Chapter 6
With the help of Kraglin, I get about half of the ship's vents cleaned out by the time Quill comes to find me and tells me it's time to go to bed. "I've only got about half of the ship left. I'll go to bed once it's done." I tell him and start to head to the next vent when I'm stopped with a hand in my duster, turning to see Yondu.
"Lissen ta yer Daddy, girl. Git ta bed. Them vents will be there when ya wake up," He says and I nod a bit.
"I get that, Captain. I just want to get it done so I can help with some other stuff tomorrow."
"Tha's too bad. Bed. Git." He nods towards my room and takes the machine that I used for cleaning the vents. "An' take tha' mask off." I press behind my ear and the mask deactivates. "Bed."
"Good night, Captain." I go to my room and vaguely realize that Quill was following me. "I can get to my room on my own, Quill."
"I want to make sure you go there instead of working on any more vents," He says simply and opens my bedroom door. "Night, Rogue."
"Night, Quill." I shut my door and go over to my bed, sitting on it. I silently count the seconds until an hour has passed.
Once an hour has passed, I quietly get out of my bed and go out of my room, looking around the hallway a bit. I quietly go out into the hallway and towards the control room, figuring Yondu probably put the machine in there. I look around a bit and go towards a door that I guess is just a storage room, pressing some random buttons until it opens. I quietly go in and hear someone moving around up a flight of stairs. I see a counter in front of a lot of drinks and go over to hide under it quickly.
Footsteps come down the stairs and I carefully move to see who it is, knocking over a bottle. It smashes to the floor and the three people in the room quickly turn towards it just as I duck back into the hiding spot, trying to think quickly. I try to move away from the spot but am caught from behind by one of the people and throw my elbow into their side, making them let me go. I activate my mask and can see the three people's heat signatures, staying away from them as I walk as quietly as possible towards the door before I see the machine.
I grab it and bolt towards the door, flinging it open before running back to my room as I deactivate my mask. As I was cleaning the vents, I had seen where all the cameras near my room were and avoid them to the best of my ability. I run into my room and slam the door shut behind me, shoving the machine under my bed followed by my warm clothes. I yank my boots off and toss them onto the floor before diving into bed, under the blankets. I close my eyes just before my door opens and I force my body to relax, breathing slowly. I hear people moving around my room and sit up, rubbing my eyes before looking at the people in there.
"What are you guys doing in here?" I look at Yondu, Kraglin, and Quill and they look at me. "It's a little creepy."
"Someone broke into Yondu's room and took the machine you were using to clean the vents. You know anything about that?" I blink a bit and was shocked that the room I went into was Yondu's room.
"Not a clue. I've been in here since you escorted me here, Quill. And I fell asleep about ten minutes after you left." Yondu flips on the light suddenly and I squint my eyes.
"Why are you still wearing your Ravager leathers then?" Quill raises an eyebrow at me and I roll my eyes slightly, getting off my bed to grab the only other clothes I had.
"These are the only other clothes I have and the leathers are a whole Hell of a lot more comfortable than this stupid school uniform. The shirt chokes me and the pants are too tight."
"Wha' 'bout yer duster?"
"It gets cold in here and I want to be able to sleep decently." I wasn't technically lying because those were the only clothes I had from Terra and they were uncomfortable plus it does get cold in there.
"Ya won' mind if we look fer it, then," Yondu says and starts looking around my room.
"Not at all. It isn't going to be in here, though." Quill picks me up and puts me on my bed before looking around the room with Yondu and Kraglin. Kraglin gets on the floor and looks under my bed. "It's just my coat, scarf, hat, and gloves under there," I tell him and he drags them out before pulling the machine out from under my bed.
"You were saying?" Quill narrows his eyes at me and I manage to look shocked.
"I have no clue how that got under there." I look at them and can tell they don't buy it. "I swear on my grandmother's grave," Quill scoffs and starts laughing. I look at him, confused, and notice Kraglin and Yondu were also grinning. "Am I missing something?"
"Not bad, girl. Ya need ta work on yer lies." Yondu smirks at me and pats my shoulder.
"Ya hit me in m'side," Kraglin says and I look at him. "The same way ya did durin' trainin'." He smirks at me and I look offended.
"I was in here, sleeping." Quill rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.
"We know it was you, Rogue. Drop the act."
"What act?" I glare at him and see him start to buy it before noticing my duster and bed were wet.
"What's that from?" He comes over to me and sniffs my arm.
"Dude! Don't smell me! That's fucking weird!" I shove him away and he was smirking. "What?"
