Chapter Five

[theremedy]

Chapter Five

Present:

Breakaway

To say that Nami hated her job was an understatement. She hated the hours. She hated the work and most of all she hated her boss. The bulgy eyed clumsy bastard. It was no wonder that Califa woman was still on maternity leave, what, a year and a half later? She sighed as the papers blurred before her eyes and took off her reading glasses to rub them, then cracked her back and massaged the small of it, glancing at her laptop where a single message waited in her in-box, titled:

Nami, my love~<3

Her stomach soured and she closed the laptop once more. She didn’t want to deal with it yet. The message would keep, and so would he. He was good at that. She felt the customary twinge of regret at using his love of anything busty against him and brushed it aside. A girl had to do what a girl had to do to keep her sanity about her. Her intercom buzzed and Nami glowered at it before pressing the button.

“Yes, sir?” she said in her sweetest telephone voice.

“Coffee!” and then “No, you listen! Do you know who I am? Do you have any idea? Well I’ll tell you!—— You interrupted me! Never do that again!”

Turn off your intercom, moron, Nami thought, switching the intercom off on her end so she wouldn’t have to listen to some poor guy get reamed. She stretched her legs, then slid into her six inch orange and cream stilettos that were great on her feet but murder on her calves. Also they were five hundred dollars at retail and she’d got them for free since Vivi adored her and there was no price in the world that could beat having the heiress to a fashion empire as a best friend. She’d like to tell her boss to shove that up his craw and eat it —but there’s no use getting Vivi in trouble with her criminal background, no matter how much the woman thought otherwise.

She could hear from the other side of the walnut doors that Spam-man was winding down so she stood up and made her way to the coffee machine, making it just the way he liked it only about twenty degrees cooler so he couldn’t try to slap her with another lawsuit when he spilled it all over himself. Not that it was too big of a deal. Nami had simply followed the one good piece of advice Califa had ever given her and used ‘sexual harassment’ right back at him—and she wouldn’t hesitate to use it again—

But that wouldn’t stop him firing her if she used it too much.

She told herself this.

Remember what it’s for. Remember why you need it.

And she smiled and strutted in, carrying Spam-man’s chipped coffee mug that had # Boss on it. The number had rubbed off in the dishwasher as if even it couldn’t believe that whopper. He slammed down the phone and managed to knock it off of the table onto his foot.

“Nenny!” he said, spotting her.

“Yes, sir?”

“Pick that up.”

“Yes, sir.”

Nami set the coffee on the desk and picked up the phone, smiling at him as she held it at waist level. He goggled at her. She smiled at him.

“Put it on the desk,” he snapped, seeming near the end of his patience.

“Yes, sir.” She put it on the desk, then moved his coffee closer to him. He leaned back in his chair, resting his feet on the desk and steepled his fingers. Nami bit the inside of her lip and kept smiling, tilting her head to the side.

“I suppose you want your Christmas Bonus.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I suppose you think you deserve it.”

“I suppose it was stipulated in my contract in the settlement, sir. Paragraph three, subsection A. I have a copy on my desk if you want it.”

He opened his mouth.

“And three more with your lawyer.”

He closed it again. She smiled. No one got out of a contract with her that easily, and definitely not this asshole.

“Take it then,” he said, seeming a hairs breadth away from saying bitch. She would have relished the title. He pushed it forward with his fingertips across the table. She took it and opened it right in front of him, pulling her reading glasses down and checking the number. Good.

“Thank you, sir.” She purposefully looked at her mother of pearl watch. Vivi. Best friend. Forever. “It looks like my shift is up. Have a Merry Christmas, sir.”

“You can take that merry and shove it up your AAH!” As he leaned back violently the suspiciously loose screws in the chair gave and he fell backwards, his feet flying in the air sending the phone crashing in one direction and the coffee all over him. “NINNY!” he bellowed.

“Off shift, sir!” She turned in place, shifting her glasses further up her nose. “Unless you want to pay me overtime.” Twenty bucks added to her paycheck every hour she worked overtime. God, she loved that settlement. He scowled at her from between his feet.

“Get going.”

That’s what she thought.

“And be on call!”

