Surgery
(continuation of Crash Landing)

It was painful to stay awake but Cowboy looked extremely worried and he didn’t want to be the cause of too much concern, a little was okay but there were limits.

    “Let me have a look at him Cowboy.”

    The blond shifted so that he was sitting on the edge of the cockpit and when he did Lance let out a slight squeak, causing both Cowboy and Ditch to exchange a look of distress.

    Ditch edged closer in the tiny space that the other boy had vacated.  “Lance, what’s wrong?”

    Lance managed to dredge up a decent mock glare.  “Nothing was wrong until I was greeted by the ugliest face I’ve ever seen.  Geez Ditch, I just woke up!  Are you trying to give me a heart attack?”

    The Flight Instructor blinked comically for a few seconds before arching his eyebrow in disdain, “Well, I guess Cowboy was exaggerating about your injuries after all.”

    With a cocky smile, Lance turned his face slightly in order to catch Cowboy’s eye.  “What can I say, he’s a constant worrier.  At the rate he’s going, he’s going to give himself an ulcer."

    The blond just shook his head, not quite sure what to say.

    Lance was about to say something about dumb blonds when pain exploded in his navel.  To keep from screaming he bite his lower lip hard enough to draw blood.  Black dots danced through his vision, threatening a hostile take over, but he hung on, riding the pain out.

    After he managed that he found that, Cowboy had descended the ladder and Keith had taken his place.  For the first time Lance could remember, he saw fear in his friend’s dark eyes, and that same emotion was mirrored on Ditch’s face.  It wasn’t fear for themselves, but for him.  The thought was a humbling one.  Since he’d come into his Uncle’s, the Admiral, care he’d come to the harsh conclusion that no one else would ever feel anything but disgust for him.  The present situation appeared to be proving that theory wrong.

    “I don’t remember a lot about Ramfa but Cowboy told me that one laid its offspring inside you, can you tell me how long ago that was?”

    Giving his teacher a reassuring smile, he peeked at Keith from under lowered eyelids.  “You’d think he was worried about me or something.”

    “Lance, cut the crap and answer his question!”

    Ditch and Lance did a double take as Keith snapped.  Keith’s voice was shaky, lacking his usual calm demeanor.  The circumstances had struck his mask of indifference, and caused a spidery network of cracks to cascade over the surface.

    Without removing his gaze from Keith, Lance continued to hold his conversation with his Instructor.  “Ditch, I think you should go and ready a stretcher so that I can be lowered down from here.  I’d be willing to climb down but I don’t think it would be a wise decision considering my present condition.  Keith’ll stay with me and help lower me down when you get back.”

    It was weird how calm he suddenly was and he knew that the only reason the older man was listening to him at all, was because of his accepting and steady tone.  He continued to gaze intensely at Keith as he listened to Ditch’s retreating movements.  Keith wasn’t able to hold his gaze for long and it was when he looked away that Lance decided to speak. 
    “I can’t really understand why you lost your cool over me but loosing it isn’t going to help me any and it isn’t going to help Cowboy or Ditch get me back to the Academy.” Lance pointed out.

    Keith ran a hand through his dark hair effectively destroying its neat appearance.  “How do you expect me NOT to loose my cool, Lance?  For crying out loud…”  He rubbed his face.  “How can you even SAY you don’t understand?  Do you have ANY idea how worried Sven is about you?  And you can’t forget your little study group of friends, or the teachers.  And myself, I’ve been worried sick!  You’re my best friend and I thought… Good God you have no idea what I thought.  You and Sven are like the brothers I never had and it killed me that I wasn’t there for you.”

    Lance wasn’t quite sure what to make of what his friend was saying, it seemed too incredible, “Keith.”  He waited till he had hold of his eyes.  “You’re here now and that’s all that really matters.”

    The other young man shook his head but smiled.  “No.  What really matters is getting you back safe and sound.  So how long ago did the Ramfa… impregnate you?”

