(Lily POV)
"How's Eddy doing?"

"You should knock. It's polite." Muret chides but Lily ignores it with supreme skill, honed by years of practice.

"And I'm hot. Next." Muret should be happy that she's holding herself back and using polite language in her sick bay. You give a girl an inch and she'll demand a mile…

"He'll live." Lily has to suppress a wince at how out of it Muret sounds.

"Is that bad news?"

"No, it's good news actually, considering the state he was in."

"Yeah, it wasn't pretty." A hole in his chest rarely is.

"Like I said, he'll live. Still has all his limbs, he even woke up earlier and was coherent." Muret sighs. "But he'll need years to recover unless something greatly changes."

"Years? Can't you sew him back together or something? That's what you did when Ross damn near took his arm off that one time."

"Clean cut, axe dial, surgery within the hour. That I can do. As for Eddy…" Lily follows Muret's gaze to where Eddy is sleeping. He looked peaceful like that, though his chest barely rose at all when he took a breath. "He lost a lung. I can't fix that."

"No way, the hole wasn't that big!" Lily denies, her head snapping back to the doctor, but Muret just slowly shakes her head.

"I had to cut his lung out to stem the bleeding. And even then, it was only thanks to his wound being mostly cauterized that he didn't bleed to death on his way here." Shit, that's sounds really bad. "He'll still be able to live a normal life and past records say that he may be able to recover up to seventy percent of his previous lung capacity. But as a pirate? I just don't know."

"…" Mayday, mayday! Brain, come up with something! Mayday! Muret looks like she's going to cry. "He'll pull through, he's a tough bastard."

Really brain? That's the fucking best you could come up with? He's tough? Come on, think of something else.

"His parents are happily married." Muret gives her a faint smile. At least, it wasn't a complete disaster. Fuck, something, something…there!

"What about shrinking violet over there? How's she doing?"

"You mean Marie? Same as yesterday, I'm afraid. I don't think she's slept a single wink since coming aboard." The girl just sits there on her little stool, crouched over her sleeping fiancé. "She refuses to talk or move from her vigil, so I'm just leaving her there."

"What happened to them anyway? I'd recognize a bullet wound anywhere, but the main shootings didn't start until after we met her."

"Who knows? We won't know for certain until she talks. It was challenge to get her to drink some water and we only managed that thanks to Laki." Reaching over to a small cabinet, Muret pulls out a deformed bullet. "This isn't the standard issue for the marines or for any gun fit for combat. If I'm not mistaken, this model is reserved for those seeking a last ditch defense and don't have the arm strength to handle the recoil of anything more powerful, which is part of the reason the guy is alive."

"It would fit. Shrinking violet was in the presence of one of the celestial dragon's guards and those aren't known for carrying good guns…celestial dragons…" Wait. A. Goddamn. Second. Looking into Muret's eyes, she can see the same realization rising as well as the accompanying horror.

"You don't think…"

"We did. We bloody fucking did!" Lily can feel herself going slightly hysterical. She doesn't have the mental capacity right now to give two fucks about it. "We robbed a celestial dragon."

No wonder there had only been a single guard. Who would be suicidal enough to commit armed robbery of a world noble's property? The Bellamy Pirates apparently.

At the time, the gravity of the situation hadn't actually sunk in properly. The captain had started listing off orders and then they'd met the Silvers Rayleigh. Could you blame her for forgetting a small case of larceny?

"Oh fuck! Think they'll come looking for her? I heard there was this one celestial dragon who went all the way to Fishman Island to recover some runaway slaves…"

"I'M NOT A SLAVE!" Both Muret and her jump when the other girl in the room stands up to scream those words at them. There are unshed tears pooling at the corners of her bloodshot eyes, her body is trembling in rage and exhaustion, but it is her face that grabs most of their attention.

That's the face of a woman out for blood.

(Muret POV)
It had taken them a lot of effort and patience to talk the girl down, but they had managed it, helped by her old and presumably gentle personality shining through eventually. That and the fact her boyfriend slash fiancé had received the needed treatment and was just waiting to wake up. Thank god she was a nurse and understood the medical situation.

