Most of his dreams consisted of the same two faces. A beautiful tanned young girl with slightly wavy blonde hair and bright green eyes; and a giggling young boy with dark skin, chocolate brown locks and the same sparkling eyes as the girl. They reached out to him and called his name with smiles on their faces. He would run towards them, arms stretched out, his grin would falter as the girl would disappear from his sights but the boy would continue smiling and holding out his arms.

"Daddy!" He would call; the smile never once faltering from his face, even though the dream would never last long enough for him to feel his father's arms wrap around him. Lance pumped his arms frantically trying to sprint with all his might to the boy. He wanted to reassure him, kiss his forehead and tell him that he would be back soon. That he wasn't going to disappear like his mommy. He could feel tears streaking down his face when the boy appeared to be getting farther and farther from his reach.

"Leo!" He yelled reaching forward trying in vain to grab his small arm in his hand and pull him closer.

"Don't worry!" He cried. "Daddy will make it back to you, I promise!" As young as he was, he understood and nodded his head as he vanished in the distance. Lance stopped running and put his hands on his knees trying to catch his breath. He let out a small choke when he heard a cry in the distance.

"I love you, Daddy," the small voice came from the same direction. He looked painfully towards the voice.

"I love you too chiquito," he whispered as the world faded to white around him.

Lance's eyes blinked open and he stared at the ceiling above him. His thoughts drifted to the image of the blonde girl and he pushed his palms into his eyes. He let out a slow breath and sat up. His hand clenched his robe above his heart as he bit his lip, trying to drown out the pain in his chest. His eyes squeezed shut and a single tear slipped down the side of his nose before he quickly wiped it away and stood up.

"You have to stay strong for Leo," he whispered to himself, slipping his robe down his shoulders and picking up his baseball shirt. As he got ready, he remembered all the mornings he spent helping Leo get ready for school before he left for the Garrison. He felt terrible leaving his son for school; especially after losing his mother in a car accident, but he knew that in the long run, it would work out for the best. They wouldn't have to worry about money and Leo would get the best care and education Lance could ever ask for. That is until they were shot out into space; now Lance constantly worried about his little boy, sure he was with his grandparents but he didn't want Leo to grow up without a father and one that seemed to abandon him at that. He just needed to help with the fight against Zarkon and then they would be brought back to Earth and he could reunite with his son. He pulled on his jacket and started heading down the hall to the kitchen. When he entered he grabbed a bowl and filled it before sitting down at the empty table. Shortly after the rest of the paladins filed in, each of them giving him a smile and a nod which he returned.

"Whats on the schedule for today Princess?" He asked when she sat down in her seat.

"The Blade of Marmora believes they know where some important intel can be found," she replied. "After we eat, we will meet on the bridge for a conference with Kolivan," they all nodded in response and concentrated back on their meals.

"Would this intel help in bringing down the Empire?" He asked. She looked up from her food in confusion.

"I suppose it would, I don't believe they would ask for our assistance if it did have something to do with Zarkon," she affirmed. "Why are you so interested Lance? You aren't usually worried about the significance of the mission," she pointed out. Lance shrugged his shoulders and stirred the goo in his bowl.

"Well, I can usually tell the difference between rescuing prisoners and fighting the Galra," he mumbled before stuffing the spoon in his mouth.

"Yes, well I believe the Intel will prove useful toward our efforts," Allura gave Lance a reassuring smile. Lance gave a small sigh but nodded and let himself focus on breakfast instead.

______________________________________________________

Pulling on the paladin armour gave Lance a sense of protection and safety compared only to his home. He followed his fellow paladins onto the bridge where Allura and Coran already had the feed open, and Kolivan's face up on the screen.

"Greetings Paladins," he said nodding to the group. They nodded in return and sat in their designated seats around the room.

"Explain the situation, if you would Kolivan," Allura said.

"Of course, we have received word from an inside source that there could be information on this outpost that could greatly increase our chances of defeating Zarkon," he announced. He flicked his claw across the screen and the file popped into the castle, Allura brought it up revealing the outpost's layout.