    Lance nearly choked on his own tongue, “Impregnate?”

    There was a seemingly innocent looking smile on Keith’s face, “Well, what would YOU call it?”

    At a loss Lance had to admit defeat, of a sort.  “You know, you’d better watch it Keith.  Pregnant people are known to have mood swings.  Besides, you ARE going to be the daddy. Seems to me you should start practicing.”

    “Daddy?”

    Lance grinned slyly, “Well if I’m going to be the Mother, they’ll need a daddy too.  I’d think you’d be absolutely perfect for the job.”  The look on Keith’s face was priceless.  “Close your mouth or you’ll swallow a fly Akira.  Now why don’t you help me get ready for the stretcher?”

………………….

    Getting down from the fighter wasn’t as difficult as Lance had previously thought it would be.  Despite the easy-going banter, he was managing to keep up with the others; though his body was a mass of non-stop aches and pains.  If he managed to gain temporary relief from one, it was replaced by another one ten-times more painful.

    Because of the dense forest Lance had crashed into, Ditch had had to set the shuttle down in a clearing about a half a mile away.  He’d tried to reach the same spot Ditch had landed in when the computers in his space jet had crashed and forced him to land where he had.

    Lance found himself babbling to keep his mind off what was wrong with him as they made their way to the shuttle.   He constantly asked if Cowboy was sure he was fine, to which the blond continued to reply the same steadfast answer, ‘that he was fine and that it had only been a mild concussion.'  It would have been nice had he actually played along and given Keith someone else to fuss over for a few minutes.

    In truth he’d never, not even in his wildest dreams, pictured Keith as a Mother Hen but right then he was sure pulling it off nicely.  Fact was, Lance had the uncomfortable feeling that if his friend hadn’t had to lift one side of the stretcher, he would have been clucking over him instead.

    The idea of Keith wearing an apron, hunched over like a little old lady wearing a faded floral print dress while holding a pair of knitting needles brought a slight smile to his face and forced the pain away for a few seconds, until Ditch and Keith stumbled.

    Unable to stop himself Lance hissed in pain, curling up, protectively, in a fetal position.  He heard voices far off, felt hands roving over his body and when a hand brushed over his swollen abdomen he whimpered in agony as the shadows engulfed his mind.

…………………….

    Keith gritted his teeth as felt Lance’s body go limp beneath his hands, but it was when he felt something move at his touch that he pulled away, staring in amazement at the skin of his best friend’s stomach after pulling the shirt up.

    Something was definitely moving below the unbroken skin.

    On the other side of the stretcher Ditch inhaled sharply.  “We have to get him back to the Academy before those things hatch.   If they hatch before…”  He didn’t have to finish because they all knew what would happen.

    Keith didn’t really remember the rest of the trip back to the shuttle.  It was as if his mind had shut down until the shuttle controls were in his hands.  Next to him Cowboy was assisting him in the start-up sequence, from the co-pilots seat while Ditch was in the back with Lance.

    Rules said to give the engine fifteen minutes to prep for launch, for once in his life Keith said to hell with the rules.  The second the engines were on-line he switched on the thrusters and they lifted straight up above the treetops.  As he engaged the after-burners he was imputing the course into the navigational computer and angling the nose up to the corresponding degree necessary to allow them passage through the atmosphere.

    Within minutes they were moving through the vacuum of space and Keith was doing his best to draw speed from any available source.

    “Game Master!  What’s our ETA?”

    Glancing quickly at his instruments he calculated quickly, “Approximately ten minutes.”

    “Cowboy, get on the horn and tell them to have a surgery team prepped and ready.  Answer any questions they might have and find out the landing specs for Game Master.”

    Hearing Lance’s pain-filled groan and his barely stifled cry Keith pushed the engines to their limits and beyond, peeling three minutes off their time.  Not bothering to tell Ditch he relayed the new information quietly to Cowboy so that he could update the Academy on their new arrival time.  He didn’t bother to acknowledge the stunned surprise on the blonds face.  Instead he focused on getting Lance home.

