Chapter 2: While You Were Sleeping
Say what now? Was Lance speaking in Spanish? She knew he was from Cuba, but he had never spoken in Spanish in front of her before. Pidge thought back to her Spanish I class, hermanita… little sister! Oh. Little. Sister? Before Pidge could ask him anything, Lance passed out again. Rude.
Lance may be breathing now, but it was shaky and wet. Every breath sounded painful and ragged. Pidge had heard that CPR was very dangerous, especially for inexperienced people. A lot of times, the newbie would end up killing the dying person by accidentally breaking their ribs. Pidge may have overestimated her strength, or the adrenaline and fear had made her stronger than she thought. In helping Lance to breath, Pidge had broken his ribs.
"Oh no, I'm so sorry Lance!" Pidge shook her head, remorse would have to wait, first, she had to see what had caused Lance to be injured so badly in the first place. She slowly took off Lance's armour, leaving him in the white spandex the Paladins generally wore underneath. Pidge winced and breathed in harshly through her teeth as she shifted her weight to assess the damage on Lance. Her ankle had begun to throb painfully, and would need to be set if she wanted it to heal right.
"Ok, let's see what we got here." Pidge muttered to herself. She began assessing the damage on Lance, growing more worried as she did so. Lance was covered in lacerations and bruises, more so than Pidge. She remembered how Lance had come out of nowhere during the battle and curled up around her. She hadn't thought so at the time, but perhaps he had actually...been trying to protect her?
It was hard for Pidge to believe that the overconfident and ever complaining Lance would be so selfless and willing to throw himself into danger, but she thought back to a few months ago when he had nearly died saving Coran from and explosion. Hmm, perhaps it wasn't too unbelieveable.
Ok Pidge, his back was the part of his body facing the danger, so the worst wound is probably back there. Pidge hated to have to move Lance any more than she had to, but it was vital that she knew exactly what had hit Lance. She turned over as carefully as she could. Then sucked in a shattered breath. There was a large bruise spreading from the middle is back and all around. Lanced coughed great hacking coughs, and to Pidge's horror, she saw blood come flying out, landing on the ground and dribbling down his chin.
Lance was bleeding internally. And Pidge may have only made it worse by attempting CPR. Tears pooled hot and prickly in her eyes. What was she doing? She shouldn't be out here, she should have been watching her back, not Lance. And now, here they were, stranded, with no way home, and Lance, oh gosh. Lance was going to breath came in short bursts, and black rimmed the edges of her vision. Her heart beat faster and faster, and the world seemed to spin, making Pidge feel sick to her stomach.
Then, a cold and firm hand grasped her arm tightly, and she heard a voice begin merging with the ringing in her ears. "Shh, you're ok, you're safe, nothing's going to harm you, just focus on my voice and breath" Pidge sucked in a deep breath, then another.
Finally, her pulse began to slow and her vision returned to normal. Then she saw who had been speaking to her. Lance was awake again, but barely. His once tight grip on Pidges arm became loose, and his hand dropped to his side. His voice, which had sounded so clear, now became lost in another round of violent coughing. More blood splattered against the ground, and Lance winced.
Pidge fought back the urge to hug him tightly, instead choosing to hold his hand and squeeze it tight. "Lance, you're awake!" She choked out. Lance made a daring attempt to smile.
"Course' I'm awake, you honestly think I'd try and sleep during the day? That'd mess up my strict sleep schedule, and then where would I be?" More coughing, Pidge squeezed harder.
"I'm so sorry Lance, you got hit because of me, and then I broke your ribs, and now I'm sitting here, a freaking wreck, with you trying to help me." She sniffed, Pidge had never been one to be super emotional, she generally tried to keep a straight face and mind. But seeing all this blood, and Lance...well, not being like the Lance she knew, Pidge didn't know what to do. And that was a strange sensation for her. "How-" She questioned, "How did you know what to do?" Lance tried to smile again, but the effect was gruesome.
"My little sister, Rosie, she used to have panic attacks all the time. When our older siblings left for college, I was the only one who could help her through them." Lance frowned, looking lost in thought, "I wonder how she's dealing without me." He looked wistful and homesick. Pidge stifled more tears.
"Well, if it's any consolation, you must have been a great big brother, you really helped me out back there." Lance just gave a slight nod, then attempted to do the unthinkable. Sit up.