"A bottle of Yondu's favorite drink got broken. And it smells just like what's on your duster," He explains and I open my mouth to explain it away but can't think of anything so I shut it again. "What? Don't have a way to explain it away?"
"Shut up, you damned Cheshire cat. And I don't have to explain anything away because I wasn't in Yondu's room. I don't know how it got on my duster or my bed."
"Wow. Yer stickin' with tha', ain't ya?"
"Yes, because it's the truth."
"No, it ain't."
"What makes you think that?" Kraglin starts tapping things on his wrist thing and a video of me running from Yondu's room with the machine under my arm as I deactivate my mask. I watch it and he turns it off, all of them looking at me. I think quickly as they stare at me and are smirking.
"I must've been sleepwalking." I shrug and Quill looks at me.
"Have you ever done that before?"
"I don't know, I'm sleeping when I do it." He rolls his eyes and seems to buy it.
"Ya was awake," Kraglin says and I look at him as he pulls it up again. He presses a few things and my heart rate shows that it wasn't what it would be if I were sleeping. I furrow my eyebrows a bit and they look at me, waiting.
"Well... Damn... If it weren't for that bottle, would you have noticed?" I look at Yondu and he shakes his head. "Damn! Undone by a bottle. And I was gonna put it back after I was done with the vents. So, it wouldn't have been stealing. I didn't know it was your room..." He chuckles and shakes his head.
"How didn't you figure that out when it didn't open?" I shrug.
"All the other doors were already opened so I just keep pushing buttons until it worked. I'm not good at hacking."
"Yer a good liar," Yondu says and I shrug a bit.
"You need to work on sneaking. Lucky for you, you'll be getting training once the vents are cleaned. And since you seem to be so eager to finish them, let's go." Quill grabs the machine and looks at me.
"Yondu told me to go to bed..." He scoffs and I glare at him.
"You didn't seem to care earlier. Let's go." He goes towards my door and opens it, turning to look at me.
"Y'know, I'm suddenly exhausted. We can get started first thing tomorrow." I tell him and he rolls his eyes, coming back over. He crouches down and shoves my feet into my boots. "Hey!" I try to yank my foot away and he catches it, shoving it into my boot. He zips them both up and simply picks me up to throw me over his shoulder. "HEY! Put me down!" I try to get down but he holds me there and walks towards some vents that needed to be done after getting the information from Kraglin.
"I'll contact one of you or the others to switch when some are done," He calls over his shoulder at Yondu and Kraglin and they nod, smirking at me.
"Quill, I swear to God, you better put me down!"
"Or what?" I can hear the smirk in his voice and I growl, hitting his back. He holds my legs still so I can't kick him and stops under a vent. "Let's get this done, kid." He holds me on his shoulders and I sigh, figuring out he wasn't going to let this go. I take the cover off and he pushes me into the vent with the machine as I activate my mask. I start to clean it and get back onto his shoulders when it's done. We go through the ship and clean some of the vents I didn't get earlier.
When other Ravagers start to go towards the mess, I still had quite a few to do and Quill contacts somebody on his wrist thing as he puts me in the next vent to clean.
As I'm coming out of the vent, Quill is walking to get some sleep and someone grabs around my waist, setting me on the floor after I close it.
"How many vents do you have left to do?" Drax asks and I look at him.
"About ten or so." He nods and leads me to the next one, lifting me to open the vent before pushing me into it. We move through the rest of the ship and I clean the last of the vents.
After about an hour, the vents are finally clean and we go to the mess after dropping the machine off in the control room. Drax gets me food on a tray and leads me to the table with Yondu and the others. I sit down with my tray and furrow my eyebrows when I see their heat signatures before reaching behind my ear to deactivate my mask. Yondu was smirking and I start to eat, shoveling it in my mouth after the first bite since I had forgotten to eat before being told to go to bed.
"Whoa! Slow down!" Quill chuckles and I swallow the food I had in my mouth to glare at him. "You hungry?" He chuckles and I grumble under my breath as I continue eating at a slower pace now.
"Ya tired, girl?" I look up and see Yondu smirking at me as I swallow the food in my mouth.
"Nope. Wide awake," I smirk back and continue to eat, clearing the tray in record time before taking it over to the cart. "I'm going to go to my room."
"I thought you weren't tired?" Quill smirks at me and I glare at him.
"I'm not. But I am covered in dust which I'd like to get off of me," I say and start walking towards the door of the mess.
"Can't you suffer through it?!" He calls after me and laughs when I flip him off as I walk out of the mess. I go to my room and get changed quickly, shaking the dust off of my duster after activating my mask again. I slide it back on and deactivate my mask, grabbing my Walkman. I slip the headphones on and press play as I go to the gym, dancing as I go.
