She tucked the devil fruit into her coat as she exited the room an hour and a half later. "Here." She said, holding up the Den Den Mushi to her father. "He had taken them to prevent anyone from interfering."

Corazon immediately activated both.

Momo's immediately began screaming as the woman raged at him about ignoring all of her calls and making her sick with worry.

"Someone stole the snails, Momo-okaa-ya." Law said calmly as the woman stopped for breath. "We've only just located them."

"And you didn't think to send a letter?!" She demanded furiously.

Law took the snail back and gestured for the boys to follow as she said, "Sorry, but a lot's been going on. In between the theft and settling into a new home, we haven't had much time."

Momo sighed. "I'm just glad you're all okay. How are you settling in? Tell me about your new house!"

Together they updated the woman on the house and the work they needed to put into it to make it livable. She left it to the younger kids since they could honestly say nice things about their time there.

She hung up pacified and comforted.

"Why didn't we tell her?" Penguin asked Law as she tucked the snail under her hat.

"Some secrets need to die with the culprit." She replied as she began walking back towards Corazon and Bellemere. "Either way, she is my mother and I won't have her worrying over something that has already passed."

Though reluctant, they allowed it to be dropped.

Corazon was just finishing telling Sengoku about their information gathering when they returned.

"Hey, boys. How's Momo-chan?" He asked.

"Glad we've settled in well." Law replied. "Hey Ojii-san."

"Hello, Law-chan." The man greeted. "Your father just finished telling me about the last few hours. How about you tell me about the missing month?"

"Tou-san was obsessed with work, so we kept ourselves busy with house and yard work." She replied.

"You can give me details or I won't call off Garp."

"You sent GARP?!" She asked in alarm.

"Rocinante refused to answer the phone, so yes."

"He won't listen to you anyway!" She exclaimed. "Damn it, you guys aren't fed enough to deal with him! Back to the house!" She ordered, starting to herd them out.

"Actually, if I make it a direct order, he can't disobey." Sengoku's voice calmly pierced through her panic. "I've been promoted."

"Congratulations. So?" She asked.

"So as Fleet Admiral I can restrict his liberties if he disobeys."

"But he's a Monkey…" Kid protested. "Once he gets somethin' in his head, he's like a dog with a bone."

"How many Monkeys do you know?" Bellemere asked curiously and the three youngest looked away tellingly.

"If all else fails I've got blackmail." Sengoku added.

Law brought the snail to her hand. "Okay fine. Tou-san, you need a shower and the rest of y'all need to eat." She said before using her room to leave the base. In a few moments, she felt like she was far enough away to ask, "Where do you want me to start?"

"The beginning." He replied and if this weren't so serious, she'd have rolled her eyes.

"I guess it started around cherry cove." Law began, climbing up to sit in a tree. She leaned back against the bark. "While we were there, he started pushing me away when I tried to hold his hands and stuff, so I thought he just wanted some space for a bit. I - I mean, I guess I've been kinda clingy since we left Zou…so I didn't really question it. After a few days of it, though, I stopped trying altogether. But that's whatever." She brushed off before the desolation could set in. "We got to Orange Island without any major calamities, so it was a freaking miracle. We were greeted by Marines and Tou-san had one take us to our new place—total crap by the way. We've only just made it really livable but it's kept us busy—anyway," She cut herself off. "We explored the house and yard—we've got a good amount of space for a garden and the kids loved the bunk beds, so that was cool. We explored until dinner when I went to get Tou-san, but he said he had too much work to do and that he wouldn't be back till late. Which we understood, but then he left before breakfast and the next time I asked him, same excuse…" She trailed off, reluctant to admit it, but… "I didn't want them to know he was choosing work over us. They – I refused to see that. So I lied to them. Made up some story about an attack on Mango Island and kept that up to cover his excuses for the next week or so. But they know how Marines work and clean up only takes so long. I tried again. Practically begged him to come home—just one meal. To let them know he wasn't abandoning them. That he still—"

She was getting too emotional. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat before continuing.

"Anyway, basically he said that I needed to grow up and that when he was wearing that uniform, he wasn't a father." She looked down at her furry hands. Her mink was dull. She felt sick. "So I told them he was being held up by a backlog of paperwork. Eventually they stopped asking, which was… Better, I suppose. And I made sure to keep us all busy fixing up the house, mixing it in with training so they'd stop complaining about it. Games too. Winner picks dinner that night and so on. Things settled into a bit of a routine and after that-" She shrugged. "Not much detail that matters there, I guess, unless you want a play by play of us cleaning the yard?" She asked sarcastically.

