Taking A Chance

Family

Keith turned and stood next to Lance as they waited for them to land.
‘Look at the size of that thing,’ Marco said, as he and Jorge came out of the house.
Shiro and Adam exited Black, and Keith and Lance hurried down to meet them.
‘So, how's it been going?' asked Adam, taking Molly.
‘Better than expected,’ said Keith. ‘How are the preparations for the Coalition coming along?’
‘Slowly,’ Shiro admitted.
He looked haggard and Keith decided not to ask him anymore questions.
A steady stream of food was brought out as they walked back to the house where Maria and Jorge waited for them. Lance performed introductions.
‘Come, let's sit and eat,' Jorge said, motioning to the table. ‘We want to thank you for looking after our son, and for bringing him home safe.’
‘And I'm sure that was a difficult job,’ said Maria. ‘As his parents we know all to well what he can be like.'
‘Hey,’ Lance protested.
Maria chuckled at him.
Maria and Jorge sat across from Shiro and Adam at the centre of the table, and introduced their other children.
‘What happened to your arm?' asked Veronica, staring at Shiro.
‘Veronica,' snapped Maria, ‘don't be rude to our guest.'
‘It's fine,’ said Shiro. ‘I lost it to the Galra, who replaced it with this.’
‘You must hate them,’ Veronica said.
‘Not all of them,’ said Shiro. ‘Like any race, some are good and some are bad.'
Everyone settled at the table and food was passed around.
‘This is really good, Maria,' Adam said.
‘Thank you,’ she said smiling. ‘I love cooking for the family, and even more so today because Lance is home, and he has brought Keith and Molly to meet us.'
‘I'm sorry about the distress you were caused when Lance was presumed dead,’ Shiro said.
‘It was heartbreaking,' admitted Jorge, 'but we have him back now, and we understand what happened.’
‘More importantly,' said Veronica, ‘how did two kids in your care end up having sex and getting engaged.’
'Veronica, consigue tu plato y entra,’ (Veronica, get your plate and get inside) Maria snapped.
The table had gone quiet as Veronica snatched up her plate and marched into the house.
‘Luis, please take Leo and Rachel in and sit with Veronica, you may put a movie on.'
‘Yes, mama,' Luis said. The three younger kids hurried inside, excited about being able to watch a movie and not be caught up in boring adult talk.
‘I'm sorry for my daughter,' said Maria. ‘That was uncalled for. Any parent knows that there is always something out of their control because you cannot watch them around the clock. All you can do is guide them and hope they make the right decisions.'
‘Lance has always been honest with us,' said Jorge, ‘and we knew he'd already had partners before. It's funny, we have been more Ienient with Lance because there was no way he would get a girl in trouble, yet he’s come home with a baby.’
‘I'm sure that was a shock,' Shiro said.
‘A welcome one,' said Maria, grinning. ‘As was Keith. You both must be very proud of him.'
‘We are,' said Adam. ‘He has come a long way from when we first fostered him.’
‘Did you foster other kids?' ask Marco.
‘Two before Keith,’ said Shiro. ‘They were a lot younger, one 3 and the other 2. They were short term fosters while their parents got themselves back on track.’
‘I think we both knew we would adopt Keith when we first met him,' Adam said. Molly sat on his knee and tasted things from Adam’ s plate, and making a mess in the process.
‘Da?' said Molly.
Keith stood and went over to her. ‘What do you want, monkey?’
‘Da,’ she grinned and held her arms up.
‘You are a mess,' said Keith, wiping her hands and face with a napkin before going back to his seat with her.
'Pa,’ she said when she saw Lance, who grinned and tickled her turnmy making her laugh.
Racheal came running from the house.
‘Mama, can we have icecream, please?' she asked.
‘Yes, sweetheart you can,' Maria said.
‘Thank you, mama,' she said, then ran around the other side of the table.
‘Keith, can Molly come and have icecream with us?' she asked.
‘Sure, I'm sure she'd love that,’ Keith said.
‘Yay,' Racheal said, grinning.
Racheal reached out and took Molly in her arms and hurried back to the house.
Shiro smiled. ‘It's so peaceful here,’ said Shiro, ‘it's been so long since I've felt so relaxed.’
‘I love not having the hum of the castle engines around me constantly,' said Lance. ‘Oh, we all so wanted to know if we could have the wedding here.’
Lance's parents faces lit up. ‘Of course you can,’ Jorge said.
After that they were all swept up in wedding planning talk, something they were all excited about.
It was late by the time Shiro and Adam left in Black, and Keith and Lance cleared the table and did the dishes much to Maria's delight.
‘Goodnight boy's,’ Maria said. She went and kissed both of them on the check before ushering all the younger kids to bed.
Molly had been change and put to bed when they'd first come in.
Keith and Lance finally crawled into bed, exhausted from the day. Lance lay behind Keith and snuggled up to him and they soon fell asleep.
A couple of hours later, Keith was woken by Lance mumbling in his sleep. Keith wasn't fully awake when Lance sat up and screamed Keith's name in terror.
Lance leapt out of bed as Maria and Jorge came through the door.
Keith jumped up. ‘Hey, it's okay,' he said to Lance who was shaking badly.
Lance focused on Keith and a sob escaped his throat and Keith pulled him into his embrace.
‘Mama, what's going on?’ asked Luis.
‘It's okay kids, go back to bed. Lance just had bad dream,’ said Maria. ‘Veronica, put them back to be please.’
Jorge and Marco had gone into the room and closed the door. Lance shook so much, his legs gave way and Keith sank to the floor with him, holding him tight to him. Lance clung to him as if he would disappear at any moment.
‘You're okay,' Keith muttered. He rubbed Lance's back as he sobbed.
Maria slipped into the room and closed the door again. They were alarmed at how badly Lance shook as he cIung to Keith.
‘Do you know what the nightmare was about?’ asked Marco.
‘I have a good idea,’ said Keith. Lance's arms tightened around him even more. ‘Sorry to wake everyone.’
‘You don't need to apologize for this,’ said Maria, gently. ‘What was it about?’
‘I was injured before we came home,' Keith said.
‘Injured how?’ asked Jorge.
Keith sighed. He knew they wanted to know what was going on, but he didn't know how Lance felt about telling them.
‘Lance?' asked Keith. Lance nodded.
‘Okay, so Lance, Shiro and I went on a mission for the Blade of Mamora,’ said Keith. ‘Unfortunately, it didn't go to plan and I was stabbed. The blade broke off and they needed to get the broken piece of blade out.’
‘I had…to hold him down…while Shiro…used his fingers to dig it out,’ Lance said as he tried to calm down. Keith rubbed a hand slowly over his back, only pausing long enough
toreach up to the bedside table and grabbed his datapad. Logging into the castle surveillance system, he opened up one of the files and handed it to Maria. Jorge and Marco gathered around her as she played the clip of Shiro bringing Keith to the med bay and they watched in horror as Lance lost it when the pod didn't turn on.
‘Oh, Keith,' Maria muttered, as she handed the datapad back to Keith.
‘When did that happen?’ asked Marco.
‘I was in the healing pod just over 4 weeks,' said Keith, ‘I came out this morning we got back to Earth.’
‘I know we have lots of questions,' muttered Jorge, ‘but it's late and we could all use some sleep.’
Jorge opened the door and the three of them left Keith and Lance alone, closing the door behind them.
‘So what's going on with the cry baby?’ asked Veronica, folding her arms in annoyance.
Jorge frowned. ‘Go to bed, Veronica, and give them a break they've been through a lot.’
Veronica rolled her eyes and huffed, before stalking off to her room.