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“It’s two in the goddamn morning,” Nami shouted, sounding exhausted through the phone, but still making Zoro wince at her volume, “Someone better be fucking dying.”
He clutched the phone tight as a spike of dread hit his heart.
“Oh, fuck, oh shit.” Bedsheets rustled on her end, and he heard Vivi’s soft “What’s going on?” As she was woken up too, “Is someone dying?”
“Uh,” he leaned his head back against the wall, his good eye staring at the florescent hospital lights as if they could give him answers, “I don’t, I don’t know.”
“What happened?” She demanded.
He closed his eye and took a deep breath, “There was an accident. We were driving, and there was ice and a truck and...” He clenched his teeth and leaned forward, hiding his eyes behind his hand.
“Where are you now?”
“Hospital.”
“Where’s Sanji?”
“Here, somewhere.”
She let out a relived sigh as he continued, “They won’t tell me where. Nami, it’s...”
When he’d pulled Sanji out of the mangled wreck of the car, he hadn’t been sure if he was still alive or already dead. His lover was a bloody mess, bleeding from a terrible gash on his head and another on his chest, soaking his shirt in blood. The paramedics on the scene said he was alive, so did the nurses once the finished bandaging his eye and putting a cast on his broken wrist. They won’t tell him anything else, but he did know one thing, “It’s bad. It’s really bad.”
“Will they tell you anything?”
“No,” he scoffed, “I’m not family.”
“Of course not,” She muttered darkly under her breath, ”Okay, we’ll be right over. Don’t worry. Which hospital is it?”
He told her, and she promised to call the others and tell them what was going on , which he appreciated. He didn’t think he could handle having to explain everything again.
When she hung up, he was hit with a sudden wave of loneliness. The painkillers they’d given him earlier were wearing off. He was starting to feel the soreness in his wrist, and his eye was beginning to itch behind his bandage. He wanted Sanji, wanted to see him and be with him, but he couldn’t.
It was just him. Alone. Waiting for news.
He cradled his head in his hands and shut his eye tight, trying his best to quell the panic building in his chest.
“Please,” he begged a god he didn’t believe in, “Please be okay.”
Sanji had to be okay.
Zoro didn’t know what he’d do if he wasn’t.
“I’m sorry,” the nurse sighed in exasperation, “but I can’t tell you anything more about Mr. Vinsmoke’s condition. You’re not family.”
Zoro’s eye twitched. He lived with Sanji and loved him, but apparently that was worth less to these people than some dickweeds who share his last name.
“Look,” Zoro sighed too, his patience running thin, “I’ve been waiting here for hours. I was in the car too,” he waved his cast for emphasis, “I promise you, he won’t care. He’d want me to know how he is. Can’t you tell me anything?”
“Like I told you,” she repeated sternly, “hospital policy is-”
He slammed his good fist on the counter, “I don’t give a fuck about policy! Just tell me if he’s alive or not!”
She grabbed for the phone on her desk, “Sir, if that’s going to be your attitude, I’m afraid you’ll have to-”
Just then a doctor came up and placed his finger on the receiver, ending the call, “I don’t think that would be necessary.”
She glanced up at him, “Doctor Trafalgar?”
Zoro looked at him too. He looked scruffy, like he hadn’t slept in a month, his scrubs and stethoscope the only things marking him as a doctor.
“You were in the car too, right?” he asked, eyes staring at him unnervingly, “You’re Mr. Vinsmoke’s boyfriend?”
Zoro nodded slowly, “Yeah.”
He returned the nod and looked at his clipboard, “What’s your name?”
“Zoro.”
He grunted and asked the nurse, “Has any family shown up yet for Mr. Vinsmoke?”
“I don’t-” the nurse started, but Zoro beat her to it.
“No, they haven’t.”
He looked up from his clipboard, “Will they?”
“No.”
“I figured,” Doctor Trafalgar’s eyes slid to Zoro’s bandaged eye briefly, then said, “He asked for you.”
Zoro’s heart beat fast as he took an involuntary step forward, “He’s awake?”
“He was, for a bit,” the doctor frowned, “He’s being prepped for surgery.”
“Surgery?” he balked, the blood draining from his face. How bad was he?
“Doctor Trafalgar,” the nurse said sternly.
But the doctor waved her off, walking down a hallway away from the waiting room and nodded for Zoro to follow, “C’mon. Let’s get a coffee.”
Zoro followed him to some sort of break room. An infomercial was playing on an old TV on the wall, and an orderly was sleeping on a couch in front of it, but otherwise it was empty.
