Levi was back that night as promised. He'd taken a nap in his office so he wouldn't be dragging. Eren had chosen to work the better part of the day and then leave early to get some sleep. Sasha was holding down the fort with authority and only grudgingly allowed Levi into the back to see Ross "because Dr. Yeager told me to."
The big dog was doing well and clearly delighted to see Levi. He looked ridiculous in his cone and Levi chuckled at him as he wagged in stiff circles in the crate.
Satisfied that the dog was well, Levi carefully asked when Dr. Yeager would be back so that he could time his next visit accordingly. He wanted to keep tabs on Ross's recovery but he also wanted to see those teal eyes again.
Levi was sitting with Connie in a nondescript pick up truck waiting for the man to arrive so that they could get this fucking job over with. Levi was pissed. He refused to handle drugs in any form and weapons too. Gambling made the cut just so long as it was an honest game. This, this, however, was toeing the line. It was a payoff to an informant who had kept Kenny's club from being shot up by squealing on his own gang.
Levi didn't like snitches but had to acknowledge that the guy had probably saved many lives. What the other gang wanted shooting up Kenny's club was a mystery and one Levi never cared to hear the details of.
Today was supposed to be a simple handoff between Levi and the snitch. No fuss, no muss, just Levi, Connie, and the snitch. Quick handoff, everyone goes home.
Levi was sitting uneasily in the truck, searching the area and the mirrors for the other man. No one could give him a description of the guy's car but, presumably, the man would be the only person driving into the convoluted snarl that was the factory grounds.
It had been ten minutes. The guy was ten minutes late and Levi got more and more nervous as each minute ticked by.
"We gotta way outta this place?" Levi asked tightly
"Done, and done. I got two different escape routes not countin' the way we came in." Connie said with confidence. It was cold in the old truck and Levi wrapped his coat more firmly about himself. He was grumpy and suspicious and he didn't like feeling either of those two ways.
"Whacha think Sash is doing right now?" Connie asked dreamily, staring out at the drizzly grey like it was a beautiful summer day.
"Sash?"
Connie went pink, "Sasha, Miss Brouse," he amended.
"Probably giving some poor soul hell," Levi said crossly but since Connie had started the subject his own mind turned to a certain chestnut-haired and teal eyed young veterinarian.
Connie was humming and smiling. "She's a swell gal boss. Pretty and smart and spunky. I like 'em spunky!"
Levi just had to smile a tiny bit at that.
He thought of his own vet clinic crush and blushed a bit. He had to get back there soon and see that gorgeous young man again. He wondered-
There was the distinct sound of a car engine and Levi looked around. He had lowered his guard. But it was just an early model Chevrolet crunching slowly and timidly over the gravel toward them.
Levi and Connie both got out of the truck to show themselves, show that they were alone and (appeared) unarmed.
Both men stayed away from the car to give themselves room to react but also to keep the guy at ease and make sure he didn't feel threatened.
For a few moments, the man just sat there behind the wheel then he drew his hand down his face and opened the door. He stepped out looking around like a scared rabbit.
"Weilmann?" Levi called.
The man nodded, his eyes skipping over Levi then Connie then flickering all around.
"We have your cash," Levi said and Connie held up a plain brown briefcase.
Weilmann stopped in his tracks. "Lemme see it,"
Connie tossed the case on the ground and bent down to open it. Inside were stacks of hundred dollar bills. Weilmann nodded and Connie bent to snap the case shut.
The first bullet plucked at Levi's shirt sleeve, the second one embedded itself in the frame of the car right by Levi's face sending flecks of paint into his skin.
Levi heard Connie yell as he hit the ground and scrambled to put the truck between him and the bullets. Connie hurried around the other side just a moment behind and Levi, for some reason, pictured Sasha Brouse and how upset she'd be if Connie got shot.
Bullets sank into the truck for several moments then abruptly stopped. Levi and Connie, both of whom had their guns out, looked at each other.
"Take a look?" Levi asked.
