"She's been asleep for two days now..." Lance murmured to Hunk, watching Pidge intently. Hunk nodded absentmindedly, taking in the way the girl's face was now gaunt, her cheeks slightly hollow and her forehead permanently wrinkled. Her eyes were squeezed tight, and she had bags under them. It seemed that the machines connected to her were the only things keeping her alive. She didn't look peaceful, Hunk thought. He sighed and took the girl's tiny hand in his own, trying to ease some of the pain he knew she felt. Lance went quiet and placed a hand on Pidge's forehead, checking her temperature. She was cold, too cold, he decided before double checking with a thermometer and frowning at the low figures. He went and documented this before grabbing a heating pad and laying it on her forehead. She seemed to ease a minute amount, and he sighed in relief.
"She looks like she could shatter at any moment," Hunk thought out loud. Lance nodded.
"I don't like it. She's too young for this. We all are." Both boys went quiet again, deep in thought. A few minutes later, Keith passed the room, watching Pidge. He didn't give seem to notice the other boys in the room as he stared for a moment. He shook his head to seemingly clear his mind then took another look at Pidge before leaving swiftly and quietly. Lance stared long after he had left, eyebrows knitted together, contemplating whether he should follow Keith or not. He finally sat back and took a deep breath, blowing a raspberry on the exhale. Hunk rolled his eyes halfheartedly, earning a sort of smile from the Blue Paladin. Hunk soon moved back to holding Pidge's hand. The small girl stirred for the first time in days, whimpering under her breath, hand twitching under Hunk's a small bit. Lance scrambled to her side and leaned in close to hear what she was saying. His eyes widened.
"What is it?" Hunk asked worriedly.
"That's not English..." Lance replied, voice wavering ever so slightly. Hunk froze.
"I'll call Coran." The larger of the two ran off to the comms, punching in the advisor's room number. "Coran! Pidge is speaking!"
"I'll be right there, Hunk!" Coran replied, running down the halls. Lance furrowed his brow, trying to place the language he was hearing. His eyes lit up after a moment.
"Hunk! She's speaking in Latin!" The Yellow Paladin moved back to his seat by Pidge and listened closely.
"You're right... I recognize some of the words..." A few moments after that statement, Coran came screeching into the room, immediately moving Lance and Hunk back as he checked Pidge over. He froze when he heard what she was speaking.
"Some of those words are Altean." The two boys looked at him incredulously.
"No way. She can only read Altean, not speak it!" Hunk countered, shaking his head. Lance thought for a moment, sitting up quickly when he had an idea.
"Maybe Latin is based off a form of Altean?" He mused. Coran tilted his head in thought before nodding, agreeing with Lance.
"It is possible that the Blue Lion may have leaked some of her knowledge into the early human race, thus shaping their language, I suppose. She is very social, after all." He made some adjustments to  some of the equipment surrounding Pidge before reading the reports. "I believe Pidge will start entering less of a comatose state and more of a sleeping stage. She may awake from dreams occasionally and her heart and breathing may speed up from time to time, but she will act mostly the same as before." He looked at the clock. "I believe it's time for Keith to take the next watch. By the way, Lance, your shift isn't for a while. Why are you here?" The mentioned boy blushed a bit in embarrassment.
"I couldn't think of anything else to do except be here, since I'm so worried about Pidge..." He sighed. Coran nodded in understanding and gently patted the boy's back. Keith walked in soon after and relieved the two boys from their watch, taking a seat next to Pidge. Coran showed him what to do if something happens before leaving himself to get some rest. Lance,p and Hunk soon followed, talking quietly, their absence plunging Keith into silence. The Red Paladin sighed and looked around before taking one of Pidge's hands in both of his own, immediately grimacing at how cold she was and absentmindedly running a thumb over her knuckles to warm her hand. He suddenly remembered something he had brought to give her and pulled a pebble out of his pocket.