Damn. One drawback to the damn settlement. She had to be on call 24/7 on every weekday, except Christmas. He’d tried to fight until she’d been tempted to stamp it into his pasty white forehead. She flumped at her desk, packing her laptop away and picked up the framed picture that was right behind it.

Remember what it’s for…

The picture taken in that first eight months right before they got to New York. Only the five of them then. There had been days in that car, watching the country roll by. Laughing and singing. Shouting directions at Zoro who wouldn’t let anyone else drive…which was just as well as no one else had a license but him. They’d just gotten to St. Louis and Luffy wanted to take a picture with the arch in. That had been a mess and they’d only managed it halfway. But there he was in the center of them, his hat and yellow shirt making him look like a sunflower, smiling is thousand dollar grin.

Nami smiled and traced the grin with her fingernails.

Remember what it’s for.

Remember what it was for, said a traitorous part of her mind. She shoved it out of her mind and lightly kissed the top of the frame.

“Miss Nami.” The voice came sultry smooth out of the darkness and made Nami jump a mile. She swiveled partway in her chair, trying to rearrange her face as she did to look at Rob Lucci. He was standing in the shadows by the walnut door, his eyes piercing even under the deeper shadow of that hat. She didn’t know why he worked for Spandam. She didn’t even know if that creeper knew what Lucci was, but Nami didn’t doubt someone did.

“Do you always have to sneak up on me?” she said, checking her irritation. She still didn’t know if she could trust him. How much he knew about her and if that was equal to what she knew about him. If he was even completely all there in the head. He shrugged.

“My apologies.” And he came forward. Nami kept her shoulders straight and her chin high, even if she wanted to lean back a bit. Predators always smelled fear, as someone had told her. And they will bite to the bone. Well Rob Lucci might smell her fear but she’d be damned if he saw it. He held a small box out. Nami looked at it and raised her eyebrows.

“A Christmas present,” he said.

“I don’t have anything for you…” she said. He shrugged and she wondered if it was a present or a “present”. Either way. Nami took it from him, thinking to put it in her bag but he folded his arms behind his back and watched her. Oh so it was that kind of present.

“Thanks,” she said with a smile in her voice just in case they were being overheard. She undid the white ribbon and opened the box. Inside was a pink and white glass orchid barrette along with a scrap of paper that had a single word, probably a name. ‘Conis’. She nodded and put the paper in the shredder.

“You should wear that on your vacation,” he said and then nodded. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas,” she murmured, but he was already walking away. Creep. City. She puffed out a breath and shrugged on her overpriced fifteen dollar bag lady coat over her eight hundred dollar Empire Fashion's special business suit and cream top, which she’d gotten for nil, picked up her laptop bag and headed out.

It had finally stopped raining outside but it was blistering cold, and the wind didn’t help but it wouldn’t be Chicago without it. A homeless man was sitting in the bus shelter. Nami kept him in the corner of her eye, wishing she had thought to pack sneakers today. Then again, nothing deterred a man so much as stiletto in the groin. Luffy would have sat down with him, Nami knew. Chatted with him.Maybe even asked him to join them. That was how they’d acquired Brook, after all.

He’d been the first one to accept it. Nami held her bag in front of her and listened to the rain start to fall again, pattering on the roof. First Brook, Vivi, Robin had seemed to, but who knew what went on in her mind. Nami sure as hell didn’t half the time. And Sanji…well… The bus arrived, hissing and the homeless man bundled on first. Nami took the opportunity to slip a twenty clandestinely into his pocket before swiping her transit pass and gripping the overhead bar on the bus that smelled of overcoats and mold. Some men were gawking at her but some men always gawked and as long as she absently stroked her key chain can of mace, they mostly left her alone. She had enough trouble with the guys in her life without adding to it.

By the time she got to her apartment her feet were killing her too much to even think of taking the stairs. Instead she took the gaspy, rattly elevator, praying silently the whole way. The elevator made it, thank god. Even if it stopped half an inch above the floor. She scooted out, swept her newspaper from the floor, and unlocked the door.

“SUPPERRR HAPPY HANUKKAH!”

