Don't drown me

Chapter one

     The mission was going great, the locals had been saved, and voltron formed an alliance with them. Allura was talking with their leaders, Keith and hunk were with her, pidge was investigating the technology there, and lance was... lance was where? Well, shiro was on the hunt for lance now, he was probably off learning about the culture, but he didn't seem anywhere near the others. Shiro decided he would ask anyone else if they've seen lance, he decided to start with hunk and Keith, space Dad approached.
     "Hey guys, have you seen lance anywhere?" The pair turned around at Shiro's words, hunk spoke up first, "He's probably flirting with some alien girls." Hunk chuckled at his own words, "tch." Keith's expression formed into worry for a moment, before being masked with annoyance. "Alright then, I'll keep looking." Shiro walked off to find Pidge, she and lance were close, they were friends at the garrison!
     "Hey Shiro!" A young voice beamed, Shiro turned around to find pidge, holding some tech stuff to take onto the ship with her. "Hey pidge, just a question have you seen lance anywhere? Nobody else has seen him." Pidge thought for a moment, then answered, "Have you checked any group of locals? Lance is a social person, unlike me." Shiro nodded, "yes I have..." Lance was the self proclaimed, Ultimate Anthropologist. Shiro, just like Keith, was starting to worry. Lance just disappeared! That's not like him! "Maybe he's in the castle, here I'll help you look." Pidge started to walk towards the castle as Shiro followed.
     Pidge and Shiro were within eye sight of the castle when Pidge's face paled and she dropped her stuff. "Woah! Pidge are you okay?" Pidge broke into a sprint, whispering something shiro couldn't decipher, he took off after her. A loud, pained shriek came from Pidge. Shiro ran up to her and paled at the sight. Lance was laying on the ground, just in front of his lion, with a spear through his back. There was a blood trail leading from away from the town, from the wound in his leg; indicating he had tried to run. Shiro just stared, he couldn't believe his eyes; Lance McClain, the lively Cuban boy who always cracked jokes at the right time to lift the team up, was laying in a pool of his own blood. His skin was pale, his eyes wide open from shock.
     Pidge dropped to her knees, whimpering as she hit the ground. Shiro turned on his comms, his voice shaky and weak "team, team come in." Keith's voice responded immediately, "yeah shiro?" Tears started to form at the corners of his eyes. "Get to the blue lion." "Why what happened?" Hunks voice came through worried, "don't question me just get here!" Shiro snapped, he didn't want to believe this. This wasn't happening, he was dreaming, he ate something weird and he's hallucinating. Suddenly shiro was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw movement, he kept staring at lance, analyzing him. Out of nowhere, lance twitched! Was he alive? Shiro rushed forward, checking for a pulse, it was barely there, but still existent. "Coran, get a pod ready!" Shiro said frantically, trying to figure out how to get him there. "Alright, on it." The alteans voice came through.
     "Shiro what-" Keith stopped. Hunk was soon to follow, he said nothing, he just dropped to his knees. Keith clenched his fists, angry, he yelled "this is my fault. I knew something was wrong but I didn't check on him." Shiro placed a shaky hand on Keith's shoulder, staring him in the eyes. "This was not your fault Keith. Right now we need to focus on getting lance into a-" a blood curdling scream came from behind everyone, everyone snapped around to see allura, she looked pale "sorry paladins, the situation just....surprised me." Allura walked towards lance and took out the spear, an indescribable noise came from lance, one could only describe it as pain.
     Lance was in the healing pod now, his frail body being held up. Nobody had handled  the attack on lance well, Keith blamed himself for noticing lance was gone for more than 2 Vargas, hunk blamed himself for not sticking with his best friend, allura blamed herself for not looking after her team. Shiro just, did nothing, he stayed in the infirmary all the time, Keith would come bring him food and water and they'd eat together. Which brings us to pidge, pidge stayed holed up in the green lions hangar, there had to be surveillance on her all the time. At certain times Allura would bring her food, not that she would eat much. At night someone would have to be in the hangar, to help pidge with the night terrors that came with the scene she had to see.
     One night, shiro was on pidge duty, and that was the first time she talked in days. Shiro had heard her screaming and ran over to investigate, pidge had clung to shiro sobbing, yelling, thrashing. Her broken voice haunted shiro, it made him weep and sorrowful, "When ever I close my eyes he's there shiro... sometimes I have dreams he's okay but when I blink he's bloody and-" pidge had collapsed into shiros arms, a sobbing, hiccuping mess. Shiro grabbed a blanket and didn't leave her side that night.
     Shiro sat in the infirmary, Keith had fallen asleep on his shoulder, but Shiro didn't move. He just stared, at the young boy he once saw so lively, now almost a statue. This wasn't the first time lance was in a healing pod, and he hopes this will be the last time. Keith was drooling a little on Shiro, but he didn't care, he couldn't sleep, not when lance could come out anytime. Lance was significantly less pale, less bloody, and he just looked less dead. The next thing Shiro knew Coran was bringing him and Keith breakfast, Keith began to eat his meal, but Shiro just stared at it. Had it really been that long? He was only in the infirmary, it reminded him of galra captivity, where time became a blur, perhaps his mind held the same sorrow and trauma.
     "Shiro, you need to eat." Keith said, tiredly. Shiro nodded and began to eat, he wondered how Pidge had slept. He finished his food goo, and stood up, he made his way to the exit of the infirmary. "Where are you going?" Keith questioned, it held a sense of panic, Keith had serious separation issues, he feels at any moment someone will just get up and leave him; it's worse with Shiro, since he's disappeared on Keith once already. "Just to stretch my legs, want to come?" Shiro smiled, trying to have a little positivity. Keith thought for a moment or two, before answering, "No, you go sleep, I'll keep watch on lance." Keith looked down, Shiro frowned, he had been up all night, but he didn't feel tired, he supposed Keith was right, he needed to sleep. So that's what he did.