I'm back chasing impulsive commas and grammar gone wild… Hope you're still with me!

Here goes chapter 2! :-)

It was nearly dawn when Savenna was rushed to the hospital. The family coach was abandoned at the gate, and the maddened expression on her father's face was enough to make the night nurses to make way as he carried his daughter down the shadowy corridor.

Savenna's mother couldn't understand what came over him when Madgalena clambered downstairs waking everyone in the house just to tell them about a spot on her daughter's skin. There was no calming him down. "How long has she had this?" he inquired through gritted teeth.

"I don't know, Maddy usually takes care of these things."

"You are her mother, for Roger's sake! How could you have missed it?"

"You're overreacting. She was fine just a few hours ago. I bet it's just a birthmark..."

"You have no idea what this is!"

She didn't and she refused to argue with him when he was like this. He could do whatever he wanted as long as he was back in the morning. And since Magdalena has started the whole mess in the first place, she should be the one to see it through.

Half an hour later, the governess was at the hospital, following the merchant through a maze of cots and wheelchairs, trying to keep up. Meanwhile, Savenna hung sleepy in her father's arms. She barely remembered being lifted out of bed.

Sluggishly, Savenna groaned. The exhaustion of the evening enveloped her like a heavy blanket, and underneath, what had felt like shame and disappointment had transformed into a sharp, biting sensation. She twisted until feeling Madgalena's palm on her forehead.

Dr Trafalgar was still dressed in a black suit when he caught up with them. He'd come back as soon as he got the Transponder call. Savenna didn't mind him or his muffled voice as long as Law was nowhere around.

He guided them into a small room with dimmed lights, away from the patrolling nurses. At the doctor's request, Savenna's father put her down on a bed in the corner. Dizzy, she looked up at the doctor's faint smile. "Everything is going to be fine. Just relax and let me take a quick look, okay?"

She nodded. Wrapped in a numbing cocoon of fatigue, Savenna didn't understand. She was an important patient. Every year, her flu kept half of Flevance's medical personnel awake for a full week. Why weren't there any nurses or other doctors around now? And why was everyone keeping their voices down?

"Don't tell me it's nothing. I've seen these marks before," she heard her father whisper as Trafalgar examined her. Her father was a fearless man. Hearing him so distraught made her uneasy. For a while the doctor said nothing. Only after what felt like countless scans, swabs and measurements did his voice mutter through the dark. "I have as well… How come you know about this?"

The merchant hesitated. "Mine appeared a few years ago. First I thought it was nothing but then it started to grow…" He unbuttoned his shirt and revealed a patch of white that had crawled over his shoulders down to his back. "It started hurting a few months ago."

"Did you tell anyone?"

"I met one doctor on the Grand Line. He couldn't do anything. It was incurable, he said. Some kind of poisoning. He couldn't figure out how or if it was contagious, so I told our governess to keep my daughter away from me whenever she could."

"I'm afraid that's not the issue." Trafalgar ran his hand through his full, whitening hair. "The disease isn't contagious."

"Thank Roger! But what is it? Please, even if you can't help me, you need to help my daughter!"

Eyes pressed closed, Savenna was wide awake. Afraid to cry in front of the doctor she pretended to have fallen asleep. This night-time adventure had taken a bitter turn. She was sick. Her father was sick. And judging by the doctor's tone, it was more than just the flu.

Trafalgar weighed his words. "The doctor on the Grand Line was right about one thing though. It is poison but not a regular one. We call it the Amber Lead Syndrome." In the half-dark, the rings underneath his eyes resembled Law's.

"Amber Lead? The metal? Surely it can't be harming anyone?"

"It can and it is. That's why the syndrome isn't contagious. The substance has poisoned Flevance generations ago. It might have started during the first mining, I don't think we'll ever know for sure."

"I don't understand… " Magdalena was done being silent. "How is this possible? The

country has been trading Amber Lead for ages and nothing bad has ever happened."

The doctor's voice came slowly, almost reluctantly. "The poison embedded itself into the miners' genetic code, then remained dormant for generations. It was only a few years back, when older people started showing white spots that we first noticed it."

"What else does it do?" the governess wanted to know. "The marks aren't everything, are they?"

"They aren't." At this point Savenna's eyes were wide open, staring up at the man telling some sort of fairytale his audience struggled to believe. If anyone noticed, they didn't say anything. Trafalgar went on soberly. "It reduces our lifespan. Exponentially. Every generation's life is bound to be shorter than the previous one. Meaning we will live only a third of our parents' lives, and our children, well… you can do the math."

"How come no one told us?"

Trafalgar gave a mirthless laugh. "What for? To cause panic? Even if everyone in this city knew, there's nothing they could do. Everyone whose family was exposed to Amber Lead is going to be sick. Leaving will make no difference now." Savenna wondered if he had considered it. "We've been trying to keep this between the medical staff but now that there's another case, word is going to spread. Finding a cure is the only real option we have."

Savenna heard a sound like someone gasping for air, before she understood that it was her father trying to remain calm. "I don't care about everyone else. What is going to happen to my daughter?"

Trafalgar shrugged in a way only doctors could. "Savenna is the first one of her generation to be affected. Maybe that means her symptoms will appear more slowly, maybe it means something else. That depends on her immune system, the concentration of Amber Lead in your genes… But eventually, without a cure the condition is fatal."

Sometime during the endless night, Savenna was staring up at the white hospital ceiling. Everyone had insisted on letting her rest and she hadn't had the strength to push back. She was too tired to cry. What she had learned seemed unreal, yet she had the proof on her own skin. The fear she anxiously waited for never came. Maybe the disease was weakening her mind already.

