A/N: Yo yo yo, it's ya girl! The other two fanfictions I've written here, I wasn't very proud of, so it's nice to finally have this one up. I think I wrote this really well and am super excited for any reviews I may get!

It was morning when they got the news. At around nine, someone important (Garcia couldn't be bothered to remember what rank they were) from the Garrison came with a box that said Lance on the top in fancy script.

"Hello, Mrs. McClain," there was this hint of sadness in his voice, almost a waver.

"Hello, sir. What have you come for?" The man gave her a look of pity that set a very uncomfortable feeling in her gut.

"I'm terribly sorry, Mrs. McClain, but your son was reported missing this morning after a lockdown yesterday. We couldn't find him anywhere, and we believe that he was taken by the invading force." He said something about the package, and some more about condolences or whatever, but Garcia couldn't hear, not focused enough to understand anything.

She felt nauseous, the world spinning in her sight. Lance? Missing? Taken by an invading force? She backed away, eyes wide, straining to see the officer, but she couldn't, and eventually blacked out.

When she awoke, she was in bed, with her husband crying next to her.

"Aaron? What happened? I -" The scene came back to her, and horror gripped her heart. "Lance. Lance. Lance!" It all felt so surreal. Their baby boy, their youngest, someone who brought so much cheer into the family, gone. Vanished overnight, not even gradually, just poof!

She couldn't even cry for him. She refused to believe he was gone, refused to resign herself. She would find him. And he would come back, and they would be whole again.

ONE MONTH LATER

It became all too real for Garcia, suddenly hitting her, when they held a remembrance ceremony for him. It was an evasive way of holding a funeral, and everyone knew it. She came out of denial to find that Lance was gone and he probably wasn't ever coming back. They probably wouldn't ever know what happened to him, either.

All of their family from all over the country, some even coming from Cuba, came to mourn his loss. Garcia was so tired. She didn't have the energy to greet all these people, to pretend she was fine, to take all the "I'm sorry" and the "my condolences". But she did anyway.

When Lance's siblings heard the news, they were absolutely devastated. Some cried, some just went quiet, but every one of them took it hard.

The ceremony passed by very slowly and very quietly, everyone taking their time to take it all in. They set up a table against one of the walls to put some of Lance's favorite things on it with a framed picture of him smiling, one of his siblings holding him in a headlock.

He was always closest to Alfredo. Alfredo treated him like an equal, not like a younger brother, and Lance really appreciated it, since he was the youngest and didn't get that treatment from anyone else.

Alfredo also took this the hardest, second only to Garcia. He was always super loud and rambunctious, bouncing off the walls everywhere he went, but that day he was silent. He walked around with this far off look on his face, deep in thought, and it only made it all the more real for everyone else.

When everyone had gone home, Garcia was so tired, and yet she couldn't sleep. It was the first time she cried since Lance left for the Garrison.

TWO MONTHS LATER

It was Lance's birthday. July 28th, Lance's favorite day of the year, and it was not making it any easier for Garcia to move on.

She had been trying to move on for months, hoping to finally get some sleep, to no avail. She wasn't trying to forget him, simply to get her life back on track, but she still found she didn't have the motivation to get up to go to work in the morning, she still found herself standing in front of Lance's table for far too long, and she still found she couldn't clean up Lance's room.

It was the same as the day he left for the Garrison - they wanted him to have that familiarity when he returned - but with slim chance of him returning now, they decided they really ought to put the room to better use.

They baked Lance a cake and his favorite quesadillas and left them on the altar. Garcia wondered if he would remember what day it was, if he was alive.

FOUR MONTHS LATER

Garcia had managed to recover from Lance's disappearance, able to go to work and clean up his room and not stare at the his table for too long now, but she was still grieving.

She still cried every once in awhile, when they'd make his favorite food, or see his favorite color. She was tired, so tired, and she's aged so much in so little time from the stress, her hair grown white, her face grown wrinkly.

She wondered if Lance missed her, if he was still alive. If Lance ever thought of her or his family, if he was happy somewhere out there, or sad, being held prisoner or maybe as a slave. She cried again.

FIVE MONTHS LATER

It was the anniversary of Lance's disappearance. Garcia hadn't cried over him in months, finally fully moved on and resigned to the fact that he was probably dead, but she cried that day.

His siblings had stopped in a couple times since the remembrance ceremony, mostly Alfredo, to check up on them and make sure they were holding up okay, and a couple came that day.

They had a big dinner, all Lance's favorites, and it was quiet, but the silence was welcome. No one even said a word about Lance, but they all knew.

And when the siblings went home, Garcia turned to Aaron with tears in her eyes and asked, "Do you think he's happy?" Aaron started crying with her.

THREE MONTHS LATER

Garcia was just unloading the dishes when she came across one that was pushed far back in the cabinet, one that she was all too familiar with.

