Chapter 10
Baby scanned the ground and reached for the knife that had slipped from her hand earlier. "I-I have to cut off my hand, Sanji, help me!" She gripped the knife with her good hand and brought it to the wrist of her bleeding hand.
As she brought the knife up, something caught Sanji's eye and he lunged forward. "Whoa, whoa, wait-!" he cried out, grabbing both of her wrists and forcing them apart. "Baby, Baby, hold on, calm down-!"
She shook her head frantically, trying to pull free of his grip. "No, I know what I'm doing! I've seen this dozens of times, please! If we don't act fast, then the infection will spread!"
Sanji stammered and held onto her wrists tighter, fighting against her. "I know that! But you might bleed out anyway! Let's think before we do something crazy!"
Her entire body went tense, her grip around the knife tightening to white-knuckle, and her injured hand balling into a fist. Blood was dripping onto the concrete floor now. But she stopped trying to fight him, instead choosing to look up at him for a solution with tears stinging her eyes.
"Let me just look at the wound first," he said, pulling her injured hand toward him. He wiped the blood off with his shirt sleeve and studied her injury. The cut looked too clean to belong to a zombie bite. It wasn't like a chunk of skin torn out, it looked more like… "I was hoping it was that…"
He reached for her other wrist and held up her hand so she could see. "Yeah… Baby, look. The knife's covered in blood too. I don't… I don't think you were bitten. I think you cut yourself when you fell."
She blinked and looked back and forth between her hands. The knife's blade was stained red, even though she hadn't actually used it to kill anything today. Sanji was smiling awkwardly at her, trying to reassure her that he was right. It was possible that she just cut herself... But it was also possible she cut herself on the zombie's teeth when she brought her hands up to defend herself. "Are you sure?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I think so. It… That's what it looks like..." He sounded more like he was trying to be convincing than he was actually convinced he was right.
She wanted to believe him. She didn't want to lose a hand and become a burden on the others. She was a fighter, a weapons expert. That was her role in Hancock's empire and it was a role she fulfilled with pride. Without a hand, she couldn't shoot, couldn't fight, couldn't do the thing she was best at. She shivered at the thought. She would be useless.
Sanji broke up her thoughts again. "W-we can… We can still cut it off if you want to be sure, but I'd really rather not mutilate you like that," he said with another awkward chuckle.
She was quiet for a while, staring at her injured hand. She looked over the wound, watched more blood pour from it and swallowed hard. "No… No, let's not do that. But…" her eyes moved up to meet his. "Could you stay here with me? I want to wait out the two hours… Just to be sure…"
Sanji's heart was in his throat. He desperately missed being nervous around Baby because her sexiness was borderline intimidating, not because her eyes were cloudy with tears and her breathing was unsteady with fear. "O-Of course, Baby…"
He led her up the stairs because, if the worst happened, she didn't want to die in a dark basement. They found a bathroom, so Baby could hold a towel against her hand while Sanji tore the house apart to find a first aid kit. As loathe as he was to leave her alone for any extended period of time. He managed to find a few rolls of gauze in a linen closet and rushed back to her. Neither of them really knew a whole lot about first aid, so he just cleaned it as best he could and wrapped her hand in enough gauze that they felt it looked good enough.
Once they were more or less satisfied with that, it was time to play the waiting game. They both collapsed on a couch in the living room. The living room was decorated with the kind of furniture that looked like it was more for decoration than serving any practical purpose. But fuck that, is what they both thought.
Waiting is a terrible experience. It's made even worse when you're waiting for something bad to happen. It's made even worse when you're waiting for something bad that could potentially happen. And it's made even worse when you have nothing to do but wait. Sanji sat on one end of the couch, his arm on the armrest, staring up at the white ceiling. Baby had her feet up, sitting sideways and leaning back against his arm. Her bandaged hand was resting on the top of the couch. She knew to keep wounds elevated at least.
Sanji broke the silence by asking "So how do you feel…?" And when I say he broke the silence, I mean it was pure silence. The absence of any sound made it impossible to keep track of how long they had actually been sitting there. No ticking clock on the walls, and neither of them wore watches. It felt like it had been a half hour, but had really been more like ten minutes.
Baby fidgeted where she was sitting. "My heart's racing and my head hurts. But I don't know if it's infection or if it's nerves…"
"Well," Sanji said, surreptitiously shifting so she was leaning more against his chest than his arm. "You don't look sick… And you're taking all of this pretty calmly."
Baby responded to this by screaming.
"IT'S NOT FAIR! I HATE THIS! I HATE UNCERTAINTY! IT'S ALL BULLSHIT! I WANT THINGS TO BE SIMPLE! A man shoots at us and we kill him! That's simple! We shouldn't have to track him like a dog! We should be able to deal justice NOW! But no, he has to sneak away and leave us with nothing to go on!" She looked at her hand and clenched it into a fist. "And this! This, this-! Am I going to die or not?! I DON'T KNOW AND I HATE IT!" She wiped the tears from her eyes, slumping back against Sanji. "I would rather the thing have torn my throat out! Then I would at least fucking KNOW!"
