Lance could hear before he could see. It was almost as though his hearing was coming into focus. At first he heard the sounds of someone moving around and then he heard soft humming. He fought to open his eyes, a quiet moan escaping his lips.
"Lt. Collier?" It was Nurse Jewelia. She saw his head move as he tried to shake himself awake. "Dr. Gorma?" She called from the doorway. "He's coming around."
"Lieutenant?"
The first thing Lance saw when he opened his eyes was a blurry image of Dr. Gorma leaning over him.
For a few blissful seconds, Lance forgot what had happened to him. He searched his mind to try and remember when it all came crashing down on him. "Darcy." His dry voice cracked.
"Calm down, Lieutenant, she's resting. How're you feeling?" Dr. Gorma asked, prying his eyes open and shining a pen light into them.
Lance tried to sit up, but felt his left arm immobile. He looked down to see his torso wrapped in bandages, holding his arm to his side. His left leg was wrapped tightly and the entire left side of his body throbbed with pain. "What happened?"
"You were shot in the shoulder, arm and leg and grazed on your side. But none of the wounds are life threatening."
"No, I mean to Darcy.
What happened?"
Dr. Gorma stood upright, "I delivered your daughter by emergency C-section at 10:47pm."
Lance felt a lump rise in his throat, he swallowed hard, trying to speak around it, "And?"
"She's two weeks premature, but she looks to be in good health. All the precautions Sgt. Collier took helped."
"What about Darcy?"
Dr. Gorma sighed, "She was very weak before all of this happened, Lieutenant, she has yet to regain consciousness. She has a concussion and her body took an awful shock. We're watching her very carefully."
"I want to see her," Lance pushed himself up awkwardly with his right arm.
"You need to rest, you can see her in the morning."
"No, now." Lance gritted his teeth and pushed himself to the edge of the bed.
"You're very weak, Lieutenant."
"Fuck that," he snarled.
Dr. Gorma sighed again, "Wait here, I'll get you a wheelchair."
Lance sat on the edge of the bed, his right leg dangling over the side and his left leg sticking straight out in front of him.
"Hey, man, how you doing?" Keith's head appeared around the edge of the door.
"How do you think?" Lance snapped.
Keith disappeared from the doorway and a moment later, backed into the room pulling a carrier on wheels while Allura pushed the other end. They moved slowly, trying to not jostle the tiny person inside.
They stopped in front of the bed, Allura sitting down beside Lance. "Your daughter," she whispered.
Lance was at a total loss for words. He stared down at the tiny baby. She was wrinkled and red, a shock of dark hair stood straight up, forming a mohawk. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was wrapped tightly in a pale pink blanket.
"She's beautiful," he breathed.
"Yes, she is," Allura rested her cheek on his shoulder. "She has your chin"
"And Darcy's nose," Lance said.
"Congratulations, Lance. I'm glad you had a daughter, I wouldn't let any son of yours in the same castle as my daughter." Keith teased.
Lance gave him a weak smile, "She wouldn't have a chance against his charm. Now I just have to worry about beating the boys away."
"What's her name?" Allura asked him, gently lifting the baby from the carrier and laying her in the curve of Lance's right arm.
"If," Lance cleared his throat. "If we had a girl, we decided her name would be Schuyler, Schuyler Grace."
"Schuyler," Allura tried out the name. "It's lovely, Lance."
Lance continued to stare down at his daughter, his heart pounding. He had only known her a few seconds and he had already lost his heart completely to her. "Have you seen Darcy?"
Keith and Allura exchanged glances over his head.
"She, uh, she's still unconscious," she told him.
"I know. How bad is it?" Lance tore his gaze from his daughter to look at Allura.
"I don't really know, Lance, Dr. Gorma said we'd have a better idea once she wakes."
He looked back down at the tiny sleeping form cradled to his
chest. "What happened to Lotor?"
"He's dead," Keith said. "Pidge shot him. And Haggar is as well, Kadmus took care of her."
"Good." Lance whispered.
Dr. Gorma entered the room,
pushing an empty wheelchair. "You may go
see her for a few minutes, Lieutenant, but I don't want you tiring yourself
out."
"Can I take the baby in?" Lance asked.
"No, I'd rather you didn't."
Allura lifted Schuyler out of his arm, gently, "We'll be waiting for you, Lance."
With Keith's help, Lance hopped into the wheelchair, "Which room is she in?"
"Follow me, Lieutenant," Dr. Gorma led the way from his room while Lance steered the wheelchair using the touchpad on the arm.
Darcy's room was quiet except for the slow, steady beeping of the heart monitor. Lance couldn't help but notice how slowly it was beeping. With his heart in his throat, he approached the bed while Dr. Gorma excused himself, leaving the door open just a crack.