I get to the gym just as my music dies down and I feel my heart plummet. "Come on... Not now..." I groan and take the batteries out, switching them around. "Come on, work..." I press the play button and nothing happens. "Damnit!" I growl and look up to see other Ravagers staring at me. "What?" I glare at them and they go back to what they were doing. I leave the gym and go to the hangar, getting on Quill's ship. I don't look as carefully as I did yesterday and am probably being loud, but I don't care since everyone that stays on the ship is in the mess.
"You have got to have some batteries here somewhere," I mutter to myself and open anything that was shut, not bothering shutting them when I'm done. I go through every room on the ship to try to find some batteries and slam the final drawer I can find shut. "Damnit!" I growl loudly and get off of the ship, pushing past Quill as I leave the hangar. I go to my room and dump my backpack out onto my bed, digging through the contents to see if I had any batteries. "Come on... I've got to have some in here..." I mutter and throw stuff onto the floor, not noticing Quill standing in my open doorway or when it starts to fill with some crew and Yondu.
"Why didn't I grab any batteries?" I mutter to myself and throw something at my door, hitting Yondu in the forehead. All the noise outside goes silent and the pair of socks I threw bounces on the floor once. Yondu comes in and shuts the door behind him, looking at me.
"Wha's wrong with ya, girl?" He growls and I grab my Walkman.
"The, uh, the batteries died..." I say carefully and he looks at me, rolling his eyes. He grabs my duster and opens my door, dragging me along with him to the control room. I stumble a bit but manage to get my feet under me and walk alongside him. He drags me into his room and shoves me to sit on a couch I didn't see last night as he roots through some drawers. He grabs something and comes over to me, taking my Walkman.
I open my mouth to say something but shut it at the glare he gives me and he does something before giving me my Walkman back. I plug my headphones back in and try to play it. Music blares from them and I look at him carefully.
"Thank you, Captain..." I pause the music and he looked pissed. "I didn't know you were there and thought my door was shut..." I explain and he crosses his arms over his chest.
"Ya trash Quill's ship?"
"Yes, I did... I was looking for batteries..." He rolls his eyes and is suddenly in front of me, grabbing my arm. He hauls me off of the couch and his hand is landing on my ass. "OUCH!" I yelp and his hand lands a few more times before he lets me go. I quickly step back a bit and he looks at me.
"Ya don' trash nobody's ship, girl! It don' matter wha' yer lookin' fer!" He bellows at me and I nod my understanding. "Git it?!"
"Yes, Captain." He nods and goes towards the door, opening it for me.
"Git ta the hangar. Yer washing Quill's ship an' all the other ships."
"Aye, Captain."
"Git." I leave his room and quickly go to the hangar, managing to keep my head up when some of the crew makes fun of me. I get to the hangar and Quill and Kraglin were waiting for me.
"Do you ever do anything other than watch me?" I ask Kraglin and he narrows his eyes at me.
"Cap'n ordered me ta make sure ya clean the ships proper. Git goin'." I nod and go towards Quill's ship to start with.
"Hey, hold on a second." I pause and look to see Quill holding a pair of boots out to me. "These will help you clean the ships." I take them and swap them out with the ones I had on.
"They look the same." He rolls his eyes and grabs my wrist, slipping a strap with a remote on it. "What's this for?" He motions for me to hit a button and I do, launching upwards. "Whoa!" I laugh and he chuckles. I slowly let go of the button and land back on the floor. "Nice!" He nods towards the ships and I nod, going to start cleaning them.
"Yer too easy on her, Petey."
"You want her to fall and get hurt? Cuz I don't. I especially don't want the whipping Dad would give us. He likes the kid." There's a thud followed by me yelping. They run over to where I'm sitting on the floor under his ship and rubbing my head a bit. "You OK?" I nod and he looks at me.
"Yeah, I'm OK. Just hit my head." I press behind my ear and activate my mask before standing. "I'm gonna try this again." I press a button on the remote before pressing another one and float in the air a bit, smiling. "HA!" I start to clean the bottom of Quill's ship and move to the side to start cleaning that side. The two of them keep an eye on me as I clean the ships and Kraglin puts Quill's music into a wall so it plays around us. I listen to the music and kinda dance as much as I can while I clean the ships.
Around lunchtime or so, Yondu comes in to see how I'm doing and sees me push off of a ship carefully to get to another one. "Hey! Be careful!" Quill yells and walks from under a ship to keep his eyes on me.
