Chapter 12
The next morning Law was greeted by a perfect silence. Actually, as he'd gone to sleep the last night, it'd seem to him that the storm had eased already, but such alterations in the weather had happened before, too, so he hadn't paid it any attention. Now, however, there was no option than to declare the end of the hurricane. It was a greatly anticipated change, although he bitterly thought it had happened one day too later, regarding the events on Vokzel, leading to the accident that had claimed several human lives.
That was, however, something he could do nothing about; he could only tend to those who'd survived. The previous day, after all ill and wounded had been transported to the hospital, he'd sent a group of volunteers to Vokzel to help in the crisis. The facility on the neighbouring island had been partly destroyed, the patients and the staff had had to evacuate, and some of them had been injured. At the same time, the staff of the Corazon Memorial Hospital had less work because there'd been no new admissions for days, so it was no problem to delegate some resources to the place they were more than needed. The group consisted of two surgeons, one anaesthesiologist, two internists and a few nurses, plus of course some people from psychiatry to provide the psychological support.
Law caught himself thinking it was strange to sit in the canteen and hear no wind. Apparently, a man quickly grew accustomed to new circumstances, even those unpleasant... In fact, it was one of the defence mechanisms aimed at preserving the strength and energy, so that they weren't wasted for futile frustration. Nonetheless, the change was welcomed and guaranteed that everything would be back at normal soon. The air traffic would be resumed, the new patients would arrive, and Bepo would be able to go for his congress. Before that, Law would have to learn about the scope of the destruction - he didn't doubt it was considerable - but then he would be able to look in the future again.
Drinking his coffee, Law involuntarily wondered if what had turned him into a monster long ago, when he'd been still a kid, wasn't the lack of future, precisely. He knew he was someone who always looked ahead and searched for solution, never got stuck, giving up to despair or hopelessness - but the condition for that was to have some prospect. When he'd been irrevocably sentenced to death, when he'd learned he'd had only a few years, then it'd been pointless making plans or trying to save himself. There'd been nothing to motivate him and push him forward; his life had been circled with a thick line he could see with his very eyes. Something like that was toxic for a kid, especially for the kid who'd already experienced the whole hatred of the world. How much love it had required to get him out of that state of being dead-alive... to turn him into a human again and restore his future that he could head for once more...
And so he'd done, never looking back at his past, for, unlike what awaited him, it was too painful. Even though he'd come to terms with it on a rational level, emotion-wise his childhood events had left deep wounds that still hadn't been compensated for. Then, it was better to focus on what would come than remembering the past wrongs. After nearly thirty years of practice, he'd already mastered such an attitude.
After breakfast, he went to check the patients from yesterday. Most of them was still in the intensive care unit, but only for observation. It seemed all were fine and would be transferred to other wards as soon as today. He still couldn't but feel amazed that the incident hadn't ended in a total tragedy, for there'd been all conditions for that. If he hadn't made that intuitive... no, rational decision to send the ambulances to meet with the ship from Vokzel, all people aboard would be on the sea bed now. He really could congratulate himself on his far-sightedness that had saved over twenty persons. But he would have to thank the paramedics and rescue team members, too, for their actions had been without fault and had contributed at least as much to transporting all the ill and injured, save for one, just in time to the hospital.
He examined the last patient and was about to head for the surgery ward one floor up when, as he walked out to the corridor, he heard a silent cry of surprise and, it seemed, apprehension. A woman stood in the next door, that led to the nurse station, and he quickly recognised she was Ida.
"Ah, Dr Law," she said, clearly relieved. "You surprised me..."
"I didn't thought I look so scary," Law replied with a wry smile, "for someone else than the psychiatric patients."
An embarrassment flashed in the nurse's eyes, and she lowered her head. "I just... didn't expect you here, and so early, on top of it," she muttered. "It isn't even half past six, and you went to sleep so late, Doctor."
"Not any later than you," he replied. "I usually start working early. The staff had long since grown accustomed to seeing me before dawn."
