.: It's kind of funny and coincidental that this chapter and the last involved letters being written, because I just started watching Violet Evergarden recently, and it's what that anime is all about lol :.

The Girl with A Half-Soul

Chapter 8:

Love, Wickerbill

The sun was approaching its pinnacle above the clouds. Not a single ray of sunshine graced them with its presence. With a nice wind guiding the Merry and all the males rowing in rhythm, the Straw Hats were making good progress toward Lollybroch. If it had taken Aurilee around six hours to cut through the island, it was supposed to take them at least twelve hours to sail around it. But they began their journey before six o'clock in the morning and would only need less than one more to arrive. It would be between one and two o'clock when they anchored down again.

The landscape on the island also changed as they moved. Although jagged mountains were lost in the fog the whole time, the shoreline rose and dipped and countless forests were passed by. Sometimes they found a village with a welcoming harbor, but Nami knew it could not have been Lollybroch, so they did not even pause to check it out. The only thing that kept them from moving in an uninterrupted line was the daunting coral reefs that would come too close for comfort.

Nami continuously checked each side of the ship for them, instructing the males to steer in a different direction with their oars. Robin kept a couple eyes sprouted to help her out. At the rate they were going, they were scheduled to reach their destination hours earlier than they would if just relying on wind to travel.

The only one not actively participating was little Chopper. He sat on the deck quietly with an open book, using a pencil to mark words and sentences and even to take notes. When the rainclouds began to let loose, he leaned over his book more to shield it. At one point, Robin sprouted an eye next to it to see what exactly he was up to. She could not see the title of his new book, but she did see the orange color of its cover. When the eye vanished with a couple of pink flower petals floating away, Chopper did not react or let it break his concentration. Robin walked over to him anyway to check on him for herself.

"We're only a couple miles away, it looks like," she informed him, bending her knees to press her hamstrings to her calves. "Would you like to help scout out Lollybroch?"

"In a few minutes," he answered, turning the page to keep reading.

The archaeologist took a moment to evaluate the visible papers. There were many diagrams of the brain and other things she did not recognize. "Are you reading up on fetal brain development?" she wondered.

He scribbled some notes down as he replied. "Not fetal brain development. Just trying to understand the brain more in general." With that, he underlined a few sentences and then found he was finished with the chapter, so he bookmarked the spot with his journal of notes inside and shut it. "I've studied about delivering multiple babies, but it's not exactly what's important for Aurilee as of right now," he explained, looking up at her. "She still has a few months before she's ready for that side of things. What I'm currently concerned about is her mental health."

Suddenly it made sense to Robin why she was seeing a brain in his book. "You're studying some psychology?"

"Yeah," he confirmed with a little nod. "I'm a doctor. I heal people. I examine wounds and illnesses and I cure them with medicine. But the brain is different. I can't look at her brain and fix it. I have to work with her for a long time before she starts showing signs of improvement in her mood and behavior. That's something I was never taught by Doctorine."

"Well, sometimes good doctors have to teach themselves something," Robin encouraged. "Whatever it is Aurilee is suffering from, I'm sure you can help her."

The reindeer smiled and nodded again. He moved his book to a safe place to stay dry and then hopped up onto the Merry's port side wall to check for any villages. Robin decided to let Nami be responsible for the navigating for the rest of the trip, so she instead sprouted many hands to grab hold of the oars and help the boys row. They were all sweating with labored breathings from all the hours of work, and now the rainfall was going to chill them to the bone. Their muscles in their backs and arms were more than likely straining. But what was amazing was how little they all vocalized their hardships. Whenever Nami ordered one side to adjust for a slight direction change, they worked together to get it done.

She had them all round a part of a rocky bluff, keeping an eye on the fluctuating depth. When she glanced up to see what the other side had in store for them, she almost gasped at the sight of a large bay full of ships and boats. Suddenly it made sense to her why Aurilee chose Lollybroch to flee to. She had no intention of staying on this island; she wanted to create as much distance as possible between herself and the crew – with a different ride.

But before Nami could announce their arrival, she noticed how all the big ships looked the same. It did not matter if it was shape, size, or colors, it was as if they were clones of each other. A dark blue hull with turquoise planks climbing up from the cannon holes. Their massive white sails all adorned the signature emblem and wording of the Marines. Realizing they were about to glide right into a trap, she put all hands on deck. "STOP!" she screamed out, running down to the boys. "Put the Merry in reverse!"

They all pulled back the oars to stop pushing water past them. "Reverse?" Usopp questioned. "You can't put a ship this big in reverse!"

