"How long has it been since you last slept?" Keith stopped next to Lance, peering over his shoulder into the infirmary.
Pidge occupied the bed closest to the door, she hadn't moved in days. She had spent a couple hours in the healing pod, but when she was finally released she still hadn't regained consciousness. It was starting to worry even Coran who had assured them that she would wake up soon.
Lance, who had turned his head at Keith's approach, turned his attention back to the room, and Pidge, who was still out cold. "It's been a day, maybe two." Lance replied with a shrug. He stifled a yawn as he adjusted his position from standing straight up to leaning on the doorframe.
"You need to sleep, Lance. I can watch her."
"Even if I tried to, I wouldn't."
The past few nights Lance hadn't left the infirmary. The thought of leaving Pidge had been too much to think about so he stayed. The few times he did doze off, his slumber didn't last long before the nightmares began. After the second time he stayed awake, too anxious to fall asleep. He could feel the exhaustion inside fighting with his consciousness. He was sure that everyone had noted the dark circles under his eyes when they came by.
"Lance, it's not-"
"No, don't start that with me." Lance said cutting Keith off, "My job was to watch her and I failed to do that. I took my eyes off her for just two seconds, and then everything went to hell. I'm not doing that again." There was a fierce protectiveness in his gaze that Keith had never seen from Lance.
Keith closed his mouth after Lance cut him off. He glanced into the sleeping form of Pidge and then back to Lance who had returned his gaze to the bed. His stance relaxing slightly after seeing her still in the bed. "We watched the footage from the Paladin suits again and again. Coran's thinking the bombs malfunctioned. It had nothing to do with you not watching her back. No one knew what was going to happen."
Lance's only response was his hands tightening on the arms crossed over his body. Just when Keith was going to walk away Lance's voice halted him. "Has Hunk gotten the information from Pidge's suit?"
Sighing Keith turned to look over his shoulder at Lance. Hunk had been in the lab working non-stop since the mission to retrieve the information Pidge had been so desperate to get. "He says any day now, but everyone's thinking the same thing. The suit might be too damaged to retrieve anything from it."
Lance turned to the others spread throughout the room, giving them the agreed upon signal. After receiving a thumbs up in return from everyone else they bee-lined it for the control panel.
When he arrived Pidge was already settled behind downloading data. Hunk was next to her arming the bombs from a tablet. It had only been a minute since they had entered the room, but Lance, Keith, and Shiro all glanced nervously at the door waiting for Galra sentries to break through at any second.
"You guys need to chill for a second." Pidge said, turning back to look at the trio, "We'll hear them long before they break through."
"Coran said we had fifteen minutes to get in and out, We currently have five." Keith shot back. His nerves were getting to him, Lance could tell that much despite the calm tone his voice carried.
Pidge only turned her attention back to the screen displayed above her arm, eyebrows scrunched together in concentration. Lance smiled, He could stare at that face all day long. It was adorable how her face got when she was focused, her eyes shone with excitement as she watched the download bar get closer to the end.
"Dude, now is not the time to be gawking over your girlfriend," Keith said.
Shiro rested a hand on Keith's shoulder, a silent but firm reminder to take a deep breath and chill.
A sharp annoying beep came from all of them, the timers that had been set were now at a minute, and this was their final warning.