Wilted Roses 🥀 A Modern AOT Fic

Chapter 11: "Please, stay a little longer." (Epilogue)

Jean.

July 4th, 2022

She's gone. And I never said goodbye.

I wasn't able to pull myself together in time to talk to her before she left this world, and I will regret that every day of my life.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion over the next few hours. Niccolo, Connie, the hospital staff, everyone was a blur to me. I don't even remember them moving her. When did they do it? They must have sometime while I was sitting here.

What time is it? I seemed to lose track of everything now.

Connie held out one of the pre-made hospital snacks from the cafeteria, waiting for me to take it. His eyes were red and swollen. I didn't know how long we'd been there, but the sight of food made me realize how hungry I was. "Thanks." I mumbled, taking the food from him. I was still sitting on the floor. When I realized, I stood up, and felt immense pain in my ass. "Fuck... how long has it been?"

"13 hours." Connie stated, completely straight faced. I'd been sitting on the floor for 13 hours, not moving, completely zoned out, at a hospital. That seemed.. odd.

"And they didn't try to move me?" I muttered.

"They did, and you just moved back here every time. You don't remember?" Connie started, then sighed, shaking his head. "We should go be with Niccolo."

I froze when he said that and I looked down at the food in my hands. "Why?" I wasn't a huge fan of him in the first place, not just because him and Sasha were a thing.

"Because he was her husband, and he is in pain just as much as we are." When he said this, I immediately looked to him for clarification. Husband? What did he mean by that? I didn't go to any weddings. "They eloped around Christmas, just the two of them. Sasha told me when I visited her in January."

Of course that happened.

We walked to the waiting room, where I saw Niccolo sitting in one of the chairs. His face was wrought with agony, and I did notice a ring on his finger as we got closer.

We all sat there, in silence, for what felt like hours. The hospital staff didn't know what to do with us. They didn't want to kick us out, but we couldn't exactly stay there either. It was Krista who came up to us, her eyes just as red as ours.

"You guys should really head home and get some rest. It's been hours since.." She trailed off, her lip quivering a bit. "We wouldn't want to check you into the hospital for exhaustion.. so please, take care of yourselves. Get some rest, eat some food, and take some time to just cry and comfort each other." In the middle of her sentence, she began to cry.

Niccolo was the first to stand and he walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you, Krista, we know you mean well." His voice was surprisingly stable. "We will go now." The way he said that... made me wonder.

I watched as he walked out of the waiting room and out of the hospital. Then, Connie and I stood up. We each gave Krista a hug, since she seemed quite emotional, and we left.

"Niccolo was acting a little weird, don't you think?" I asked Connie after a few minutes into our walk. I don't know why, but I was concerned for the guy. I thought I didn't like him, but for some reason, I feel the need to protect him. It's.. what Sasha would want.

Connie took in a deep breath and let it out before he looked over at me. "Doesn't he always act weird? I mean, give him a break, his wife literally just died." He was trying to be light hearted, but I could tell he was in pain too. "Sasha just died."

"You don't need to remind me and you don't need to repeat it so much. I don't need to hear that anymore." I sighed, looking down at the ground. I couldn't say for sure why, but I felt like I needed to check on Niccolo. "Do you know where Niccolo lives?" I asked Connie, figuring he'd be the one to know since they were much closer friends.