A/N: Thanks to the wonderful reviews, this chapter I am not too happy with. It didn't flow that well, yet it was needed for the story to progress the way it is heading. Some day I will revise it, right now though it will stay the way it is. Generic disclaimer applies... I only own this plot. I will try to update on or before Saturday every week.
Franky was still just staring at Luffy as Iceberg opened the door and walked in. Luffy was trying not to freak out about his leg and to play it down, trying to get it to go back to normal. However when he saw Iceberg, he looked up at him as if waiting for an explanation.
Iceberg didn't know that they were both in some mild form of shock, so he reached over and helped Luffy stand up. That was when he realized that the teen's leg had literally turned to jello. "Franky," the older man firmly said, "Grab his legs."
"This is not super." Franky grumbled as he lifted one solid leg and one rubbery feeling leg. He had so many questions that he wanted to ask, now would not be the best time though he knew.
"We will take him directly to my office," Iceberg said as they left the solitary confinement room, "All the other patients are in with Robin so let's hurry before she lets them out."
Franky knew it was so that they wouldn't see the rubbery teen being carried down the hall.
"I missed breakfast?" Luffy's voice was scratchy and barely above a whisper.
Iceberg nodded his head as they entered his office, he gently lowered the boy onto the sofa against the wall, for some reason he didn't want anyone to see the boy in this state. He knew if certain people saw him this way then the government would take him to do experiments on, just like they continued to take Chopper.
"Franky," he pulled his brother aside and said, "Go get him some food, and some change of clothes, he will stay with me till we figure out what to do."
"What about his sister?" Franky asked, "I know she waits down in the lobby all day for him."
Giving it a moment of thought, he slowly nodded his head, "You can send her up here. I think she might be able to help with this. Oh and one more thing, check to see if Chopper has returned from his time in the labs."
Luffy sat on the couch continuing to study his leg; he poked it, and moved it all around, trying to figure out what had happened. The feeling was slowly starting to return to the limb when his sister walked in, her snake coiled up around her neck.
"Luffy-kun." She pulled him into her arms and embraced him, the snake going once around Luffy's neck as a greeting. "What happened?"
Pulling away from her slightly, he indicated his leg. This was not the first time this had happened, she recalled, one other time he had a terrible dream and the next day his arm had been slightly rubbery. It had only lasted for about five minutes though and he hadn't been aware of it.
She settled him in her lap and lifted his leg, rubbing it in circular patterns so that the circulation slowly returned to it, "This is why I don't want you here." She softly complained while doing it.
"He had terrible nightmares last night." Iceberg sat in the recliner next to them while Franky busily got all the food on a tray for Luffy to eat. "He was screaming so loud that we had to put him in a confined room so the others could rest. Franky here stayed with him."
For a brief moment, Luffy thought that Boa would blow a fuse and lambaste them, but she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before saying a little too icily, "I think you need to let me take him home. Nothing you are doing is helping him, and he seems to have gotten worse."
Iceberg sighed, and softly said, "Normally I would agree, however he needs to get it all out, if he wants to go forward he needs to reopen whatever is haunting him emotionally and let it heal so that it will not affect him in the future."
"And how do you propose to do that? By making my baby brother have horrible dreams that haunt his every moment?"
"That is why you are here," Iceberg said calmly, "I want to have him stay with you at night here so that he feels the security of familiarity and during the day we can work on resolving his nightmares. I would also like to try hypnosis therapy with him. I think he has PTSD."
"What is that?" Luffy asked, proving to them that even though he had not been paying too close of attention that he had been paying some attention to the conversation.
"Post-traumatic stress disorder." Iceberg said, "I think it has something to do with a past life."
"Like reincarnation?" Boa asked while absently rubbing Luffy's hair while he slowly ate his food that Franky had placed on the tray in front of him.
"Yes," Iceberg said, "We need to start on it as soon as possible."
"What if that is not it?"
"Then hypnosis will help find out what it is."
"I don't think he should be hypnotized." Boa said decisively.
