.: Things are going to start calming down. It's time to recover and start having fun from now on. :.

The Girl with A Half-Soul

Chapter 10:

Aftershocks

The Straw Hat Pirates could bring her home. That was Sanji's promise to her. His argument for it was that they had just brought a princess back to her home island a few weeks ago. If they could do that while an assassination group was hunting them down, they sure as hell could bring a pregnant girl home before her babies were born. In comparison, the task was simple. But Aurilee knew it would be far more complicated than he realized.

But before she could explain, the lovesick cook questioned her about what they needed to do with Angus and Rupert. She could not just disappear without a trace, although that was precisely what she did on their way back to their workshop. Aurilee admitted to him that she wanted to have a letter sent to someone dear to her. It would not take long; she just wanted to tell Angus and Rupert what to say in it. Writing it was their job. If she could get that done, she agreed to go back to the Merry with him.

Leading Sanji back to the workshop, she asked him to wait outside for her. She stepped inside and slipped off the coat. Angus as immediately onto her.

"Ya can't just go wandering off like that!" he reprimanded.

"I know. I'm sorry, but I'm fine," she assured him. "I had a good reason for it."

"And what would that be?"

"I found myself a ride to the next island."

The news bewildered both men. "Murtaugh?" Rupert questioned.

"Huh?"

"He's a friend of ours. Did ya talk wit' 'im?"

"Oh, uh…Y-Yeah, that's him. He said he can take me to the next island today."

Angus and Rupert both looked at each other. Something about that did not seem right to them. Aurilee grew nervous and quickly changed the subject.

"About that letter to Gerald…Can we sit down and write it up?"

Outside, Sanji stood with his back against the metal wall. He enjoyed a cigarette and thought about what he was going to do with all the clothing he bought for the crew. Obviously they did not need it anymore. He hated to go back to the shop and return it all. And he knew that bringing it back to the crew anyway would not guarantee they would ever use it. Well, Luffy would probably run around with the kilt on for a few days, but Nami and Robin especially would have no use for such unflattering dresses (although to him, they would look amazing in them.) The only option he thought was reasonable was just giving all the clothes away to someone in need. There were too many homeless people crowding the streets for his liking. He could just conveniently drop the bag at someone's feet and leave it at that. Nami would not be pleased with his lack of berries, but she would get over it eventually.

After a half hour, Aurilee emerged from the workshop. The cold air hit her, and she earned herself very visible goosebumps. Sanji dropped his cigarette and stuffed it under his boot. Seeing her get chilled automatically had him slip off his pullover and offer it to her. "Is it done?" he asked.

She took the pullover and slipped her arms into the sleeves, thankful for his generosity. In exchange, she passed the old letters to him. "Yeah," she answered, trying to blink away the glistening film wanting to transform into tears. "We can go now."

With that, Sanji beckoned for her to walk with him. They would take the route he made coming here and be back in no time. A few steps later, Angus spoke from behind them both. "Wait, Aurilee–" He paused at the sight of Sanji. Both Sanji and Aurilee glanced over their shoulders at him. She had told them Murtaugh was waiting for her, but he did not recognize Sanji as their friend. "Who the hell are ya?" he antagonistically questioned.

Sanji quickly recognized a confrontation was about to happen, so he scooped up Aurilee before she could blink and made a run for it.

"Aurilee!"

She looked up at Sanji as he held her horizontally with an elbow underneath her knees and the other behind her back. Shifting her gaze behind him, she spotted Angus pursuing them with Rupert getting involved, too. Being truthful with them about Sanji was not an option before since they knew pirates had captured her in the past. But now it was coming back to haunt her. "I'm fine, Angus!" she called out. "I'm going home!"

"Aurilee!"

Sanji rounded a corner to lose them, but he passed a group of Marines doing it. They all turned their heads, and then saw the shipwrights chasing after them both. Angus realized how bad things were becoming. A stranger was kidnapping their friend's daughter, but they would only apprehend Aurilee since she had a bounty on her head. Angus figured out that this stranger promised to take Aurilee home, but he was just going to turn her in to the authorities and walk away with the reward. What he did not know was that Sanji was a pirate just trying to help his friend.