Nami shrieked, jumping ten feet in the air, then hurled the newspaper at Franky’s stupid blue head, wishing it was also wrapped around a brick. The man caught the paper easily in his huge hands and laughed so loud his nose rang.

“Shut up!” Nami snapped, wishing she had something else to hurl at him. There had to be something else to throw. Something. Was that vase too expensive? Yes it was. Damnit.

“Sorry, sorry,” Franky said with a laugh, holding up his hands. “I showed up early so I decided to make myself at home.”

“Oh, go right ahead,” Nami said in a deadpan, still seething as she was in the middle of a freaking heart attack. “I don’t mind at all.”

“I also made dinner,” he said. “With ingredients I bought,” he added when she hefted the vase. She set it down let out a calming breath as she took off her coat to hang it up.

“Ow! Looking fine!”

“You think so?” she says, letting her hair fall and shaking it out.

“Super sure. You’re a foxy lady.”

“Don’t call me that,” Nami said, just keeping the wince from her face.

“Oh right. Sorry.”

“I’m going to get changed… How warm is dinner?”

“It’ll be okay, take your time. I also installed a new shower head.”

“Did you?!” Nami clapped her hands together. She’d been asking for ages! And then…wait a second. “It doesn’t make embarrassing noises, move unexpectedly on its own, or explode, does it?” she asked, putting a hand on her hip.

“Nah, nothing cool like that. It just has fourteen different settings,” Franky said, sitting back and crossing his arms behind his head while he put a sandaled left foot above the prosthetic on his right knee. The perfect model of a self satisfied man. “It wasn’t any trouble. Hey, mind if I watch the hockey game?”

“Go ahead,” Nami said. Then she went into her room, crouching to pet Minky before letting the cat out and kicking off her shoes. Wiggling her toes. Ahh, sweet freedom. One hot shower and much more comfortable clothes later and she was ready to face the world again. Or at least the world that included her apartment and a blue haired former LA gang boss, which was evident by his Hawaiian shirt and board shorts.

“Don’t you ever got cold?”

“Nah, I’m mostly plastic. Except where it counts.” And he flicked his metal nose which rang. If that was some kind of innuendo she didn’t want to get it.

“Dinner’s in the oven,” Franky called as she wandered her way into the kitchen.

“Mm.”

Minky was mewing, but had been fed, greedy thing. Dinner consisted of overdone porkchops, underdone asparagus, which she tossed, and sauerkraut. Somewhere, far away, Sanji was crying. Oh well. Nothing a bottle of wine wouldn’t fix. She grabbed one from the rack, straight from Wal-Mart to you! And sat on the couch, kicking up her feet onto the coffee table, digging out her laptop and opening it.

The e-mail from Sanji still waited. Nami absently swirled the cursor around with the touchpad as she stared blankly at the e-mail address. Gentlecook. She snorted but it was true enough. With a sigh she tilted the screen down and unwrapped the top of the wine bottle before handing it to Franky. He took it with one raised eyebrow, uncapped the false skin from his left forefinger to reveal a corkscrew. God, he was crazy.

“Don’t you think it’s a little weird having a Swiss Army hand?”

“That’s why I have two, baby,” he said, wiggling the fingers of his other hand and she smiled, resting her head back against the couch and watching him work. “You know, it’s not a bad thing, little sis.”

“Mm? What’s not?” She turned her attention to the hockey game as Franky handed the bottle back to her. Maybe if she looked absorbed enough…

“What you’re doin’. I know it’s hard, but sometimes when you love something you gotta let it go.”

Damnit. She’d just got home from work. She didn’t want to think about this yet.

“He’s not a bird, Franky,” she said, taking a long drink to overcome the tightness in her throat. She wasn’t going to get emotional in front of him or anyone. She would be strong about this decision, damnit. She had to be as she was the one who made it and good god she was starting to sound like Zoro. Well— maybe he had the right ideas once in a while.

“No,” Franky said. “He’s a kid. A good guy. Our captain.”

She wanted to throw the bottle at him but Minky had hopped up into his lap and he’d capped his finger and was petting her so that she purred like a rusty motor.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” she said blandly, working on her porkchop and wondering if she would need to use a chainsaw.