She nodded and said nothing. As he observed her, he decided she was upset by something more than just running into him. She looked as if she'd just waked up, which only added to the general picture: her hair was dishevelled, she had a marked impression on her left cheek, and she was wearing normal clothes without a white coat.
"Everything's all right?" he asked without thinking and only that realised it certainly wasn't.
She looked at him in astonishment. "Yes... No..." She shrugged. "I don't know," she said somewhat hopelessly.
"Maybe you would accompany me for a coffee?" he offered and was surprised by his own words. Still, he felt reluctant about leaving her alone when she seemed to need some comfort. "Let's say... in half an hour? I have to go to the surgery ward first, but then I'll have a moment to spare."
She stared at him in silence before finally nodding, which filled him with relief.
"The canteen is on the top floor," he informed.
She nodded again. "I'll find it, thanks," she said and went back to the room she'd emerged from.
Half an hour later, when Law found her in the restaurant, she'd got cleaned up. Her fair hair had been combed and plaited in a thick braid, there were no marks of sleep on her face anymore, and she had a coat with the symbol of the Corazon Memorial Hospital over her clothes. Yet, she still seemed down, or even frightened. Her moves were wary and somewhat absent, and her face was pale. She had her blue green eyes wide open, and their gaze was empty. But she was here and now; her words indicated it.
"I don't find you scary, Doctor," she said, as they were sitting by the table with the coffee cups. The pale light of the morning was coming out from outside.
That surprised Law. He'd thrown that remark jokingly, but she'd taken it seriously, and he had no idea what to do with that. Instead, he focused on something else. "Stop with that 'Doctor'," he muttered. "Just call me by my name."
She nodded without looking at him and raised the cup to her mouth, keeping it in her both hands.
"You look unwell," he said outright, just like he used to. "Did you sleep anything?"
"I did," she answered. "The nurses on the intensive care unit were so kind to let me sleep on the coach in their station."
"You could've gone to the staff quarters. I don't think you were very comfortable on the coach... to say nothing of choosing the intensive care unit for the place of rest," he pointed out ironically.
"I wanted to stay with the patients," she explained. "Besides... I didn't want to be alone... and I had no strength to look for Mari and Kalla," she added in a lower voice, and then her light eyelashes fluttered in a quick blinking. She put the cup down and covered her eyes with one hand. "I'm sorry," she whispered.
Law was observing her in silence. She was hunching in her chair, and her hands were trembling. He wondered what he should say to comfort here, but there were no magical words capable of making a person happy just like that. "It's obvious you're upset after what happened yesterday," he finally spoke. "It must've been a dramatic situation. But I must say you seemed very calm and composed when you appeared here. I was impressed by your actions. You really helped us a lot."
"I was on adrenaline," she replied in a low voice, still covering her face. He was glad she spoke. "That moment everything was all right already, I was safe... Besides, the patients needed treatment, so I had to focus on it." And once she'd begun, the words came easily. "It was later, in the night... I remembered the ship... like it started to tilt and gain water, and we couldn't use the lifeboats, for it would mean an instant death with waves like that, we had to stay on the sinking ship. We knew that the help had been sent for us from Raftel, our only option was to stay onboard and pray that they reached us before we sank, but it was only shipping more and more water. I thought it was over for me, that I would never see my family again. I was certain of that. So when the help came... it was like being miraculously saved. No wonder that upon arriving in the hospital I was filled with energy and feeling there's nothing impossible for me. But when I fell asleep, I returned to that ship again, feeling I was going to die any moment. Whet I ran at you, Doc-... When I ran into you, it was just after I waked up from that nightmare. I'm sorry for my abrupt reaction."
"There's nothing to apologise for," Law said. "It would be much stranger if you didn't feel anything, and more worrying. I would've sent you to our psychiatrists at once. Well, I can still send you if you feel so."