“Sit,” the doctor ordered as he went over to an ancient coffee maker and made two cups.
Zoro sat down at the table and absently watched the TV, wondering just what he was up to.
The doctor sat down, sliding a coffee across the table as he nodded at his wrist, “They give you a sling for that?”
“No,” he lied. They had, but he’d ditched it, hating how confined it made him feel when he was already stressed out enough as it was. He took a sip of the coffee and almost spat it back out again, “This tastes like shit.”
“Yeah,” Doctor Trafalgar agreed as he downed half of his in one go.
Zoro watched him carefully, but he didn’t say anything. Instead he seemed to be waiting for him to speak first, so he asked the most pressing question on his mind, “You said surgery?”
“Yes,” he leaned forward, “I’ll tell you the details if you want to know, but I should preface it with it’s not good.”
He clenched his hands around the coffee cup, the warmth from the drink helping to ground him, “I want to know.”
He nodded and continued, “He’s sustained a heavy amount of internal bleeding and has a collapsed lung.” He sighed, “The good news is, it’s all very treatable. If he can make it through the surgery, he should make a full recovery.”
Zoro felt dizzy, “If?”
“I’m not going to make you any promises, because there’s never a guarantee in situations like these. There’s a lot of bleeding, and there could be other complications we only find out about once we’re in.”
He appreciated the man’s honesty, as brutal as it was, but it didn’t stop the sinking feeling in his chest. Sanji could die here. Sanji could die and he’d be gone forever. Zoro had been driving so that would mean he killed Sanji. The most important person in his life and he killed him.
“I’ll be doing the surgery,” the doctor continued, shaking Zoro out of his misery spiral, “And, barring complications, it should be a simple procedure.”
“So, what?” he growled, “Is he going to die or is he going to be fine?”
“Those are the options, yes,” he took a sip of coffee, “Both are equally likely at this junction, is what I’m saying.”
“Shit,” he buried his head in his hands. Sanji couldn’t die, not here, not yet. Zoro needed him to damn much for him to leave like this.
“Can I see him?” he asked, “Before the surgery?”
“No,” the doctor said, “He’s unconscious again now, and you’ll just get in everyone’s way.”
“Why aren’t you there?” Zoro lifted his head and asked suddenly, “If you’re the fucking surgeon. Why are you here instead of with him?”
“I told you, he’s being prepped. I’m not needed for that,” he answered calmly, “And I consider it good form to inform families when I’m cutting open their loved ones and poking around inside them.”
“I’m not family,” he reminded him, “Why are you telling me all this? Isn’t it against hospital policy or whatever? Won’t you get fired?”
He shrugged, “There are other hospitals to work at.” His eyes darted away, “I’ve been the non-family family member stuck in the waiting room waiting for updates. It’s not fun.”
His pager beeped, and he downed the rest of his coffee as he stood up, “That’s your boy. You better head back to the waiting room. I’ll find you when the surgery is over and tell you how it went.”
“Yeah, uh, thanks,” Zoro nodded, “For telling me.”
Doctor Trafalgar gave him a brief nod in return, then rushed out the door to save Sanji’s life.
Zoro wandered back to the waiting room and sat down in his chair, hoping beyond hope that Sanji would come out of this okay.
Nami was sitting across from him, staring at his bandaged eye, “So, are you gonna like, even mention it or what?”
He frowned and touched the bandage, “Part of the windshield sliced it up. The doctor said it’s fine.”
What she actually said was that he would probably end up losing use of it, but with Sanji still in surgery that wasn’t really important right now.
She looked like she wanted to say more, but Vivi was sleeping on her shoulder, and she didn’t want to disturb her with a fight. Which was fine with him. He didn’t want to disturb Chopper sleeping on his lap.
“You gonna get an eyepatch?” Luffy asked from where he was lounged on his other side, munching on a candy bar, “That’d be cool.”
“Like a pirate,” Usopp agreed from his spot on Nami’s other side, “Or a dashing rogue with a mysterious backstory.”
“Think you’ve been watching too many soap operas, dude,” Franky said from next to Chopper. Robin, sitting on his other side, hummed in agreement.
“Still, with the eye and the wrist you can’t be comfortable,” Brook pointed out from Luffy’s other side, “Are you certain you would like to rest for a spell?”
“I’m good,” he glanced up at the clock as Jinbei let out a soft snore from his seat next to Usopp. It had been a few hours since Sanji’s surgery started, and he was too tense to even attempt to rest. His friends being here certainly helped with the waiting game, but he knew he wouldn’t truly calm down until heard that Sanji was okay.
