Amaranth

Chapter 43: Alternate Ending; Forget-Me-Not

After this chapter is the oneshots!This chapter is a bit shorter, but it's meant to be an "alternate ending". The previous one was more official. This one is set about 12 years in the future so Mikasa and Annie are 30. Enjoy :)

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Annie sprung to her feet when she heard her phone ring. Since their wedding 10 years ago, she and Mikasa had been living together a few minutes from their old homes with their parents. Mikasa had gone to work a few minutes ago, so she assumed the taller girl forgot her lunch, a surprisingly common occurrence.

"Yes?" she answered the phone.

"Is this Mrs. Ackerman-Leonhart?" the person on the other end of the phone asked.

"Umm, yes, this is she," Annie confirmed as her heart fell to her stomach. She could tell by the sounds in the background that the caller was from a hospital.

"There's been an accident involving your wife," the man said bluntly.

Annie dropped the phone as she gasped in a combination of surprise and pain. She heard her phone beeping, indicating that the caller had hung up. She rushed to her keys and quickly collected her wallet before rushing out the door and jumping in the car.

Upon arriving at the hospital, Annie raced in. She walked up to the front desk and said, "I'm Annie Ackerman-Leonhart, and I'm here to see my wife," Annie told the woman urgently.

"She's in surgery right now," she informed her after scrolling through the database on the computer, "Please, take a seat and wait until she's out."

Sit and wait until she's out, Annie whispered to herself, trying to calm down, as she walked to the offered seats. The blonde sat down and closed her eyes as she calmed her thoughts. As she aged, she got better at controlling herself, but she couldn't stop a few tears from trickling down her cheek.

She and Mikasa had been together for 12 years, and it all felt like the best time of her life. She knew that surgery meant her injuries were serious. She wished someone would tell her what was going on, but she didn't want to cause a scene. Instead, she let tears silently roll down her face as she closed her eyes and faced the ceiling.

Annie had never been religious, but she found herself praying to whoever would listen. She begged for them to let Mikasa be okay. If there was a god or some greater being, she pleaded with them for the safety of her wife.

It wasn't until a few hours later that she got an update. "Mrs. Ackerman-Leonhart?" a voice asked into the waiting room, and Annie jumped up from her spot with Carla, Grisha, Eren, and Armin. When she calmed down, she had called them, and the four rushed over in a hurry.

"Yes?" she asked hopefully.

As he updated her, she tried to tune him out. She could see where this was going, and she honestly would've rather not have an update than have this update. "I'm sorry. We did everything we could," was the last thing he said before hanging his head in shame.

Carla covered her mouth in horror while Grisha looked down in sadness and shame. Eren's jaw dropped before he promptly turned into Armin's shoulder to sob. Armin was surprisingly calm, but he, too, was very obviously crying.

Annie, on the other hand, stood in front of the doctor in shock. She couldn't decide if she wanted to cry, hit something, or both. She balled her fist as she silently walked out of the hospital. She turned a corner around the exit, facing the bricks, and she pummeled the wall as if the wall had caused the incident that killed her wife.

The doctor informed her that she had been walking across the block from work to get lunch at a nearby cafe when a truck slammed into her. Annie didn't miss the irony of Mikasa being killed by a car; she never did get over her fear of them. It was cruel how they'd been the one to.... The one to kill her.