-about a month and a half later-
If there were a God, Jean had a few choice words (and rude finger gestures) to say to Him.
Here he sat, out in the hallway of the Maternity Ward. He didn't dare look behind him to see all the newborns; it hurt knowing that his wouldn't be in there.
In the delivery suite just a few feet away, Jean could hear Armin weeping. It was clear that he was taking it a lot harder about all this. The pitiful sounds broke his heart.
All Jean could do right now was sit and wait for the others to arrive. In his hands, he had a firm grip on his phone, with which he'd just used. All he'd sent to them were five words (or rather, four words and a acronym):
Come to the hospital ASAP
Despite everything, he wasn't able to shed tears; all he felt was numb and empty, his face gone pale. There wasn't much he could do at this point besides stare at his feet, and then getting up to check on Armin.
-a few hours earlier-
It was during a school assembly when it started. Neither of them could remember what said assembly had been about. They just recalled sitting with their friends in the back rows, listening to Principal Pixis address various topics (the announcement of prom might have been one of them).
Jean was listening intently with his arm wrapped around Armin's shoulders. This made Eren shoot a death glare at him, but he didn't notice.
What he did notice was Armin making a strange noise, like he were sucking air in through his teeth. To try and calm him, Jean rubbed his arm up and down. It didn't appear to work.
"What is it?" He whispered out of the corner of his mouth. He kept his eyes on the principal, though.
Armin couldn't give him an answer he'd been hoping for. All he did was make the noise again, more urgent this time. Once he stopped, he asked him:
"How much longer is this stupid assembly going to last?"
"Hopefully not too much longer. Why, what's up?" Taking a deep breath, Armin dropped quite a verbal bombshell.
"I don't want to alarm you, Jean, but I think..." He gasped a little here before going on. "I think the baby is coming."
Despite his request, Jean's eyes bulged out. It was then he finally looked over at Armin.
"Did it just start now or...?" Armin shook his head. "How long, then?"
"Since I got up this morning at seven." It was roughly a quarter after twelve right now. "You were in the shower, so I didn't say anything; I didn't want you to get worried."
Jean frowned. "Armin, I'm your husband. Of course I'm gonna get worried." By now, he was no longer listening to the principal.
Eren's glowering worsened. Not even Mikasa patting his shoulder could placate him. Before any of the others knew it, he lost his temper and stood to his feet.
"Just take him to the fucking hospital already, you stupid horse-faced twat!" He shouted loud enough to get the entire school looking right at them. Principal Pixis was not amused.
"Something you wish to share with the student body, Mister Jaeger?"
Now Eren's face was turning red from embarrassment. Mikasa, Armin, Jean, and all their other friends stared at him wide-eyed as he felt his rage dissipate.
"No sir," he said in a small voice while he sat back down. Once he was seated again, the principal continued droning on.
...
As soon as the school day ended (Armin insisted on staying, despite being in labor), the young couple were hitching a ride with their friends Reiner and Bertholdt to the hospital. They made a promise to let them know when the child was born, so they could gush over it.
It was hard to pinpoint an exact timeline of events. He remembered nurses coming in and out of the rooms. Then he remembered Armin getting wheeled off to the delivery room.
There was screaming, a lot of it. There was Doctor Berner checking to see how far along Armin was. By then, the noise had reached agonizing levels. Any time that Armin arched his back to try and push, the scene pretty much turned hellish. Armin's face when pushing looked fairly animalistic.
Amidst all the screaming, moaning, and gasping, there was Jean holding him up from behind, trying to reassure and calm him. By then, Armin had become sweaty, his hair damp and matted against his neck.
It all turned into a complete blur. But in that blur, one last thing stood out alongside the rest:
The blood.
It was normal for there to be some blood present during delivery, but that was the problem; there was too much of it. There was blood on the doctor's hands, on all the sheets they were positioned on, and on Armin's thighs. In fact, Armin's thighs were pretty much soaked with blood.
In the end, all the pain and suffering had been for nothing. Right away, Jean and Armin knew something was terribly wrong when they didn't hear their baby cry out.
...
As he entered the darkened room (the only light source being the window, and that was covered with the blinds), Jean could see Armin laying on his side, his knees pulled up to his chest. He was turned facing away from the wall. On the other side of the room, a small bassinet sat, as if forgotten. A white cloth was on top, concealing a motionless being that never took a breath.
Despite there being next to no light in the room, Jean made his way over to the bassinet. He could only lift up a corner before he had to stop. What he did see of the infant, made him go weak at the knees.
By now, Armin had finally noticed Jean in the room. He pushed himself up into a sitting position, and stared blankly.
"Isn't she beautiful?" He asked in a feeble voice. Jean turned away to face Armin, and nodded.
"Very beautiful." An awkward silence followed, before Armin looked away. He took his turn to speak again.
"I'm sorry, Jean."
Here, Jean moved forward and sat next to Armin, combing his fingers through his blond hair.
"You got nothing to be sorry for, Armin," he rasped.
Another silence ensued, punctuated by sniffles and sobs. Finally, he brought up one last thing:
"What are we going to tell the others?" Now Jean looked down at the floor, carefully thinking over his answer.
"The truth, I suppose."
...