"GAH-AH!" He cried out, falling back onto the ground, coughing up more blood in the process. Just how much blood could one person cough up? Pidge didn't want to know.
"What in the name of all that's holy were you thinking?!" She scolded, heart racing. Had he made the injury worse? What should she do?
Lance just motioned weakly to her ankle, "We need to set that, and make sure it's not infected." Pidge scoffed at him.
"Why on earth would you of all people be caring about my ankle at a time like this, you're dying idiot!" Lance winced. "You.." Pidges voice began to falter again, but she quickly gained control of it, "I thought you were dead when I saw you lying here not breathing!" Lance snickered, "What's so funny?"
"I-I was only," He chuckled, "I was only mostly dead," Pidges eyes went wide, seriously? Movie references? At a time like this? But even despite her dislike of the timing, she couldn't help but chuckle with him. The Princess Bride had been one of Pidges favorite Rom-Com movies growing up, and she had often imagined herself as Princess Buttercup, and her and her brother Matt had spent more than one summer afternoon attempting to act out the entire movie by heart. Pidge pushed the memories away, too painful. Lance breathed in another shaky and wet breath, coughing again, but this time no blood came up.
"Ugh," He muttered, "My chest feels like that one time Anton dared me to try a cigaret." Pidge sat up straight and glared at him.
"You did what?" Lance blushed, "Do you know what smoking does to you? Cancer! Holes burned into your throat, stained teeth and nails! What were you thinking?"
"Well," Lance said, obviously ashamed of himself, "I wanted to impress my big brother, but it was totally not worth it. My lungs burned and I couldn't get the acrid smell out of my system for weeks. And I never could get within fifteen feet of a smoker again."
"Serves you right." Lance chuckled again.
"Now," he groaned, "Let's get me bandaged up so I can actually move again, I've never been so still in my entire life, it feels unnatural." Pidge nodded. Taking care to find some cover before she did so, Pidge took her armor off, stripped the spandex off of her skin, then put the armor back on. She returned to find Lance attempting to hide newly coughed up blood and smiling at her. It pained her to see Lance this way, but she knew that if she confronted Lance about it, it would destroy his pride. So she kept her mouth shut.
Pidge began tearing her spandex into strips of fabric, then, using what basic knowledge she had of first aid, wrapped up Lance's' chest tight, so nothing (hopefully) would jostle around too much. Once that was settled, Lance carefully sat up, wincing as he did so.
"Are you sure you should be moving?" Cautioned Pidge, but Lance just waved her apprehension away.
"I'll be fine." He said. He then picked up a couple of the sticks that had been laying on the ground around them, and motioned for Pidge to show him her ankle. Pidge obliged, and Lance began making her a homemade splint.
"How do you know how to do all this stuff?" She asked, Lance smiled a different smile than Pidge was used to. This one was filled with love and pride. Lance stopped looking quite as pained and started looking...at peace.
"Mi hermana, Marie, she went to medical school on a scholarship, she got a PHD and everything. She works as a surgeon at my hometown's hospital. When she was still learning the practice, she would go over the procedures with me, pretending I was injured."
"Wow, you gotta nice family, there a lot of you?" Lance snorted.
"You're gonna wish you'd skipped asking that question."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, hay Mamá, Papá, Rosa, Felipe, Tony, Anton, Marie, mi tía Janise y tío Mendo, mi abuela, y mi primos Neo, Montez, Verita, Novia, y Mariposa. We all used to live together in this small apartment, that was also back when mi abuelo y bisabuela were still around. Mi Mamá used to do all the rich kids laundry for money, mi Papá worked as a janitor for the local elementary school, mi tia y tio ran a small restaurant." Lance's smile deepened, "Man, I can still taste Janise's Bacán."
Pidge was astounded, she had never heard Lance talk much about his family before, come to think of it, she didn't know a darned thing about Lance's past. She didn't know if it was a good thing, or a bad thing.
"When I was little, I used to help out around the restaurant, washing dishes, cleaning floors, all that stuff. And in return, at the end of the day, I would get a small bowl of arroz con leche." Lance finished tying off Pidge's splint, and leaned back against a tree.
"Wow, so, how did you end up at Garrison with Hunk?"
"Marie was the oldest, she worked hard in school and earned a scholarship to ELAM University. She graduated, top of her class. After that, she helped support our family. Anton, Tony, and Felipe all went into mechanics." Lance looked sad for a moment, "It had always been my dream to be a pilot, but I knew that, with our family's financial crisis and my lack of proper schooling, that was never going to happen. I planned to just be a paperboy and help Rosie pay for veterinary school."