"We believe it will be a relatively simple mission, there doesn't seem to be any live Galra on board, only sentries, and drones," he continued.

"Doesn't that seem a little strange?" Lance asked from his position. The others looked at him in confusion. "Well; if the information is as important as they say it is, wouldn't they have actual Galra there to protect it?"

"We don't know much about the Galran sentries, they could be just as effective as live beings," Pidge commented shrugging her shoulders. "We should bring one back with us!" she said excitedly. The others chuckled at her excitement but looked at Shiro when he began speaking.

"Pidge, you, and Keith will go extract the intel. Keith will be your backup," they both nodded in response and fist bumped with grins on their faces. Shiro grinned and looked between Lance and Hunk. "Lance and Hunk, we will be lookouts, it looks like there are three different entrances to the server room, Hunk and I will be on the ground floor and Lance you'll be on the top floor," they both gave salutes and Shiro gave his attention to Kolivan.

"Good luck Paladins, I hope this information aids you in our fight against Zarkon," he signed off.

"We'll use Green's cloaking device to get close enough to the base without being spotted, does anyone have any questions?" He asked looking around the room. When no one spoke up they headed out towards the hangers and onto Green.

"Are you ready paladins?" Allura asked from Green's dash. "We won't be able to keep in contact with you during the mission because the distance will be too great,"

"Yes Princess, understood," Shiro replied.

"Opening wormhole now,"

______________________________________________________

Infiltrating the outpost turned out to be the easy part, but it turned out to be absolutely crawling with sentries. They snuck through the halls taking out the bots left and right and dragged them out of sight. Eventually, they made it to the server room, easily taking out the guards stationed outside and crept into the room. After entering they quickly set up at their posts and Shiro motioned for Lance to advance to the next floor. He nodded and quickly made his way to his place, thankfully there were no sentries posted at his position. After a few minutes of radio silence, Keith's voice came onto the coms.

"Guys, this bot just lit up,"

"The ones outside my door just did too," Hunk said nervously as well.

"Pidge, any ideas?" Shiro asked.

"Just a second, maybe I can find it on the computer," she responded. "I found the schematics of the sentries, they look like they were specially made for this complex,"

"Okay," Keith said gruffly.

"Chill Keith," she muttered, then a gasp. "They're bombs! We have to get out now!" She yelled. As soon as the warning came, Lance slammed open the door and bolted down the stairs following his teammates. With a glance behind him, he saw that the memory device was still plugged into the system. His mind raced with visions of Earth and Leo's face, and how it was endlessly drifting away from him. This intel could help them get back to Earth; they needed it, he needed it. He pivoted quickly, almost tripping right on his face as he raced back to the computer.

"Lance what are you doing?!" Shiro's voice yelled through the coms.

"Keep going, I'll meet you there!" He yelled back, not sparing them a glance. He leapt over the bots and yanked the device free. He knew that Shiro would be disappointed in him for possibly risking his life, but this was going to help them immensely. He sprinted past the doorway, ignoring the blinking red eyes of the downed sentries and only looked forward. He could see his friends in the distance and was glad that he wasn't left as behind as he thought he was. Green was still crouching where she was left, with her mouth open, waiting to welcome the paladins back. They scrambled up the ramp and as soon as Lance was inside it snapped shut. They shot out into space a single tick before the first explosions started. They flew further away and watched in morbid awe as the entire outpost was engulfed in white-hot flames. Lance laid on his stomach, face to the ground, and sweat pouring down his face as he tried to catch his breath. He clutched the intel in his hand and slowly pushed out a breath.

"Lance," Shiro's stern voice made Lance's head snap up to look at his team. Shiro and Keith had deep frowns on their faces, Shiro's looking more troubled than Keith's. While Pidge and Hunk had pain filled expressions tainting their faces. Shiro looked like he was about to speak before he closed his mouth and wiped his hand down his face.

