𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 , guardians of the galaxy

𝟎𝟎𝟕.

cassandra's head still hurt.

as peter quickly veneered the ship through the thick clouds of smoke that were completely encapsulating the surface of the planet, she was in the washroom, wiping a cloth along the patch of skin underneath her nostril. her top lip was stained a soft red from the blood and the towel was thick and scratching against tender skin. once she was done, she looked at herself in the mirror and thoughtfully frowned at the sight staring back. her top set of teeth were stained bloody, and she looked like shit.

she set the towel aside, pushing her fingers in her hair and pushing it back, a sigh escaping past her lips. what a fucking day. she jumped at the sound of her dad and gamora's heavy footsteps passing down the hall. she quickly made her way out the bathroom and moved to join them in the medbay with rocket.

gamora connected the computer to rocket's system (just more wires.)
peter mumbled to himself, hurriedly, staring down at rocket's body as he connected more wires to his chest. cassandra watched from just next to him, chest tight, praying for something. some sort of reaction. a witty comeback, maybe, or a rude remark. she was beginning to miss that.

the screen whirred as groot made his way next to cassandra. peter glanced up at the screen as it chimed, breaths small and hitched. "alright, rocket, c'mon. go." he whispered, as if he was telling him time to get up. come on. stop scaring us. stop scaring me.

cassandra's gaze fixed on the screen, which kept whirring with a soft buzz emanating from it. the text started slowing, and cassandra's brows furrowed. gamora's gaze met hers, and she trailed it to the screen, turning to glance at it, scanning a finger over it.
".. this isn't right."

"no, no, no. it's good. it's gonna work. it's working." cassandra hummed unsurely at the thought that maybe peter was just trying to convince himself– even though she wanted to bury that thought as deep as she could possibly bury it. rocket would be fine. good. amazing, even.

"it needs to be faster."

cassandra looked down at rocket. manual breaths rocked his chest unsteady and rough, and cassandra couldn't bring herself to say anything as she stared at the unusual pattern. deep inhale, deep exhale. pull your entire self in, push your entire self out. again. she wasn't sure how much her words would help anyway.

a soft ringing started. cassandra and peter both glanced back, rocket's chest highlighted red on the screen as a heavy tremble shook his body, and peter quickly turned back to him. "no, no, no.." he mumbled, placing his hand under rocket's head. "no!" he yelled out, desperately, beginning to try to compress his chest. cassandra sighed. "dad.."

"come on!" he grunted, still desperately trying to revive rocket, and his pained grunts were beginning to cut through the sharp yet low ringing from the monitor. cassandra's eyes crinkled slightly as tears began pooling at the lids, before she blinked and a few narrowly escaped, rushing down her cheeks, which were hot from stress. a tear pooled at her bottom lip. she could taste salt burning her bruise-bitten lip.