“That you’re doing a good thing in the end. I’m behind you one hundred super percent.”

“Okay, I get it,” she said, allowing herself to sound irritated because she was irritated. Who said ‘one hundred super percent’ in everyday conversation? Who had a Swiss Army Hand? Why the hell was everyone connected to Luffy so damn weird? She watched the game until she realized she had no idea who was playing who or even what the score was. The laptop whrred warm against her legs and Nami opened it fully again. Sanji’s message.

It wasn’t as if, the moment she opened it, the decision would be final. It had already been final long before this. She’d ruminated long enough. Done all the work. Convinced most of the people that needed convincing. Her long hard battles were finally coming to fruition. Harvest: The life of one of the best friends she’d ever had. Ugh. No no no. No time to get dramatically morose. She had to be strong through this or everyone else would fall apart around her like dominoes or directionless dodos.

She tapped open the email and, despite the anvil beginning to weigh behind her eyes, she couldn’t help but smile a little at the message.

<3<3<3~~~~Just to confirm I’m picking you up at 3, oh goddess of my heart, oh gilded swan of my dreams, oh my phenaminal Nami. I will be waiting there with arms wide open to receive your love! Will you need me to bring the catering van or shall I steal a stretch limo to contain your beauty? ~~~~<3<3<3

Your faithful servant forever,
Sanji

She’d accuse him of laying it on with a shovel, if not that he was completely sincere. Freaks. All of them.

I’ll be there. Bring the van. She typed back. She was always tempted to include a heart in return but always resisted as that would probably make him explode.

She hesitated only a moment and sent it. She would just treat everything as normal right now, that was all. Things were going to get really depressing in a hurry, so she had to hold on to the good feeling as long as she could. Not all death had to be sad, did it?

You keep telling yourself that, said the nasty little voice and Nami wished she could kick it. She closed the laptop fully this time, absently tracing the sticker on it that was their logo. The one Usopp had made. A pirate flag, Luffy had said, though that made no sense as Kings of the World had little to do with pirates. But then again, Luffy had little to do with common sense He thought he could see the ocean from the Sears Tower and Nami hadn’t had the heart to tell him it was only Lake Michigan. He’d looked at it all in grinning wonder, though. Even though it had been misty and raining that day, it didn’t seem to bother him. Nothing did. The only thing that had pulled his attention was Usopp prattling on about how he’d climbed the Sears Tower once when he was five, with—what was it? Suction cups taped to his hands? She smiled and shook her head.

“Happy memories?” Franky said and she blinked at him, almost having forgotten he was here and feeling her cheeks heat a little.

“Something like that.” But she wasn’t going down that avenue. Minky jumped from his lap and came strutting over to Nami, threading in a demanding way around her ankles. She picked the cat up and stroked her fingers through the cat’s grey fur. Luffy had wanted to call her Charlie the Tuna and Usopp wanted dust rag and Nami had hit them both. Minky was getting up there in kitty-cat years now and never did like traveling.

“Thanks for taking care of Minky for me,” she said, for free she didn’t say, but that was the best part of it.

“Nah. I gotta visit Idiotberg at least once a year, and he likes to have a guest that doesn’t complain.”

Idiotberg. The mayor of Chicago. How the hell such an illustrious guy was associated with the firework in the mouth that was Franky, Nami would never be able to figure out.

“And you’re coming down…?”

“The 20th,” he said. She nodded, doing some rough calculations in her head. That would be a weekend. Saturday maybe… which meant that Sanji would be slammed that day and someone else would have to pick him up. That guy worked harder than anyone she’d ever known.

Nami ran her fingers through Minky’s fur and watched the hockey game with increasing levels of vagueness until she realized with a faint start the warm dark behind her eyes meant she’d fallen asleep. Wine bottle on the couch— Crap did she—? She jolted awake. The bottle had been moved to the table. The plate was gone and she could hear the thrum of the dishwasher which had been broken yesterday. Franky was watching some kind of Monday night drama now, and Nami smiled faintly and pretended she didn’t see the utterly manly tears leaking down his cheeks.

“I’m heading to bed,” she said, picking up her laptop. “You remember where everything is?”