"Why not?" Connie said
Very carefully and very slowly both men, one on either end of the car, hitched an eye around the metal and took a look at the situation. Even more slowly, both men stood.
The clearing in the factory grounds should have looked like a battlefield but the gunfire had been very precise. Weilmann was dead, shot in the back as he tried to make it back to his car. He'd tried to take the briefcase with him and in the process, it had been riddled with holes and popped open. A handful of hundreds floated across the gravel.
But the most noticeable feature of the battle was the ring of hoodlums, four of them and at their head, Zeke, Kenny's rival for the district and official boss of the east side.
Zeke was physically opposite of Kenny. Kenny was dark and tall and stooped and scrawny and wore a perpetual frown. Zeke was blond and bearded and well filled out. He seemed to always be smiling.
He was smiling now.
"Levi!"
Levi slowly held up both hands, palm out, his gun held dangling by the trigger guard. Connie mimicked him. "Zeke."
"Drop your weapons and come on out here, Levi! You too, Springer."
Levi and Connie did as told, gingerly skirting the truck to stand in front of it, hands still raised.
Zeke put his foot up on a nearby pipe and assumed a brotherly air. "Now what are you two doing here? We came to kill the snitch and you came to … pay him?"
Levi looked distastefully at the cooling corpse of the snitch-Levi couldn't even call him by name anymore. He hated death and killing. He saw it occasionally but that's what had gotten him out of Kenny's illegal doings: too much killing.
"We were just doing what Kenny ordered, Zeke, no more, no less," he said evenly, "We didn't even know who the guy was until last minute," Levi lied.
Zeke pretended to consider his words, tapping his lower lip with the barrel of his gun. He strung out the moments, making Levi and Connie sweat.
"Then you won't mind if I just collect all this money, then?"
Levi shrugged. "Doesn't matter two shits to me. Deal's already busted."
Zeke brightened even more. "Good boy! I'd hate to have to kill you. You're a good boy. I got no beef with you."
And then Zeke dropped his guard, telling two of his men to pick up the cash scattered over the gravel and one to go start the car. The last man relaxed as well, lowering his gun.
Levi and Connie stayed frozen watching the men chase hundred dollar bills in the breeze. It would be funny except for the bloody corpse of Weilmann in the middle of it all.
Levi and Connie waited, patiently, as Zeke took a phone call on his mobile. Levi caught Connie's eye and nodded to their truck. Connie nodded back. Then Levi waited.
Eventually, the men collecting the cash wandered close. The bills were right under Levi's feet. Levi waited some more.
"Hey move your foot, asshole."
Levi looked down to realize that the wind had tucked a stray hundred under the toe of his shoe.
"Sorry," He murmured and kicked the guy as hard as he could in the face.
Zeke looked up as Connie sprang to get into the truck and Levi opened fire, hitting the remaining man and one of the guys picking up bills. He didn't wait to see the results of his actions but ran around to the passengers' side of the truck and climbed in. Connie floored it. The big vehicle slewed around in a tight circle as Connie tried to orient himself and not hit the corpse of Weilmann on the ground. Zeke's hoods all fired on the car as it roared past. Only Zeke stood unmoving, unsmiling.
They were almost at the opening to leave the compound when bullets peppered the side of the car-someone had an autoloader. They heard a series of 'pink,pink,pink!' and Levi felt a burning pain in his thigh. A bullet must have penetrated the door. Levi had been shot.
Without warning a car came barreling after them, moving much faster than the old truck, another big vehicle, it bore down on them quickly. Not even pausing they rammed the truck on Connie's side. Levi grabbed at the wheel as Connie cried out. The car had crumpled the door in and his left arm was hurt as well as him having a big gash in his shaved scalp that bled alarmingly.
Connie regained the wheel, though, one-handed, and tore down the road going as fast as the truck would go. Seeing an alleyway he quickly turned into it.
"The fuck are you doing, Con?!" Levi yelled, "This is a dead-end!"