"Well you better find a way to make it happen because there's an entire Navy fleet that's about to see us!" she panicked.

Robin immediately sprang into action by shifting the existence of her extra limbs up to the sails to try furling them up. Seeing what she was doing, Chopper hurriedly transformed into as a close of a human as his devil fruit would allow and climbed the mast to help her with the rest. Meanwhile, Zoro and Sanji nodded at each other once from across the deck and simultaneously started rowing backwards. "Where do we go?" Luffy asked Nami with some alarm in his voice.

"Just back up for right now," she commanded, running to the back of the ship to check for the coral reefs they had just avoided.

All the commotion and interrupted momentum of the Merry caused Twitchy the baby goat to rise from his makeshift bed of ragged blankets and begin bleating like a siren.

"Turn toward port!" Nami yelled so the guys could hear her.

Zoro held his oar securely with Usopp so that Sanji and Luffy could rotate them all, and then he found a backwards rhythm again. The sails no longer taking in wind made the process easier as well. They waited for Nami to demand a starboard turn next, but she kept quiet for a minute. When she ran back down the stairs to them, she told them to stop rowing altogether. Zoro dropped the anchor while the rest of them listened to her. "Lollybroch is definitely on the other side of that bluff," she explained. "It's crawling with Marines. The entire bay is full of their ships. But they're not moving, so we should be safe here."

"Are we walking there?" Usopp wondered, scratching the back on his head.

"What if the Marines have Aurilee?" Chopper questioned, seeming concerned.

"Who cares about all that?" Luffy complained as he picked up Twitchy and tucked him under his elbow. "Let's just go and get her."

Nami sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "This is clearly not like Edinburgh. We can't just walk around freely as pirates. We have to sneak in and blend in somehow. If she needs to be rescued, then we can cross that bridge once we get there."

"Blend in? Well I'll be damned," Sanji teased. "Moss Head's man skirt can come in handy for that type of reconnaissance."

The comment had Zoro turn to him in annoyance. "It's a kilt!" he insisted.

"Okay," he entertained. "Then go put on your kilt and go buy us some clothes so we can split up and search for Aurilee."

"This is becoming like Alabasta!" Luffy cheered, lifting his little goat above his head. "We don't have Eyelash, but we have Twitchy!"

"Mehhhhh!" Twitchy bleated as his writhed, not enjoying being held whatsoever.

The thought of Alabasta had Nami thinking. "I have a better idea," Nami interjected. "Zoro will just get lost if we send him out to buy clothes."

"I will not get lost!" he interrupted.

"Let's just have a little repeat of Alabasta and send Sanji to buy us stuff," she continued, ignoring the swordsman.

Sanji immediately melted into his shoes at the suggestion coming from her mouth. "I'll do anything you want me to, Nami Swan," he fluttered, little hearts puffing out from the burning end of his cigarette.

"Make us some lunch first? Please?" Usopp pleaded, trying to make his eyes sparkle but only freaking out Sanji instead.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he agreed, heading up to the kitchen. His muscles were still smoldering from the constant exertion throughout the morning.

An hour later, everyone was eating lunch, but Sanji walked in wearing the clothes Zoro got a hold of during the festival the previous day. He found a gray button-up to wear and decided to borrow a dark pullover from Usopp's small wardrobe. It took him a few minutes to figure out the kilt, but he found that folding it to wrap around his waist and then tightening his belt to hold it in place worked good enough. There was just one thing that was missing for him. And when everyone saw him, it was obvious what it was.

But before anyone could comment on his bare feet, Luffy started cracking up. He could not wait to wear the man skirt himself.

Usopp noticed an article of his own clothing on him, but to be honest, Sanji looked like an authentic native of the island with the getup, so he did not bother mentioning it.

Chopper stared at him in awe, and even Nami caught herself admiring the unorthodox yet rugged look. Robin smiled. "Just a pair of boots is all you're needing now," she said.

"Yeah," he replied before looking to Zoro. "I'll borrow Moss Head's."

Zoro gave him a look.

"I'll give them back once I buy ones for myself. Come on. Just for an hour or so."

He decided that it was not worth arguing over in exchange for Usopp's boots, so he slid them off and tossed them over. Sanji's feet were wider, so it was a little bit of a squeeze, but he could manage. (The smell was revolting, though.) But adding the last article left him with the perfect disguise to blend in. Hopefully nobody questioned the origin of his curly eyebrows.

Nami approached him with a wad of berries and offered it to him. "Just buy the cheapest stuff you can find. We won't need it for long, so there's no point in trying to make us look good."