"Why not?" it was Franky that asked.
"I just don't okay?" she did not want to tell them that she was afraid they would find out who Luffy's father was. That just wouldn't do, them working for the government and finding out that Luffy's father was the famous terrorist that was wanted by the government. No, she thought to herself; that would not be good.
"Boa," Luffy pulled away from her, "I think I can do it."
"No Luffy, I will not allow it."
"What if you were here during all the sessions?" Iceberg asked her.
"You mean I could put a stop to certain questions?" she asked.
"Yes," he nodded his head, not sure why she would want to stop certain questions if it was all designed to help her troubled brother.
"Just let me do it Boa," Luffy pleaded; his voice still scratchy from the night of screaming he had done.
Boa looked at Luffy and slowly nodded her head, "On the condition that I am there for all the sessions and if I say to stop it, you do so."
Iceberg nodded his head, "Right now I just want Luffy to rest, you may stay with him in his room; we will bring you both some lunch shortly." He stood up and helped Luffy to his wobbly legs. "Do you think you can walk?"
Luffy nodded his head and leaning heavily on his sister, went out of Iceberg's office. Down the hall, he could hear the others all talking in the common room. Before he left the older men, he asked them, "What about Chopper? Is he back yet?"
Franky looked away before shaking his head no.
Once they were in Luffy's room, Boa held him on the bed, while soothing him into sleep.
He didn't know how long he had been sleeping, all he knew was his stomach was once more grumbling for food.
A soft laugh made him look over to where his sister was on the edge of his bed. "What time is it?" he groggily asked.
"Near seven p.m." She helped him sit up, "You slept all day, a few of your friends from here stopped by to see you. They wanted to make sure you were okay."
"Why am I so tired still?"
"I'm not sure." She stood up, "Let me go get you some food."
"I can go too. I want to see the others."
She helped him get up and let him lean on her arm as they went down the hall towards the cafeteria.
Sanji was the only one in the room as they entered; he was cleaning the mess from the others, while softly humming a song. When he noticed them, he stopped his humming and went over to where they had sat down. "What can I get for you two?"
"Soup and salad." Boa stated.
"Meat." Luffy said at the same time.
Once he had gotten them both some food, he sat down across from them and asked, "So how are you doing today Luffy?"
"I'm still tired." He admitted.
"You had us all worried." The blond brushed his bangs to the side, revealing only one eye.
"Sorry." Luffy mumbled.
"Don't worry about it, that's what friends are for after all."
Luffy nodded his head and smiled at the blond, he was glad that they considered him a friend as much as he did them.
"How is Chopper?" Luffy asked as he finished his meat and went to push his empty tray aside as he waited for his sister to finish her salad.
"He is still missing, that idiot Zoro wants to go look for him."
"So do I." Luffy felt excitement build within him.
Sanji harrumphed before saying, "I guess I will go look for him too, only because Nami and Vivi want to also."
"When?"
"If he is not back by tomorrow is what Usopp managed to get Zoro to agree on."
"How often do they take him away?" Luffy wanted to know.
"About once a week." Sanji took their empty trays to the trash and followed them out into the hall. "He always comes back the same day though, and this is the first time he has been gone so long."
"What is this all about?" Boa asked as they neared Luffy's room.
"The facility takes Chopper and they do certain things to him," Sanji explained. "When he comes back, he is always changed somehow."
"You mean they experiment on him?" Boa seemed mildly upset.
"Yeah." Sanji nodded his head.
"Luffy," she pulled on him to head toward the exit, "I want you to come home with me. I don't want you here."
"No," Luffy tried to get free of his sister. "I am staying here. Chopper needs me, along with the others."
"Luffy, you listen to me. I am your legal guardian; I want you to come home now."
"No." Luffy was able to break free of her hold, "and if you try to make me, then I will ask them to have you leave, and never let you back in to see me."
He could tell that she was torn between wanting to protect him and not being allowed to see him. Finally she nodded her head and said, "Fine, this once you win. Now come on, let's go back to your room."
