Gamora flickers the flashlight on and off again, in morse code for death. Yondu had the Eclector's lights and heat turned off so they could slowly sneak past the Badoon Empire's armada. She was playing assistant to Kraglin during the graveyard shift. Which mostly involved getting coffee and reminding Tullk to make course corrections. It was unbearably boring.

She was lounging in the second mate's station. They had left their jacket for Gamora to use as a blanket. The gunner was half asleep, and Yondu was on his fourth cup of coffee. "How much longer?" She asked no one in particular.

"Thirty-three hours and twenty-seven minutes till we reach the jump point," Tullk said in a tone more cheerful than any man had a right to be at this godforsaken hour.

"And about two hours till your shift is done," Kraglin replies dryly. Gamora groans. She makes the flashlight dance along the wall and accidentally shines the light in his eyes. Kraglin took it away from her and bonked her over the head with it. "Would you stop that?"

Gamora winced and rubbed the sore spot. Feeling a little bit spiteful and cranky, she decided to play a different game. "Why?" Kraglin narrows his eyes at Gamora critically. She raises her voice, "But Why?

"He doesn't need ya causing trouble, " Tullk cracked first.

"No, don't answer her! Ya moron!" Yondu groans from his station. This startles the gunner awake, she blinks her eyes rapidly and sits up in her station.

"Why?"

"It makes our jobs harder, if you're making a fuss," Tullk replies with the patience of a Saint.

"Why?"

"Cause it ain't our job to tend ta your every need, princess," the gunner mutters dryly.

Kraglin snorts when Gamora's expression twists into a scowl. Gamora just digs her heels in and keeps going, "Why?"

The gunner leans around her station to snarl, "The station doesn't revolve around you"

"Why?"

Before the gunner could say anything, Jazinda interjects, "Why not?"

Gamoda turns to look at the third mate with surprise. Then she narrows her eyes. "Why?"

"Why not?"

"But why?" Gamora insists loudly.

Jazinda mimics her intonation mockingly, "but why not?"

"But why!"

"That's enough!" Yondu slams his fist on his console, causing both Kraglin and Tullk to jump. "Shut your damn mouth."

The air in the bridge suddenly felt very tense. Kraglin glances nervously between Yondu and Gamora. He already knows how this will play out. She stands up on the chair to snap at him, "Why?"

"I've had it with you, tonight!"

Gamora's eyes go wide as Yondu stands up. She sits back down in her station and looks around in a panic. Yondu stalks across the bridge to where Gamora was sitting. "Get up," He doesn't yell at her, but somehow it's just as terrifying. Gamora glares at nothing, refusing to look at Yondu. When she doesn't move, he grabs one of her braids and tugs on it.

"Ow! Lemme go, that hurts!" She yells.

"Good. I gave you an order, girly!" Yondu tries to pull her out of the chair.

She kicks him away, hard.

The force makes him take a small step back. It hurt more than he expected it to. He let's go of her hair. Kraglin winced and Tullk blinked in surprise. Gamora looks surprised at herself too. Yondu recovers from the shock first, "What in the stars was that? Did you just kick me?"

Gamora jumps over the back of the station and makes a break for it. Yondu manages to block her path. He grabs her arm. "No!"

"I was sick of your shit before ya kicked me, but now you're really gonna get it." She tries to break free of his grip, but he only squeezes her arm tighter. Gamora whines again and drops her weight to the floor. There's a pop in her elbow that goes unnoticed. "Damn it all, stand up, Gamora!"

Gamora shakes her head, "No! I didn't mean to hurt you! Defending myself–I was defending myself." She insisted.

"Stand up, now." Another cold order. Gamora glances over at Jazinda. The third mate was doing something on the monitors, she wasn't paying any attention to Gamora. She was on her own. "Gamora, I swear by the stars–"

"You're not listening! Kraglin said it was okay!" Gamora squeezes her eyes shut, and yells over him.

Yondu's grip on her arm loosened ever so slightly. "He said what?" Yondu sounded more confused than angry. Kraglin looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He opened his mouth to explain but no words came out.

Gamora continues, "He said I wouldn't get in trouble for defending myself."

"No, that's not–Captain, I…" Kraglin stammers as Yondu's gaze bore into him.

"Why would you tell her something like that?" Yondu scoffs and shakes his head. Gamora glares at the ground, looking dejected.

Kraglin explains in a rush. "Captain, the crew beats on 'er when we ain't around. She wouldn't fight back, I just–"

Yondu's grip on her arm loosened more. Gamora manages to pull herself free. She bolts across the bridge to hide behind Jazinda. The third mate puts a comforting hand on her shoulder. "What? Why?"

Jazinda snorts, "Don't act like you don't know." The monitors all light up at once. Kraglin and Yondu both turn to look at Jazinda. She taps away at her transmitter as each monitor begins to play different security footage from the previous months. "They hit her because you're always hitting her."

