Chapter 14

Never Too Far

MAY 27th (Tuesday)

A week passed, and by Friday Jean felt so exhausted, all he wanted was to get home, have a strong drink, and sleep in.

Luckily, that Monday was Memorial Day, and everyone at Eldia Inc. got a three-day weekend. Jean walked into work on Tuesday morning nursing a massive hangover. His groggy crankiness vanished as soon as he saw a familiar face sitting in the break room.

"Eren!" He flinched at his own shout but still rushed forward. "Hey, good to see you back. Now I don't have to cover your ass. Seriously, now I know why you look like shit every morning."

Eren set down his newspaper and glanced up and down at Jean. "Is that what happened to you? I haven't seen raccoon eyes like that since college."

"Nah, an old Navy buddy was having a party for Memorial Day. Have you ever drank for literally twenty-four hours straight, and then drank more to get so drunk you don't feel the first hangover, only to have the mother of all hangovers last a solid day?"

"Can't say I have," Eren said, amused at the stupidity. "I guess you use any excuse to drink too much."

"Hey!" Jean snapped. "I actually know guys who lost their lives in Afghanistan." He unconsciously rubbed his shoulder. "Memorial Day exists for a reason, you know, and some of us drink to numb the pain."

"Shit! Sorry to hear that," Eren said solemnly. He looked at the shoulder. He had seen Jean rub that same area before. "War wound?"

Jean scowled as he pulled his hand away from that area. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"Sure," Eren muttered, worried about bringing up anything upsetting after what must have been a weekend of grief mixed with a celebration of survival.

Eren turned back to his newspaper. To him, the war was something in the news, emotionless reports. To some men, the fighting was all too personal. He glanced back up to Jean, whose eyes were still distant.

"For what it's worth," Eren said solemnly, "thank you for your service. Really."

Jean rolled his eyes. He hated hearing that, especially from people who did not know what it meant. At least Eren sounded genuine, unlike many people who said it because that was something they heard others say.

"And also, thanks covering for me, and for convincing Levi to give me time off. Mom really appreciated having me there for everything."

"Yeah, no prob. How did it go? You barely texted me," he said, realizing he sounded a bit whiny and needy.

"The side effects from the treatments were awful, but we expected that. Sorry if I didn't keep you up-to-date, but honestly, I had no idea what was going on at times. Vomiting was a good thing? It was crazy … and scary," he muttered.

Without a thought, Jean reached out and put his hand on Eren's shoulder. "She's gonna be okay, ya got it? She's strong."

Eren looked momentarily stunned, but his face dropped to hide his blushing smile. "Yeah, she's a fighter. She's back home for a couple of weeks while she recovers."

"I thought you said she couldn't come back."

"They didn't want her to since she'd be weak." Eren laughed and smiled to himself. "She's stubborn."

"Now I know where you inherited it from."

"At this point, her mental health is just as important as her physical health, and she really wanted to come back home. So it was deemed better for her mental health to let her come home rather than force her to stay at the British clinic all alone except the medical staff. Most of their patients are British and can have family come visit on weekends. I can't do that."

"I still say you should hook her up with the doctor."

"Jean!" Eren's face loosened with contentment. "It's good to wake up and make her coffee again. I blame my coffee addiction on her," he said with a light laugh. "It was the thing she missed the most while in the hospital. Now, she's allowed to have a little. Not much, but her first sip … I hope I never forget that smile on her face!"

"That's awesome," Jean said with a relieved sigh. "Is she okay being on her own while you're at work?"

"Yeah, a home-care nurse comes in once a day, makes sure she's okay, takes vitals, and assists in physical therapy. Mom's really weak, so she needs help bathing, and she's supposed to build up walking after so long lying in a hospital bed. We fly back in a few weeks for a second round of treatments. I'll only spend the weekend with her that time. We're playing it a day at a time now."

"And you have enough money for all this flying around, right?"

"Yes, enough for flights, treatments, operations, follow-up care, her room and board while she's there, the home-care nurse…" Eren looked down at his mug, but there was a smile brightening his eyes. "You don't want to know how much that's gonna cost us, but the money you raised should be enough."

"I'm glad," Jean sighed with a light beaming in his eyes.

"All these months, she's been forcing herself to smile for my sake. This is the first time I saw her smile with true hope. It … It was really nice to see." He began to tear up, and Eren stubbornly wiped his eyes. "Sorry."

"No, man, it's cool." Jean could imagine. Simply seeing Eren smile like that was also really nice. He shook his head, trying to shake out whatever weird ideas were gathering. "We're gonna celebrate on Friday, right?"

"Huh? Celebrate?"

"Remember? Bertholdt practically twisted your arm to insist you come out drinking with us."

"Oh, right. Sure." Suddenly, Eren rubbed his head.

"Hey, are you okay?" Jean asked, seeing Eren waver slightly.

"Jet lag. It took me days to adjust to London time, and now I've gotta adjust again. I hope you didn't leave me with more work cleaning up all your mistakes."

"Fuck you!" Jean huffed at the teasing and softly mumbled, "Look, just for today, while you recover from the flight, feel free to shove more work my way. Just today!" he insisted. "I'm not covering your ass all the time."

