A/N: Hello hello everyone! My apologies for taking so long. Hopefully, the wait will be shorter next time. Have you guys seen the new movie yet? I really liked it, and addressed a couple things in here, plot holes that came up, but no spoilers!

Thanks for reading! Please read, review, and enjoy!

The children were asleep in the back, sharing Gamora's bunk at the moment. The Guardians were currently gathered in the front of the ship, eating a late dinner of ramen and freeze dried vegetables. Peter and Gamora took the two captain's seats while Rocket sat in Groot's lap on the ground and Drax had pulled up a crate. The ship was on autopilot for the moment and it was nice to have a minute to just sit and breathe. Space drifted by silently and the quiet sound of the engines and their chewing was oddly relaxing.

Drax finished with a loud belch and set his bowl aside.

"So, what's next?" he asked.

Peter sighed and leaned back in the chair.

"We still need to find the baby, but, as far as I can tell, we have no leads."

"I am Groot."

"He says he's worried about the kid's leg," Rocket translated.

Peter hummed in response. "I am too. We should probably get that checked out. Give us something to do until we know our next move."

The console made a chirping noise.

"It's a call from Xandar," Gamora said.

"Answer it."

A large screen popped up, showing the stern face of Nova Prime.

"Nova Prime! What can we do for you?" Peter asked, swiveling to face her.

"I've got a mission for you," she began. "I was recently contacted by one of the Avengers- superheroes from Earth- who wish to enlist your services."

"Oh yeah?"

"His name is Clint Barton, also known as Hawkeye. For some reason, his children were kidnapped by the Ravagers. He was hoping you might have heard something or be willing to join the search. He gave us these pictures."

Sure enough, three pictures of Cooper, Lila, and what he could only assume was Nathaniel popped up.

"Tell him he's in luck. We've already got two out of three."

She blinked.

"Excuse me, what? Wait," she said, cutting him off with a raised hand before he could speak. "Let me just patch you through to him. That will be easier."

She disconnected and they waited as it rang.

::::::

Clint was surprised to receive a call back so quickly. He was also rather confused when he answered it, and the camera showed him a ragtag bunch of aliens eating ramen in what, if he didn't know better, he would think was a college dorm. There was (what looked like) a human sitting in the captain's seat, who quickly swallowed and cleared his throat.

"Are you Hawkeye?" he asked.

"Yeah. You wouldn't happen to be Starlord would you?"

"The one and only," he grinned. "And I'm happy to tell you that we've already found Lila and Cooper."

It was like a slap in the face.

"Really?" he choked out. Starlord, and the others, nodded.

Clint sank further into his seat, the relief that two of his children were found and at least relatively safe took all the strength out of him. Steve gave him a supportive clap on the shoulder. He forced the tears back into his eyes with the heel of his palm; there'd be time to cry later.

"How are they? Can I see them?" he asked. Starlord shared a meaningful glance with the green-skinned alien sitting next to him.

"They're okay. Cooper has a nasty wound on his leg-we were actually going to take him to a doctor- we think it might be infected. Of course, they're both shaken up by this whole… ordeal, but they're okay. They're sleeping right now, but we could probably wake them up."

"Let them sleep. Just, call me when they wake up, okay?"

"'Course," Starlord promised. He glanced around at the other heroes. "Wait, is that Thor?" The Asgardian waved. "Dude! Huge fan! And these guys are, well, at least moderate fans.

"I guess we should do introductions. I'm Peter Quill aka Starlord. Left Earth as a kid in the 80s. This is Gamora…" He gave a quick intro for each of the Guardians and gestured for Clint to go.

"Well, I'm Clint Barton aka Hawkeye. Master marksman and archer. Here we have, Thor, you know him, he let me borrow a spaceship; Steve Rogers aka Captain America. Super strong, super cool; and Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch. Telekinesis, telepathy, the whole shebang. We defend Earth when it needs it."

"Nice to meet you all. So we know there's a hospital out in these parts, and we were gonna head there and get Cooper's leg checked out. How about you meet us there and we can compare notes, see if we can find Nathaniel."

"Sounds like a plan."

"I'll send you the coordinates."

"Thanks. And thank you, for finding my kids."

"No problem." Peter gave them a small smile and a salute and signed off. A moment later, coordinates appeared.

"Thor, get us moving. I'm gonna call Laura."

::::::

Laura jerked up from where she sat at the kitchen table when the phone rang and she scrambled to answer it.

"Any news?" she asked, seeing Clint's number in the caller ID.

"We found Cooper and Lila."

She let out something between a sob and a sigh of relief. Natasha and Bruce looked up from their work to look at her and she put it on speaker phone.

"A sorta mercenary/superhero named Peter Quill found them. We're going to meet him then team up to try and find Nathaniel."

"Oh Clint… oh thank God," she murmured, resting her head on the kitchen counter.

"Any luck on your end?" he asked.

"Not much," she said. "The list of possible suspects is surprisingly small. As far as we know, there's only one who knows about our family, but he doesn't have the resources. At least, we don't think he does."