She was lying on her back, her head bandaged. A nasty bruise was forming on her temple, just showing under the bandages, it stood out dark purple against her pale skin. She wore a hospital gown and her upper left arm was bandaged where the laser had grazed her. Her breathing was shallow and there were dark circles under her eyes.
"Hey, baby," Lance whispered, taking her limp right hand in his. "We had a girl, I was right. Little Schuyler. She's so beautiful, Darcy, you have to wake up so you can see her. You have to wake up because I need you." His voice cracked. "Lotor's dead, Darcy. We have nothing to fear from him ever again. This means we can move out of the castle, get a little house of our own." Lance lifted his eyes, blinking back the gathering tears, and happened to glance at the clock on the wall. It was 1:39 in the morning. It was January 23rd. His heart momentarily stopped beating when he saw that. "Oh, God, Darcy, please wake up. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you." He brought their joined hands to his lips and gently kissed her fingers.
A thought suddenly struck Lance. "Wait a minute, in my dream you died the same day Schuyler was born, but she was born yesterday and now it's tomorrow. Maybe they were just dreams. You're going to be fine, Darc, I know you will, you have to be." He leaned back in his wheelchair, still gripping her hand in his, watching as her chest fell and rose in jerky motions. Suddenly the beeping of her heart monitor started racing. Lance looked around, trying to find the switch to alert Dr. Gorma.
The door flew open and Dr. Gorma and Nurse Helene rushed in.
"Get out of the way, Lieutenant," Dr. Groma snapped, pushing past him.
Lance rolled the chair back, watching as they tended to her, finally Dr. Gorma injected a liquid into her IV. The heart monitor eventually slowed to a more normal rate.
"I want you to return to your room, Lieutenant." Dr. Gorma looked down on him.
"What's wrong with her?" Lance whispered.
"She needs to rest. Her body has been beaten and bruised. She needs to heal, give her time."
"Will she make it?"
"She should."
Lance swallowed hard and nodded.
"Go back to your room." Dr. Gorma said.
"But I want to…"
"You can come back in the morning."
Back in his room, Becca sat in a chair beside the bed, cradling Schuyler in her arms.
"How's Darcy?" She whispered when he wheeled back into the room.
"I, uh, I don't really know." He stopped beside them. "How's Schuyler?"
Becca smiled down at her niece. "She's good, she hasn't wakened yet." She looked up at him, "Where did you guys come up with that name?"
"Darcy saw it once in a movie, some actress' name, and she liked it. It means scholar in Danish, we looked it up. Grace just seemed to go with it."
Becca handed her to him and Lance cradled her to his chest. She looked away when she noticed the tears in his eyes.
"Darcy should be awake for this," his voice cracked. "This is supposed to be one of the greatest days of our lives and she's lying in there. She hasn't even seen Schuyler yet."
"She'll be okay, Lance."
"God, I hope so."
There was a knock on the door. Lance nodded to Becca who crossed to answer it.
"You need some sleep, Lieutenant, let me take the little one for now." Nurse Jewelia entered the room.
Lance nodded. He looked down at Schuyler, studying her every feature before handing her over to the nurse.
************************************
A few hours later, Lance woke from a fitful sleep to the faint sound of a baby's cries. He groaned and tried to block out the noise. There are people trying to sleep, he thought to himself. Why isn't Cady in her nursery any way?
The sound permeated his mind and his eyes flew open. That wasn't Cady. That was his baby, his daughter. Lance pushed himself up and turned so his legs hung over the side of the bed. It took him a moment to steel himself so he could stand unsteadily on his right leg and hop to the wheelchair.
He followed the cries to the room on the other side of Darcy's room where Becca sat in an old rocking chair in the quickly put together nursery. She was trying to get a small bottle near Schuyler's mouth as she squirmed and screamed.
"Need help?" Lance asked.
Becca looked up, gratefully, "She
hasn't eaten. Nurse Helene said I should
try and see if I could get something in her."
"Here, you need to hold her a little more upright, give me the bottle," Lance laid the nipple against her tiny mouth and watched as she instinctively opened her mouth and sucked it in. He smiled as he felt the gentle tug as she sucked.
"Didn't they teach you about this in pre-med?" He teased lightly.
"Not yet, we're still on how the baby gets in there," she responded sardonically.
"It's completely different from books when you're actually holding the baby."
"How's Darcy?" Becca whispered.
"I haven't been in to see her yet, I woke up when I heard Schuyler and I came straight in here." Lance never lifted his gaze from his daughter.
"Will she be alright?"
"God I hope so." He whispered.
