A/N: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all! I wanted to add more to this chapter, but I'm tired and I wanted to give you guys a special Christmas treat-although, it's actually not Christmas day anymore, but whatever... Just enjoy! Oh, also thank you to all my new followers, favers and reviewers! You are all outstanding!
Disclaimer: I do not own 'Guardians of the Galaxy'.
Nothing could have prepared Carlin for any of this. She had been so happy at the start, knowing she was on the path to her prize, with the Kree all snug in his confinement. Not even a full two hours into the flight and she'd been tracked down and caught by a man that was no friend to her. Well, not anymore at least. His name was Keri Kamari, a renown bounty hunter and former lover of hers. He was a tall, pale man, with platinum blond hair that reached to his shoulders in silken spirals, a well-defined cleft chin, glimmering emerald eyes and a rather dainty nose. He looked Terran, with the exception of his pointed ears, large canines, slit-like pupils and a pattern of faint stripes covering his body. Carlin and Keri had not simply shared a one-night-stand with each other, but rather four solid years. Four solid years that had ended abruptly. Badly. They had vowed to stay away from each other after the messy split. Carlin had no problem with it either. She would have been fine with never having to see the beautiful man ever again.
Then life decides to fuck shit up.
"This is just fucking great!"
The Terran woman sat staring out of the view shield in the pilot seat of The Oreo, her hands tightly gripping the chair's arm rests, legs crossed and propped up on the control console, her face a blank slate, though underneath the seemingly emotionless facade she was fuming. Behind her Rocket was pacing and complaining loudly. He was livid right now, unable to comprehend how they could have possibly been apprehended so easily by Keri. Carlin could explain their entire history to the raccoon, but it would not have mattered. Rather she knew the guy or not, he was only concerned with retrieving his payment, and if Keri threatened this in any way, shape or form it was enough to throw the fluffy man into a hissy fit.
"This fucking ship is a piece of fucking shit! No fucking tracers! No fucking TRACERS!" he bellowed.
Groot, who was sitting in the passenger seat next to Carlin, winced at his friend's outburst, closing his big, brown eyes. Carlin ground her teeth.
"Now what're we gonna do?! Huh?!" Rocket questioned, throwing his arms into the air with exasperation. "The asshole wants our booty! I need that fucking reward!"
"I am Groot." Groot piped softly, almost sounding timid.
Rocket immediately corrected himself. "We need that fucking reward!"
"Yeah, so do I, Moron! Don't forget whose it was originally!" said Carlin, fed up with the raccoon's yelling.
"You don't seem to be too upset by any of this shit!" remarked Rocket hotly.
Carlin stood abruptly from her seat, causing Groot to start a little, and walked around it to face Rocket, her nostrils flaring with her rising anger.
"You think I'm fucking happy about this?" said she through gritted teeth, trying hard not to explode.
"I don't know, but after finding out you've slept with the guy before I would not be shocked if you went ahead and let him take the Kree!" said Rocket bitingly.
"Why in the hell would I do that?!" Carlin cried, greatly offended.
"Because you females are always damn weak when it comes to your boyfriends!" returned Rocket, jamming a clawed finger at her, his sharp teeth showing.
That had done it. With a primal cry, Carlin swiped violently at Rocket with her hand, just missing him by inches when he jumped back from her. Groot was stunned by the female's actions and hurriedly got to his feet, meaning to put a stop to this before one of them hurt the other.
"What the fuck?!" said Rocket, panting and blinking up at Carlin with utter bafflement. "What the hell's the matter with you?!"
Carlin did not answer, but instead went to strike him again, only this time she was hampered by Groot, who locked each of her wrists in his strong, curling tendrils, like makeshift shackles. Carlin strained against him, her lips curled and teeth bared, glaring daggers of hate down at Rocket.
"LET ME GO, GROOT!" she screamed madly, unshed tears making her blue eyes glisten. "I AM SO SICK OF THIS LITTLE ASSHOLE'S SHIT!"
Groot only fastened tighter, giving a gentle rumble.
"I am Groot."
"He's right, calm your crazy ass down!" said Rocket with a nod.
"SHUT UP!" screeched Carlin.
"If you don't fucking stop making that God-awful noise, I'm gonna grab that stun gun of yours and knock you out a while!" threatened Rocket, his hackles raised.
