A Step Back in Time…

The little boy sat on a small purple cushioned couch in a dimly lit room. It was midday but all the curtains had been drawn closed and the door to the hallway beyond was only open by an inch. The doctor had just left, leaving it slightly open and his soft footsteps grew fainter as he approached the meeting area out front. He had come to inspect the long ring of nasty purple bruises that peppered the small child's neck and to check for any further progress in his recovery. He had asked him many questions, where did it hurt, had he been eating enough, did he feel any discomfort? The boy said nothing, his slightly bloodshot and vacant eyes never leaving the wall behind the man. After several minutes of this process and gaining no response, the man had simply sighed, performed several tests and then turned to leave, telling the boy to tell any grownups if he began to feel any stomach pain.

"How is he doctor?" a kindly woman's voice echoed down the hall. For the first time in what felt like eons, the boy's eyes flickered with recognition. He whipped his head around to the sound, his heart hammering in his chest as his breathing nearly stopped. Could it be...was she…?

"Not well, I'm afraid Ms. Hampton," immediately the light that had been rekindled in the child's eyes was snuffed out by an overwhelming surge of despair. It hadn't been her, it was just Dana. Slowly he turned his head back to face the wall he had been staring at for the past several hours, feeling more empty than he had been before.

"The poison seems to have left his system for the most part but there is still the possibility that his organs have been permanently damaged, however he refused to answer any of my questions on the subject," the doctor's voice continued. The boy wasn't particularly interested in what he had to say but he found himself listening in anyway.

"...Yes, I'm afraid he's been quite despondent since he heard what happened…" Dana said sounding concerned. The corners of the boy's lips tipped slightly downward at that, he didn't want to upset Dana, she was a nice lady.

"Yes, well, keep a close eye for any strange behavior, if he starts vomiting, exhibiting stomach pains or coughs up blood call me immediately," there was a pause as Dana must have nodded. "Good, I checked his external wounds as well and they seem to be healing nicely but I expect that he will still be sore for some time. The bruises on his neck will probably fade by the end of the week but keep an eye on his breathing, his windpipe was damaged by the... incident" there was another awkward pause.

"I understand doctor…" another pause followed by several footsteps "Wait doctor! If I may…. I know it's not your area of expertise but…" The footsteps stopped and the boy could imagine Dana biting her lip as she was oft to do when she was nervous or concerned. "How is he mentally… do you think he is going to ok or…" The doctor sighed.

"I am no psychologist but even I can tell that he isn't coping well, he's quite underweight and he shows signs of exhaustion, I can see he hasn't been eating or sleeping, I strongly advise you continue to encourage him to do so, if this behavior continues I assure you he will not last much longer," there was silence as Dana processed this, then the two of them bade each other farewell and the sound of the front door shutting signaled the doctor's leave.

"Oh kid, what am I going to do with you?" Dana whispered just loud enough that the boy could still hear. He felt bad for making her feel this way, but he couldn't help it. He still felt dazed about everything that had happened although he couldn't quite remember it. It was like his head was underwater and it made everything blurry and out of focus, and everyone's words sounded far away. He was still very small and couldn't speak well himself but usually he could understand others quite well, lately however he was struggling to process even the most basic sentences. What did it even matter anyway?

He thought back to that afternoon and tried to piece together what exactly had happened, but it was so murky in his head… Dinner, momma had made dinner...then there was pain in his tummy, horrible burning pain...he was crying, momma was hurt… two hands wrapped around his neck lifting him off of the floor and squeezing the life out of him...someone was hitting him...then darkness. The images played through his mind again and again as he tried to make sense of them but no matter how he tried, his mind refused to fill in the blanks. All he remembered clearly was waking up in a strange bed with weird people hovering over him, he was covered in bruises, cuts and bandages. Everything hurt, everything still hurt, especially his stomach, but he didn't say anything. The pain hardly felt like anything compared to the hollow ache he felt in his chest.

There was a knock at the door, when he said nothing Dana gently pushed it open carrying a large plate of food. He slowly glanced up at her and when he met her eyes she smiled brightly, he said nothing still and looked away. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the bright smile fade into a worried frown. He was small, so small, and growing smaller with every passing day. She needed to get him to eat or the poor thing would starve by the end of the week. She held the plate out to him. The boy looked down at it and felt a small rumbling in his stomach, but no matter how empty his stomach felt he couldn't bring himself to take the food. He looked away and began uncomfortably fidgeting with his shirt.

"Please dear, you need to eat something," Dana sighed pushing the food towards him. He squirmed away slightly and refused to look at it. "Why won't you eat, sweetie, does your stomach hurt?" The boy still said nothing. She set the food tray down on the coffee table across from the couch and knelt down in front of him, gently taking his shoulders. She gently brushed the raven locks that had fallen over his gaze out of his eyes.