They watched in silence as Schuyler drained the bottle. "What is this, by the way?" Lance asked.
"It's a formula Nurse Helene swears by. She said it's a good enough substitute for breastfeeding since Darcy can't, well, you know…"
"Yeah," Lance carefully pulled the empty bottle from her mouth.
Becca wiped her mouth with the spit-up cloth she had over her shoulder and gently burped her niece, following Lance's instructions. "How do you know all this?" She asked him.
"I read a few books, we talked to Allura, we got a few hints. We also helped out a bit with Cady."
"It doesn't just come to you when the baby's born?"
Lance smiled weakly, "No. I wasn't even there when she was born."
Becca squeezed his hand gently and went back to rubbing Schuyler's back. "I contacted my parents, Lance, they're on their way."
He nodded.
******************************
"There you are, Lieutenant," Nurse Helene walked into the room a couple of hours later.
When Becca had gotten up to change the baby, Lance had pushed himself up out of his chair and hopped over to the rocking chair. When she finished, Lance held out his good arm for his daughter. He had no idea how much time passed while he watched Schuyler fuss and then fall asleep while he slowly rocked. Becca had left him alone so she could go shower and change, she had been in the hospital all night.
"How's Darcy?" He asked the nurse.
"No change, I'm afraid," Helene gave him a sympathetic smile.
"Can I see her?"
"Yes, but I would like to check and clean your wounds first. You really shouldn't be pushing yourself so much, you need to give yourself time to heal." She said as she carefully scooped the baby out of his arm.
"I'm fine." The truth was he had been trying to ignore the throbbing pain and had meant to ask for some kind of pain killer.
Darcy looked much the same as she had the night before when Lance steered his wheelchair into the room. It had taken a half hour for Nurse Helene to clean and redress his wounds. His leg and side weren't more than grazes, but his arm and shoulder were much worse. His arm was no longer taped to his side, but was still wrapped from his shoulder to his wrist.
He stopped beside the bed and took her hand in his, stroking the back of it with his thumb, "Darcy, I just spent the morning with Schuyler, she's amazing. I wish you would wake up already so you can meet her. They still won't let me bring her in here, so you're just going to have to snap out of it." He sighed and watched her, looking for some sign that she heard him. Of course there was none. "Remember when I had been hit by Haggar's spell and I was out of it for a while. You told me how hard it was for you waiting and watching, well, you're doing it to me now. That's pretty selfish of you, especially considering the fact that we have a baby to take care of now and I can't do that alone." His eyes traveled down her body. Her chest was moving slowly and her stomach was down quite a bit. It broke his heart to think that they had both missed the birth of their daughter. He silently cursed Lotor. But he was dead now, no longer a threat, and as glad as Lance was for that, part of him wished he had been the one to pull the trigger.
He brought her hand up to kiss her palm and then held it to his cheek, it was cold. "She has your nose, Darcy and you should see the hair. There's just a little tuft of hair that sticks up like a mohawk. Our little punk baby." He stopped when he saw her eyelids flutter. "Darcy, honey, can you hear me? Come on, wake up," he pleaded. "Open your eyes."
Very slowly, her eyes opened. They darted around and stopped, staring blankly at Lance.
"Darcy," he whispered.
She focused on him and stared.
"Can you talk?"
She brought her hand up and rested it on her stomach, suddenly her mouth fell open and a look of panic crossed her face.
"Its okay, Darc, its okay, she's
okay. The baby is okay," Lance quickly assured
her. "She's safe and she's
beautiful. Oh God, I am so glad you're
awake."
Darcy felt her eyes start to close.
"No, come on, stay awake, I'm going to call Dr. Gorma." Lance said, reaching for the switch.
All of a sudden, Darcy's eyes flew open and she gasped, arching her back as though she was in intense pain. The heart monitor raced and she gasped for breath.
Lance pressed the switch alerting Dr. Gorma and the nurse on duty that something wasn't right.
Everything that happened next was like a bad dream.
Dr. Gorma and Nurse Helene rushed in, pushing past Lance. They spoke to each other, saying thinks that made no sense to Lance. They also spoke to Darcy, speaking in soothing words, trying to calm her. Another nurse pushed Lance's wheelchair out of the room, telling him he needed to rest and to let the doctor do his job.
Keith stood in the hall. He had just come to check and see how everything was going when Lance was deposited outside Darcy's room.
"What's going on?" Keith asked.
"I don't know." Lance watched as Nurse Helene ran from the room and returned with a vial in her hand. He gripped the arm of the chair when he heard the steady tone of the heart monitor indicting that she was flat lining.
Keith dropped a reassuring hand on Lance's good shoulder and they stood in silence, waiting, until Dr. Gorma slowly walked out.
