A/N: As anyone who has been following this a while will know, my definition of soon is a little wobbly.
Rajo: Thank you, I'm glad all of that came through.
ShamelessYeXiu: Thank you. The funny part of it for me was he actually seems to try his best to follow that one, but still fails spectacularly.
ilovecartoonsgirl: Definitely, poor Chopper.
Minecraft Guardiansaiyan: We'll see, Usopp's is probably going to be long and complicated, and in a little while.
sharingankakashi007: Thanks. Yeah, it wasn't a nice situation for any of them, but Chopper gets hit pretty hard with his inexperience with people. I agree with you about Spandam.
skatingandcruzing: Thanks. Writing these from in the middle of it all, rather than after the entire event, makes everything a little more chaotic here, I am glad that it manages to convey the mindsets though.

Nami looked around the carriage and could only sigh in relief. They were finally falling back into the familiar routines of preparation for battle and with it her own emotional equilibrium began to steady.

She wasn't really sure when she had first unconsciously realised that the crew dynamic had been hit with a tsunami and they were all feeling the effects.

She had felt the gut-punch that was finding out about Merry's condition and the more familiar feeling of a friend in danger after Usopp had disappeared. She hadn't even really cared about the money being gone by the time she had returned to the ship in search of help for Usopp. Staying on the ship to attempt to protect it and the last of the money had seemed like the best plan of action with no-one able to tell the calibre of enemy they were facing.

By the time her boys had all returned, there had only been a subdued air that settled over them all. The only words spoken hushed instructions for Usopp's care, a quiet "sorry, Nami-swan, the money was already gone" and even more quiet explanation that "Merry will rest here now" from their usually hyperactive Captain. Then later, as they waited for an announcement on Usopp's condition, the news of Robin's disappearance.

The air hadn't lifted until after Usopp had woken up.

Nami shied away from remembering the awfulness that had come from that. Usopp's hope that had been dashed so abruptly played through her memories, almost as often as the fight that Usopp had called from it.

Zoro had been standing off to the side as everyone had started talking over the Captain and the Sniper to try and calm it down, until even Zoro called in to try and get them to calm, but as soon as Luffy had told Usopp that Merry was going to die he had gone silent through the rest of the argument. This was something that Nami had cursed him for over the course of a largely sleepless night. If he had only kept trying, he might have been able to stop them. The two would have been more likely to listen to reason from him, right.

Those had been her thoughts until just before finally drifting off, her mind kicked in the idea that maybe there was a good reason he tried to reason when he did, but not later. (Even now she feared actually asking what that reason might have been. Knowing that, if he told her, she would probably agree that it was a good reason. At least after she could fully process it, if not immediately.)

The fight itself had been awful.

Nami had been there when the two had met, had the knowledge of how quickly the friends had clicked. To watch them go at each other so resolutely had been horrible. Chopper's naive inability to comprehend hadn't made standing there waiting for the fight to start hadn't made it any easier. (Zoro's calm cadence as he responded to his bewildered questions had been almost reassuring, even as she ignored the conversation.)

That had been the point she had consciously become aware that the crew was on unsteady waves on a ship that was no longer seaworthy.

Nami shook her head to get rid of the ensuing sequence of events, skipping to what had happened after it had been decided.

She wasn't sure she had ever been more glad to hand over the reins of the crew to Zoro to deal with. Both she and Luffy had been emotional wrecks, there was no way either of them would have been able to organise themselves, let alone the rest of the crew. Especially with them essentially having to pack to fully leave the home they had made of the ship in the time they had had her, making sure not to leave anything behind, in less than a few hours. Then there was the organising of a berth for them all until they organised a new ship for themselves.

Zoro had quietly tapped her talk about what they were financially capable of, as he herded them all into the city to search for a hotel. Something that had given her something to focus on until their stay had been settled with the innkeeper.