"I am being careful, Quill! Chill out!" I yell back and press down on a button to propel myself a bit higher before pressing another one. "I got this figured out! Thanks for getting me these!"
"No problem, kid! Just be careful!" I nod and start to clean the last ship. "How's it coming? This is the last one, right?"
"Yeah! Whose ship is this?"
"Cap'n's! So git it clean!" Kraglin yells up at me and I nod, working on cleaning it meticulously.
"Done!" I yell after about ten minutes and press a couple of buttons on the remote on my wrist before slowly floating to the floor. "Where's a hose to rinse them off?" Quill gives one to me and I start to rinse the ships off. "Any chance I can get help with this part?"
"Nope. Yondu wants you to do this on your own." I nod a bit and rinse the bottoms of the ships before activating the blaster boots to rinse the other parts of them.
After about twenty minutes, I land next to Quill and Kraglin and give Quill the hose. "Done!" I deactivate the mask and was smiling a bit. I see Yondu and smile at him.
"Ya done, girl?"
"Yes, Captain." Kraglin spins and pounds his hand over his heart twice so I copy him, figuring he knew when to do it. Quill chuckles and I see him smiling at me. "What?"
"Nothing." He smirks and I narrow my eyes at him. "It's nice to see you do the Ravager salute, alright?"
"Awe, you're sentimental. That's annoying." Yondu laughs and Quill rolls his eyes.
"It's good to know that when the other Guardians and I head out, you'll be taken care of."
"Guardians?"
"We're the Guardians of the Galaxy, kid," Rocket says as he comes in with the rest of his group and I look at them.
"Uh-huh... If you say so... I'm going to go get something to eat." I grab my normal boots and leave the hangar, dropping my boots off in my room before going to the mess. I grab a tray and get some food with a bit of difficulty before starting to go to Yondu's table.
I'm suddenly sprawled on the floor as my tray goes flying across the floor and grunt softly. I quickly roll over and kick someone in the chest as they try to grab me. They try to grab me again, since the kick didn't do much to them, and I activate the blaster boots to get away from them before I stand up. Some big red guy comes over and swings at me. I duck and roll out of the way of another punch. He advances on me and I watch him carefully. He tries to grab me and I barely avoid his hands, feeling his fingers brush against my arms. He growls and tries to grab me again. I activate the blaster boots and launch myself over him, kicking him in the back before I land behind him.
He stumbles a bit and spins to run at me. I roll away from him and take my blaster out, hitting him in the back with the handle of it, remembering Yondu's warning. He falls and growls. I quickly put it back in my holster and keep an eye on the guy. He stands and glares at me, pissed and looking like he was going to kill me. He takes his blaster out and points it at me. I look at him and he smirks. "See ya, girl." He snarls at me and shoots the blaster at me.
"No!" Quill yells and gets in front of me, getting hit in the stomach. Yondu whistles sharply and his arrow flies through the guy's arm. He yells in pain and grabs his arm. Quill had fallen to the floor unconscious at the hit and Kraglin comes over, helping him up. I was trying to stop him from bleeding and was pissed as I take my knife out of its holster, holding it against my wrist.
"You shot him," I growl at the guy and he growls at me.
"It was meant for you, girl!" He snarls and I go over to him, slicing his leg to make him fall to my level. He grunts and falls to his knees before I grab his hair to make him look at me.
"Once we're planetside, I'll kill you myself," I growl and hit him, hard, on the side of his head with the hard handle of my knife. He falls to the floor and I put my knife up.
"Krags, take him ta the Doc! Now!" I turn and see Kraglin going that way, quickly following him.
He lays him on a bed when we get there and I look at Quill then Kraglin. "C'mon, Petey... Wake up..." He pats his face and shakes him a bit. I climb onto the bed and put pressure on the wound.
"Quill, wake up... Please..." He stays unconscious and I was worried about him. "Wake up... Come on... Please, Dad... Wake up..." I whisper and Doc comes in. Kraglin moves me and holds me when I try to go back to him. I watch Doc carefully and hold Kraglin's arm tightly. "Be OK... Please be OK..." I whisper and Kraglin holds me tighter.
Doc finishes and walks away. I climb into the bed and sit next to him, watching his face for any signs of him waking up. "Come on, Dad... Wake up... Please be OK..." I whisper and watch him.
"Kid, Cap'n wants us in the mess ta eat," Kraglin says as he gently touches my shoulder and I shake my head, shrugging his hand away.
