Chapter 3
Pidge didn't know it, but her comm line had still been open during her conversation with Allura, and as such the other paladins all got to hear with growing horror about their youngest member's previous experience with cave-ins. The sound of her quiet sob was also enough to drive them to dig even faster.
Hunk was the first to pull aside a boulder and uncover Allura's feet, which he gave a quick nudge to in order to let her know he was there. Both boots twitched in return, and then Keith was helping him pull more rocks and soil away from the spot. By the time they'd dug far enough to reveal the princess' knees, Pidge's feet were also visible, and all four paladins were working together in the same area.
Eventually, they'd cleared enough of the surrounding rubble for Allura to push herself free, one arm still wrapped around Pidge's shoulders. Both took great, deep breaths of fresh air, before thanking their teammates.
"I think we're all going to have aversions to caves for a while after this," the princess said wryly, sending a quick glance in Pidge's direction.
"I'd say it's rocket launchers we should have an aversion to!" Lance tried to joke, getting mild grins from the others. Pidge even let loose a small chuckle, pushing herself to her feet - and promptly falling flat again. Or, she would have, if Keith didn't jump forward at the last second to catch her.
"Okay, no one who just spent twenty minutes underneath a pile of boulders is going to walk on their own," Shiro announced. With Lance and Keith supporting Pidge, he offered his own hand to Allura to lean on. "Let's head back to the Castle - we can worry about intelligence gathering later."
-Y-
After a few hours spent in the healing pods, both Allura and Pidge were fully recovered - in the physical sense, anyway. As far as mentally recovered went... The fact that the green paladin immediately went and hid in her lion's hangar let everyone know that she wasn't handling the recent misadventure all that well.
Shiro was about to go check on her only to be stopped by Allura's hand on his shoulder.
When the princess first entered the green lion's hangar, she couldn't help but smile a tad at the ordered chaos of Pidge's assorted projects and workstations. The paladin herself, however, was seated up on Green's head, staring at something on her open laptop screen. She didn't appear to have noticed Allura's arrival, though her lion's quiet rumble was enough of an alert.
"Oh, hey, Princess."
"Hello, Pidge. Do you mind if I join you?"
"Uh, no. Come on up." Green lowered a bit to give Allura an easier climb, and she swiftly clambered up to take a seat beside the other girl. Pidge merely continued to stare at her screen, which was open to a saved image file: one with four dirt-stained, brown-haired humans embracing in the middle of a rather large crowd.
"That's the picture that went into the newspaper, when Matt and I were rescued from the cave," Pidge murmured, wiping surreptitiously at her eyes. "None of us even noticed the reporter - we were too busy, being relieved that the rescue team managed to pull us out."
Without a word, Allura scooted over to tuck the smaller girl against her side, giving her a one-armed hug at the same time.
"I just- I miss them so much-"
"We'll find them, Pidge. And then we'll pull off just as successful a rescue mission as those humans who got you out of that cave." The two of them stayed there a while, Allura letting Pidge burrow into her as stress and fear were released through tears. Shiro poked his head in at one point, saw them, and quickly retreated again.
When the girls did eventually emerge from Green's hangar, the rest of the team were present and waiting to catch the both of them in a big group hug, their youngest laughing as she was squashed in the very center of it.