"Luffy look at me," she said firmly and the boy's eyes widened slightly at the sound of his name, reluctantly he turned to look at her. "Listen, you have to eat, you have to tell me what's wrong or I can't help you!" The boy just blinked his wide brown eyes, he hadn't said a word since the first day he had arrived here. There was nothing worth saying, nothing worth the effort so he simply remained quiet, even when he felt agonizing stabs of pain shoot through his middle he stayed silent. Who cared about that anyway?

Dana cursed under her breath and her grip tightened on his shoulders causing him to wince slightly. Suddenly she began to shake him violently back and forth a look of anger crossing her face. "I know you're upset Luffy but you can't keep doing this to yourself! Your mother is gone, get that into your head! She is not coming back and starving yourself won't make it better!" She stopped shaking him and glared at him sternly. Luffy opened his mouth then closed it again, he felt for the first time in days something other than emptiness and that was almost worse. His eyes widened and they began to fill with tears that had gone unshed for too long.

"B-but…" he whimpered "she wouldn't leave me… she loves me...mama loves me...she…" his lips were trembling too much for him to continue speaking. Dana's shoulders slumped and a look of pain crossed her face as she looked at the crying three year old. After a moment she pulled him close into a tight hug where he sobbed uncontrollably into her shoulder. She rubbed his back soothingly as he cried, letting him finally process what happened nearly a week ago.

"Momma!" he wailed, his fingers wrapping themselves into Dana's soft green shirt. After a solid five minutes of crying the child went still in her arms. She pulled him away to see that although big fat tears were still rolling down his cheeks he had calmed down enough to listen to her. She sat him back down on the bed and once more grabbed the tray of food. She held it up to him once more and this time he actually looked at it.

"Eat," she said and a small trembling hand tentatively reached out and took a small triangle of a sandwich. Slowly, still hesitating he put the bread to his lips. He took one more pause before nibbling the end of the triangle. Then as though a dam somewhere within him collapsed he began cramming the sandwich into his mouth with large hungry bites, tears still streaking down his cheeks. Dana uttered a sigh of relief as he took another sandwich and she turned to leave, allowing him to eat his lunch in peace.

Luffy watched as Dana left him alone. His stomach hurt but he couldn't stop himself from eating more, he was so hungry. He took another sandwich slice and felt his shoulders shake as he took another bite. He was glad that the other kids weren't allowed to bother him, he didn't want to be with anyone right now, not when he looked like this. He heard their voices from another playroom down the hall, laughing and playing games. None of them had parents, but they were used to it by now, they had each other. Luffy had no one. He was alone. The thought sent a jolt of pain through his heart and he let out a choked sob.

"You did contact the boy's grandfather didn't you Dana?" a harsh voice cut through the silence catching Luffy's attention.

"Yes Molly, I did, he hasn't responded yet," Dana answered and Molly snorted.

"Doesn't surprise me, he's illegitimate, Garp's probably embarrassed of the little brat," Luffy listened, he'd never heard that word before. What did illegitimate mean? Were they talking about him? Was illegitimate a good thing?

"Molly!" Dana snapped, reprimanding her friend. Luffy frowned, he guessed it was a bad thing then.

"Well you give a better reason for why he hasn't answered yet!" There was a pause, clearly Dana had none. "That's what I thought, you know this is probably the first he's heard of it, he probably had no idea his son, whoever he is, went out and fucked some whore leaving behind a bastard son for him to take care of-"

"MOLLY! YOU WATCH YOUR MOUTH!" Dana shouted causing Luffy to jump. He hadn't heard half of those words before but based on the way they were said and Dana's response he guessed that they were all nasty. He felt a surge of rage rush through his veins, she was talking about him wasn't she, but not only that she was talking about his mom. He had already heard the grown-ups around him say plenty of things about the both of them but now it was really sinking in.

"What!? You want me to compliment the bitch who tried to murder her own kid before taking her own life? Not that I blame her, the little freak creeps me out too, so-"

"Get out." Dana's voice was scarily calm. There was a pause.

"Excuse me?"

"I said get out Molly, you are fired."

"What!? But-"

"I do not tolerate my employees speaking about the children under our care in such a way now get out!" Luffy could tell that there would be further shouting and words that he didn't want to hear anymore, so he quietly slid off the couch and silently padded to the door which he gently closed. The voices were muffled now. He didn't care anymore, he was so tired. He didn't care if it was only midday, he climbed back up on the couch, a troublesome task for his small body and laid down, curling into a ball. He closed his eyes as the voices grew louder and felt himself gently falling into darkness.

So that was a bit intense, and a bit depressing... So here we are entering my idea for what might have happened to Luffy's mom, it's a bit of a mystery at this point but I have the whole story of what happened with Dragon, who Luffy's mom might be and what exactly happened between them in my head. I might get around to writing it eventually. I've seen several fics that try to go into Dragon's backstory but they never finish... it makes me sad. I know my ideas probably aren't even close to what really happened in the story, but its fun to think about while we wait. I don't know if we'll ever really find out. Oh well, until then I hope this serves as an interesting (somewhat sad because like Oda, I'm cruel to characters) alternative to the cannon.