Okay I'm free today so I'll put up a chapter. Thanks for the reviews so far I hope I don't let you guys down. But I would like to know how many people are reading this story so if you could please just take a moment and post a "Me" or "I am" or something in a review- it'll help me determine when would be a good time to update.

Once again I do not own any of these characters

And so, without further ado;

One of Our Own

What's Wrong

Zoro was freaking them out.

"Why won't he answer us?" Chopper wondered, looking at his nakama for answers.

"He appears to be upset" Robin noted.

"Yeah, but what exactly is that marimo so upset about?" Sanji asked. He scanned the deck to see if he could find the cause of the baka's strange behavior. As he glanced behind him, he was surprised to see Brooke staring at them from the upper level on the bow.

"Brooke!" Sanji announced.

Having been spotted, Brooke slowly made his way halfway down the steps then stopped uncharacteristically quiet.

"Oi Brooke! You wouldn't happen to know what's up with swords-bro?" Franky asked making his way to the stairs.

Brooke held up his hands "Please do not come any closer" he requested when Franky planted his foot on the first step.

"What? Why?" Franky asked.

Now Sanji came over to them, "Why can't we go up the stairs? What's up there?" Sanji asked as he started climbing the stairs, completely ignoring Brooke's request to stay back. Brooke extended his arms blocking the cook from going passed him.

"OOOWWWAAAHHHHRRRR!"

A wail of absolute devastation erupted somewhere deep within the ship.

Instantly everyone's eyes shot to the ground as an overwhelming sense of alarm raced through their hearts.

"…Luffy?" Nami gasped.

Okay, that was it. Now Sanji had to know what was up there. Disregarding the skeletons warnings, he pushed passed the musician and ran onto the upper deck.

"No wait!" Brooke called after Sanji, unintentionally getting the attention of everyone behind him.

"Sanji-kun!" Nami yelled racing over to see what was going on.

The second Sanji got onto the deck he started looking for what the hell could have caused all of this. Needless to say, it didn't take him long to find it. However, the moment he realized what it was-who it was his heart stopped and a wave of numbness washed through him like a blast of cold water. It couldn't be…It's not… He's not…

"Sanji-kun what is it?" Nami asked him from below.

Sanji didn't answer.

"Sanji-kun?" Nami tried again starting to get scared.

Sanji ignored her.

Now Nami as well as everyone else were becoming more and more alarmed with every second she went unnoticed.

"Sanji-kun?" Nami screamed desperately.

Sanji walked away.

Sanji couldn't hear her- let along think. He was just too overwhelmed to do anything other than stare. Without realizing what he was doing, Sanji found himself walking over to the lifeless form of his nakama.

He wasn't breathing.

Sanji knelt down and touched his face.

But his face was still warm.

He put his hand on his heart.

He felt nothing.

But… how? Sanji wondered. Then he noticed that his hand was wet… with blood. …Oh… How did he miss that? How could he possibly miss something that was... well… everywhere?

"Oi Robin, can you use your ability to tell us what the hell is up there?" Franky asked her.

"Please don't!" Brooke begged her.

Chopper was about to (for the fifth time) ask him 'why' when-

"Who did this?" a trembling voice asked from behind Brooke.

Brooke turned around "Wha-"

Sanji grabbed Brooke by his shirt and slammed him against the railing.

"WHO THE FUCK DID THIS?" the chief screamed with angry tears running down his face.

"I- I -I" the stunned skeleton stuttered.

"TELL ME!" Sanji demanded as he slammed him against the railing again.

"Sanji stop!"

"I don't know!" Brooke confessed.

"Let him go!"

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I wasn't up here when it happened! I was just going to get my violin, when I heard Zoro yelling." the musician explained "So I went upstairs to ask him what was wrong and he told me to get Chopper- that's all I know!"

Breathing heavily, Sanji glared at the skeleton as if trying to decide if he was telling the truth- which was hard to do since the guy didn't have a face. After a minute or two, the chief made up his mind, and let him go. Brooke sighed sinking to the steps, thinking that the cook's rampage was over when-

"ZORO! GET THE FUCK UP HERE NOW!" Sanji screamed yanking open the hatch.

He had every intention climbing down there to get the bastard, when Franky slammed the hatch shut in front of him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up bro! Tell us what's got you feeling so not super."

"Get out of the way Franky." Sanji warned him. Short on patience, he was about to kick the guy when he felt a slender hand grip his arm.

"At least tell us what you saw before you go prancing down there." Nami said moving in front of him.

