In Sickness and In Health
Meredith inhaled the cool night air as she finally was able to exit the saloon, letting the craziness of the day blow away in the wind. Ever since Kraglin had arrived with Peter and every man in the saloon jumped to “defend her honor”, she felt like she wasn’t able to breathe.
The walk home was long, so she took a moment to truly think about what happened. During the heat of the fight, all she could think about was whether or not her baby was okay. That was her job as a mother, but there was more to the story. It started with Kraglin walking in, bashfully shooing a confused Peter back to her with a brief explanation on where he found him. As soon as Peter said, “Mom, he’s a Ravager,” with the purest smile to ever grace the planet, every man in the saloon jumped up with their guns out. They didn’t even get a word before Kraglin had raised his space gun, any trace of the shy teenager gone. He coolly looked around the room, counting the men and pondering his odds. His blue eyes had gone cold.
Very quickly, Meredith realized why Kraglin was Yondu’s first mate. He was probably the most level headed teenager she had ever met, especially when threatened with a gun.
Then came Yondu: a big Papa Bear who quickly established the order of things. He hadn’t hesitated to pierce that golden arrow through Sherman Richardson, the local troublemaker who had a thing for Meredith, in order to protect his first mate. It made Meredith’s stomach twist as she thought about how ruthless Ravagers really were; she was glad she was already on Yondu’s good side. She couldn’t imagine how things would’ve turned out if she wasn’t.
The first thing that Meredith remembered -once all the offenders scurried out of the bar- was that Yondu was completely nonchalant about it. Of course, she assumed that he had been in battle (before the War on Earth, at least), but she never thought that anyone could be completely calm after stabbing someone with a magic arrow.
That was just another topic Yondu was proving her wrong in, adding on to the worldwide idea that Offworlders were monsters. Yondu wasn’t a monster, although he was intimidating in every sense of the world. Those blood red eyes, that predator smile, those scars, they were all factors that warned the world not to mess with Yondu Udonta.
Meredith smiled to herself as she remembered how flustered he was when she asked if Kraglin and Tullk were his sons. Obviously he thought fondly of them, but she couldn’t help but find it endearing how much the boys looked up to Yondu. When given a chance, she was sure that Yondu could become a decent member of human society, and those boys would follow him even if he told them not to.
Quickly, she shook her head. Offworlders were off limits, as her daddy had started to say. They didn’t grow up like she did and they weren’t made of the same stuff. She couldn’t get her hopes up only for them to be crushed whenever the Ravagers inevitably moved on or caused catastrophic damage to the town. Still, though, she couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if Yondu didn’t skip town. She figured they could be pretty good friends.
Human boys suck, what makes you think space boys won’t too? She asked herself, shaking her head at the bitter thought of Jason. The only good thing he had ever given her was Peter, and she wouldn’t be letting Yondu get that close.
By the end of Meredith’s shift, things had cooled off considerably. Of course, there were still men who flirted with her ruthlessly, and she still smiled and nodded, pouring them another beer. Anything for Peter, she recited in her head. She would take all the catcalls and ugly comments in the world so that her baby could eat.
She was broken from her thoughts when she heard footsteps behind her. They were heavy; the owner wasn’t even attempting to sneak. There was no telling how long they had been following her while she was lost in her thoughts, but now there was no one around to help her. They were outside of the main part of town, walking towards her daddy’s ranch. She just had to hope that whoever it was lost their nerve or got spooked off by an animal.
Meredith soon picked up the pace, and so did the footsteps. Her heartbeat increased as she realized the cruel reality of the situation: they weren’t going to lose their nerve or be scared off.
Soon enough, a hand grabbed onto her arm and whirled her around, stopping her dead in her tracks. Standing in front of her was Joe: a regular creep at the saloon. He had always given her bad vibes, but her boss told her not to worry about him. Ole Joe’s never done nothin’ serious. He’s just a creep, Meredith. Don’t let ‘im mess with your head.
He didn’t seem too harmless now, his attempts to pull her closer starting to get more and more determined as she pulled harder and harder to get away. “Hey there, Ms. Quill. You and I had a little thing back there, don’tcha think?” he slurred, the smell of liquor making her stomach churn.
“No, Mr. Sullivan, ya must be mistaken. Let me go, now,” she said, attempting to sound stern although her voice wavered halfway through her sentence. Joe Sullivan grinned slightly. Meredith steeled herself, despite how her hands shook, and remembered all those times her daddy taught her how to throw a punch. “Let me go. I won’t ask ya again.”
“What’re you gonna do, pretty lady?” he cooed, almost amused as he yanked her closer.
Meredith didn’t even bother to pull up her skirt as she threw her knee up as hard as she could, hitting him right where the sun didn't shine. As soon as his hands let go of her arms, she pulled back and clocked him hard in the nose, just like she was shown as a little girl. Her daddy had always said that a girl should know how to defend herself.