"Aw, Lance, that's adorable, you really were a great brother to all your siblings, so what changed that let you become a pilot?"
Lance looked a little bit broken for a small moment, "Mi abuelo, he died. I always loved him, I used to spend countless nights, stargazing with him as he told me his make believe stories of his adventures in space, and how I would one day follow in his footsteps." Lance looked up towards the sky, "Turns out, he had been saving up all his money for me to go to the best flight school in the world, Garrison." Lance looked a bit weird, really red in the face, his breathing was coming in pants now, and tears began streaming down his face. He turned away from Pidge, and promptly threw up. Large pools of red now stained the ground.
"LANCE!" Pidge moved closer to him, placing her hand on his forehead. Not good. His hands were cold and clammy, but his head was burning with fever. No wonder he had been so talkative. She should have seen the symptoms earlier. "Lance, can you hear me?" Lance nodded slowly, his breath catching in short, ragged, bursts. "Ok bud, stay with me, I need you to breath ok? C'mon, you can do it!" Lance began to breath again, and before anything else could happen, passed out. His head slumped onto Pidge's lap.
Pidge raised her arms defensively, this was new as well. For Pidge, not for Lance. Pidge wasn't generally a touchy-feely kinda girl, so she had no clue what to do. Finally, Pidge accepted her fate, and let Lance lay there. Eventually, Pidge even began stroking his hair, and finally, without even realising it, Pidge fell asleep, curled up protectively around Lance.
Pidge woke up to a coughing Lance, a little bit of blood landed on her armor, but not as much as before. That was good, right? LAnce began stirring, and he mumbled something that sounded like a lullaby.
"Aruru mi niño, arrurú mi amor, Aruru pedazo de mi corazón" Lance sang softly, apparently too out of it to realize what he was doing.
"Lance," Pidge whispered, "I hate to do this to you, but, since you learned some medical procedures from Marie, can you tell me anything about internal bleeding? Please, I need to know how to treat you." Pidge choked back her tears. A long pause, then, finally, Lance muttered,
"When internal bleeding is slower or delayed, observation may be appropriate at first. Often, internal bleeding from trauma stops on its own. Blood transfers may be needed to help the patients blood clot…" Lance drifted off again. From the sound of it, Lance must have memorized Marie's medical books with her. Which was extremely lucky for Pidge. Lance's internal bleeding was slowing, he should be fine as long as they got a blood transfer to him soon.
Despite the lack of blood, Lance still had a bad cough, and now he was coughing up black slime. Pidge had never missed blood so much. At least then she had known what was going on. Now, Pidge was clueless as to why Lance was still as sick as he was.
Pidge shifted uncomfortably, her ankle felt stiff, and it hurt to breath. Probably not as bad as it was for Lance, his ribs being broken and all, but still, bruised ribs were painful.
She tried to get comfortable again, to sleep as she had done before, but something stopped that from happening. Despite how dark the sky was growing, the space surrounding her and Lance was glowing.
Tiny little light bulb eyes began to pop up around them, and sharp teeth glinted in the eerie glow. Pidge could feel another panic attack coming down, but she did her best to swallow it down. Because panicking while surrounded by monsters while simultaneously having a broken ankle and a broken friend, wasn't exactly the best thing right now.
Pidge slowly and painfully stood up, finding, much to her relief, her bayard still attached to her armor. Now, green joined the yellow in the darkness. She heard Lance moan in pain behind her, saw the monster's eyes glare hungrily at the weakest prey. The easiest prey. No way was Pidge gonna let Lance get eaten. She had a friend to protect, a friend to get back to safety, to home. And if it cost Pidge her life, then so be it.
Authors Notes: Hiya guys! Ok, so, I don't normally go this violent or dark in my stories, but I felt like Voltron needed to be more violent than my other stories. Um, so, a lot of what I have planned in this story is based off of some things that I have gone through (Nothing to dark, I did bruise a rib recently by slipping on some ice and I have broken bones before, all the rest of the injuries I get descriptions for from health websites). I'm glad people seem to be liking it so far though, that really helps out guys, so thanks a lot! I know I'm not always the best writer, so if anyone has any constructive criticism, please feel free to let me know! Thanks!
-Nerdqueen395