~

Law kept an eye on the four siblings until one by the one the brothers woke up and their loud voices woke Uta up too. It was the right time for everyone to be awake as well because Uta's stitches needed to be checked and IVs needed to be taken out. Sabo went ahead and started making breakfast while Luffy and Ace stayed in the room to help Law if he needed it.

"You were supposed to be with your friends." Luffy pointed, bringing the older's medical bag in his room.

"I didn't feel comfortable leaving a patient with all your incompetent asses." Law said back and put his gloves on. "You all fell asleep, someone was supposed to keep an eye on her."

"Yeah Ace, that was your job." Luffy quickly attacked his brother.

"Wha-? I thought it was Sabo's!" Ace retaliated.

"Stay quiet or leave the room." Law scolded and that shut the brothers up. "How do you feel around the stitches?" The doctor asked Uta.

"Sore as hell..." Uta answered with a groan. "And everything hurts."

"As expected. You did suffer a sever blood loss." Law undid the bandages and sighed.

"Why's that bleeding?" Ace panicked.

"Stitches sometimes bleed when they're new." Luffy answered, to everyone's shock. "What? Torao told me that when he got shot."

"Please stop bringing that up." Law whined. "And yes, stitches do bleed, especially when the site involves high blood circulation."

"So she's ok?" Luffy asked.

"Stitches are fine, will take at least a month to settle-"

"A MONTH?!" Uta sat up. "I don't have a month to spare- I have back to back live-"

"Which you will reschedule and postpone, because there is a few weeks of rehab after the stitches are out too." Law interjected.

"What did I do to deserve this..." The woman sagged and slumped more in the multitude of pillows behind her. "Can I at least take a bath?"

"Not unassisted."

"I'll call Robin and Nami." Luffy offered and left the room to call his friends for help.

"Shanks better have tortured that bastard..." Uta mumbled with a frown on her face, but her eyes weren't angry, they were tired, the kind of tired Law knew very well.

"Don't wish that you should have died instead, that thought strays you away from wanting to get better." Law said in a low voice when Ace was occupied with petting Godfather.

"Wanting to get better sounds like too much work right now..."

"So let everyone do it for you. If no one else, you at least have three brothers who would gladly take on your burden."

"The same three brothers who fell asleep when they should have been keeping an eye on me?" Uta laughed, the light in her eyes a little brighter, Law considered that a small victory.

"Yes, those same three careless morons."

"Nami and Robin will be here soon, they said they'll help any way they can." Luffy announced coming back in the room.

"Can you also ask Sanji to make me delicious food?" Uta asked then turned to Law. "Can I eat now?"

"It would be better to go through some scans before consuming solid diet." Law said scratching his head. "I will ask Tony-ya if he can arrange something, my own scans are due."

"Funny guys are not going to like that Toroa." Luffy shook his head at the reminder that they had completely forgotten to get Law an angiogram, as they had promised the three Hearts.

"Your scans?" Uta asked Law.

"I recently went through an angioplasty, those scans." Law answered casually and changed his gloves to re-do the bandages on the stitches, after dousing them in pyodine.

"Recently? It doesn't look like that at all."

"It's because I have a life in my hands, so I put myself second." Law said with a smile.

"Stupid Torao." Luffy frowned. "You always put yourself second."

"Luffy! Help me with the table!" Sabo called before Law could say something and the youngest was out of the room.

"Do you want to go to the living room or kitchen, sit with everyone?" Law offered putting his bag aside.

"That'd be nice." Uta nodded.

Ace and Law helped Uta to the one-seat sofa in the living room and adjusted breakfast around her, Law ok'ed that she could eat very small amounts of solid food.

"Why's she so miserable now? She was ok last night." Sabo asked when Uta was once again slumped and out of energy, looking tired and sad. Sabo was putting the dried dishes away and had grabbed Law to talk to him.

"That was the adrenaline." Law answered, his arms crossed. "She has to overcome blood loss, trauma, pain, fatigue, a lot of it, of course she's going to be miserable."

"Were you like that when you got shot?"

"No comments." Thankfully, the doctor's phone rang so he didn't have to answer more questions. Law answered the call from Shachi and briefed him on the situation that Chopper was arranging for both his and Uta's tests. The three Hearts were quickly on-board and made a group chat with Chopper to talk to him directly.

It was only a matter of an hour before the three Hearts, Law, Uta, Chopper and Luffy were at the clinic the small reindeer worked at. The testing went relatively faster than Uta had imagined and by the time they all got back to Luffy's house, they were all tired, but thankfully, Sanji was waiting there to make them good and warm food. Robin and Nami helped Uta to a bath while Law took his before food was served to the big gathering of friends and family.