She shook her head. "No, I can handle it," she replied, although her voice was still not louder from a whisper.
"Everything is all right, you're safe," Law added, feeling it was important to assure her of that. "You see? Even the storm ended."
He didn't expect that, but she raised her head - he was glad there were no tears in her eyes - and looked outside. The vast of ocean, calm and perfectly quiet behind the soundproof windows, was spreading all the way to the horizon. The day started as cloudy, but compared to the previous week, it seemed beautiful.
"Personally, I'm of the opinion you deserve great respect... you and your colleagues, who accepted that task," Law kept talking. "It was a very... risky operation. To tell the truth, I'm still mad at your director for having come up with that idea, in the first place... I was certain you wouldn't even reach here," he said straight.
"But we did reach. And we managed to save almost everyone," she said, still staring at the sea.
He nodded. "Yeah, and that's the most important thing. You volunteered, right? No-one forced you to do it?"
"Yes."
"You like your work, don't you?"
She gave him a surprised look. "I like it a lot," she replied. She took her cup and drank some coffee. "Is it that obvious?" she asked, and when he nodded, her lips twitched as if she felt like smiling. Law felt truly relieved at that sight. "I work in the emergency unit, that's where I feel the best. I'm under the impression I can do the most for the patients, to help them the best way... Do you understand it, Doc- Law?"
"I do. Working with emergencies gives the greatest satisfaction," he agreed. "Usually, I deal with the chronically ill, but when I happen to tend to the emergency cases, I have that unique sensation of the perfect, purposeful focus. Of course, it's the best if there are no emergencies at all," he added.
"Sure, but if they do happen... You unreservedly engage yourself in the work," she supplied. "Everything else is switched off. There's only adrenaline and feeling you must act, right now, and there's not a moment to waste 'cause a human life depends on you. Sometimes it goes for many hours, but no-one notices it. It's only later that you realise you're dead on your feet. Do you think you can addict yourself to that sensation?" she asked.
"Oh, I'm sure of that," he admitted. "I think it's one of the reasons why there are so many workaholics in the health care system."
She nodded. The previous numbness finally had vanished from her eyes; now, her gaze was focused, lucid, and intense, just like yesterday when Law had seen her for the first time. Colours had returned to her face, and she seemed more vigorous.
She finished her coffee and put the cup down on the table. "I'm certain our director will thank you, but let me do it, too," she said, looking him in the eye. "You've granted us great aid, in every aspect. Really, I don't even know what words I should use to convey my gratitude... Above all, you saved our lives. If I can be of any help to you, then I'll be more than happy to assist you," she added with emphasis and conviction.
"Come on, that's why we're here," Law replied. "Every hospital exists to help others. You better tell me if you are fine."
She nodded with zeal. "Now I really am. The nice nurses on your intensive therapy gave me a lot of aspirin before I went to sleep, so that I wouldn't catch any cold. And I didn't."
"Aspirin, the best medicine in the world," Law muttered. "Once, it saved my life, too."
She gave him an astonished look, but in the end she didn't comment that personal remark. "In any case, I'm all right. Only..." She looked towards the buffet. "I'm hungry."
"That's even better," he said with a crooked smile. "Enjoy your meal."
She went to get herself some breakfast and returned with a full plate. "Can we return to Vokzel today?" she asked, cutting her wiener. "No, I jumped too much forward... How can we return? By a ferry from Roger Bay? I guess they have already resumed the connections...?"
"If the storm didn't make any damage to the local fleet, there should be no problem. You want to go back already?"
"I don't know about the other girls. Actually, I should visit them," she added with guilt, putting down the fork. "But I think they, too, would like to return home as soon as possible. And I, though it may sound weird, I miss my work already... almost as much as I miss my fiancé. Going back to normality is the best cure after such a shock, right?"
"Definitely," Law agreed. "But you shouldn't overwork yourself."
"I know they need me there," she replied. "And I'm really fine. And in case I have any trouble sleeping... we have a psychiatrist, too. He's a bit odd person, but I'm sure he will give me some pills if I need them," she said confidently.