………………….

    The second they had landed, the medic team swept Lance away and Keith followed as fast as he could, not surprised when not just Sven but a number of their classmates stepped in beside him.  Cowboy was doing his best to answer any questions that were being asked but Keith tuned him out, listening instead to Sven as he leaned closer to him and whispered too low for anyone else to hear.

    “I intercepted Cowboy’s transmission so I knov all about zee Ramfa.  I did zome checking in zee files, if zey get zem out before zey hatch e should be fine, zat if zey treat ‘im for pozible diseases and pump him full of nutrients to replenish any zat e’s lost.”

    Keith couldn’t help but notice that Sven was leaving something out.  “And what if they don’t get them out in time Sven, what happens then?”

    Sven stared straight ahead as they made there way into the waiting room with the others but he didn’t hold it back from Keith, he told him the honest and brutal truth.  “Iv zey hatch before zey are removed… only a miracle vill save ‘im.”

    Keith swallowed hard at that.  “If he dies on me I’ll kill him.”

    Sven smiled very softly, “I vill help you my friend.”

……………………

    Lance found himself blinking into a VERY bright light that hurt his eyes.  Above him he saw a man or woman dressed in a blue doctor’s set of scrubs, and not far away he spotted a small glass aquarium holding what appeared to be miniature Ramfas.  All of them were small, not much bigger than his thumb and there were about seven of them.  At least that was all he could see.

    The doctor above him looked down at him, and when she spoke her voice was muffled because of the mask she was wearing, “How do you feel young man?”

    Though his mind was a little fuzzy he grinned up at the Doctor.  “Like I gave birth to septuplets each one as furry as their Mother.”

    The Doctor shook her head.  “Time to rest, and do me a favor?  Don’t use too many pregnant jokes.  There’s a few of the staff that are in the first trimester and aren’t very reassured about the whole process, if you talk to them about this I think you’ll scare them beyond repair.”

    Lance smiled sleepily up at the surgeon, “I wouldn’t do a thing like that."

    The Doctor grunted, “I’m sure you wouldn’t.”

…………………
    It took all Sven’s self control not to run over and shake an answer out of the Doctor when she appeared in front of them, looking not entirely too pleased about something.  Next to him he could feel Keith somehow managing to pull a calm and serene look out of thin air.
    It was Cowboy who asked the inevitable.  “How is he?”
    The Doctor grinned wryly,  “Oh your friend’s going to make a full recovery, its’ the rest of my patients I’m worried about.  He’s seems to have, uh, quite the personality.”
    Sven couldn’t help himself he laughed, “You got zat right!”
    She gave a resigned sigh, “He can have visitors at the regular hours starting tomorrow.  And I guess we’ll get used to him, he’s going to be in here for at least a week for bed rest and after that only a minimal course load for another week and absolutely NO flying until I give him a clean bill of health.”
    Keith groaned at that.  “He’s not going to like that at all.”
    Sven coughed lightly and eyed the Doctor sceptically, “I zink you vill have a lot on your hands Madam.  E does not take vell to being restrained.”
    Again the Doctor gave that wry and slightly self-pitying smile.  “Yes, I think I’ve already drawn that particular conclusion for myself.  But I’m afraid there is little else I can do but what I think it best for him.  Lord have mercy on my staff.”
    With that she walked back down the hall shaking her head.
    Sven watched her go and turned to Keith.  “I feel zorry for ‘er.”
    “I do too Sven, but better her than us.  I mean do you remember the last time we had to take care of Lance when he was confined to bed?”
    Sven shuddered at the memory, which he most definitely pushed to the back of his mind.  He didn’t want to remember anything about the whipped cream, the lace or his colorful artwork.  At least this time he could just visit and leave, he wouldn’t trade places with the Doctor if someone said they’d make him the king of the universe.