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         The next day...

Everyone was doing their own thing in the bunker. Cheryl of course though was trying to avoid Dr Eisenhower. He was trying to flirt her, so she tried to hide from him luckily Mr Gold noticed this and decided to keep her company. She was in the pool room resting her feet in the pool.

Mr Gold went and sat on a chair beside her, "is everything alright? I noticed the Dr paying you specific attention."

"Oh...I'm fine really," Cheryl lied, but Gold could tell she was.

"You remind me of Sarah, she always pretends to be fine when she clearly isn't," Gold smiled slightly, "you can talk to me. I'm more than happy to listen."

"...," she sighed, "it's just uncomfortable. Tim was my everything. And I could never replace him. Also Eisenhower is not my type."

Mr Gold chuckled. He was not trying to be mean, but he thought it was funny that Eisenhower tried to flirt with Cheryl. "...sorry. Well you are a beautiful woman. But I can try talking to him that you're not interested."

"Oh no, that would break his little heart." Cheryl blushed.

"....well, if I tell him the truth, not about him being your type, but that you're not ready to move on with someone. You've just lost your husband and he's the love of your life. I understand I am the same with my wife."

"Thank you...I appreciate that." Cheryl blushed again. He seemed so kind towards her.

Mr Gold smiled slightly at her and chuckled, "of course..."

"Now that we could be becoming a family...are you fine with the boys calling you uncle or..."

Mr Gold chuckled, "I don't mind. Uncle is fine."

Cheryl blushed at him, "just wondering. I mean we are becoming a family and we all we have left."

"That...that is true."

Cheryl brushed a strand of her gold hair back behind her ear. She even remembered he mentioned about his wife. "I'm...sorry about your wife. What happened to her, if you don't mind me asking."

"...she sensed something worse was going to happen while we were in lockdown. She told me she was hearing God she believed was telling her that this was going to happen....she didn't want live in a world where people got sick and went savage on each other. I tried to stop her and begged her to not hurt herself. I even told her I would protect her, but she refused to listen to me. She was to stressed and emotional about this. And...then she was gone. We did have a small funeral for her just after the lockdown. And I was so torn. Then Billie got infected and attacked his mother and father, if I hadn't come in time, Sarah would've been gone. Her parents were my friends. And I treated Sarah as my niece. Now she is my daughter. Jarret, her father, asked me to take care of her incase if anything happened to him and his wife. For years he asked this. I always kept my word. I now have someone to protect incase I too end up like my friends...but I hope I don't. I gave my word to Sarah that I wouldn't leave her."

Cheryl was amazed, but also torn by his story. "I'm so sorry for your losses."

"Thank you, Miss Gene. I'm sorry for your loss as well. Mr Gene must've been very close to you."

"He was perfect...my whole world."

Mr Gold felt bad, "what happened to him?"

"...he got infected. Those missing reports during lockdown in your state...one of those missing people ended up in my town and attacked on people. We didn't know it happened. Tim and I went to the store while Harry watched over his brother. Then someone came and attacked Tim. Tim and I panicked and ran home seeing the chaos. When we got home, I tried to fix him up, but he begged me to leave with the boys." Cheryl dropped her head down.

Mr Gold placed his hand on her arm in a comforting way. "I'm very sorry..."

"...thank you..."

"At least we have our shared experiences to make us stronger, and we have hope," he smiled, trying to make her feel better.

Just then Buggy opened the dinner, "food is ready—oh, sorry.... I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

"N-no!" Gold and Cheryl sputtered at the same time, and Gold dropped his hand from her arm, blushing.

"Okay okay, I was only asking because I know how annoying it is too be disturbed,"

Gold frowned slightly, but he was teasing, "you mean when you try to sneak off with Sarah?"

Buggy blushed, "....ahem, I was also thinking Dr Eisenhower would be crushed."

Cheryl groaned, "you noticed too."

"Yeah it's kinda hard not to when he's flirting so hard...poor guy. Anyway, I just came to tell you dinner is ready."

"Buggy..."

Buggy stopped, "yeah, pops?"

"Miss Gene and I are just friends, nothing more."

Buggy smiled and nodded, "whatever you say, pops."

Sarah sat beside Buggy after he pulled a chair for her.

Gold and Cheryl came and Mr Gold did the same for Cheryl. "Oh thank you," she blushed.

"Why didn't I think of that," mumbled Eisenhower.

Oracle said grace again as he always did, and they all joined hands around the table. They'd been doing this in the hope of restoring faith and hope amongst each member of the group.
Once everyone began to eat, Buggy had just picked up his cutlery when Nadia began to cry. 

