Chapter 19: 17 days after arriving in Little Garden

It took two days to clear all the bodies out of Little Garden. They worked around the clock, dragging the corpses out past the open gate and dragging them to a nearby backyard with an inground pool. The bodies were dumped in the hole one by one and doused in gasoline. They had to be burned in shifts, to keep the pool from getting too full and yes it was about as morbid and off-putting as you would expect it to be.

Bonney and Zoro had the worst of it. They threw out all their furniture from the main room and did their best to scrub the blood off. But that room was going to be slightly red from now until eternity. As for the window, they ended up just duct-taping a sheet in front of the frame until they could find some kind of replacement.

On top of that, there was no way the twelve of them could properly reset the gate without outside help. They had to wing it by parking the RVs in front of the opening and keep someone on guard at all times. They bumped the patrols up to three people per shift and just for good measure, Franky went ahead and boarded up all the windows in the nearby houses.

When all the corpses were cleared out, Vivi was officially out of excuses when Coby decided to man up and actually confront her about what she said. They were back in the privacy of their own home, the yard free of dead bodies and internal organs. Coby was sitting on the couch and Vivi was laying on it, with her legs laid across his lap. "So, let's talk about this," he managed to say without stammering. He swallowed hard. There was no need to clarify what "this" meant.

Vivi sucked in a breath. "Alright. Well… So, I brought a bunch of pregnancy tests with me from Funkytown. And I've been using them every so often, y'know… Just to be sure. So… A couple days ago, one of them came up positive."

She could feel Coby tense up underneath her. As much as he tried not to, it was only natural. "But!" She quickly added, "I used another one a little while later and it came up negative! So… I didn't mention it or anything." Coby relaxed a little. "But then," and he was back to tensing up, "I used one that morning before we were attacked, and that one was positive too."

He tried his hardest to stay calm, but she knew him better and could clearly tell he was unnerved. She propped herself up on her elbows to study his reaction. "W-well, if you got one false positive, you could just get two. Those tests are like six years old anyway. What's the shelf life on them?"

"There's also the fact that I'm, uh, late. So."

"Ah."

"Are you upset?" She couldn't exactly tell what he was feeling, but he didn't look excited. She couldn't blame him, but it still hurt.

"N-no, no I'm not upset. I mean, this is what we wanted, right? It's just a little earlier than we planned. I thought we were being as careful as possible."

Vivi huffed and blew the bangs out of her face. "I guess not careful enough."

"We just have to figure out what to do."

She raised her eyebrow. "What to do? I thought I already told you. I want to stay right here. I don't like the idea of anything forcing me out of my home. Especially not my baby."

"Good thing we have a doctor here, then…" He was smiling at her now. Sure the smile was mostly a worried one, backed by a fear of the worst possible outcome of his wife being pregnant. But he was still smiling at her.

"Besides," she said, smiling right back at him. "No one tells a pregnant woman what to do. That's just plain rude."

Of course, they would have to tell Law and Perona about it, which was an adventure in of itself. Perona responded by screaming like a banshee and wrapping her arms around Vivi like a koala out of sheer happiness. Law responded by mumbling angrily to himself. Coby could barely hear him, but it sounded like a list. With Vivi trapped underneath Perona's death grip and her attention forcibly pulled to babblings about being picked as godmother and a list of totes adorbs names, it was up to Coby to ask what Law was talking about.

"You can… handle this, right?" He asked hesitantly.

"What? Oh. Yeah of course. I've helped deliver babies before. I just had more equipment and… better help. Shit. Shit, no I can do this though. Fuck. Okay we're going to need some stuff. Shit. No, she's gonna be fine. She will. Trust me. Fuck, okay."

So they were in for some serious shit, but we don't have the kind of time to deal with that in its entirety, so we'll save it for next time. What we do have time for is

28 days after arriving in Little Garden

The four plus hour long drive from Funkytown to Little Garden would have been hell on earth for Nojiko if she didn't have Usopp as her co-driver. Usopp had, as far as she was concerned, the greatest taste in music ever. So the entire trip had been spent with him flipping through his CD collection to satisfy all of her requests.

As the last of Redbone's "Come and Get Your Love" faded out, she slapped at Usopp's arm. "Oh dude! Dude, we're almost there!" She said, pulling off of the highway exit marked on their handwritten directions.

"Sweeeeeeet! Oh, right! I have the perfect song for when we get there!" He unzipped the big CD binder and flipped through the pages. "Where is it…"

Nojiko drummed excitedly on the steering wheel as he pulled one CD from its sleeve and slid it in. She listened as the heavy bass line kicked in and knew instantly what it was. "Ohhhh shiiiiiit!"