Sensing trouble from the event, the group of Marines joined in the chase. "Dammit," Sanji cursed under his breath, reinforcing his hold on Aurilee. He could fight back if he wanted to, but if he did, he risked the safety of the triplets. Aurilee had no clue where the ship was, so he could not let her go on without him. And if he fought while holding her, she would be pushed and pulled too much with his movements. So he kept going without looking back.

Many voices commanded Sanji to stop and release Aurilee, but when he continuously ignored them, that was when bullets started spraying their way. To avoid it, he prematurely ducked between buildings and came out the other side on a different street. Aurilee kept her sight locked on what was going on behind them. She kept herself steady with a hand gripping his opposite shoulder and the other keeping her belly stable. But she had to admit, she was starting to get tired. "You're losing them," she communicated.

Without replying to her, he recognized the street he was on and found the building he spent a few minutes behind. Once they both squeezed past, it was them against nature. The cook retraced his steps through the beaten path. He was light on his feet since he was dodging and lunging over bushes and dried up trees. "What about now?" he inquired.

Forcing her eyes open, she checked behind them again. All she saw was Lollybroch shrinking with distance. "No sign of them," she informed. Then she relaxed and let her arms go slack.

He smirked. "Great."

The kilt snagged thorns and his exposed knees got superficial cuts and scratches. The incline of the bluff got his blood pumping harder as he refused to slow down. But he also noticed something while he was holding Aurilee. Since he was carrying her, the skirt of her dress had hiked up above her knees. There was an obvious streak of blood being rubbed between her thighs. At the top of the bluff, he stopped. Aurilee's head was resting against his shoulder and her eyes were closed. He listened to her shallow breaths. Suddenly he understood why she was pale. She must have been losing blood for hours. "Don't do this to me now, Aurilee," he pleaded, adjusting his hold on her and trying to wake her back up.

Gazing down the other side of the bluff, he saw the Going Merry still sitting in the same place. The crew was all on the deck, waiting for him. A reflective light emanated from it. Luffy was watching them through the telescope. "Ooh! Sanji's back!" he announced, keeping his elbows propped on the side but happily jumping from the waist down.

The others turned their attention to the bluff, where they saw their cook hurriedly make his way down to them.

Luffy then bellowed out: "HE HAS AURILEE!"

There was a collective gasp and then happy cheers for their overachieving crewmate. How he managed to pull it off, they all wanted to know. Usopp quickly readied the ramp. Sanji came in hot. His boots dripping from stepping into the shallow water, he rushed onto the deck and knelt down to lay Aurilee down on her back. "Chopper, quickly, help her," he worriedly demanded.

"What's wrong with her?" he questioned, seeing how she was unconscious and very pallid in complexion.

Sanji ignored him to order the other males around. "The Marines are after us. Get to rowing."

Without doubting him, Luffy, Zoro, and Usopp all pulled the anchor, grabbed the oars, and got to work.

"The log pose isn't ready yet," Nami droned, looking to her wrist in disappointment.

Robin got down on her knees next to Chopper to help him. Sanji returned to worrying over the expectant mother. Rubbing her cheek, he spoke to her. "Come on, Aurilee, open your eyes."

Chopper passed Robin a large towel and requested for her to hold it up for him while he worked. He lifted the skirt of her dress to find a lot of blood that was still leaking. The little blue medical bag was opened, and all kinds of materials were pulled. "This is bad," he verbalized. "It might have been a small wound at one point, but it's gotten bigger and bigger."

"Do you need more supplies?" Robin asked him, using extra hands to properly cover the area being treated.

"Yes. She'll need a blood transfusion," he answered, throwing too many bloody cotton squares out of the way once they became of no more use.

"I'm on it," Nami said, hurrying down the mast to the boys' quarters.

"Mehhhh!" Twitchy bleated, trying to get in the middle of everything.

"Not now, Twitchy!" Chopper scolded, moving him away so he could work. In the few seconds Nami was gone, Chopper had everything cleaned and was getting a closer look what he was dealing with. His hooves manipulated a sewing needle with ease to suture it all closed. He dressed the area to prevent infection, and then Robin laid the towel down over her waist when he was done.

Nami brought what she could find. He prepared an agglutination test to see what Aurilee's blood type was. Using little sample vials of all the crewmates' blood, he filled little wells with a few drops and then reclaimed the darkest cotton square to squeeze a drop of blood from it. By combining Aurilee's blood with everyone else's individually, he would see which ones had clumping reactions to it. If one or more did not clump, then it was a match. If there was no match, then Aurilee would be in grave danger of losing her life, and she would lose her pregnancy regardless of the outcome.