"I'm not leaving," I tell him simply and stay by Quill. I hear him leave and I take his Walkman out as I carefully move to sit in a chair next to his bed, turning it up loud enough we'd both be able to hear it despite not having the headphones on. "Come on, Dad... You gotta be OK... Please be OK..." I say softly and fold my left arm on the bed, resting my head on it to watch him and his monitors. I gently grab his hand with my right one and squeeze it gently. I stay there and fall asleep like that.
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"Where's the girl, Krags?" Yondu asks when Kraglin comes into the mess by himself and he goes over to him.
"She won' leave Quill, Cap'n." He nods a bit and motions for him to get something to eat. He grabs some for me to eat and sits to the right of Yondu at his table.
"I can bring her here," Drax suggests and Yondu shakes his head.
"Ya jus' le' her be with her Daddy." Kraglin eats his food and was also worried.
"Peter will be OK. He is too stubborn to die now," Gamora says and Yondu nods his agreement while Kraglin scoffs a bit. "What are you going to do with the one who shot him?"
"The girl said she was gonna kill him herself." She nods a bit and thought that that would be good.
"She should get accustomed to it. Since Ravagers do have to kill, lie, cheat, and steal," Drax says and Kraglin's wrist com beeps. He taps the screen and a hologram pops up.
"Doc? Wha's wrong?" He asks then quickly stands and runs out of the room when he sees something was wrong with Quill followed by Yondu.
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I wake up to my hand being squeezed back and look at Quill to see his entire body was shaking. "Dad?!" I think and quickly push him onto his side, holding his head gently. "It's OK, Dad... It'll be OK... Please stop shaking... Please..." I whisper, close to tears, and he slowly stops shaking. "Alright... See? You're gonna be fine... You've gotta be OK..." I carefully move and lay him back down, not seeing Yondu and Kraglin in the doorway with Doc.
"You just gotta wake up, alright? Please wake up..." I whisper and hold his arm tightly, tears falling. Someone touches my shoulder and I quickly wipe them away.
"C'mon, girl. Let 'im res'." I shake my head and sit back down in the chair.
"I'm not leaving him, Captain... Not until I'm sure he's OK..." He squeezes my shoulder gently and Gamora sits across from me. I look at her for a moment before looking back at Quill and watch him. I hear Yondu and Kraglin walk away and I watch Quill until I fall asleep again.
The next time I wake up, it's to voices and I open my eyes, seeing Quill awake and talking to Yondu and Kraglin, sat up. I sigh softly in relief and hit his foot. He looks at me and smiles. "Hey, Rogue. I hear you were worried about me?" He smirks and I glare at him as I stand up.
"No, I wasn't."
"Yondu and Krags said you were in tears with how worried you were."
"Yondu and Kraglin are dirty rotten liars. I was not crying over you."
"But you were crying?"
"No, I wasn't." I cross my arms over my chest and notice Kraglin tap a few things on his wrist thing before a hologram video appears of me holding Quill as he shakes to me arguing with Yondu about leaving Quill. Quill smirks at me and I don't look at him.
"You sure you weren't worried?" He asks and I look up, glaring at him.
"Fine. Yes, I was. If you ever make me worry like that again, I'll kill you myself. We clear, Dad?" He smiles and nods. "What's with the smile?"
"You called me Dad. It's been Quill until now." He explains and I shrug one shoulder.
"Dad has fewer syllables."
"They each have one. Nice try." He smirks and I blush a tiny bit.
"Shut up..." I mutter and he chuckles. "I'm glad you're OK, Dad..." He grabs my shoulder and squeezes it gently. I hear a throat clear and look over at Yondu. "What are you going to do with the guy that shot him?"
"He broke the Code, he's been dropped off and stripped of his Ravager flames," Gamora says for Yondu and I nod.
"Good. It sounds like it would be nearly as bad as death." I look at Quill and he was still smiling. "Get better soon. I want to be able to beat the crap out of you without having to worry about you dying because of an open wound." I awkwardly pat his shoulder and he chuckles.
"Sure thing, kid. Don't get on the receiving end of a blaster this time. I won't be there to save you," He smirks at me and I roll my eyes.
"Shut up, you idiot."
"Hey! Now I'm your Guardian too!"
"Alright, that's it." I yank a pillow from another bed and hit him with it a few times, making sure I avoid his stomach. "Shut. The. Hell. Up." I hit him in the face with it one more time and it falls into his lap as he laughs.
"You're so adorable when you get angry," He teases and I roll my eyes.
"And you're an idiot."
"So you've said." He chuckles and I roll my eyes again, getting a headache.
"OK, I'm done with you. Don't die. I'm going to my room. You've given me a headache." He just smiles at me and I leave the med, going to my room.