They both looked at each other before belting out the lyrics in the hardest voices they could manage.

"YEAH DON'T GET IT TWISTED

THIS RAP SHIT IS MINE!

MOTHERFUCKER, IT'S NOT. A FUCKING. GAME.

FUCK WHAT YOU HEARD

IT'S WHAT YOU HEARING"

"It's what you hearing" she said, and he followed up with "Listen"

Nojiko turned into the subdivision and Usopp rolled down the windows, cranking the volume knob as high as it could go. Hancock would have been proud of them announcing their presence in such a manner. She probably would've appreciated the song.

They couldn't hear themselves over the pickup truck's speakers, but they still sang along anyway.

"X GON' GIVE IT TO YA

FUCK WAITIN' FOR YOU TO GET IT ON YA OWN

X GON' DELIVER TO YA

KNOCK KNOCK OPEN UP THE DOOR IT'S REAL

WITH THE NON-STOP, POP POP, AND STAINLESS STEEL"

They could hear the music at the outpost, of course they could. They couldn't hear what it was at first, but the three guards, Luffy, Franky, and Coby, all raced to the entrance to see whatever the hell was making that noise. Everyone else found themselves drawn outside, curious as well. As it became more clear that it was in fact, DMX's "X Gon' Give it to Ya", Robin actually wondered aloud if Hancock was visiting them.

"No, she'd play something more… I dunno, grandiose," Law said.

"Is there something more grandiose than DMX?" She asked.

When the truck parked itself in front of the two RVs that made up the fence, Usopp turned the music down and Nojiko leaned out of the window. "HEEEEYYY! WHERE'S MY BABY SISTER?"

Luffy and Coby both lit up immediately. "Aaah! It's Nojiko!" Luffy cheered.

This prompted Usopp to make his presence known as well. He emerged from his side of the truck and waved up at Luffy. "Hey, I'm here too, man!"

"AAAHH! IT'S USOPP!" Luffy cheered even louder.

Franky brought their newly rightfully obtained walkie-talkie to his face and called for someone to "open the gate", which meant getting into the RVS and driving them apart from each other to allow the truck to pass. Once it did, they drove back together, accidentally colliding, which tended to happen when you used two cars as a barrier.

Once they were inside, Nojiko swung the door open and scanned the crowd for a sign of orange hair. Upon finding her target, she heat-seeking-missile charged her and threw her arms around her baby sister, nearly tackling her to the ground.

Nami squealed laughing as she stumbled to regain her footing. "Wait, wait! I'm injured, you can't do that!" This wasn't exactly true, her leg was healing up nicely and she had little more than a limp now, but she was sort of milking it to get out of the hard work around the outpost. At least for a little while longer.

Luffy was similarly tackling Usopp and the others were gathering around the truck to see what kind of presents Santa brought them this time. While Sanji hopped up onto the bed of the truck and offered Baby a hand up, Nojiko broke the hug to look Nami over. "Injured? What happened?!"

Nami rolled her eyes. "Oh God, where do I even begin? Ever since we got here, it's been nonstop." She peeked over Nojiko's shoulder. "Guys, come on! It's not Christmas morning, stop playing with the gear and just unload the truck!"

Bonney shouted at her from the other side of the truck, "You're not our fuckin boss! You don't get to tell us what to do while you sit on your ass all day!"

"I'm injured!"

"Fuuuuck you!"

Nami wordlessly gestured to Bonney while looking at Nojiko. Her older sister tried and failed to hide her laughter. "Alright, come on. Tell me what you've been up to, then."

"Where do you want me to start? There's Franky's crazy monstrosity he built, there's the southern… preacher… politician that attacked us, there's Vivi getting knocked up, Sanji getting a girlfriend, me getting shot…"

When Nami made eye contact with her big sister again, Nojiko's eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open. "You haven't even been gone a month!"

While Nami started summing up the events of the story you just read, Sanji and Baby got to work tossing down the loot to be sorted away. There was the usual resupply of bullets and new clothes. Sanji marveled at a cooler full of fresh vegetables. "Man, it would be so nice if we could get a garden going… Franky! What do you think about that?" He asked, passing it down to him.

"I bet we could float that! I can super start writing up some sketches!" Franky beamed. Anything he could work on with his bare hands, he was all for.

