Had the higher ups have more sense, this wouldn't be happening. Rain pelted their backs, soaking through forest green capes as they didn't have enough time to switch on their rain gear. They were supposed to be on their way back to the H.Q after a meeting but were held up just in time to travel back in the rain and the mud. Very few, if any, souls were in the streets. If there were, they were rushing towards shelter such as the warm light of a tavern or home. Bleak skies poured down bucket after bucket of chilly rain, merciless.

"Captain Levi," Erwin had turned to his compatriot who was leaning more forward than necessary. Even in the rain, the dark shadows under the captain's eyes were made all the more prominent in his features. His usual cynical face with its ever-present look of indifference or rage, there was rarely anything in between, was more gaunt than it was scoffing. Levi sniffed, ignoring the commander's voice.

"Levi, answer me."

The captain still gave no answer.

"Commander, is there something wrong?" Petra could barely be heard over the stomping hooves on cobblestones and the thunderous rain beating down on them.

"I'm fine! Don't you worry about me." Levi, evidently, was listening and had already predicted just what Erwin was about to ask. He straightened himself up in his saddle, making himself as tall as he could be for a man of his stature and pretended that the pounding headache wasn't wracking his brain.

"Maybe we should take shelter. Get out of the rain for a little while." Petra suggested. She had been watching Levi's back ever since they left the capitol. He was slumping in his seat, sniffing, sucking up snot more like it, and his cough sounded like he was ready to hack up a lung. The rain was making matters worse. It was pretty hard to ignore the signs of the common cold even in a man rightfully titled as "humanity's strongest" and one so stubborn. In this case, Captain Levi was too stubborn for his own good. The symptoms had been going on for a couple of days, and as best as he could hide it, nearly everybody in his squad already guessed that Humanity's Strongest had come down with something. They just dared not to say anything til now because the little, stubborn fool would deny it. Like right now.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm fine. Let's just get to H.Q." He spurred his horse a little ahead of Erwin's and tugged the hood of his cape as if to make sure nobody could see his face properly.

Not twenty minutest later, the pounding in his skull made his stomach churn. He wiped the rain from his eyes, only to find that it wasn't the rain getting in his eyes. A pressure was building in his lungs, like he needed to cough. The chilled air caused by rain and the early blistering wind of autumn, formed tiny icy daggers that pricked his lungs as he inhaled and exhaled. And he couldn't ignore the clammy forehead and sweat trickling down the side of his face even though it was relatively cool. Levi discreetly reached for a handkerchief to cover his mouth to cough. He managed to wriggle it free from his pocket, but the white cotton had already been soaked through. Useless. Tucking it back, he turned his arm towards his face and coughed into his elbow. Somebody was calling him. Was it the rain or his throbbing brain beating against the walls of his skull that made it hard for him to hear?

The cobblestones ahead of him began to blur. Levi shook his head, again being discreet. Even so, shaking himself didn't provide a long-lasting solution. His vision blurred again moments later. He fought to keep his eyes open. The struggle against the tiredness creeping up on him was a battle he wasn't going to lose so easily. They sped past several blocks, whizzing past shops of all varieties, and he forced himself to stay awake by any means necessary. He would sleep once he got to headquarters and he'd be better in the morning. Yet, that is not what his body was capable of doing at the moment. Without realizing it, he had slumped forward too far and he couldn't hear his comrades behind him or the commander at his side. Levi, unwillingly, stopped fighting the aches and chills wracking his body. His eyelids slid too far south. He thought he could give one last ditch effort by pinching himself in the arm. He was jolted awake for a second or two before the symptoms sprang up on him in a surprise attack, getting him when he was weak and had no other defenses left.

Hange had seen Levi leaning too far in his saddle and rushed ahead of some of the others. "Captain!" She reached out to grab his shoulder but it slid away from her grasp.

Levi's semi-conscious body toppled out of his saddle. Everybody pulled their reins sharply to stop the horses from trampling him. Commander Erwin hopped down from his horse as did Hange. She pulled Levi off his stomach on which he had fallen and sat him in her lap. Pressing her hand on his forehead, he was still quite warm despite the rain and the chill.

"We have to get him to doctor. He's going to get worse if we bring him back in this condition. Where's the nearest hospital?"

"The nearest one's on the other side town. We're not going to make it in time!" A frustrated Oluo shouted over the rain.

"What are we going to do? We can't take him with us. There's nobody to treat him and we can't leave him by himself!" Petra looked at her fallen hero's crumpled form. To think, Levi could kill maybe a dozen titans in a day but he couldn't withstand an attack from something as insignificant as the common cold.

The door of the building next to the them opened wide. A man with a hooked nose and thick gray beard held a yellow lantern aloft.

"I saw your comrade fall from his horse. Is there anything I can do to help?" He had a voice that spoke of many years smoking too much tobacco.

"Is there a doctor nearby? The hospital's too far way. Is there a place where he can be treated relatively close?" Erwin approached the man.

He scratched his chin beneath his beard, thinking.

