Hey there! So, after a while I finally wrote this one, huh? Lance is one of the more challenging characters for me but I'm hoping the more I write him, the better I will become at him. He's just least like my own personality but he's also more mature post-season 8. So, that balance is interesting but let's do this! I hope you enjoy.

2. I'll Stand By You

Who had they been? Why had they been hurting Pidge? Ok, so Lance had only come in on the tail end of things, but he could not help but keep wishing that he had come in a little sooner. He could have protected her – saved her if he had just come in before. Lance took out his phone once Pidge was in the ambulance, getting in his car to follow and putting the phone on handsfree as he called Matt.

Come on, Matt, pick up, Pidge needs you. It only took a few rings before Matt answered.

"Lance, is everything ok?" Matt sounded a bit concerned and he knew why. While they talked, they did not talk nearly as often as he did with Shiro or the others.

"Pidge," was all Lance managed to get out, trying to get the basics out first. He knew he needed to explain more but he needed a moment more to gather himself. The way those girls had been hurting Pidge. Seeing her curled up into a ball covered in blood sent shivers down his spine the more he thought about it. In all their time as Voltron, he had always seen her as so strong even if that was more due to her brains than any physical strength but maybe they should have trained her to fight. Why had they never thought of that? To defend herself physically at a time when none of them could be around.

"Lance? Lance? Are you still there? What happened to her?" Matt's voice was slightly panicked but Lance could tell that the other was trying to remain calm even though it wasn't easy to do so, and he could relate.

"I don't know," Lance admitted. "We were supposed to meet up and go find Blue because Pidge had found a lead to bringing Allura back. But when I got here, there were some girls. They had beaten Pidge up. She was bleeding so much."

"Do you know who they were?" Matt asked and Lance could hear that Matt had begun to drive.

"No, but we're headed to the hospital," Lance said softly. "Pidge wanted me to call you, can you meet us there? I'll share my location."

"Yeah, of course, I'm on my way now," Matt said. "Try to stay calm, ok? We'll get to the bottom of this."

"Yeah," Lance said as he hung up, trying to focus on the road ahead. He knew all of them had lives before having become Paladins and somehow, he didn't know why but it was as if those girls had a personal grudge against Pidge that they had waited till she was alone to take out on her. Maybe he could ask Matt – although he wasn't sure Matt would divulge his sister's secrets without her permission, but he would tell them something, right? Especially if it could help Pidge.

He knew he would need to tell the others eventually, but he needed to make sure she was okay first. He didn't like keeping secrets – not from his friends but his mind kept flashing back to the fact that she had asked him only to call Matt. What if there was something deeper about those girls that she didn't want him to know, that she didn't want any of them to know? But why? They were all family, weren't they? Why would she keep secrets from them after everything they had gone through together?

Arriving at the hospital, he parked his car and followed the stretcher inside. Unfortunately, he was forced to wait in the waiting room which caused him to pace back and forth. No, he couldn't tell the others yet. While the others would respect Pidge's privacy, he didn't know everything either and he had never seen her like this before, so he had to make sure.

Matt got there surprisingly quickly, rushing over to him.

"How is she?" Matt asked him and Lance shook his head.

"I don't know," Lance admitted. "No one's told me anything yet. I don't get it, who would hurt her?"

Matt sighed. "I have a guess."

Lance raised an eyebrow. "You do?" So, Matt did know something about it. "Can you tell me anymore than that?"

Matt hesitated before he sighed. "She won't be happy with me for this, but I think it's about time you guys knew about it. But she was bullied at school when she was a child."

"We know that much and that she had trouble making friends before she met us," Lance admitted before pausing a moment and his eyes widened. "Wait, those girls…they were…" It made so much more sense now on why Pidge looked the way she did and if he had come any later, what would they have done to her? They had some nerve doing that to the Green Paladin of Voltron, if something like that got out, there would be hell to pay. But he had a feeling Pidge wouldn't want it to. She hadn't even tried to tell him what had really happened.

"It's just my feeling," Matt said softly with a shrug. "Katie doesn't have many enemies outside of them and it's not out of ordinary for them to become jealous of how well known she's become. Some people don't grow up."

Lance nodded. "Right. If they tell you anything about her, let me know, ok?"

Matt frowned. "Where are you going, Lance? She'll want to see you. You're the one who saved her."

Lance smiled. "I'll be right back. Whether people find out or not, we need to keep anything like this from happening again. I'm just going to make sure we do that properly." He stepped aside and moved to call Keith. He would have called Hunk first but if there was anyone who knew fighting and knew it well, it was Keith. He would just have to make sure Keith didn't hunt down the bullies first. They needed to teach Pidge to physically defend herself, not become her shield when she was attacked. That would not help her in the long run and as much as he was willing to jump in front of her as her shield, he knew that was not the solution. She needed to be prepared in case someone should attack her when none of them were around.