Kraglin hits Gamora over the head with his tablet. He hits her again in the med bay. And again in the hangar. And again on the docks. And it just keeps going. Kraglin watched himself hit Gamora over and over and over again. He doesn't remember hitting her that much. He doesn't remember her looking that frightened.

Yondu kicks Gamora in the ribs while she's laying on the floor of the flight deck. Yondu smacks her upside the head for touching his trinkets. He hits her again for annoying him. He hits her for no reason at all. He hits her because he's angry and she's nearby. She runs and hides from them whenever she can.

Even now she was hiding from him, with that same terrified look on her face. Kraglin can't watch anymore, but he can't tear his eyes away from the screens. "Turn it off."

Jazinda's backlit by the glow of the monitors. Rage boiling just below the surface of her neutral expression. "No."

"Goddamn it, Jazinda! Turn it fucking off!" He balls his hands into fists at his sides. Gamora flinches when he raises his voice and it feels like a punch in the stomach.

"No." Jazinda's words are cold and heavy, "You did this. Now, you get to watch." Kraglin jumps forward to rip the wires out of the back of the monitors. One by one all the monitors are shut down.

Gamora tugs Jazinda towards the door again, "I wanna leave." Jazinda watched Yondu's reaction for a moment longer before scooping up Gamora and carrying her out of the bridge.

The last monitor shuts off and they're surrounded by darkness once again.

~~•˖✧•✯•✧˖•~~

Gamora holds her arm snuggly against her chest and tries to ignore the dull pain in her elbow. She struggles to stay awake as Jazinda carries her back to her cabin. "...your key?" She feels Jazinda touch her face. Gamora whines and turns away from her. She hears Jazinda knock on the door and Hazira answers a minute later.

"Back for more so soon?" An amused smile tugging at the tailor's lips. Her robe sliding open slightly. Jazinda forced a fake laugh and readjusted her grip on Gamora, drawing the tailor's attention to the child. "Oh." Hazira sounds disappointed.

Jazinda slowly but clumsily maneuvers Gamora so she's lying in her bed. "I'm not tired, " she protests weakly, unable to lift her head from her pillow.

"You can't let her sleep in her work clothes, " Hazira says sourly. "I went through all that trouble of making her a cute lil' nightgown."

Gamora curls up on her side and squeezes her doll as she drifts off again. She's awoken again moments later as someone forces her to sit up. Hazira tugs too forcefully on Gamora's ravager jacket, pain shoots down from her elbow to her fingertips. Her eyes fly open. "Ow! Don't do that!" She recoils violently from them. She holds her arm against her chest. A sudden wave of sadness sweeps over her. Her eyes quickly fill with tears. "Owie…"

"No, no, don't cry. You're okay," Hazira says.

"She's just tired is all." Jazinda sighs and takes over for Hazira. "Take your jacket off, come on, " Jazinda tried to get Gamora to fully extend her arm again.

"No!" Gamora wails again, louder this time. Hazira winced, one of her hands reflexively going to her ear. "It hurts! I can't, I can't." Tears spill over and drip down her cheeks.

"Can't what?" Jazinda's expression turned grim. She knelt down so she was eye level with Gamora. "Can't take off your jacket?"

"I can't straighten it, " Gamora whimpers.

Hazira and Jazinda share a look of sudden understanding. Hazira lightly slaps Jazinda's shoulder, "Get the jacket off."

"Yeah, yeah." Jazinda very carefully and slowly helps Gamora take off her jacket without having to straighten her arm. "Does it look swollen? Udonta was yanking on her arm." Jazinda mutters with disgust.

"It looks bruised," Hazira replies. "It's definitely not broken. It's probably a sprain or a Nursemaid's elbow. I'd have Bruhl look it over in the morning. He doesn't like people waking him up unless it's a real emergency."

Jazinda frowns and sighs, "You don't know? Aren't you like a nurse or something?"

"I'm our surgeon," Hazira snaps. She let's go of Gamora's arm and she holds it against her chest.

They help Gamora into her nightgown. It's a struggle since she can't fully extend her arm and Gamora is being particularly fussy. Hazira gives up about halfway through and sits on her bunk, just watching. After some tears and even more coaxing, Jazinda manages to get Gamora into her nightgown. She crawls under the covers and snuggles up with her doll. Jazinda and Hazira are still talking but as soon as Gamora's head hits the pillow she's out like a light.

~~•˖✧•✯•✧˖•~~

Gamora wakes up to the sound of Jazinda knocking at her cabin door. In a groggy fog, Gamora crawls out of bed and opens the door. "Mornin' kiddo. How's your arm?"

Gamora blinks her eyes out of unison as she squints up at Jazinda. "Dunno, 'm sleepy." She rubs her eye and yawns. "Wha' time is it?"