"We will talk about this when we get back," he finally said. Lance gulped and nodded his head in understanding. He got on his knees and looked down at the ground in shame. He looked up when he felt a hand on his shoulder, he smiled when he saw Hunk giving him a sad little smile. Hunk got down on his knees and engulfed Lance in his arms, burying his head in the crook of Lance's neck.

"I'm okay buddy," he whispered reassuringly. He heard Hunk give a little sniff but he nodded and drew back, keeping his arm around Lance's shoulders as they rode through the wormhole.

"Welcome back paladins, how was the mission?" Allura asked popping up on the dash.

"Fine Princess, we got the intel," Shiro said politely, not showing the previous disappointment aimed at Lance. Allura gave them all a wide smile.

"Excellent, Coran and I will meet you in the hangers," she said before her feed disappeared. Pidge flew Green through the airlocks and into the hanger where they could see the Alteans waiting beside the computer. They gave them all smiles as they descended, but they fell when they noticed the unusual stoic attitudes of the paladins.

"Is everyone alright?" Coran asked as they trudged to the computer.

"Yes Coran, we're going to talk about it later," Shiro replied as Pidge jumped onto her chair and booted up the system.

"Lance," she said holding out her hand. He dropped the stick in her hand and stepped back as she plugged it in. His heart stopped when only a blank screen opened up.

"It looks like the data got corrupted, we didn't get anything," Pidge stated, typing rapidly on the keyboard trying to find anything that might be hidden. Lance took a step back and clenched his fists at his sides.

"It must have happened when I took it out," Lance muttered looking down. "I'm so stupid," the others looked at him in shock.

"What do you mean Lance?" Pidge asked. "This isn't your fault, this happens all the time,"

"No, I must have done something, I fucked up somewhere and we lost key information in defeating Zarkon," he responded not looking at the other paladins.

"There will be other chances Lance," Shiro said reassuringly putting his hand on Lance's shoulder. "We'll get there eventually," he gave him a hesitant smile.

Eventually. Eventually wasn't good, eventually could mean years and years from now. He would miss everything; his first day of school, his first relationship, his first car. He might not get to teach him how to ride a bike, or how to defend himself, or how to read. All the important moments in his life he had with his parents, Leo might never get to experience because they'll eventually take Zarkon down.

"I can't do eventually, I need soon!" Lance suddenly yelled, making the other jump. "We need to defeat Zarkon, so I can go home!" He yelled finally losing his cool.

"Hey! We all want to go back to Earth Lance!" Keith growled stalking forward. "We all have families we want to get back to, but right now they're better off without us because we are saving lives out here,"

"You don't understand," Lance whispered looking straight into Keith's eyes. Keith's teeth ground together and he grabbed the ridge of his chest plate pulling him forward.

"What don't I understand Lance?!" He yelled. Lance ripped Keith's hand off of him and threw it away.

"I HAVE A SON!" He screamed in Keith surprised face. "I have a son on Earth who thinks his dad is dead or abandoned him! God knows what the Garrison told my family," he looked around at the shocked paladins around him. He gazed at Shiro with sad, tear-filled eyes.

"So I can't do eventually Shiro; my boy needs his father because he doesn't have his mother anymore, and I will not let my son become an orphan," he said softly. He turned and left the hangers, the silence filling the space behind him. They turned to Hunk after a moment and looked to him for answers, but he only shook his head looking down at the ground in shock.

"I had no idea," he whispered. "He would go away every weekend, but he told me it was personal, so I never asked,"

"We need to talk to him guys," Keith said still looking at the spot where Lance was standing.

"Yes, he'll need us now more than ever," Shiro agreed coming up to stand beside Keith. "We need to apologize as well, he must have been feeling this way for a while and we didn't notice anything," the paladins stood and exited the hangers, leaving the Alteans behind.

"Coran," Allura said. The man looked up from where he was looking sadly at the blank monitor screen.

"Yes, Princess?" He asked. They started making their way out of the hangers, she turned towards the direction of the bridge. He gave her a confused stare looking at the paladin's backs as they headed towards the quarters and lounge.

