A Matter of Family

Chapter Two: The Road to Recovery

*note to readers* Hello again! I know I said I would post chapter two Friday, but this story is already finished and I'm really just posting it to test out WattPad and all. There was no reason for me to really stretch it out and I've got other stories to focus on. So here's chapter two! When I was writing this story, it was during season four (I think) and so we hadn't learned about Keith's family (or Shiro's, and we still don't!), thus why the entire plot of this story won't match that of the series. It was my first good fanfic though, and so I'm keepin' it XD Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

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Shiro stood in front of the healing pod, his eyes intent on the figure inside. His heart seemed to halt as he stared at Keith's vital signs on the pod's light, neon blue surface. He stared at a single, horizontal line on the surface. It was glowing blue and still (as in it wasn't rising or falling) as it raced along its path. Shiro held his breath.

"Come on...." he breathed, looking from the still, neon blue line to Keith's still, unbreathing form.

Lance arrived first into the room, and seeing where Shiro had already gotten Keith into a pod, he came to his leader's side with a terribly worried look. Allura came next, then Pidge and Hunk. Coran was already standing nearby, a grave look on his face. Shiro didn't realize how hard he had been breathing until just now. Just as Kolivan and the other Blade warrior entered the room, the single blue line turned to a neon red, a long beep signaling no heartbeat. Shiro's stomach turned, and his eyes glanced from the red line to Keith's still and lifeless face.

"...no...." he uttered in disbelief, silently shaking his head now.

Lance blinked, his brow furrowing in sudden confusion.

"He... he's gone?" He soon asked quietly, having thought the tough young man could have easily come out of this, but that belief and hope died like a heartbeat.

Hunk and Pidge exchanged direful looks and tearful eyes. Coran bowed his head, only to hide his own expression. Allura put a single hand over her mouth to keep a horrified sob from escaping, tears shining in her eyes. Shiro lifted his right hand to the pod's smooth surface, as if his friend were in a cold sleep from which Shiro wanted to wake him from, but his hand never touched the glass. It jerked to a stop as Shiro noticed something on it. He slowly turned his palm towards himself to look at what was on it. Red. A red liquid, not quite dry yet, was splattered on his hand, as if he had pressed his hand in red paint; but this wasn't paint.

Shiro could only stare at the blood on his hand a moment before he then raised the other to see if it was any different. To see if he was imagining it. To see if it was real, and it was. Both hands were shaking now, the crimson red staining the black gloves, and Shiro felt the stinging tears fill his eyes. He couldn't bear the sight of his blood stained hands, so he closed his eyes hard to both hide from the horror clenching his fingers into his palms. He slowly fell to his knees in front of the pod, head bowed.

"Please...no..." he voiced in the quietest sob. "...you can't leave us...."

Half of him wanted to scream, to cry out. To bang on the glass and call his friend back to him, but silence was spread through the room like a black cloud, shadowing the paladins of Voltron with the great weight of loss. Shiro's heart was beating so hard now, he could feel it pulsing in his chest, as if trying to punch its way out. He could hear it beating. Beating so hard. Beating so fast.

A sudden sound echoed through the room. It was like Shiro's heartbeat, but not as fast, and not in fact his. Shiro's devastated eyes opened, and he dared to look up, daring even more to hope. The red line that once marked a lifeless heart, was now no longer red, but blue, and it was rising up and down to create the rough, but the recognizable pattern, of a heartbeat. Shiro stood up in a matter of seconds to see Keith inhale, then exhale deeply, soon after breathing normally again. Alive. Shiro felt all the bottled up air inside his lungs escape as he let out a sigh of relief and bowed his head. His body relaxed of tension a little, but the trama not quite gone yet.  Allura brightened slowly as she smiled.