Not Giving Up

The Aftermath

Pidge is frozen in bed. She KNOWS this is a set up, knows that someone is deliberately making this seem bad, framing it like Keith is cheating on her. She knows it. But for some reason it still feels like a gut punch. Like all the oxygen from the room suddenly disappeared and she couldn't breathe. As her vision wavers before her eyes, she closes her eyes and takes a long deep breath. She will not cry. She refuses.

Keith walks out of the bathroom smiling until he sees Pidge in the middle of the bed, with a tear rolling down her cheek, eyes closed holding her laptop. He immediately moves to her, wrapping her tight and whispers, "Babe, what is it? Is everyone ok?" Wordlessly she turns her laptop around so he could see.

He looked down, immediately frowning and swearing. Pidge places her hand on his cheek and turns his face back to hers, pulling his head down to hers and places her forehead against his. "Keith. It's ok. We knew that they were going to misdirect. I know."

"I should have told you when I got back last night that I stopped by Acxa's room. I meant to. I swear."

"I know Keith. I kinda ambushed you when you got back. Don't apologize, you didn't do anything wrong."

Both took a few more deep breaths, each thoughts scrambled and trying to calm down. After a few moments, he hesitantly asks, "Then why are you crying?"

Pidge sighed and leaned against the headboard, trying to put her chaotic feelings into words. "Well, I think, it's just that while I knew that they would most likely try to divide us up, it's different in theory and seeing it. And I thought I was prepared. But, it still hurts to see and it...mostly, I think it just, it brings up a lot of past feelings from the last time when I didn't know what was going on. You know?"

Keith somberly looked into Pidge's eyes, "You sure? You promise you'll tell me what's going on in that genius brain of yours?"

Pidge nodded and agreed. She said, "I can handle this. Really. Let me shower and change but don't leave! We need to figure out how to react to this because I'm sure this was blasted out." She leaned over to give Keith a soft kiss and went into the bathroom.

Keith sighed, so much for asking Pidge to marry him this morning. He had it all planned out and now it was shit. When he found out who was fucking with his relationship, he was going to wring their neck. Shiro messaged him "What the hell?"

Ugh, he knew he was going to get a lot messages but he was going to wait for Pidge to come out before doing anything.

Meanwhile, Krolia and Kolivan see the same pictures in Kolivan's office. He looks to Krolia, "Your kit is going to want to kill this person. And I can't blame him."

Krolia nods, "I agree. I am going to talk to Colleen from Keith's room, to see what we can do to limit the damage. But I do not see him asking her today for marriage."

Back on Earth, the paladins analyze the pictures. Unfortunately, the asshole sent it to the media so it was everywhere. Gossip was spreading like wildfire and everyone had an opinion. On the plus side, no on had a clue that Acxa and Pidge were on the same side. But people were talking and it was getting hard for Lance especially not to defend his friends. Hunk tended to gentle steer people while Lance wanted to yell and swear. Fortunately, he had his friends to keep him from overreacting.

After they all quieted down, Lance asked, "Has anyone talked to either of them? Pidge is going to feel hurt. I know she is. And Keith isn't the best as comforting people."

Shiro looked over at him, "Hey, none of that. We are going to have faith in our master plan. This, while slightly bigger than I imagined, still falls into what we thought could happen. No one knows that we don't believe this. So right now, I need you to keep up appearances. Hunk, you stay neutral, Lance-go for it. Defend argue, let's create a smoke screen. WE want these people to believe they have us right where they want us. All the while, we are maneuvering them to our trap. Got it?"

Everyone nods and looks focused. They got their teams back, no doubt.

Elsewhere, a human man is explaining to a large male alien why jealousy is a a good thing and how this is going to give them the time they need to complete their plans. After all timing is everything...