"We're setting a course to Earth," she announced giving the man a wide smile. An equally as wide smile stretched across his face and he gave a little bow.

"Yes, Princess,"

______________________________________________________

Tears were rolling down the sides of his face as his head rested on the back of the lounge couch. He would give anything to see his son again and to hold him in his arms. He stared blankly at the paladins when they stood on the floor above him; like him, they changed out of their paladin armour into their regular clothes. They crawled onto the cushions beside him Shiro and Hunk on both sides of him, close enough that they were touching shoulders with him. Keith and Pidge sat on the floor in front of him, each putting a hand on his knee. They waited for him to lift his head up and look at them all.

"I am so sorry Lance," Keith started. "I shouldn't have assumed to know what you're going through, I knew that you were homesick but I didn't try to understand past that," he stated looking into Lance's eyes, which widened a bit at the apology.

"No, its okay," he said. "I shouldn't have yelled, I just, I want to see him and for him to understand that I'm not abandoning him and that I'm not going to be gone forever," he admitted. He shakily put his hand up to his face to try and hide the tears still rolling down his cheeks.

"You said that his mother was already gone, do you mind if I ask you about that?" Shiro asked putting his hand on his back.

"No, its okay, it happened a while ago," Lance sniffed and leaned back into the hand rubbing his back. He breathed in trying to gain his bearings.

"You don't have to tell us, Lance," Hunk said sadly, tears welling in his eyes at the sadness pouring off of his best friend.

"No, I want to, you guys are my family, and I want you to meet him someday so I want you to know," he stated forcing a wobbling smile to his face. They each gave him an encouraging smile in return. He once again took a deep breath and slowly breathed out.

"Her name was Racheal," he started with a smile filled with love. "She was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen; blonde hair, green eyes, she had so many freckles, just like Leo. That's the name of my son by the way, kind of funny isn't it," he gave a weak little chuckle.

"We were both fifteen when he was born and I was never the same, it was like I found a piece of myself that was missing from my life. I would do absolutely anything for him, I loved him from the moment I heard the news from Racheal. I was going to marry her too; my mamá was going to let me use abuela's ring and everything," Hunk let out a low whine and he squeezed his eyes shut against the tears in his eyes. His chin wobbled and his hand grabbed onto Lance's.

"She and her parents were coming back from her postpartum checkup, the hospital is a long drive from home and it was getting dark out and they didn't even see it coming. A drunk driver was driving on the wrong side of the highway and struck them head-on; Nathan and Anne died instantly but Racheal made it long enough for me and Leo to see her one more time. It was so hard to say goodbye to her; I thought I was going to marry her someday and we would live the rest of our lives together," his voice cracked and leaned forward with a sob. He could feel Pidge wrapping her arms around his leg and hugging it trying to offer support. Keith's arm wrapped around his neck and pulled his head and shoulder into a hug.

"You don't have to tell us anymore," he whispered reassuringly. You could hear the wetness in his voice, and the tear tracks on his cheeks. Lance sniffed in consideration, but shook his head and sat back up.

"Its okay, the worst is over," he said giving them a sad grin. "Sure, it was difficult to raise Leo on my own, but I had my parents to help me and I wouldn't give it up for anything. I got to see him every weekend in the Garrison, and I knew that I was doing the best job that I was able to. I would do anything for him and I need to get back to him soon before he forgets who I even am, and only knows what I look like from a picture," he looked mournfully into the distance before glancing at the people around him. Not surprisingly their eyes were filled with tears and they clung to wherever they could on the blue paladin's body.

"We're so sorry Lance, we promise we'll do whatever it takes to get back to Earth the fastest," Shiro proclaimed grabbing Lance's other free hand. The others nodded in agreement and gazed at him with sad eyes. Before he could respond Allura's voice came onto the speaker.

"Paladins, please meet us up on the bridge please, it is of great importance,"

"Let's go, guys," Lance said when no one moved. Their worried stares followed him the entire way up, but they instead widened in disbelief when they walked through the doors.

