The Stars Between -- (VLD)

[48] limp lump of fusi

Lance stared intently at the dark grey stone of the wall in front of him, seemingly focussed on the cracks in the rock.

It started at approximately head height, and near the edge of the ceiling connected to a massive web of lines and fractures. It was like looking at a broken window, or the home of a trigger happy spider.

But Lance wasn't really looking at the wall. His intense gaze took in absolutely nothing, fixated in the centre of the spider-on-crack web but somewhere far away, trapped within the cogs and springs of his brain, whirring so loud surely everyone else could hear it.

Lance was thinking - or, he had been, until he got an unbidden thought of Pidge laughing. 'Lance can think?'

He frowned, shaking the image from his head and looking down to his hands.

Lance held a tiny vial, twirling it between his fingers. A tiny air bubble slipped from the bottom of the murky liquid and floated to the top as he watched.

The contents of this vial had saved Olly's life.

Increasing cell production rate ran the risk of increasing the rate of the virus' spread. He needed to somehow slow it down.

A lot of testing was going to have to be conducted.

"Y'know normally when you're waiting in a medbay with someone's life on the line, you notice when the person you're waiting for wakes up."

Lance started, gripping the vial tighter as it tried to slip through his fingers. Hastily he tucked it back in his pouch, keeping it from any further danger.

He'd been sitting in the same position for a long time, and as he shifted bones in his body moved, popping loudly as they snapped back into their original place. His whole body felt weirdly stiff.

The only word he could think of that kind of described it was crunchy, and as the bones in his neck ground together slightly he nodded to himself.

Yeah. Crunchy.

"You scared the heebie jeebies out of me!" Lance complained, taking in the paleness of Olly's face. He supposed it should be expected, with what she'd just gone through.

"Oh, stop being so dramatic, heebie jeebies only appear when Zarkon's witch sends them to quash rebellion."

"I-" Lance paused, blinking. "What?"

"Heebie jeebies." Olly said, a little confused. Then again, that could have been Lance's own confusion mirrored on her face. "They can destroy an entire planet's population in one night."

"Olly, no- the- oh my god," Lance let out a short laugh. "The heebie jeebies is just an expression."

She raised an eyebrow. "Wow, you humans are weird."

"So we've been told."

Olly giggled weakly. "Imagine believing the heebie jeebies can possess you," she murmured to herself, before looking around the room. "Hey, where's Roy?"

"She-" Lance stopped.

Where was Roy? He actually hadn't seen her since they had entered the caves. Why wasn't she sitting here with him, gnawing on her finger nails as they waited for her partner to wake from a serious operation.

"You know what? Good question" Lance brought his hand to his chin in thought, and Olly frowned.

"That's what I was afraid of..." she said softly, hands clenching.

"What do you mea—"

"Put this into perspective, Lance." Olly said, tone harsher than she probably intended. "Roy stabbed me. I nearly died. She blames herself. Zachesl, it's like you don't even know her."