"Sanji! Sanji, Sanji, come look!" Baby suddenly squealed, bouncing on her heels. Sanji sidled up next to her and looked down at the cardboard box she had opened. It was full of homemade and recycled cigarette packs. The two of them clasped hands and looked at each other in perfect harmony. Baby's foot even popped up. "Oh darling, we are saved! It is zhe… how you say, mozherlode!"

At this point, Nami pointed to them for Nojiko's sake. "See what I mean? It's weird, right?"

"Oh my God, she likes him. She knows what he's like, right?"

"She's into it. It's sort of cute, though!"

Sanji and Baby started to pocket some of the packs and Usopp frantically waved his arms. "HEY HEY! THOSE AREN'T ALL FOR YOU! All of the boxes marked with black tape are for Empress Hancock's people in DC! Part of the arrangement, remember?!"

"You know what? That reminds me," it was apparently Law's turn to speak. "We need to set up some kind of smoking area for you guys. I'm not letting people poison the air around my pregnant patient."

"A smoking area? What are we, in high school? Go behind the shed to light up?" Sanji scoffed.

"Yes, exactly. You shouldn't be smoking anyway. Have you seen what it does to your body?"

"All of us had zhe healzh class in school, Law. We are aware of zhe bad lung pictures," Baby said dismissively. "It is too late now, anyway. We are hooked."

Franky, still carrying the cooler of food, but having stopped to listen to the conversation, said "Y'know, I bet I could build a shed and turn it into, like, a smoking parlor…"

"Alright, while you hash that out, I'm gonna go show Nojiko where she's staying!" Nami said, finger-gunning at the group. It earned her a few dirty looks. "I can't do heavy lifting! Law, back me up!"

And now the attention was on Law, which he hated. "It… is not recommended that the patient overexert themselves while recovering. Now, that being said-"

"See? Doctor's orders!" And with that Nami grabbed Nojiko by the wrist and led her to her house. Bonney flipped off the back of her head, but was distracted when Sanji mentioned he found a box of comic books.

Nami brought Nojiko inside and gave her a brief tour of the place. Not that there was much to show, but she could point out the bullet holes in the outside walls at least. "So… you and Luffy live here?" Nojiko asked.

Nami shrugged as nonchalantly as she could muster. "Yeah but if Mom asks, then it's me and Robin. How's life back home anyway?"

Nojiko swallowed hard. Her expression suddenly turned serious and her shoulders dropped. "Nami, there's… Something I gotta tell you about Mom."

Nami felt her chest tighten up. Nojiko looked away, almost shamefully. "Some… people showed up while you were gone. There was this… incident…" she had to force the word out. And now Mom is… She's… Dating again." A smile slowly spread across Nojiko's face as she brought her eyes back to look at Nami.

It took Nami a second to process what her sister had said, and when it finally clicked, Nami shoved her as hard as she could. "YOU ASS! You can't do that shit to me!"

Nojiko burst out laughing, "Come on, it was funny!"

"No it's not! That's so not funny, you dickbag!" Even though she was doubled over with laughter herself. When they managed to calm themselves down, Nami raised her head to look at Nojiko. "So wait, Mom's really dating again?"

Nojiko shrugged, "Something like that? Some guys really did show up. Hancock brought them up on one of her visits. They've been having a lot of private meetings and stuff, but I thiiiink they're trying to work out an arrangement or something? They're from another big settlement and they want in on our little system. You might be getting some neighbors."

"Ugh, really?" Nami groaned. "I don't want neighbors. We've had bad experiences with strangers around here."

Nojiko shrugged. "These ones are pretty cool. They're like a group of… really hot adventurer guys. A lot of them don't wear shirts and it is appreciated."

"I already have a hot adventurer guy, I don't need any more."

"Sounds like you don't need any more adventure either. You sure you're good here, sis? From what you told me, I wouldn't blame you for wanting to come back home."

"I dunno. I mean, yeah sometimes it sucks, but I feel like I'm doing something out here, at least. I'm not just hiding out at home. These last few weeks have been the most insane shit ever since… Well, the last time I left home." She shrugged. "It feels good to be here. Even with all the crap happening."

"Cool," Nojiko said. "Just make sure you don't get shot again."

So that's the end of that chapter. We can close the book on that one particular portion of their lives. But that doesn't mean the whole thing's over, of course not. Don't be ridiculous.

I mean, come on. Vivi's pregnant. We gotta follow up on that. And Law has his whole deal. You thought I forgot about that, eh? Nah, we'll get to that. These kinds of stories, they don't really have a definitive end anyway. One part just leads into another and we go from there. It ends when you feel like you've read enough.

But this part's over. I'm ending it here.

Later.