He accepted the money and pocketed it. "Alright, I'm off," he declared, leaving the kitchen.

"You're not taking any food with you?" Luffy asked, making him pause in the doorway.

"I'll eat once Aurilee has eaten," the cook insisted. "See ya." When he closed the door and found a good spot to jump down onto, he felt the cold seawater splash up onto his exposed knees and then trekked up the rocky shore to find a way to Lollybroch. He would have to traverse through some wilderness, but it was nothing he could not handle.

The tears did not flow for long with Aurilee. Angus and Rupert lightened the mood by sharing stories about Gerald. What he was like as a young man, how he learned the craft of shipwrights, and how happy he was with the birth of Millie – she took it all in. He was a man born from what was known as a Laird; his family owned property that was seen as gaining rank. Since he was not the firstborn son, he was not destined to take on the Laird title for himself, so he made his way down to Lollybroch and found work as a shipwright. He made many friends in the harbor, including Angus and Rupert, and there were all kinds of funny tales to be told. It was hard to imagine the attentive father figure as a careless teen who pulled all kinds of pranks and brawled for fun in the taverns.

Hours passed by as the three of them talked. After hearing all about Gerald's life as a Highlander shipwright, Aurilee got to talk about what he was like as a pirate. Although she did not have as much to share, Angus and Rupert still listened with interest. It was almost difficult to grasp they were talking about the same man. But Angus and Rupert laughed at their nostalgic memories, and they also laughed at Aurilee's memories of Gerald.

"And…he called me Wickerbill for a while," she finished, looking down at her hands on her knees.

Rupert chuckled and took a gulp of some alcohol. "The hell is a Wickerbill?"

"I asked him the same thing," she replied. "But all he said was that it was me."

"Doesn't surprise me," Angus commented. "Millie was his Squirt for no reason other than she was the tiniest wee thing he ever held when she was born. But ya knew him better in the most recent years than we did. Maybe he called ya that simply to express his love for ya. Kind of like how children refer to their parents as 'Mama' and 'Papa.'"

She gently nodded. Her birth parents were always Mama and Papa to her. Gerald was Dad, though she never called him that verbally.

"Soon you'll be 'Mama,' too, eh, Lass?" Angus added.

Aurilee met his eyes for an instant, but she quickly averted. He was mistaken. But it was out of innocent ignorance. "Actually…" she whispered.

"Oh, that's right," Rupert interrupted, drowning out her single uttered word. "Ya said ya haven't seen Fitzgerald in 'bout five years. He has no clue he's about to be a grandpa. Is that why ya want to go home?"

"My home is not with him and Millie. I'm trying to reunite with my birth parents."

When they both gave her an uneasy look, she felt she had to clarify.

"The pirate crew Gerald and Millie became part of took me from them. But I'm free now, and I want to see them again."

Angus had his suspicions when he first laid eyes on the patchy-skinned girl. A girl that young and with child, traveling alone. She was never married or even considered to be a mistress. Aurilee was a prisoner amongst a pirate crew. She was a prisoner, and yet Fitzgerald had taken her in, just to abandon her? That did not sound right to him. But she still longed for him. It was like she showed him the greatest form of grace.

"Well, he can't leave Water Seven to come get ya and bring ya to wherever yer home is. It'll put him out of work and take too long," Rupert explained. "But we can find ya a ship that can take you where yer going. We can have ya on yer way by tomorrow."

"I say we go grab a bite to eat and talk some more," Angus proposed, getting up from the crate he was sitting on. He offered a hand to Aurilee to help her up as well. "We'll figure something out. And we'll write to Fitzgerald to let him know ya were here."

"Write a letter?" she reiterated, not taking his hand.

"Aye. Whatever you want him to know or whatever you want to say, we'll make sure he knows."

The promise eased her aching heart. It was okay with her if she never exchanged words with Gerald again. She would find the fulfillment with the letters he sent to his shipwright friends. As long as his existence remained ongoing, she would not be sad for his and Millie's absence in her life. But for him, Aurilee just fell off the face of the Earth. After they parted ways, her whereabouts became unknown. He might have kept up with the Gunslinger Pirates through the newspapers. But they were gone now. She would no longer affiliate herself with a pirate crew. Writing a letter to him might be the last time he ever hears of her existence in the world. It would hurt him, but she only wanted him to find comfort in knowing she was safe now and going to return to the island of her birth. She wanted the rest of her life to be spent with her parents and the wolves. Gerald and Millie would know that. And they would know it was really her who thought of the words that became transcribed onto paper. She wanted to end it with "Love, Wickerbill" because it was something only they would understand.