“I’m not crying,” Franky said in a choked voice.

“That’s not what I asked,” Nami said. He just waved her on, and she was going to take that as a yes and went to her room, closing the door. Minky was asleep on the bed and Nami changed into her pjs and joined her there. Only one more thing left to do before she checked out for the night. She opened the laptop one last time and almost immediately, a chatbox popped up.

:u awake?: ‘bluemikan’ said.

:Only just. How about “u”? :p : Nami replied, sticking her tongue out in real life, too.

:dont mock my shortcuts, bean curd:

:I’ll mock what I want, toejam.:

There was a long pause. Nami guessed it must be the baby pulling her away for some reason or another, but waited, blinking herself awake every now and then.

:srry Belle is teething. But i can taqlk. U doing o.k.?:

:Yeah, I’m fine.: Mostly the truth. :Sleepy though.: All the truth. She curled under the toasty covers and watched the ‘bluemikan is typing’ notification.

:if u want 2 talk…:

:I’ll call you later. Night, No-go Nojiko.:

:night Nasty Nami. :p :

: :p :

Nami smiled.

: and your strawhat kid will understand : Nojiko typed. Nami frowned. As if Nojiko knew what Luffy would understand or not. No one could tell that even when he wasn’t— wasn’t how he was right now.

: Night :

She clicked the laptop closed, set it on her night table and laid down, pulling the covers up to her chin. That idiot. Why did he have to go out and get himself hurt? After everything they’d done to try and keep him safe. To try to push him toward a life he actually could live. No matter what he wanted, no matter what he believed, the kind of life he was thinking of couldn’t exist in this world. In the end, even Peter Pan had to grow up.

Nami rolled onto her side and buried her face against the pillow, determined not to think about it.


Past:

Trouble for Me

She’s been unconscious— again. She knows it. Can feel it in the sluggish way everything is coming back to her. Her heart flutters in momentary panic but she takes a slow, deep breath as if she’s merely sleeping, to calm herself down. Panic at first brush of unfamiliarity is a rookie mistake and she’s lived for long enough to learn to avoid those. She shifts her legs a little. Not tied up. No part of her seems to be but her face hurts like a bitch —which makes sense as the last things he remembers is the swing of that metal pipe coming toward her in the dim light.

So where the hell is she now? A car. It doesn’t smell like oversaturated Pine Sol so it’s not Foxy’s. Or Buggy’s for that matter. Instead it smells kind of like a pile of unwashed socks—which tells her nothing except maybe these creeps really need to do laundry. It’s daytime. She can see the light behind her eyelids now. Early. But where? With who? Hopefully someone she can work with as she’s not looking to tuck and roll out of the car and find her way through Arizona heat in stockings.

“Zoro…”


Hey…she knows that voice…

“Zoro the sign we passed just said Pinedale.”

That’s… that boy’s… Usipp? Usupp? Usopp.

“Yeah, and…?” says a deeper voice. That must be one of Usopp’s friends. His criminal friends. Shit. Nami cracks open her eyes to observe the situation through her lashes. Or at least observe the situation of the driver. Broad shoulders, green hair, up and comer at least in the nowhere/nothing tournaments, Roronoa Zoro. She knows that name. She’s bet on him more than once and won more than once. He must make a small killing. Who knew the Usopp kid would know him? But what’s his game? Where is he taking her?

“So we already passed Pinedale once,” Usopp says. “I’m telling you we’re going around in circles.”

“I’m telling you, that’s impossible,” Zoro says. “I’ve been turning all morning.”

“Yeah but you’ve been making all the same turns!”

“Of course, you idiot, that’s how you go in a straight line.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense!”

What did she wake into a comedy routine?

“Why don’t you try making a left turn,” says another unfamiliar voice. A boy that sounds younger than Usopp.

“Where will that get us?” Zoro asks.

“A restaurant,” says the kid. “And I gotta pee.”

“Do it in the bushes then,” Zoro says.

“No way! It’s too hot!”

“So?”

“Ace says if you do it outside when it’s too hot, you’ll dry up like a snail.”

“It’s true,” Usopp says.

“It is not!” Zoro snaps.

