Yondu had bought Gamora a hotel room to stay in while the Eclector was docked. It was the most luxurious room she had ever seen. Granted, she had only ever seen two hotel rooms. It had a twin bed, a large screen to attach to her transmitter. Gamora had pulled all the blankets and pillows off the bed. They were in a pile next to the space heater. She pulls Kraglin into the room. "Look Kraglin! It's huge! I got my own TV and a window! You could fit my whole house in here!" Gamora jumps up and down on the bed.

He chuckles and then shakes his head. "Stop jumping on the bed before the Captain sees and gives ya a smack."

"Yes'r." Gamora spreads her arms out and flops backward onto the bed. She giggles to herself.

"What am I seeing?" Yondu stopped out in the hallway when he heard his name. He leans in the doorway.

Gamora props herself up on her elbows, "Nothing! I'm behaving."

Yondu raised an eyebrow at Kraglin. The first mate only offers half a shrug in response. Yondu spots the bundle of blankets on the floor and stalks across the room. "You sleeping on the floor again?"

"No, " She answers hesitantly.

"Is that 'No' or 'No, I don't want to get in trouble?" Kraglin asked.

"No?"

Yondu scoops up the blankets and pillows and carried them over to the bed. "Scoot." Gamora slid off the bed, so he could make it. "Ya need to sleep in a bed."

Gamora stomped her foot, "But it's too soft!"

"You won't get used to it if you're sleeping on the floor, " Yondu says.

She narrows her eyes, "how would you know?"

Yondu rolls his eyes, "I know everything."

"You do not, " she replied. "What's 8 plus 6?"

"14," Yondu replies without looking up.

Gamora stares down at her fingers intensely as she does the math. "No, he's right!" She looks at them incredulously, and Kraglin chokes down laughter.

He digs her pajamas out of the dresser drawer and tosses them to her. "Go wash up before dinner."

Gamora took the pajamas from him. "Can I charge dinner to my room again?"

Yondu finished making her bed with a heavy sigh, "if ya need to."

Her eyes light up, she grins, "okay! See ya in a bit!" She skipped into the bathroom. Kraglin follows Yondu out into the hallway.

Gamora pulls on her nightgown and struggles for a few minutes to do up the buttons. She tugs on her Ravager jacket and grabs her doll before heading downstairs. The jacket made her feel safer. The other Ravagers are used to Gamora's presence by now, but some of the local patrons stare at her. She hugs her doll tight and marches on. Yondu was sitting at a table with his officers and Drak'ma and her officer. Gamora recognizes Siege from the docks the other night. He was the only officer on their ship who wasn't Badoon.

Gamora climbs into the chair next to Jazinda and holds her doll in her lap. None of them notice her. Siege pointed at the holographic map open on the table. "There's one Nova outpost here. Officer All'ura won't give–"

"I'm hungry!" Gamora announced to the table.

Yondu shoots her a disapproving glare, but the Drifters chuckles. Kraglin hands her a menu and Gamora orders something to eat, while the adults resumed talking. "She won't give yous any trouble."

"The new cadet is the one yous need to watch out for." Drak'ma grumbles before taking a long swig from her mug.

"The boy is desperate to flex his new authority and he's bored out of his mind, " Siege sighed.

"If Leaf–"

"Officer All'ura." Siege corrects her quickly.

Drak'ma starts over, "If Officer All'ura doesn't smack some sense into that boy. I'll have to do it for her." Siege only chuckles and shakes his head.

Kraglin is looking over the holographic star charts. "Siege, are there any Nova outposts after this?"

"All'ura's outpost is the last one. If the Novas cross into Badoon territory, they'll take it as a call to war." Yondu nods and sipped his drink. They brought food out to the table and the maps were shuffled away to make room. "A'stralis, " Siege mutters before heaping a large chunk of meat onto Gamora's plate. "You's feeding this girl at all? Skinnier than a toothpick, she is."

"Brahl said I was malnutrition, " Gamora says through a mouthful of food.

"Yous had a hard life, little one, " Siege frowns and then heaps more food onto Gamora's plate. "My Leaf'let had a hard life too."

Gamora touched the back of her neck, "What does that mean? My chip doesn't translate that word."

Drak'ma sighs and leans back. "The word comes from an old Badoon story about a girl who grows up in the forest with the wolves. A close translation might be Little Beastie or Wild Girl."

"Before the farms, you'd call a kid who was abandoned by her parents a Leaf'let," Siege adds.

Gamora frowned, "Did L'wit's parents abandon her? Is that why she's a cabin girl?"

"Donut head, stop bothering them with all your questions." Kraglin scolds her softly.