"No, I want to go see the others." Instead of taking her arm, he took Sanji's and leaned on him while walking to the common room where he could hear the others all talking about different things.
Zoro was the first one to see him. Their eyes locked for a moment before Luffy looked away, unsure of why his heart was starting to race in his chest, and his breathing had increased slightly.
Usopp saw him then, and smiled while rushing over to him, hugging him like old friends. "Luffy!" the long nosed teen seemed pleased to see him. "We have a lot to tell you."
"What do you mean?" Luffy asked as Usopp led him to the table where everyone was sitting, Sanji and Boa following closely behind.
"What happened to your leg?" Usopp asked as he realized that Luffy was leaning on him.
Looking away, Luffy cleared his throat while looking only at the floor he said, "I must have pulled a muscle." Luffy tried to play it off.
Usopp nodded, being the expert liar that he was, he knew Luffy was telling a lie. Law though went to where he was and examined the sore leg.
He didn't say anything as he poked at it, once he was done; he just looked at Luffy and walked back to where he had been sitting.
"So you had nightmares again last night?" Usopp asked.
"A few." Luffy said vaguely.
"Want to talk about them?" Usopp asked.
"I think if he wants to talk about it, he will, we are not his therapists." Zoro stated.
"Just letting him know we will listen if he does want to talk about it." Usopp said a little too defensively. "After all what are friends for?"
"Thanks you guys." Luffy smiled at all of them, he didn't want to talk about it, in fact all he wanted was to forget it all, "Just tell me what you all have been doing all day, and what this plan about finding Chopper is."
"Well," Zoro stated, "I want to go find him; I just know he is hurt."
"You can't be sure." Sanji stated.
Zoro glared at the other teen and added, "I am sure."
"Just trust Zoro on this." Nami stated, "When it concerns Chopper, Zoro has always been right."
"Yeah because those two have been here the longest." Sanji grumbled.
"I knew when they took him yesterday that something bad was going to happen." Zoro added.
"Why didn't we go find him yesterday then?" Luffy asked.
Zoro just glared at all the others in turn before saying, "No one wants to admit that this place is messed up."
"What do you mean?" Boa asked. Worry etched on her face about her brother.
Everyone was quiet as they all thought about what Zoro had said. It was Zoro who answered and told the woman what it was he feared, "They experiment on the adults that are in here, and I think they do that to the kids too, only a few though. The ones like Chopper who have no close family and are placed here by the agencies."
"You have no family and were placed here by the agencies too." Usopp slowly said.
Zoro just looked at the other teen and nodded his head.
"Have they done anything to you?" Luffy wanted to know, concern etched over his face for the green haired teen.
"Not in a long time." Zoro admitted.
"What was it they did?" Boa asked.
"I don't remember." The teen reluctantly admitted.
"Just how long have you been here?" Boa was shocked by the conversation.
"About three years now."
"We have to do something to stop this." Boa vowed, "I will not rest easily while Luffy is here with all these experiments going on."
"They won't do anything to him." Zoro had a determined look in his eyes like he would not allow it to happen.
"What makes you so sure?" Boa asked; a touch of iciness in her voice as she thought of all the things that they might do to her baby brother.
"He has family." An equal amount of iciness settled on Zoro's tone as well. "Plus I will not allow it."
"You didn't stop them from taking your other friend." She argued with him. "He is my brother, I will protect him."
Zoro glared at Boa briefly before getting up, he glanced between Luffy and Boa before walking out of the room without saying a word.
Luffy got up and headed out to follow him, Boa tried to reach for him to stay; he just shrugged her off him and left.
"Zoro, wait up." At his words, Zoro turned around to look at him. He leaned against the wall to wait for the younger teen.
Once Luffy had caught up, they continued walking down the hall, passing Luffy's room in silence. Two doors down on the opposite side of the hall, Zoro opened his door and let Luffy go in before he too went in, slowly closing the door after, giving them privacy.