Amusing as all this is, Nami would much rather be secure in an out of the way hotel room and watching Saturday Night Live. But assessing the situation, it seemed things are in her favor for the moment. Usopp and Zoro seem to be friends so if the green haired fighter turns violent, Nami can always have Usopp calm him down. Or the kid for that matter. But it calls for a little acting, of which she’s quite talented at. She slumps a bit and flutters her eyelashes and lets out a soft moan.

“I’m serious,” Usopp says, cutting a hand through the air. Nami opens her eyes a little wider to try and catch his but he doesn’t even seem to notice as he leans forward to say in a low voice. “It happened to a friend of mine once.”

“No way,” the kid says.

“That is such bullshit,” Zoro says.

“No seriously. He did it when it was only 90 degrees outside and afterward couldn’t go for a whole month! He could only just sit on the toilet and cry.”

“Woah,” the kid says, sounding thoroughly impressed. She can’t believe this. They are seriously not still talking about pee. Nami makes another noise and opens her eyes fully, putting a hand to her lips, though gingerly because they hurt. If she ever meets the guy who did that she’s going to kick his balls in.

“Where am I?” she says softly.

“How do you know that anyway?” Zoro says. “What were you listening at the door?”

“A man knows how a man knows,” Usopp says.

“I bet he was peering in the window like a creeper,” the kid says with a laugh. Nami focuses a soft gaze, then a gaze, then a glower on Usopp who seems to be content to whack the kid in the shoulder with the back of his hand.

“Oi, no way. What kind of guy do you think I am?”

“I’m awake, you dipshits!” Nami snaps finally. That gets their attention. Usopp turns to look at her, the kid peers at her with dark eyes through the gap of the seat and the headrest and she can see Zoro watching her from the rear view mirror. There is a moment of silence.

“Oh, you’re awake,” Usopp says. Nami feels a headache coming on and reminds herself not to bean her only possible benefactor in the head when in the car of his friends going fifty-five miles an hour down an empty stretch of road.

“Where are we?” she says, deciding the maiden in distress act is going to be more of a pain around these guys than anything else.

“Pinedale,” the kid says.

“Again,” Usopp says.

“I’m telling you we made too many turns to still be in the same place,” Zoro says.

“I’m telling you that’s impossible,” Usopp says. Not this again.

“As hilarious as all this is,” Nami says, cutting in.

“It’s great isn’t it?” says the kid.

“Oi,” Zoro and Usopp say in unison.

“As hilarious as this is,” Nami says again through ground teeth, daring any of them with a heated glare to say one word. Even a squeak. Before she’s finished. “Does anyone want to clue me in on what happened?”

“Yeah.” The kid pushes the headrest down and rests his chin on it to look at her. He looks disarmingly young and the bandaids plastered haphazardly over his face don’t help any. “I’m Luffy, that’s Zoro, that’s Usopp and we saw Usopp getting kicked around so we came in to save him and you were there, too.”

“You did.” Nami says, giving the kid a bland look.

“Yeah, and Zoro.”

Uh huh. Well she knew who did most of the saving so there’s no point in calling him out on that. Okay well now she has to think about what to do with this situation. Undoubtedly Zoro thinks that she owes him something, and she is grateful in a sense-but she is not going to be in debt to a criminal in any way shape or form. She will not even hesitate to tell him so, preferably behind Usopp or across the room or from the window of a moving bus. The kid is still watching her. His gaze is unnerving and Nami wonders if she has something on her face. No…come to think of it there probably really is a lot to stare at.

“Does anyone have a mirror?” she asks idly, then remembers the company she’s in. Of course n— She blinks as Usopp hands her a little square mirror fished from his bag.

“Thanks.”

Ugh. She looks a mess. That is a hell of a bruise and there’s still the black eye from when she first got caught rifling through Foxy’s papers. She smacked that ass well and good, though and had noticed a small dent in the wall when she’d last gone in there. Either way, she’d have to hide out a little while these marks faded. She would look vulnerable and people would treat her that way. No one trusted a bookie with a black eye. At least all her teeth will still there. No thanks to metal pipe jackass.