Amber Lead. Precious ancient poison. She wondered how much of it was in the walls around her, or the saggy mattress under her back. Quietly she calculated her lifespan. She wouldn't grow older than thirteen. She wouldn't get the chance to become a pirate, learn how to land a decent punch or faint dramatically in someone's arms. Suddenly, the world felt chokingly small.

The first thing Savenna saw in the morning was her mother. She was sitting on the bed, staring at the window. She looked out of place with her pretty hair and elegant clothes. Savenna realized it was the first time she hadn't dressed for the occasion.

Propping herself on her elbows, Savenna peeled herself out of bed. The hand that pushed her back into her pillow was cold. "You are sick and you stay in bed until the doctor says otherwise."

Her mother's tone wasn't harsh but her eyes were red enough to make Savenna reconsider. "Dr. Trafalgar is on call today but after his shift is over, he'll be taking you to his house."

"He will what?"

Her mother scowled then her features softened. "The hospital is understaffed and I want you to receive the best possible treatment. And don't worry about the trouble, it was his idea."

That was the last thing Savenna was worried about. "But that's really not…"

Her mother's face hardened. "Not this time, Savenna. This isn't a game." With that she left. Of course her mother knew how serious the situation was. Magdalena, her father or even Trafalgar himself must have told her. But she wouldn't have suspected that her daughter knew about her own condition. She rarely suspected anything.

And like hell did Trafalgars invite her to their house to care for her. They wanted to lock her up and hide the first sick child from the eyes of Flevance. And it looked very much like they were going to succeed.

As a last hurrah before her confinement, Savenna had managed to successfully annoy the cafeteria staff by devouring one and a half homemade lunches and stealing dessert from the elderly patient next door, a grumbling Madgalena standing watch.

The new day also shed new light on the intricacies of Amber Lead. Turns out Magdalena's old neighbor had died of something he called the white dot disease, so she'd been quick to realize that something was seriously wrong with Savenna, and with her father who had taken up the habit of staying away longer every year trying to protect his family. Magdalena wasn't one to blabber and Savenna wondered how much more the woman really knew.

The merchant himself returned in the evening, moments before Trafalgar pushed his broad-shouldered frame through the door. Her sentence was about to begin. Like the old lady Savenna had relieved of her chocolate cake, she was put in a wheelchair and navigated outside the building.. A carriage humbler than what she was used to, was already waiting outside.

Her father lifted her out of the chair and into the coach, facing the doctor. "I can still walk, you know," she mumbled but neither of her parents replied. They kissed her on both cheeks and Madgalena, who she now realized she would miss the most, gave her a traditional wave before the coach took off.

Narrow, white-shingled houses flew by while she and Trafalgar sat in silence. She took the opportunity to observe him. He wasn't as tall as she remembered from the party and the fading daylight re-exposed the wrinkles around his eyes. Good. Something in her childish, vindictive self enjoyed cataloging his flaws as a punishment for the way he'd stepped into her life and predicted its likely end. His features appeared harder than his son's but to her disappointment, something calm and reassuring still emanated from him. Savanna swore not to let it fool her.

Then she saw it. A white mark, doubtlessly larger than her own, was hiding underneath the collar of his shirt. "You have it too," she gasped.

Trafalgar smiled weakly. "I know how you feel. It's not easy…"

"So you want to lock me up too?" she blurted out. Savenna was rarely one to lack courage, but this was harder than she'd anticipated. "I heard everything you said last night. I'm not sick enough that I have to be treated at home. That's just what you told my mother. Just like you're hiding your marks, you don't want people to see mine."

Trafalgar's face remained impassive. Something else he'd passed on to his son. "I'm going to be honest with you. Nothing would make me happier than letting you stay with your parents, but Amber Lead merchants are very influential people. So discretion is necessary until we find a treatment for Amber Lead poisoning."

Remembering her father negotiating a business deal, she tried to compose her emotions when she spoke, "I'm sure said influence would be enough to protect me."

The lines on Trafalgar's forehead deepened. "I'm afraid it won't. If you know about Flevance's influence you also know about the World Government. They won't care if we're a threat to the outside world. They've had their eyes on our wealth for years and won't miss an occasion to get their hands on it. They'll put us under quarantine in a heartbeat and watch Flevance collapse without batting an eye."

Savenna remained silent. Needless to say she didn't believe him. Trafalgar needed to check his facts. Flevance was the richest and safest country in the North Blue. It wouldn't fall. It couldn't fall. She barely listened to him when he continued," I know this is hard but please remember I'm not just your jailor, I'm also your doctor and I will do everything I can to help you."

Savenna felt herself nod. But as the coach rattled over a particularly bumpy bit of pavement something more disturbing popped into her mind: The doctor and Law shared the same last name.

Last night's events had made her forget that simple but crucial fact. The familiar irritation provoked by his existence made her feel like herself again. That little peasant! Maybe there was some bit of fairness in all of this after all, she thought, as she swore not to leave this world until she'd rendered him just as miserable as she was. Because prisoner or not, making people miserable was the one thing she was good at.

"What about your son?" Savenna inquired innocently. "What should I tell him?"

For a moment Trafalgar seemed pained, like something had pinched him on the inside. "Law doesn't have to know. He is going to see a lot of bad things in his profession so I would like to spare him for a little while longer."

Savenna sensed the question hanging in the air and smiled. Not talking to Law. Finally something they could agree on. "Your secret is safe with me."