"You know..." Penguin drawled, his toes squirming. "I kinda wanna go dip my feet in the sea."

"Now that you mention it... how long has it been since we've seen the ocean?" Shachi seconded.

"The weather's good too." Bepo agreed. "Captain, what do you think?"

Law pretended to think, only to save face, but he was jumping from joy inside at the prospect of going to the beach, sure he couldn't swim but the sea always calmed him down. "I guess we can go."

"I wanna go toooooo." Uta complained, nursing her soup in her hands.

"Can she?" Ace asked both Chopper and Law.

"The sea breeze would be good for her." Chopper answered.

"And the sunlight would be good for fatigue and aches." Law added.

"We're going to the beach tomorrow!" Luffy celebrated running circles around the company sat in the living room, Godfather close behind him.

~

The group prepared three vans with the drivers being Franky, Sabo and Nami, and drove to the distant beach location before sunrise. Law was surprised to find out that the far away location with its own beach hut, read mansion, belonged to Sir Crocodile and that the underworld boss had let the group use it just because it was Luffy who asked. The doctor wondered what kind of a relationship his boyfriend had with the sandy Sir Crocodile.

Law preferred to ride in the van Nami was driving because it had the calmest people in the group, well, relatively calm. Luffy didn't want to be separated from Law but the older wanted to sleep the long drive to the beach. Uta was also in the same van with Bepo, Robin and Zoro. Nami drove with expert skill, avoiding any and every bump in the road because she had a patient on board. By the time the sun had completely risen, the group had reached their destination.

"How the hell did Luffy get Sir Crocodile to agree to let us use this place?" Law asked Nami who was carrying the lighter bags inside the mansion.

"Something to do with when Luffy broke into Impel Down, I really didn't ask him about the details." The orange haired girl sighed. "I don't like Crocodile for hurting Vivi so I avoid talking about him."

"There's a rumor that Crocodile is Luffy's bio-mom." Uta said from the wheelchair Law had the handles to.

"What the fuck!" Law and Nami stopped.

"You mean Dragon and Crocodile- no no no, I can't even imagine it." Nami shook her head to get the images out.

"I don't think Crocodile even has the female organs for human reproduction." Law wondered, entirely lost in his own little world.

"Like I said, it's just a rumor." Uta shrugged. "I believe Luffy hatched out of an egg though, or just came into being out of nowhere."

"Like Momotaro?" Nami asked.

"But Luffy has all the proper organs in their proper places, that doesn't happen from hatching or asexual reproduction... Now I'm curious about his DNA." Law wondered out loud.

"Cut it out, you're being creepy." Nami swatted at Law's arm.

"Can we just agree that one day the sun shone really bright and Luffy was born?" Uta laughed.

"Yeah, let's go with that."

"I'm still checking his DNA." Law grinned and pushed Uta's chair inside the big doors where everyone was already gathered.

"What took you guys?" Luffy asked bounding over to the three. Uta, Nami and Law looked at Luffy's cute, round face, then each other, then laughed, there was no way Luffy was related to Crocodile.

"Oh everyone's here." A new voice said but it didn't take long for the identity to be revealed.

"Jinbei!" Luffy jumped on the big fishman, followed by Nami and Chopper.

"I know I shouldn't be surprised but how the hell does he know everyone?!" Law asked, frustrated.

"Just accept it." Uta laughed.

There were a lot of rooms in the mansion but the women all decided to stay in one room while the men took the biggest together, but everyone knew the arrangement wouldn't last because they'd all be sleeping in the lobby anyway. Usopp and Franky made quick work of putting all the stuff inside the mansion and everyone was off to the beach. The chairs were set up, the umbrellas were set up, the mandatory barbeque station was also set up.

"Torao let's go in the water!!" Luffy jumped excited, Godfather jumping beside him.

"In a while, I have to make sure your sister's bandages are ok first." Law answered. "You go ahead."

"But I wanna go with you." The younger pouted.

"Did you already apply sunscreen? Most of your skin is exposed." The doctor pointed to the fact the Luffy was only wearing swimming trunks.

"I don't need that."

"Yes you do, go ask Tony-ya for some."

"Fine." Luffy walked off with a stomp.

Law adjusted Uta's umbrella first, then her chair and made sure her stitches were perfectly padded. "Do you need anything?"

"Not right now, thank you." Uta said.

"Call if you do." Law went to his own chair after he was dismissed and started applying sunscreen. The doctor didn't want to risk a tan and make his white patches obvious on his skin so he made sure most of his skin was covered with clothes and the rest had the lotion on it.

"Why're you wearing so much?!" Luffy protested yanking on Law's button-up shirt when the older was ready to get out of the shade.

