"Liam! Please let me out! Law doesn't have to know!" Summer banged against the door, knowing full well the medic was standing on the other side. If there was one thing Summer hated, it was being ignored. Which he was doing right now, saying nothing in reply to her calls.
"Tch. I'm fine! There's nothing wrong with me!" Her hands pounded the wood door at a faster pace, echoing down the hallway. "You're all a bunch of jerks, the lot of you!" Despite her irritation of being locked in the infirmary, she still laughed. They may be jerks, but they were her jerks, and she still loved them. And then something popped into her head, and she started giggling.
"Sorry Summer, Captain's orders." Liam said, he couldn't stay silent with her for long, giving a chuckle of his own. Her laughter was infectious. "What's so funny anyway?" His curiosity getting the better of him.
"I…just thought of…a joke!" She said between fits of giggling. She sat against the door, her back leaning up against it.
"Let's hear it." Came Liam's voice. Trying to get her laughing under control she cleared her throat.
"Ok, ok…how…hehehehe…how does an octopus go to war?" She got out, and Liam shook his head in amusement.
"I don't know. How?"
"Well-armed!" She finished, then bust out laughing behind the locked door. The joke itself was dumb, but Summer's laugh was funnier, which sent Liam into a fit of it as well.
"What's it called when you give money to a bison?" She asked. "Pfft, a buffa-loan!"
"Hahahaha!" He doubled over, trying to catch his breath, but Summer kept laughing and it just made it all funnier.
"Wait, I have another one!" She shrieked. "Why did the cookie go to the hospital?"
"Why?" Summer couldn't contain herself, and she started laughing again.
"Because he felt crummy!"
The two burst out another round of the giggles. The jokes were so stupid but it didn't matter in the end really. Liam found he couldn't stand, and he sat on the ground to try to regain himself again. It failed, obviously.
"Stop!" He shouted, wiping tears from his eyes. "My side hurts!"
"My face hurts from smiling!" Summer said, who was now laying on the floor from laughter. They both held their sides as the muscles on their sides ached from use.
"Now I've got one!" Liam said, calmed down enough to speak.
"What is it?" He cleared his throat.
"Did you hear about the fire in the circus?"
"No. What about it?" She giggled, anticipating the punchline.
"It was in tents!" He finished, which set her off once more.
"You're gonna kill me Liam!" She cried, curling up on the floor. They were both wailing, making quite a commotion, but most of the crew was in the mess deck and didn't hear them.
An hour or so later, way past when the two had laughed themselves out entirely, Law came around to let Summer out of the room. He found Liam sitting on the floor with his back to the door, and he raised an eyebrow as he approached.
"Sleeping on the job?" Liam quickly rose to his feet, brushing down his uniform.
"Ah, no Captain. Just keeping Summer company."
"Is my sentence finally up? Am I free? Oh, thank the lord above!" She called from behind the door. Shaking his head, he wasn't much surprised by the strange antics of his crew anymore, he moved to unlock the door. As soon as it clicked, Summer burst through, intending to speed down the hall before anyone could stop her. Fast as lightning, Law's hand reached out and grabbed her arm before she could escape.
"Hey!" He smirked, slowly dragging her towards the mess deck. The others followed with grins of their own.
"You don't want to disappoint the crew, do you?" Her confused expression only served to amuse him more. "They worked hard to put this all together, you know."
"Put what together? What's going on?" He didn't answer, only approached the door to the mess deck. Giving her one final glance, which she returned with a glare, he turned the knob and opened the door.
"Happy birthday, Summer-chan!" Dozens of voices yelled, and her eyes widened. She stood rooted to the spot, taking in the party decorations and confetti and the banners and the goofy hats…
"My-" She started in a whisper, but her nakama interrupted her.
"And welcome back!" "We missed you!" "Don't ever leave us again!"
"I made you a cake, Summer-chan!" Shachi came up, deftly placing a party hat on her head. Penguin pushed him out of the way.
"But I frosted most of the cake!" Shachi pushed back, a scowl on his face.
"Baka! I did the most work!"
"No way, baka!" The started shoving each other, but Summer's eyes threatened to tear up, and she quickly swept the two into a tight hug.
"Thanks you guys." She smiled widely. The two froze, eyes slowly widening as they realized what was happening.
Casper walked out from the kitchen, holding a large three-tiered cake. It was yellow, with black and white frosting all over. The top had the jolly roger and the words 'Happy Birthday, Summer!' in scripted letters. On the side, there were small words in black that read 'Penguin's frosting is the best.' Alongside that were more words saying, 'Shachi's cake-frosting skills are the absolute greatest!' And then, 'Is not!' Everyone cheered at the masterpiece, despite it's back and forth argument down one side of the cake, and Casper bowed dramatically.
"You did all this…for me?" She asked aloud, walking closer to the cake. Sitting on the table, it was almost taller than her. She gazed at it in wonder, emotions rising up from deep within. Turning, she looked to Law.
"What day is it?" Smirking, he crossed his arms.
"December 19th. Surely you know you're own birthday, Summer-ya?"
"It's…December 19th?" A slow smiled spread across her face, and her gaze swept over the crew. She laughed. "Well, what are we waiting for then? Bring out the sake!"
No one complained with that.
Summer was convinced it had been a long time since the crew had had a party, judging by the amount of alcohol that was consumed that night. Casper really pulled out all the stops, unloading full crates and barrels of the drink into the mess deck, and the crew didn't hesitate to drink it.