Sanji tried to say something, but he really had no words to console her at all. She was right on all accounts. She exhaled sharply. "If I do start to turn, you have to promise you'll kill me before it's too late."
He finally found his voice. "Wh-what?! No, I couldn't-! Baby, that's-..."
"You have to! I am not letting myself turn into one of those things. That would be the most bullshit to happen to me! I am not going to end up the same way my family did! They deserved to become those monsters! Not me!"
"Family…? Wh-what was that about your family?" Sanji asked.
Baby suddenly became very quiet. "Nothing. They got what we deserved. Sanji, please promise me you'll do the right thing."
Sanji ran his fingers through his hair. "I-I-... God… I promise. I'll do it before it's too late, but… Shit, I really hope it doesn't come to that. I don't… want to lose you."
Baby burst out into laughter. That cackling, borderline psychotic laughter similar to earlier in the day. "Lose me! Lose me?! Sanji, dear, you don't have me!"
Sanji's heart had previously been in his throat, but now it dropped right fucking quick into his stomach. He stammered to roll that back. "N-no, wait, I mean-! I didn't mean to imply-"
Baby interrupted him. "Speaking of uncertainty, it's also frustrating that for someone as so good at flirting as you, you can't make it clear what you actually want. It's disappointing."
"D-disappointing?!"
"I've been waiting patiently for you to make a move, to take a shot! But it hasn't happened! We could have had several alcohol-fueled makeout sessions by now!"
Sanji's brain sputtered to a halt and he attempted to make sense of what she was saying. "... Wait… Wait, wait, I wasn't making a move because I thought you weren't interested in me like that!"
For the first time in this conversation, Baby actually turned around. She shifted so she was sitting shoulder to shoulder next to him, her legs tucked up underneath her, so she could look him in the eye. "No… That's not right. You were more interested in shallow flirting, so I didn't feel the need to pursue you."
"Are you… Joking?! Why wouldn't I be interested in a smoking hot French maid with the nicest hair I've ever seen and the best legs on anyone I've ever met?! Not interested. I've never met anyone with so much passion! You're everything! Crazy hot and caring and dangerous! Of course I wanted to get with you!"
"Oh and you're one to talk! Mr. Gorgeous Chef Man with all his heroics. So damn charming all the time, it never turns off! Like a damn swashbuckler! And really, my hair?! What about your hair?! Blonde, shaggy, I just want to run my fingers through it!"
Sanji stared at her and processed all of this. "Well! That's where we are, then!"
"That's how it is!" she said back to him. They both sat there, eyes locked, being all indignant at each other for no good reason. And then both of them leaned in at the same time, eyes closing and lips pursing. However, Baby pulled a shocking swerve at the last second and turned away, yelping "Wait, wait, no!"
"Gaaaaahhhh! Why not?!" Sanji groaned.
"Because it feels wrong! The mood is off, I don't want to make out now! The spectre of death may be looming overhead."
He had almost forgotten what spurred this on. He managed to compose himself and said "That's fair…" through gritted teeth. Then, much more softly, he asked "So how do you feel? Feverish at all…?"
"I don't think so… I'm not really sure." She put a hand to her forehead, waited for a second, and then frowned. "I don't know what I'm feeling for."
Sanji hesitated, and then placed his hand on her forehead too. She looked at him for a verdict and he shrugged. "I don't… really know what I'm supposed to be looking for either. But I think by now you'd be… sweating or in pain or something. Y-You know. Dying…"
She was feeling more or less okay, but the thought of getting back to the outpost and then turning in front of all her friends flashed through her brain. "Let's give it a little longer, just to be safe."
"Smoke?" he asked, holding his pack of cigarettes in front of her face. She gladly accepted the offer and leaned in when he held the lighter in front of her.
She took a long drag and watched the twin trails of smoke curl upward to the ceiling. "Thank you, by the way," she said. "For sitting here with me. I'm afraid I… may have gotten us both worked up for nothing, but… I appreciate it anyway."
His arm found its way around her shoulders so she could lean against him again. "Of course," he said with all that charm he carried around. "Who wouldn't?"
She scowled. "You'd be surprised," she said with all the bitterness of pure black industrial grade coffee.
He thought about it for a second. "You know, I actually don't think I would. Your family isn't the only one that got what they deserved."
Baby turned to him, cigarette dangling from her lips. "Oh? Would you like to go on?" she asked in a combination of slyly and innocently.
He just laughed. "Maybe some other time. It's not going to affect us, so I'm not in any hurry to talk about my past. I'll save it for when we really get to know each other."
Baby sat up, deliberately pulling away from him. "And that's the ambiguous bullshit that I hate."
With each passing moment, it became more and more clear that Baby was in no danger of turning. They waited until Sanji's pack of smokes was depleted, and when they extinguished the last two butts by pressing them into the couch, they stood up.
Both of them let out a breath, smiling at each other. "You're alright," he said.
"I'm alright," she repeated back.
They stood there for a while, uncomfortably close, looking into each other's eyes. Now this normally would be the part where the music swelled and they both leaned in slowly and kissed in this perfect, relieved way.