"Hm. Maybe Natasha should pay him a visit, just to check."

"Not a bad idea," Nat muttered. "He had to be involved somehow in any case."

"Wish I could come with," Clint growled. "It's been a while."

"I'll tell him you say hi," Nat smirked.

"Give it your personal touch. He'll appreciate it."

"Sorry, but, who are we talking about?" Bruce asked. Clint sighed, a sound somewhere between rage and amusement.

"My brother."

::::::

A couple hours later Peter had Rocket land the ship while he went to wake up the kids. In the back of the ship, the lighting was dim and warm. He peeked into Gamora's bunk and sure enough, they were still fast asleep. Lila's face was relaxed, completely at peace curled up next to her brother. Cooper's face on the other hand, was covered in a sheen of sweat and his brow was furrowed. His breath sounded labored and seemed to rattle around in his chest.

"Hey Lila, Coop. Time to wake up." He shook them gently and Lila came to almost immediately, looking around in confusion and fear before gradually calming down. Cooper moaned and curled up tighter before finally opening his eyes when Lila poked him in the cheek.

"You don't look so hot kid," Peter said. He just groaned in response.

"My leg hurts. Everything hurts," he moaned and started to curl up again.

"Uh-uh, can't do that, we're taking you to the doctor's kiddo. Your dad's gonna meet us there." Now they were awake.

"Dad?! You talked to Dad?!" Cooper asked, sitting straight up.

"Yeah, him and Thor and a couple of other guys are gonna meet us there. Now come on, you need to get up."

He watched as Cooper struggled out of the sheets and had to catch him from falling when he tried to put weight on his bad leg.

"You okay?"

"It hurts. And everything feels hot," Cooper said. Peter's brow furrowed again and he was taken back to his first mission with the Ravagers. He'd been shot in the side, a scrape more than anything, but had hidden it from Yondu. When the Centurion had found out he had not been happy. He'd forced Peter back into bed, redressed his wounds himself, and kept checking on him throughout the day. Despite gruff appearances, Yondu cared, and now, it seemed the shoe was on Peter's foot.

Which brought up another question. Ravagers didn't deal in kids and when they did, there was an unspoken rule to treat them well.

So what was different about these three?

"Here." Peter scooped Cooper up in his arms and gestured for Lila to follow him back to the front of the ship. The young girl trotted along beside him, bouncing up and down every now and then, evidently feeling better after the nap and the news that their dad was coming.

"Can we call Dad?" she asked.

"Sure," he said, giving her a small smile. "Rocket, we good to go?"

"Yeah, me 'n Groot'll watch the ship."

"Cool. Can you set up a comm link to Clint for Lila?" The raccoon took a moment to look at the girl. She was barely taller than him it looked like. She had a nervous, but hopeful look in her eyes, waiting for his response.

"Yeah, sure." Like he would even consider saying no to those puppy dog eyes.

"Gamora, Drax!" Peter called, opening the ramp to the planet's surface. He crouched down in front of Lila. "Be good for Rocket, kay? Your dad should be here soon, but we need to get Cooper in to see the doctor." She nodded.

"Okay." She gave Cooper a quick hug that he returned as best as he could, then stretched and gave Peter one too. "Thank you."

He tensed momentarily in surprise, but then smiled.

"No prob." He stood back up and gestured for Gamora and Drax to follow him.

The four of them left the ship, Peter still carrying Cooper in his arms. In hindsight, he was glad that Rocket had piloted them directly to the hospital; this kid needed help and fast. There was a small landing pad for emergency vehicles and those in a rush like them, though theirs was the only one there at the moment.

The building itself was decently large. The windows were tinted, preventing others from seeing in, and seemed to function as solar panels. The planet was part of an alliance with Xandar, so he wasn't too worried about the quality of care (and any bureaucracy issues that popped up).

The automatic doors parted with a whoosh and they stepped inside the bright, and achingly clean smelling lobby.

Peter hated hospitals. Too many long days waiting for his mother's test results, too many long nights spent by his mother's bedside, and all he seemed to hear there was never ending bad news.

Gamora glanced at Peter and, without it needing to be said, took the lead. She approached the desk as the others followed behind and got the nurse's, a feminine lizard looking creature's, attention.

"This boy's leg got bitten and is severely infected. He needs help immediately."

The nurse glanced from Gamora to Cooper who had dozed off in Peter's arms. She reached out a slender arm and pressed her hand to his forehead. She closed her eyes for a moment before removing her hand and pressing a call button on her desk. A moment later, two more nurses, one with deep purple skin and the other with bright red skin and spikes for hair, came around the corner with a levitating gurney.

"Prep surgery bay 4," the desk nurse told them as Peter gently set Cooper down on the gurney and they whisked him away.

"What's wrong with him? Is it bad?" he asked.

"I can tell the general state of person's injuries by touch," the woman explained quickly. "The infection is rather severe and if it continues to spread... it will kill him."

"What?! You can stop it though, right?" She shook her head.

"It's grown too strong. The only way to stop it now is amputation."

This. This was the reason Peter didn't like hospitals.