Chapter 4

Marco POV

In the meantime I stood alone in my cabin. Is it true what Thatch said? Should it really be true that Tiara has a crush on me? Why me? She didn't even know me. Wasn't I too old for her? After all, I'm 33, which makes me ten years older than her. What could I offer her? A life as a pirate is all I could offer her. The Marines would put a bounty on her. But even if she has feelings for me, she's still hiding something. Ace may be right that she knew his name from a wanted poster, but knowing what illness he had was still more than strange.

I went back on deck where I saw the doc standing by Pops and joined them. "We should ask her what her medical expertise is. The information she has about Ace attacks is helpful." the doc said. "Don't you think it's a little strange that she has such knowledge?" I asked the two of them, as I wanted to know how they saw it. "Not necessarily." the Doc replied, adding "You've heard of Trafalgar Law, the surgeon of death. He is also very young and should be about the same age as Tiara. From a medical point of view, he has excellent knowledge where hardly anyone can surpass him. For him, the problem lies more in the human and his much too sadistic nature. They say he loves torturing his patients." Somehow it made sense. Should Ace and Thatch be right after all and I was just too suspicious? Maybe she just had good medical knowledge, like that Trafalgar.

"What's on your mind, son?" Pops now wanted to know. "I thought it was a little strange that she knew what Ace had and that she knew his name and Thatch's name, even though no one had mentioned them before her. It all just seemed very mysterious to me and I thought that she might be from the Marines or the World Government. I asked her what she was hiding but before she could answer Ace came in and she got away." I told him. "And it seems like I scared her off a little with my questions. Ace said that when she passed him, he saw her crying." I confessed to him. With Pops, I always said anything to him and I didn't want to hide anything. "You're always a little too careful, son. I don't think she's from the Marines or the World Government. She's insecure. Put yourself in her shoes. She wakes up in a place but has no memory of how she got there or what happened to her. Then she was found by pirates and now sails with them. You could see that she feels uncomfortable when there are too many people around her. She doesn't seem to feel uncomfortable with you, though. It seemed that she likes your presence. When you saved her from being dragged behind by Ace, you could clearly see that she was relieved that you helped her. There will certainly be one or two things she hasn't told us yet. She must first find trust in us." he explained his view of the situation. Seen from that side I might have overreacted a bit. She had only been on board with us for a few hours.

Just when the Doc wanted to say something, Ace came rushing to us very rushed. What's he done now? . "My son, what happened?" Pops asked. "Doc, you got to come quick. We can't wake up Tiara and there were some pills next to her. Thatch is already taking her to the sick bay." he explained a little hectically. Wait a minute, pills and then they can't wake up Tiara? She's not going to? I looked shocked at Ace. It couldn't be. I wasn't so hard on her that she got so scared and hurt herself. The Doc went straight to the infirmary, followed by Ace and me. Pops asked me to go with him because he wanted to know what happened to Tiara. But I would have gone along too. I just had to know what happened.

When we entered the infirmary Tiara was lying on one of the beds and looked as if she was just sleeping. If you didn't have the information with the pills, you would think that Ace just overdid it. Thatch then gave the Doc a box of pills. "They were on her bedside table. "They're sleeping pills, and the box is almost empty. There's only two left. We don't know how many she took." Thatch explained and the Doc took a closer look at the box of pills. "I don't know these pills, and I've never seen some like this anywhere before. They seem to be very high-dose sleeping pills." said the Doc and then sent us outside. He wanted to be left alone during the treatment.

Ace POV

I didn't understand all that. Why does she do this? Did she suddenly become so afraid of us after Marco's interrogation? "You did a great job, with your constant suspicion." I hissed at the Phoenix. He himself seemed to be lost in thought, not even responding. This waiting is driving me crazy. Why did the doc have to kick us out too? After what felt like an eternity the door to the sick bay finally opened. Thatch, Marco, me and Haruta, who had come to us in the meantime, looked at the Doc questioningly. "Ace, please come in." the Doc then suddenly asked what surprised me very much. Why me? "Why Ace? How is she?" Marco wanted to know but the Doc ignored his questions which was rare because after all Marco is our vice and the Doc should answer him. "Ace come now!" ordered Doc and I sat down in motion and went inside.

