Taking A Chance

Unusual Side Effects

Shiro met Krolia in the hanger.
‘How is he?' she asked. Her tone was abrupt and business like, giving nothing away of her worry. Her son had worked his way into her heart, something she never expected. He looked a lot like his father, from what she could remember of him anyway.
Frank Kogane was not much of a man, but he had suited her purpose at the time.
‘No good,' Shiro said, pulling her out of her thoughts. ‘Is there anything you know about velgatha that can help him?’
‘Like the Alteans, we didn't think the plant existed any more,’ she said. ‘I've not heard about it being available on the black market, so have no clue where it came from, and there has never been any word of a cure.’
‘Damn,' Shiro muttered.
As they came down the corridor, Krolia headed to Keith's room.
‘He's in here,' Shiro said, pointing to Lance's door.
She frowned and followed him inside. Their she found Keith asleep in Lance's arms.
‘What's this?' she demanded.
Shiro frowned. ‘Keith and Lance are together.’
'No, I won't allow this,’ she snapped. ‘I will not allow my son to be with...him.’
‘Hey,' said Lance. ‘What the hell.'
‘My son diserves better than a fool,’ she hissed.
‘Lance isn't a fool, and it's not up to you to say who Keith can date,' Shiro said.
‘He is my son,’ she said.
‘Only because you gave birth to him,’ said Shiro. ‘You never raised him.’
‘I want him back in his own room, and away from him,’ she said, pointing at Lance.
‘This is his room now,' said Lance, 'he moved in here with me.'
‘This is not why you're here,' Shiro said.
‘There's nothing I can do for him,’ she said. With that she left the room, and Shiro hurried after her.
‘KROLIA,’ Shiro yelled, running after her.
Adam appeared in the doorway of their room with Molly in his arms. when he heard Shiro yell out Krolia, he wanted to see Keith's mother. The Galran turned to Shiro and Adam could see the family resemblence. Her eyes flicked to Adam and frowned at the sight of the baby.
Shiro motioned him forward, and Adam moved out into the corridor.
‘Adam, this is Krolia,’ Shiro said.
‘It's nice to finally meet you, Keith has told me about you,’ Adam said. ‘This is Molly, I guess you could say she's your granddaughter. Keith and Lance rescued her and are going to raise her as theirs.‘
A frown tugged at her brow.
Molly turned and gazed at Krolia. The Galran moved slowly forward and ran the back of her index finger down Molly's check. Molly grinned and grabbed her finger.
‘Is Keith really serious about that fool?' she asked.
‘Lance isn't a fool,' said Shiro, ‘and they love each other, and he's been good for Keith.’
She sighed. ‘Just know, I don't have to like him, but I'll put up with him, for now.’
They went back to the room and found the bed empty. Seconds later, the bathroom door opened and Lance carried Keith out. Lance eyed Krolia as he moved past her and back to the bed and took up their previous positions.
Lance had removed his t-shirt whiIe in the bathroom because it was soaked with Keith's sweat and uncomfortable.
Lance picked up the smoothie and placed the straw to Keith's lips and he drank.
‘Has he been sick again?’ asked Shiro.
Lance shook his head. ‘But, he feels…slimy.’
Shiro moved over to them and touched Keith with his human hand.
‘He is,' said Shiro, as he looked at his hand. ‘It looks green in this light. I'm going to go and talk to Pidge and Coran.’ He hurried out of the room.
‘That's not one of the side effects of the poison,' said Krolia, ‘and I would have thought it would have progressed further because it was injected.’
Her eyebrows rose as Keith moved and buried his face into the left side of Lance's neck and gave a soft sigh. Suddenly, her eyes narrowed and she stopped closer to the bed.
‘What's that bite mark?’ she demanded.
‘Keith went through heat,' Lance said.
‘And you let him mate you?' she asked, anger flashing in her eyes.
‘He's my boyfriend, so of course I did,’ said Lance. He tried to keep his temper under
control.
‘Do you have any idea what this means for an Alpha to do that?’ she asked.
‘Yes, I do,’ said Lance. ‘I know the importance of it, and I may not be Galran, but I take this mark seriously.’
‘I doubt you could take anything seriously,’ she spat.
‘You know what, I don't know why you hate me, and I don't really care why,’ said Lance. ‘We were already together before he marked me, and I'm glad he did because it means neither you, or anyone else, can tear us apart.’
‘He knew I wanted him to mate a Galran,’ she said. ‘It was arranged, he was meant to call me and tell me when he was in heat, and I was going to bring her here.'
