With different eyes

Reconnaissance

Lucia's POV

The next three weeks pass quite unspectacularly: training, now and then a marine or pirate attack. Whereby I'm locked in my cabin with nice regularity by either Ace or Marco. The two of them have a disgusting agreement on this: I'm not ready to fight yet!

Ace is still behaving strangely. When I'm not near him, he jumps around like a ferret on coke. When I am near him, he reminds me of a spider monkey with an overdose of oxytocin. He runs after me and can't get enough cuddling. Marco also likes the whole thing, because he thinks it makes us both less likely to get into trouble. Right now, Ace is training somewhere with Marco, while I am being chased around by Vista. By now I'm not so bad with the sword, but today I feel limp and unfocused. "Vista can we call it a day?" I ask, exhausted. He looks at me worriedly and comes towards me. "Is everything all right?" asks Vista. "Yeah, I'm just not feeling too well today, that's all." I wave it off, but as Vista stands in front of me, I suddenly feel terribly sick. I run to the railing and manage to reach her just in time. I noisily vomit myself into the sea. "Lucia!" Vista now says frantically and comes running towards me. I sink to the floor and wipe my mouth. Vista gets down on her knees in front of me and feels my forehead. "You don't have a fever!" he says. I get up and try to reassure him, but my circulation won't cooperate. I feel dizzy and the world sways back and forth, then everything goes black.

Narrator POV

Vista sees Lucia's face turn white and she sways. He quickly stretches out his arms and is able to catch her before she hits the ground. She looks so pale and fragile right now. He picks her up completely. "What happened, son?" asks Whitebeard. "I don't know, she just collapsed. Lucia said she wasn't feeling so good." explains Vista. "Take her to the doc." says Whitebeard. Vista nods and makes her way to the infirmary. It's going to be a fuss when Ace finds out. He's very worried about Lucia at the moment, as if something might happen to her. The crew find this very funny, as Lucia is the only one suffering. Vista turns a corner and is almost at the infirmary. He pushes open the door and immediately heads for one of the white beds. Gently he puts Lucia in the bed and runs towards the small room next to the infirmary. Vista knocks hard on the wood and doesn't wait for anyone to answer, but pushes it open. Doc looks up startled from the book he was reading. "What happened?" he asks. "Lucia just passed out," Vista explains frantically.

Doc jumps up and mumbles something into his beard. Vista thinks she understands something like: "Move in here permanently! Vista grins tiredly, it seems that Lucia has a fan here. He follows the doc, who is already bent over Lucia. He sees the furrowed brow and asks anxiously, "Is it serious?" he asks frantically. The doc shakes his head and says: "I don't know yet, I have to do some more tests. So get out of here and keep Ace off my back!" Vista smirks and says, "Ace doesn't even know she's here!" Doc rolls his eyes in annoyance and hisses, "That means he'll be here in five minutes!" Vista laughs and opens the door and goes out to intercept Ace. Doc is right, in a couple of minutes Ace will have found out that Lucia is here and then all hell will break loose.

Ace has a bad feeling. Marco is already annoyed and hisses: "Go on, get out and find Lucia. Soon I'll just put her on the railing, then you'll always have an eye on her!" Ace doesn't need to be told twice, but runs down the stairs and scans the deck for Lucia and Vista. Ace stops and frowns. Where the hell are the two of them? He left her on the deck, maybe something happened to her during training? He looks at Father who is not paying attention to him or is he deliberately not looking him in the eye? "Father, where is Lucia?" he asks the giant. He doesn't look at him, but takes a deep swig from his bottle. Ok what's going on here? Is Ace imagining things or is everyone just avoiding him? Ace turns around quickly when he hears the door to the lower deck. He quickly runs towards Vista who is just coming upstairs. "Where's Lucia?" he asks frantically. Vista sighs and says, "That didn't take five minutes." Ace can't do much with that sentence. He just wants to know where Lucia is. Vista looks over Ace's shoulder pleadingly and then says, "Lucia is in the infirmary. She's passed out." Ace turns pale and is about to storm off.