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“Help! Help me!“
Zoro moved on instinct. It wasn’t until he slammed the barn door open that he even realized he’d left the table.
But move he did, because that was Chopper’s scream. And not his usual anxiety shouting, but a genuine, terrified screeching.
And in the barn, Zoro suddenly understood why.
Backed against the far wall, flank pressed against the unyielding wood as tightly as possible, Chopper stood in his Walk Point. Over and over he tossed his head, warding off a doctor with a while lab coat and a needle of some kind. Every time she stepped closer, Chopper would yell and thrash and struggle until the doctor backed off again.
“Come now, this is unnecessary,” the doctor lady snapped, popping a hand on her hip. The light glinted off her needle, full of a clear liquid. “Surely you, as a doctor, understand what I’m doing is for the best?”
“No!” Chopper yelled. His voice was getting weary now - clearly his defense sapped his energy. “No, I won’t let you! Luffy! Zoro! Sanji! Someone help!”
He’s scared, Zoro thought, and no sooner had it occurred to him than Zoro found himself standing between the lady and Chopper, shoving her away and planting his feet in the dirt floor.
“Get away from him,” Zoro growled, low and dangerous. His swords weren’t out - yet - but he didn’t need them to be intimidating. Without taking his eyes from the threat, doctor lady still trying to right herself from his earlier push, Zoro said over his shoulder, “Chopper, you okay? What’s going on?”
Chopper panted with exertion, clearly crashing from his adrenaline rush. “Zoro,” he said softly, voice thick with unshed tears. “Please help. You can’t let her inject me with that stuff, please-“
“What’s going on?” came a shrill voice from the doorway. There was Nami, arms folded and scowling with displeasure. Behind her, barely visible in the background, Sanji and Usopp crowded nearby to see what was going on. “Chopper, what are you doing? Just let her give you the medicine already!”
“It’s not medicine,” Chopper said, voice trembling. Zoro clenched a fist to keep from reaching back towards him, to stay focused. “It’s pentobarbital. They use it to put down animals.”
Silence met that remark. No one so much as breathed.
Then Nami stepped forward. The predatory walk she used when she threatened her marks, or needed to show up a competitor. Everything about it screamed fury and rage and something violent barely concealed.
Sanji filed in after her, barely two steps behind. His cigarette smashed between gritted teeth, radiating with heat Zoro could feel clear across the room.
Usopp, surprisingly, stayed in the doorway. Then he took a single pace forward, dragging it shut behind him. Zoro couldn’t remember ever seeing such a solemn, deadly expression on their sniper’s face before.
As for himself, Zoro didn’t have to think about it. Red tinged the edges of his vision, worsening with the hitched breaths from Chopper behind him.
Maybe the doctor didn’t realize exactly who she’d crossed here. That was probably why she had t immeduately tried to flee, to make her escape while she still could.
The Strawhats were furious.
“You said you’d help him,” Usopp snapped, hand clenched around his slingshot. “Care to explain?”
“We said we’d take care of him!” the lady cried, throwing up her hands. “It’s a mercy kill! No one wants to keep an animal this badly injured!”
Another wounded noise erupted from behind Zoro, like Chopper couldn’t stop himself. Within an instant Sanji joined Zoro’s side, one hand resting ever so lightly on Chopper’s head. For the first time, Zoro was nearly jealous of the crap cook’s fighting style - he didn’t need his hands, therefore they were available to other important tasks. Like keeping Chopper from breaking down entirely.
“We do,” Sanji said simply. Rapidly crossing from ‘unfriendly’ to ‘hostile’, the tone of voice he’d never used on a lady before. But then again, the cook could feel Chopper shaking, and that was unforgivable. “You won’t hurt him.”
“That kind of injury takes forever to heal,” she answered dismissively, eyes narrowed as she scanned the two of them. Like they’d just let her past if she reasoned well enough. “Deer and horses and other creatures like him die in the wild from this kind of injury all the time. I’m speeding up the process.”
“He wont,” Nami cut in. The lady doctor spun in place, started to see her syringe dangling from Nami’s keen fingers. “And he wont die from this, either.”
“So we suggest you either leave, or we start human testing,” Zoro bit out. Usopp glared her down, pointedly jabbing a thumb to the door.
Stupid and stubborn as she may be, the doctor clearly knew when to make an exit. She scrambled out, muttering all the while about soiled brats and their blasted pets.
It was only after Usopp clicked the door shut, locking her out for good, that Chopper let out a broken sob. “Thank you,” he wheezed, dropping his head and pawing clumsily at his eyes with his hoof. “Thank you, I thought I was gonna die, I was so scared-“
“You’re okay,” Usopp promised, crouching in front of Chopper with practiced ease. He eyes his best friend critically, the way Zoro had seen him eye precious gadgets and tools. “How’s your leg? Did she do anything to it?”