"Allura, Coran," Lance breathed out walking forward as if in a trance.

"Welcome back to Earth Lance," Allura said quietly. "Go, be with your son," she prompted. He turned to her in surprise and looked around seeing smiles coming from the others.

"Do you all want to meet him?" He asked biting his lip.

______________________________________________________

The journey to Lance's home was filled with the quiet chatter of descriptions of Lance's family, his mother, father, and siblings but mostly Leo.

"He'll love all of you," he reassured them. They descended onto a field, a short distance away they could see a house with people already rushing out and towards the ship to investigate it. Lance sucked in a breath when he saw his papá cautiously creeping forward before he knew it he was sprinting across the field and into his arms. He bowled him over and ended up landing on his chest, trembling and sobbing his heart out. Big, familiar hands found their way into his hair and started petting it back.

"Lance?" His papá's voice shook and Lance lifted his head to look at his face with a teary smile.

"I'm home papá," he said. He was crushed into another hug and he let out a laugh. They got up and he was immediately swarmed by his family, his mamá pulled him into a bone-crushing hug along with his siblings. He stepped back from the noogie he was receiving from his oldest brother.

"They told us you were dead," Rosa said placing her hand on his cheek. He pressed into it and gave her a small smile.

"Well, they lied," he replied. He took her hand in his and looked around in confusion. "Where's Leo mamá?" he asked.

"I'll go get him," she replied with a smile, turning back towards the house. The paladins came up behind him and Shiro patted him on the back.

"Isn't that the guy on the poster in your room?" Maria suddenly asked pointing to Shiro. Lance's face immediately flushed red and he slapped his hand across Maria's mouth. He looked back at the paladins who each had amused smiles across their faces.

"You have a poster of Shiro on your wall?" Keith asked chuckling a bit.

"No!" He denied immediately shaking his head.

"Yes, he has the action figure of him too," Marco added, grumbling when Lance covered his mouth as well. They blinked and burst out laughing except for Shiro who mad a confused look on his face.

"I have an action figure? Hah, tight," he chuckled. Lance pouted at all the laughing figures around him still not removing the hands from his sibling's faces.

"Daddy?" A quiet voice asked. All the voices stopped and looked at the young boy standing hand and hand with Rosa.

"Leo," Lance smiled getting down to one knee and opening his arms. That was all it took for the three-year-old to bolt to the teenager. He wrapped his little arms around his father's neck and clutched onto the familiar green jacket. A strong arm lifted him off the ground and cradled him firmly to his chest, the other pressed his head into the crook of his neck comfortably. It wasn't long until Leo was wailing in relief and Lance was shedding tears alongside him. He sobbed until he fell asleep against Lance's shoulder, gripping the material of his jacket with white knuckles. Lance shushed and bounced him lightly, he turned to face the Alteans and the paladins.

"I don't know if I can leave him again guys," he stated sadly. The other paladins smiled and shook their heads.

"We understand Lance, you have to do what you need to," Shiro said.

"Lance if I might," Coran said walking forward. "The Castle has catered to generations of Altean children, along with your help I believe it could become an excellent place to raise Leo, that is if you wanted to," he suggested shrugging his shoulders. Lance only gaped in response before turning to look at his family, who were all giving him reassuring smiles.

"I may not know where you've been, of what you've been doing, but I know that one day you'll be back on Earth," Rosa said. "If you believe that this is the right choice, take it," he looked down at his son and smiled thinking of all the adventures they could have and everything he could teach him.

"Thank you mamá," he sniffed as her arms went around him. With a cry, his family squeezed around him offering him their reassurances and acceptance. He waved them goodbyes as they traveled as a pride back to the blue lion. The walk up the ramp felt lighter with the presence of his son and he sat down at the pilot's seat and carefully took off. Just as before the cockpit was filled with silence, but this time it was light and filled with happiness. As he was walked out of blue behind his teammates, Leo stirred and looked up at his father.

"Where are we?" He asked softly looking around curiously.

"Leo, welcome to the Castle of Lions,"