.

Nami forced a smile and quickly wiped away the tears. He did not have to know.

"You had all of us pretty worried", Sanji stated, showing a hint of sadness, yet as soon as it had appeared on his face, it was wiped away by a gentle smile. "So how are you feeling now?"

Nami blinked at him. How come he seemed to carefree and cheerful despite what had happened?

"I… I'm okay, I guess…", she replied, still somewhat confused.

Sanji beamed at her.

"I'm glad to hear that, Nami-san. Chopper really did his best, I've never seen him that concentrated ever before. It is all thanks to him that the little one's still all right."

Nami blinked once more. All right? Just what was he talking about? It could not possibly have been a dream again, could it? It all had seemed so real.

"Ano… Sanji-kun… what do you mean 'the little one's all right'?" she asked, hopefully.

Now it was Sanji's turn to look a the redhead confusedly.

"Why, of course that the baby is doing fine", he explained, looking at his nakama. "During that fight, you must have somehow collapsed: your circulation was completely shut down, your blood pressure basically non-existent. If Chopper had not been able to get you back 'up' that quickly, we would have been in some serious trouble!"

Nami's brain was still digesting the new information. Could it really be?

"So… so the baby is okay?" she inquired once more. She just had to make sure.

"Yes, of course it is", Sanji answered, eyeing her expression curiously.

With a sigh, the redhead sunk back onto the mattress and closed her eyes. If it had all just been a dream, and everything seemed to be just fine, then how could it still hurt so much, twist her insides, pierce her heart like a burning hot knife?

"Is anything wrong, Nami-san?" the cook asked worriedly, carefully bending over the bed.

The young woman sighed once more and opened her eyes to stare at the ceiling.

"I… I just had a nightmare, that's all…"

Sanji quietly sank down onto the chair next to the bed and ran a hand through his blond hair.

"It seems to be bothering you…" he tried gently.

Nami slowly shook her head and closer her eyes again.

"N…no I'm okay… It was just a dream…"

"Nami-san…", Sanji started, his voice slightly trailing off. Worry was etched into its every tone, "I told you I would be there for you and try to help you in any way I could… It is not good for you to keep worrying. … And not for the baby, either…"

Nami sighed heavily, pushing herself in a sitting position and stared on her swollen stomach.

"It just felt so real…" she started. It had never been easy for her to voice her feelings in front of others. She had spent most of her time by herself; and her feelings had been the least thing she had been able to worry about…

Sanji well understood this. He knew that she continue when she had gathered the strength. So he simply leaned back in his chair, upholding the small silence.

"I… I lost the baby…", she started and pressed her eyes shut, trying to keep the threatening tears from flowing. "In… in my dream, after that fight… I guess somehow, the contractions started…" she paused for a moment to recuperate, "It was still… too early for the baby…" She swallowed upon the last words.

The blond cook bent forward and, running a hand through his hair, closed his eyes. Even though he had never been in a similar situation before, he could well imagine the pain that this silly little illusion had caused her.

"It… it was a girl… Sanji-kun…", Nami said suddenly, looking at him, tears now running freely from her usually sparkling eyes.

The pain in her gaze pierced itself deep into his heart. She did not deserve this. His Nami-san had done nothing to deserve feeling pain as strong as this. She had been through even horrible things.

Taking up all his courage, he did the only thing that felt completely natural to him. And even if she would smack him, scold him, hate him; nobody and nothing could have kept him from it.

Sanji leaned forward over the bed, enclosed his red-haired nakama in his arms and softly pushed her into his chest. Despite his expectations, the navigator showed no signs of objection. She gave in instantly, silently crying into his light blue shirt.

He gently hushed her, running his slender hand through her fiery hair.

"Shhh… It's all right…", he whispered softly, "Everything will be okay, I promise…"

Nami yawned as she slowly pushed herself out of bed.

She had promised Chopper to get some rest to let her tired body regain strength after all the recent stress and had thus been sleeping until far after lunch already. This time however, luckily, there had been no nightmares to haunt her sleep. It had been nothing but pure relaxation. Yet a bitter aftertaste still remained. She could not quite put her finger on it, but something felt distinctly different than before.

Yet she decided to shrug it off for the time being and quietly made her way to the kitchen. Her stomach was complaining loudly, even though Sanji had provided her with a delicious breakfast a few hours ago.

Upon entering the kitchen, the navigator was welcomed by various noises.

Luffy, her captain, was begging Sanji for snacks, using his most whiny tone of voice and the closest thing to puppy dog eyes Nami had ever seen. At the table sat Zoro, quietly cleaning his katana.

Noticing her, he acknowledged her with a nod, raised his hand.

"Oi, Nami… Finally up, eh?" Once said, he returned to his work.

Nami decided to simply ignore his remark and was about to talk over to the table when Usopp finally realized her arrival and jerked up with a shocked face.

"O…oi, Nami…" he stuttered, quickly shoving away some of his tools. From what she had been able to see, he had been working on some wooden tools. His reaction did seem a bit exaggerated; yet this was Usopp she was talking about.

