Chapter 27: Hospital

"There is no need to worry, Miss Storm, Mr Ackerman is fine, he woke up for the first time yesterday just to inquire about your situation, after hearing that you were alright we passed out again, we are positive that he'll resume consciousness either today or tomorrow" replied the nurse with a bright smile on her face.

She was very happy about seeing such a young couple more worried about the other than themselves, after all both of them inquired about the other before doing so for themselves.

"That's good... And how is my condition?" asked he young woman.

The nurse's expression darkened a bit and replied "You have been found with a wooden shard stabbed into your lower abdominal area, it's a miracle that you're even alive, Ms Stark, but I am terribly sorry to say that the possibility of you being able to conceive a child to be close to nonexistent.

You see, the shard stabbed directly into your womb and destroyed most of the tissue where the baby would develop from"

"Oh, okay, any possibility of that impacting my combat ability?" replied the young woman to the nurses dismay.

The nurse found that it was not her place to inquire about the private life of the woman in front of her so she just replied "You'll need around a month of full rest, after that you'll need up to a week to regain the lost muscle tissue to go back to full health, the sequelae in your performance should be minimal at most"

"That's good, it would be a problem if I had to leave Klemens alone" she said, leaving the last part as barely more than a whisper.

"Are you alright, miss? I know that it's not my place to ask, but if you need anyone to talk to I am perfectly free for as long as you stay in the hospital, if you want I can even ask for you to be put in the same room as Mr Ackerman" replied the nurse, she thought that Liesl was bottling her emotions, which is never healthy under any condition.

"That would be great, thanks, but ask him first, he could want some time alone after all" said Liesl with a chuckle.

The nurse said her goodbyes and left.

Liesl, now alone in the room looked out of the window.

"Nonexistent, huh, I had never even thought about that..." she murmured looking at the the buildings surrounding the hospital.

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That same day Klemens was moved to Liesl's room as he had already woken up and accepted moving without a second of hesitation.

"Long time no see, moron" said the young woman.

"Indeed, idiot" replied the young man

"It's good that you're alright"

"You too, they told me that a shard of wood stabbed through you and thought of the worst, still, it's great to see that you're alright"

"Kle..." whispered the girl feeling emotional at seeing the relieved look in his eyes, as if a weight had been taken off his stomach.

The atmosphere was getting too solemn for her tastes, so she replied "I'm still surprised that you accepted joining me in this room"

"Why?" replied the young man as he saw no reason why he would refuse, but a feeling told him that it would be something stupid.

"I thought you would have enjoyed some alone time with the cute nurse" replied the girl.

"You're really trying to be funny in this situation?" asked her companion.

"If not now, when will I be? When we're corpses impaled on a pike?"

"Too soon, moron" he squinted his eyes when she mentioned being impaled, he hadn't seen her personally, but the mere thought of her being impaled by a fragment of a house that was destroyed merely because of his negligence made his stomach churn.

'Never again, never again...' he chanted like a mantra.

He had been lucky this time to not have lost her, but the next time he may not be as lucky, even the nurse had said that it had been a miracle for her to be still alive and kicking.

"Too soon? Ok, sorry" replied the girl with a sheepish smile on her face.

The two then remained in silence for a bit of time, until Klemens eventually opened his mouth once again "What do you think happened?" he asked.

"You mean after that bastard transformed? I think that he went straight to running away, a coward like that wouldn't have sticked around and waited for the army to react" she replied.

"I think so too" he answered "But the possibility that he purposefully destroyed more than necessary to escape is making me go crazy, every death is my fault, if only i..." he said, but soon enough his words were interrupted.

The outraged voice of Liesl stopped him from finishing his thought "Don't you dare blame yourself, it's our fault, not yours alone, if I hadn't brought us down that tunnel we would have never found them, eventually they would have left on their own.

But what we did doesn't only have negatives, it still has a single ray of positive, now we can tell the army a bit of what we learned from them, even about the fact that there are more titans left"

Finding positive things in an even that brought death to many didn't sit well with Klemens, but thinking only about the negatives would bring them nothing "I guess you're right"

Just as he said that, the door opened without any knocking from the other side.

"Isn't it kind of a violation of our privacy barging in like that, Commander" said Liesl to the new arrival.

"It would be if this wasn't a moment of emergency, Liesl, but we need to ask the both of you a couple of questions" replied the commander.

Next to him was Captain Levi, as their direct superior he was asked to join as they were questioned.