"I don't like showing too much skin." Law answered immediately.

"He's not gonna budge Luffy." Shachi said laughing.

"It's a miracle he's even under the sun and not reading or napping somewhere in a shade." Penguin seconded.

"Yes, be grateful." Law stuck his tongue out but it got bitten by his own teeth when Luffy suddenly took his hand and started running towards the water, making the older run as well. "Not in the deep waters!"

"There's no fun in the shallows!" Luffy grinned and Law knew he was fucked.

"We both can't swim!"

"That's why Jinbei's here!" Luffy laughed out loud and ran till the water was up to his waist. "Man this sucks, deep water for me is still not deep enough for you."

"Thank fuck." Law sighed in relief that he was taller and had that to his current advantage.

"Luffy catch!" Usopp called and Luffy saw a beach ball coming his way. The young man was quick to slap the ball back to his long nosed friend, starting a short game of ball with his friends and Law.

"The water's so goooooooddddd." Bepo floated on the water surface, content, the ball flying over him from all directions.

It was only a matter of minutes that Luffy got bored with playing in the water and dragged his boyfriend to the sand to make sandcastles.

"That abomination is a sandcastle?" Law laughed at the droopy structure Luffy had crafted and called it a castle.

"You talk like you can do better." Luffy stuck his tongue out, baiting Law into playing with him in the sand.

"Oh I can, but I want to spare you the humiliation."

"You're on Torao!"

"Don't cry when you realize the difference in our abilities." Law grinned and chose a different location to build his own sandcastle.

"Oh we're having a sandcastle competition?" Usopp overheard and joined the two. "I will tell you that the Great Usopp is a master at making sandcastles, the likes of which make men quiver before the awesomeness they cannot comprehend."

"Really?" Chopper asked, stars in his eyes.

"Listen well, Chopper, I have eight thousand subordinates, who do you think they look up to when they are faced with the difficult challenge of sandcastles? Me!"

"You have eight thousand subordinates?!" Luffy and Chopper asked at the same time. "SO COOL!"

"He's obviously making it up..." Law mumbled, forgetting his worries of the world and the life he had in that moment, letting himself be carried in the flow that Luffy was somehow generating.

Franky was the winner of the sandcastle competition but the judges, Robin and Sabo, disqualified him because of his obvious superior skills, and taking the first place was Usopp, second place was Law and third place was Jinbei.

"You didn't even factor in the honorable mentions." Law teased his pouting boyfriend.

"You guys are mean." Luffy kicked a broken seashell.

"We can make a castle together too, you know."

"Really?!" Luffy looked up at the older, all excited again, the mopey eyes gone.

"After you find the seashells for my second place crown." Law smiled.

The fun at the beach was a welcome change for everyone but like all things, it too came to an end and the party went back to their homes after two days of playing in the sea.

A few days after shaking off the tiredness from the beach, the three Hearts told Law that his grandfather was coming over to discuss what Law's options were for his life ahead. Law was called to the Grey Terminal by Luffy earlier that day because some patient the doctor had treated wanted to get his recovery checked by the same man.

Walking home with Luffy, Law knew his friends were at the house, and he would soon find out what he would be doing for the rest of his life. What nobody told Law was the fact that with the three Hearts landing in Goa, the plan was already in motion and that they had already decided what Law's future was going to be. So it came as a surprise to Law when he came home and found not only his friends in his house, but also Sengoku and Garp, and Chopper and Kureha.

"What kind of a situation did I just walk into?" Law muttered looking at all the faces. "This looks an awful like an intervention."

"Geh! Jiichan wasn't supposed to be here!" Luffy ducked behind Law when he saw his own grandfather.

"What's with the geh?! Is that how you greet your grandfather?!" Garp was instantly off his feet, his fist at the ready. Law automatically stepped aside at the incoming fist and let Luffy deal with his family.

"What are you all doing here?" Law asked, still confused as hell.

"Oh, he's gotten quite tall." A new voice said and Law looked at an old marine woman walk out of the kitchen with tea in her hands. "I went ahead and made myself some tea."

"It's no problem...?"

"Where's my tea, Otsuru?!" Garp yelled and went to nag the old woman.

"Why does jiichan's fist always hurt?" Luffy cried rubbing the few bumps on his head.

"Please, someone, explain." Law said with a shake of his head and sat down on the one seat that seemed like it was reserved for him.

"We're all here to discuss what you're going to do from now on." Sengoku said.

"You got Kureha to come here for that all the way from Sakura?" Law questioned, feeling guilty.

Doctorine laughed a witchy laugh. "This is an interesting turnout, I wouldn't miss it for the word."