The commotion had drawn the attention of most of the crew, Laki being the first to arrive and leading the seething girl out of her sick bay and likely to her room. In the face of her savior, Marie had turned into a meek little lamb and offered only a token resistance.

The rest of the onlookers had skedaddled once Lily had started rolling up her sleeves and chased them out.

Shutting the door behind them, Muret closes her eyes to take in the peace and quiet of her domain. She hand't realized how much she had missed this. Funkfreed, bless his gentle heart, was helpful and a balm on the soul, but quiet he was not. Though, at the moment, he should be with Hewitt making a fruit salad for lunch.

"Muret?" a voice croaks, interrupting her internal reflection. Pirate Muret takes one more breath and Doctor Muret opens her eyes.

"Eddy? How are you feeling?"

"Ugh…been better." He rasps out, his hand feebly scrabbling for his glasses before Muret places them on his nose. "Thanks."

"Do you have any pain?" No fever, eyes are focused, neurological complications unlikely.

"A bit. I'm feeling really sore." Eddy groans out, a hand reflexively heading for his wounded chest, before she gently but firmly grabs his wrist.

"Don't touch, just speak."

Over the next hour, Muret gives Eddy a full medical examination from his head to his toes. Thankfully, the laser had missed his ribs and once the cut she had made fused back together, the stability of his thorax should return. Neither did he have any severe complications from his surgery, his left lung working overtime to supply his body with oxygen.

"I almost died." Eddy whispers, the words deafening in the stillness.

"You did." A punctured lung with a resulting pneumothorax, internal bleeding, systemic shock.

"But you saved me." But at what price? Maybe if she'd been a better doctor, she may have been able to save his lung. "Thank you."

"It's what I'm here for." She places a hand on his shoulder, but Muret isn't certain who she's hoping it will comfort. Him or her?

"This wasn't even the first time." Eddy continues to whisper, his loose hair casting a shadow over his face. "It was like this with Ohm too. Two times in a few months."

"But you made it. We all did." And for that Muret is very glad. "Heard you were amazing, cutting through a building like that."

For once in all the time she's known him, Eddy doesn't respond to her compliment.

"You know what went through my head just before it shot me?" Eddy lets out a shuddering breath, raising his eyes to meet hers. "Unlike the stories, it wasn't anything like my life flashing in front of me. Nothing complicated like that."

Had his eyes always been this intense?

"…it wasn't?"

"No, instead it was a single question. Why did I not confess?" Muret's breath hitches. "I like you. I like you a lot."

"Eddy…"

"I like the way you smile. I like the way you laugh at Mani's jokes. I like the way your face lights up when discussing a good book. I like how fierce you can be to your opponents and how gentle you are to Funkfreed." He continues undeterred.

Like all of them, Muret had known his feelings for her. Feelings she didn't necessarily reciprocate. Until Jaya, she'd been pining after Bellamy or at least she had been until he rebuffed her advances that one evening. Afterwards, life had just been so busy, things happening one after another.

"Eddy, I'm flattered but…"

"I know you used to like the captain. It's why you quit your job and came with us." Eddy cuts her off. "Just like how obvious I was probably being, so were you."

"…"

"You don't have to answer me, not now and not even in the future. But I just wanted to have it said, get it out there. Muret, I like you." Then seemingly exhausted, Eddy sinks back into his bed.

The silence between them stretches out far past the awkward stage into the uncomfortable before one of them ends it.

"I think I want to sleep now." Eddy lets out an exaggerated yawn. "Mind turning the lights off for me?"

"Sure thing. Sleep well, Eddy." And as she flicks the light switch off, Muret can see Eddy cover his eyes with his left arm.

(Laki POV)
Nobody was blaming her. Not the captain, not Muret…not even Mani who had been the least enthusiastic about having her aboard. Nobody was blaming her for starting that clusterfuck on Sabaody and that made it worse.

If she hadn't intervened to save the girl crying on her shoulder, the crew wouldn't have had to split up and they may have gotten out of that fight unscathed. Maybe, if she'd been there, she could have done something. Or if Rivers had been there, Eddy could have received surgery earlier and he wouldn't have had to lose a lung.