To his relief, the well containing Nami's blood did not clump. He prepared a couple needles and a tube system to begin the transfusion. "Is she still breathing?" he asked, turning her arm around to look for a vein.

"Y-Yeah," Sanji confirmed, watching her chest slightly rise and fall.

"Nami, you're a match," Chopper told her, penetrating Aurilee's vein.

"Okay," she replied, offering her wrist and laying down next to her.

He turned her hand more toward him and used a different needle to penetrate her own pronounced vein. Once he attached the tube system to both girls, the pressure gradient began to work. Nami's tube began to fill with blood and move toward the empty bag that was set up between them. It took less than a minute for Aurilee to receive her new supply of the liquid connective tissue.

Chopper, Robin, Sanji, and Nami all waited in anticipation. Luffy, Usopp, and Zoro continued to row in rhythm. Without the sails helping them move faster, they persisted with their hurting muscles and aching backs protesting the entire time. The silence that came from the group hovering around Aurilee worried them. The pause was long enough for them to escape the cover of the overcast sky in exchange for warming sunlight.

Slowly, Aurilee's color darkened with more oxygenated erythrocytes moving throughout her body. Her breathing deepened to a normal volume. Sanji carefully took her free hand into his own and felt body heat radiating from it now. With it, she stirred and tried to sit up, but Chopper intervened to stop her. "Take it easy," he told her. "You need to rest."

She relaxed back against the deck, recognizing the faces that surrounded her. The bright sun made her squint, and she could feel the ocean rocking her back and forth. Back on the pirate ship. But what happened? "Did I black out…?" she asked.

"You just took a little nap is all," Robin explained lightly.

Chopper picked up his stethoscope and proceeded to check the babies. The three places where he heard their heartbeats the loudest were still consistent, making him sigh with relief. "They're fine," he said, moving to check Aurilee closer. "Once this blood transfusion is finished, I want you to sleep for a couple hours."

Soon the sharp pain between her legs was registering for her. She let out a low groan and mumbled "It hurts."

"I'll give you a painkiller," Chopper responded. As he reached into his bag to pull out a bottle of pills he made himself, he felt the longing to ask if someone hurt her while she was away. But it was obvious what the answer was. The little reindeer only wondered how a wound that bad and in that area of her body could happen. He hated to think about a foreign object being used. But he fixed her, and it was going to heal. Nothing more about it needed to be addressed.

Zoro switched oars with Luffy to come over to them. He saw Chopper detach Nami from the transfusion apparatus and let Aurilee get the last little bit of blood before doing the same for her. Both girls were given a bandaid. When Nami and Robin stepped back, Zoro stepped in. He knelt down and pulled Aurilee into his arms with ease. But when he went to stand up, Sanji stopped him. "What are you doing?" he questioned him with annoyance.

"I did this," Zoro said without making eye contact with him. "Let me undo it."

The swordsman's ambience unsettled Sanji. He was not angry, and he did not match his annoyance in his reply. This was the first time Zoro was expressing remorse since he had joined the crew.

Not interested in a reply, Zoro stood up straight and carried Aurilee down to the girls' quarters. She looked up at him, her once established fear now remaining dormant. He might have had physical features that reminded her of Calisto, but he was aware of his strength and showed no hostility toward her. After what she did and the trouble she got herself in, she thought he would at least display irritation. But all he did was take her to the bed and place her on it. After that, he sat on the floor with his back against the wall. That was supposed to be the end of the situation.

But Aurilee broke the silence. "Hey, Zoro."

"Hm?"

"I'm sorry." She pressed the back of her head into the pillow to try looking back at him. "I don't have an excuse for disappearing."

He looked to her and then looked away, but he half smiled. "That's alright. Just get some sleep like Chopper said."

She shifted in the bed to get more comfortable, slightly wincing along the way, but it felt nice to be warm and catch up on the sleep she missed out on last night.

The chaos finally subsided for the day. The Straw Hat Pirates escaped the Marines and were done with rowing. Now they were all sailing without a clear direction. Soon dusk would be upon them all. Sanji busied himself in the kitchen. Having taken a shower and changed back into his suit and tie, he thought about what to do with dinner. They had a late lunch today, and he had not eaten yet, so he decided to eat something small for himself to hold over until the next official meal.