Jazinda shrugs, "about 6 am." Gamora groans loudly and considers kicking Jazinda. Before Gamora can make up her mind about it, Jazinda lightly touches Gamora on the shoulder and steers her towards the mess deck. She offers a half-smile, "let's getcha some breakfast, sleepyhead."

After a hot meal and some fresh fruit juice, Gamora was feeling significantly less cranky. They double back to Gamora's cabin so she can retrieve her doll before going to see Bruhl.

Gamora holds Jazinda's hand and watches Bruhl with guarded suspicion as they enter the med bay. The room wasn't the sterile white that Gamora associated with hospitals. The walls were the same unpolished silver and rusted red color as the rest of the Eclector. Pipes weaved along the ceiling, save for the scattered warm UV lights. Gamora found the addition of medical equipment against the Eclector's gritty aesthetic only made the med bay that much more terrifying.

Bruhl glances up from his clipboard as they walk in. Jazinda pushes Gamora forward so she can't hide behind her. "Hey, could you take a look at Gamora's arm when you get a second? Hazira said that–"

"That the Captain sprained our poor cabin girl's elbow during one of his tantrums, " Bruhl finished the sentence.

Jazinda blinks her inner set of eyelids. "I was going to say she thought it was a Nursemaid's elbow." She furrowed her brow, "Zira told you all of that?"

Bruhl lets out a very long sigh and nods. He gestures to one of the empty beds. "Sit."

Gamora sat down on the bed. There's a pair of handcuffs left on the railing of the bed. Gamora regards them with disdain, remembering how the cold metal bit into her skin the last time she was here. "What's a Nursemaid's elbow?"

Bruhl looks at her from over the top of his glasses, "the ligaments holding your elbow joint together are still very loose at your age. Sometimes the joint moves out of place." Bruhl scribbles something down on the clipboard and takes off his glasses. He rolls his chair across the room and points one of the UV lights in Gamora's direction. She fidgets with anticipation.

Bruhl takes her arm and inspects her swollen elbow. As he turns her arm, Gamora hisses in pain. She glances at Jazinda nervously, silently pleading that she would make Bruhl stop. Bruhl tried to straighten Gamora's arm. She cried out and recoils from him. She scrambles back on the bed until she's as far away from Bruhl as possible. He huffs and stands up to talk to Jazinda, ignoring Gamora entirely. "The swelling isn't too bad. I don't think it's a sprain." Bruhl sighs, "I want to try popping it back into place but I do not think the brat will let me."

"Is that gonna hurt? " Gamora mumbles.

Jazinda nods and folds her arms across her chest, "Explain it to me. Maybe I can do it." Gamora squeezed her doll tight and scowled at Bruhl's back as the adults talked amongst themselves. She noticed that Yondu was standing in the doorway first. The events of last night are fresh in Gamora's mind. She's afraid that he's still angry with her, that he's going to yell at her. Or worse. In a panic, she yanks the curtain separating each of the beds closed, so Yondu can't see her.

Yondu clears his throat and raises an eyebrow. Jazinda and Bruhl turned to look at him. "You didn't show up for your shift this morning."

Jazinda slides her hands into her back pockets and frowns, "Medical emergency. Safeguarding your crew takes priority."

Yondu scoffs, "My crew can take care of themselves."

"Not all of them can," Bruhl replies dryly.

Yondu looked confused and slightly concerned. Gamora peaks out from behind the curtain, but when they turn to look at her, she disappears again. Yondu frowns and looks back at Jazinda. "Navigations' on the fritz again. Tullk swears up and down that you're the only one who can fix it."

Jazinda sighs loudly. She looks at Gamora and then back at Bruhl as if to ask if she would be okay. The doctor shrugs, "Runt is made of rougher stuff."

"Alright, I'll fix it." Jazinda brushes past Yondu as she heads for the door.

Gamora throws back the curtains and yells, "Hey! Don't leave me here alone!"

Jazinda shoved Yondu further into the med bay. "Our dear captain can stay here with you till I get back."

Gamora pouts but doesn't say anything. "What?" Yondu looks more surprised than angry. He follows her out into the hallway. The med bay doors close behind them, he grabs Jazinda by the arm. "I can't stay in there wit' her!" She turns her steely gaze on him and he lets go of her arm and takes a step back.

"Why not?" Jazinda's voice is sharp. Yondu shoves his hands into his pockets and glares down the hallway. He inhales sharply as if he has something to say but then shakes his head and shuts his mouth. "Don't tell me your scared, "

"Wouldja shut up! I'm thinking." Yondu snaps at her. Jazinda sighs and leans against the nearest wall. She folded her arms across her chest as her expression set into a scowl. He licks his lips and takes a deep breath. "I ain't never been a good man. Can't do nothin' right."

