The Alpha and his Omega

Hospitalized [Interlude]

"Levi, have you heard from Erwin yet?"

He looked up from his desk and frowned. Wasn't Eyebrows supposed to be on a ski trip in the Swiss Alps right now? It was the reason he was sitting here up to his eyeballs in work that the stupid-ass Captain America had thought to dump on him before leaving. Fucking Eyebrows.

"No. Isn't he supposed to get back tomorrow?"

"Yes, but he was supposed to call me today after I sent him some documents he was going to review on his flight back." There was a furrow on Petra's brow and she chewed her lip worriedly. Leave it to that damned blonde to do work even on a plane.

"Maybe he hasn't looked them over yet?"

"Let's hope so... he's normally pretty punctual. Let me know if you hear from him, okay?" Hiding the roll of his eyes, he nodded curtly, waving his hand and telling her to get out. The damned Eyebrows was probably fine; maybe enjoying his time with some women over there. He was built like a damned tank and attracted attention like honeybees to a flower. Casting thoughts of Captain America aside, Levi went back to scanning the new case files.

The redhead shot him one more worried glance before she shut the door behind her.

It turned out that Erwin wasn't okay. There had been a message left on Levi's office phone from some hospital in Europe the next morning when he went in to work. He wondered by why Eyebrows had made him his emergency contact – as much as he cared for the blonde, it was a giant pain in the ass. Scowling, he pressed speaker and dialed the number back.

"Yes?" A European accent replied on the other end.

"This is Levi Ackerman. A Dr. Reeves left me a message asking me to call back regarding Erwin Smith?"

"I'll page Dr. Reeves right now. Please wait a minute, Mr. Ackerman."

There was a small pause and he could hear the background bustle of a hospital over the phone line. Why the hell would Eyebrows be in the hospital? Levi forced himself to push down the sense of dread that wanted to pool in his gut at the thought of an accident or some other disaster. As annoying as Captain America was on a typical day, Erwin was one of his best friends and the dark-haired man couldn't stomach losing anyone else again. It would be too much.

"Mr. Ackerman?"

"Yes?"

"This is Dr. Reeves. I'm sorry to say but your friend Mr. Smith was in a skiing accident and is currently in the ICU. He should make a full recovery, but it will be at least a week until we can release him to travel overseas for follow-up medical care back in the United States."

"I see." Levi breathed a small sigh of relief at the news that it wasn't fatal. But the fact that the blonde was under intensive care didn't sound too good. "May I ask what he is hospitalized for?"

"Yes. Let me just check." There was the sound of papers flipping on the other end. "Looks like he suffered a couple of lacerations and some bleeding, but the main problem was that Mr. Smith broke his right wrist, has a fracture along his ulna, and dislocated his shoulder. There's been a fair amount of swelling, which could be due to inflammation or could be a sign of something worse, but we won't know for sure until we can get a better look at the area in question. We have set the bones and given him a cast in the meantime, but to ensure there are no complications, we would like to keep him under observation until we know for certain there are no infections or other problems."

"Would it be possible to talk to Erwin?" Captain America better be back soon. The office could only function without him for so long. There were several meetings soon that required Erwin's physical presence and some documents which needed signing, but it was going to be nigh impossible to get them done at this rate.