"Do you think we should go find someone again?"

"What...so they can just send us back here? No, I don't think that's a good idea." Erik frowned and looked to the side where Liesel sat beside him with her legs stretched out before her on the bed. Liesel in return sighed and looked down at her hands. Reaching up she tentatively took to picking at the gauze wrapped around her hand. Erik reached out and gently swatted her hand away. Seeing as how she had taken to sitting beside him on his bed, this task was easier to do than having to nag at her, or even leave his seat to do so. "Stop it." He said seriously, this wasn't the first time he had caught her picking at the bandages.

Liesel frowned and folded her hands in her lap, she still fidgeted with her fingers though. "But it itches." She couldn't help but whine.

Erik crossed his arms and rested his head back against the pillows. Liesel had seen fit to make sure there was enough for two and had bought her bedding over too. He was starting to get the feeling that she wasn't going to leave his side. He wished for her to be close, because then he could keep an eye on her, but sticking to him like glue could become annoying.

"That means I am healing though, yes?" Liesel's voice bought him from his thoughts as he tilted his head to the side to look at her. She looked at him curiously and eventually sighed over the blank look she was receiving. "Fine, I'll be quiet."

"I don't mind you talking."

"That look could've said otherwise."

"What look? I didn't have a look, or a specific one...I don't know what you're talking about, Liesel." Erik said while fidgeting against the headboard. Despite padding it out with pillows he could still feel the metal poking through. When he received silence he looked to her. She sat staring at him with unblinking green eyes and her mouth turned downwards slightly. Erik frowned and looked away. Fine, she may have caught him out and sent it back at him...but he did mean it, he really didn't mind her speaking. They needed to talk or else this stay would be even more awkward than it already was.

Despite suddenly shooting downwards and slightly impacting off of the wall behind them, Liesel laughed. Erik had become fed up with the metal of the headboard impaling himself and likely her too and had seen fit to seeing if he could alter that...only he had not expected his intervention to cause them to jolt from the ricochet hitting against the wall. But still, she laughed. It was an oddly happy noise, something which had not been heard for long. And though he found the moment of her laughter to be rather childish; though he wasn't surprised, if anyone found humour in suddenly shuttling in sudden descent, it'd be her, Erik did however join in. Laughter was contagious, especially when it sounded so carefree and joyous. It felt strange to laugh. Almost alien. Neither had laughed at such length for so long that it was rather quickly forgotten that such laughter caused an ache to settle over their stomachs.

Hearing the door open rather suddenly though they both shot up and looked with wide eyes towards the occupied doorway. A man stood, long white coat and thick rimmed glasses perched on his nose. Another man stood a little bit behind him, with a more relaxed demeanour and in more casual clothing consisting of a dark suit. Liesel shifted uncomfortably. Doctors...though she was not ignorant to the fact that she'd have to confront one, she did not still feel wholly at peace with the prospect. After all, the last doctor she encountered did horrific tests on her.

Gripping gently onto her arm above the bandages, Erik watched with hard eyes as the pair moved into the room. The arm in his grip tensed when the door was shut, it was an action which caused him to be more on edge too, not that he was going to outwardly show it. He had practically fought his way out of Auschwitz, one school turned hospital was not going to stop him. One doctor and another male were certainly not the same as SS soldiers.

There was muttering between the two males which caused them to shift as if preparing for another fight or flight moment. "Es ist okay." The man in the suit said while holding his hands up in an attempt to show that he was harmless. He looked to the doctor as he spoke a few more quietly spoken words. The man seemed to register what he was saying with a few nods and glances in their direction. Erik and Liesel exchanged confused looks, yet did not lower their guards just yet. The man coughed awkwardly and placed a hand to his chest. "Ich bin Johann Dietrich, und er ist Artz Nikolai Alkaev." The man now known as Johann explained in a calm tone while gesturing from himself to the doctor. "Wir wollen einfach nur reden und um Ihnen zu helfen." There was another pause for them to exchange a look and then glance back at them. So far they were not saying anything worrying. Words of aid and introductions was nothing to get concerned about. "Können wir uns näher kommen?"

"Ja," Erik replied at length, he watched as the younger male discussed something with the doctor before they both walked over. Noticing the doctor eyeing up where Erik's hand was, he turned and gruffly said something to Johann. He raised an eyebrow and then looked at the pair.

"He wishes for you to remove your hand and not mess up his bandaging." Johann said with a growing smile. "Don't look so put out, lad. Doctor Alkaev means no harm, his bark is worse than his bite, I believe the saying goes." Johann rolled a hand thoughtfully in the air with that same smile on his face. As if noticing he had said more than instructed Alkaev turned to him and seemed to insist on knowing what was said. Though Johann seemed like a fluent native speaker of German, the other male however did not. There was something about his accent that Erik couldn't place before it dawned on him. Doctor Nikolai Alkaev was Russian, whereas Johann Dietrich was a native German.