"There's Dr. Evah down the road, that-away," he pointed with the lamp. "Take a right at this corner and keep going straight until you see a building like a barn with a white house next to it. If you see a metallurgy shop, you've gone to far."

"Thank you, sir." Erwin turned quickly and hopped right back on his horse.

Hange needed no help heaving the unconscious Levi in her saddle before climbing up herself. "Upsy-daisy, Captain."

"I should warn you though, she's eccentric. Don't be surprised when she answers the door doing something weird." The old man retreated from the nippy weather into the safe confines of his warm home.

"What do you think he meant by that?" Eld turned to Oluo, who shrugged his shoulders.

"Let's just hope she's not some kind of witch doctor."

The squad followed the old man's directions and immediately pulled up to the house which he described. There weren't many houses too close to it. There was a large barn-like structure with a silo of sorts attached to its side. A white house, two stories, not including the attic and possibly a basement, stood in stark contrast to the old, dark wood of the barn structure next to it. Erwin once more jumped from his saddle and handed his reins over to Petra for the time being. He quickly crossed the unkempt grassy lawn and raced up the little steps to the small porch. Rapping on the door until he saw the black silhouette of a person in the door's window, Erwin stood back a little for the person on the other side to open. A woman with her hair bound up in a green scarf answered. She was short but athletic and curvy in certain other places. Dark chocolate eyes met him with an indifferent, even bored, expression, not completely unlike anything Levi might have given him. There was an orange glow from behind her and he could hear the crackling of a fire. The soft light made her tawny skin glow.

"Am I speaking to the lady of the house?"

"You are." She answered, leaning against the door post.

"Are you Dr. Evah?"

"I am. What is your business?"

Erwin moved aside so she could see Levi's slumped form on Hange's horse.

"Our comrade has come down with something and we can't get him any treatment except from you. Can you help us?"

The doctor disengaged herself from the door post and rushed over to Hange's horse without even grabbing a coat. She gave Levi a long once over.

"Doctor?" Erwin decided she was taking too long after more than a few minutes passed by. They were standing out in the pouring rain.

"It's a good thing you found me. A little cold can turn into a nasty infection in the lungs if left untreated. Let's get him inside. You can keep your horses in the barn over there. It should be unlocked. If the table gets in the way, you can move it to the make room. Just try not to mess anything up or break something. Okay?"

Hange climbed down the horse and helped Evah haul Levi off it too. Hange held Levi's feet while Evah had her hands under his arms. They carefully and slowly carried him with as much dignity as possible inside. When the other joined them, they were overwhelmed by the smell of sandalwood and lavender permeating the air. It was smaller on the inside than they expected, even without the furniture. The old man wasn't kidding when he said that the doctor was eccentric. She had wall to wall books but that wasn't what they found too out of the ordinary. Wind chimes of colored glass were hung by every visible window. The mantle above the fireplace was decorated with odd little wooden figurines and a gargoyle's bust. Apprehensive of their surroundings, they stuck close together. Erwin moved ahead of them, not paying attention in the least bit to the doctor's strange and even macabre choice of interior decoration. They followed the trail of water droplets on the the wood floor to the second floor. A bedroom door was thrown open. Levi's uniform laid in a sopping wet mess on the floor in front of a hamper. He was dressed in a long night shirt. Evah had just tucked him in snugly under the dry blankets on a single wooden bed.

"It'll take me a little while to get some medicine prepared. He's lucky to have been brought here so soon. With or without the rain, he would have collapsed. There's a flu going around. It's a wonder the rest of you haven't caught it yet."

"Thank you, Doctor," said Erwin.

"It's my job. I'd like the rest of you to stay as well. The rain's not going to let up any time soon and I can't, because of my ethics, allow you to go back outside when it's raining cats and dogs."

"That's awfully kind of you, but I'd rather get back to headquarters as soon as possible."

Evah raised her brow sharply and put her hand on her hip.

"I'm sorry, you must be the doctor around here. Please, continue to tell me how to do my job."

"Ma'am with all do respect– "

"And frankly, sir, I really don't have the patience for this. You're all soaking wet, dripping all over my house, and I have to spend extra time making sure this guy doesn't spread his germs everywhere. I take in people who are sick and keep others from getting that way. I am also perfectly aware of your status in the Survey Corps, Commander Erwin Smith. You're used to giving orders, but in my house, I give 'em. If you're that much in a hurry to get yourselves sick, be my guest, however as long as you're under my roof, don't presume that you know more than me when it comes to medical care."

Mouths were gaped open. Nobody dared to talk to the commander like that. This woman had either nerves of steel or she was insane.

"Very well," Erwin spoke calmly to her demands. "If you insist."

"There's rooms down the hall. I'll bring some spare clothes around after I take care of this one," she pointed her thumb to Levi.

"That's very kind of you but do you really think that's necessary?"

All Erwin got in reply was a sharp glare. He sighed in defeat. He didn't like being holed up, but she made some very good point. No sense in getting everybody sick and the rain was heavy.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Please, make yourselves at home. I'll be back shortly." She brushed past the little crowd in her hallway and descended down the stairs.

