Chapter Text
They send rescue teams out to each of the crashed Lions. Most people in the Garrison think it’s pointless, believe that the Paladins are all dead, but they have to go to check, to make sure, to be there on the off chance that the Paladins are still alive.
That doesn’t stop Griffin and Veronica from racing to the team that’s being sent out to the Red Lion. There’s only room for one of them to join the team sent to check on Lance. While Griffin knows Veronica loves Lance just as much as he does, he’s fully prepared to knock her out if it means he gets to go out there. Griffin has been trying very carefully not to think about what state they’re likely to find Lance in, but he’s not stupid. And whether Lance is dead or alive, he’s determined to be there when they extract him from Red, determined to be there for the boy he loves whether he knows it or not. Later, Griffin will admit to Veronica just how far he was willing to go to get that seat and Veronica will laugh, slinging her arm around him and telling him that its cute that he thought he could knock her out.
In the end, there are no fisticuffs. The two of them get there within moments of each other, but Veronica must see something in his eyes because after a moment of staring at each other she backs downs. Tells him to bring her little brother back to her.
Griffin tells her that he will even though he knows he can’t promise that. He tells her that he will because he’s hoping desperately that he can.
Halfway to the Red Lion’s crash site, Keith wakes up. Hunk comes next, then Princess Allura. The three of them manage to climb their way out of their Lions, heavily injured but still able to get out.
The Red Team has almost reached the Lion when Pidge wakes up. She’s been knocked around pretty badly and thinks she has a concussion, something which the rescue team convince her means she needs to stay put and wait for extraction rather than fighting her way out the way the others did, but she’s okay.
It gives Griffin some kind of hope. Red and Green are similar sizes. If Pidge, who is significantly smaller than Lance, can get out of this, than maybe Lance has gotten out of this mess im bad shape, but still okay.
Lance is not okay.
Between the crash with Veronica, the battle against the bases the Zaiforge cannons were at, the battle against Sendak, the blast his Lion had taken after the shielding, getting up and pushing himself after that before then others, the battle against the Altean Mech, and then the fall….
The Red Lion was made to withstand fire and lava, but she’s small and she had already been beaten all to hell when the crash happened. She had never stood a chance at protecting the Paladin flying her, but especially not when her pilot had already been beaten to hell and back.
And Lance is very much not okay. He’s the only one of the Paladins that doesn’t wake up at the crash site, the only one that needs extraction because their knocked out, the only one that they have to prep an emergency surgery room for.
But he’s breathing and Griffin tries to hope for the best as he watches them airlift Lance out of the desert, trying to get him to surgery to repair the organs punctured by his shattered ribs.
But it’s hard to have hope after everything and Griffin doesn’t know if he’ll have any left after this. He knows he won’t if Lance dies.
Griffin doesn’t leave Lance’s side until he’s woken up.
The Garrison tries to tell him he has to come back for a briefing with the other MFEs pilot. They send Iverson, because Iverson had taught Griffin for years and he admires the man. Griffin bites his head off just for stepping into Lance’s hospital room - because Griffin admires Iverson, but Iverson was shit to Lance when they were in the Garrison and he has no right to be there - and then he tears into him for daring to suggest that Griffin leave the boy he loves when there’s no guarantee Lance is ever going to wake up, when he could slip from between Griffin’s fingers any moment. He attacks him so viciously, with nothing but words, that Iverson takes a physical step backwards.
Luis, Lance’s brother between Veronica and Marco, lets out a low whistle when Iverson is walking out. Griffin ignores him as he settles back into the chair next to Lance’s bed, taking Lance’s hand in his and pressing soft kisses against his knuckles.
Nothing is pulling him away from Lance, not this time.
The McClain’s rotate through the room, one of them always with Lance and Griffin. Everyone from Lance’s father to Veronica to Lance’s cousin Isabella to Marco’s children assures Griffin that he can leave for a little while, that they’ll be sure to tell him if something happens.
Griffin waves each of them off, shaking his head. They are a family and it’s easy for them to trust that another family member will take care of Lance, will watch over him in a way that only family can. Griffin grew close to the family after Veronica brought them to the Garrison together, brought together by the love they have for Lance and the desire to talk about him with people who really knew him, but he can’t trust that he won’t get lost in the McClain’s insane family phone-tree.
They seem to understand, though.
Griffin finds himself a little surprised when they start taking care of him the way they take care of each other. Veronica comes to relieve Lance’s father after a shift at the Garrison and brings Griffin a burger and fries from a nearby fast food restaurant. Marco’s wife comes in with the kids, she’s supposed to be relieving Marco and sending the kids off with him but they wanted to see uncle Lance for a while, and the kids crawl onto Griffin immediately, trying to comfort him the way they comfort their father and grandparents and Luis and Veronica. Luis relieves Lance’s mother, bringing with him a bag of deodorant and toothpaste and other small hygiene products for Griffin to use in the tiny bathroom connected to Lance’s room.
It’s nice. He understands why they mean so much to Lance. Griffin loves his family, but they aren’t close like this. He hopes that one day he’ll get a chance to be part of this family, to become a McClain the same way that Marco’s wife has.
A week passes.
Lance wakes up with Griffin on one side of him and his father the other.
Griffin watches as Lance’s father ducks down, tears streaming down his face as he embraces the son he thought he had lost, and gathers Lance in his arms for a tight hug.
Griffin feels so profoundly relieved and happy that he starts crying as well.
And when Lance’s father lets him go, Lance looks over at Griffin. He calls him love in this soft affectionate voice as he reaches up to wipe tears from Griffin’s face and apologizes for scaring him. Griffin just shakes his head, squeezing Lance’s hand harder. Lance’s father slips out of the room phone in hand so he can call his wife and Valentina, and Griffin barely notices because he’s so focused on Lance. He leans in to press his lips against Lance’s, kissing a boy that he was worried he’d never get to kiss again. And when he pulls away, he rests his forehead against Lance’s and mumbles that if Lance ever does this to him again, he’s going to kick his ass all the way across the solar system.
Lance laughs, the sound music to Griffin’s ears after everything, and nods.
Griffin knows that it’s a promise Lance is likely to break, knows that Lance is a Paladin of Voltron and he’s going to have mission that will get him hurt. But it means something that Lance tries to reassure him anyway.
And Griffin is going to be there every time Lance is hurt, holding his hand and waiting for him to open his eyes. It hurts to sit there without knowing how things will turn out, but Griffin will do it every single time without hesitation.
Griffin is hoping to stay by Lance’s side, when he’s injured but also when he’s sick and when he’s healthy, for the rest of their, hopefully, long lives.