Injured!GermanyXNurse!Reader: 'Til I Awaken Ch 8

I woke up with as much life in me as a ghost.  I contemplated not even moving, just burying my face in Ludwig's bandages and giving up.  I felt his chest slowly rising and falling, raising my head up and down on its gentle waves.
  
He still needed me.  If for no one else, I had to live for Ludwig.
  
I shifted my shoulders and felt something rustling on top of them.  I opened my eyes and saw a coarse, green wool blanket draped over me.
  
'Elsie, thank you.'
      
I lifted myself up slowly from Ludwig's chest.  He seemed peaceful enough, but he also had a look of…I couldn't place the shadow of emotion that went across his face.  It wasn't exactly sadness.  What was it?  I puzzled over his expression, forgetting my sorrow for a moment.  Without knowing it, I was grateful to him for the diversion from my dark and sorrowful thoughts.
  
I kissed his forehead lightly. "Guten Morgen," I croaked out, my voice still raw from sorrow.  The previous look on his face became diluted as it mixed with a hint of a smile.  He was glad to hear me.  It rustled the wings of the little bird in my stomach.  I smiled wanly.
  
I began to get up.  I had swung my legs over the side of the bed, when I felt something pulling on my right hand.  I looked back, more than a little confused.
  
It was Ludwig's hand.  He had moved his hand to hold mine.
  
I was in shock at first.  The most movement Ludwig had made in his two-week-long slumber was the jerking of his ticklish feet.  He had moved his hand deliberately to mine.
  
The realization of what he had done finally hit me.  I began to cry again, not from sorrow, but from appreciation.  I now knew what that look on Ludwig's face had been:  it was concern.  He cared about me enough to move his hand the miles and miles it took to hold mine.  I was touched by his gesture.  He cared for me.
  
"It wasn't me who stayed by you this time," I choked out.  "It was you who stayed by me 'til I awoke."  I sniffed and buried my head in his chest once more, grateful beyond all words to him.  I flipped my hand over inside his, large, gentle one, and grasped it, trying to convey my gratitude.
  
                               *Ludwig's Point of View*

The voice sounded even more dejected when it spoke again, but I was still glad to hear it.  I could feel its source next to me the whole time, so I knew it hadn't left.  I felt it try to move away, but then it stiffened up.
  
Then it started to cry again.  I wondered why it cried now.  But then I heard it speak again, appreciation glowing through its tears.

"It wasn't me who stayed by you this time.  It was you who stayed by me 'til I awoke."
  
It moved its warm little hand in mine, and held it.  The warm sensation flowed through me again, filling me with a lightness and peace I had never known.  I felt the pain in my body grow less intense.  I dared to move a little further forward, the pain wasn't bad enough to stop me so I kept going.  I kept going, and going, and going, until I reached the threshold of the shadows I wandered in.
  
I could feel sunlight through the barrier.  I hesitated.  I was still too unsure if I was ready to go forward.
  
Then, I heard it.  The voice was humming the song again.
  
I squeezed my hand a little, recognizing the song that had brought me from death back to life.  It stopped for a little, and said,

"You like this song, don't you Ludwig?"  Something thrilled in me as I heard it say my name.  It had said it before, but hearing the voice call me by name made the warm feeling glow within me even brighter.  


"Morn fades to evening,
Day turns to night.
Stars shine in heaven;
The moon sheds its light."


The strains of the song floated across the barrier, clearer and more beautiful than ever before.  My hesitation vanished as I listened.  It was time to leave.  I was no longer lost and alone.
  

"Day draws its close,
So sleep now in peace.
May calmness surround you,
As you dream."


I took the last step over the threshold, ready to live again.  I could face anything if the voice stayed with me and sang me through my troubles.
                                          ***

I felt my eyes open slowly like leaden weights.  Everything was bleary and blurred, like a watercolor painting.  I blinked slowly, and things focused slightly more.  I saw a small form resting at my side.  It was a small woman with messy (hair color) hair done up in a now-loose bun.  I blinked slowly again.
  
It was the voice!  It—she—was beautiful!  Far more beautiful than anything I could have pictured.  This was the creature I owed my whole existence to.  I had to thank her for calling me back somehow.
  
I gathered all of my strength to move my leaden right arm across my body and over to her.
    

"But as I slumber,
Hold me close.
As I sleep now,
Stay by my side.
I will see you
when I awake.
But 'til I awaken,
Stay now--"  


I felt her small frame freeze up as my arm wrapped around her.  She looked almost too shocked to believe what was happening.  I moved my head down to lean against the top of hers.

"L-Ludwig?"  she asked, her voice quavering.  The warm sensation filled me even more, tingling in every fiber of my body.  There was one final barrier to overcome.    
    I willed my disused voice to work.

    "Please, fräuline, please keep singing."  

                                         ***

  I wound the roll of linen around his chest one last time, tying it off into a small white bow beneath his heart.
  
"There," I smiled with the accomplishment. "That should do it."
  
Ludwig smiled as he looked down at my dressing.  Not one spot of red leaked through the bandages, though the wounds were by no means healed, and neither was Ludwig.  
The two and a half weeks of almost no movement had taken a toll on his body.  Walking, sitting up, and even moving his arms had been difficult tasks.  I'd worked with him for almost a month now, building up his strength and helping him to move again.  But now, the hospital had to be disbanded.  The war was over.  We had lost, and the torrent of wounded could go to permanent hospitals now.

