Wait (Keith Kogane X OC)

Chapter 20

A/N: Yeah... so I get emotional watching that goodbye scene, just because I've moved so many times and I hate saying goodbye, but man, writing it was way worse than just watching it. I was literally sobbing at 11:30 at night as I wrote it. Anyways, things start to calm down from here. Just a few more chapters to do. I think there's like, two left.

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For three days, Keith refused to move from his chair in Sarah's room in the medical wing. He sat near her bed, watching over her to make sure she continued to breathe. After the loss of Allura he couldn't imagine losing Sarah too.

"I think you should go to your room to rest," Shiro said when he came to check on his friends. "You'll be the first to know when she wakes up."

Keith didn't budge. He took one of Sarah's hands and traced patterns into the palm of her hand with his thumb. "I wasn't there when she woke up the last time, and... you know what happened." He knew that another case of memory loss was unlikely, but the fear still loomed over him.

"Would you do it all again if the same thing happened?"

Keith took a deep breath to help process Shiro's question and think of an answer. "Before Krolia and I got stuck in the quantum abyss," he began, "Sarah called me, crying. I was so sorry I couldn't be there. She said she was tired of waiting. Sure, she'd do it, but she hated it and it was getting unbearable. She wanted to know if I had an idea when it would end." He swallowed thickly. "I told her I didn't know, because the universe needed our help. Then... I didn't see her for two years. For those two years, I thought time was passing the same for you guys. For two years I wondered if she got sick of waiting and found someone else. I realized that I didn't want to make her wait anymore, that I wanted us to be at each other's sides for the rest of our lives." Keith cleared his throat and shifted in his chair. "But she's always waited for me and I thought I'd never get a chance to show her the same patience and love she'd always shown me, to get a chance to repay her. After her memory loss, I realized that I had a chance. A tiny chance." His thumb brushed iced her knuckles and a soft smile grew on his face. "I'd go through her memory loss again if I had to," Keith stated without hesitation. He took another deep breath. "But I would rather not."

"So you're not leaving?"

"Not if you don't need me."

Shiro nodded, took one last look at Sarah, and left them alone again.

Keith propped his feet up on the metal frame of Sarah's bed. Sitting and doing nothing sure made him tired. To pass the time he started to daydream about what their lives would be like in the future, what their children would be like and how they'd raise them, what they would do to work... he came up with several possibilities for each of his questions, and once Sarah was awake and recovered, they would talk about it. This time, it would be in a calm manner.

Sarah groaned and scrunched her nose. "Not again," she muttered. When she opened her eyes, she was glad to see Keith sitting next to her. "Your hair is so long. Have you considered getting a haircut?"

Relief flooded his body. He smiled and shook his head. "You're ridiculous." Then he stood and leaned over to kiss Sarah's forehead. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Yep. No memory problems, I think. Before I passed out, I was able to lower myself to the floor," Sarah told him. She took a deep breath and pushed herself to sit up. "You looked like you were deep in thought. Care to share, Kogane?"

While Keith did want to tell her everything he'd been thinking about, he didn't think it was the time. They each needed some time to recover from what they'd been through in the last several months. He told her just that.