After leaving the hangers, laying Lance one of the tables in the med bay felt like a sigh of relief. They crowded around him and waited patiently for him to wake up. They could see his muscles tense and relax, and his fingers twitch like he was being shocked.

"How did we not notice?" Hunk asked quietly rubbing a hand up and down Lance's arm. The others looked down trying not to meet each other's eyes. Their heads shot up when Lance let out a low groan and his eyelashes fluttered. He sluggishly opened his eyes and looked around at the people around him. He went to sit up but flinched and gave a small whimper collapsing back on the bed.

"Lance? How do you feel?" Hunk asked concerned. Lance turned his head slightly to look at him.

"Not too great buddy," he said quietly, his voice hoarse from the crying he did earlier. Hunk bit his lip and looked down to the ground not knowing what to say. Before they were able to keep talking, Coran and Allura walked in with worried faces.

"What is happening?" Allura asked coming closer to the group.

"Its Lance's back, its still hurting him from the explosion," Pidge answered looking worriedly at her friend. Coran's face dropped in shock and he pulled up the records from the pod.

"That's not right, it says here that all his wound were successfully healed," he reported looking back at the team. They exchanged glances before Shiro stepped forward slightly.

"Maybe humans heal differently," he suggested. "We tend to have pain from healed injuries for a long time after we heal, what?" he asked looking at the baffled faces of the Alteans.

"You still feel pain from a wound that is healed?" Allura asked in horror. They traded looks with one another before hesitantly nodding to the two. Coran approached the table making sure that Lance was looking at him.

"Lance, if you don't mind, I was wondering if I could take a look at your back," he said. "There might be a way to help you if I look at it,"

Lance took a shaky breath in and looked at the far wall instead.

"I don't know if you want to look at it Coran," he said quietly. "Its pretty ugly,"

The whispered statement echoed loudly in the silence that engulfed the team. They gazed sadly at their teammate while he avoided everyone's eyes. He seemed to curl into himself slightly and clenched his fists at his sides.

"Nonsense," Coran said with a soft smile. Lance stopped and looked at the man who was grinning widely at the boy. He gave a short bark of laughter that made the others jump slightly.

"No really Coran, it's not pretty at all," he insisted. Coran only lifted a hand and ruffled his hair. Lance looked at the man in wonder, not daring to even breathe.

"When it comes to you Lance, it could be nothing short of beautiful," he said quietly to Lance. Lance gasped and his eyes filled with water, he let out a choked sob and shuffled closer to the Altean letting himself be engulfed in a hug. Coran smiled and rubbed the boys back and rested his chin on the top of his head, letting quiet praises exit his mouth. Lance pulled back and turned his back to the others in the room and slowly unzipped the black suit letting it slid down his shoulders.

"Oh my," Coran breathed out. He let his hand cover his mouth in shock when the black fabric settled around Lance's waist.

"I told you, Coran," Lance muttered staring blankly ahead at the far wall. They could only stare in morbid awe at the reddish pink scar tissue covering his entire back. It started at the base of his neck and extended to his tailbone and stretched the width of his shoulders. They could see that it was indented compared to the rest of his healthy skin and that they could see the knobs of his spine more clearly. Coran shook himself out of his shock and approached him grabbing a small tub of medicine as he walked closer.

"As I said before," he said quietly opening the tub and spreading it slightly on Lance's skin making him flinch when the cold cream touched him. "Nothing short of beautiful,"

For the first time that day, Lance let a smile spread across his face and looked at the man from over his shoulder. The others let out a breath of relief and once again crowded around the table to comfort Lance.

"So what can we do for him?" Shiro asked rubbing Lance's arm comfortably. "Can we put him in the pod again and see if that takes away the pain?"

"Unfortunately, since the pod registers him as 100% healthy, it won't activate," Coran replied with a frown on his face. "This cream, however, works as both a painkiller and a restorative, we might be able to regenerate some of the skin that Lance lost and he won't feel as much pain either!" Coran exclaimed holding up the tub of medicine he just put on Lance's back. The paladins looked at it dubiously then looked at Lance, who quirked a confused eyebrow.

"So... someone has to rub Lance's back every day?" Pidge asked hesitantly.

"Of course not!" Coran cheered gaining a sigh of relief from the paladins. "Twice, maybe three times a day!" The paladins let out various sounds of disgust and turned away.

"Yeah! One of you gets the privilege of rubbing Lancey Lance's back!" Lance laughed crossing his arms and puffing out his chest.

"You're gonna catch these hands, Lance," Pidge threatened holding her fists up with a glint in her eye. He only giggled and swatted the fists away from himself.

"But, seriously guys you don't have to, I'll figure it out," he said with a smile.

"Lance!" Shiro cried exasperatedly. "When will you realize that we are okay with this, even if we have to rub your gross nasty back," Shiro said with a little smirk.

"Dad, betrayal," Lance gasped putting a hand to his cheek in mocked shock. There was a beat of silence before everyone was laughing and they were able to forget about the heartbreaking events of earlier.

______________________________________________________

They were able to leave after half a varga and Shiro ended up rounding everyone up and meeting up in the lounge. They sat down with Lance in the middle, a fact that he was very aware of.

"Uh, guys?" He asked confused looking around at the solemn faces around him. "Is this some kind of intervention or something?" He laughed trying to bring up the mood in the room.

"Or something," Shiro confirmed looking into Lance's eyes. Lance flinched back, slightly put off by the seriousness in his leader's eyes.

"We need to know why you kept something like this a secret from us," Keith finished for him shuffling closer to the blue paladin. He looked at his friends and saw the worry that was etched into their faces.

"Yah dude, we could have been helping you with this all along," Hunk stated, a wobbly tone to his voice. Lance swallowed and hung his head in shame, worrying the friends around him. He sniffed back the tears that were threatening to fall.

"It's just that at home; since there were so many people to take care, I didn't know when I was hurting enough for it to be important," Lance admitted not looking at anybody's face.

"But it was different this time, I couldn't lay down without it hurting, and I got nauseous whenever I tried to eat so then I just felt bad all the time," Lance whimpered curling into himself. "I'm sorry that I haven't been doing good, I promise that I can get better," he pleading suddenly facing Shiro. The leader felt a pang of sadness in his chest as he looked at the teen's watery blue eyes. Even though they had visited the med bay and figured out how what was happening to him; he still believed that he was at fault. He gently encircled Lance in his arms and pressed the chestnut hair into his shoulder.

"Lance, you've done nothing but sacrifice for this team since day one," Shiro said quietly. "You don't have to promise us anything, we already know that you would do anything for this team,"

It only took a moment for Lance's hand to clutch Shiro's shirt and for him to burrow deeper in the embrace and let out a shaking sob. With that, the others launched themselves to join the two of them.

"You do realize that we wouldn't be a team without you, right?" Hunk cried into Lance's hair. The comment only made another sob tear it's way out of his mouth. For the first time in many months, he felt like he could return to normal and enjoy the life that fate decided for him.