154 Captain's conundrum

A rumble shot through the room as I gobbled the soup placed before me, to the side my trusty first mate sat on a hard wood chair glancing at me over his hands. This was the third day that I had been awake after the fight, with the first two days being proper evidence to the fact that experimenting during battle was almost never advised.

Jolts of pain had raced up and down my body forcing Marco, who had taken it upon himself to nurse all of us back to health, to bluster up and down to no end about how headstrong and stupid I had behaved.

For the first twenty-four hours of consciousness I had had, I could barely move my hands let alone my upper body. The whole day had been spent with my body readjusting to what could be considered 'normal' for me.

On the second day, things had begun to improve, and by improve of course I mean that the pain that I had been forced to endure was not enough to keep me awake. Therefore, as the sun had risen I had slinked slowly back to uneventful and dreamless sleep.

Through the entire endeavour I had opted to feel the pain that the process entailed, letting my mind analyse the various components that had caused it. With agency returning to my body, I now also had a tangible plan to re-achieve the state that I had been in when I had fought the old Vice Admiral.

As soon as I had awoken, Fawkes had been kind enough to tell me about the state that Terrick and Sorren were in, giving me a thorough diagnostic amidst Marco chastisement.

"I see that you are able to actually use that mouth of yours today captain..." Fawkes called out, snarking slightly at the fact that they had to shove a tube down my throat to keep my body effectively sustained for the last four days. (As I had been forced to be all too aware of over the previous two days)

"Shut it..." I called back not even looking up from the food in front of me.

"How's the brat?"

"Eh, he slipped into sleep a few hours ago, no longer in that meditative state of semi consciousness. Marco tells me that the tough times are out, though he might be a little scared of flashes of light, and night chases for a bit. "He replied slowly getting to his feet.

"Terrick on the other hand, is going to take some time... He is not used to the kind of strain that his body was forced through. The overall structure of his body was essentially too weak for the sudden jump into the New World. Little Scipio at least got a bit of time to get used to the conditions, and he isn't even one of the crews heavy lifters!

Though his voice sounded flat, I could still do nothing but flinch. As the overall decision maker of the crew, I had failed to take into consideration our overall capabilities.

Couple that with the fact, that we did not have a coated ship to begin with, made it an impossibility to rectify. Every time Terrick or any of the others save for Fawkes would fight, they would need a heavy downtime!

With a sigh I looked over at him. "Has he woken up?"

"A bit earlier than you. On that vein, the Whitebeard guy, Thatch, he woke up too. Just a few hours ago in fact... He wanted to meet you as soon as, but Marco didn't want to complicate things too much so he got me instead. Suffice to say that there is gonna be a lot to talk about." and with that he left the room.

With a slight groan I got to my feet silently, pins and needles shooting up my leg as I hobbled forward.

Most of the crew often asked me, why I wasn't always using the fruit to keep myself on a proverbial high, keeping my body at peak performance at all times and numbing even the slightest hint of pain. The answer to that was simple, if ever there was a situation wherein I would be forced to separate from my devil fruit (Sea stone is a motherfucker, I assure you) then I would be caught dry.

The relief that my fruit gave me would literally be an addiction at that point, and I didn't want that kind of liability. Emotions, and feelings were a pain to deal with, but they couldn't always be escaped. Unfortunately.

With a small flinch I pried the door open, gripping onto it for support as I walked through the hallway.

A faint limp riddled my steps as I used the walls around for aid. With each successive step forward, my gait grew stronger.

As I walked forward I could hear the sound of murmuring arise from a room in the corner, speckles of light shining through the doorway to the wall on the other side.

With a soft rap I made my presence known as walked through the threshold.

"I am here..." I called out, relishing the overall feeling of the strange reference in my mouth. The residents of the room stared back at me, and then Marco with a sigh simply ignored my presence, opting instead to comment to my first mate.

"When you told me the guy did not take orders from anyone, I was under the impression that did not include his doctor..."

"To be fair doc, when you say that, you make it sound like you told me to stay in bed." I quipped snidely, taking an undue amount of satisfaction from watching the man sigh in frustration.

"Let it go doc, that's the kind of guy he is." Fawkes replied deadpan before shooting me a serious glance.

"Captain, I think reintroductions are in order. This is the captain of our pirate crew, and this" here he motioned to Thatch, "is Sorren's father."