Broken Hearts, Severed Limbs (Levi x OC x Erwin)

|149| A Bakery In Marley

Huge Chapter ahead, hinting to a sequel which I'm writing but I don't even know whether I'll ever complete, so I won't be posting it just yet. No worries, this story ends nicely in the next and -for now, last- chapter.

Also, Anya is KikiStarfire's OC from her own Levi x OC fic "The Red String of Fate" which is a parallel Universe to this fic.

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One Day Later

She was exhausted and he wouldn't blame her. Her head rested back against his shoulder. Her arm was wrapped around his own and her eyes were half-lidded. She was meant to be exhausted after almost dying. No matter how many times Uther tried to convince them to stay for them all to rest, Nathalie had insisted that they return back home as soon as possible. She didn't want to have her babies waiting any more than they had to. She had to see them. She had to promise them that both she and their dad were never going to leave their side. And this time, they would make good of that promise.

Jean was driving the roofless car with Connie sitting beside him on the front seat. Levi kept an arm around her. She was in a white buttoned shirt, and a grey, ankle-length skirt. Her hair, messy and pushed around by the gentle breeze. She chuckled when she remembered everybody bombarding her and Levi with questions, and how Levi had cut them all telling them that they had worked it out and that was all they needed to know. Their brats were so worried, but she hugged them all one by one and assured them that everything was going to be fine from now on.

Or at least she hoped so.

Nathalie hoped that her choice to give herself and Levi one last chance to work things through, she hoped that it was the right choice. I don't want you to be scared and insecure about this. My love is not conditional. You don't have to do everything I want for me to love you. And maybe – just maybe, she had to believe him. Heck, he could be lying to her. It could be like all those other times, the aftermath of an argue that they had, of him, promising to change and never hurt her again, and her, promising the same, but in a few months, this was going to repeat, over and over. Just the thought of it, made her shut her eyes and want to rest.

Now she couldn't think about this. Now, all she wanted to do was sleep. She was exhausted and had been exhausted ever since she woke up. Ever since the realisation hit her that she was just not allowed to rest. She had a husband. She had children. She had responsibilities. She had a life that she had to live, even though, part of her just didn't want to. A selfish, terrible part of her wanted to go back.

No. She shook her head. You just need some sleep. You just need to see them.

And it was true. It was mostly she that she wanted to see her babies. It was mostly her own need to rush back to them and hold them and look at them, and let their sweet laughter convince her that she had made the right choice. She did not regret her choice. And they were the reason she was right there, right now. She was still clutching on Levi though. She was slipping right back into her needy, submissive self, for him. No. Don't think about this. Just sleep. And it didn't take her long.

Levi looked down at her and her eyes were finally closed. She had drifted off to a much-needed rest. Her head had rolled down on his shoulder. He was holding her hand in his own and he immediately checked her pulse. He couldn't help it. He was still terrified that something was going to happen to her. He was terrified that something was going to take her from him. He found himself checking her pulse beneath her wrist way too many times on their journey back home. He just needed to know that she was alive. He needed to know that she was okay. And he sighed in relief when he spotted a steady little beat and he buried his face in her hair.