What he really wanted was some protein for his damaged muscle fibers. He cut up a single chicken breast and breaded it with crumbs, spice, and a couple of herbs. After frying the pieces in peanut oil, he collected them all onto a plate. Chicken nuggets.

The whole time he cooked, though, his full attention was paid to the many letters from Aurilee's dad. She had given them to him back in Lollybroch, and he has held onto them ever since. They were all out of order and talked about different things. Sanji figured that if they were going to find her home island, the clues would be in them.

Even when he started eating, he sat at the table and kept sifting through them. Her dad – this Harry Fitzgerald guy – turned out to be a shipwright for pirates. There was Bucktooth Pirates and Gunslinger Pirates mentioned. Sanji got a bad feeling when the latter came up. They were beaten and sank out of existence. That meant her dad went down with the ship. Luckily, Sanji found a letter that described how he left the crew with his daughter Millie and they both embarked for a different way of life. Although it relieved him to know they did not kill Aurilee's parent, it still rubbed him the wrong way. Leaving the crew without Aurilee was really odd.

"You're busying yourself," Robin suddenly commented from next to him.

Sanji jolted from startlement. He was so focused in on reading that he never noticed the archaeologist enter. But the moment he realized it was Robin, he immediately resorted to a thrilled attitude. "Robin, my beautiful queen!" he greeted.

"What do you have there?" she asked as she sat at the table with him.

"Oh, uh…" he looked down at the letters and scratched his chin. "How do I answer that without it being a long story?"

"Answer however you like."

"Well…To keep it short, Aurilee's dad is a shipwright from Lollybroch. And these are letters that he supposedly sent back home to his friends over the years."

"Oh? Is that why she ran off yesterday?"

"I think so. She wanted to find him there, but he's somewhere else completely." He pushed the stacks of letters across the table for her to see for herself. Out of curiosity, she read one. "Aurilee told me in Lollybroch that the only thing she wants is to go home. Home is where her dad is."

Robin evaluated the framework of the letter she was reading. The edges of the yellowing paper were dull and had some minor tears. An ink pen was used to write it all out; she could feel every single indention from the pen being pushed into it to write. And every letter began and ended the same way. But one detail that intrigued her was the date in the top right corner. She lifted the rest of the stack and flipped through the same corner. There was indeed a date every time. "You really think so?" she asked, separating all the papers into different groups.

"Well, it's my assumption," Sanji answered, watching her.

Some of the letters had more than one page, and others had damage that prevented her from knowing the true date. But she worked to group them all based on the year they were sent. "I'll get them all in order from oldest to newest and we can work from there," she shared.

"You can do that?"

"Of course. I wouldn't be an archaeologist if I couldn't solve a puzzle like this."

Sanji's curly eyebrow raised when he realized that Robin was basically a master a solving puzzles with her unique knowledge. Honestly, could she get any more magnificent? With her black strands covering the sides of her face, she continued to work on her new project. "I hope Aurilee is okay with us reading these," she added.

Getting up from his seat, he started pulling out all kinds of things from the cabinets and fridge to start cooking dinner for everyone. "It's fine. As long as they're kept safe and she gets them all back."

Robin smiled. "No problems there."

Zoro listened as the door to the room opened at the top of the stairs. The sound of little hooves pattering down told him exactly who was visiting. The doctor wanted to check on his patient.

Without even acknowledging Zoro, Chopper trotted over to the bedside. "Aurileeeeee," he prolonged.

With a blanket covering half of her face, she opened her eyes to see her vision trying to clear up from a haze. Once she got a grip, she saw Chopper looking up at her with optimism in his big round eyes.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her.

"…I'm tired, but okay," she answered, her last word transforming into a yawn.

"Good. You should feel even better tomorrow."

She shifted to move her legs off the edge of the bed and sit properly. Her mouth felt dry, and the corners of her eyes were crusty. Her body did not appreciate the nap. And although the painkillers were working, she still felt sore where she was stitched up. But probably the worst feeling she was experiencing right now was feeling grimy and gross.

"Oh yeah, dinner should be ready in an hour," Chopper added. "In case you're feeling hungry."

