Chapter Text
She could still remember holding him, her baby boy. He had been so tiny, with a loud wail, dark fuzz covering his head and what seemed to be the beginning of her freckles on his cheeks. He was everything she thought he would be.
Part of her was so relieved to know that extending her pregnancy and using conqueror's haki to keep the fetus from growing didn't have a negative impact on her baby. The baby she had been willing to give her life for.
So, to wake up and not have her baby boy by her side made her freak out. Her eyes snapping open when she couldn't hear any noise except for the quiet steps of nurses and doctors in the hallway. She had just had a baby, and babies weren't quiet. Looking around, her haki exploded out of her, making someone call her doctor, she assumed.
She didn't listen, she wanted her baby.
Asking where her baby was, what they had done to him. Threatening more than one nurse with bodily harm, not even noticing the awed looks on all of their faces as they regarded her sitting on her bed. Something was going on here and she would get to the bottom of it, for no other reason than to be reunited with the baby of her now lost love.
It took her a while before the memories returned, she had lost a lot of blood during the delivery, coupled with the strain on her body of carrying Ace for twenty months she had passed out not long after delivery. She had been able to name him, and cuddle him once before she fainted. That still didn't explain where her son was, until she remembered something else.
Garp had been there, the same man who told her Roger told him about the baby. Who had promised her lover he would look out for her and the baby, with how bad it must have looked it was clear he didn't expect her to make it.
He wanted to protect her and the baby, but after hearing how she was fairing promised to look out for her son. She had let him go, not expecting to wake up again.
Finally calming down, she asked about Garp. Finding out that he had left not long after she passed out. Wanting to make sure no one was able to follow him, no one was able to make the connection to who she was and whose baby she had been carrying. If anything, she had to hand it to Garp that he kept his promises. Ace would be safe, she was certain of that. But her heart would feel lighter when she found him, when she was able to look after her son without worrying what had happened.
Her doctor was just a stumped when he found her awake, explaining that while she lived they had been sure the coma had been permanent and she would be wasting away. He seemed somewhat scared when he admitted to it being almost six months since she fell into a coma, the time passed which only made them suspect this was permanent even more.
Her face fell, that was six months she hadn't been able to be there for Ace. Six months in which someone else raised her baby. Swinging her legs out of bed, she was stopped by the doctor and a couple of nurses. All of them mentioning that she only just woke up and needed some time.
Adding, somewhat cautiously, that she needed to regain her muscle strength before she was able to leave the hospital. The glare she leveled the doctor was legendary, it was the same one she threw around on the seas, most people on Baterilla knew she had been something of a bounty hunter/pirate before settling down. Knowing that she needed to stay in a bed longer than she expected didn't help there either. She was a fighter, so she took a deep calming breath and agreed with the plan her doctor proposed. She needed to get her strength back before anything else happened.
The only positive thing about all of this was that the threat of marines taking her or Ace was over. As much as she mistrusted Garp, she knew from his eyes that the marine would look after her son in any way he could. She could rest and recover, before haunting the marine in an effort to get her baby boy back. Once she was back on her feet it would take the Gods themselves before she let go of her son, of any of her children.
“Oh seas, Red and Blue don't know anything about this either. They'll have heard about Baterilla, I'm sure of that. But...”
She couldn't finish her sentence, feeling her heart hurt by the loss those two boys had been through. First Roger, when he well intended went to his death in an attempt to protect her and his crew. Then the crew, which fell apart without its captain there to keep them all together. As much as she liked Rayleigh, she knew that the man would break as soon as Roger died. He wasn't as strong as her lover, had needed his guiding light and with that gone, he was lost to the darkness around him.
“When I find either of them I'm going to make sure they weren't forgotten, I'm certain that they believe that. With Roger gone so much has fallen apart.”
Feeling awful about not being there for any of her boys, Rouge laid back against the pillows. Making sure that she would do everything she could to get better and to make sure that she could leave the hospital as soon as possible.
It took her a couple of months, but eventually she was released from the hospital with all the well wishes the staff could give her. Meaning she was able to set sail in her trusted little boat, aware that she needed to go to the East. One of the doctors had apparently asked Garp where he was going in the aftermath, which had him remarking East. While the East Blue wasn't close by, she would make it there. It was, after all, also Roger's home sea.
Sailing through the Calm Belt was the easy part, it was finding her son that became a hard thing to do. She didn't know where he was, where Garp had taken him, so she started stopping at every island, trying to find out if Garp lived there and if he did, use her haki to sense her son. It took her way too long in her opinion to find Dawn Island, to talk to a young woman called Makino who shared with her that Garp did indeed live here.
