Nami thought back. She had been the crew's doctor for quite a while. Before Chopper came along, she was the answer to the crew's medical problems. But unlike Chopper, who was currently unconscious, she had no medical school teaching nor had she memorized tons of book's worth of information. She was good, but she worried she wasn't good enough. Oh how she wished the Ivankov Luffy had mentioned before was here. A tear fell from her face.

She looked down at Zoro's cataleptic face. Ha! She remembered one medical word! She frowned. Joking around to herself wasn't going to help.

"Aha!"

She scrambled to her feet, running over to where the tents were pitched. She thoughtlessly ripped off at least a yard of fabric. She ran over to Chopper, ripped off a piece of that, and quickly wrapped it around Sozaru's mark on his arm.

"Uhhh, God help me!" She said to herself. "Oh wait!" Nami grabbed her Clima Tact and 3 bowls from inside the ruined tent.

"COOL BALL!" She yelled, squeezing her eyes shut in hope that her idea would work. She lightened the pressure on the pole, aiming toward the bowls. They quickly filled with water, and Nami squealed with delight. She threw the Clima Tact to the ground and grabbed the tent scraps. She flung herself next to her doctor and ripped the scraps into three pieces. One of the rags she dipped in the bowl and covered Chopper's forehead. By then her face was drenched in tears as she hoped her nakama would survive this shocking situation.

Nami stood up, satisfied enough with her attempt at repressing the poison. But if the poison spread as quickly as she thought it would, it might already be too late. It was all her fault. But she tried not to get into it and finish before the minuscule chance she had at saving her nakama was lost. She turned around to grab another rag when she heard a crashing sound. Either there was another earthquake and Sozaru was returning, or someone else had kicked a rock down the passageway to the cavern. If it was, that person was heading straight toward this room!

"Oh my God! This is not the time!" She yelled inside her mind. She ran toward the entrance to the cavern, hoping that she was just hearing things when a man entered.

She nearly bumped into him. He looked down at her. She looked up at him. They both screamed.

"Wha? What are you screaming for?" Nami yelled.

"Whadda ya mean why? Because you scared me!"

Nami softened her face, but in an annoyed kind of way. Here she was, fighting to save all 7 of her crew's lives, and this goon comes in like he's on a hike! What the hell was going on? "Who are you? What are you doing here? I'm in an emergency situation!"

"That's why I'm here. I saw you guys come in the cave earlier but you never came out. And people don't normally stay in here more than a few hours. Then again, we don't get many people on this island-"

"And?"

"And I was worried something might've happened to some innocent visitors. I was going to come look for you before but I'm…kind of shy."

Innocent visitors? "Well as you can see, we're not doing too well." She wiped her eyes and pointed toward her fallen crew. "Look I don't have time for conversations, my friends are poisoned and I'd rather not have them die here!"

"Poisoned? What happened here?" He asked, walking toward where Nami was pointing.

"Long story. I don't know what to do, and they've been unconscious for 10 minutes now! Didn't you hear anything on your way here?"

"Well I suppose I heard something."

"Say, what's your name?"

"Jerry." He answered, kneeling down to look at Nami's injured captain. "They're going to need some water. Do you happen to have any?"

"I'm Nami," She answered the unasked question. "and the water is right here." She pulled up the three water-filled bowls.

"Thanks. Hey, are any of your friends doctors? They should carry some kind of antidote on a trip like this."

"Yeah." She had given that idea some thought, but with her limited medical knowledge she didn't want to give them the wrong medication and kill them all herself. She fumbled through what was left of the tent and pulled out all of Chopper's medicines.

Jerry studied them all, scanning the row of colored bottles laid before him. "This should be the one." He said, pulling up a small yellow colored container and handing it to Nami. "Give two drops of this to each one. Quickly. I'll take care of the rest here."

"How do know all this?"

"Our tiny village has a population of 30 people. I just happen to be their apothecary." He beamed, still facing his patient. Nami grinned in relief.

----

Within 5 minutes, they were done. There was nothing more they could do.

"Those two tents will do." Jerry began taking one apart. He tied one end together and laid a blanket over the exposed part.

"Do? Do for what?"

"We need to get them out of here. I can get some people from my village to get them up there for treatment but before that they need some fresh air. Besides, we couldn't get the stretchers in here. We'll have to tow them outside. Using your tents as stretchers, we can manage to get them out."

"Umm… good thinking." Nami was flabbergasted. And so, so, so, lucky that he happened to get there before the situation worsened.

Jerry took Franky, Sanji, Chopper, and Luffy and Nami took Robin, Zoro, and Usopp. Boy were they heavy! Nami was not made to carry people. She sighed. But she was willing to carry anything to get her crew to safety.