"Is that enough time to shower?" she wondered.

Chopper thought for a second. It was not that there was not enough time for it, but he was not sure if getting her sutures wet right now was a good idea. She would need some help. "Of course, but I'll have to give you assistance. Is that okay?"

Aurilee looked over Chopper. He was basically just a little furry kid. Although it might be weird at first, she doubted it would phase him. She nodded to answer him.

Thankful for her trust, he offered her a hoof to help her stand up. "Zoro, can you go get Nami for me?" he requested.

"Sure." With that, he got up and left the room to find the navigator. She was tucked away in her map room, figuring out a plan since they could not use the log pose during this leg in their trip. The maps she had made throughout their journey to Alabasta and after showed many islands. If they could land on one of those, they could get a proper course set up.

When Zoro opened the door, he found her with elbows on her desk and face down. "Chopper needs your help again," he conveyed.

"Is it serious?" she questioned, her voice muffled.

"No. Aurilee wanted to clean up before dinner."

"Alright." She lifted herself from the desk surface and passed him up to go tend to it. "Nice work so far, Mr. Bodyguard," she joked. He did not flatter her with a response.

She wasted no time in checking in to see what exactly Chopper needed of her. It was mostly simple things, like fetching Aurilee a fresh pair of clothes and towels. The doctor removed his hat so he could be in the trickling water with her. Nami washed her back and her hair, listening to the pair converse. "We have to keep your stitches dry until they're ready to be removed. That'll take a week or two," he informed her, doing the work to ensure it. "After that, you can shower as normal."

Nami grabbed a bucket of water and rinsed her carefully. "But don't be afraid to ask for help if you still need it."

"Thank you," she said, seeing the water be shut off and a towel cover her head. She was dried, clothed, and had her hair brushed. Nami thought about how Usopp could give her a trim so that the strands were not always at uneven lengths. She would mention it to him after dinner.

Once they were finished cleaning her up, the three of them joined the others for dinner. Although Sanji was still putting together the final touches, everyone was gathered. They pulled an extra seat for Aurilee and happily greeted her. All the attention brought out reservation in her, but also embarrassment. The trouble she caused them seemed to never have happened whatsoever. "Aurileeeeeee!~" Luffy sang out with some laughter following it. "I'm so glad you're okay. And now that you're part of the crew, you can go on all kinds of adventures with us."

She took her seat, but Luffy's words concerned her. "O-Oh, no…I'm not…" she stammered, scared of making him angry.

"We don't have a new crewmate, Luffy," Sanji told him with his back still turned to them all. "We're going to take Aurilee home. That's all."

"Okay!" he accepted. "Where's home for you?"

Aurilee hesitated before answering. "I don't know exactly. It's an uncharted island."

"Ooh, hear that, Nami? A challenge for you," Usopp remarked with humor.

"I thought we were going to find your dad," Sanji contradicted, confused. "He's at a place called Water Seven, isn't he?"

"Yeah, but he's just the man who took me in while I was with the other pirates. I need to get home to my birth parents."

"How long have you been away from them?" Robin asked.

She looked at the table. "Like…a hundred moons."

Moons? Nami thought. Did Aurilee count time by a lunar calendar rather than a solar one?

"I was taken," Aurilee added.

Sanji started plating food and bringing it all to the table. But nobody grabbed their forks. Their faces were all focused on Aurilee. And similar questions were going through their minds. A pirate crew stole a little kid? When Nami was forced to work under Arlong, it was because of her skillful mapping. She was the first to speak up with that background. "What were you to those pirates?"

She nervously rubbed her palms together under the table. "It's kind of complicated…"

"Well, we got all night," Luffy reassured her, grabbing his bone of meat. "Tell us everything!"

"Or as much as you're comfortable telling us," Robin corrected, using her cutlery the proper way.

Aurilee thought about where to start. But she also admired her full plate and picked up her fork. "Thank you for the food," she softly stated, stabbing morsels with the prongs.

"Yeah, thank you for the food, Sanji," Chopper bolstered, his cheeks moving as he chewed merrily.

"Anytime," Sanji replied. He was pleased to do his job, and it only made the experience better when there was amiable chatter among everyone as they filled their bellies. The Straw Hats spent their entire dinner letting Aurilee speak and tell her life story to them all.