DESPERATION

(I hate to admit this, but I am addicted to reviews. Thus, with so many reviews, I have to continue this, but this wasn't in the plan. So I don't really know myself where this is going. )

Three days, it took three for the straw hat crew to leave Thriller bark. During that time, they hadn't been able to find any information on their missing cook, and they had put to rest ...Brook's nakama. It was more than time to move on, and thus, Luffy left behind a message at the grave site.

See ya in all blue.

No one said, it was good message.

The ship left Thriller bark behind as Nami stood with her elbows against the railing. Her hands dangling over the sea, the water so pristine and blue. She could see her reflection it was so calm as the ship cut through it, and she press her chest against the railing as she got a better look at it. The wind teasing her hair playfully as she lean over, a gentle breeze, almost like a caress. The sky, she could see it in the waves ...was so peaceful, not even a cloud to disrupt it, and she wanted to laugh.

This was the calm before the storm.

Nami shifted backwards a bit. So that she no longer threaten to go over into the water head first. She pulls it free of her pocket as her feet touch the deck of the ship once more and she looked at it. The Vivre paper in her hands was whole and white, but Luffy's, his ...was starting to burn down. The paper in her hand didn't seem so significant, but, it held a lot of power. Knowledge...of your nakama's whereabout and well being, and though it could bring despair as well as reassurance ...either way, it brought with it freedom. Freedom from the dread that stamp a person's heart when they didn't know what had happen to their nakama, and had no means to find them.

Nami didn't like this dread ...as she looked at the galley.

If this calm held out, Nami was determined ...there would be no more Sanji's ...for better or worse.

/

The darkness receded ...the light started to shift through. There was a part of him that was glad of that, a part of him that feared it, and he didn't understand any of it. He just knew, he couldn't stay in the dark any longer ...no matter what, and thus, he reached for it.

The machine screamed.

It's voice loud and haunting. It's cries piteous as some of the men in the other rooms would wince at it, while a few even broke down in tears. There was only one place such a noise came from, and that was the glass room. The place where the doctors put those they can do no more for, ...a death room. The room where life was balanced on a knife's edge, and when it topple over ...no one came to save it.

Either you walked out of that room ...or you was rolled out.

They waited ...waited for it to be over, and then another ghost bed would drift down the hallway ...to disappear into the void. They would never see that person again, and his or her name would simply be scratch off the list of survivors.

This place was hell, but, for most of them ...they would be escaping it.

For the few, this was their last resting place.

It wasn't pleasant ...at all.

The sound of footsteps echoed as the man walks down the hall. The manager of the dead himself, his entire purpose here was to check and make sure there was no pulse before he took them into the void below this building. What happen to people there, or at least their bodies was almost legendary in this building. Even those who knew he would never hurt them cringe as he pass. Death cling to him like a wrathful lover. It would strike at any who got too close, this was why they were glad that all of those that were in danger of meeting him was in the glass room. No one who had survived the operating room wanted death to touch them as he entered the place, and the doors swoosh behind him.

It would flutter the doctor's long white coat as the man would reach to the name tag on his chest and straight it a bit.

Doctor Death.

The white gloves on his hands would match the coat, and his eyes, a hideous blue color that was like frozen ice would drift around the room. He would flick his pale pink hair out of his face ...before he went to the screaming machine and cut it off. It was unnecessary now, he knew the dead one. The man peer down, as he looked at the body, comparing it. His skin was pale, but not as pale as him. Lips that were slightly tinted blue, that happen when there was a lack of oxygen in his body. The blood was no longer pumping, the heart no longer beating, so there was no oxygen being pulled in nor being released. He bet by now, his body temperature was cold ...if it wasn't dropping rapidly at this moment. Though something was off, he reaches down to flick a bit of the blonde hair out of the man's face. He wasn't missing a eye as he had first thought. Good, he didn't like it when he got damaged goods. Though, with both eyes showing, it made him seem younger than before. He would guess ...17 or 18, but then again, most of the ones here would fall under that age group.

Death loved them young, which made his range limited.

Though golden blonde was a rare group, so it wasn't a total lost.

He ... would finally look at his clip board on the man's bed. He needed to make sure his name was scratched off the survivor's list, as he saw the question mark after the name. It meant they didn't know.

So, he doesn't have a name. Though, he was pencil in as Sanji, the man would look at the clip board with one eye brow quirked up. It was standard procedure to name a man like him ...John Doe, and give him a number, 34. Most were quickly claimed, afterall, the Marines were known to kept good records of those that were apart of their ranks. But, he always had time to play with them before that...so, he figured this one would be no different ..except someone else had found him interesting.

That meant, he better do his damn job this time.

He would turn away from the bed then as he went to his personal cabinet. It made sense to keep the paper work at arm's length as he pulled the bag with the necessary equipment from there. He would go through the checklist, as he return to sit at the man's side. A chair he had found near one of the beds had gone with him ...as he rested in it. He had turned it backward so that his chin could rest on the backrest instead of him having to lean over as he pulled the boy's shirt up a bit. The bandages would be hard enough to hear through, but impossible with the clothing down. Then he would take out the stethoscope, and place it against the man's heart ...even as he grab one wrist and grip it lightly below the hand. He was looking for a heartbeat or a pulse, and he licked his lips as he concentrated on that before the words dripped from his mouth. Cold and icy as his appearance, when he spoke ...his words stab as sharply as any blade.

"It's dangerous here to play dead...you know."

One blue eye would open then, and the doctor's face would split into a grin.

The cord that attached from the machine to the patient dangle loosely on the ground between them.

Things had just gotten more interesting.

/

It would take a few more days ...as the crew went through candy rain, circle rainbows, strange Sea monsters, and under water typhoon ...before they reached the next port. The happy days for now continued, afterall, Luffy had determined that Sanji wasn't dead ...just lost. He wasn't worried about his brother, especially when...Brook...mention that the Vivre card would recover if the person did. It seemed that was enough.

From the outside, everything was okay.

Though that always changed around meal times ...where the person who had to fix the meals that day were surrounded by the fact ...that their chef was gone. That they may never see him again as they ate food that didn't taste the way it should. That left an emptiness at the table, as Zoro put his swords down. There was no one to fight anymore as he ate quietly as usual, and Luffy for once left everyone's plate alone. There was no one to stop him if he went after Nami's or Robin's plates anymore. No one to yell at him if he caused a mess at the table, and once all was said and done ...there would be no one to give him snacks or stop him from raiding the kitchen. During meals it was hard not to miss him, and if that wasn't enough of a nail in the coffin ...they had to eventually break down the doors to the refrigerator. They could only go so far with the food on the shelves, and since, Sanji didn't trust anyone else with the key ...it had been a task. Luffy had tried to eat the entire thing at one point, Usopp had hit it with his own firestar, and Zoro had tried to cut it while Franky had laugh about it's durability.

The antics were funny, but in the back of everyone's mind ...they were waiting.

A hope ...a prayer, that a foot would materialize out of nowhere to stop all of this. To kick them all out, and Nami and the rest of the crew held their breathe for it to come as their attempts at breaking down the icebox got more and more extreme. Though, it never did ...as Robin finally pointed out that the cook would more than likely have his key somewhere on the ship. All eyes turned on her ...with mischief in it, that quickly fell apart as the search became fruitless, until finally there was only one place left ...that hadn't been search.

This would lead to the second hardest thing they had to do ...go through Sanji's stuff.

The calm before the storm ...seem like it would be ending soon