"They are usually odd," Law declared. "Speak of the devil... There. He's our head psychiatrist," he said, pointing at Clione, who'd just entered the canteen. "I don't believe yours is any odder than ours."
Ida followed his eyes and frowned. "He... Not 'she'...?" she asked hesitantly.
Law felt his lips twitch. "Hey, Clione...!" he called.
The chief psychiatrist of the Corazon Memorial Hospital turned his head and caught his eyes, then walked up to their table. Law noticed a surprised look his colleague cast at Ida before greeting her.
"I can see everything is okay now," Law said, eyeing the psychiatrist and his impeccable appearance up in an approving manner. He decided to say nothing about the fatigue on the man's face.
Clione pointed one finger at him. "Not a word about yesterday," he demanded in a decisive voice. "I told you I would look decent the next time we met."
"I didn't doubt it for a single moment," Law replied under his breath.
"Well, I hope so! Have a nice day," the psychiatrist said and went to the buffet.
Ida stared at Law with round eyes; she seemed properly confused. "Decent...?" she repeated quietly. "What happened yesterday?"
"Clione, somewhat involuntarily, came into a direct contact with the storm, and after that he looked... well, not like he normally does."
Ida looked over her shoulder. "A poor thing," she said sympathetically, and if Law hadn't already taken liking to her, it would, without doubt, happen now. "You were right about our psychiatrist, their levels don't even compare," she stated, picking up the fork again. "You know, I miss even him. I want to go back already. It's very nice here... and you took care of us, too, but... I need a familiar place. So if it's possible for me to return today, I'll be very grateful."
"We'll see to that."
Ida smiled weakly, but then he could see a shadow of guilt on her face. "Our patients can stay here, right?" she asked as if it'd occurred to her only now.
"Of course, they are in a good care," Law assured her. "You can send more if there's such a need. I bet it's going to take a while before your hospital is fully operational again. If you need any technical help or anything, Raftel would provide it," he said somewhat presumptively, for he wasn't someone to decide about such matters... but he knew perfectly well that the opinion of the director of the Corazon Memorial Hospital always counted.
Ida nodded and resumed eating - it seemed she had appetite - while Law contacted the head nurse of the emergency unit and requested that any help was provided for the nurses from Vokzel. He learned that Ida's two colleagues had slept in the staff quarters and were currently heading to the canteen. Ida ate in silence, listening to his talk, and when he looked at her again, he saw two tears rolling down her cheeks and falling onto her plate.
"I'm sorry... It's nothing," she said, wiping her eyes. "I just... You've been so good to us. Thank you. I feel like a miracle happened."
He could really understand her emotional lability after yesterday's shock. He knew the best cure would be what she already realised herself: return to normality. "Miracles do happen," he muttered in response.
She looked up at him, clearly surprised by his words... but then her light eyes focused on the scenery behind his back. "Look...!"
He turned around, following her gaze, and saw the pale sunlight over the grey waves.
"I haven't seen the sun in ages," she said, and her voice rang with sweet rapture.
He smiled wryly. "It may sounds strange, but me neither," he replied.
She laughed quietly, and that laughter convinced him she would be all right.
Ida and her colleagues left for Vokzel the same day, together with another group of volunteers for helping in the damaged hospital. Although the circumstances were tragic, Law felt content that such co-operation was possible. He suggested that Ida came for an exchange, that was to work for some period of time on Raftel, and asked her to pass that invitation to others. The Corazon Memorial Hospital had acted as an educational facility for years, teaching and training the personnel members for both local and faraway hospitals, but it didn't happen often that working medical professionals came here in order to raise their qualifications, while it would benefit everyone.