"Trust me, Boss!"
Levi twisted around to look behind them and the car with Zeke's gang in it was just a few lengths behind them.
They came to a chain link gate across the alley and Connie rammed it, tearing it off its hinges and tossing it clear over the truck to land in the way of the other car. When Zeke's gang slowed down to deal with the gate Connie yanked the wheel to the left and jammed the truck sideways into the alley with him on Zeke's side.
"Go, Boss," he panted. "They want you, not me. Go, run, get help!"
"Connie," Levi said, taking in the young man who had a sheet of blood running down the left side of his face.
"Run," Connie panted, "I'm right behind you I promise!"
Levi ran.
Levi had been shot before, it was nothing new, but he'd never been shot in the thigh before and it hurt like a son of a bitch. Trying to stem the bleeding with one hand, hold his gun with the other, and walk as quickly as possible was agonizing in the extreme. He had no idea where he was going and no idea where Connie was. The young man might be dead for all he knew and that thought made him undeniably sad. Well, he had to find a safe place and some help. He couldn't flag down a cab. Bloody, gun-wielding men had a hard time getting rides in cabs. He couldn't go to a hospital, a gunshot wound would generate too many questions. Where to go? Where to go?
Suddenly Levi recognized the alleyway he was staggering down. It was the alleyway next to Goldmeyer's pawnshop; the alleyway where he'd found Ross.
Ross.
He could go to the vet clinic. Surely the gorgeous veterinarian would help him out and not ask questions. Levi stood upright, swaying, and made his way toward Dr. Yeager's practice.
Levi was not entirely sure that he was going to make it. He'd stopped trying to stem the flow of blood from his leg and the entire leg of his jeans was soaked and the shoe on that side squished.
Where the hell was that fucking clinic?
Levi remembered that it was ten blocks. He'd walked all that way carrying a fifty-pound dog surely he could manage to get himself there. Finally, he saw it. The sign was lit, stayed lit all night, but the waiting room was dark. Levi zeroed in on the sign and staggered on.
When Levi reached the front of the clinic he pounded on the glass doors praying that Eren was still there. He thumped on the door with his blood-soaked hand, his fists making hideous red flowers on the glass. Finally, Eren came around the reception desk. His teal eyes went saucer-like at the sight of Levi slouched against the front door.
He opened the front door and Levi almost fell into his arms.
"Levi! What ... what happened?"
"Doc, I need your help. Help me with this …"
"This?! This?! Is that a gunshot wound? What ...?
Eren swept his hair back with one hand.
"What am I supposed to do?! I have no idea what to do!"
"Just treat me like you did Ross! Skin is skin, right? Blood is blood!"
"But I'm a veterinarian! A veterinarian! It's unethical …"
At that moment Levi swayed and only caught himself by grabbing a chair. Eren reached for him to steady him.
"C'mon, Boss, please, I'm bleeding …"
Indeed the whole right leg of Levi's jeans was black and shiny with blood.
"You tellin' me you never tooka bullet outta an animal in this neighborhood?" Levi slurred, weaving unsteadily.
Eren got a look on his face of revelation
"Actually … yes ... yes, I have. Here, come into the operating room. Sit up here on the table!"
There was no way Levi was getting up on the table, he was too weak from lack of blood.
"Did you bring Connie? Sasha's gone home!"
Levi shook his head, the best he could do.
"Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Just stand here a second. Don't fall!"
Eren sprinted back into the waiting room and retrieved one of the chairs and carried it back to the operating room. "Stand on this then sit on the table!"
With much grunting from Eren and groaning from Levi, they managed to work together so that Levi was sitting on the end of the stainless steel table with his feet dangling.
"Now lie back."
Levi stared at him
"Lie back. You're short enough you should just be able to lay your body down and your head will still be on the table. I'll get a couple of gowns to cushion your head." Levi slumped down and Eren wadded up a couple of gowns as a pillow.
"Who're you calling short?" Levi mumbled and passed out.