The Bowie, Deep Space
Fallon knew she'd screwed up the moment Adam disappeared. And the feeling only worsened when, a few moments later, her name rang out through the ship.
"Fallon!"
Gods, she was really losing it. Nausea and dizziness were one thing, but a failed skip? She'd never failed a skip in her life. Then again, she'd never been mortal before either, and apparently, rest was more of a necessity than she'd originally thought.
But there was no time for rest now, even with her head spinning and her stomach roiling. She needed to find a way out of this mess, and fast, if the footsteps echoing through the hallways were any indicator.
She started to run, but she'd barely gotten out of the common area when she came face to face with Gamora, who considered the shouting and footfalls for a moment before narrowing her eyes.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing!" Fallon raised her hands defensively, though she found herself stumbling back as the woman drew closer, her expression equal parts suspicious and determined.
Not a good mix, especially for the deadliest woman in the galaxy. Well, another galaxy, technically, but for once, Fallon didn't have it in her to worry about timeline technicalities. She just needed to get away.
And with a wave of her hands, she did.
It was in instinctive action, one she'd used to get out of all sorts of sticky situations, but now, it was doing her no favors.
Especially when she skipped right into Mantis.
"Sorry!" Fallon veered out of the way just before the bug woman could trip over her.
But 'veered' might have been a kind term. 'Collapsing into the wall' was probably more accurate.
At the sight of her, Mantis's eyes widened. "You!"
Fallon opened her mouth to answer, but a chill wracked her body before she could, and she settled to simply stay silent and lean into the wall harder. Stupid, mortal body, with it's stupid, mortal limits.
"Are you okay?" Mantis's antennae twitched as her brow furrowed. "You look terrible."
"Thanks." The word came through gritted teeth, and Fallon regretted the word immediately as her stomach turned again.
Mantis looked as if she was about to offer help, but there was no time to accept it. Even in this new hallway, the footsteps were growing closer, and the voices that came with them were sickeningly familiar.
"And you're sure you can't teleport?"
"Yes. If I could teleport, you and your Guardians would have been dead long ago."
"Thanks, man. Real comforting."
"Don't call me 'man.'"
Fallon swore silently. One more. Just one more skip, and this would all be history. The Guardians would be back to their argument, Gamora would be back to her calls, and she and Adam would be back to sitting in the common area. And there'd be no dancing, no matter how much she'd loved it.
Yes, she'd skip herself, along with everyone else and their memories. It was a terrifying task, especially when she was running on fumes, but it was a necessary one. She'd wave her hands, reset the timeline, and then take a nice, long nap on the common area couch. Probably slumped against Adam. Maybe he'd even give her his cape as a blanket.
And with that in mind, Fallon waved her hands, and pulled the timeline back into place.
The action was met with a surge of pain, one that finally succeeded in buckling her legs beneath her, and she fell forward towards the cold metal floor as the room spun faster around her.
But instead of the floor, she found a pair of arms, catching her and holding her up as she tried to regain her balance.
"Fallon?"
Fallon's hopes rose at the confused edge in Adam's voice. Maybe she'd really done it. Maybe everything had reset. But that hope was short lived.
"Fallon, you've got a lot of explaining to..." He paused, brow furrowing. "Are you okay?"
She wanted to answer, but she couldn't even lift her head to look him in the eyes. Beneath her feet, the ground continued to sway, and she did her best to stay standing, but in the end, the only thing that kept her up was his hold. Her stomach roiled again, and she failed not to retch. At any other moment, such behavior would have been humiliating, but in that moment, she couldn't bring herself to focus on her pride. She could hardly focus on anything at all.
Her ears began to ring just as Adam started calling for help, and the panic in his voice was the last thing she noted before her senses left her completely and the world went black.
...
It was just fatigue. It would pass.
At least, that was what Mantis had said when she'd first checked up on Fallon. All it'd taken was one touch, and the empath's entire body had deflated, and the light in her eyes had dimmed so low Adam had feared she might drop off too.
"She is exhausted," Mantis had finally said once she'd drawn her hand from Fallon's shoulder. "She has worn herself to her breaking point."
That was perhaps the last thing Adam had wanted to hear. "She's...she's not completely broken, is she?"
"No. But she needs to rest." With that, Mantis had braced herself, touched a finger just behind Fallon's ear, and whispered, "Sleep deeply."
And just like that, Fallon had sunk further into her comatose form. But Mantis had said that was normal. Give her a couple hours with the deepened sleep, and she'd be okay.