Chopper shook his head miserably, looking up. “Still broken,” he answered. With all the knowledge of a doctor and the plaintive nature if a child, he whispered, “She didn’t even splint it, or wrap it, or anything. She just said to wait here while she filled the vial…”
Like a puppet on a string, Nami jerked backwards, dropping the syringe like it burned her. “I’ll find some medical tape,” she said, backpedaling to the other end of the barn. Zoro watched her hands clench on the end of the cabinets as she threw them open, fighting to stay steady.
He understood the feeling.
The shit-cook glanced over, meeting his gaze, before they both lowered to the little animal between them.
Chopper took the brunt of the damage during the fight, positioned firmly between the enemy and the rest of the weakling trio. In his human form, the injuries wouldn't have been too serious, but he was in the walk point when they were all ambushed, and that’s when they broke his leg.
Shifting was extremely painful, he told them quietly, and it set back healing for an extra few weeks. Chopper offered to shift to his brain point, of course, since it was easiest to transport him in, but even as he spoke about the change he cringed at the phantom pain, and none of them were willing to put him through that.
The town healer had seemed all too excited to help out the local heroes, offering to take care of him while everyone was at a feast in their honor. Her enthusiasm dimmed slightly when Chopper perked up and told her about his doctor status, but she’d seemed helpful enough.
Zoro considered dragging her back in here and breaking her leg, just for the heck of it.
Usopp had his arms around Chopper’s neck, a comforting weight, and Chopper finally got ahold of himself again. His little blue nose bumped Usopp’s shoulder, then Sanji’s hand - which he had yet to remove from the deer’s fur, and Zoro would probably tease him about later.
“Thank you, guys,” he repeated, worn but grateful. The sheer relief burned through Zoro’s enough that his hand found its way to Chopper’s head too, rubbing an ear.
“We’re a crew,” Sanji answered succinctly, a gentle smile reserved only for the people he cared about on his face. “That’s what we do.”
“Got it!” Nami called, racing back over. Judging by the amount of stuff in her arms, she’d definitely gotten more than bandages. But to be fair, Zoro hardly intended to leave the barn standing at the end of the night, so it worked out okay.
Chopper raised his head, meeting Nami’s determined face with a measured nod. “Okay, I’ll talk you through it,” he said, shuffling forward a step. He winced when the pressure went to his bad back leg.
Immediately, all three boys hopped into action, and suddenly all the weight was off the back. Chopper blinked at the arrangement - Usopp still in front near his head, Sanji and Zoro leaning far too casually against him as they effortlessly lifted his hind legs. Chopper cracked a smile before turning to an equally fond Nami. “Ready?”
“On it,” she chirped.
Mere minutes later, his leg had the support sticks and tape in place. Nami took like a fish to water for all the medical stuff, which wasn’t surprising given her unofficial stint as ship doctor before Chopper came along. The reindeer tested a step, nodding even as his face tightened in pain.
“It’s perfect. Thanks, Nami.”
“Of course,” she answered. It was a testament to either how shaken she felt or how kind she was that she didn’t charge Chopper at all for the whole thing. Zoro nearly snorted - gods knew if he asked her to patch him up, she-witch would triple his debt. “That lady didn’t have any painkillers, though, I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Chopper said, steeling himself. “It’s not as bad now. I can make it back to the ship.”
Sanji opened his mouth to protest, a beat behind Usopp’s already loud disagreements.
And strictly to annoy both of them, not because he cared that much or anything, Zoro reached down and scooped Chopper up.
The reindeer yelped, but it was out of shock and not pain, so Zoro didn’t stop. Just slung him up over the shoulders in a fireman’s carry. Nami yelled at him to watch the bandaged leg, which he resented; he wasn’t an idiot.
“Zoro!” Chopper squeaked. “Zoro, I’m heavy in this form. Are you-“
“I work out with heavier weights than you,” Zoro interrupted. Sure enough, it only took another moment before they were both settled. He strode forward, careful to keep his gait even so he wouldn’t jostle too much.
“Does the leg hurt?” Zoro asked absently. Because he knew the answer already. He kept the leg against his chest, secure, the same way he knew the antlers over his shoulder wouldn’t hit him or the hooves wouldn’t bruise.
“No,” Chopper confirmed, relaxing. “All good.”
“Good,” Zoro said, nodding when Usopp moved to open the door for them. “Cause shit cook back there couldn’t lift you if he tried.”
“What did you just say, Moss Brain?” Sanji roared.
Chopper would be okay, Zoro knew. And if their little group kept a defensive huddle around him on the way back to the ship, and if the woman’s barn went up in flames, and if they didn’t let any other doctors near Chopper without supervision, then that was the Strawhat’s business.
That’s what nakama do.