Law hoped he would meet Ida again; he'd really taken liking to her. Maybe the most important was that she treated him in a natural way, not like a miracle-doctor close to God. He realised he missed such an attitude. Now that his former crew members from the Heart Pirates behaved towards him with a pious respect - thanks all gods - but their relations had been formed by twenty years of shared history, and Law didn't believe anything to change about it. He didn't believe he needed it to change, either. And yet, for some reasons, when speaking with Ida, someone he'd met only the day before, he felt refreshingly relaxed and found it pleasant. He, who'd thought he wouldn't need any new friends and had long since stopped having the feeling he'd like to meet someone again.
Maybe that was why, a bit later that day, when Shachi, who completely lacked subtlety and discretion, said in an obvious need to tease him, "Boss, is it true you were flirting with a nurse from another hospital? Clione saw you in the canteen, admiring the sunrise together..." Law replied deadpan, "That's right. Unfortunately, she was taken."
The stupefaction on Shachi's face was worthy of remembrance. Penguin, who'd already begun informing them that the windows of the canteen were facing south, not east, stopped short and stared at Law with eyes like saucers, too. It lasted a longer while before his assistants recovered from the shock. Penguin laughed hesitantly, and Shachi dug Law in the ribs. "Come on, boss... Don't joke with us," he said reproachingly.
"The day you start flirting would mean the end of the world," Penguin muttered.
Law smacked the two of them in the heads. "You're two little cockroaches," he said in offence. "Do you take me for some kind of a beast...?"
They gaped at him again before exchanging looks. Penguin scratched his head in confusion, while Shachi supported his chin with his fist in an outraging parody of contemplation.
"Well, there was that fairy tale of the beauty and the beast, right...?" he suggested timidly.
Law shook his head and left. Still, he couldn't quite banish the thought the fairy tale was all he could hope for.
After the sea traffic had resumed, the patients started to arrive in the hospital by the truckloads. All those that had been en route to Raftel, forced by the storm to halt their journey and wait for the weather to stabilise, now came with those who travelled according to their appointed term. Law did what he could to process the suddenly increased amount of the ill people - his experience helped him greatly - and had no time for anything else. It was only from the talks in the canteen that he learned about the damages done by the hurricane, and those talks were very short, for he ate hurriedly and quickly returned to work. The only what he could see with his own eyes was the destruction of the considerable part of the coastline right behind the hospital; the waves had practically washed half the beach away. The building, however, didn't suffer any damage, just like Law had expected. He thought he would have to send Franky word of thanks for such a solid work.
With arrival of February, the weather changed drastically. It became sunny, calm, and very cold. In just three days, the temperature fell over twenty degrees, and the coastal waters froze. Bepo had left for the congress to return three weeks later, and Law hoped that the Corazon Memorial Hospital had used its stock of the red alert shifts... at least until the head of the emergency department was back on Raftel again.
Having that said, he had no time to think about such things, for his mind was occupied almost entirely by work. After the forced break, it was with pleasure that he threw himself into curing cancers, genetic disorders, poisonings and all other challenging conditions. Children, adults, elderly people. Men and women of different races. Everyone was different, and yet all were alike in that only the Ope Ope no Mi could help them recover or even guarantee that they survived. Working with emergencies was, like he'd told Ida, intoxicating, but it was curing the incurable and hopeless cases that made his existence purposeful. With every patient leaving the Corazon Memorial Hospital as a healthy man, Trafalgar Law felt some good was being sent out into the world.
It was the third day of the fine weather. The atmosphere in the hospital was good, although some grumbled about how freezing it was, of course. Law wished he could split himself in two or three, so many patients awaited his treatment, but he didn't complain. Today, he'd had to forgo lunch and was hastily eating the sandwiches in his office, simultaneously doing the paper work. After he ate, he would have the consultations, and then another admissions. It would do to air the room out... He opened a window, just a little, and then his eyes caught an element that didn't belong with the normal scenery.