Laki doesn't regret helping Marie regain her freedom and if she went back in time, she would choose to do it again…but maybe with a bit more tact and finesse.

In some way that didn't involve painting a giant target on their backs for annoying one of the 'gods' these blue sea dwellers had. Perhaps, that was one thing they all had in common…the gods were cruel and tyrannical.

She still doesn't really understand why these gods are in power, but Sarquiss had made it clear that any threat to these celestial dragons would be met with the full might of the marines, whose commanders apparently made Enel seem like an ant in comparison.

Bellamy had confirmed this, though he had done his best to assure them of the low likelihood of an admiral coming after them, at least not anytime soon.

Maybe in a year or two, by which time they would have to be ready.

As she murmurs words of comfort into Marie's hair, Laki repeats her own vow to fix things. She killed Enel which solved a problem then. Their current problems should disappear when she got strong enough to kill an admiral, right? How hard could it be?

Laki steadfastly ignores the little voice pointing out that very special circumstances were involved in Enel's demise, tuning out the little annoyance that called itself her conscience. Bellamy had repeatedly told them how reasonable limits didn't matter if they trained hard enough.

As for Eddy…she would have to do something extra special in recompense. Glancing over to her open box of knickknacks, her eyes lock onto the bulbous hilt of a katana.

(Bellamy POV)
With Eddy out of commission for the foreseeable future, it fell to me to chart our course, something which I was wholly unqualified for. Thankfully, I could delegate to someone who did have more experience.

Meeting Byron was likely the one silver lining right now, purely because my crew had no one else who could navigate. And no, it wasn't as simple as looking at the log pose and moving the rudder accordingly.

You had to find the right currents so you didn't keep getting pushed around in circles, needed adjust the masts so as to not capsize the ship and notice storms well enough in advance to secure all loose cargo. And a thousand and one other small but no less vital bits of knowledge key to your survival.

Byron did seem very interested in our jet dial propulsion systems, though he wilted after finding out that we didn't have enough to outfit a second ship. And I was not prepared to rip out a few to give to Byron.

No, I rather liked having the fastest ship in the world, especially as the marines and every bounty hunter in the world would soon have a reason to come hunt me down. Though…maybe?

The people of Sabaody hate the world nobles, the guard is dead and Morgan likes news. And while Morgan is the primary source of intelligence for the marines, regardless of what the CP services will tell you, it's ultimately up to him whether or not he is going to rat me out. On the one hand it's instant headline material. "Jealous Pirate Absconds With World Noble's Wife" or something similar would fit, I think.

Oooor, he could decide to…age the source a.k.a me a little more so I can make a bigger splash later and hence sell more papers. Judging by the attempted and boggled assassination after the Whole Cake Island arc, Morgan isn't fully in cahoots with the world government.

A third possibility is that the world government knows, but won't make it public, like how they gave Doffy the warlord position to hide the fact he had stolen the celestial tribute, once he threatened to go public. While this is much lesser in scale, it should still be highly embarrassing.

I guess I'll find out in the coming weeks if not days. So far, there is no mention of me in the papers which gives me hope this will all blow over. To be honest, with Whitebeard nearby, they really can't be sparing me any attention.

Plus, if you were St. Charloss and St. Rosswald, would you be more mad at the pirate who dared to hit you or at the pirate who kidnapped replaceable wife number 13? I'll bet you my left kidney that it's going to be the former. And if they didn't do anything about Luffy, despite knowing he was alive, maybe they won't actively come after me?

If worst came to worst, I do have one option in mind for temporary sanctuary.

"We're almost there, captain Bellamy." Byron tells me, pointing towards a green landmass in the distance. "You said you were meeting Urouge of the Mad Monk Pirates?"

"Yep. I've got a letter to deliver."

Everything was going to be fine.

Author's note:
So, first time a fight had severe consequences...poor Eddy. Also...poor guy.

I decided to officially start a newspaper (Marineford News). Interesting prompts/comments may be chosen for a short news article to supplement the main storyline which you can then find under an extra one-shot piece.

Also, for those who are confused. Bellamy doesn't know that the man caught in the crossfire was a world noble.