Another update for my lovely readers.
5. I Will Protect You
Allura had been having an interesting conversation with the space mice when she felt a knock on her door. It was evening time so she was a little alarmed, but she opened the door. "Shiro? What's going on?"
"Allura, you need to head to the Med-bay," Shiro said to her, face calm but depicting that something was wrong.
Allura blinked. "Shiro, what's going on?" She knew she had already asked that but she wanted to know.
"It's Pidge," Shiro replied simply. "She's hurt."
Allura's expression hardened. She knew she had felt something from her fellow Paladin when they were Voltron but she hadn't known it was this serious. "What happened?" Pidge was like her little sister and she needed to know who had even dared to lay a hand on her. Somehow, she could feel it even back then when they were Voltron that something wasn't right. That her friend was hurting but she hadn't wanted to push but now she wished she had trusted her instincts.
"I don't know," Shiro said softly. "But Hunk found her collapsed in her room, bringing her to the Med-bay. He wants all the Paladins there before I contact Matt."
Allura clenched a fist, not liking the fact that she couldn't know more about what happened but maybe Hunk knew so she nodded to Shiro as well. "You should tell the others, Shiro." She waited for her friend's nod before hurrying towards the Med-bay. She should have been there for Pidge – she should have followed through and asked her what was wrong instead of just sitting around, hoping that her friend would come to her. Arriving in the Med-bay, she saw the expressions on Sam and Hunk's faces. Sam looked devastated and Hunk looked pale, his hands clenched into fists, which told her the situation was more than likely a lot more serious than she had initially thought.
"Hunk, Commander Holt, what's going on?" Allura asked immediately. "Did you find out what happened to Pidge? Who did this? Did someone hurt her?" She realised she was being a little bit impatient but she had felt that stabbing pain when they were Voltron, dismissing it back then at it just being from a fall – because anybody could have an accident but now that she thought closer about it, even then she had felt it was something different.
"It's better if the others get here," Hunk said and it was a sign of how upset he sounded which made Allura stop. Hunk rarely got this upset about anything – but his voice was downtrodden, looking incredibly tense about the whole situation and she had only seen this once before when his family had been captured. Normally, she would question more but if Hunk looked like this, eyes lightly moist, she would wait as tough as it was for her to do right now, especially as her eyes traveled to Pidge, lying so vulnerable, her heart clenching into itself. Bruises covered the side of her neck and her form looked even smaller than usual with her size. Pidge, what happened to you? Who did this? There were too many questions and not enough answers to them. How was she supposed to help or protect anyone when she didn't know what she was protecting against?
Hunk turned to her, reaching out and pulling Allura into a hug. "I'm sorry. I know you have questions, but I don't know all the details and I don't want to repeat them more than once. Pidge needs me…us to be strong right now after all." His voice cracked and Allura wrapped her arms around him, holding her friend close, her own eyes watering slightly.
"It's alright, Hunk," Allura said softly. "I promise whoever did this to Pidge, to our family will pay for it. I'll wait for the others to get here, I promise." She tightened her grip around Hunk, her focus becoming her family who needed her more than any questions being answered, not particularly surprised when she heard Lance's rather loud shout.
"What the hell happened, Hunk?!" Lance said, eyes wide as he stared at his injured friend as he came through, Keith closely behind him, his hands clenched into fists.
"Lance, calm down," Keith said quietly, eyes traveling from Hunk and Allura to Pidge lying there before he rested a hand on Lance's shoulder, trying to calm him down but Hunk knew that wouldn't be enough after he told them what he knew so he exhaled, pulling away from Allura, turning to his friends.
"I found Pidge collapsed in her room," Hunk explained. "I carried her to the Med-bay, she begged me not to bring her here but she was burning in fever, I couldn't bring her. It's a good thing I did because, after a medical examination, we found out that her injuries are at least six months old. She has really deep bruises and the doctors don't think those bruises are from Pidge being clumsy."
"What are you saying, Hunk?" Lance asked immediately. "Spit it out already."
Hunk didn't right away, instead, turning to Keith. "Did Shiro get a hold of Matt yet?"
"He said he was going to," Keith replied, watching him closely. "Hunk, tell me, were your suspicions correct?"
"Only Pidge can answer that," Hunk replied to his friend before his hands clenched into fists before he turned to the others. "I think James Griffin has been abusing Pidge. Not from now, but for a long time and she's been too scared to tell us. I don't know why, there are a lot of questions even I don't have to answer, but Pidge was determined to not come to the Med-bay and keep these injuries a secret. James's possessiveness over Pidge, her being distracted in the battle and you guys all felt that right? As if someone was pressing down on injuries as if something was piercing on a cutting wound but I haven't cut myself lately."