It was Lance's. Every tenth birthday in the family, the birthday boy/girl got to paint a plate their favorite color and use other colors to draw stuff on top of that.

Lance's was blue, and for the design, he had drawn all of his family holding hands. Garcia couldn't stop crying.

ONE MONTH LATER

Garcia was just cleaning up around the house when the doorbell rang. Assuming it was another visit from Alfredo or another one of Lance's siblings, she called for Aaron to get it.

She heard the door open and a familiar voice rang alarm bells in her head.

"I'm home."

She dropped the vacuum.

When she got to the door, almost tripping over herself in her haste, there she saw a very rough, older looking version of her youngest son, holding hands with a boy.

It all felt so surreal, very much like the day he went missing, as she wailed and crushed him in a hug, eventually bringing the other boy and Aaron in with him. They were all crying, holding onto each other for dear life, and Garcia didn't want to let go, afraid he would disappear again if she did, but Lance needed to breathe, so she reluctantly released her hold.

"What happened? Where have you been? We were all so worried!" Lance just nodded, saying "I know" over and over again until Garcia had calmed down.

"Mama, Papa, this is Keith, my boyfriend. My other friends, Hunk, Pidge, Shiro, they're all coming over tomorrow, but they wanted to see their families first. Allura went with Shiro, her boyfriend, and Coran is watching over the castle ship. We saved the universe." He said it with such pride that Garcia actually believed him, despite the preposterousness of it.

"What about Keith? Doesn't he want to see his family, too?" Lance gave an uncomfortable sideways glance at Keith, who ducked his head.

"He doesn't have a family. I was hoping he could stay here with us?"

"Of course. Of course, I'm so sorry." Aaron had been too shocked to speak and then suddenly,

"Y - you're alive." Lance looked at him with sadness and guilt on his face.

"I'm alive," he said, and they started crying all over again.

When they'd gotten inside and settled in at the dining room table, Lance complaining about not having real food since he left, Garcia got straight to cooking all of Lance's favorite dishes while Aaron made a whole bunch of phone calls to family, telling them of Lance's return.

Keith and Lance were talking and laughing, and for the first time in a long time, Garcia felt whole again.

ONE MONTH LATER

It was the day of the party, Lance's return party, and everyone was getting ready. Shiro and Keith were talking to each other, Pidge and Hunk, and Allura and Coran, which left Lance to his own thoughts.

He'd never seen Alfredo cry before, so when he came over, sobbing buckets, Lance was shocked. They hugged for what felt like hours, then they caught up on Alfredo's life, and Lance told Alfredo of his adventures and his newfound sharpshooting skill, and that he would give him a ride in Blue sometime.

He introduced Alfredo to Keith, and they immediately hit it off, making Lance very happy.

By the time the third guest arrived, Lance realized how much everyone had changed since he last saw them. Some of them he hadn't seen since before the Garrison, and some just before he left Earth, but they all changed just as much.

Then he thought about how much he must've changed. War changed the best of them, and Lance was no exception. He'd become more reserved, more cautious, on edge, less trusting. He was still the same boy underneath it all, but now he kept people at arm's length, not wanting anyone to get too close, for fear they would turn up an enemy in the end.

When the party was over and everyone left, the space team curled up in Lance's living room, telling Lance's parents about everything that had happened.

They knew they'd have to go to the Garrison soon and explain, but they wanted to live out their happiness just a little longer. And boy were they living it.

Lance had never seen the team so at peace - which was saying something because they were not at peace - and it comforted him knowing they were all safe. Finally home.

He excused himself to his room and sat on the bed, not his bed. He really did miss his room. Keith soon joined him, lacing their fingers together, and Lance told him how strange it felt to be home.

Keith told Lance how strange it felt to be loved, and Lance hugged him. They stayed like that for a while before joining the rest again.

And Garcia was happy. She hadn't felt so relaxed since before Lance disappeared. She just felt whole again. She felt so whole. And as Lance and his new friends laughed at some stupid joke he made, all looking happy and peaceful and cheery, Garcia could safely say that she was happy.

There were still problems that needed to be worked through, Lance's mental state after an intergalactic war mainly, but Garcia couldn't bring herself to care. She was never letting her baby boy go again.

ONE YEAR LATER

Lance and Keith were curled up together on the couch in their living room watching a sappy rom-com. They had gotten married as soon as they could after getting back to Earth, and were living happily together, money secured from the government as payment for saving the universe.

Shiro and Allura had gone off to explore the Galaxy on their honeymoon. Their wedding happened shortly after Lance and Keith's, and Pidge was happily working as a scientist with Hunk as her partner in a lab just a state away from them.

Coran found himself a nice beach house since he found that he rather liked the ocean, and settled in by himself.

They all met up occasionally - bonds like theirs really couldn't be destroyed - and were essentially all happy. It was great to be home again.