"You touch my gun, you fucking little cretin, and I'll skin you, eat you and use your hide for a stylish hat!"
The raccoon gaped at her, his dark, watery eyes blinking rapidly, arms falling limp to his sides. Groot moaned, shaking his head wearily. He really wished they would just stop and make up. All this fighting was starting to grate on his nerves, which was saying a lot for the tree man, who always had a considerable amount of patience for others.
"Is this really how it's gonna go down, Humie?" Rocket wondered in a menacing growl, his ears folding back. "You and me, duking it out?"
The Terran stared at him, breathing hard through her open mouth.
"Huh, and here I thought you wanted to be friends. Pfft! Buncha bullshit..." said Rocket, flipping his paw at her with dismissal, shaking his head.
Carlin's glowering gaze stayed glued to the spot where Rocket was even after he had walked off and down a passage that led to another compartment of The Oreo, her mind playing out the scene that had just occurred between them over and over. Gradually she became less tense in Groot's grip as she came to terms with just how immature she had been, her cheeks warm and tears spilling down them. She wanted to go crawl into the engine space and remain there for the rest of eternity. Why had she acted so stupidly? Was what Rocket said bad enough to elicit such a strong reaction? Obviously she still had some serious inner turmoil regarding Keri and her self-confidence to work out.
"Oh, Groot," she slumped in his grasp, sniffling and blinking away tears. "I feel like such a bitch right now."
Groot felt sorry for her; she sounded so sad and weak. He let her go, but immediately wrapped her in a gentle embrace.
"I am Groot." he crooned to her.
Carlin was not half as surprised as she'd been when he had first hugged her back in the parking structure on the outskirts of the city on Xandar, but it still felt weirdly foreign to her. He was not soft and yielding like a regular man, but he was still somewhat warm to the touch and much of his rough, bark-like skin was covered in a thick, velvety moss which smelt fresh and delightful, like the Northern woods in springtime on Terra. Strange as it was for her, Carlin could not deny that she could possibly get used to Groot-hugs.
When he had pulled away from her, leaving the woman feeling small and vulnerable, Groot gave her a comforting smile, his brown eyes twinkling. He patted her head and put out his massive right hand, palm facing upwards to her, and just as he'd done when they had first met, he sprouted a pretty, delicate flower from the middle of it. The only difference was the flower being a solid pale pink color this time around. Carlin gazed at it tenderly, sniffing and and smiling through the tears streaming down her face.
"Groot," she tentatively plucked the tiny flower from his hand and held it to her heart. "Why do you have to be so sweet?"
"I am Groot." said he, giving a nonchalant shrug of his broad shoulders.
"Yeah, okay." Carlin laughed, wiping her face dry with the sleeve of her tunic.
"Managed to tame the beast, have you Groot?" said Rocket, entering the cockpit again, his arms crossed over his chest. "Knew ya would."
Carlin hid the flower behind her back, though she did not really know why, and looked down at the raccoon with patent remorse.
"Please forgive me, Rocket, I don't know what came over me..."
"Eh, whatever. I'm over it. What I'm really concerned with right now is what we're gonna do about Keri Kamashi."
"Keri Kamari." corrected Carlin with a smirk.
"Whatever! What are we going to do about this bastard anyhow?!" Rocket demanded with a stomp of his foot, his paws balled into fists.
"I don't know, but when we get to the outpost for his fuel fill-up, I'm gonna have a chat with him." Carlin promised in a dark tone, heading back to the helm of the ship.
Carlin was snoring noisily, fast asleep in the pilot chair of The Oreo, with Rocket sitting in the passenger seat once more beside her, cleaning his trusty machine blaster in his lap, humming absentmindedly as he did so. Groot had also dozed off, having anchored himself to the far wall of the cockpit with his vines. It had been a full three hours of them doing exactly this when the transcommunicator on the control panel came to life with a shrieking static sound, causing Rocket to yelp and nearly drop his gun.
"Whaza?!" Carlin bolted upright from her deep slumber, blinking groggily.
"We're going to take a short stop on Marlo to refuel. If you need to take a potty break, now would be the time." blared Keri's drawl from the speaker of the communicator.
Carlin rubbed her eyes and turned to look at her furry co-pilot.
Rocket had a sinister look on his masked face. He hopped down from the chair, hoisting the machine blaster over his tiny shoulder as he said-
"Time to show this dick who's really in charge."
