Katie sat up in her hospital bed, honey colored eyes slightly bloodshot from crying. She held a tissue in her hand which she twiddled with, focusing in that. She was not willing to focus on anything else.

She couldn't focus on anything else.

Not without having a panic attack.

As a General in the Air Force, she understood the risks of war. She friends were all soldiers and spies, out on the field and fighting. She had been confined from being out on the field ever since she had stared to show, which was for the better, but...she couldn't believe it.

No one ever thinks it's going to happen to them.

First it was her brother-in-law's spouse, then her best friend, then her actual brother almost died, and now her baby?

When will this war end?

.o0o.

"Do you think she's doing alright?" Lance looked at his brother-in-law who was sitting next to his bed in the hospital he had been confined to for the past week.

"In all honesty, I don't think she is. I visited her this morning and she wasn't crying, but she was very...vacant. And you know how Pidge is, always something going on in her mind. But this morning...nothing, that I could see, at least."

Lance nodded solemnly, looking down and not saying anything.

His brother and law looked at him, tilting his head. "Are you doing okay? I mean it was your baby, too."

There was an eerie pause, only interrupted by the beeping of the monitors in the room.

"No. No, I'm not okay, I...I failed. I failed Katie, I failed our son. He died so quickly, and they...the doctors, I just… I don't know. I blame myself."

"Well, what for? What is it you did to cause his death?"

"I don't know! Maybe I...I pushed Katie too hard, or didn't take care of her the way she needed me to! I wasn't always there when she needed me, and I was the one driving when-"

He suddenly cut himself off, tears streaming down his face. "I just...Matt, it was me. There's no one else to blame. It wasn't her fault, it wasn't your fault, it was me. All me."

"I bet Pidge doesn't believe a word of that."

Lance shook his head. "It doesn't even matter."

"Well, it does, apparently. To you," he said pointedly, "You are always way to selfless for your own good. You always blame yourself, even if it's not your fault."

'I do something called the process of elimination. I take the situation, line up all the people whose fault it could be, and it always points to me."

"Well, I guess you didn't line up all the factors, because it was just proven that it was not your fault, not Katie's fault, no one's fault but the assassin."

Lance immediately snapped his head up. "What?"

Matt blinked. "You didn't know? It's all over the news!" he turned on the television set in the room.

The television blared the news stations' theme music as the words "BREAKING NEWS" flashed onto the screen. A live broadcast was being streamed where Luke recognized to be the exact place, they crashed head on.

"A week ago, a tragic car accident took place right here on 15th Avenue, nearly taking the lives of General Katie Holt and her husband, Lieutenant Lance McClain."

Pictures of them in their military uniforms appeared separately, then a public picture of them at their wedding flashed on-screen.

Lance smiled at the memory. The happiest day of his life.

The report continued on, getting into the details of the crash, what happened, and who was going where.

It was revealed that the person in the other car was not drunk, in fact he was hired by the opposing side to kill the both of them.

"They are both very important factors in winning the war. If they died that night, the war would take twice as long to be won.

"Katie has a PhD in Cyber security. She is one of the main hackers in our station, says General Major Keith Kogane. He states that she is the one, of many, that is preventing our systems being hacked into by-"

Lance turned off the report.

"So? What did I tell you? It is none of your faults. It was a hired assassin. Stop blaming. Go see your wife."

.o0o.

Katie laid on her side in the room, still recovering from both the crash and the C-Section.

It was me.

She looked on the counter next to her, a picture of her and her husband smiling into the self-taken picture.

It was me.

Everywhere she looked, she couldn't get a break from seeing the blue face of her stillborn son.

It was my fault.

I wasn't watching, I wasn't strong enough.

Strong enough…

Katie didn't try to hide the tears that came as she silently cried.

A knock on the door startled her, but she didn't say anything.

The door opened, and someone sat on the bed behind her. "Pidge?"

Katie gasped and turned around, stunned to see who it was. "H-Hi."

Lance smiled gently-almost sadly?-at her. "How do you feel?"

Katie sniffed. "Physically, better than yesterday."

"How about emotionally?"

Katie said nothing.

Lance held her hand. "It's okay. You don't have to say anything. In fact-" he cut Katie off from saying anything anyway, "-I don't want you to say anything. Just…" Luke let a tear of his own fall. "Just let go."

.o0o.

So, I made this this morning for a little project in my ELA class, and I was tired and in a rush, so I just decided to make her name Katie because I could, obviously this is Post canon, I night continue with this a little bit, tell me what you think!

~WA3