A Black Heart Does Not Always Stay Black

Useless...

Whitebeard sat on his bed as the nurses came in, along with Amy, to stand inside, door closed behind them, only the higher ups, including the nurses, were ever allowed in the room (besides once with the three youngest of his sons).

"We did the tests and Whiskey came up with another theory," Tami said, getting right to the point. Whiskey looked at her clipboard and started from the top, reading all of the results and findings while testing Luffy's mobility for his limbs. The captain didn't know whether to feel relieved or disappointed.

"I believe it has something to do with his devil fruit. Amy agrees with that, since she's been around a logia before. One that had sea stone in her body from shrapnel, and once it was removed, she had trouble walking again. Luffy didn't have any sea stone inside of him and it wouldn't work anyway, but its the same as the other logia, whose body was not used to the power after being off for awhile."

"How long did it take for her to get better?" Whitebeard questioned, never knowing this about logias. Probably because they'd never had one before.

"It took Monet a couple hours to recover fully, but she was only in trouble for under an hour. Luffy was under for over three days. And we still don't know why his powers had shut off, so that might be a problem in the future, but we're dealing with the present problems first. We'll do what we can if more problems arrive, but for now we're giving him physical therapy multiple times a week, and a wheelchair to get around the ship while he can't walk properly."

Whitebeard sighed sadly. Something was always wrong with him lately. Damn marines kept hurting this young child. It was sickening and made him and the rest of the crew furious with how disgusting and immoral the government and marines were.

"He... he said the saddest thing I've ever heard when he found out something was wrong with him," Tami mumbled, face falling while remembering those words. "He told his bothers, in the most broken voice, that he didn't want to be sick anymore."

Whiskey looked emotional as well. It had affected her, no matter how stoic she was when treating patients who were not going to make it. They always went out with pride or satisfaction with their lives. Most of the time, they died while protecting someone else, and the nurses were used to strong men either faking it or truly passing away with pride. Luffy showed none of that, and it just reminded the nurses with how fragile someone could be, mentaly and emotionally, from an injury.

Whitebeard frowned deeply, not having such a fragile son in a couple years. But, they would do everything they could to help him and make the young child like living here, liked living in general. He knew how hard injuries could be for some, but as long as he had Ace and Sabo with him, Luffy would be alright.

-x-

Luffy's postponed appointment with Wendy wasn't a happy one. Not when he could barely respond with anything but crying, hunched over in his new wheelchair. It was comfortable, but made him feel weak and a burden and useless. He couldn't fight like this, or protect anyone. He cried about how sick he was of having things wrong with him. He'd kept himself from letting go when Ace and Sabo were there, not wanting to upset them. But he couldn't hold it back anymore.

Wendy couldn't get anything through to him, and did something she'd never done with one of her patients before; she hugged him. Carefully took him out of the wheelchair, even though having his limbs touched didn't hurt. Only attempting to exert them caused discomfort. He continued to cry, even as she shushed him.

"You are not useless, you've saved us and protected the ship multiple times. It's just time for you to have a much-needed and well-deserved break. To focus on yourself and healing. You're brothers are strong and getting stronger every day. You don't need to worry about them. You need to trust us, that we will protect them when they can't protect themselves in your stead," Wendy said softly, stroking Luffy's hair as he was limp in her arms except for the shaking from his crying. He was unable to hug her back, and he might not have even if he could.