The conversation drifted to the perks of pirates versus dashing rogues, with Usopp insisting on his opinion every so often. He knew it was his attempt to distract him from Sanji’s fate being well outside of his control, but it didn’t help much.
Doctor Trafalgar appeared in the waiting room, and Zoro’s whole body went tense. His face was blank as he approached, and Zoro’s heart sunk in his chest. Sanji wasn’t, he couldn’t...
“The surgery went well,” were the first words out of his mouth, and Zoro let out a relieved sigh as his shoulders slumped, “Or, as well as it could.”
Fear spiked through his chest, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means there was more bleeding than we expected,” he answered, coolly but not coldly, “We managed to stop it, but we will be keeping an eye on him for a few days in case something else pops up.” He sighed, “He’s not completely out of the woods yet, but the prognosis is good.”
The whole group let out a sigh of relief, genuine smiles spreading across their faces for the first time all night. Zoro suddenly felt impossibly tired.
“Can we see him?” He asked.
Doctor Trafalgar frowned, “He’s sleeping now, but I can probably let you in.”
Everyone who was awake immediately stood up, waking the few who were sleeping in the process.
“I can let one of you in to see him,” he rephrased, “He is resting, and I can’t let all of you traipse around back there.”
With a disappointed sigh, everyone but Zoro sat back down, and the doctor led him away.
When they entered the room, a nurse was there. He looked up from where he was fiddling around with the machines and glanced at Zoro.
“You’re not-”
“It’s fine,” Doctor Trafalgar interrupted him as he grabbed the chart at the foot of Sanji’s bed, “He’s family.”
“Oh, alright then.” He finished setting up the IV drip, then left the room.
Sanji looked peaceful as he slept. Pale under the lights and fragile with all the bandages wrapped around him, but peaceful.
Zoro pulled up a chair to his bedside and sat down. There were a bunch of wires and machines hooked up to his chest, the noises from them unsettling him. He recognized the heartrate monitor, beeping Sanji’s pulse in a steady rhythm, but the rest of the lines and numbers were a mystery to him.
He grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. It was just as warm and rough as it always was, and he was happy to see that it only had a handful of cuts across it.
“It’s all looking good,” the doctor said as he replaced the chart, “If he makes it through the night without any problems, he should be in the clear.”
Zoro nodded, his heart feeling lighter just by being able to see Sanji, to be near him and assured that he was still here, he was still alive.
“C’mere,” the doctor turned his head and glanced at his eye, “When was the last time you had your bandages changed?”
He shrugged, “Since they put them on, I guess.”
He frowned, then sighed, “Yeah, they’re due for a change.”
“I’m fine,” he glanced back at Sanji, “Really.”
“You want to spend the night in here, yeah?” He found some fresh bandages on a medical cart in the corner and came back over, “Just let me do this real quick, then I won’t have to bother you about it later.”
He stopped fussing and let him.
When he was done, he sighed and stepped back, “Well, that should do it.”
He turned to leave, so Zoro said, “Thanks. For everything.”
He paused in the doorway and gave a quick, “Just doing my job,” before he left.
Zoro turned back to Sanji. He brushed some of his hair out of his face and kissed his forehead.
“I’m right here,” he whispered as he pulled back. He picked up his hand again and kissed the back of it, “I’m not going anywhere.”
When he woke up sometime later, sunlight was streaming in through the window, and someone was gently stroking his hair.
He bolted upright and saw that Sanji was awake. He looked exhausted as his hand fell away, his eyelids dropping and the bags under his eyes more pronounced in the sunlight, but he was smiling at him.
“You’re okay,” he croaked out, smile growing as he took in his face, “I asked before, but they wouldn’t tell me.”
“Of course I’m okay,” he grabbed Sanji’s hand and kissed the fingertips, “How are you feeling?”
“Tired,” he admitted, “Sore.” His fingers drifted to the bandage on his eye, “What happened?”
“It, got cut.” He glanced away, suddenly embarrassed about it, “They said I might lose it.”
His touch grew lighter, “Oh, Zoro.”
“No, you don’t get to feel sorry for me,” he said as he turned back to him, “You almost died.”
He tried to sit up more and winced. Zoro reached forward to help him, running a hand through his hair and over the bandage on his forehead.
“I’d rather lose the eye than lose you.”
Sanji hummed and leaned into his touch, “Will you stay?”
“Yes,” Zoro said as he sat back down. He grabbed Sanji’s hand again and gave it a gentle squeeze. Sanji squeezed back, and that heavy dread finally left his chest, leaving him light and giddy as he smiled back at him.
“I’m not going anywhere.”