After about 30 minutes, they reached a dim light. The end of the cave was in sight. The two dragged their "carry-ons" outside, stopping underneath a leafy tree. Finally! Somehow Nami knew they would make it.

"Alright, stay here. I'll be back with help and real stretchers as soon as I can. Give them another drink of water for me and don't move!"

"Okay." She said, rolling her eyes jokingly. "Thank you! You have no idea how much I appreciate this!"

"It's no problem. This is what I do. I'll be back!" Jerry ran off.

Nami sat down Indian style under the tree next to Zoro. She smiled weakly and reached out to touch his mossy green hair. She really did love him. She just hoped they would have a chance.

She moved her fingers to his chin, leaning down. They're faces were inches apart. She stared into his face, studying it intently. Weirdly, he looked like he was simply sleeping. His face was slightly pale but he was breathing deeply, like how he did while napping on the ship. She opened her mouth somewhat. She finally registered what she was looking at. Zoro was staring right back at her, and just as intently.

"Zoro!"

"Nami." He asked weakly.

Nami burst into tears. "Zoro! You're alive!" She sobbed into his shirt, which seemd to soak up her tears like a sponge. He sat up, holding her tightly to his chest, looking around. He was out of the cave, and his arm was tied up and felt numb. Apparently someone had cut off the circulation. He started to untie it.

"Where are we? What happened? I think I had a crazy dream last night."

"But it wasn't a dream. Everyone was poisoned and thankfully an island villager showed up and saved you with an antidote. He's gone to get stretchers to take you back for treatment."

Zoro looked down at what he was untying. Poisoned? But that wasn't the word he had been thinking of. "Nami… did that Sozaru guy say you were pregnant?"

Nami turned away, releasing herself from Zoro's grip. "That's… what he said. He even showed me. I can feel it. He wasn't lying." Sigh. "I don't know what to say."

Zoro fell back against the tree. This was all too much for one night. He felt so helpless against everything. Protecting his nakama, the relationship between him and Nami, staying conscious against poison. He couldn't do a thing about any of them. This wasn't the demon bounty-hunter with a thousand wills he had started out with when he joined the Strawhats. He looked up at the starry sky. He picked out one especially dazzling one, wondering if Kuina was watching this pathetic sight.

"Why are you frowning?" Nami asked, subsequently frowning herself. "You should be happy you're still alive! You could've died back there! You could've all died back there!" She could feel the stinging feeling she always got right before she started to cry. She bit her lip, trying to hold them back. He had no clue how lucky he was to be alive. And how lucky she felt for it.

"I just-" He stopped.

"What is it? You know by now you can tell me anything."

"It's just… I feel so helpless against everything that's happened. Am I not strong enough to handle things like this? Am I that weak? I thought I'd trained myself but hey I guess not."

"That's not true. You know you're one of the strongest guys I've ever known. You must be fooling yourself if you think otherwise. If you were weak, you wouldn't have been prepared to sacrifice yourself over something important to someone important to you."

"And I failed at that."

"Everybody has a limit. Don't worry about that, Zoro. You're strong. I know it and you know it too. That's why I know you can handle this." She reached out and took Zoro's hand, placing it on her stomach. He blushed.

"Well, but what happens after it's born? Won't that Sozaru guy come back?" Apparently he had heard some of what happened after he passed out. Somehow…

"Yes, but I guess we'll deal with that when it happens. We'll have to play by ear."

Zoro took back his hand and clasped the two together behind his head, closing his eyes. Nami shook her head. He could always find time to sleep. She looked at his face. Although he seemed fine, he was obviously still troubled. She scooted over, leaning her head on his shoulder. She forced herself not to fall asleep too, for fear something might happen to her nakama while she was obliviously out of sorts. The night sky really did look beautiful that night. She sat next to her lover- she giggled at the word- as she pondered over what was to become of them.

----

I do not own One Piece. I do not own One Piece. I do not own One Piece. Does that make up for the numerous times in this story that I didn't mention that? My bad.

Anyway the time skip for this chapter was a lot longer than I expected. I went to a (first) volleyball camp (the second is yet to come), went on a vacation with my family, and then promptly forgot all about fanfiction due to my short term-like memory until my "open tabs" default page turned into thumbnails of the sites I visit the most. Man I'm so sorry. I hadn't even started chapter 8 when I rediscovered fanfiction. A thousand apologies my dear readers. And a hundred more for forgetting fanfiction! and uh… rambling on like this. But as you can see chapter 8 is finally finished, and to those who've signed up for story alert, you can expect the alert for chapter 9 soon. Thanks!!!

*In reference to the first paragraph of this chapter, by medical school teaching I'm talking about is his two doctor mentors that taught him everything he knows. And to those reading the manga, note the Okama Queen reference. Hehe Ivankov you crack me up…