Hey guys! Sorry about the break, hope you're all doing well! :D Not much to say about this chapter other than Yondu being a weirdly sweet dork at the end. Hope you all like it!


The transport crew allows him just enough leniency to open communication with his ship to relay a docking request. Once the request is approved, they connect to the docking bay and Yondu exists the craft, the crew in tow. Though it's not expressly stated, the loaded weapons at their hip make it pretty clear that they have no problem shooting him or anyone else if it looks like an ambush. One wrong move is all it would take to set off a firefight which is why Yondu has no intentions of letting any of his crew members come into the docking area for the next foreseeable future.

Kraglin meets him in the hallway, casting a wary glance over his shoulder at the armed transport crew. "What're they here for?"

"They're my ride back," Yondu answers simply as he walks away from the docking bay and down the hall.

"Back? Back where? Where's Peter?"

"Planetside," the Captain continues as he keeps walking. "Turns out he was a lot sicker than we thought. They're gonna have 'im grounded in that clinic for the next week."

Kraglin balks a little at the answer. "A whole week? What the hell was wrong with 'im?"

"Terran thing," Yondu tells him as they round a corner into another hallway. He doesn't mean to come across so short with his first mate but he honestly just doesn't have it in him to answer all the questions. The longer he spent on the ship meant the longer Peter was left alone on a strange planet all alone. It doesn't sit well with him and he's more than a little on edge about the whole situation.

Thankfully, Kraglin seems to understand the meaning behind the clipped, short answers well enough and leaves it at that. "What do you want us to do in the meantime?"

Yondu considers this for a moment before answering. "Look into some small jobs nearby in this quadrant. I'll let you know as soon as Peter's healed enough to leave. If anyone asks where I am, just tell 'em I'm scoutin' a job in the area."

Kraglin nods and turns to walk back to front of the ship when Yondu stops him. "Make sure no one goes into the dockin' area until we're gone. These guys are just lookin' for a reason to shoot somethin' an' I ain't gonna let 'em have the opportunity."

The first mate just nods. "That area's on lockdown, Cap'n. Has been since I got yer call. No one'll get in there til' I say so."

Yondu smirks and claps him on the shoulder. "Knew I kept you around fer a reason." He lets him go and turns in the opposite direction. "Keep 'em in line til' I get back," he calls over his shoulder as he makes his way down the opposite hallway.

"You got it, boss," Kraglin calls back, turning to walk back to the bridge.

It only takes a few minutes to gather the things he needs, shoving them gracelessly into a duffle bag that he tosses over one shoulder. There's only one thing he grabs that he doesn't shove in the bag, choosing instead to tuck it into one of the inner pockets of his coat. The rest of it doesn't really matter so he pays no mind to the wadded bundle bumping against his shoulder as he walks back to the docking bay.

The transport crew is ready and waiting when he gets there, weapons still plainly visible even though no one else has been in this area the entire time they've been here. They give a short, curt nod when they see he's ready to depart and step back into the craft behind him, sealing the doors closed and preparing to disembark. There's a slight shudder and the brief feeling of weightlessness and then they're pulling away from the Ravager ship and turning outward toward free space.

The ride back is uneventful but it feels like it takes twice as long as the ride to the ship had taken. Yondu keeps his arms crossed over his chest but one foot bounces restlessly against the floor. He keeps his gaze turned to the window, tracking their progress as the planet approaches outside. Realistically he knows that it's not taking nearly as long as he thinks it is but he's getting more and more agitated the longer he sits here.

The second the craft lands, Yondu is up and wrenching the door open (much to the consternation of the transport crew), striding out onto the landing pad and making his way back to the clinic. No one bothers to stop him until he gets to the door of the clinic and then he's swarmed by guards who are intent on searching him from head to toe for weapons. He'd expected as much so he stands completely still and allows them to scan him and his duffle bag with at least three separate devices before they're satisfied. They allow him through with a nod and step back but one guard pauses and motions toward his coat.

Yondu's eyes narrow and he feels a muscle in his jaw clench. He knows exactly what the guard is indicating and he not about to hand it over without a fight.

The guard takes a step forward and Yondu straightens himself and meets his eyes sharply. "I'd be real careful if I were you," he warns the guard as the other man steps closer. "There ain't nothin' in there you need to concern yerself with."

He'd allowed them to take the arrow earlier (since it was, actually, a weapon) but if they tried to take anything else, it was going to end badly. For them.

The guard meets his gaze and passes a scanner over him one more time, lingering on his jacket for a few seconds longer than necessary. Finally, he seems satisfied enough to let him step away and Yondu takes the opportunity without a word.

The doctor from before is waiting for him at the end of the hallway and she motions for him to follow her. "We've moved Peter to the recovery wing," she tells him when he gets close enough, turning in the direction of the wing in question and leading the way. "He's still heavily sedated but he's stable enough for visitors now."

