Space Daddy

Troublesome Thursday

Shiro woke up, exercised, took a shower, and went to cook breakfast.
Slowly and sleepily, the rest of the team stumbled in.
"Good morning!" Shiro beamed, dividing the eggs and bacon between five plates.
"Morning," Keith groaned, resting his head on the table.
"GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!" Lance yelled happily, cartwheeling into the kitchen. "Hello Keith! Hola Hunk!" He sat on the end next to Pidge, "Pidge, if I told you that you look beautiful this morning, would you be mad?"
Everybody turned to stare at Lance, Pidge grew bright red and quickly turned her attention to her plate.
"Lance," Shiro sighed, rubbing his scar, "are you okay?"
"Well, you remember when I rolled down the hill last night, and hurt my back?"
"Yes," Hunk answered warily.
"I woke up at 5:00 AM and I had this sharp pain in my back, and it gave me a terrible headache, so, I went down to the med-bay, and found this." He pulled a bottle out of his pocket and set it down in front of Shiro.
"It's written in Altean," Shiro sighed, passing the bottle to Pidge.
"All I did was follow the instructions, and now I feel great!" Lance smiled.
"How many did you take?" Pidge asked, reading the label.
"Mmm," Lance thought for a minute, "three."
"Have you taken a second dose within the last four hours?"
"Nope!"
"Well, he managed to take a dosage strong enough for a Balmeran, but at least he took the right medicine." Pidge sighed, "oh, and they put caffeine in to speed up the reaction. Lovely."
"How much caffeine?" Shiro asked, his face buried in his hands.
"12 energy drinks worth."
"Alright," Shiro sighed, "let's go, we need to get moving if we're going to be where we need to on time."
Lance picked Pidge up on his shoulders and ran down the hall chasing after Shiro.
"Lance!" Shiro screamed, running down to the docking bay.
"I'm gonna getcha!"
Hunk and Keith calmly walked down the hall.
"Are you as scared as I am?" Hunk asked, breaking the silence.
"You have no idea."

"Where are we going?" Lance inquired, bouncing up and down in his chair.
Shiro got on one knee next to Lance, "if you want me to tell you, you're gonna have to hold still."
"Yessir! " Lance immediately stopped moving. Shiro quickly stuck a needle into his neck and injected a misty lavender solution.
Lance yawned, and stared at Shiro, "I see whatcha did there, touché." His speech was slurred, then he promptly passed out.
Shiro took the helm and the others buckled into their seats. "Pidge," Shiro sighed, "you said there was a hospital across the street from the space mall?"
"Yes."
"Good," Shiro plotted course and sped out as quickly as possible.

Several hours passed with complete silence.
"Shiro," Hunk finally broke the deafening silence, "what are we going to do?"
"Lance is going to get his stomach pumped, I'm getting these bites properly treated, and the rest of you are going to go to the mall, I'll meet you in front of the foodcourt when we're done at the hospital. Okay?"
"Yes, sir," Keith replied, rolling up his ear buds.

Upon arrival, Shiro grabbed Lance from his seat and hauled him to the hospital.
"Stay together, please?" Shiro asked,  parting ways with the trio.
"Yes dad!" Hunk nodded, running after Keith and Pidge.
"Seriously, why does everybody call me dad?" Shiro grumbled, walking in and up to the reception desk.
"Hello," the receptionist smiled, "what seems to be the problem?"
"My friend overdosed on this," Shiro set the bottle on the counter, "and I was attacked by a shark."
"Please take a number and sit down," the receptionist, a Galra, gestured towards a stack of metal cards.
Shiro grabbed a silver business card and sat in a chair with Lance in the seat next to him. He pressed the small green button on the card and the screen on the back changed to read, "#42".
A Balmeran nurse stuck her head out the door, "number 5?"
"Oh boy..." Shiro whispered.