"But I wanna know!"

Siege shrugs, "It's alright."

Gamora smiled smugly at Kraglin. He sighs and stands up, "I'm gonna getcha something to drink." He messes up her hair as he moves towards the bar.

"So what happened?" Gamora looks between Drak'ma and Siege expectantly. She tosses back the rest of her drink and thumps Siege on the back as she retreats to the bar.

Siege crossed his arms, "I don't know what happened to her parents. We raided a transport ship leaving one of the Badoon farms, and L'wit was a stowaway. I found her hiding with the corpses."

"Oh." Gamora murmurs. The rest of the table had gone quiet. She pushes her food around on her plate, suddenly not feeling very hungry anymore. Kraglin wanders back over to their table. Jazinda watches him pull a flask out of his jacket and pours some into the cider. "Why–why were their corpses?"

Siege glances at Yondu and then back at Gamora. He's uncertain if he should answer that. Kraglin sets the mug down in front of Gamora and rescued them both from the tense conversation. "That's enough, no more questions."

Before Gamora could even reach for the cider, Jazinda snatched it away. She drinks from it. Her face wrinkles up reflexively, she spits it back out. "Fuck, is that sweet, " Jazinda mutters with disgust while pushing the drink as far away from Gamora as possible.

Kraglin watches her with utter bewilderment. "What was that?"

Jazinda gargles some water to get the taste out of her mouth, before answering. "You spiked her drink."

"Uh yeah, she's being disruptive. It'll calm her down, make her sleepy." He says this plainly like its common sense.

Jazinda's watching his reaction very carefully, but her tone is relaxed. "Warm milk would make her sleepy too. Why'd you give her alcohol?"

Kraglin shrugs, "I used to get a lil' alcohol when I was a cabin boy, to put me to sleep."

Jazinda eyes widened slightly. Gamora can practically see the gears turning in her mind. Jazinda takes a very deep breath, "Listen Kraglin, I know you're far more intelligent than the rest of these men." She leaned forward to touch his arm. "So you're probably already aware that it's dangerous to give a child alcohol. You'd never intentionally hurt Gamora like that. At least, " she pauses and raises an eyebrow, "I don't think I need to explain it to you."

He stands up straighter, and nods enthusiastically, "Nah, I know all about that."

She smiles sweetly, "Right, you're not an idiot. This was a mistake and it won't happen again."

Kraglin let's out a hissing sigh through his teeth. "Yeah, yup."

"I wanted some mapple cider, " Gamora stretches out her arm trying to grab the cider.

Jazinda touches Gamora's shoulder, "Go to the bar with him. Kraglin isn't your maid." Gamora reluctantly stands up and follows Kraglin to the bar.

The moment he leaves the table, Yondu raises his hands in a What The Fuck Was That gesture. Jazinda makes a big display out of rolling her eyes. "I can't believe I'm going to have to give the 'never drink something you didn't see prepared yourself' talk to a child," She mutters to herself. Kraglin returns with another cider for Gamora, This time there's no alcohol in it.

~~•˖✧•✯•✧˖•~~

Kraglin and the rest of the ravagers are wearing coveralls, advertising a fake air company. The same fake company logo is slapped on the side of the air canister. The canisters weren't filled with air. They were going to poison the air supply of an expensive-looking merchant ship, named the Eostrix. Gamora stood in the back of the truck that Yondu had rented. She was wearing a thick blanket as a cape. The snowfall was light today, but the sky was clouded over and it was freezing. Gamora passes another canister to Horuz. He loads it onto a cart. "Pop quiz," Kraglin points across the docks to a nearby ship, "What's that guy's job?"

She watches a man check things off his clipboard while the crew unloaded cargo. Gamora hums thoughtfully and sways back and forth. "He's a… uhm a high ranking officer. The second mate, maybe?"

Kraglin nods, "Good. Keep going, what else do you know?"

Gamora drones out confidently, "The second mates is sometimes the chief medical officer. They manage all the navigation system, and help you oversee all cargo handling."

He gives his nod of approval. "Alright, Here's a tricky one. What does Siege do?" When Gamora starts to flounder, uncertain of the right answer. He says, "I'll give you a hint. They have extra responsibilities on… privately owned ships, but there isn't one on our crew."

She brings Horuz another canister as she thinks it over. "A Quartermaster?" She guessed.

"Hey, look at you, catching on fast." Kraglin nudged her with his elbow and she giggles. "Ya know what he does?" She shakes her head. "He's the highest-ranking member on the ship, after the captain. He can veto any of the captain's decisions when they're not chasing a prize, and he handles punishment of the crew."