The cook fell silent and looked away as his nakama stared at him waiting for an answer. How could he tell them? How could he possibly tell his that just this morning they had lost one of their own forever? But before Sanji could come up with an answer, Chopper voiced a sudden thought.

"Where's Usopp?" he asked to no one in particular, looking around the deck.

Robin, Franky, and Nami, turned around.

"He's not here." Robin observed

A horrifying epiphany instantly rippled through the minds of the crew. In that moment everything came together. Sanji's outburst, Zoro's reticence, Luffy's screams, Brooke's restrictiveness … the blood. It all made sense… But –but that couldn't be it! Because things like that didn't happen to this crew! …They couldn't happen….right?

"Oh my God!" Chopper yelp in sudden realization "Usopp doesn't know that something's wrong! I'll go get him!"

Chopper ran to the door to downstairs.

"…Should we stop him?" Brooke asked as he walked over to them.

"No." Sanji mumbled.

Nami's head shot up, "You mean-?" she pointed to the bow. Panic transpired through here voice "He's not- He's not up there is he?" She asked him.

"Yeah" he whispered solemnly. Sanji looked down unable to bear the desperate look on his beloved Nami-san's face.

"But he's okay right?" She insisted even though she could feel dread trickling down her spine. "Because if he's not we could get Chopper and-"

Sanji shook his head "No… It's too late for that..." his voice trembled horribly. He raised his head and looked her in the eye.

"He's gone" He rasped with tears streaming down his face.

Nami brought a hand to her mouth "He can't be!" she whispered.

"W-what?" Franky stammered, suddenly finding it hard to breath.

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Long nose was a super tough guy. He should know-having personally beaten the crap out of him and all. True he hadn't been with the crew for very long, but even he knew that- while Long nose might not have been the greatest fighter, he sure was one hell of a survivor.

With that thought in mind, Franky walked over to the steps and started to climb. He had to prove them wrong. There's no way that guy could be dead! He couldn't have died without them knowing-so he had to be alive! But Franky had only made it halfway up the stairs when he noticed a trickle of blood dripping off the side of the deck. Suddenly he didn't feel so super. Franky sank onto the steps as a wave of nausea overwhelmed him. Putting his elbows on his knees, he ran his fingers through his hair. Denial was fading and was soon replaced with a gut-wrenching realization. Until it finally sunk in.

The kid's gone…

He's gone forever.

He's dead.

That's when Franky started to crying.

Knowing something like this could happen and believing something like this could happen were two entirely different things. Nami always knew that dying was a real possibility… especially for her and Usopp...they were the only people in the crew who didn't have monster strength or the power of a devil's fruit to help them. They realized a long time ago that they would have to rely solely on their wit to survive…and that scared the hell out of them….But as time went on that terror had begun to fade, well, for her anyway. She started to believe that, after everything they've been through, after everything they've survived, this crew could-no- would survive anything. So… how could Usopp be dead?

He couldn't be! She decided. She had to see him for herself.

Sanji noticed that Nami-san had been staring at the upper deck. So when she turned to go up there, he immediately grabbed hold of her wrist. She spun around to see who was trying to stop her, and was about to tell him to let go, when she saw the look on Sanji's face.

"Nami-san, you don't want to see him," he told her "Trust me" he added softly.

It was only when Nami truly saw the utterly defeated look in Sanji's eye, that the idea that Usopp was dead really started to sink in, and she realized.

She was never going to see him again...

She lost it. Right then and there she broke down crying. She was crying so hard that she was only slightly aware that somebody was holding her.

At this point everyone was crying.

Robin was no exception. She was crying silently. There was no doubt in her mind that the sniper king was dead, death was something she found easy to believe. However, that didn't stop her from using her ability to see him one last time, when nobody was looking. Now she stared out at the sea and wondered whether or not she would regret that.

A door burst open and Chopper came out running onto the deck.

"He's not in the aquarium bar, or the kitchen, or the sick bay. I keep calling him, but he's not answering me. Maybe-…maybe he's in the shower and can't hear me over the running water! That's why he's not answering me!" Chopper concluded enthusiastically.

The cheerful certainty in Chopper's voice only made the grieving crewmates cry harder. But Chopper's smile disappeared the moment he noticed the state his nakama were in.

"Why is everybody crying?" Chopper asked his voice now soft and concerned "What's wrong?"

Nobody answered him. How could they answer him? They knew how close Chopper was to Usopp - how much he looked up to him. And to tell him that he was dead …the news would crush him. And none of them wanted to be the one to break his heart.

"Brooke" Chopper asked tugging on his pants leg, "What happened?"