There was something about Jean's message that didn't seem right. Nevertheless, the others all joined up at the hospital to see the new baby.
"You wanna guess how big its muzzle is?" Eren told everybody else snidely. Mikasa, not particularly amused, tapped him on the shoulder and shook her head.
"This is an important day, Eren," she told him. "We should at least be civil about it."
On their way to Armin's room, they talked amongst themselves. There was Reiner and Bertholdt saying they drove the married couple, so they should see the baby first. Then came Eren and Mikasa, stating they were Armin's friends and pseudo family, so they should be first to see it.
The chatting soon got to the point where the receptionist told them to knock it off. According to her, there'd been a death in that ward, and too much noise might make the bereaved parents upset. Sasha was also forced to relinquish any snacks she'd hidden in her bag (no outside food or drink). Once they quieted down, she let them all pass.
All of them looked to be oblivious as to what they were about to learn.
...
The approaching voices struck terror and fear into Armin's heart. He tried to do the impossible and curl up even more into himself.
"Jean," he said in a muffled voice. He didn't need to say anything more. Jean stood back up to his feet and slowly stepped out of the room. He turned his head in the direction of the owners of the talking, but otherwise kept his head downward.
"Well, hey there, new papa!" Once more, Connie was showing a complete lack of tact. "How's it feel having a new little tyke in your life?"
Next came Sasha. "Yeah! I wanna see the new arrival, too!"
Everyone went on with congratulations and requests to see the baby. About the only one who noticed Jean's strange behavior was Mikasa. She put up a hand to get everyone to shut up.
By the time she was able to, she could already see Jean's fist clenched and shaking. He still had yet to look up at any of them. Now, though, he was beginning to take deep, heaving breaths. He was on the verge of losing it, along with gritting his teeth.
Unfortunately, no one looked to be completely aware of this, least of all Eren.
"Hey, what's the problem, horse-face?" He asked in a teasing manner while poking Jean in the cheek. "You got a centaur, or did it end being an actual horse?"
Eren continued to goad him, despite the fact that everyone else now was seeing that something was wrong. "Oh, I get it! Armin found someone better and it turns out it isn't your kid! I suppose he was tired of riding the same horse all the time and-"
He was cut off by Jean suddenly growling, but didn't catch it in time before Jean clocked him in the jaw. He then heard everyone else gasping in shock and horror, as he stood back up and spat out a tooth that had come loose.
"Hey, what gives?!" He was about to retaliate before Mikasa grabbed him by the wrist. "Let me go!" Rather than do that, Mikasa forcibly pushed his arm down to his side. Then she gestured to Jean with her free hand.
"Leave him be, Eren," she told him in a near monotone voice. "He's hurting enough as it is."
Now Eren took a good long look at Jean's face. In the time it had taken for all of that, the dam had broken. Jean now had a copious amount of tears streaming down his cheeks.
From the back of the crowd, Marco stepped forth and pulled Jean into a hug. Now Jean could only really bury his face into Marco's shoulder and sob.
...
Everyone had been so excited to meet Jean and Armin's new baby. But now that aura of excitement turned into one of sorrow.
Jean sat next to Armin again on the hospital bed, once more trying hard not to cry. Armin, on the other hand, had cried himself out and was just laying in the same position he'd been in.
Meanwhile, everyone else stared at the covered bassinet in the corner of the room. At least one of them had approached it to get a better look, but Armin demanded that nobody look at it.
"Doctor Berner said the cause was 'placental abruption'," Jean said as he rubbed Armin's back. "Something about the placenta detaching too quickly, or something like that."
Armin was so still and pale while Jean was talking, many people would think he was already dead. Even so, he looked over with his half-lidded eyes, looking at everyone.
"I need a transfusion," he uttered weakly. To confirm this, Jean nodded.
"He lost too much blood during delivery," he clarified. "But thankfully, he's a universal recipient, so he should be okay there. But even then..."
Everybody took a closer look at Armin. If one looked close enough, they could see him shivering. But just before anyone could ask why that was the case, they were interrupted.
...
"I'm afraid you will all have to leave," Nurse Rico said to the visitors in a somewhat cold voice. "The patient is in no condition to entertain visitors."
"But Jean gets to stay-"
Nurse Rico shook her head. "That is because he is the patient's husband." The way she referred to Armin as 'the patient' seemed a bit callous. "But the rest of you must leave."
Seeing that she was in no mood to argue, the others all began leaving. Only Marco, Eren, and Mikasa stayed behind, and Marco didn't stay long.
"Just call me if either of you need anything," he said to Jean and Armin before leaving. This just left Eren and Mikasa. Those two looked over at Jean, who now had a dark look on his face. Mikasa remained as stoic as she could.
"We're sorry it came to this," she told the both of them. Eren, really not wanting to say those words to Jean, simply nodded.
Jean's expression worsened. "What are you sorry for? Isn't this what the two of you wanted?"
Eren and Mikasa were taken aback. Neither of them were able to retort back, though, as Nurse Rico reminded them that they had to go now. They had no choice, and could feel Jean's eyes glaring at the backs of their heads as they left the room.
If there truly were a God,-and right now Jean was seriously doubting that, but if there were-, he certainly didn't like Him right now. Above all else, however, he had only one thing to ask of the Almighty:
Why?