"Excuse me folks, a daddy's work is never done," he got up and went to the baby, "Luffy! Don't you dare eat my food!"

Luffy had already eaten most of his meal, "Awe come on, I wasn't even thinking of that, but now you put the idea into my head."

"I'll put my fist in your head if you eat my meal you little shi— sugar honey iced tea!"

Luffy laughed, "at least you're watching your language. That's good,"

"It's an acronym," Gold smirked

"A what now?" Luffy asked.

"Don't tell him," Buggy chuckled.

Sarah giggled seeing how silly Luffy and Buggy were acting.

"...so I heard more news the military is trying to prevent the infected from spreading more states," Jinx told everyone.

"Well it's about time," Gold said and Cheryl nodded in agreement.

"That's wonderful news," she said.

Buggy and Luffy looked at each other, sharing a knowing look, but Buggy shook his head, hoping Luffy wouldn't say anything. He understood because they were thinking the same thing.

"That....that's great," he said, trying to sound genuine.

"Sadly there's riots going on," Jinx added, "since all the states are on locked down to prevent if anyone infected goes missing. Like last time."

Sarah was now concerned. Children must be scared while this was going on. Especially Nadia must be afraid. She also noticed Gold and Cheryl acting very friendly. But she knew Gold wasn't ready to move on.

Buggy and Luffy were quiet throughout the meal. Luckily Buggy had Nadia as a distraction, she sat on his lap and kept grabbing his fork as he tried to eat.

Luffy was watching Jinx a lot which Buggy noticed and smirked as he whispered to him "awe, straw hat has a crush"

Luffy blushed deep red.

"Don't worry, you're not the only one."

"....who??" Luffy leaned in.

Buggy nodded towards Eisenhower.

"No way! On who?"

Buggy rolled his eyes, "me."

"WHAT?!"

"Ssshh, I'm kidding, obviously.....on Cheryl."

"Ah., makes more sense," Luffy said and they both chuckled.

Sarah turned to them, "what ya whispering about?"

Buggy smiled and booped her nose, "....secrets,"

Nadia copied him and booped Sarah's nose, "mama!"

Luffy dropped his cutlery, "did she just say—?"

"Sssshh!!" Buggy shushed him.

"That is SO cute!!"

"....Luffy's crushing on your friend," Buggy then blurted to Sarah.

Sarah's eyes widened.

"Huh!?" Jinx gasped.

"Dude!! What the heck!!" Luffy blushed.

Buggy chuckled, "Sarah can keep a secret it's fine."

"I hate to interrupt," Gold then said, "but did Nadia just say her first word?"

Buggy looked down nervously, "... it's actually her third word, but the second time she's said it."

"Yes." Sarah smiled.

"Papa!" Nadia smiled at Gold.

"AWE!" Sarah's heart melted.

"Great, she's yours now, you're her papa," Buggy joked and stood up, handing her to Gold.

"Ah, as sweet as she is...we know she's a daddy's girl at heart," Gold chuckled as he sat the little girl on his lap.

"I think she is saying grandpa." Sarah smiled.

"Papa," Nadia smiled clapping.

That night the kids and younger adults went to sleep.

Mr Gold was still awake and decided to look into his magic books. He thought maybe there would be a way to make a cure. Sadly none of his magic books had one or to find a way to make one. Even the dagger itself wasn't capable of curing the infected.

He sighed and sat for a while, resting his chin on his hand. Perhaps he just needed quiet time to timself to think.

Cheryl then came with tea for them, "I noticed you're still away and decided to make some tea." She handed him a cup.

Mr Gold smiled at her, "thank you." He took the cup.

Cheryl sat down beside him, "can't sleep?"

Gold shook his head, "I was hoping maybe there was something I could do to help....but it seems I can't, and I feel powerless and useless."

"....," Cheryl placed her hand on his arm, "it's ok."

Gold smiled slightly at her and blushed. "Yeah. It's just...I have almost every cure here except...cancer, aids...and this...," he then sighed.

"Well, I think there's one thing you're very helpful with."

He looked up.

"Being a father."

"Thank you," Gold smiled slightly. They both looked at each other for a bit, but then Gold looked away blushing. He looked pretty shy.

Cheryl even blushed herself. She didn't know why they stared for a bit like the couples do in romance movies. Finally she spoke, "I think I will check on Harry and Aussie. Night."

"...night," Gold replied softly.

Dr Eisenhower though seen it all and felt pretty jealous, but he wasn't going to talk about to them.