"Kinda like what Jazinda does?" Gamora asked.

Kraglin makes a face, "Not at all like what Jazinda does."

"Yeah, I don't get paid to tell the captain to go fuck himself. I provided that service for free," Jazinda says smugly.

Gamora giggles and Kraglin rolls his eyes. "I would pay you to stop, " he mutters under his breath.

Jazinda snorts, "I'm sorry but how many children have you trafficked since I got here?"

Horuz lifts an air canister onto his shoulder. "Didn'tcha almost hand Gamora over to Ego too, though?"

"Damn it, " Jazinda hissed under her breath.

Kraglin laughs cruelly and victoriously. "You thought we forgot about that."

She forced a fake laugh, "You did forget."

He fake laughed back but louder. "You're a hypocrite. With no moral high ground."

Horuz and Gef finished loading up the cart. Jazinda runs a hand through her hair as she shapeshifted into the Eostrix's second mate. "At least I don't drop to the ground to lick the Captain's boot every time he opens his mouth. Ha Ha!" Horuz pushes the cart towards the ship and Jazinda trails after him.

"I don't–I do not!" Kraglin stammered in outrage. "I get paid more than you! Ha ha ha!"

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Jazinda yells.

"Ha! Ha!" Both Kraglin and Gef yell back at her. "What are we laughing at?" Gef asked.

Kraglin points at the Eostrix. "Get out of here, Gef!" He hurried after the others. Kraglins sighs loudly and looks over at Gamora. "You don't think I kiss up to the Captain, right?"

She had grown bored of their argument and had taken to braiding her doll's hair. "I dunno, I'm 8."

"You are 8," Kraglin conceded. He hopped into the bed of the truck and sat down next to Gamora. He takes a deep breath and glances around the docks. "What's his job?"

Gamora leans out of the truck to get a better look. There's someone fixing the hull of the ship but they aren't wearing a uniform. She frowns, "He isn't part of the ship's crew."

"No, but his job is just as important."

She glances back at Kraglin, curiously, "Is he an engineer, like Horuz?"

"Yeah, kinda. He stays planetside waiting for ships that need repairs to come into port. Engineers like him have a special nickname, you know it?" Gamora shakes her head. "Ship's lover."

She giggled, "That's silly."

"Ya know what they call that big gun on the front of the ship? The one that can crack a hull?" He asks.

"Nu-uh."

"We call it the Captain's Daughter, " Kraglin replies in deadpan.

Gamora giggles again and wrinkles her nose. "You're teasing me! That's not true."

"It is true. You can ask Horuz when he gets back, " he replied. Horuz pushes the cart back over to the truck, Jazinda walks ahead of them. She looks like herself again. Gamora sets her doll down carefully and was quick to fetch more canisters.

Horuz takes the first one and then looks at Kraglin, "We got company."

Gamora froze when she heard a voice she didn't recognize. "You folks, replacing the Eostrix's air supply?" They've got a thick central Xandarian accent.

"Keep quiet," Kraglin instructed Gamora before hopping off and walking over to them. He tapped his clipboard on the canisters. "Yes sir, a week's worth of air." Gamora bit her lower lip silently praying the stranger would have the good sense to turn around and walk away.

"Really now?" The stranger drawls. Horuz's hand moved toward his concealed weapon. Gamora goes tense. She doesn't want them to die but she doesn't know what she can do to prevent it.

Jazinda lowers her voice to a whisper. "You need to cry."

"What? I–I can't," Gamora shakes her head.

Jazinda grabs a bottle and splashes water on Gamora's face. Jazinda lifts her out of the truck and sets her down quietly. "Wasn't a request. You're lost, you've never seen any of us before. Where's your doll?" Jazinda shoved it into her hands. "If you look cuter they'll be more sympathetic."

"I don't understand." Everything was happening so fast.

"If you don't pretend to cry, they'll kill him," Jazinda shoved her.

She stumbles towards the front of the truck. She can see the stranger now. He's dressed in a bulky winter jacket and boots. He's carrying a blaster. "The Eostrix got a new shipment of air a few days ago." Gamora gives Jazinda a pleading look to stop the ravagers. She only waves Gamora on.

"Faulty canisters," Horuz grunted in response, "there was an air leak. They needed replacements." The other ravagers stepped closer to the Stranger. The threat of violence choked the air.

Gamora wanders out from behind the truck. She tries to remember how Cammi pretended to cry. Gamora hid her eyes in the crook of her elbow and wailed. He's startled by her. Horuz and Gef groan and shoot Gamora irritated looks. The Stranger's expression fell into one of sympathy. He knelt down and took her hand. "Are you alright, sweetie? Where's your jacket?"