"Okay, " Jazinda replies in deadpan.

Yondu furrows his brow. "Ya have ta keep me away from her. You need to protect her from me."

"I can't always be around to protect Gamora, " Jazinda clenched her jaw, "And I'm done trying to hold you accountable for your actions. I'm not your mother."

Yondu glares back at her, "What the hell do I do if I hurt her again?! I don't want to but…"

"Then you get to live with that! That and every other shitty thing you've done, for the rest of your life." She states coldly, before turning to stalk down the hallway. Just before she ascends the staircase up to the catwalk, she turns to call back over her shoulder, "Welcome to being an adult."

Yondu was left standing in the hallway, uncertain about what to do next. He yells through a clenched jaw and punches one of the pipes running along the wall. A bolt comes loose and a steady hiss of steam spurts out. Stinging pain warms his knuckles but he doesn't care. It quells some of his rage. He takes a deep breath and turns back towards the med bay. Gamora is standing in the doorway. Her eyes are downcast and she's fiddling with her doll nervously.

The bruising and swelling around her elbow was obvious now. She keeps her injured arm cradled against her chest. Yondu doesn't have to ask what happened. Almost the entire crew was buzzing about how he broke her arm. Gossip spreads fast on a ship, especially when everyone knows everyone else. Gamora tried to slip past him. "Where'd ya think you're goin'?"

Gamora stops walking but doesn't turn around. "I've gotta shift in the galley, " she mumbles.

"No, ya don't. Kraglin moved it," He replied. "Can't work with an injured arm anyway."

Her hand moves to cover her injured elbow like she could hide it from him. "What did I do to make you hate me?"

Yondu scowls and he shakes his head. "I don't…" he lets out a sputtering sigh, "I don't care about you enough ta hate you."

Gamora turns to glare at him. She always looks like she's on the verge of tears when she's angry. "Then why do you hit me and yell at me all the time?"

"I don't do it all the time." It was a weak protest at best.

"Not when we're planetside, but on the ship ya do. Tell me what I did wrong so I can fix it." Gamora was nearly yelling.

"Ya can't fix it, kiddo. It's nothin' you did," He mutters.

Gamora glares at the floor. "What about last night? I–I did somethin' that made ya really angry then."

Yondu rubbed his neck and looked up at the ceiling as he sighs. "Forget about last night. I shouldn't've done… we both made mistakes."

"No."

"Gamora, " he almost pleads for her to drop the conversation.

"No!" She stomps her foot.

Yondu stares down at her, and Gamora glares back. "I ain't a good man. And that never mattered before, not here. But you made things.." He raises his hands and grabs at the air around him, "different."

"Bad different?"

"No. No, just… different." He scowls at nothing.

Gamora frowns, "I don't understand."

"Listen! I'm trying to say, " Yondu snaps at her. She takes a small step back and he bites his tongue. He rubs his temples, takes a breath, and starts over. "I am trying to say, you need me to be someone I'm not. Gamora, I dunno if it can get better–if I can be better."

"Well, " Gamora furrowed her brow, thinking hard. "I think anybody can be better if they just try."

Yondu shakes his head. "I get the feelin' I'm gonna letcha down again." Gamora suddenly steps forward and wraps her arms around his waist. Yondu freezes in place. "Uh…"

"Ya don't feel bad to me. You feel warm and soft," Gamora says quietly.

Yondu snorts and shakes his head. He pushes her away gently. "Alright, alright, I didn't say it was okay for you ta be touchin' me."

"Sorry, " She lets go of him. She starts to back away, before turning to leave again.

She almost gets away before Yondu remembers. "Hey, girly! Ain't chu forgettin' somethin'?"

Gamora bats her eyelashes at him innocently, "I don't think so."

Yondu narrowed his eyes at her and pointed his thumb towards the med bay. "Your arm."

Gamora stifled a groan and began to sulk. She drags her feet as she walks back over to him. She looks at the med bay with dread. "If I have to, can I hold your hand at least?"

"What?" Yondu wrinkles his nose. "No."

"Please, it's scary in there!" Gamora whines. She stomps her foot when Yondu shakes his head. "Jazinda would do it."

Yondu scoffs, "Nice try. Answers still no, lil' girl." He ushers her back inside and Gamora sits down on an empty bed. Bruhl was helping one of the mechanics with a nasty burn along their forearm. Gamora takes to braiding her doll's hair while they wait for Jazinda to return. Bruhl raises one eyebrow at Yondu and he grimaces in return. It feels like an eternity before Jazinda relieves Yondu of babysitting duty.

Jazinda keeps Gamora calm long enough for Bruhl to fully extend her arm, popping the bone back into place. Jazinda tried to comfort Gamora but she ends up crying herself to sleep in the med bay. The swelling goes down significantly, and in a few days, the bruises vanish too.