“What’s your name?” The kid…well Luffy, she supposes, asks. Nami hesitates. Then decides that it’s no big deal if these kind of nobodies know her name. Zoro is an up and comer but he hasn’t come up into any respectable fight yet.

“Nami.” She hands the mirror back and rolls up her shirt sleeves, both kind of hot and trying to surreptitiously check her arms for needle marks. Seeing none, she lets out a breath.

“Where are you going?” Luffy asks.

“Oh, anywhere and nowhere.” She smiles and folds her arms, blinking as the kid smiles back. Not just a polite social gesture but a huge ear to ear grin. Was it something she said?

“Us, too! Well that and kind of New York.”

“If we can ever get out of Pinedale,” Usopp mutters.

“Like I said—” Zoro grinds out.

“You should come with us,” Luffy says. Nami blinks again, then holds out her hands.

“Woah, hold on there. I’m sure you’re pretty nice” criminals. Well one of them. “Guys but I’ve got things to do.”

“Like what?” Luffy asks.

“Oh you know, things.” Like put on some make up for starters. …Oh wait her purse isn’t here. Nami smiles. Her money isn’t here either. Nor are her clothes. Or—well anything really! Wow! Imagine this situation! A tight smile twitches over her face which she quickly tries to smooth.

“Ahh well actually,” Nami says, leaning forward just a bit and glancing at Zoro, hoping he will at least glimpse at the swath of feminine skin she’s not showing entirely for her own health. “If it’s not too much trouble, could we go back to the Rhinegold Warehouse?”

“We can,” Luffy says, jamming a finger up his nose. Lovely. “But there’s nothing to see. I burned it down.”

Wow. Her ears must still be ringing from that pipe so she heard wrong! She glances at Usopp.

“Do you have a cotton swab?”

“Yeah sure.” He digs around in his bookbag and produces a box of them. Resourceful guy, huh? Nami cleans out one ear, then the other, then crosses her legs at the knee and smiles at Luffy again.

“I’m sorry. What did you say happened to the Rhinegold?”

“I burnt it.”

“Oh I see.” So she hadn’t misheard! Well—! “I HAD TEN GRAND IN THERE, YOU IDIOT!” Someone is shaking him back and forth! Oh that’s her! “DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY THAT IS?! WHY THE HELL DID YOU BURN IT DOWN?!”

“I-I di—i-idn’t li-i-ike i-i-t,” Luffy says, voice vibrating with each shake. Nami smiles.

“Oh that was the reason?”

“Yeah.”

“WHAT KIND OF STUPID REASON IS THAT?! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO MAKE THAT MUCH MONEY THAT YOU JUST DESTROYED?! WELL?! DO YOU?!”

“N-o-o-t re-e-a-a-l-l-y.”

“Oi! Knock it off!” Zoro says. “Crazy woman! We saved your ass!” Nami realizes faintly the car has stopped which is probably good. That way she won't be charged with homicide when she chucks someone out of it. She lurches forward in her seat and jabs the fighter in his overly muscled shoulder.

“You shut up! I didn’t ask for your help in the first place!” She jabs him again and a third time.

“Do you have any idea how long it took me to even set up that appointment?! And then you just come in and burn it down?!

“Ow! Quit poking me, damnit! Your nails are sharp!”

“Oh sharp are they?” She flexs her fingers, ready to show him just how good and sharp they are. The kid’s hand around her wrist pulls her up short. His grip surprisingly strong.

“Hey,” the kid says, his voice a strange kind of intensity. “Calm down.”

“Calm down?! You expect me to just calm down?!”

“Yeah.” He nods. She glowers at him, chest heaving, and he watches her, a small stern frown on his face. “That money was important to you.”

“Of course it was important to me! Let go!” She snatches her hand back again and he lets her go. She folds her arms over her chest and tries to keep the anger burning like hot coals in her throat so the other sensation wouldn’t take over. Four years work. All gone. Everything she’d had to see. Everything she’d had to do. Now she was stuck with nothing. Not even a way to get home!

“There were cages in there,” Luffy says. “One of them had a dead guy in it.” His frown deepens. “If I’d just left it they would have come back and used the cages again maybe.”