Lance was bristling the entire time that Hunk was speaking and spun around, making to storm out. "I'm gonna kill that bastard!"
"No!" Hunk grabbed a hold of Lance. "Do you know how much you're going to scare Pidge with that? Lance, for once think with your brain instead of your heart! Pidge is terrified right now, you didn't see her."
"The only way to remove that fear is to destroy the object of her fear," Allura said, eyes flashing as if she were seeing red and completely in agreement with Lance right now. She was about to move towards the doors of the Med-bay when something grabbed at her sleeve, causing her to stop, eyes widening as she saw Pidge had her eyes open, her hand trembling slightly.
"Please don't leave me," Pidge said, voice cracking and this made all the rage immediately vanish from Allura, her face softening as she turned towards the younger girl, everyone else turning as well.
"Pidge, are you ok? Why didn't you tell us?" Lance demanded to know causing the girl to begin to shake.
"Lance!" Allura scolded as Pidge didn't even seem to realise that Lance was the one who had spoken because she had sweat beading down the side of her face.
"Allura, I made James angry again," Pidge said, voice shaking with every word she spoke. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't mean for everyone to find out, I was really tired. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Please don't hit me. I'll behave. I promise I'll behave."
"Hey, Pidge, it's okay, it's just us," Hunk said softly, face falling when she flinched away from him, clinging to Allura slightly, her eyes sunken over and haunted.
Allura took Pidge's hands into her own, coming down to sit in her level of eyesight, sending the others a look to keep at a bit of a distance. "Pidge, look at me. I promise, no one will hurt you. I won't let them. I'm here with you. I won't let anyone touch you." Her voice radiated a gentle authority from her voice as she looked into the terrified girl's eyes. She didn't move until Pidge stopped trembling, peering at her to make sure she realised where she was as Commander Holt brought some ice chips and a glass of water in another hand, because the doctors had said that she may not be able to swallow water yet.
"Allura?" Pidge said quietly, her eyes returning to normal. "I'm sorry. I thought he was…"
Allura smiled softly, taking the bowl of ice chips from the tray and picking it up with a spoon, bringing it to Pidge's mouth. "You're safe now, think you can take a little bit of fluid?" Allura said gently. "Your dad is here, all of our friends, everyone is here."
"What about…James?" Pidge asked quietly. "He'll be upset, Allura." She had not taken the ice chip at all, staring down at her hands. "This was between me and him, now everyone knows. I was supposed to keep it a secret." She coughed weakly, her throat bruised.
"He isn't here," Keith said stepping forward slowly although stopped as he saw Pidge curl into Allura again, taking a step back. "It's just us. Shiro and Matt will be here soon."
"Pidge," Allura said softly. "James isn't here. We need to focus on you. I'm worried about you. We all are." She put the plate of ice chips down on the side when Pidge curled closer to her. The younger girl's body was still lightly trembling and she began coughing, causing Allura to begin rubbing her back, looking at Commander Holt and everyone else worriedly. "I don't think she can take any fluids like this. What do we do?"
"We'll have to attach a drip so she doesn't dehydrate," One of the workers said. "But all of you will have to step out for us to do that."
Pidge's breathing began to quicken causing her to cough more, grip tightening around Allura's hand. "Don't leave me, please. I…I don't want to be alone right now."
Allura looked at the workers. "I'll stay at a distance to allow you to work but I don't think she'll stay calm enough. She needs someone here with her right now. Is that alright?"
The workers exchanged a glance with each other before nodding.
Allen spoke up. "Alright, Katie, Allura can stay in the room with you but you must let us put a drip on your arm, so you can stay healthy ok?"
Pidge nodded, forcing herself to stop trembling and laying back down even as Allura pulled away slightly. Allura made sure that Pidge was calm before turning to the other Paladins.
"I'll update you guys, I promise," Allura said softly. "Try and make sure Matt gets here. She's okay around her Dad after all so I think she'll be alright with her brother."
"We'll be a call away if you need us," Keith said seriously, glancing at Pidge and Allura knew he was trying to communicate the same message to her but she looked away, not responding to that which caused their leader's expression to falter slightly but he didn't say anymore.
Allura nodded to Keith, seeing how silent the others had become too. Lance was clenching his fists and glaring at the ground, Hunk was staring at Pidge, expression downtrodden as if he wanted to just move forward and hug the girl who he considered as his little sister but even he knew that wouldn't be a good idea right now. She wished she could be everywhere at once, but being with Pidge was something that was a priority right now.
"Princess," Commander Holt said softly. "Please look after my little girl."
Allura nodded, not sure what to say to that for once as she watched her friend's father walk out with the other Paladins. A sigh escaped her lips as she moved a little bit closer to Pidge's bed so that the younger girl could see her in her line of vision. She had a feeling this was going to be a very long day.