Erik glanced to Liesel, but she seemed to have cottoned on quite quickly that they had to have a translator in the room for the sake of them being checked over by a doctor. It was clear Alkaev spoke as much German as they did Russian, which was none.

"He would like to look at your hands, will that be okay, little Miss?" The muttered chatter between both males ended and their attentions were back on them. Johann looked down at Liesel with a smile and got a nod from her. "You will have to come over here," Johann nodded back to her bed. She couldn't very well sit where she was and get her bandages taken off and possibly changed. There wasn't enough room. There may have been enough room for two children to sit on these narrow beds, but there wasn't enough room for them plus a busying doctor.

Liesel looked hesitant then, Erik stood up and helped her shuffle off of the bed and stood by her side as she sat back onto hers. He could see when left to her own devices she wasn't going to leave his side, so he returned that and stayed by hers as the doctor sought to replacing the bandages, but to do so he had to take the others off. That alone seemed to bring a small level of discomfort and caused Liesel to whine and fidget, she got told to sit still several times by the doctor, the simply spoken words were enough to come across as a; "Be still," without needing to be translated.

It seemed that her skin had split in several places from the extreme cold which had previously surrounded them. For the most part considering what could've happened to them, they didn't look totally bad. A few sores and tinges of discolouring was all to show of the freezing conditions they travelled through. Turning her hands over several times, it took less time to bandage her hands back up once they had been cleaned and checked over. Regardless once she was finished being messed with, Liesel pulled her hands to her chest as if that'd stop the throbbing which still travelled through them.

Reaching out slowly, Erik put an arm around her shoulders and got suddenly leaned against. Liesel buried her face in his shirt as if she could suddenly hide away from the two strangers. A chuckle came from both which got a bemused look sent their way quickly by Liesel before she hid again, and a glare from Erik. It seemed their visitors found her behaviour endearing, and being suddenly laughed over, or at, or whatever, caused him to feel slightly annoyed.

He personally did not see how seeking comfort after being hurt was funny. Tightening his grip on her shoulder, Erik looked firmly between both males. "Where are we?" He asked seriously. He felt Liesel shift against him, she leaned away and looked to the two visitors expectedly. They both wanted an answer to this question. She could easily forget her temporary pain to find out.

There were more mutterings and hushed voices between the two. Both clearly trying to figure out what to say. Or at least find the right words to use to answer the question which was so bluntly posed to them. After several moments they watched as Alkaev left and Johann remained. "You're still in Poland." Erik and Liesel's eyes widened as they let that information dawn on them. "Only...it is not like it was, obviously." Johann said awkwardly while shifting weight from one foot to the other.

"How so?" Liesel fidgeted and looked curiously up at the dark haired man at the end of the bed. "What's happened...apart from the obvious?"

"I think she means what other changes have happened here?" Erik reworded her question so it made more sense. The way she asked it made it rather unspecific. The last time Erik was here he was with his family, though struggling in a ghetto he was content enough to be with his family...and now, he was back here; he was still here, he never truly left the country, just without his family and with Liesel. What more could have happened since then?

"The Russian occupation," Johann said as if they were meant to immediately know anything about this. He sighed and sat on the edge of the bed, taking note how Liesel shifted more up to either make room or get away from him, he didn't know. "Most has been taken under allied control. But the fighting continues on...are you two hungry? I shall see if I can find you something to eat, yes?" And as simply as that Johann turned the conversation from news and information which was truly helpful, to matters of food. Without waiting for an answer he stood and left them alone, again.

"He is a strange man."

"Erik, we don't know anything about him." Liesel looked up at him and frowned slowly.

"And that is why he shall remain strange."

Liesel raised an eyebrow and smiled slowly. Looking to the spot where Johann once stood she shrugged, "I don't know. I quite liked him...he seemed...nice."

"You trust others too easily," Erik said somewhat bitterly while moving from her side at last and returning to his bed. He jumped to sit on it and crossed his arms, not before gesturing a hand to the downcast headboard, it shot back up with a loud thud which seemed to echo around the room.

Liesel looked at him from the corner of her eyes. "If I didn't...then I would never have got to know you. To get to know others, you need to trust just a little bit."

"You're willing to trust this stranger, after everything?"

"I do not sense malice from Johann or Doctor Alkaev...unlike...him." Liesel shuddered and shook her head gently. "If my trust backfires, you can give me an I told you so, yes?"

"If your trust backfires, I think I'll be doing a lot more than that." Erik said with a growing smile. "But deal." Erik held out his hand towards her, Liesel held out a freshly bandaged hand and grinned when he slipped his hand in hers and gave it a gentle shake.

----

Inventory:

It's okay – Es ist okay

I am – Ich bin

And he is – Und er ist

Doctor – Artz

We just want to talk and to help you – Wir wollen einfach nur reden und um Ihnen zu helfen

Can we come closer? – Können wir uns näher kommen?

Edited: 7/June/2019

Reedited: 13/August/2021