A Hole in Reality

Bonus Chapter: Homecoming

It was a rough and exhausting day. Called at work, you went directly to the school. Another playground fight. Only in kindergarten. What will happen when she's older, if you don't get this behavior reigned in? Such a firecracker, this child. Defiantly carving her identity through her 5 yr old fists.

"That mean Parker called my friend an F-A-G."

"If you think you're old enough to know what it means, why don't you just say it," you say with exasperation. Her eyes grow wide and shocked in the rear-view mirror.

"I can't, mama! That's a bad word!"

"Well, at least you've got that right. Honey, I'm proud of you for standing up for your friends. I really am. You can't solve every problem with your fists, though!"

"Well, it sure gets the point across," she mutters, crossing her little arms over her chest with a pout. Such a mature sounding comeback. Older than her years. You can't help but laugh.

"Oh, I love you little cookie."

The little girl beams at you from the backseat. She may not have won the war, but this battle is hers.

"Love you, too mama!"

Sometimes when you look at her, you see Levi. Not just in the black hair and blue eyes, but in her fierce attitude. The way she expresses love. Through the time skip, the events of the battle for heaven and earth, to the end you watched; knowing he was experiencing everything your world takes for entertainment. You cried when he nearly died....

Now, several months after the fact it seems like he might not make it back. Hanji is dead, and his ticket home to you gone with her. As you often do, when your daughter is fast asleep, you cry yourself to sleep with grief.

2 a.m.

Your mattress shifts under the weight of an extra body. A warm little body huddles up next to you, tapping your shoulder and throwing the blanket over your heads.

"Mama?"

"Yeah, baby?"

"A big light woked me up. And then, a wheelman came out from over by the pier."

"Wheelman? Honey, you had a dream that's all. Go back to sleep." You wrap your arms around her and pull her close. She squirms out of your grasp with an indignant squawk.

"It's true! He's rolling up the walk! He's got black hair and wheels on his feet!"

Bright light, near the pier, black hair, wheeled feet.... Wheeled feet....

"Honey, do you mean a wheelchair?"

"That's right!" She nods smartly, and then watches wide-eyed as you dash out of the room and down the stairs.

Shoeless, no robe, you open the door with no thought other than him. He's back. He has to be, there's no-

"Hey babe."

The times you've cried, missing the sound of his voice. Now, here he is in the flesh. He's finally here. He's home. You stare in awe, unable to formulate any words.

"You don't have to say anything. I know how I look." The bitterness in his voice shocks you. As if he expects you to turn away from him like he was some kind of monster.

"You look like the love of my life, Levi. How did you manage to get here without...."

"Without Hanj?" He sighs and thinks for a moment before meeting your eyes. "She told Armin. Showed him her blueprints. Told him if she died before the war was over, to send me home. Our child?"