"Naaaami-san!", Sanji beamed as he noticed her, drawing her attention from the marksman. " Did you have a sleep?" he asked in his known gentlemanly manner and offered her a seat.

She took it gratefully and carefully smiled at him in return.

"Ya, I did, thank you, Sanji-kun", she nodded.

At this, Zoro glanced over at the two of them, slowly raising an eyebrow and awarded the scene with a low "Keh…"

"How are you feeling, Nami?" Chopper asked as he had walked over from Usopp's little workshop to the table. "A-are you sure you got enough rest?"

The little one was so concerned about her health that the navigator just could not suppress a small chuckle.

"Yes, I'm sure, Chopper", she said reassuringly, "I'm perfectly fine. Just a little hungry:" she added with a quick glance at Sanji who had already prepared her a small plate of various types of snacks.

"Here you are, Nami-san", he beamed once again, happy to be able to be of service to his beloved redhead.

"Thank you, Sanji-kun", Nami thanked happily, helping herself to a piece of tasty-looking watermelon.

"Oooooooooh Snaaaaaaaacks!" Luffy exclaimed happily and stretched out his arm, reaching for Nami's plate.

Yet as soon as his hand had touched the china, another hand rather cruelly met his cheek.

"Keep your rubbery fingers away from my plate, or else…", the navigator glared at him threateningly.

Luffy ducked instinctively, rubbing his cheek. He knew this look; and it never meant food.

"… Stingy…", he muttered, pursing his lips.

"Never mind that, Luffy", Zoro stated plainly without even looking at his captain, still working on his katana. "Those are just mood swings… from all those hormones and stuff."

"Eh? Horn cones? Can you eat that, Zoro?" Luffy asked, curiously eyeing his first mate. Yet before said swordsman could answer, a low voice reached to his ears, promising pain, or rather, a slow, painful death.

"Zoro…" Nami's eyes had turned into slits as she glared at the green haired man.

Uh oh, not good… He swallowed hard, slowly turning his gaze to his female nakama.

"Say that again and I'll show what those hormones can do!" she thundered in a voice that no longer seemed to be of earthly origin.

While Sanji observed the scene with a huge grin on his face, Zoro calmly resumed his work, hoping her good mood would return as soon as it had vanished. But still… how hard it could be to keep your hands from trembling…

"Ooooh Sanji-kun, this chocolate is delicious!" Nami exclaimed with a pleasant smile.

Yet it could be not competition to the radiance of Sanji's grin.

"I'm soooooo glad you like it, Nami-san", he twitted, his brain shutting down into love mode, "I got it just for my beautiful goddess! Only the most exquisite deserts are worthy of become her food!"

The swordsman quietly rolled his eyes at the cook. Why couldn't he just stop it for once…

"Ano… did you know", the marksman suddenly spoke up, gaining his nakama's attention, "that women who crave lots of chocolate during the pregnancy always give birth to girls?"

This rewarded him a round of questioning frowns.

"Ah come on, Usopp", Sanji said, rubbing his temples, "that's just an urban legend."

"No, no it's not!" Usopp insisted, "Back in my village, there was this pregnant lady that would eat 10 pounds of chocolate every day; and in the end she had three girls!"

"Wooooooaaaah really?" Chopper and Luffy chanted in unison. They were simply fascinated with Usopp's great discovery.

"Idiots…", Zoro said calmly, scowling at his easily influenced captain and doctor. If Usopp told them that the moon was a huge piece of cheese a giant had lost while traveling to a sky island, they would believe it instantly. And he was afraid that Luffy would even set out for an adventure to the sky, exclaiming he would be the one to find the most gigantic cheese ever… "Something like that could not possibly make a difference."

"Ya, but still", Nami suddenly spoke up with a distant look in her eyes "I think it's a girl."

Now it was Nami who had everybody frown at her. Everybody but Sanji, who smiled knowingly.

"How do you know?" Zoro asked, eyebrows raised, looking over at her questioningly.

"I don't know", Nami grinned and shrugged, "just a hunch, I guess."

"Ano, Nami…" Chopper said, standing up on his chair.

Said navigator looked at him, while helping herself to another small piece of peppermint chocolate.

"Hm?"

"Do… do you have any names yet?" he asked hesitantly, "It's not that long anymore."

"Hmm…", Nami started thoughtfully, but shook her head after a few moments, "No, not really…" she trailed off and looked at her nakama. "But I guess Chopper's right, we should start and try to think of one soon."

Sanji nodded in agreement, stretching his back.

"It wouldn't hurt to start making preparations", he stated "We should decide on an island to anchor at when the time comes; and there are many other things that still have to be taken care of."

The crew nodded in agreement.

"Yosh!" Luffy suddenly exclaimed in his ever present enthusiasm. "I'm your captain! Everybody start preparing right now!"

"Baka", Zoro muttered through gritted teeth and gave the rubber boy a good smack upside the head. "Keep it down already. There's no need to rush."