Inside I saw that Tiara was awake but a little dazed as I found. "She's as stubborn as you are. Under no conditions does she want to stay in the infirmary. I told her that I think it would be a bad idea if she leaves now but I can't force her to stay because she is not a crew member. That's why I told her that she can leave but someone has to take her to her cabin and stay with her. After that she only said that I should only fetch you and no one else and that I should not talk to anyone about what we have discussed here. From now on you are responsible for her. Have fun with the stubborn one." the Doc explained. I looked at her asking but Tiara remained silent. "Are you okay?" I asked and sat down next to her. Maybe she will answer if you talk to her directly. "Yes, everything is fine. Can we please go then?" she just wanted to know and tried to get up. "What had I said? You shall not walk alone, you are still too weak for that!" it came rebuking from the Doc. So I picked her up. When I entered the hall I was immediately stopped by Marco. "What are you doing? Why are you taking her away from the infirmary? Does the Doc know?" Marco immediately asked his questions. I briefly explained to the others what the Doc had explained to me and then I simply left. Haruta followed me and Marco went together with Thatch to the Doc. Marco wanted to know from the Doc how Tiara is doing because he has to report to Pops.

Tiara POV

God there you just want to sleep in peace and they think you want to hurt yourself. Meanwhile Ace had brought me back to the guest cabin and put me on the bed. Unfortunately he did not want to leave the room and followed the instruction of the Doc that someone should stay with me. As if I need a babysitter. I sat down and took my block. If I am already condemned to stay in bed then I can also use the time to draw a little. With my back against the wall and the block on my thighs I thought about who I could draw. That Ace was here and staring at me I just ignored. Luckily I was used to hiding my environment completely when I was drawing. This time I decided to draw Corazon. He was one of my favourite characters. Without him Law would not be alive anymore. Corazon did everything to save Law and lost his life.

Eventually I was interrupted by Ace. "Why did you do that? Did Marco's interrogation scare you?" he wanted to know. "As if I'd get hurt over some guy." I told him. "Maybe the moment Marco came to me in such a threatening way, I was really afraid of him. It was just strange that he was first so nice and then suddenly so threatening. But because of him I would certainly not end my life. You're not really in the right frame of mind to even think that. Instead of turning on your brain and thinking that I only took the pill to sleep better. No, why should we assume the worst?" I got upset and saw Ace looking at me in amazement. "Couldn't Ruffy have found me? With him it wouldn't be so complicated, just fun," I added. At least he wouldn't ask a lot of questions and just want to have fun. "Ruffy." Ace just said, looking at me with a weird grin.

"Now it comes back to me. I wanted to see you earlier because Haruta said you drew a picture of Ruffy and me. Can I see that?" said Ace and I was astonished that he seemed to have completely forgotten our previous topic. But if I am honest I was quite happy with it. I just nodded and separated the picture of the brothers from my block. "If you want you can keep it." I said and handed him the drawing. "Are you serious?" he asked in amazement and I just nodded. "This looks great and I can really keep it?" "Yes." I said. "It's not the only drawing I have of the two of you." I said and showed him some other drawings. I was a little surprised that he didn't even ask me how I knew Ruffy in the first place. "Who is that guy with the tattoos?" Ace asked curiously. "That's Trafalgar Law. He's also known as the surgeon of death. He's from the North Blue and he's the captain of the Heart Pirates." I answered his question. "You seem to enjoy drawing our flaming chicken, too." Ace said, looking at me with a grin. "Who do you think is better? Marco or this Trafalgar? They are by far the two most represented among your drawings." he wanted to know. Great, what do I answer now? Actually, I like them both a lot. "I don't know. I like them both a lot but I think I would choose Law. I like his tattoos and his style." "Too bad it's not Marco." Ace muttered, which surprised me. Why 'too bad'?