But nah, instead it was more like they just grabbed each other by the cheeks and their lips smashed into each other like wrecking balls. It was frantic, desperate kissing, and it only increased when Baby's leg hooked around Sanji's waist and his hands traveled down her back to grab her butt under her skirt.
Eventually Baby's eyes shot open and she pulled away. "Oh SHIT! The shooter! I almost forgot!"
She tried tugging away from Sanji and he was hesitant to let her go. "Shooter?! S-seriously!? Now!?"
"Oh we can pick this up later, we've wasted enough time. Let's get back on the trail! We know he went out the back, right?" She unhooked her leg and took a moment to study him. He had smeared red lipstick around his lips, but there was no time to try and wipe it off, so she didn't bother saying anything. She was already on her way to the doorwall with Sanji right behind her.
"Wait, we're just gonna stop like that?! And hey, don't you wanna go back and get that hand looked at?! Just because it's not infected doesn't mean it can't be… uh… infected!"
She was already in the backyard by that point, and something had caught her attention.
It's important at this point to mention that the house they were occupying was on a street corner. They could see the road to their left when they hit the backyard. It's worth mentioning because this is the only way they could see the car driving away from the direction of the outpost. Sanji stood next to her as they watched it go, cruising at a leisurely pace. It allowed Sanji to see who was sitting in the passenger seat.
"Visitors? Did we have guests…? Oh! Do you think they're connected to the shooting?!" Baby gasped. She turned to Sanji, but he was already storming back inside the house.
"Come on! We gotta get back home!" he yelled to her, beckoning her to follow him.
The car was out of sight and she looked back to where it had been seconds ago. "What?! But the trail-! We should-!" But he was already gone as well. She had no choice but to chase after him as he retraced their steps in a sprint. "Sanji! Do you know who that was or something?!"
He flung open the front door of the house, storming across the street, leaping over the zombie corpse that had been cooking there. "Yeah, you could say that! Mother fucker, what the hell is he doing here?!" He was back in the backyard with the privacy fence and he more or less ran straight up it, rather than climb. When he swung over to the other side, he stayed up on it, so he could reach down and grab Baby's hand to help her up.
Once they were both over, he scrambled for the Frankystein, practically diving over the back of it to crawl into the front seat. Baby climbed in after him and once she had dropped down in her seat, she looked at him. "Who is that man?! Do you think he hurt the others?!"
He threw the car into reverse and tore out of the driveway. "I don't know, and that's what I'm afraid of!"
They were both relieved to find the gate and the walls still intact. Sanji beeped the horn and was surprised at how quickly Coby and Perona popped their heads over. He didn't even have to say anything before Perona vanished and the gate slid open. When they drove past the walls and into the cul-de-sac, they could see most of the others standing around in various states of unease.
None of them looking more uneasy than Luffy and Nami, standing in the center of the road. Sanji parked the Frankystein in front of them and both he and Baby climbed out.
"What the hell happened? Were those guys here?!" Sanji asked as he approached the younger duo.
Nami rubbed her eyes. They both looked absolutely exhausted. Luffy's shoulders were slumped forward and Nami had dark bags underneath her eyes. "You saw them? Yeah they just left."
Luffy blinked at Baby. "Hey, what happened to your hand?!" He pointed at her injury.
"Zhis? Zhis is nozhing, zhose people are more important! Who were zhey? What did zhey want?!"
Nami looked between the two of them, wide-eyed and fidgeting, completely opposite of her and Luffy's current attitude. "The hell's got the two of you so jumpy?"
Before Sanji could open his mouth, Baby explained with just a hint of bitterness, "Sanji knows who zhose people are, but he will not tell me anyzhing else! All I know is he zhinks zhey are dangerous!"
Nami shook her head. "What? Nooo that's impossible. First off, Sanji would never hang out with scumbags like that guy. And second, he lived with us for years, and when he came to my town, he was alone. Anyone he knows, I would know too."
"Look, it's complicated," Sanji said, "And I'll explain all of it, but first I really need to know what they were doing here!" He glanced over at Baby. "And uh… while we're at it, we should probably get her hand cleaned up."
"Yeah! What happened?! Did you two get in a fight with someone?!" Luffy asked.
Baby waved it off dismissively. "It is nozhing! I zhought I had been bitten, but really I just cut myself. We should focus on zhese mystery men!"
Luffy didn't want to drop it, though. "How do you know…" he said after a moment, "That you weren't bitten, and it just turns out you're immune, like Robin is?"
Baby's mouth hung open. "I… I had not considered zhat…"
Nami put her hand on Luffy's shoulder and gave him a gentle shake. "Sweetie, that would be a really cool thing to talk about later, but can we do one thing at a time? I've been awake for like… 28 hours now and I don't have the brainpower to multitask. In fact, let's kill two birds with one stone." She gestured for everyone to follow her as she headed to Law's house. "I need to go see Law anyway, so we can talk there. Zoro's still recovering and I need to tell him that we know who fucking shot him."