Lance stared up at the ceiling as the sterile smells of the med bay assaulted his senses.  Two days.  He’d been in the care of the paranoid nurses for two whole days and if something didn’t happen to change that soon he was going to do something very rash.
    He hadn't even done anything really bad yet.  All he'd done was stick up a picture of his doctor (that'd he'd mysteriously obtained from the circulation desk's files) on his wall and using it as a target, thrown the many scapels he'd borrowed from the numerous crash carts at the photo (they still hadn't figured out how he'd gotten it from the circulation desk without their noticing).  It had taken the edge off of his boredom... slightly.  Now all the nurses were watching him as if he might be devising a plan to blow himself up and take as many of the hospital staff with him as possible.  They'd even refused to give him a roommate for fear that he might cause the poor person bodily damage or something.
    Two days.  He glanced at the doorway.  He'd stayed in bed long enough.  Watching out for people going past his room he threw the blankets off of himself, carefully removed the I.V. and gently stood up.  Slowly he crossed over to the chair and picked up his school uniform, seconds later he was inside the washroom, door securely locked behind him.
    Stripping off the less-than-flattering hospital gown he paused before putting on his clothes, looking down he just stared at the long incision along his midsection.  It was an ugly looking thing and even lightly tracing it let him know that it was incredibly tender.  He found himself looking at his reflection in the mirror.  He really didn't look so bad.  He was a little pale, a little thin but two days of strict bed rest had done him a world of good.  For a moment he actually hesitated, rethinking his plan for escape.  He wasn't an idiot, he knew the Doctor was only keeping him in the hospital for his own good but there just wasn't anything to do.  Even with the visitors he got, they were only allowed to stay for short periods of time and their visits were far apart.  Pain he could handle, boredom... that was something entirely different.
    Mind made up he carefully pulled on his uniform, doing his best to keep the clothes from chaffing the stitched area on his middle.
    Quietly he pushed open the door to the bathroom and crept out. Quickly he arranged his bed to make it look as if he was sleeping and than when no one was looking he snuck out of his room and made his way down the hallway, with no particular destination in mind - just escape.
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    Lance managed to get out of the medical wing with very little difficulty, but from that point on he had to be careful because most of the cadets and teachers knew him.
    He made his way to the Bio-dome with only a couple of close encounters, and quickly took a seat on the grass in the shade of a large tree.  His body ached all over and he was extremely tired.  The coolness of the vegetation and atmosphere felt good on his flushed skin and he pulled off his jacket in order to expose his arms as well.  Letting his body relax he didn't fight the pull of sleep.
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    "WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S MISSING?"
    Sven raised his hands, attempting to clam Keith down.  "Zee nurse vent to check on 'im and 'e vas not zhere.  But it ez Lance.  You know 'ow 'e can be.  'E probably got bored and vill be back in an 'alf an 'our."
    "Sven, he's sick!  He could've died and he's wandering around because he's bored!?!  Who's looking for him?"  Keith had both fists on his hips, glaring.  Sven felt a sudden urge to run; next time he'd make sure Ditch told Keith.
    "Um, no vone."
    "WHAT!?  What if he's in so much pain he can't make it back, or what if he hurt himself worse?"  Keith's eyes went impossibly wide, "OH MY GOD!  Did someone check the Launch Pad?  What if he took out a space jet?"
    "Keit!  Lance iz 'urt not stupid!"
    Keith levelled a hard stare at Sven.  "He's bored Sven!  That's... well it's worse then a natural disaster!"
    "Zhen I think you'll vant to 'elp me zearch for 'im?"
    Keith's eyes seemed to glaze over and he spoke in a voice that sent a shiver up Sven's spine.  "Mission accepted." (1)
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    Sven had to run to keep up with Keith's fast paced walk.  His roommate had insisted that they comb the entire sickbay.  The entire time they did Keith had been muttering about the lax security and how he would talk to Ditch about revamping the requirements for the surveillance equipment.  Sven was thankful that Keith wasn't in charge of anything involving him, if his friend had been he probably would have had him training four times a day and studying in his sleep.  Sven cringed at the thought of Keith Akira as a Commander in the forces.  Pushing the disturbing images to the back of his mind he picked up his pace as he followed Keith to the Hangar, praying that a healthy Lance would show up so that Keith would forget he was even there.
..............................
    Lance groaned in pain as he turned on his stomach and quickly flipped onto his back, slowly opening his eyes and lifting his shirt to look at his incision.  It was red and swollen but not as bad as he'd feared it would be.  Carefully he sat up and took a good look around the Bio-dome.  The dome was set to same time as the rest of the Academy so the darkened sky was a good indication that a few hours had passed since he'd first fallen asleep.  And if that wasn't enough to convince him, his stomach growled angrily at being empty.
