“I’m perfectly all right – Dr. Gorma said it was only a mild concussion,” Allura argued as Nanny forced her back into her bed in the Castle infirmary. “I’ve been asleep since we got back. How’s Keith?”
Nanny’s lips pressed into a thin line, evidently expecting trouble. “The young Captain has not yet awakened again,” she admitted reluctantly, quickly pushing Allura back before she could bolt from her bed.
“Awakened again? Why didn’t you wake me up when he woke up the first time?” the Princess exclaimed in indignation, shaking off Nanny’s hands and sitting up. “Can I see him? Where is he?”
“He’s just on the other side of the room – and no, I don’t think Dr. Gorma will appreciate your getting in his way or in the way of Keith's sleep,” Lance said, eyes glinting with amusement, with arms crossed at his chest. He turned towards Nanny with a grin. “Don’t worry, Nanny, I’ll make sure she doesn’t get out of bed.”
Nanny nodded curtly. “All right. I must leave now and see to dinner,” she told Allura. “If I come back and find you out of bed…” She left the threat hanging in the air and stalked off.
Allura shot a disgusted look at Lance. “You aren’t really going to hold me to my promise to stay in bed, are you?” she asked, a pleading look in her eyes. “Especially when you didn’t even wake me up to say he was already awake. I want to see him. What did Dr. Gorma say?”
Lance shrugged. “Keith will come around again when he comes around. Keith’s probably just taking a much needed rest – being under Haggar’s spell caused him some major psychological fatigue. The medicine Dr. Gorma gave him had some sedatives in it. Besides, you’ll be staying in here for observation tonight, so you’ll be close at hand in case he wakes up,” he explained reassuringly, then frowned before giving Allura a speculative look.
“Did you get to speak with him?” Allura asked. “What did he say?”
“I told him I was appointed temporary Captain and the first thing he said to me was ‘Is the Black Lion still functioning?’ Talk about trust! I told him he could have his job and his lion back - and good riddance to it. There's no one I know who can do a better job, present company included,” Lance replied with a grimace.
"Does he remember anything?"
“The last thing he says he remembers was Haggar taking him into the Doom ship – and then seeing you for a moment, standing on your ship and looking up at him. Must have been some spell Haggar cast on him.” Lance's fists clenched at the thought, then he noted Allura's stricken look. "You're not still blaming yourself, are you?"
Allura sighed, then shook her head. “I try not to," she admitted. "But what he must have gone through,” she murmured, her voice filled with remorse.
Lance nodded in agreement. “Especially if he had been fighting against it. You know, if he hadn’t hesitated… you wouldn’t be here right now, you know,” he continued. Lance paused thoughtfully. “What you did was probably one of the most stupid, reckless things I’ve ever seen in my life – but it took guts. My hat’s off to you.”
Allura shot him a disgruntled glance. “I... I didn’t think any of you saw me.”
Lance shook his head ruefully. “Oh, I saw you all right – you damn near well gave me a heart attack,” he admonished. “Don’t worry, I have no plans of telling anyone about it… I don’t think Pidge or Hunk saw, and Keith thinks he was dreaming, so he probably won’t remember. But why? What made you think of taking that chance?”
Allura sighed. “That’s just it – I wasn’t thinking at all when I did that,” she confessed, yawning now. “I… would you believe that I was thinking of my dream? I… I just knew it was what I should do. That he would never harm me.”
Lance chuckled. “Trust me, I didn’t have that kind of certainty when we were fighting him,” he admitted. “It’s either you know something I don’t know, or you’re just...” He shrugged, at a loss for words. “Anyway, it was that hesitation that won the day for us today, deliberate or not.”
She shook her head. “He gave it to us, Lance,” she said softly, sleepily. “I saw his eyes, and for a moment I knew he was fighting the spell. He wanted us to win.”
After a long pause, Lance nodded then gave a wide grin. “But you saw his eyes after he came at you with that sword,” he quipped teasingly. He hesitated a moment, gauging her mood, then decided to plunge in. “I guess it’s always easier to trust someone you love…”
When there was no reaction, he looked over at
her and found that she had fallen asleep again. He shrugged in amusement,
then took a glance at the bed on the other side of the room occupied
by his sleeping friend, being hovered over by a Dr. Gorma and a nurse.
“And someone who loves you just as much,” he added nodding wisely to himself
as he left the room.
There was something so incredibly sweet about watching him sleep, his soft lips slightly parted and the long, thick, girl-like lashes fanning against his slightly flushed cheeks. She reached out and moved the persistent lock of hair from his forehead with a gentle smile, her hand lingering there.
The feeling clutched at her heart, beautiful, inexplicable, but it was there. Her heart was as light as the air, and she could feel the happiness rushing through her at the sight of him lying here, safe back home where he belonged, after thinking him lost to them forever…
His eyelids began to flutter and she drew back her hand, hovering beside his bed with a warm, welcoming smile. His eyelids slowly opened halfway then and his eyes met her gaze. Then he slowly smiled, a dreamy smile that slowly bloomed across his face, tenderly lighting his eyes – and the smile reached all the way to her heart, unlocking even more joy, the exuberant emotion filling her and making her whole.
There’s so much to say… how sorry I am… how much… how much… I have to tell him, she thought, but couldn’t find any words to begin. Instead, she touched his cheek with tender gravity to reassure herself that he was really here, sleepily smiling at her like he… cared.
“Allura?” he whispered sleepily, still looking half-asleep and dreaming, even as he slowly raised his hand to catch hers where it lay against his face. He sighed in contentment. “For one moment I saw you – then you were gone.” He grimaced. “I couldn’t find you in that blackness. I thought… I thought I’d never see any of you again. I thought I had lost you.”
“But I’m here now, Keith,” she said softly, torn between amusement and frustration that he was too groggy to stay awake and talk to her. “This isn’t a dream.”
His eyes drifted closed, but the smile lingered on his face. “I know,” he murmured, unconsciously rubbing his cheek against her hand before his hand dropped hers and set it free. He sighed once more. “I know.” After a few moments, his breathing evened out once more, and she knew that he had gone back to sleep.
She continued to stand by his bed and watch him sleep for a long time.
Finally, with a sigh, she bent down to speak to him. “You’re home safe with us now, where you belong,” she whispered in his ear, knowing that he would not remember her saying it, except maybe as the part of a dream. "And I will never be lost to you."
And then she placed a kiss as light as a butterfly’s
wings on each of his eyelids, smiling to herself as she stirred in his
sleep, a slight groove appearing between his eyebrows. She smoothed the
groove away with her fingers as she straightened, shaking her head in poignant
amusement. Then, after one last infinitely gentle touch on his cheek, she
finally walked away – her heart full from just knowing that he was safe
with her at last.