He went onto the balcony, taking off his glasses and squinting. When it was minus twenty, the moist ocean air made him feel his skin is being peeled off his face, but he didn't pay it any attention, trying to understand what he was seeing. Against the white of ice biding the coast waters, a tiny figure contrasted. Law's heart beat faster when he understood it was a man moving over the uneven surface. As far as he could assess from so far, the person wasn't a fisherman nor a skating amateur. He or she was hunched, obviously freezing in this weather, yet stubbornly moving ahead.
Law frowned. From this height, he could see that the ice ended just a bit further up - but did that person know it, whoever they were? Even if it was some lover of winter in question, who would consider a walk in blistering cold to be pleasant, especially on such a sunny day, the fact was that just a few steps away a hellishly cold water opened, and the ice could break any moment... That person was in deadly danger, even if they only wanted to have a better look at the waves... which Law somehow doubted.
"ROOM. Shambles."
In two seconds, the failed floater found himself in Law's office, and with Law himself, who'd returned from the balcony and closed the door. The office was already nicely aired, but it didn't matter now. He was staring at the person he'd teleported, who, just like he should, was blinking in confusion, apparently clueless as to what had just happened to him. However, Law was at least partly as amazed by the sight before him.
There was standing a boy... judging from the pyjamas, a patient of the Corazon Memorial Hospital. The boy had only hospital slippers on his bare feet, and no other clothes. His ears and fingers were blue, and his face flushed. Law's first thought was that the boy was delirious, for no-one in his right mind would went out for the minus twenty degrees dressed so lightly. A grave disease or a surgery always presented a risk of an onset of a confusional state, in which an ill person experienced disturbed consciousness and could act like a lunatic, usually having no idea what they did.
He felt mad at the staff of the paediatric ward - or where the boy could be treated - for having not noticed anything. The tragedy had been very close... It was a miracle that Law had looked out the window when he had; the thought of what might have happened made him feel cold... probably as much as the kid himself. He needed to be warmed up and escorted back on the ward.
Law turned to take a blanket from the coach, but that moment the boy moaned, "Why... No...!" and he darted towards the balcony door, trying to open it.
Before he managed to, Law caught him by the arm. The boy jerked and cried out in pain, before turning his head to look at Law, whom that gaze shook to the very bone. In the boy's intensely blue eyes resentment was mixing with despair, but all that seemed to pale in comparison to the terrible emptiness. It wasn't a gaze of a madman, the kid was here and now with him, and yet it was beyond doubt that his mental state was far from good.
"Let me go!" he cried, grabbing Law's hand with his other hand. "Just... let me do it...!"
Law said nothing, mostly because he was speechless. He spent a moment trying to control that chaos of emotions that had filled him when it'd struck him what the boy had planned to do... and what he, himself, had known the second he'd seen him moving towards the edge of the ice. What should he do...?
He ordered himself calm. Never taking his eyes off the boy and never loosing his grip, he took a Baby Den Den Mushi from his coat and called Kaya. "I need you in my office right away. Immediately. And take someone from the Seven, Clione would be the best. I have a kid here, he'd just tried to commit suicide twice, and he seems like trying again," he said and hung up.
The boy froze and looked away, clenching his jaws. He no longer tried to wrench himself free, but Law kept holding him, nonetheless. His ears and fingers slowly started to regain their natural colour, but his face was pale, and a shiver ran through his body. He bit his trembling lips to suppress another moan, but then he said with his head down, "It hurts..."
"I'll let you go if you promise you won't do anything," Law suggested, although some part of him was amazed; he hadn't expected he could speak normally... However, he cautiously thought that if the kid was able to focus on pain, it bode well.
The boy nodded, and two tears ran down from his eyes. Law withdrew his hand, but once he did it, the boy's arm fell along his side limply, provoking another moan.
Law squinted... and then, in disbelief, activated the Ope Ope no Mi. It was hard to accept what he saw, but the truth was he'd just broken the kid's arm. How...? He hadn't squeezed it too much; he was well aware of his strength and knew how much he could use it on normal people...! And besides, how one could get his bone broken from a normal grip...?