It brought this sense of relief to her, in a way that had Rouge realizing that after two years she would see her son again.
Finding had been easy, convincing the bandit he had been left with to give him back was something else. The orange haired woman was quite protective of Ace, until Rouge explained who she was and could verify who Ace was to her. In fact, it was Ace who came crawling towards her before stretching out his arms. Making Rouge pick him up and hold him close, a smile on the toddler's face as he called her mama.
“That's right, treasure, mama's here. I am so sorry for having to leave you, but I wasn't well. I don't plan on leaving you ever again.”
Ace fell asleep on her chest, which made it easier to tell Dadan who she was and what happened. While still keeping part of the story hidden, she did share that Garp never stole Ace.
“He was asked to look after me and our child by Ace's father. He died some years ago and it looked like I wasn't going to make it either. In fact, I was in a coma for a long time, until I woke up and needed to be calmed down when I couldn't find my son anywhere.”
Running her hand through Ace's hair, she smiled sadly, “I already missed so much of his life, I refuse to miss even more.”
Dadan relented, letting Rouge leave with Ace, making her way back down the mountain and finding Makino waiting there for her. The barmaid asking her to stay at least a little while.
Lost as she was, Rouge agreed, if for no other reason than to have someone close again. She never did have a crew of her own, the crew she saw as hers her lover's, which had broken apart. Red and Blue were still out there, but she didn't know where to find either of them.
Agreeing with Makino, she settled in the spare bedroom with Ace, finding some comfort in a town that looked so much like her hometown. Never expecting to open the door two years after that to find Garp standing there with a bundle which could only be a baby in his arms.
“Rouge...”
She nodded, “Vice-Admiral, what can we do for you?”
He seemed to be stumped, but entered the bar and sat down explaining who the child in his arms was.
“This is Luffy, my grandson. Dragon, my son, had a child not too long ago but after the murder of his wife by a cipher pol agent he didn't dare to keep Luffy with him. He called me to take care of him, but I am in no condition to raise a child.”
Tilting up her eyebrow, Rouge hummed in agreement, she had known Garp wasn't able to raise a child. Not if the way he had thrust Ace to Dadan was any indication, had he planned on doing the same with Makino and Luffy?
“I'll take him, Makino has enough on her hands as it is. Not only that, but he's a D, Makino is not. I'll take care of him, protect him like he's my own.”
Reluctant as he was, he agreed, a weight seemingly falling off of his shoulders at that, which was enough for Rouge. She would have fun introducing Ace to Luffy, her son had been asking about a sibling after all. So while he wasn't hers biologically, that didn't mean anything.
When Garp left the following morning, Rouge introduced Luffy to Ace, seeing the smile on her son's face at the mention of a new sibling. Explaining that family didn't need to be blood, all it needed was a strong bond.
“Family of the heart, nakama, is just as important as family by blood. Remember that, dearest, you'll need it once you set out to become a pirate.”
His beaming grin made her smile as well, not knowing that in two years time her explanation would give her a third child. A boy named Sabo who ran away from noble life and the responsibilities there, finding Ace in the forest and becoming fast friends. She didn't mind, couldn't mind, not when Sabo seemed to fit in just right.
Fate would have it that a couple of years after Sabo joined their little family, that she crossed paths with one of the men she had come to see as a son in what seemed a previous life. The Red hair Pirates anchored on Dawn Island once morning, bringing with them a cheer and sense of entertainment. Which only added to the awe and delight of three young boys who asked the captain one question after the other.
Until Shanks regaled them with storied of his own youth, followed by a slightly exaggerated tale of one thing or another, which is when she spoke up.
“I do believe, Red, that you and Blue did that without Ray or Roger knowing as they would tan your hides if you knew.”
The look of shock on his face, followed by a stuttered out; 'mama' was enough to make her smile, patting her three youngest on the head as she introduced them to Shanks or Red, who was the second oldest.
“I was looking for you, but I couldn't find you. When I saw the wanted poster I knew everything was alright but I was in no state to get into the Grand Line, never mind the New World.”
Shanks shook his head, pulling her close, “You're alive. We... Baterilla...”
Smiling sadly, Rouge nodded, “It almost killed me, but I managed to delay my pregnancy and Ace was born about twenty months after Roger and I last saw each other. I fell into a coma because of that, missing the first two years of his life but I am here now and I don't plan on leaving.”
Shanks sobbed before he took out a den den mushi and called a number, handing it to Rouge as soon as it was picked up, making her speak to Blue and after to Ray, letting them know she was alive. That there was still a piece of Roger alive, they both told her they couldn't wait to see her again. It never dawned on her that she would be leaving Dawn Island soon.