Pirate songs were sung, drastically off key most of the time but Summer wasn't complaining, often times jumping in to join in the singing. Someone pulled out a deck of cards, and Shachi and Penguin immediately challenged each other to a game of poker. Summer jokingly suggested strip poker. They hastily declined.
Reid didn't drink more than a bottle or two, most likely because of his injuries. Either way, he still seemed to enjoy himself, joining in on a song or two. Liam stayed with him most of the night, making sure he was ok.
Bepo didn't wear his jumpsuit for once, which allowed Summer to cuddle him in all his furry glory. He was so soft and warm, and she even got the privilege to lay on his stomach. After experiencing it herself, she was rather envious of Law's access to Bepo's belly at all times. The idea of cuddling with the polar bear on a daily basis was pretty appealing.
At one point, Blake got up on one of the tables and began dancing, so several men joined in. Shrugging off the craziness of it all, Summer joined in as well. The drinks had gone to their head by that time, and several people fell off the tables. Their dancing probably wasn't that good either. No one was judging though.
The party lasted hours and hours, long after they'd blown through their sake supply, and Casper finally suggested cutting the cake and serving it out. She raised her hand high, wanting to cut her own cake. She'd never gotten to do it before, and she didn't want to miss the chance to.
'Ok, Summer. This is your moment. Either you can eat your cake or…' Smirking with mischiev, she looked to Casper. With a small grin of his own, he nodded his head, just enough for her to see but no one else. Excited, she slowly brought the knife towards the cake. Then, when it was only an inch or so away, she scooped up a section of the bottom tier with her hands and shoved it into Shachi's face, who was standing right next to her.
"CAKE FIGHT!" She yelled, setting the knife down and grabbing two handfuls of desert. The drunk minds of the Heart Pirates were up to anything, and that included throwing pieces of nicely frosted cake at their nakama. With a cheer, the fight began.
Law conveniently stood away from the crew that decided to start shoving desert in each other's faces, sparing his clothes and face from the mess. Cake and frosting and even the spoons and forks were being thrown at people. There was yelling, accusations of who threw what, shouts of surprise as cake was lodged in hair and under shirts. Summer was having the time of her life, hair tangling around chunks of sugary frosting and cake, half of her face smeared with the yellow stuff.
After the cake had been completely destroyed, and not one of the crew was clean from frosting and cake, besides Law, Bepo and Casper, they laughed it all off, deciding to head to sleep, after taking much-needed showers of course.
They went in groups, and Summer stayed behind to talk with the others while the rest showered. When it came time to actually shower, Summer was exhausted. She padded to the bathroom, already half asleep.
The warm water cleaning off all the mess from her body felt really good, and she took her time cleaning up. So much time in fact, that the hot water slowly ran out. Her dazed state made it unapparent until it was much too cold.
It was the cold that started it.
She looked up, the cold water hitting her face, and the awful memories flooded back, seizing up her body.
"Argh! No!" She cried out, falling to her knees in her panic. The water just kept coming, assaulting her body like pins, and she shook with uncontrollable tremors. She was suddenly back, strapped to the chair unable to move, with the water dripping over and over and over and over...The white of the tile, and coldness, it was all too real, like she'd never left the lab, like the place had never been destroyed…
Her crying grew louder, the pitiful choking turning into gasping and heaving as she rocked back and forth on the floor. She couldn't escape, never…
Somewhere a door opened. "Summer-ya?" Law's voice called, but even the presence of a friend wasn't any help at that point. His footsteps grew closer. Each one seemed to mimic those of the Doctor, and she curled up tighter.
"Don't hurt me anymore!"
"Summer-ya, no one's going to hurt you." He called, and suddenly there was a hand reaching towards the handle. She squeezed her eyes shut, thinking the cold would continue, but to her relief the water stopped, and only the dripping sound remained. Eyes still closed, she felt something soft drape over her body, and a pair of arms pulling her towards a chest. The pain wouldn't go away, and she didn't trust it.
Law had heard the whimpering first, and then the full-on cries, and his doctor's intuition told him that she was experiencing something akin to PTSD. Something must have triggered a panic-driven episode. He'd gone inside, hearing her crying, and knew that she needed help. He'd turned off the water, grabbed a towel and pulled her outside of the stall, all the while respecting her privacy and keeping his gaze away from her naked body. Thankfully, she had been the last to shower, and the rest of the crew had gone to bed so no one was still in the bathroom.
He held her, hoping that someone being there would ease her nightmarish mental state. The severity of her convulsions and crying concerned him, and he was worried that the effects of her time in captivity had altered her mental strength more than he had anticipated.
Deciding that sitting there on the floor, clutching a soaking wet damaged woman was probably not going to help anything, he wrapped the towel around her tighter, covering all the necessary areas, and picked her up by the shoulders and back of the knees.
She was still surprisingly light, too light for someone of her stature. He reminded himself to get her on a strict dietary plan to help her regain the muscle and weight, but first he decided that bringing her to her room was more important.
And then he was hesitant to leave her by herself, when the possibility of another episode happening was high. Who even knew what things would trigger her flashbacks and panics? Hell, looking in the mirror could trigger something. Deciding that she was much better off with company, he headed off towards his own room.
ns 15.158.61.8da2