Joe backed away with a groan, holding his bloody nose and his crotch. Meredith should’ve ran away right then and there -the ranch was only another half mile down the road- but she suddenly felt a searing headache come on. She pushed a hand to her head as she stumbled, the pain making her dizzy. Never before had she felt a headache this bad; it was at the point where her vision was too fuzzy to see out of.
Next thing she knew, she was pushed to the ground and pinned by Old Joe Sullivan, the same Old Joe who had never done nothin’ wrong. Meredith felt her heart sinking into her gut as he pushed her arms down with ease; it was like the pain had separated her brain from her limbs. Internally, she was screaming to fight, but her arms and mouth wouldn’t listen.
She turned her eyes up to the starry night, still struggling weakly under the hands of her attacker. Bile rose in her throat as she tried to push down the pain to fight, but he just pulled up his hand to hit her, muttering something about making her stay still. She closed her eyes against the raised hand, fully expecting the searing pain of a man’s fist.
Suddenly, a sharp, angry whistle pierced through the air and something warm and wet splattered on Meredith’s face. More importantly, the hit she was so wholeheartedly expecting never came.
Joe’s body tumbled to the ground as running footsteps skidded to a stop beside her. The voices were faint and fuzzy, but she was able to make out one sentence amongst the white noise around her.
“Shit, it’s Meredith. Help me get her on the horse.”
Everything hurts.
That was the first thing that came to Meredith’s mind once she regained consciousness. Her head was still searing with that headache she had passed out from, and her back felt completely bruised. The only other time she had ever felt that kind of bruise was when she was 10 and got thrown off Jumper, the one horse her daddy never let her ride. One day, while he was out, she decided to try to ride him, despite all the warnings her father -and Jumper’s name- gave her. When her daddy got home, she was curled up in the house, her back aching something awful. From then on, she never tried to ride Jumper again.
Only this time, she wasn’t even at the ranch. There was no Jumper to get thrown off of. So what happened?
After a moment of sorting through her thoughts, she could hear voices in the distance. They sounded like they were arguing, although she was unable to make out what they were arguing about. They were angry, though: what few words she made out were profanities dark enough to make a sailor blush. Neither side seemed to be backing down, though, but the voices were getting hoarser. They must’ve been at this for a while.
Finally, she was able to open her eyes, despite the bright light that shone in from the open window. She groaned, rubbing her forehead to try and get rid of the headache. She took a look around and decided that this definitely wasn’t her daddy’s ranch. Did she get drunk? Where the hell was she?
“Where’s Peter?” she gasped, immediately coming to her senses with the thought of her lost son.
A hand gently rested on hers, causing her to turn her attention to a familiar boy with dreadlocks. “He’s not here, Ms. Quill. I think ya said he was at his grandfather’s last time we spoke,” Tullk soothed in his strangely Scottish accent. “Ya took a hell of a few hits. How’re you feelin’?”
“I’m alright. I need to-”
“That was rhetorical,” Tullk interrupted, pushing her back down on the bed before she got to sit up. “I know you feel like shit.”
Now that Meredith had come more to her senses, she was able to make out the voices arguing and what they're arguing about. Although they were in the other room, she was able to distinguish Yondu’s gruff bark from Kraglin’s drawl, but their arguments felt like they were in another language with all the space talk.
“What’re they fightin’ about?” Meredith asked, forcing herself to lay back down despite her instincts screaming to find Peter. She had to give them at least a little trust, especially after Kraglin went out of his way to keep the boy safe earlier the same day.
“Whether or not we should go for gold out in the hills,” Tullk explained, leaning back to relax once he realized she wasn’t going anywhere. “Captain wants to stay here, something about not being arrested, and Kraglin wants to steal some so that we can communicate with home.”
Meredith nodded slowly. The headache was making her processing time a little slower. “What do you think?”
“I think you should get some bloody rest, ma’am,” Tullk said. The arguing stopped.
“Like hell,” Meredith muttered before swinging her legs over the side of the bed. To her delight, she was still fully clothed and no rougher than she was before the fight, minus some dirt and a bit of blood.
Yondu came storming into the room at that exact moment and immediately started scolding Tullk for letting a sick woman walk around like she hadn’t just fought for her life. Tullk made no attempt to explain himself, simply shrinking away from the angry captain with a nod and a quiet “yes sir.” It made Meredith’s blood boil; Tullk was a sweet boy. He didn’t deserve to get yelled at.
“Don’t you yell at that boy! I got up on my own!” she called out, walking over to Yondu. Tullk’s face flushed. “Now ya best tell me what’s goin’ on!”