"The old man wasn't kidding." Oluo scoffed after her footsteps had long since disappeared.

Evah gave her guests tea after sparing some old clothes. They reeled off to bed in the small rooms that were once built to be home for a large family. She didn't have a bedroom of her own. Instead, most nights she ended up sleeping in the loft area in the upper part of the barn or on the couch in her apartment. Tonight, she was restless. It wasn't an extraordinary thing. It was practically common for her to most of her night reading by the fire or hone a skill. Most other nights the restless nature of her insomnia left her with more time to put her brain to work until her body finally caved in.

But not tonight.

She was uncomfortably restless for a different reason. In the rain, she saw a face she had forgotten about for many years. A little more than a decade, maybe less, she stopped counting, had passed since she had seen his face. It wasn't even pretending not to know him, but she probably let it slip when she named Commander Erwin. The rumors were true. Levi had joined the Survey Corps having seemingly left behind a life of crime. It was a shock to her, but then that would be a touch of irony as her past wasn't spotless either and now she had a medical practice of her own.

Still, the face of a man she once knew showed up out of the blue during a storm. The rain had lightened. It was gently pit-pattering against the windows as she snuffed the life out of the candles, saving one to light her way. Evah climbed the stairs softly. There was snoring from the guestrooms. They were sleeping well, she assumed. Making her way to Levi's sick bed, she checked his fever. On the bedside table, the pestle and mortar still had enough residue for a morning batch of medicine. His fever was still going on strong but it wasn't as bad as before. Absentmindedly, she stroked his hair before she snapped back into reality.

"What am I doing?" Hastily grabbing her candle, Evah made her swift exit. She crept her way to the attic.

The long laces on her boots easily became tangled even as she slowly tried to undo them. Her back was aching by the time she was able to kick them off and they ended up in a heap at the foot of the bed, nothing more than a old, creaking metal spring mattress that had been in the attic longer than she had been alive. She blew out the candle and crawled under the thin covers. While sleep didn't come very quickly, it came soon enough.

Dawn peeked into the attic's window. Evah awoke at first light with a knock on her door.

"Doctor Evah?"

Commander Erwin.

Evah arose, forgetting her shoes and general appearance for now, and went to fetch the door. The commander stood on the precarious steep steps towards the attic. He was dressed in his uniform again.

"I'm afraid that we'll have to leave Captain Levi in your hands, Doctor. We need get to base right away."

"I can't interest you in some breakfast at least?" If there was any lesson her mother taught her that was somewhat worthwhile, it was how to be a proper hostess.

Erwin shook his head.

"I appreciate the offer, but we really should get going soon."

"Suit yourself," Evah shrugged, retreating back into the attic.

The green headscarf had fallen off during the night while she slept. It lay on her pillow in a balled up, knotted mess. Long black curls hung around her shoulders, reaching her waist, and hung in front of her eyes. She scratched her head and kicked aside her boots as she walked over to the dusty vanity. A pitcher of cold water sat almost untouched next to a chipped basin. The contents of the pitcher were promptly dumped into the basin. This was curious as she rarely washed her face lately, but here she was scrubbing at her pores like nobody's business. She ran her brush thoroughly through her long hair. Once...twice...thrice...four times, after that she stopped counting until her hair was shiny. Rather than hide it under a scarf, which was her usual practice, Evah tied it behind her neck. Quickly changing clothes, the cleanest pair of black slacks and a white blouse were donned underneath an open red cotton vest. She owned two pairs of boots, everyday and gardening. The laces were tied up rather nicely, neatly. She trotted down the steep staircase, almost losing her step on the way down. Horse hooves thundered outside of her house. She was home alone again. Well, almost alone.

Evah continued down the hall, ignoring her growling stomach. She knocked on his door. There wasn't a sound. Just to be sure, she knocked again. This time, she received an answer. It was a dry, croaking sound like an old man hacking up a lung. Evah opened the door, slowly, anticipation building. A pale, sickly Levi lay in bed, looking bitter as always but at least he was finally awake.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, Mister Levi." She said, unsure if he could recognize her after all these years.

Levi groaned in return.

"Where am I?"

"In my house. I'm a doctor. You seemed to have passed out and fall off your horse in the middle of the night. You're lucky your squad was so close to my place otherwise you might not have made."

Levi coughed hoarsely. This episode for a couple of minutes. When it was over, he cleared his throat and turned his head towards her.

"Do you know who you're talking to? Falling off my horse? Don't be stupid." He tried to sit up but his arms couldn't carry his weight. Evah was forced to push him back down.

Levi froze. Something snapped or clicked or...something. Was it the tone or what she said that seemed to have flipped a switch in his brain? Or was it the close proximity that they were in? Evah was practically on top of him, pushing him down by the shoulders. Their faces were nearly touching. If she wasn't careful, she could catch what he had. Yet, she didn't budge when she felt him go stiff under her hands. He tried to take a long whiff, but his nose must have been so stuffed up. Levi sniffed a little.

"Evah?" He whispered. He sounded unsure of himself.

"It's...been a while, hasn't it?"