Adrenaline

Shiro's Compressions

"I believe it's safe to use. I couldn't find anything that could worsen Keith's situation," Coran informed all the inhabitants of the castle.

"And if you're wrong?" Hunk asked nervously.

"We don't have another choice," Pidge said and deflated with her own words. Everyone else was quiet. They really didn't have another choice. Keith was not improving on his own and no one could argue that even if it went south, and they all knew they would blame themselves if it did, at least they had done something.

"What do you need?" Shiro asked and tried to seem confident and was mildly successful.

"I can't just put it into the cryo pod," Coran said and Shiro wanted to hit something because of course it couldn't be that easy. "But we can't very well take him out for long periods of time."

Shiro was quiet for a moment. He didn't want to but he knew he could help with that. He looked over at the others. Pidge seemed too weak to be able to do it for long, Hunk too nervous, Lance could probably do it but then again, if Shiro remembered correctly first aid was something they learned for a couple of hours in the first year of their Garrison careers and he had had lengthy lessons right before the Kerberos mission.

"I can do CPR while you-" Shiro hesitated for half a second while he tried to remember if he was ever told if the drug would be injected or given orally. He quickly concluded he didn't know and it didn't matter and continued as if nothing had happened, "you give him the medicine. "

"CPR?" Allura questioned.

"He can press Keith's chest to keep his heart beating and blow in his mouth for oxygen," Pidge explained helpfully but still looked away from Allura as if she wasn't even in the room.

"Oh, okay," Allura said and raised her eyebrows in surprise.

"And that works?" she continued after a moment of silence and was answered with a curt nod from Pidge.

"You do that, Shiro. The rest of you go, go," Coran instructed. "This needs to be done precisely and I can't have you all lolling around."

Several mouths opened to protest but they all realized that it wouldn't help anything and they would only be in the way if they stayed.

Lance was walking past Shiro but was stopped by a firm hand on his arm. He turned his head to look at Shiro with a lifted eyebrow.

"What do you want?" Lance asked sharply. Shiro was glad that the team didn't have to like him to follow his orders but it still cut deep when they would talk harshly to him.

Shiro turned his gaze from Lance to in front of himself. He could still see Lance in the corner of his eye but was too cowardly too look directly at him. Some leader he was. He couldn't even look at his teammate while everyone else had no problem with stopping in their tracks to look openly at him.

"Can you help with the CPR?" Shiro asked emotionlessly. He could do it himself but he remembered from all his lessons that it was best if it was a two-man job.

Shiro could just make out Lance's eyes flickering from side to side to take all of Shiro in.

"No," he said to Shiro's disappointment but continued, "My rhythm is off."

Shiro nodded somberly. "I'll do the compressions."

Lance looked down at the ground and Shiro finally found the strength to look at him and take in Lance's serious but reddening face. Lance seemed embarrassed about the idea of being lip to lip with Keith but he nodded solemnly.