Forever and Always

Chapter 15 - Next of Kin

It was another three hours before they let me in the room with him. I cried myself to sleep at the foot of his bed, my hand desperately clutching his.

"Please," I begged over and over again. I said a thousand silent prayers to Marco. I begged him to take care of Levi if the doctors couldn't save him. He had broken his arm and four ribs. One of his ribs had fucked something up with his lung, and they had to operate immediately. The surgery had gone well and he was stable again, but it was too soon to tell if he would make it out okay. The doctors weren't sure if he would ever wake up again. Probably was the best answer they could give me.

I was exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Eventually my teary eyes dragged shut and I drifted off to sleep holding tightly onto Levi.

"...Little Runt," I heard a raspy voice speak. I opened one of my eyes and saw a sight I was not expecting.

Kenny Ackerman was standing at the head of Levi's bed, petting his hair. I couldn't believe my eyes. I instantly shot bolt upright.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed, shooting daggers at Levi's uncle with my eyes.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the famous Eren Jaeger?" Kenny scowled, folding his long arms. It was odd how much taller Kenny was than Levi. He was probably a solid ten inches taller than his nephew.

"Why are you here? What do you want from him?"

"So first of all, drop the attitude, you little shit. You wouldn't even be allowed in here if I hadn't given consent. I'm next of kin and I still pay his insurance. I could have you out of here without so much as snapping my fingers. Second, it isn't illegal to be worried about your only nephew after he was in a life threatening car crash. Jumped on a plane as soon as I heard."

"You hate him. You aren't worried," I pushed.

"Don't test me, kid. I will have you sent out. And who said I hated him? Even the little runt knew I didn't hate him."

"Well there isn't a lot of love in that relationship, all things considered."

"Lack of love isn't the same as hatred. Yeah sometimes I went a little too far with him but damn, he didn't have to move out here and die on me. 'Course I don't love the kid. He killed my sister. Doesn't mean I hate him. Resentment isn't hatred."

"You certainly don't pull any punches," I muttered, squeezing Levi's hand.

"Just shaddap an' lemme look at him," Kenny said sternly. Looking at Kenny, some of the expressions he made were dead ringers for ones I had seen on Levi's face. "Hey, kid," he said softly. "You can't die. If you died, I'd have to chase you down to hell and beat your fucking ass." The words coming out of Kenny's mouth were almost ironic, given how much he had put Levi through in his childhood. "I remmeber when your mom was still around and she would take you out every Sunday," Kenny whispered, petting his nephew's forehead. "You haven't grown much since then." Kenny patted his head a final time, clearing his hair off of his forehead before pulling up a chair and turning to face me.

"Kid, I've been around for a long fucking time. And everybody's the same. We all have to be drunk on something to keep pushin' on. Money, women, power, hell, even God. Everybody's a slave to something. Levi used to be a slave to every sort of thing he could get his hands on. He needed an escape."

"That's rich coming from you," I snapped, seething that Kenny was trying to have so much insight on Levi's trauma, despite him being a major cause of that trauma.

"Strike two, brat," Kenny spat. "Anyways, Levi was a slave to everything. Drugs, alcohol, women, men, everything. He didn't even know how to love. He didn't know what it was. But he's found a new fix. A new plug. He is drunk on you, kid. And that's gonna be a helluva hangover. I don't think he'll make it outta that one."

"What do you mean?" I asked, hoping for some insight into my fiancee.

"When ya leave 'em, kid. I don't think he'll make it. You're all that's keeping him alive right now," Kenny chuckled. "Cuz it sure as hell isn't me keepin' him here."

"What makes you think I'm gonna leave him?"

"Nobody sticks around him for long. You'll get sick of his bullshit and leave him. He's a real handful, and there's always another layer of walls with him. Kid's got his heart guarded like the vault in Zurich. Every time you think you've made progress, there's another wall. Nobody even tries for him anymore."

"I'm not gonna leave him, though," I argued.

"That's what Isabel said, too. And Farlan before her, and the one before him and the one before that. He's a real charmer, apparently," Kenny snorted. "Ya know, I grabbed the back of his shirt when he tried to jump off the bridge. Pulled him back to the other side. When you have to do that a couple of times, come back to me and tell me you're not leaving. Six fucking attempted suicides, I stopped on that kid. In a year."

"Except I don't make him wanna kill himself," I bristled. "And I would never abandon him."

"Are you sure about that? It sure looked like an attempted suicide the way he hit the gas at the end. He wanted to take that impact."

"The paramedic said that he was trying to save me," I murmured, staring at Levi's hand in mine.

"It's really easy for doctors to lie to people to get 'em into the ambulance, kid. I wouldn't trust an on duty paramedic as far as I could throw 'em. Everybody that looks at this kid's medical records would say suicide attempt without so much as batting an eye. Number seven."

I sucked in a sharp breath of air, trying to push the tears back as I considered what Kenny had to say. He had known Levi his whole life. Maybe his words had some weight.

"Don't say that. It isn't true," I whimpered, my lip trembling. I pulled it in between my teeth to keep it from giving me away.

"Are you sure, kid? Look, ya seem nice and everything, but you're no match for everything that's wrong with the little runt. He'll kill you if he doesn't kill himself first." Kenny stretched his crossed legs out, clasping his hands behind his head and closing his eyes. "But if you wanna stick around, go for it. I kinda wanna see how long your sanity lasts. Well, anyways, I'm gonna catch some shut eye. That was a long ass flight. If he wakes up, lemme know."

"Right," I spat, knowing that I absolutely would not wake him up if Levi regained consciousness, if being the operative.