“And they were going to transport people,” Usopp says quietly. Nami bites the inside of her lip and glares at a run in her stocking. She knows that! She does! But—!

“There wasn’t time to look for your stuff,” Luffy says.

“I didn’t even know you had stuff,” Usopp says. “Or I would have tried. I’m an um…master at finding…stuff…” he trails off. Nami drops her head presses a hand to her face, feeling her eyes burn but blinking that way. She wouldn’t break. She’d find a way to get around this. Maybe she could hitchhike. Yeah. Right. Looking like she did the only people that would stop would be johns or cops.

“It’s ten grand, right?” Luffy says. “We’ll help you get it back.”

“Oh yeah? How?” She lifts her head and glowers at him. “Even if he fights his hardest he only makes five hundred dollars a night,” she says, gesturing at Zoro.

“Five fifty,” Zoro mutters. Nami ignores him.

“And then, between gas, hotel, food and whatever else…” She ticks off on her fingers. “That only leaves about a hundred total.

“I think you’re overestimating a bit,” Usopp murmurs.


“Well I don’t know how fast we’ll get it,” Luffy says. “But I fight, too, so that helps.”
“And what about him?” she glances at Usopp, meanly on purpose.

“Well I am A rank,” Usopp says and as she glowers at him, he quails again. “But uhhh that was years ago. I don’t really fight. I…just do, you know, slingshot stuff.”

“So a dead weight.” As soon as she says it, Nami wishes she could unsay it. Usopp’s flinch is almost painful.

“Not a dead weight,” Luffy says, an edge to his voice. “He’s our nakama and he can do lots of stuff. We’ll help you get your money back but you’re not allowed to say things like that.”

“No…you’re right I’m sorry….” She clenches her fingers together and leans her head back against the headrest, blinking up at the ceiling. She sucks in a deep breath and lets it out. “It’s…just been a long day.”

“It’s okay,” Luffy says. “Come with us. We’ll get your money back. And we’ll have a lot of fun, too. But…we have to do it on the way to New York.”

Just go with them? Can she even do something that crazy? Does she have other choices? She can always just have them take her to a hotel and call Nojiko from there— ask her to scrape up busfaire. But no. No that would be admitting defeat. And the ten grand wasn’t just ten grand.
Remember what it’s for she reminds herself.

Everyone is watching her, she realizes. Usopp looks like he’s still trying to get over the shock of being called—that—and Nami decides that one thing she has to do is to make it up to him somehow. Zoro she can probably manipulate pretty easily once she learns his ways. And even if he only makes a little money now, it’s only because he doesn’t know how to work the circuit. She can have him fighting in midsized arenas by September if she’s good. Luffy, who knows. But even if he doesn’t work as a fighter she can get him…selling buttons or something. She sucks in a deep breath, squares her shoulders and nods.

“Okay.” And there’s that grin again. Not as wide as before but too damned disarming for her own piece of mind.

She clears her throat and tried to think. What is their next step. They’d need to start small so Zoro could be rebranded and Luffy could begin to get branded. “We better get out of state first. Better not call too much attention to ourselves. I think there’s a smaller arena in New Mexico.”

Pinedale does not slot into her mental map, however, and she has a feeling that the great and powerful Roronoa Zoro is more than a little lacking in the directional sense department.

“Give me the map.”

“Map?” Luffy and Usopp say in stereo.

“We’ve never needed a map,” Zoro says. Nami feels like throttling them all over again.

“Next gas station, we’re stopping and getting a map.” And other things she was going to need for this trip until they found somewhere …better stocked for her to shop at.

“Okay,” Luffy says with a grin. “Hey, Usopp, we should teach her how to play slap jack!”
Out of the corner of her eye, Nami sees Usopp make a quick gesture across his throat with a single finger.

“Ah, sorry. I’m allergic to playing cards,” Nami says. “You’ll just have to play with Usopp.”

“Oi,” Usopp says darkly. He can ‘oi’ all he likes. She has enough to think of. Zoro snorts and the car purrs to life again before sliding out onto the road. Nami watches the world go by for a moment, then faces forward, keeping an eagle eye out for a gas station.

She will give up her sanity if she has to…but she was going to get that money back.