    Grabbing his jacket he gradually got to his feet and had to use a nearby tree to keep from falling over.  He couldn't believe how tired he was.  He'd barely done anything at all and he felt as though he'd followed Keith's work-out program for a week straight.  Shaking his head he concentrated on putting on foot in front of the other and making his way back to the medical wing.
    "I bet no one even noticed I was gone."  He sighed slightly at the thought, not sure if he was happy or upset.
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    "WHERE IS HE?"
    Sven barely refrained from rolling his eyes.  "I don't know Keit.  Ve 'ave checked every place zhat ve could think of."
    Keith continued to pace in front of the bed Sven was sitting on, giving him a good opportunity to watch his friend.  Keith's usually impeccable appearance was gone, replaced by rumpled clothes, loose tie, untucked shirt, messed hair and undone boot laces.  In short, Keith looked as if he'd been wearing his cloths while going through a garbage shute.  Which, if Sven remembered correctly, was exactly what he'd done.  It was strange for him seeing Keith like he was.  Having grown up with lots of younger brothers and sisters, he had already dealt with panic and uncertainty and had quickly learned that situations rarely turned out as badly as one's mind would lead one to believe.
    Keith on the other hand, didn't have any siblings.  So since adopting Lance as his younger brother he'd been going through 'hell', literally.  It didn't help that Keith was normally a high-strung person who worried too much as it was, and it made it worse that Lance was always doing something that was risky or not well advised.
    He'd quickly gotten used to Lance and his actions, mainly because Lance was a lot like his twin sisters.  Poor Keith though... Well he just didn't know how to handle it.  In a way it made Sven feel a little bit better because before Lance had dropped into their lives Keith had been like a statue, always dealing calmly and expertly with anything that presented itself but in a detached way.  With Lance, though, Keith couldn't maintain his blank expression.  He was either worried, angry, dismayed, laughing or smiling.  It made him seem more human and less like a boy who'd been conditioned since his birth to follow in the military footsteps of his mother and father.  It was a nice change, if a bit trying.
    "Keit?  Did ve try zhe Bio-dome?"
    Keith stopped mid-step and turned to look at him, not moving a single muscle.  "Bio-dome?"  Then, before Sven could blink, he was gone.
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    Lance found it easy to sneak back into his room, though he had to admit that it was all he could do to keep his eyes open.  He moved on auto-pilot as he moved through the motions of changing into his hospital gown, folding the cloths into a neat pile on the chair, reattaching his IV to his arm and crawling back into his hospital bed.  No sooner did he pull the covers up he was asleep.
.....................................
    Sven followed Keith as he rampaged through the Bio-dome's greenery, but they didn't find any sign of Lance, anywhere.  Needing something to distract Keith he opened his mouth and said the first thing that came into his mind.  "Maybe 'e vent back to zhe med. wing."
    Keith did that mid-step freeze thing he'd done back in their room and Sven felt more then a little disturbed at the sight.  Then, just like before he was gone, moving so fast that Sven had to run all out in order to keep up.  At the rate his friend was going, Sven was certain he'd have grey hair before he was nineteen.  He'd hate to imagine what Keith might be like when he became a father...
...................................
    Sven caught up to Keith as he entered Lance's room.  He hadn't really thought Lance would be there, but there he was; curled up into a ball in the middle of his bed and looking younger than Sven would have thought possible.  The sight brought his own protective urges to the surface full force but he pushed them away as he watched Keith move over to Lance's bed.  Gently the dark-haired boy brushed a lock of hair off of Lance's forehead and then just stood there watching him sleep.  The tension that had infused his body since he found out that Lance was missing disappeared and he turned to look at Sven from the corner of his eye.
    "How can he do that?"
    Sven blinked, "Do vhat?"
    Keith smiled crookedly.  "Make me angry and relieved at the same time?"
    "Ah.  Vell it iz a talent zhat only younger siblings possess I am afraid, and az zuch it iz unknown to zhe rest of us."
    "Why did I have to pick Lance of all people?  I could've picked a nice, quiet, studious first year instead of an infuriating, hot-headed and impulsive pilot."
    Sven laughed at that and slapped Keith lightly on the shoulder.  "Ve can never choose those ve care for Keit.  All ve can do iz care."
    Keith bent over and gently tucked the blankets around Lance before standing up,  "I think I need some coffee, wanna come?"
    "Of course my friend!  Though, do me a favor?"
    "What?"
    "Drink decafe."