"Go ahead, we will answer everything that in our power to do" replied the girl, giving information was exactly what they wanted to do in the first place, there was only so much that two people alone could do after all.

"Good, first of all is am I right to assume that the armored titan is like Eren too? And in that case do you know who that person is?" asked the commander.

"Yes to both, that was ex cadet Reiner Braun from the 104th cadet corp, same as us, together with him there was ex cadet Bertholdt Hoover from the same cadet corp, who has the same power as Braun, Hoover is the colossal titan"

That was a lot for both the commander and captain Levi to process, Klemens thought that she could have at least broken up her answer in a few more sentences to make it easier, but he knew that she did it exactly to confuse them.

Eventually, a few seconds later, the commander got his act back together and replied "Thanks, recruit Stark, that was very informative, may I ask why the two of you were together with Braun and Hoover in a deserted area? And what led to Braun transforming and escaping?"

"Yes commander, the meeting between us and the two of them was purely coincidental, we eventually found ourselves in this district as we were following their traces and by luck maybe we found them in one of the tunnels beneath the city.

We tried to apprehend them, but unfortunately Braun managed to escape, in an attempt to capture him, right as we cornered him he transformed into the armored titan, from what I understand he recovered Hoover from us and ran away"

Liesl's explanation was a mixture of truths and lies, which was the best way to fool someone as smart as Erwin and Levi, she lied about who they captured to make it seem like they had done no wrong or error in this personal mission, if she said that Klemens didn't realize that Reiner was awake they may have to suffer some consequences from their mistake, even if not heavy.

In this case, instead, they both seem as two soldiers who did their duty even if off duty.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a soldier off duty and if it had been anybody else other than them they would have already been on the process of being hunted down by the army for desertion, even if Reiner and Bertholdt were the demonstration as to why that part of the military should be better at their jobs.

"I see, last question, why have the two of you left your place at the army?"

"We were hunting Braun and Hoover, commander, they betrayed and killed one of our friends, we couldn't let them free after that"

After all, saying that they left on a vacation from a job that allows no vacations wouldn't sound as good.

"So you two saying you were going on vacation when you left was merely a rouse then?" Commander Erwin raised an eyebrow while looking at them skeptically.

Before Liesl could concoct another lie and keep them going further and further in a web of lies they would have difficulty coming out of unscathed, Klemens replied "We've done both, we couldn't let them free and we wanted a vacation, two birds with one stone, moreover we acquired extremely important info about our enemy"

Erwin thought a bit and eventually replied "Indeed, now we know that there are more of them and that some of them are aware about their powers and are actively fighting against humanity, very well cadets, your punishment for abandoning your place unauthorized is that the both of you will be the first to be sent after Braun and Hoover as soon as we find a trace of them"

It was a punishment and not really one at the same time, he didn't want to imprison them as they were one of the most important weapons of humanity, just knowing how they dealt with Eren's titan form gave him hope about eventually beating the titans.

On the other hand he couldn't just let them go scot free, so he came up with this punishment.

"Yes, commander"

Erwin then turned to Levi, who had been completely left out of the conversation and told him "Levi, as soon as they heal they will be sent to you team to guard Yeager and when traces of Hoover and Braun are found, your team will be dispatched on the front lines, understood?"

"Yes" replied Levi.

"Goodbye then, heal and return soon" were the words left by the commander as he and captain Levi left the hospital room.

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Time passed slowly in the hospital room, but eventually the two of them were back on their feet and far faster than what the doctor had predicted, leaving the doctor and the nurses confused, those injures were too heavy to be healed so quickly.

That morning the two of them were quarreling as usual, not really saying anything truly mean to each other, when they heard a knock coming from their door.

After Klemens told the person outside to enter, the nurse welcomed herself into their room.

The two of them were in perfectly good health, they were standing without any problem and had been capable of doing so for a few days already, the only reason they were still in here was that the doctor thought that a bit more of rest wouldn't have hurt.

"Congratulations Ms Stark, Mr Ackerman, the two of you are ready to leave us, hopefully you won't need to come here again with such injuries" said the nurse.

"Thanks for taking care of us" replied Klemens.

"Yes, Emily, thank you!" told Liesl to the nurse, Emily, who they had made friends with in the period they had been in the hospital.

They then gathered their things and left, this time with an escort to make sure that they actually went back to the army, the escort was made up of a few soldiers they already knew.

They were from the 104th cadet corp and close friends of theirs who had joined the survey corps who they knew very well.