‘I guess he didn't like that idea,' Lance snapped. He hated the thought of Keith with some random Galran female. Obviously, Keith had plans of his own he didn't tell his mother about. It was so like Keith to do the opposite someone demanded of him.
Lance absently brought up his left hand and gently ran it through the back of Keith's hair. He purred softly, the vibrations going through his chest. Lance smiled.
Krolia took a shocked breath. ‘He's purring. That is a rare trait in an alpha.‘
Adam moved to sit onthe bed will Molly, who'd fallen asleep.
‘Why is it?’ asked Adam.
‘Most alpha's will mate with a beta or omega when they smell their heat,’ said Krolia. ‘If they feel inexplicably drawn to them, an alpha will mark them so no other alpha will mate them, kind of like humans getting married. Every so often, an alpha will find a mate outside of heat, I guess a soulmate for a better description. When they have this deep a connection the alpha will purr at their mates touch.‘
‘So, Keith considers Lance his soulmate,’ Adam said.
‘Yes,' she said. She sat on the chair at the desk and studied Lance. She opened her mouth to say something when the door opened and Pidge and Coran hurried in with Shiro.
‘His body's rejecting the poison,’ said Pidge, as she ran her fingers over Keith's skin, 'the, slime on his skin has polyphenols mixed in it.’
‘What are they?' asked Lance.
‘Compounds found in plant foods that can act as antioxidants, that can neutralize harmful free radicals that damage cells in the body,’ Pidge said.
Lance glanced at the glass on the table next to the bed. ‘Hunk made him a strawberry smoothie.’
‘STRAWBERRIES,' she yelled, and ran from the room.
‘Pidge?' called Shiro, as he and Coran followed her totally confused.
She burst into Hunk's room.
‘HUNK,' she yelled.
Hunk gave a girly scream and threw the book he was reading into the air.
‘I need you to make Keith more strawberry smoothie, lots of strawberries,’ she said. She turned and ran back out at the room and straight into Shiro, knocking them both to the floor.
Pidge sat up, straddling Shiro. ‘The strawberries in the smoothie have polyphenols in them,’ she said, excitedly, ‘and it's driving the poison from his body.’
Shiro looked up at Adam staring down at him with a smirk on his face.
Hunk came out of the room and looked at them confused. Pidge leapt to her freet, grabbed Hunk's hand and dragged him towards the kitchen. Coran followed calling out questions.
Adam reached out his hand and pulled Shiro to his feet.
‘She's a little firecracker that one,’ Adam said.
Shiro nodded. ‘Tell me about it. I better go and tell Matt and Sam what's going on,’ Shiro said.
Ten minutes later, Hunk and Pidge turned up in the room with another smoothie.
‘He needs to drink them until the poison is out of his system,' Pidge said.
‘Okay,’ said Lance, ‘how long will it take?’
‘I don't know,’ she admitted, ‘he'll need to be monitored, and I guess it will depend on how much he drinks each time. This one has more strawberries than the last one, so the secretion from his skin will become worse.'
‘Call me when you need more,' Hunk said.
Lance nodded and they left.
Swapping the drink to his other hand, Lance put the straw to Keith's lips.
‘Here, baby. You need to drink this to get better,' he muttered.
Krolia watched as Lance encouraged Keith to keep drinking.
‘What are...strawberries?' asked Krolia.
‘A fruit found on Earth,’ said Lance. ‘Keith's favourite, actually.’
‘Oh,' she said.
‘You didn't have any when you were on Earth?’ he asked.
‘I was only there a week,’ she said. ‘I was sent there while in heat to mate with a human male to see if we could breed successfully with them. Very few Galra would go against Zarkon, and we needed to build our army.'
‘So, it was all some sort of experiment?' asked Lance, appalled.
‘Some children looked Galra, and some human,’ she said with a shrug, ‘human children were taken back to their father's while we kept the Galran ones. We didn't know the human children could have the ability to change their form until we met Keith.'
Lance looked down at Keith and his stomach clenched. A tear rolled down Keith's cheek. He had heard their conversation.
‘You need to leave,' Lance said.
‘But…’ she began.
‘Now,’ Lance said.
She stood and was about to protest when she saw a tear slide down Keith's check. She looked at Lance in horror. This was not how he was meant to find out. She had planned on telling him everything, but could never find the right time. To her it was nothing, something that needed to be done for the good of the cause they were fighting for.
She looked at Lance's angry face and left the room. She felt strange inside at the thought she had been the cause of Keith's tears. Emotions didn't do you any good in a war zone, something she had tried to teach Keith during his time with the Blade, and something he could never understand. His anger fueled fighting and not always for the better.