She leads him to a room at the end of the hall and slides a key card through the lock on the door. It slides open with a soft, pneumatic hiss and she nods for him to follow her into the room. Yondu obeys and steps through the threshold but feels himself freeze the second he's in the room.

Peter is the only living thing in the room, laying in the middle of long, white bed with an entire wall full of monitors beeping and buzzing behind him. There are wires everywhere, snaking in and out of thin gown Peter's been draped in. There's a cuff attached to one wrist that's keeping meticulous details of his body temperature and heart rate and an IV line taped into the crook of his arm. Another IV is hooked into the veins in the back of his hand and there's some kind of drug cocktail being fed into the line. The monitors that line the walls behind him are huge and looming and the cast strange shadows over the bed below. The effect makes Peter look that much more fragile and vulnerable and all together just...well, small.

"He's not in any pain," the doctor tells him, seeming to notice the troubled look on Ravager Captain's face. "I realize this all seems rather intimidating but I can assure you he's resting comfortably."

"Does he even know we're here?" Yondu hears himself ask but he doesn't really feel like the question came from him. He's too busy staring at the collection of monitors and machines behind Peter and frowning at the sheer number of them. Every single one is connected to Peter in some way and for some reason that's worse. He knew the kid had been sick but damn…

"Probably not," the woman tells him honestly, keeping her voice down even though it's probably not bothering Peter in the least. "He's still pretty far under; the longer he rests the faster he'll recover." She glances over at him and offers a small, sympathetic smile. "Some company probably wouldn't hurt though."

Yondu nods numbly and looks down in confusion when she presses the key card into his hand. "You'll need this to get in and out of the room," she explains, gesturing back toward the door. "As long as you stay quiet and let him rest, you're allowed to stay here as long as you like."

Yondu nods again and clears his throat quietly. "Thanks," he starts awkwardly because it's been a really, really long time since he thanked anyone for anything. "Ya know...fer all this. An' fer helpin' 'im."

The woman smiles faintly and just nods. "Someone will come through to check on him in a little while. For the next few days we'll have him kept on a routine schedule to make sure he's recovering properly. Let us know if you need anything." And with that she steps out into the hallway, leaving Yondu alone in the room with Peter.

For a moment he doesn't move, he just stands there awkwardly and stares at the unconscious boy in the bed. It doesn't look like Peter, not his Peter, and it takes several long moments to convince himself otherwise. The small, frail child in the bed looks nothing like the compact ball of hyperactive energy that had been living on his ship for the past few months. Peter (his Peter) should be awake and moving around and smarting off and being an all around pain in the ass because he was damn good at it; he shouldn't be silent and still and unconscious in a hospital bed hooked up to at least a dozen different machines.

Yondu sighs heavily and passes a hand over his face. "What the hell am I gonna do with you, kid?" he mutters to himself, knowing full well Peter can't hear him. "Yer workin' real hard at ruinin' the whole unrepentant asshole name I've made fer myself, ya know?"

As expected, Peter doesn't respond. He's deeply unconscious and probably so pumped full of drugs that he couldn't answer even if he wanted to. It helps as far as the whole confessing that Yondu actually has feelings thing goes but he still doesn't like it. This still isn't how Peter should be.

Yondu steps further into the room and snags a chair from against the wall, shoving it to the edge of the bed and dropping into it heavily. He makes a conscious effort to be quiet but, once again, Peter is so out of it he doubts he can even hear him.

For several long moments there's no sound other than the soft beep and buzz of the wall of monitors behind the bed. Yondu sits quietly and stares at the bed until he absolutely can't stand the silence anymore. He sits up a little and reaches into his coat pocket, retrieving the last thing he's grabbed from the ship.

"Thought this might help," he mutters, glancing up at Peter's face. The boy remains silent. Yondu sighs and begins unraveling wires carefully. "I don't know...might make ya feel better at least," he continues in spite of the silence.

He sets the Walkman on the bed next to Peter's elbow and reaches out to carefully slip the headphones over his ears. Once they're secure, he presses the play button on the little machine and lowers the volume to a softer level.

He's not sure why the kid is so damn fond of the thing; it's bulky and pretty useless for anything other than playing music. Still, for whatever reason, it seems to be one of Peter's favorite things in the entire universe so Yondu accepts it even if he doesn't really understand it. He can't tell for sure but it looks like Peter is resting a little more comfortably now so he figures it's working well enough.

He tugs his jacket off and nearly tosses it over the back of the chair but upon second thought he shrugs and drapes it across Peter instead. It was heavy and worn and had been ripped and burned more times than he could count but it was also warm and somewhat familiar. His thoughts drift back to Peter's fever-driven freakouts from before and he thinks that maybe familiar isn't so bad.

Yondu looks back up at Peter, taking in the dark circles beneath his eyes and the pallor of his skin. He still doesn't look good but he doesn't look like he's about to keel over either so he'll take what he can get. Satisfied, the Ravager Captain leans back against the chair, crosses his arms over his chest and waits.


Thanks for reading guys! :D