"Ok, one thing at a time." Penguin intervened realizing that Law's head was starting to ache.

"Law, you said you wanted to still be a doctor but that you lack the resources and credentials to go about it legally." Shachi mentioned.

"I did say that." Law agreed.

"I can get you a job in a hospital." Sengoku said.

"Like I said, I don't have a medical degree or a medical license, even with your connections, people are going to ask questions and might even start rioting over government corruption or something."

"I have more than a few medical university deans who owe me favours." Kureha started.

"I don't want a fake degree, what even."

"Not fake. Law, we're saying that you can take exams for your medical degree and get a medical license, legally." Chopper said.

"I don't have that kind of a time, a medical degree takes years." Law wondered what the point to all this was, because if there was a point, he wasn't seeing it.

"But you don't need to spend the time, you already have the knowledge and more. So just take the exams." Shachi pointed.

"Yes, those deans, they have all agreed to draft their toughest exams for you, since I convinced them you're a prodigy." Doctorine said. "You clear those exams and you get a license and a degree."

"What?" Law raised both his eyebrows. "You can't be serious about this."

"You aren't confident that you can pass those exams?" Penguin provoked.

"I can!" Law defended himself. "I just... it seems too easy."

"That would be the only thing that's easy kid." Otsuru said. "We all know about your activities as an underworld doctor and have only been looking away because you weren't doing actual harm."

"You would need a government pardon to work as a doctor." Garp said, his arms and face both cross.

"And how would I get that?" Law asked to move things along, what he was hearing seemed too good to be true.

"You would have to work at a government hospital." Sengoku said and waited for Law to absorb the implications of that statement. "That's the condition for our cooperation."

"If that involves dirty work then forget it. I'll take my chances at the black market."

"You won't be involved in any of that as long as I am Fleet Admiral.

Law thought about it. "So what's the catch?"

Bepo, Penguin and Shachi pretended to look hurt when Sengoku dropped the bomb. "When you get your license, I'm stationing you in Goa General."

Everyone could see Law was on the road to exploding. Everyone could see the million things that were going in Law's head, all the hurt he was feeling that if he agreed, he would have to leave his friends, all the anger at himself that if he didn't agree he would have to do illegal things again.

"Why Goa? Why not Flevance?" Law finally asked. Luffy felt his heart sink, he was the one who told Sengoku that if he was going to punish Law, it should be that the older gets placed in Goa for atonement and not Flevance, all the Hearts had backed him on it because they didn't want to see Flevance destroy Law a second time.

Sengoku had rehearsed this. "Goa has a bigger marine facility and many stations while Flevance has none."

"Wait, something clicked. By government pardon, are you implying that you're going to make my underworld activities public?" Law narrowed his eyes. "If you do that, everyone is going to want to hunt me down, I wouldn't be able to show my face in public."

"The pardon is only for our eyes and ears. It's not going to be on paper or records." Otsuru said. "It's just a string of words to let you know that what you're getting is not a free pass."

"Let me just, you're going to help me attain a medical degree, a medical license, punish me service at Goa General. You don't get anything in return?"

"You're going to be actively involved in medical research, help with the patching up of wounded soldiers, we get your services." Garp added.

"Can I ask for change of hospitals though? Goa General is so fucking corrupt."

"What better place to make changes from than within? There's no negotiation on any of these matters." Sengoku furrowed his eyebrows.

"You don't need an answer immediately, right?"

"No, but this offer has a validity of the next five minutes."

"That's immediately!"

"What are you afraid of, you brat?" Kureha scowled.

"I- I'm not afraid! The offer's good, too good, but you can't ask me to leave my friends just like that!" Law rubbed his temples.

"You were going to kill yourself and leave us just like that too Law." Shachi pointed.

"This is the only chance you will ever get at being good, stop being an idiot and take it." Penguin said.

"It's like you guys want me to go away." Law snapped at his friends.

"Captain!" Bepo scolded, startling everyone. "We'll miss you all the time, but at least we'd know you're alive and well."

"And I'd stop being mad at you for wanting to kill yourself." Luffy grinned.

"You're really not mad about that at all." Law shook his head.

"And for wanting to drug me." The youngest said. "Oh Torao, if there was only a way you could make this all go away."

Law stared at Luffy, then made up his mind. "You're going to regret putting me in that particular hospital. Those incompetent bastards would be quitting left and right." Law warned Sengoku.

"We're counting on it."

"After you reach such a position, that is." Otsuru slapped Sengoku's arm to stop him from laughing.

Law took a deep breath, then another, and another, then looked ahead, at the three bigwigs of the marines, and grinned. "You're on."

~