Yondu rubbed his hand over his face and sighed. Suddenly, he looked much older than he had the day before in the bar. “Ya better sit down, Meredith,” he said. She took a step back, shocked by his sudden change of tone, and sat down on the bed. “We think we know what’s wrong with ya, or why ya passed out last night when fightin’ that asshole. A few of my men got it back before the War, and they had the same symptoms ya got. We think it’s a brain tumor.”
“The hell is a brain tumor?” she asked, feeling her stomach twist with unease. She hadn’t even heard of that before, what made them think that she had one in her skull?
“It’s a mass that grows on your brain and causes pressure. It’s curable with advanced tech; stuff we ain’t got down here. Without that, your chances don’t look real pretty,” Yondu explained. He hadn’t broken eye contact with her once. It was like he was a master of delivering bad news.
Meredith shook her head. “No, no. I ain’t ever even heard of a brain tumor! There’s no way I got one! I was fine up until last night!” she said. She didn’t care that it would kill her, not in the selfish way where she would give anything to save her own skin. The only thing she worried about was Peter. He already didn’t have a daddy; if she died, he’d be an orphan. Even with his grandfather taking care of him, he wouldn’t have all the opportunities he could have if Meredith was around. Her baby would grow up parentless. The thought sunk her heart into her toes.
No. That wouldn’t happen.
“There has to be a way for me to get a cure here,” she said, her voice low.
Kraglin shrugged. “Dr. Celeest is still in business a couple towns over. She owes me a favor from wartime, Cap’n,” he offered.
“Dr. Celeest? W-who’s Dr. Celeest?” Meredith asked, rising to her feet.
“She’s a Xandarian doctor who was working for the Ravagers when her ship crash landed. She ain’t ideal, but she’s better than nothin’,'' Yondu admitted, rubbing his neck as he pondered the idea. Meredith could practically see his thought process through the intensity of his eyes, although she had no idea what he was planning.
“I’m not goin’ anywhere without Peter,” she added sternly, her accent bleeding into her words. She may have been freaking out a little (a lot) but Peter was still her main concern. He would be until the day she took her dying breath.
Yondu waved a dismissive hand. “Kraglin’ll go get him,” he said.
Kraglin’s face flushed teal in frustration. “Cap’n, I ain’t tryin’ to get shot at for kidnappin’, again,” he said, although his voice was laced with anger.
The captain’s eyes cut up at his young first mate, daring him to speak out again. “She’ll write ya a note. You’re goin’.”
Meredith could practically see the smoke from his ears as Kraglin walked over to a desk and grabbed a notepad and pen. Quickly, Meredith scrawled out that Kraglin was a friend from work and that he was going to be picking up Peter to bring him back. She also promised to be home soon before she signed it, making sure it was legible enough to be read but not too neat as to appear as a forgery. Her daddy was protective of Peter; he wouldn’t hesitate to put some good ole fashioned lead into Kraglin if he thought he was there for the wrong reasons.
“Be safe,” she said gently, patting his arm. Kraglin softened a bit and nodded.
“Of course, Ms. Quill,” he said politely before briskly exiting the room to go get her boy.
Yondu was now worrying his lip between his metal teeth, obviously pissed off by the look in his eyes. Meredith glanced at Tullk, who simply shrugged. From what she could gather, he was the mediator between the other two. “Fuck this. I gotta go get some shit if we’re makin’ the trip to Celeest’s. Tullk, watch Meredith. Don’t let her do nothin’ stupid.”
“I’m standing right here. Just because I’ve got a lethal brain tumor doesn’t mean I’m dumb,” Meredith shot back, her arms crossing across her chest. Sometimes, that Offworlder just made her want to commit an act of violence that definitely would have gotten her outcasted, or possibly arrested.
Yondu walked out without another word, slamming the door behind him. Tullk grinned slightly and turned to Meredith. “He really likes you,” he praised, motioning for her to sit down once more.
She followed his orders without much of a fight this time. “What do you mean?” she asked.
“Captain ain’t ever done this for anyone else. Even the old crew just got sent to the medbay for the procedure; half the time he wouldn’t even dock,” Tullk explained. “You’re a real lucky lass, Ms. Quill. The captain can handle anything, so long as he cares enough.”
Meredith couldn’t help but smile slightly at the complete trust the boy had in his leader. “You really trust Yondu with all this, huh?”
“Oh, yes, ma’am. Don’t you worry one bit. He’ll take care of you and your son while you’re away, and he might even make sure you still have a job once you get back,” the teenager promised. Meredith felt as though her heart might explode. This boy would follow Yondu to the ends of the universe if he asked him to.
“Well, if you trust him, Tullk, then I do, too,” she said with a gentle smile. Tullk returned it.
Yondu was one lucky bastard, and she was sure that he didn’t even know it.