But that had been five hours ago, and in those five hours, Fallon hadn't done a thing to prove she'd be 'okay.' She'd just laid on a flimsy mattress, tucked away in one of the Bowie's spare cabins, Adam's cape serving as her blanket. The Guardians had offered up some of their own, but Adam had adamantly rejected them. They looked old, well-used, and even tattered. His cape may have been through battle, but at least it was somewhat new.
And silk. He wanted her to have silk.
He'd gotten offers outside of blankets too. Offers for food, drink, or someone else to take over watching Fallon. Nebula had, at one point, suggested his vigil was stupid, but the others had been kinder.
At least, Peter and Mantis had been kinder. Drax had yet to approach him, and Gamora seemed hesitant to even get involved.
Adam was about halfway into his sixth hour of sitting and watching and waiting when the door creaked open. He turned, ready to shoot down another suggestion to leave his post, but there was nobody there. At least, not until he looked downward.
"Oh." Adam watched as the small, furry creature nosed its way inside. "Um...hello."
The creature made a little noise in reply, then looked around the room before settling his attention on Adam and giving another small chirp.
"Where did you come from?" He wasn't sure why he was asking questions—the thing was clearly incapable of answering—but it felt like the normal course of action. "Are you lost?"
The creature made another noise before moving closer to his chair. It was a very cute looking creature, with small, shiny black eyes set in thick, brown fur and two little ears on either side of its head. Its torso was small, with its front legs longer than its back, and a pair of little claws jutted out from the base of each limb. For some of its noises, it would open its comically large mouth, showing off two rows of tiny, pointed teeth that were hardly intimidating.
It all added up to a combination that was impossible to ignore, and before he knew it, Adam was reaching to pick the thing up. He'd never seen an animal before—besides the thieving raccoon—but this creature looked so small and soft. He wanted to feel that for himself.
"Here." He tried to be as gentle as possible as he lifted the thing off the ground, though the creature gave no protest as he settled it in his lap. "Is this good?"
The creature chittered before settling in, tucking its back legs beneath it as it stretched out, and Adam hesitated before giving it a little pet on the head, much to its obvious enjoyment.
He wasn't sure what the creature was, or where it had come from, or why it was there, but it brought him an odd comfort, to know that at least this one thing was okay, and that someone other than Fallon liked him.
Oh, Fallon...
The creature seemed to notice his attention drift elsewhere, because it made another noise and knocked its head against his arm.
"Sorry." Adam resumed petting it as he looked at Fallon's unconscious form. "She's just very important to me."
Once again, he found himself questioning why he was talking to the thing, but the creature just chittered in reply and gave his hand a lick. Distantly, one of his thoughts told him to be disgusted, but he couldn't bear to be disgusted by the thing. It was nice. And comforting. It wouldn't question, or talk back, or snap at him. He could just sit, and talk to it, and it would listen in its own, creature-y way.
"I know it seems silly, but I can't bear to leave her alone like this."
Another chitter. Adam didn't have a clue what it meant, but he decided to fill in the blanks himself.
"Thank you. I think it's nice too..."
...
"I don't like this."
Peter failed to stifle a huff. "You've said that, like, ten times today, and it's done nothing to make things better."
Nebula bristled. "Oh, I'm to blame for today? I'm sorry, who was it that invited our enemy and his weak, teleporting wretch onboard?"
"He's not really our enemy," Mantis pointed out. "He's just confused. Very confused."
"And very dangerous." Nebula folded her arms over her chest. "And his companion clearly has a secret important enough to almost die for, so we've got to handle that too."
She cast an accusing look at Peter, who simply averted his gaze.
"Perhaps she has a small but embarrassing secret," Drax remarked. "Like a lactose intolerance."
That earned him a round of confused looks.
"What?" Drax shrugged. "If my body was incapable of handling dairy, I too would go to great lengths to hide it. Now, would you please unfreeze me?"
Mantis narrowed her eyes. "If I unfreeze you, you will just go and try to destroy Adam."
Drax looked away. "I will not."
Mantis regarded him warily one last time before turning back to the group, making no moves to fulfil his request.
"And we're sure Warlock doesn't know anything about what happened with her?" Nebula asked.
Mantis shrugged. "We all saw what it did to him. He was practically beside himself."
Drax huffed. "I would have liked to see that."
"Shut up." Peter wasn't sure who said it first: himself, Nebula, or Mantis. All he knew was this was the perfect time to take the heat off himself, at least temporarily. God bless Fallon and whatever shit she'd gotten herself into.
"Look, we can stand around and talk about this all we want, but I doubt we're gonna get anywhere good until she wakes up." Peter put his hands on his hips, trying to act cool. "So, let's just calm down, wait it out, and..." He paused, realizing something was missing from his belt. "Wait, where the hell is my Zune?"