Unless...
The next moment he was crouching before the boy to have a better look at his face, now covered by the tangled brown hair. He clenched his teeth. Yes, it was that kid he'd examined per Bepo's request the last autumn... the boy who'd constantly visited the hospital because of the recurrent and obscured fractures.
And the very same boy - Law realised a second later... and much too late - that he'd practically rebuilt most of the bones after they'd been smashed to pieces in the catastrophe of the ship, along with the rest of the organism.
Unexpectedly, he got angry... furious even, and he couldn't stop it, for it broke all barriers he used to control his emotions. It could be just a reaction to all that shock he'd felt... reaction to the situation he hadn't encountered in ages... reaction to fear that had filled him upon realising what might have happened, just under his nose, in his own hospital. This moment, however, he didn't wonder about the reasons of his wrath. If he'd wondered, such words would have never left his lips, for they were completely unfair and went against all medical ethics, to say nothing of his civility, but rage made him blind to any warning.
He rose and clenched his fists. "You foolish brat...!" he hissed, and the boy cowered as if he'd been hit, but Law cut himself off that image, too. "I spent several hours in order to put your skeleton together from those little pieces and to recreate your destroyed organs and tissues... building your spine anew along with some millions of nerves so that you could recover... And you do what...? Just try to waste the life I returned to you?! And where? Here? In this hospital that, for many, is the last hope for cure or even life? Have you no shame, you ungrateful brat...?!" now he was almost shouting. "There's no place for-"
"Law! Law, stop it!" a voice ringing with anger and terror interrupted that verbal assault. The next second Kaya ran to the boy and embraced him, followed by Clione, who stood between them two and Law.
In an abrupt move, Law turned to the window and folded his arms. His ears were ringing, he saw red spots spinning before his eyes, and his breathing was quick like after a sprint. He was still furious, still felt like yelling and swearing... but he also started to realise what he'd just done. He bit his lips and clenched his fingers on the fabric of his coat. Despite the suffocating feeling in his throat, he knew he'd said the truth, had said what he really thought... but he was aware he shouldn't have said it. Yet, he couldn't remember the last time he'd been so upset by a patient. His patients were ill, and then they recovered... not 'recovered to kill themselves'. Something like that wasn't acceptable, not in the Corazon Memorial Hospital...! His heart beat harder in his chest again, and it almost ached. How could he calm down... and move forward...?
"What's happened here?" Clione's calm voice broke through the humming in his eyes.
Law clenched his teeth and spoke only after a while, still staring at the scenery outside that he didn't really see. "I shamblesed the kid here from the ice after I'd seen him by pure accident from the window," he dawdled, although he felt like screaming. "There's no doubt he planned to drown himself in the sea, especially that right after that he tried to jump down from the balcony. I don't know what the hell is wr-"
"It will suffice, thank you," Clione interrupted him.
"Rosapelo has been on our ward after Law operated on him during the storm," Kaya spoke. "He'd been injured in the catastrophe of that ship from Vokzel." 'Injured? There was not a single intact organ in his body,' Law thought sarcastically, remembering the boy's condition on the operating table. "He was on his way here with his mother... and two days ago he learned she'd died when the ship had sunk."
"You should have watched him," Law snapped. "Or even transfer him to the Seven, on the locked ward..."
"Law, I really ask you to be quiet," the psychiatrist said flatly.
"Law is right," Kaya spoke in an apologetic voice. "I'm sorry, Rosapelo. We didn't know how much... We didn't know you were feeling so bad. But what you tried to do... Why-"
"I'll take care of him," Clione broke in. "I think you can return now, Kaya. I'll visit you later."
"But-..."
"Everything will be fine. We'll help him," the psychiatrist assured her. "We don't need Kaya any more, do we?" he asked Law.
Law shook his head, still turning his back to the room.
"Everything will be fine," Kaya repeated Clione's words, and then Law heard the sound of the door being closed, and the silence fell in the office.
