The White Devil ( OC - One Piece)

Chapter 9

"What happened?..."
As soon as Shae mumbled those words as she finally woke up, Ace jumped up from his chair and bent himself over to see her face.
"Shae! Thank god you're awake...How do you feel?"
Shae wanted to speak again, but before any words came out of her mouth, a coughing fit shook her body violently.
"Woah, it's okay Shae, just slowely, you're hurting yourself. I'm here okay?"
Ace placed his hand on her back and cautiously put a strand of her hair out of her face.
"Thank you." gasped Shae.
Now, Ace sat next to her on the border of her bed. Shae noticed that they were alone in her room on board.
"Captain Smoker hurt you bad, Chopper says you have several broken ribs, and you had a crack in your lung, so he had to operate you as soon as we got here. You shouldn't move for the next three days."
The only thing she could say was "Oh..."
as her hand reached for the bandage under whom she was operated. It didn't hurt as much, fortunately.
The two remained silent.

Ace...

Shae didn't even know where to begin with all the questions she wanted to ask.
She felt like she should say something, but her tiredness was overwhelming her. Plus, the silence, kind of, didn't feel awkward. It felt warm and comforting. Ace seemed to send little pieces of sunshine towards shae, as he always did earlier.

"So I think I should tell the others that you're awake now. Chopper eventually needs to change your bandages anyways. Just stay here, I'll be right back, okay?" He said while slowely getting up from his seat beneath her bed.
But shae didn't really wanted to be alone right now, not even for only a few minutes. She cleared her throat quietly as she asked:"Ace, why were you actually waiting for me to awake in here, and not chopper? Aren't you on the run?...What are you doing anyways?"
Ace was already making his way upstairs, as he turned around. First he looked suprised, and shae was afraid that she might've said something wrong, but then his facial expression turned into a warm smile as he said:"I'm really sorry if that may had bothered you. I just feel guilty because I could have prevented him from hurting you, couldn't've I?"
And without expecting an answer he closed the door shut behind him.

I could have prevented that myself, if I had only been prepared yet. I finally need to make that step...

Minutes after, chopper almost ran into shae's room und was really out of breath, followed by luffy, ace and nami. They were all curiously staring at her.
Chopper asked how shae was feeling, and after that, he changed her bandages. He also told her that she shouldn't overdo it with heavy physical activity in the next month. She wasn't pleased to hear that, now, that a war was standing in front of them, just now that they had to save Vivi's beloved alabasta. Shae hated to feel helpless. She hated it so much, whenever she couldn't help at a problem, whenever she just had to let it all happen and couldn't do a damn thing.

That night Shae couldn't get any sleep, regardless of her heavy tiredness. Plus, her temperature was increasing.
Chopper told her to try to distract herself with something, so Ace was sitting by her bed all night long, telling her everything he had experienced already, and why he was here and what his plans were.
He had many adventurous storys to tell. He had become a powerful pirate since he left home, just as he always promised when he was younger. But he wasn't just any pirate, as Shae learned. He was the commander of the second division of the fearsome whitebeard pirates! She had heard much of Edward Newgate, known as Whitebeard. He was one of the four emperors of the sea. Mankind said, that that man had the power to destroy the world and shae could see in the way ace's eyes lit up when he spoke about him, that he was absolutely convinced about that fact. She also noticed, that ace was calling his captian only "father". She learned that every whitebeard pirate did that and that it made them happy, and she understood them.

"So...but what are you actually doing here in alabasta, so far away from your people?", asked Shae after a short while.

"I'm on a search...I'm looking for someone named Teach. Later on he might be better known as blackbeard. He once was one of our people, but he did the unforgivably; he killed one of his own! He killed Thach...and now as the commander of the second division it's my task to create justice.", ace's eyes seemed to get darker and darker just as he continued to speak.

"And why should you find him here? I haven't heard of anyone named blackbeard before."

"I got my informations. But you know what? Let's not talk about it anymore. What about you? I haven't seen you in years and I don't know anything yet!", he playfully pinched shae's cheek as a smile grew back on it's face.

"Me? Oh you know..."

"No, I don't, but I'd really like to."

She just couldn't lie to him. Ace knew her too well. But how was she supposed to talk about everything that happened in the past two years when she's all kept it to herself all this time. There was just too much. Too much change, too much of what she didn't understand herself yet.

"I may tell you in detail when the time is right. But I just don't have the strentgh yet, I'm sorry. I promise you I'll tell you about my experiences when I'm feeling better again."

"Of course.", a warm hand grabbed hers. "Whenever you feel ready. But, I wanna know sometime, okay?"

"Okay", shae chuckled.