After Sanji had ushered the still sniffling Chopper into their shared room, Luffy had hunched his shoulders further in the hall and turned from the room he had been assigned with Zoro, continuing up the stairs. She had only shared a glance with the swordsman before they had followed. About twenty minutes of silence after Luffy had settled on the roof of a nearby building Zoro had indicated that she should head down to bed as he himself had settled into a stance so familiar to her after watch him settle for watch-duty so many times in their time together.

Then there was the chaos that had been that day. From the moment she had heard that Iceburg had been shot, through the blaming of them for it, to finding out that Robin had been involved. Afterwards, there had been running into Zoro, and Chopper finding them to tell them what Robin had told to him and Sanji.

The planning session and the waiting at Galley La had given an even weirder sense of unsteadiness. The group had included her, Luffy, Chopper and Zoro, but, besides Chopper, it was almost as if none of them were really sure who had the right to say anything and when. As if they were back on those two barely sea-worthy dinghies in the East Blue, feeling each other out in uncertain balance. Like they had lost the instinctual passing of control the three of them had had for so long that they hadn't even realised they did it, in the new type of situation they had found themselves in on that cursed island.

The fact that Zoro had even talked out his reasoning for coming to the conclusions from the information they had been odd when, as far as Nami could remember, he rarely collaborated plans when he came up with them rather than just straight up telling them what they needed to do. Though Nami was certainly grateful that he had, she probably wouldn't have been able figure it all herself from as many sides as he had contemplated (it had been interesting to listen to him explain for once how he saw things).

Of course, just the fact that they had been able to plan with Luffy willing to listen to it all had been odd in itself (even if he just ended up running off without them anyway, but at least he waited for the right moment in the plan).

After the ridiculousness that had been getting into Galley La, Luffy and Zoro had tried to do something about the government bastards that had been behind so much of their trouble that day. The rather terrifying exit from the building that had been forced on their two best fighters had not been a good start for answers.

But hearing the truth that Iceburg had managed to get from Robin, while they had been left alone, had brought Nami's spirits higher than they had been since they first met the shipwright and everything had started to fall apart.

But that had also started a rollercoaster of emotions as she and Chopper had tried to gather everyone and stall the train long enough to catch Robin. Something they hadn't managed to do in time, but the note from Sanji that he had stowed away on the train, that not only Robin but also Usopp had been dragged aboard, had left her with a little more hope than she had. Then, there was pulling her crewmates from their ridiculous landing points to safety as the Aqua Laguna had begun to show her teeth and, after they had been told the truth of Robin, the almost fight with Galley La in order to follow.

The unexpected lending of the second sea train had led to an impressive scramble to prepare and board to rush after their crewmates.

As soon as they had hit the sea, Nami had begun to feel her stance steady, for all the train's movements on the waves were so different than the ships she had spent so much of her life on. But they were at sea, on the way to what had been described as a tough battle, and they had a clear idea of what was going on (at least, as close to a clear idea as their crew were ever able to get on anything). To top it all off, she now knew where she stood on the shot-calling line, very definitely behind her boys. (The random assortment, of those that in the last few days been their enemies, that had found their way onto the train before or as they left, were not her problem.)

(Nope, this was all on Luffy and Zoro.)

The comfort she found in seeing Zoro watch the others on the train warily, could not be understated after the confusing few days they had had. (Not that she will ever, ever, admit that she felt anything close to him.)

The way that the two idiots had apparently casually worked together to get them through the Aqua Laguna while she was explaining the situation to Sanji had added to the feeling of comfort. That despite the recent events, some things never change. The fact that when they were finished and had come to talk with Sanji, Zoro has tried to make sure they regrouped before going on the offensive was still a little different, but could still be considered in the sense that they had all experienced the troubles and he was still probably shaking off his own sense of unbalance. He did concede pretty quickly that he wouldn't listen to that himself in Sanji's position and he made up for the weirdness by being the first to recognise that she had a new weapon.

Yes, things were starting to get back to normal, but it would still take them some more time to come back to proper equilibrium. Maybe after they had Robin back it would be easier.

Still, she couldn't help but be amused that Zoro was the one forced to try and get everyone to be serious for once.