Judging from the noises, the psychiatrist picked the blanket up from the floor and covered the boy with it. "I'm Clione, a doctor," he introduced himself. "We're going to see each other quite a lot over the next few days. Your name is Rosapelo, right?"
The boy kept silent... and Law, all of the sudden, remembered his words from a few months ago, so clear that he might have heard them only yesterday, damn his perfect memory, 'Rosapelo sounds like a girl'. However, it seemed that in a current state it was all the same to the boy how others addressed him.
"We'll go to my ward now," Clione spoke again, in the same warm voice. "It's just one floor down, we're going to use the lift. Law, you can escort us," he decided.
Law finally turned from the window and looked at the two, preparing for another attack of anger... but it didn't come, even though the cause of his fury from just a moment ago was still before him. The boy was standing with his head down and his eyes fixed on the carpet, unwilling to communicate, seemingly unable to move. Clione was slightly leaning over him, his smile gentle and sympathetic, but as the silence prolonged, he raised his eyes. "Law...?"
"We're going to do it differently," Law said, coming closer. The kid didn't react in any way; he seemed as if he'd lost his all will or even lost touch with his surroundings. It wasn't good, but at least he didn't make things harder. "ROOM."
He put the boy to sleep and placed him on the stretcher he'd shamblesed from the corridor the next second.
"His arm is broken," he muttered before Clione managed to say anything, and then cured the fracture. "Was," he informed, deactivating the Ope Ope no Mi, but he kept the boy in narcosis.
"You've broken his arm?" the psychiatrist asked in a neutral voice that, in his case, sounded very threatening.
"It's not that... That kid has very fragile bones," Law explained, automatically adjusting the blanket over the boy's body. "He was hospitalised here several times before, because of the odd fractures."
"Several times?" Clione's surprise was easy to understood; the Corazon Memorial Hospital wasn't a place that had regular customers.
Law nodded and took a deep breath. And then one more. He really didn't need to get even more depressed, realising that in this case he'd failed not only as a human being, but also as a doctor, since he had yet to discover the cause of those fractures.
"You can go, he won't wake up for some fifteen minutes," he informed the psychiatrist. "By then, you'll manage to put him in restraints, or what you want to do with him."
"You know what, Law?" Clione said, tilting his head and knitting his brows as he stared at him. "If I hadn't known you, I'd have thought you're a real bastard."
"I was once called the 'Surgeon of Death'," Law reminded, looking at some point over his shoulder.
The chief of the Seven shook his head in disapproval. "Why, on earth, did you react that-"
"Go already. It's a short narcosis," Law said, opening the door.
"I want to talk with you."
"I'm late for the consultations."
"Then later."
"I'm going to be busy until night. We have twice as much patients we normally have. I don't even know what time I'll go to bed tonight... if I will at all, in the first place."
"In that case... one day," Clione announced and left the office, pushing the stretcher in front of him. Yet, he stopped and looked back again, as if he'd remembered something. "This way or another... you've saved his life once more," he said, and there was familiar warmth in his eyes.
This moment, however, it couldn't soothe Law like it used to. He said nothing only closed the door after the psychiatrist. Then he rested his back against it and took several deep breaths... and when it didn't work, he activated the Ope Ope no Mi and directly calmed his organism, regulating the blood pressure and heart action. He felt as if a nicely cold wave flooded his body, regaining the familiar and so desired now sensation of composure.
He didn't want to think about what had happened. He couldn't. He mustn't. He had too much on his head and had to focus on working. He knew all that would return to him much faster he'd like to, along with all spectrum of emotions and conclusions, but he was determined to drive it back as long... as far in the future as possible. Clione could chase after him through all the hospital, but Law wasn't going to get caught and dragged for the psychoanalysis. And as long as he had the Ope Ope no Mi, he could remain calm, which he needed in order to work... because he needed the work for staying calm.
Once he knew he was ready, he left the office and ran to the consultation session.