Gamora shook her head, "I'm lost. I miss my mama and, and," she rubbed her eyes and whined, "I wanna go home!" It wasn't technically a lie.

He pulls off his winter jacket and wraps it around Gamora. He mutters something untranslatable in Xandarian, "you'll freeze out here, crying like that." There's a Nova badge and a gun on his belt. "I'm a security officer around here. I can help you find her." Gamora stretched her arms out towards him, and the Nova picked her up. He turned back to the bewildered crew and pointed at Kraglin, "Don't move."

"Of course, Officer. Whatever you need, " he replies dryly. The Nova turned and carried Gamora away. She looked over his shoulder at the crew, Jazinda leaned against the truck and smiled.

The Nova's name was Eiffel, he's a cadet. He carried Gamora back to their small outpost at the edge of the docks. Inside, there was a lounge area and two desks. Eiffel disappears into one of the adjacent rooms leaving Gamora alone. One of the desks is cluttered with picture frames and files, the other looks untouched. She sits behind the empty desk. Gamora spins around in her chair so her pigtails whip behind her. She wished Yondu let her wear her red jacket. She left her little blue robot in the pocket.

A flurry of snow follows a massive half Badoon woman through the front door. She sheds her winter coat revealing the Nova badge on her belt. Gamora sinks in her seat. The Nova stalks across the room and taps her knuckles against the desk. "You're in my seat." She says in common Badoon.

Gamora eyes her over suspiciously. "I don't see your name on it." The Nova spins the nameplate around on the desk. It reads: Commander All'ura. "Oh."

All'ura clicks her tongue, "Move it." Gamora quickly slides out of her chair and scurried over to the couch.

Eiffel reappears carrying two mugs. He smiles innocently, "Hey, Commander! I'm sorry for calling you in before your shift."

"I assume you had a good reason," All'ura replies cooly. She shoots a glare in Gamora's direction. "Where'd you find this one?"

"The merchant docks at approximately 900 hundred hours, " Eiffel reported. He handed the mug to Gamora. "She got separated from her mother."

"I'm sure she did," All'ura replied flatly and rubs her brow.

"If you watch her, I can finish my patrol, " Eiffel explained in a hopeful tone. "I couldn't leave her all alone, please commander? This is the last time, I swear." All'ura clicks her tongue and waves for him to go. He grabs his jacket and heads for the door. "Try not to scare her too badly." All'ura narrows her eyes and snarls. "Yeah, don't do that."

"Wait, uh, " Gamora scrambled to find an excuse to make him stay.

All'ura press a finger to her lips, and lowers her voice. "Let him go. You've distracted him long enough." Gamora looks up at her with surprise. The door slams shut and all the warmth in the room seems to go with Eiffel.

All'ura walks past Gamora and into the adjacent room. Gamora watches the snowfall. The weather has gotten worse since this morning, she can't even see the treeline anymore. She's cold. She curls into a ball and drinks her mapple cider. It warms her up some. All'ura reappears with a mug sometime later. She looks surprised, "You can leave whenever you want."

"I don't have a jacket," Gamora mumbles. All'ura digs her transmitter out of her pocket and tosses it to Gamora. She musters up her courage to ask the terrifying woman, "How'd you know I was distracting him?"

"Please, every time Drak'ma needs to do business in broad daylight, a poor helpless little girl gets lost." All'ura scoffs into her coffee.

"You know captain Drak'ma?" Gamora's eyes widened, "Why are you working with the drifters? Jazinda says all Nova's are pigs, drunk on their own authority."

All'ura snorts, "Ain't you just full of questions. Call an adult to come and get you, now." She refused to answer any of Gamora's questions no matter how much she begged.

Kraglin finally showed up with Gamora's ravager jacket. He was wearing a heavy winter coat and snow boots. He looks All'ura over suspiciously. "I'm here for the kid. She's my uh,"

"Kraglin!" Gamora jumps off the couch and runs over to him. "It's okay, All'ura knows."

Kraglin furrowed his brow, "She knows?" Gamora nods and pulls on her sweater and ravager jacket. He helps her put on the gloves. All'ura doesn't pay any attention to them but Kraglin is still on guard. He takes a deep breath, "uh, thanks for looking after our girl."

"Of course, " All'ura has her feet up on her desk, she waves her mug at them. "Tell Aunty I said hello."

Gamora blinks in surprise, "You were one of their girls! That's how you know the Captain!"

"Okay, let's go." Kraglin tries to push her towards the door but Gamora fights him.