I didn't have time to think about it for a long time because the next moment the door opened and Thatch came in. I welcomed him with a slightly grumpy look, because I hated it when someone just walked in without knocking. I may be a stranger here and Moby is their home but this cabin is the room I was assigned so he could knock if he wanted to come in. "I made you some tea. Doc says you should drink a lot." he informed me, put the tea on the nightstand and looked at Ace who was still sitting next to me on the bed looking at my drawings. "How are you?" Thatch asked after a short time of silence. "Quite well so far. I only hate it when people interrupt my sleep." I answered him. Yes, I was still a little angry about that. What was so bad about taking a pill? I took one every night so that I could sleep through the night, because for about 6 months I had nightmares that kept me awake. Because of the pills I took for about 2-3 weeks now I could at least sleep through. "Can't you understand the effect it had on us when we found you? You were lying in bed and didn't wake up. Then we saw the pills next to you and didn't know how many you had taken. You have to consider that this was all after Marco had pressed you and probably scared you. It is then understandable that one comes on such thoughts or not?" he wanted to know. "I will tell you this only once. Because of a guy I would certainly not do anything to myself and because of one I only know for a few hours I would not do anything at all. Did you even consider for a second that I took the pill to help me sleep through the night? To just get through a night without having these damn nightmares." I replied and faltered. I wasn't going to tell them about my nightmares. No one but my best friend knew about them, and it was only because he had once heard me wake up screaming after one of these dreams. Thatch kept silent, which surprised me a little. I had assumed he would ask what kind of nightmares I have but no he kept silent and left again.

I sat with Ace for a while and he told me about his adventures until he had one of his attacks. That was my chance, I thought. With Ace asleep, I could finally get out of this cabin. I wanted to go out on deck and get some fresh air. I couldn't sleep anyway, I had too many things on my mind. Sleeping would only have been possible if I still had my pills, but they had been taken away from me, which would mean that the next few nights would be more likely with little or no sleep for me. When I arrived on deck everything was quiet and nobody was to be seen anymore. Well, it was the middle of the night and except for the night watch nobody will be awake here anymore. I went straight to the railing and listened to the sea. Where exactly was Moby on the grandline right now? Were we even in the New World? But that would mean I wouldn't run into Ruffy or Law. Why can't I remember what happened? Why did I end up in this world? I was torn from my thoughts by footsteps that approached me. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in your cabin, lying in bed? The doc said you shouldn't be walking around, you should be resting. Where's Ace? He's supposed to be watching you, right?" Marco immediately asked his questions. I had not yet turned around to him, I could tell by his voice that it was him. I did not give him an answer to any of his questions. I simply ignored him and went back below deck. It may be that my behaviour was not very nice at that moment but I just did not feel like talking to him.

Back in my cabin I just lay down with Ace who was still lying on my bed. Sleeping would be good for sure now but how would that work? I just could not relax. Too many questions were buzzing in my head and Ace's snoring was annoying too. As if all this wasn't enough, I felt guilty too. My behaviour towards Marco on deck earlier was more than off. In his voice you could hear a slight concern when he wanted to know why I was there and not lying in bed as the doc told me to. Why did I overreact so much? Yes he had frightened me but it was actually normal that he wanted to know who I was. I'm sure he was just trying to protect the crew, his family. Why was it so hard to understand him? First he was nice and helped me, then he was suddenly so threatening and frightened me and now he seemed to be worried. How can you put all this into perspective? His behaviour fluctuated faster and worse than with a pregnant woman. It did not help to just think about it. I got up and went to his cabin. It would be best if I just apologized to him. When I stood in front of his door I knocked, but received no answer. Also to my second knocking Marco did not react. Was he perhaps already sleeping? So should I risk to wake him up or should I better postpone all this until tomorrow? I thought for a moment before I simply entered his cabin. If I already have the courage to go to him then I will certainly not back down now. And what could he do? He couldn't do more than throw me out of his cabin, could he?