"You know, this is a sort of good luck charm to me," he started, absentmindedly playing with her hair. "I've had it since I was around eight, and I've carried it everywhere with me. I thought you could use some of its luck here, since you're healing from so many things..." He trailed off and looked down before feeling the Red Lion's presence in the back of his head grow from a steady thrum to a gentle pressure behind his eyes. He acknowledged the lion's presence and let her see what he was seeing, feeling her questions bubble up in his mind.
'Little one okay?' She hummed, letting Keith have control again. Her words were ideas and fragments of words, nowhere near as sharp as direct speech from the lions can be.
"I mean, I guess," he replied, shrugging. "She's asleep so she can heal. It's kinda like what you do after a hard mission, you know? Humans take a long time to heal, though, so she could be like this for quintants..." The lion rumbled, the feeling making Keith's mind fuzzy for a minute. Red spoke again after a while, a slight hint of worry edging her thoughts.
"Little one needs to be calmed." She supplied Keith with a picture of him hugging Pidge and helping her sleep, earning a reluctant grimace from him. As if on cue, Pidge started to stir, whimpering and shaking as her heart rate sped up in fear, spurring Keith into action. He clambered onto the bed she was laying on and kneeled next to her, playing with her hair and whispering reassuring things in her ear. He furrowed his brow, feeling awkward when she hugged his torso as she subconsciously looked for comfort. He slowly laid his arms on her back, trying to avoid jostling any wounds as he lightly rubbed circles between her shoulder blades. He remembered a song he really liked on Earth and hummed the tune, smiling softly to himself when the small girl started to calm down, falling back into the grip of sleep. Keith yawned and looked at the clock, remembering that it was late at night and he hadn't really slept since the Green Paladin was captured. He laid back on the bed and hugged Pidge close as he drifted off.

"Keith?" Shiro called, peeking into the infirmary. Keith opened one eye and glared at Shiro through it, warning him to keep quiet. Shiro nodded and smiled a bit at the sight, walking in quietly to whisper to Keith.
"What do you need?" Keith asked quietly, stifling a yawn.
"It's my shift."
"Oh. Well, I'm not moving. One, I'll wake Pidge up and two, I'm hella tired, so I'm staying here for a while," he replied. Shiro chuckled and shook his head at Keith's straightforwardness.
"Alright, but I'm sticking close by to keep an eye on her lifesigns, okay?" Keith nodded and laid his head back down, falling asleep quickly after that. Shiro sighed and smiled at the two before grabbing a tablet and looking at the diagrams of Pidge's body, displaying different vitals. He flipped to bone density and frowned at her left leg. It was quite weak in structure and was healing from an old wound. He made a note on the observations paper on the wall, stating that this could become a problem in the future. He then set the tablet down and sat back, mentally nudging his lion's conscience to let her know he wanted to talk. Shiro sent the lion an idea of questioning regarding the Green Lion and her ability to let Pidge in. The Black Lion seemed to turn this over for a minute before sending a strong wave of reassurance Shiro's way. The Black Paladin nodded, satisfied with the answer before standing and walking across the hall from the healing bay to what he assumed was the biotechnology section of the medical wing. He looked around at all the dusty equipment as he toured the room, amazed at how advanced the robotics were, gazing at the blueprints on display for prosthetic arms with a sad sort of longing. Shiro shook his head to clear his thoughts before moving into the next room. The whole space was packed with floor to ceiling shelves that were obviously meticulously organized. The man gawked for a moment before moving between the aisles of paperwork, equipment, and notes that were very well preserved within the castle. Shiro wandered the aisles for a little while, peering into specimen jars and flipping through Altean files, trying to find something to distract himself from his constant worry over Pidge. He stopped at a box that looked particularly old and started opening it gingerly. He wondered why this was in a medical record room, but didn't have time to ponder the thought before the castle's alarms sounded. Shiro set the box down and dashed to his lion, aiming to stop the threat before it became dangerous to the castle and ultimately, Pidge.