Having been singled out, Brooke decided that he would be the one to bear the burden of breaking the news to the youngest crewmate. Wiping his tears away with his sleeve, Brooke cleared his nonexistent throat. He got down in front of Chopper, so he could speak to him skull to face. Chopper just looked at him, nervous and confused.

"We lost someone" Brooke told him gently.

"What? Who?" Chopper asked frantically looking around the ship.

He looked at him sadly, and softy told him "Usopp"

"…Did you check the showers?"

Brooke hung his head and tried to think of another way to tell him.

"He doesn't get it." Franky interjected wiping his nose on his arm as he walked down the stairs.

"Get what? What don't I get?" Chopper asked looking back between Brooke and Franky

"Chopper" Brooke tried again "Usopp's gone"

"Gone?" Chopper looked at him with frightful eyes " Whe-Where did he go?"

Brooke sighed. One would think that explaining death to a doctor would for the most part be easy- especially if the one doing the explaining was already dead. Regardless, Brooke was still determined to make this as painless for him as possible.

"Brooke, I don't think your euphemisms are working very well." Robin said feeling the need to point out the obvious.

Chopper looked at her with tears in his eyes fearing the worst "He didn't- He didn't quit, did he? Cause he said he would never do that again!" the reindeer cried, starting to get upset "He-He promised!"

"No Chopper he didn't… quit" Brooke said uncertainly.

Chopper started to calm down. "He's not quitting?" he asked.

Brooke didn't know how to answer that. While Usopp really didn't quit, he would still not be with them. So Brooke told him.

"No, but he's not going to be around anymore."

"What? Why?" Chopper asked with wide tearful eyes.

"GOD DAMN IT BROOKE JUST TELL HIM!" Nami yelled into Sanji's shoulder.

Robin sighed and while the reindeer was still looking at Nami she gently told him.

"He's dead."

Chopper's head shot back to face her.

"What?" Chopper asked not sure he had heard her right.

"He passed away this morning." she told him.

Chopper froze as he experienced the same cold numbness of shock and grief that had plagued the rest of the crew when they found out.

"But…how?" Chopper asked as he felt his world come crashing down around him "He seemed fine last night! Did-did he get sick? Did I miss something?"

"No Chopper he didn't get sick." Brooke told him

"Are you sure?" Chopper sobbed on the verge of hysteria.

Brooke looked over at the bow, remembering the gruesome sight that would mentally scarred anyone who got too close. "Oh yes, I'm sure…." Brooke noticed that the crying doctor was still looking at him for an explanation so he awkwardly continued trying not to describe anything that would give the young child nightmares. "He was … injured"

Sanji scoffed "Way to sugarcoat it" He glared at him over Nami's trembling shoulders.

The devastated doctor was still looking at him, trying to choke back sobs. He was doing his best not to get hysterical before his questions were answered, because- because once he started crying openly, he didn't know if he would ever be able to stop. Brooke awkwardly continued to explain.

"There was-…He was-…He had a chest wound-"

"He looked like he'd been shot." Sanji said bluntly, getting pissed at the skeleton for making it sound like Usopp's death was pathetically weak.

"He was shot?" Chopper said with wide eyes "But- but I can fix those! Why didn't someone come get me? Why didn't he-…unless…" A horrify thought struck him. Chopper took a shaky breath and looked at his crewmates absolutely dreading what he might hear when he asked what had to be the most awful question he could think of.

"He didn't-" Chopper swallowed "…He didn't die alone…did he?"

Everyone but Brooke looked at each other realizing that they had no idea whether or not their nakama spent his last moments of life alone. A sudden wave of dread washed over them at the thought that while they slept, Usopp was in pain, dying alone with no one to comfort him, no one to help him, waiting for someone to come, or for death to take him.

"No" Brook told them to their relief "Zoro made sure of that."

The little reindeer nodded and tried to smile.

Chopper choked "Thank-thank-good-ness"

He burst out into a river of tears. The poor guy couldn't repress his grief any longer. He cried his heart out; wailing in despair as the empty feeling of loss consumed him. And, for the second time in his life, he experienced the unrivaled agony of feeling his heart break. Listening to their nakama's seemingly endless cries of devastation, caused the rest of the crew to break out into new waves of tears.

As Chopper cried his heart out, he felt a boney hand rest on his shoulder. It was all the invitation the little reindeer needed. Chopper flung his arms around the skeleton; in return, the crying musician lifted him up into a hug. And with his head buried against his nakama's empty chest, all Chopper could think about was how wonderful all of his nakama are…. But this only made him cry harder than ever.