Ludwig had been deemed fit enough to be discharged, and the nurses were being dismissed back to their homes.  I felt like my life was ending all over again.  I had no family or home to go to.  Ludwig had become my whole life, and now he was being taken from me too.  We had supported one another mutually through our darkest times.  I supported him when he felt lost and weak, and he supported me when I felt alone and heartbroken.  We were like two saplings twined together.  Alone, we were too weak to stand upright.  But together, we held one another up.
  
Ludwig sluggishly pulled his green uniform jacket over his shoulders, leaving his arms out of the sleeves.  "What are you going to do now?"  He asked quietly, as if he could read my thoughts.
  
I hollowly replied, "I don't know."  I looked into his piercing blue eyes.  So much strength and gentleness in equal measure were found there.  Strength and gentleness I had come to rely on.  What would I do now?
  
Elsie walked in.  The curtains had long since been removed when Ludwig regained consciousness.  She was out of her uniform and in a long tawny overcoat with a carpetbag by her feet.
  
We both smiled at her.  Elsie had become our mutual friend almost as soon as Ludwig awoke.  She seemed to have a soft spot for us.  Ludwig lightly tapped my arm, signaling that he wanted me to help him stand.  I went over to his right side and put his arm over my shoulders.  He swung his legs off the side of the bed slowly, every muscle movement a conscious effort.  Using me like a crutch, Ludwig put some of his weight on me as I put my hand around his waist and helped him upright.
  
"Elsie, we'll miss you."  He held his left hand out to shake Elsie's.  Elsie smiled and stepped forward to shake his, on behalf of us both.
  
"And I you, young 'uns."  She stepped back and looked to both of us.  "I wish you both the best."  With that, she grabbed her carpetbag and left.
  
Ludwig turned back to his bed, and I helped him to sit down.  I went over to go grab his boots from his gear.  He'd need them for the long journey home to Berlin.  I could feel his eyes trained on me the whole time I rummaged through his belongings to find them.  As I procured them and began to help him don them, I could still feel his eyes upon me.  I had been around him too long not to know when he was thinking about something.
  
"Alright," I murmured to the ground, "what's on your mind?"
  
Ludwig sighed.  I looked up at him.  His face was so tender and conflicted.  "I-I," he slowly stuttered, "I want you to come home with me."

My mind seemed to work in slow motion.
  
'Come…home…with...'

"What?" I finally whispered, not so much shocked as trying to understand.

"I wouldn't be alive without you," Ludwig explained.  "I'd still be wandering around inside myself.  I owe everything to you.  I needed you so desperately then.  I-I still need you, and-" He paused, "since you have nowhere to go…I thought…it would be best for both of us."

It finally dawned upon me.  He was asking me to stay a part of his life.  He was asking me to help him through the long recovery ahead.  But he was also giving me the very thing I wanted—needed—most: to be with him.  I smiled, looking up into his bright, nervous eyes.  

"I would love to, mein lieber Ludwig."

                                             ***

Ludwig and I walked in tandem the whole two miles to the train depot.  He leaned on me, and I on him.  Both our belongings fit easily into a pair of light rucksacks on our backs.  The hustle and commotion of the station were so different from the silence and seclusion of the long, dusty road we had just traveled together.
  
"We've got a long way yet to travel," I commented to Ludwig.

"And a longer still road to recovery," Ludwig added.
  
I mulled over that for a little bit.  Yes, our country had a lot of recovery yet.  The whole of it had been bombed, divided, and brought to its knees by the Allies.  Yet from all of this disaster, no matter how long the road, we would recover.
  
I lightly squeezed my hand that was about Ludwig's waist.  "As long as we have each other, it doesn't matter how long recovery takes.  It'll be a journey to remember."
  
Ludwig smiled and lightly squeezed me into his side.  "Right."
  
After we had been on the train for a while, I noticed Ludwig's head begin to nod with weariness.  Two miles of walking was a lot of work for him right now.  I tapped him lightly on his shoulder.
  
"Do you want to sleep?"  I asked him tenderly.
  
He slouched down and leaned his head on my shoulder.  "Only if you'll sing to me," he mumbled blearily, already letting sleep's embrace start to envelope him.
  
I smiled and began to stoke his hair, as I had done so many times before, and sang him the song he requested I sing so many times since his recovery.


"Morn fades to evening,
Day turns to night.
Stars shine in heaven;
The moon sheds its light.
Day draws its close,
So sleep now in peace.
May calmness surround you,
As you dream.

But as I slumber,
Hold me close.
As I sleep now,
Stay by my side.
I will see you when I awake.
But 'til I awaken,
Stay now with me."


Ludwig's breathing slowed as he nuzzled his head a little more into my neck.  I looked at his sleeping face, so peaceful and relaxed.  I leaned my head onto his, letting his smooth blonde hair caress my cheek.
  
My eyes wandered to the window of our compartment.  Trees and telegraph wires whizzed by as the train brought us ever-closer to our next journey.  Sleep began to steal over me as I thought about the long road ahead of us.
    
'As long as we have each other, it'll be a journey to remember.'
  
I gently fell asleep; Ludwig and I supporting each other, as we would for years to come.  

                                          The End