The man scoffed lightly. "No, Law-chan. Go on."

She hmphed. "Well, yesterday Bellemere-ya caught me in town and blackmailed me into letting her help with dinner -"

"Blackmail?"

Law pretended she hadn't heard. "Which went pretty well, her girls got along with the others—though Nami-ya has a bit of an attitude. There were fights, arguing, but no bloodshed—which was a minor miracle. They were all out cold by nine thirty. I'll definitely be inviting them over more often."

The old man chuckled and she smiled slightly in surprise. She scratched her chin. "After that though… I don't remember anything. Next thing I know I'm in Tou-san's arms soaking wet with Penguin crying and the others staring at me like I killed their dog. You know the rest, probably."

"Tell me anyway."

Huffing, she did. About the damn suicide watch they had her under, making breakfast, tracking down the stench of the culprit to the Marine base and immediately recognizing it as the Marine that tried to stop her from seeing Corazon that first night—belatedly telling the man about the confrontation and how she'd broken his nose before resuming her report.

She paused when she came to the part where she told the others to leave. "He hurt my babies." She said softly, feeling that wild Haki just out of reach. "He tried to take me from them. He made me hurt them." It was hard, not giving in to that rage. To that fury.

"Law-chan?"

The man's voice drew her further from the rage and she forced herself to focus. "I made sure he regretted it, but there could never be enough pain to excuse what he'd done. I gave it my best shot though." She got a lazy grin, scratching her chin. "I'll spare you the details. Can't have you stealing my ideas, Gensui-ya."

The snail gave her a wry smile as he said, "I think that's enough, Law-chan. Thank you. I'll call Garp off and then I'll call after dinner."

Terror filled her for a brief instant before she fought it back and said easily, "Sure thing, Ojii-san. Talk to you then."

Pressing end, she closed her eyes against the burn of tears as the solitude pressed in on her.

"Nii-san?" Looking down, she saw Kid standing at the base of the tree, looking up at her. "Are you okay?"

Her first instinct was to lie. To protect him from her instability and maintain the illusion that she was a perfectly functional adult. But she could see it in his eyes that he was waiting for the lie and knew that would hurt him more than the truth.

Sliding out of the tree, she fell to her knees and hugged him tightly around the waist. "No…" She whispered and just like that, the tears started to spill.

Kid hugged her back just as tightly and to Law's surprise, began to release a charge that made every ounce of tension leave her body, serotonin levels increasing to make her feel better.

And for the first time in a month, she began to purr.

Suddenly it was Kid crying and Law shifted so that she was holding him. Continuing to purr, she started to give him a bath. The action soothed the both of them and the loneliness dulled to a mild ache.

It took a few minutes for the boy to calm down, but when he was barely sniffling, listening to Law's heartbeat, Law said, "I'm sorry. But I never would've gotten that bad without that fucker. Maybe I would've had a few breakdowns eventually, but I would never ever abandon you like that. You are all my babies and I love you."

Kid started crying again. "I-I can't—I can't lose y-you again, N-Nii-san! I can't!" He sobbed.

"You won't." She said gently as she took out the orange fruit with green swirls to show him. "You guys are gonna help me bury this in a place where no one will ever find it."

Sniffing as he rubbed his eyes with his sleeve, Kid nodded. "I—I love you too, N-Nii-san…"

Smiling, she nuzzled his cheek affectionately before picking him up when she stood. "Come on, let's get back to the house."

Burying his face in her neck, he nodded and held on the she began to run.

... RDP RDP RDP...

Hey guys, thanks for the reviews! I had no idea there were so many mistakes left in here! I laughed at a lot of them so I hope you found them just as funny. I think I got them all and I'll try harder next time to do it beforehand. Thank you for your patience while I figure out this new process and I hope you'll continue to help me catch any mistakes!

And as you can see I've switched over to female pronouns. That's because after the trauma he went through, it's sort of clicked in Law's head and that's what he's been using. Not so much consciously, but, well, it's complicated.

I hope to update soon, but good news! We've started on Journal 6 of 8! Or was it 9? I don't know we'll see LOL