Breaking But Loved

The Other Side

While the couple talked, the kids had some questions. They hadn't asked while Luffy was in a coma because they just didn't want to talk about him at all. They didn't want to jinx anything. So they asked now.

"Why did the bad guy take Luffy? Robin, who was he really?" Nami asked seriously. The other three waited for Robin's answer as well.

"The man was Luffy's father. Luffy has been scared because he wasn't a very nice man during Luffy's childhood."

"Does that have something to do with his problems?" Sanji questioned.

"It was never my business, and it is not yours. I intruded on his privacy, and I feel guilty about that. So I'm not going to answer that question."

"What about his mom?" Nojiko asked. Robin answered that she didn't know. That none of them had a clue about his biological mother.

"I don't understand why he started talking. It's so out of the blue. And why was he so convinced he had an awful voice?" Usopp asked.

Nami thought for a moment. "There has to be another reason he didn't talk." But then she saw Robin's stern look and dropped the topic. They all waited patiently as Luffy and Zoro talked. They hoped Luffy was helping with Zoro's guilt. They knew Zoro would never forget Luffy in that bed. Empty and still, not conveying he was alive other than his steady breathing. None of them would forget it, but Zoro had been with Luffy when the bad thing started. When Luffy was snatched away from his love.

When they had arrived home, the police were outside the house, Zoro sitting on a stretcher, his leg bleeding. He was sobbing and wouldn't look away from the direction Luffy was heading in.

Robin had run out and to Zoro, but he was inconsolable and couldn't talk. This wasn't like when he was over the phone when Luffy was first attacked by his dad. No, Luffy was alive then. Zoro had sobbed, but was able to speak. This time, he couldn't talk around his heartbreaking sobs. The other children were all scared.

"Zoro, where is Luffy?" Robin asked in panic. There was no way Luffy would ever leave Zoro to cry like this, and Zoro would never cry like this unless it involved something bad with Luffy. But Zoro didn't answer. Robin rushed to an officer, watching as talked in the radio, sitting in the car. The woman explained as much as Zoro had told her to Robin, whose eyes got bigger and bigger as she heard that Luffy was abducted.

Zoro had refused to get in the ambulance and would wait for Luffy at their home, but Robin convinced him that Luffy was more likely to end up in the hospital than come back home. Just in case, a cop car was staying at the house.

So Zoro rode in the ambulance while Robin and the kids followed in their car. The kids were panicking in the back seat about where Luffy was. All they got was that he had been shot and kidnapped. Robin felt crushing regret. She should have trusted her instincts and not left the boys alone at night. Robin hadn't even entered the house when they got there. She knew the police had been inside, but Robin was more concerned about Zoro's leg than what happened inside.

Zoro had cried the whole way to the hospital, earning some pitiful glances from the paramedics. But he didn't care. All he could think about was Luffy.

They finally made it to the emergency room and Zoro was seen immediately. Only 15 or so minutes had passed since luffy was abducted. Robin had come just a few moments too late. But then, she would have put the entire family at risk if she had walked in on the attack.

Zoro was being treated and had something for the pain as the bullet was being taken out of his thigh when they heard everyone quiet around them. Except of course Zoro, who was absolutely inconsolable. They heard shouting and the skidding sound from the wheels of the stretcher and watched as poor Luffy was brought back to have immediate surgery. Zoro had stopped sobbing but was still crying as he wanted the man to hurry up getting the bullet out. He wanted to see Luffy now.