"Thanks, although you don't look that much better than me. More like a rabid raccoon with those black bags under your eyes."

"Fuck off," Jean said, although lightly. "Although, I'm gonna forward any phone calls to you. If I try to talk on the phone right now, I might vomit from the pain."

"I'll take care of the phones, you get the emails." Eren paused, suddenly hit by how odd it was, the two of them planning to help one another. "Why are you doing all this?" he suddenly blurted out.

"No reasons. I'm just really glad you could get your mom in and make sure she's gonna be okay."

Eren looked at Jean in amazement. "Seriously, what did my mom do for you that makes you love her so much?"

Jean stared in confusion, only to look away. "You don't remember any of that, huh?" He could see by Eren's confused face, he really had no idea. "Your mom saved my life once. Maybe many times. I owe her a lot."

"Wait, she saved your life?"

Jean stood up and walked over to the coffeemaker. "Today only, you can slack off. I won't tolerate it after that."

Eren wanted to demand Jean explain himself, but he sighed as he let the matter go. Instead, he stood up and gathered his things for the work day. Then he smirked, came up behind Jean who was facing the coffeepot, and screamed, "Thanks for covering for me, asshole!"

Jean flinched so hard, coffee spilled out everywhere. Eren leaped back, cackling that at last he got back Jean for all of his pranks.

"You fucker!" Except his shout equally hurt his head, Jean began to turn green, and he whispered, "Ow, ow, ow … bastard."

Eren had a triumphant grin as he turned to leave. "See Petra in the infirmary. She's got good pills for hangovers. Warning, though: she'll probably scold you."

"Warning noted," Jean whispered, rubbing his head. "At least I'll finally get to talk to that cute nurse."

# # #

"Never Too Far Away/Hero Medley" by Mariah Carey

That evening, Eren returned home and went right upstairs, where he could hear the television playing. He went up to his mother's bedroom and saw Carla sitting up in bed watching television. She muted the commercial playing and smiled at him.

"How was work, sweetie?"

"Rather normal." He walked over and kissed her on the forehead. "How was the nurse?"

"A very nice young lady."

"What do you want for dinner?"

"Oh, she brought us a huge bowl of spaghetti. She said she does that with all of her new patients and put it in the fridge. She even said, if we want, we can order what she should bring for dinner and she'll get it. We have to pay ahead of time, of course. Still, it's so nice of her."

"She sounds great." Eren sat by his mother's side on the bed. "Hey Mom, Jean said something weird to me today."

"Jean Kirschtein?" she asked, her eyes looking concerned.

"He said you saved his life. Any clue what he means?"

She chuckled softly. "Dear, it could be any number of things. There was one time, you boys were probably only four years old, running around their swimming pool, and Jean slipped. He fell into the water, and I jumped in to grab him. It turned out he was actually a really good swimmer, but I guess my motherly instincts had kicked in. Still, it's odd what a child will remember, and he may have seen that as saving his life."

Eren still looked troubled. "He mentioned something like this before, something about Halloween. He wouldn't tell me more, though. It looked like it really upset him."

For a moment, Carla also looked disturbed. She pushed past that and gave Eren a smile. "If you want, we can look into getting you back into therapy."

"No, I don't have time," he muttered. "What was he talking about, though?"

"Do you remember which Halloween? There were a few that were quite adventurous."

Eren tried to think back to Jean's conversation with him, but that was over a month ago. "No, I can't remember. He said you did something heroic, though."

Carla chuckled and patted Eren's cheek. "Again, in the eyes of a small child, that could be anything. Especially someone who got into as much trouble as Jean."

Eren laughed at that. "He must have been a handful for you."

"On his own, he was fine, but add you to the mix, and it often turned into a powder keg."

Eren laughed even louder. "That's how I remember things, always at each other's throats. Anyway, I'll warm up the spaghetti. Maybe we can play something tonight. Uno, or perhaps cribbage."

"That sounds like fun, dear," she said.

Carla kept her smile up until Eren left the bedroom. Then, slowly, her brow tightened."

"Halloween of '87," she whispered. "So, he doesn't remember that." She looked up to the heavens. "What do you think, Grisha? Maybe it's time for him to start remembering things." Then she looked ahead. "Except, with the good comes the bad. I don't want him to remember that."

# # #

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Never Too Far Away/Hero Medley is a mash-up Mariah Carey released in 2001 as a charity single in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, with all proceeds going to the New York City Police Foundation's Heroes Fund, a charity for victims of the September 11 attacks, their families, police officers, and relief workers. I absolutely love this version, and I think the lyrics fit both Carla as a hero for all she did in the past (which we'll see soon) and Eren as the hero who has sacrificed so much to save his mother. Also, the line "I won't let time erase one bit of yesterday / Cause I have learned that nobody can take your place" hits differently as you realize that Eren suffers from some form of memory loss.

Memorial Day — In the USA, this holiday honors military personnel who died while serving in the Armed Forces. It is held on the last Monday of May, although celebrations tend to last from Saturday until Monday. While many Americans have forgotten what the holiday means and take it as an excuse to celebrate the unofficial start of the summer season with parades, pool parties, and barbecues, for service members and their families it can be a solemn day to honor loved ones who never made it back home.

Happy one-year anniversary to this fanfic!