Luffy once more pursed his lips and pouted at his first mate.

"Zoro… you're mean…" the boy whined.

The veins in Zoro's head throbbed madly as his nakama broke out into laughter.

"Ack… just what have I done to deserve this…", he thought to himself, sighing inwardly. "Sometimes I really think I joined the wrong crew…", he added with a twisted grin as he joined in the happy laughter.

It had turned fairly cold over the past few days. And from the huge clouds that hung overhead, snow could start to fall any time – a prospect at which the small ship's captain developed a distant, dream look on his face, and started to mutter under his breath in a sing-song voice.

Nami sighed quietly, her warm breath visible in the chilly air. She looked at her Log Pose once more to confirm the Merry's position and wrapped her scarf tighter around her neck and chin. Yet looking at the sight a few feet away from her was what made her freeze even more than the chilly air.

"Geez, Zoro… Aren't you cold?" she asked incredulously.

"Eh?" the swordsman gazed at her quickly and then returned to his single-fingered pushups. "Why should I be?"

"Well… maybe because it is freezing cold and you're not even wearing a shirt?"

Zoro grunted, then smirked. "Shirts are for little girls. A swordsman cannot stop to care about such trivial things as the weather."

Nami rolled her eyes. There it was again: manly pride. Even if his limbs froze off, he would never admit that he felt cold. She had tried to understand it, this monster men – and especially this certain swordsman - called 'pride' or 'honor'; but in the end, she had come to the same conclusion that she had suspected from the very beginning. It was stubbornness. Pure, rock-hard, illogical stubbornness.

That, of course, was something he would never admit either, for it would go against his pride, meaning he was too stubborn.

Oh well, a vicious circle… Nami thought to herself, grinning.

Yet the grin was instantly wiped from her face as a sharp, piercing pan ran through her whole lower body, making her bite her lips to keep from screaming.

This was no good…

She brought her shaking hands down to her stomach and calmed her breathing.

"Umm… Zoro?"

He grunted and, without looking up or stopping his exercises, asked shortly:

"What is it time?"

Nami exhaled and closed her eyes.

"Could you please get Chopper?"

a/n: Ah, finally done (it's about 1:14am right now). And almost all the chapter written today without a break, too. I'm kinda proud of myself that I did actually keep the update date that I intended. Quite an achievement for a lazy person like me!

Anyway, I really hope you like this chapter. Cruel first paragraph, I know. It basically shows what I intended the ending to be, at first. As you can see I've changed my mind. I just can't bring myself to do something so cruel to our poor straw hat pirates, and to you, of course.

Oh, just a short side note before I get to the individual reviewers:

I finally received an answer from the US university I applied to and was actually accepted. This basically means I will be in the states from January on (for about 6 months), so you can hope for improvements of my English. And thanks to everybody who wished me good luck!

Omnichild: Oh, I'm glad you liked the chapter. This one was quite different, you see. But I'm still hoping it was to your liking! Would you mind to stop poking me now?Oo

CloeyMarie: All that praise.. why.. thank you! My mother tongue is actually German. But I'm constantly trying to improve my English to hopefully reach a near Native Speaker state some day.

Lightning-cloud: Yes, that was definitely Zoro's emotional chapter. But since I'm trying to maintain some sort of balance, there was a bit more Sanji in here. It's not exactly easy to balance between two great guys though..

DangerousandDemonicDevil: As you see, Nami did get better;) And yes, Zoro's jealousy was pretty obvious. Yet he's not the best when it comes to feelings of any kind, so I guess it figures.

Bevin: You're right, the situation is pretty stupid. Since, one way or another, one of them has to lose it all (so to say). Hmm or might there be…?

mushi-azn: You wanted Sanji scenes, right? Here they are! So no need to panic. Btw, I'm not consciously using the Japanese, since I'm actually trying not to use much of it, but it keeps slipping in. I'm sorry, I'll try to keep an eye on it.

Gothywolfie: Naw not time for the baby yet. Gotta give it a bit more time. You'll have to wait another chapter or two.

But true, I have the choice. And if it weren't Nami's, that would be quite a surprise to even me… well… anything is possible in One Piece..

Melinda-chan: Take your time, there's no need to hurry. This fic won't run away any time soon (jeez, how I hate that my smileys are being stripped…)

Illusion Of A Lunatic: Well, was this fast enough to avoid a nervous breakdown? I'm glad you like the chapter! And I'm trying to update as fast as I can (currently I'm trying for one chapter per week)

Namibean: Ah, so you're still with me, too? That's great! Glad you like it (praise from other author does mean a whole lot to me).

Madri: I'm sorry.. I don't accept blackmail money.. Although… Naw..

Vash: Oh, I'm being called a Ms, that's a first! And thanx for the compliment!

Kittie-Nova: Here's your update already, probably earlier than you expected. Hope you'll like it!

And now, it's late. Time to turn off my crazy One Piece music (Usopp&Chopper: Friends the craziest song ever. It rocks!) and watch my daily dose of OP Eps.

Ja na! – See you at the next update!