WEP owns everything except the voices inside my head... and my insomnia, but they can have that if they want it...

FroofyB - I didn't necessarily intend Hunk to be the one Keith ended up turning to, but he was certainly the only one to try to control an enraged Keith. That put him in the perfect situation to try and figure things out.

Limetwist - Yup - sleep deprivation can be horrible. As an insomniac, I put a lot of my experiences into Keith's.

Sunshineleo - Oh Allura's definitely dying to find out what's going on, but she's torn between concern for Keith's well being and wanting to know what Lance was going on about. It will certainly come up again...

cubbieBlueMako - Did you notice pink pillow's cousin, pink blanket? *lol* There will be a cure for Keith, but things are going to get worse before they get better...

Smithy - I'm not a big fan of Nanny either.

After a short search, Hunk finds Lance and Pidge in the lounge that the team has taken over as their recreation room. The two men are sitting on one of the couches, idly watching a group of small pastel mice do tricks on the coffee table.

They both look up as the door opens and Hunk walks into the room. "Hey, Hunk. How's Keith doing?" There is concern and a hint of guilt evident in Lance's voice as he asks about their captain quietly.

"To be honest, I'm kinda worried about him. Once I got him out of the room and into the hallway, he just wilted. He looked utterly defeated and got real passive. It was like all the air just left him. I've never seen him look so exhausted. I managed to get him into one of the lounges downstairs and he admitted that he hasn't slept much in the last few weeks. Knowing him, that means it's probably more like a couple of months since he's had a good night's rest. Apparently his insomnia's back with a vengeance."

"That would explain his moods lately… Damn, I wish he would have said something. I would have backed off and let him be." Lance sighs and frowns, shaking his head.

"Lance, you know he'd never admit there was something wrong unless we asked point blank. Remember how long he hid it leading up to finals back at the Academy? He's pretty good at concealing the symptoms for a while. Heck, it took a month for anyone to figure it out back then and he's had more practice since." Pidge shrugs and exhales deeply through his nose.

"I'd really be surprised if this has been going on for less than six weeks, but if I was betting, I'd wager closer to eight or ten." Hunk looks at his friends and sighs. "Hopefully he's sleepin' now. He just had a really big adrenaline rush wear off, so there's a good chance it will at least let him get a couple of hours in."

"Yeah, well what makes this situation even worse than just Keith's insomnia problem is that Allura was there and you heard what Lance said… And she started asking questions…" Pidge looks at Hunk meaningfully.

Hunk's eyes grow wide as he realizes what Pidge is telling him. "You didn't tell her, did you?"

"Course not, big guy. We told her to talk to Keith. Not that he's going to like that either. I know this isn't how he wanted her to find out… Man he's gonna kill me…" Lance can't hide the look of guilt and regret that crosses his face.

Leaving Keith asleep in the lounge, Allura searches out the rest of the team hoping to get some answers. She is not surprised to find them in what serves as the team ready room. As she walks in, all conversation immediately stops. She takes in the slightly guilty expressions on the faces of the three men sitting on the couch and pouts out of the side of her mouth. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you three were up to something." Her eyes narrow as she looks at them each in turn. "What's going on?"

Lance, Pidge, and Hunk look at each other and shrug in unison before turning their attention back to the woman standing before them.

"C'mon, guys. Will one of you *please* tell me what's going on? You're all worrying me." Her azure gaze flits from one face to the next, pleading for answers.

"Alright, Princess, but there really isn't much to tell." Lance shrugs and sighs softly. "We're just concerned about Keith. I dunno if he ever mentioned it to you or not, but he suffers from insomnia from time to time. Normally, it's not a big deal and he has it under control, but when it acts up, he hardly gets any sleep at all. The longer it lasts, the more erratic his moods get and the harder it gets to live with the-", Lance stops speaking abruptly, closes his eyes, takes a deep breath as he censors himself and then opens his eyes continuing, "I mean him. Apparently, he's been suffering lately and hadn't bothered to tell anyone he was having trouble sleeping. Not that it's surprising that he's been keeping it to himself." Lance shakes his head and sighs helplessly as he looks up at her.

"Well, he's sleeping now. I just came from the lounge outside Castle Control and he was fast asleep on the couch. Is there anything we can do to help him?" Allura looks at the Red Lion pilot hopefully.

"Good, I was hopin' he'd be able to get some sleep after his face off with Lance. The guy is seriously sleep deprived right now. He's been hiding this for quite a while. I'm still surprised we didn't figure it out sooner…" The large man's voice trails off as his gaze falls to the floor in front of him.

"Hunk, like we said before, he's become quite an expert at hiding the signs for longer and longer periods of time." Pidge looks at the princess as he shrugs and sighs wearily. "We know he's been doing it since the Academy at least, probably even before that… He sees it as a sign of weakness and you know how much he hates to admit that he needs help."

"There has to be something we can do for him. He can't go on like this indefinitely." Allura looks at each of the men on the sofa before her, willing them to provide a solution for their captain's problem.

"I wish I knew what would help him, Princess. It seems like each time he goes through this it takes something different to help him out of it. Really, any sleep he can get is a good thing right now, but other than that... He's gotta be running on empty…" Lance trails off helplessly.