"No! Now I have even more questions!" She yells in protest. He picks her up and tucked her under his arm. Kraglin nods at All'ura before he carries Gamora out into the cold. She tries to pry Kraglin's hand away from her waist, but he holds fast. "Put me down!"

Kraglin stopped walking, "Okay." he lets go of Gamora, she shrieks. He catches her before she hits the snow.

"No! Put me down nicely!" Gamora clings to Kraglin's jacket with her eyes squeezed shut.

"Don't put you down, I got it," He deadpans. She realizes that there was nothing she could do to make Kraglin let go of her. She groans and stopped fighting him. Kraglin moves Gamora so she's sitting upright in his arms, and more comfortable. Gamora rests her head against Kraglin's shoulder. All the walkways are slick so he has to move slowly. The snowfall is so thick it's difficult to see. Gamora's teeth are chattering. She covers her ears with her hands trying to keep the biting cold away. The harsh wind stung her skin and froze her hair. It felt like they trudged through the snow for hours.

When they finally reach the bar Gamora is so happy she could cry. Warmth sweeps over them, the instant they walk inside. Kraglin sets Gamora down and takes off his jacket. She pulls off her gloves and shakes the snow from her hair. "Yondu the frost bit me!" Gamora runs over to where Yondu is sitting. "I hate the snow!"

He snorts, "I just bought'cha new gloves."

"Not my hands, my ears!" Her lower lip trembles and she grabs onto his sleeve. She lowers her voice, "Can you do the thing where you rub your hands together, please?"

"Like this," He claps his hands and then rubs them together quickly, before gently pressing his palms against her ears. She puts her hands on top of his.

"Uh-huh," she sniffles. "We had to walk all the way back here, through the snow."

Yondu pulled his hands away, and Gamora tries to squeeze warmth back into her ears. He turns to yell back at Jazinda, "Hey, get this girl something hot ta drink. Before she freezes ta death." He rubs his hands together again and held Gamora's face.

"Aw, ain't that sweet, " Oblo cooed at them mockingly. "You soft on all the lil' girls, Cap'n?"

Yondu shoots a glare in Oblo's direction, terrifying enough to make him falter. He lets go of Gamora's face. Tullk interjects before Yondu could even say anything. "Ya moron, ya gotta be soft on girls! They're sensitive."

Horuz rolled his eyes, "She ain't sensitive. It's an act."

"I dunno, " Gef fiddled with his scarf, "She does cry an awful lot."

"Anybody who cries as much as she does ought to have drowned by now, " Oblo comments and few of the ravagers laughed. Gamora blushed, she suddenly felt overwhelmed by all the attention. She crawled under the table.

"Aw, now you've gone an' scared her off, " Tullk chuckles.

Kraglin shakes his head, "Oblo's ugly mug scares all the girls." There's more laughter from the crew.

"That's a lotta talk, considering the only woman who would sleep with you has to be paid ta do it," Oblo retorted. They continued to rag on each other, while Jazinda made her way over to the table.

She scans the bar. "Where's the kid?" Yondu rolls his eyes and points towards the floor. Jazinda knelt down to see Gamora curled up in a ball under the table. "Hey, you wanna get out of here?" She offers her hand.

"Yes, please!"

Jazinda helps Gamora out from under the table. Yondu scowls at her, "Don't crawl under the table!" He smacks her upside the head. Gamora yelps and mumbled an apology, "You don't want to know what's on the floor." She hides behind Jazinda, holding her doll tight.

"That was unnecessary, " Jazinda growls at him. "She's already stressed out."

Horuz narrows his eyes at Gamora. "You bought her a doll." And then he made a mistake, he says, "She's gotcha wrapped around her little finger! She gets special treatment, cause you're soft on her!"

"Wait a minute," Jazinda scoffs and then snickers. "Are you jealous of an 8-year-old girl? You're throwing a temper tantrum because the captain didn't buy you a shiny new toy."

"Oh, that's attractive, " Hazira yells and the other started laughing again.

Horuz scowls, and looks around nervously, "what? I–No."

Jazinda tilts her head to the side, "Did you want the captain to put you over his knee and spank you too?"

Yondu choked on his drink, nearly spitting it across the table. Kraglin's eyes went wide. The others erupted into laughter and jeering. Horuz yelled for them to "shut up."

Gamora frowns up at Jazinda. "Why would he want–"

"Nope. Go to bed!" Kraglin shouts over her while pointing at the elevators.

"But it's not even lunchtime yet, " Gamora complained. Jazinda winks at Yondu before ushering Gamora up to her hotel room. He snarls and throws a bottle at Jazinda. She ducks and the bottle shattered against the wall.