A/N: I own nothing; Bones and Arakawa own all. At this point, the crossover is very subtle, but if you can name the kids even when the boy's eye color is different, I'll throw this in the FMA/WR section and maybe, - I don't know, even update someday. After episode 15 of the 'Hood, I just couldn't restrain the morphic twin crackbunnies any longer. I just already have one insanely long WIP that I'm still focusing on, so this will end up as a collection of vignettes rather than an ongoing intricate plot with lots of foreshadowing and overarching themes, if it even gets an update. Of course, more reviews mean more plotbunnies...
The baby was quiet in Daniel Rockbell's arms, opening her eyes and cooing softly as he tickled her under the chin. She turned towards the sound of his fingers as he snapped them faintly by her ears before reaching blindly for them. Despite the blood that had soaked into her hair, turning it almost pink, and the unfocusing black pupils centered in red-tinged sclera and scarlet irises, she was otherwise a most happy, healthy baby. The same could not be said for her brother.
"Don't worry about me," the boy insisted, flailing away from Sarah as she attempted to remove his shirt, which was dripping with the same blood that had dyed his sister's hair. "Just tell me if she's going to be okay."
Dan was once again thankful for the Elric boys next door; if they hadn't been so used to Ed and Al's squirming, the boy probably would have escaped his wife's grasp entirely. "I'm sure she'll live. Now, let's take a look at you so that you can verify it for yourself."
"She's just so pale," the boy mumbled through his loose, bloodstained shirt as Sarah Rockbell finally wrangled it over his head. Daniel tightened his grip on the infant slightly at the sight of the boy's chest. If they had any painkillers left, now would be the time to use them, but as it was they were dependent upon the boy's worry for his little sister to override his own hurts as Sarah stitched him up… provided they even had enough suture for that bloody cross upon his chest. "And she - she won't look at me since I dropped her. She'll turn her head towards me, but she doesn't really look." The boy dropped his eyes to his lap, his voice wavering reluctantly as he placed his hand atop Sarah's as the female doctor attempted to clean his wound.
"What happened?" Though it meant risking the loss of the boy's attention, Daniel reluctantly handed the baby over to one of his aides, a former patient and local healer herself. He had others to tend to, including the right-arm reattachment surgery they'd dragged in last night. That young man still hadn't awoken, and with any luck, he wouldn't fully awake for a few more days yet. Daniel had seen enough of his mother's automail patients to know how painful the recovery process for a replaced limb was, and that was without the wounds on his back and forehead to rival this boy's chest. That didn't mean that the male doctor wouldn't listen with at least half an ear as his wife questioned their latest young patient. A pity so many of their stories went the same way…
"They… they handed her to me, and told me to run. The blast came out of nowhere, and I just went limp. I tried to pick her up once I came to and head for the desert, but well… ouch!" The boy cut off as Sarah finally got him prone and started trying to wash out the wound. Daniel was surprised that the boy had lasted as long as he did.
"You may have saved her life, you know. If the soldiers had seen either of you moving…" Dan was reluctant to finish the thought, and Sarah shot him a frown for saying as much as he had. They all knew what the military was doing here. The Rockbells didn't approve, but they couldn't turn their backs on their countrymen when they needed help, no matter what skin or eye color they happened to possess. A tragedy that the higher echelons of the government no longer saw it that way.
"I know what would have happened." The boy's voice was too solemn for the doctor's liking, too full of a hatred that became automatic out of necessity. The Rockbells couldn't entirely remove that poison from even a single child's voice, but perhaps they could draw some of it out, at least. "But why are you here? Why don't you go back to the soldiers that you should be taking care of? They're your people."
"These are our people, too. Ishval is part of Amestris. I'm sorry that the military has lost sight of that, but if you can get out of here, I think you'll find that not everyone will judge you only on your looks." Sarah tried to offer a morsel of hope to make the truth slightly more palatable.
"But this is our home!" The boy had every reason to be angry, every reason to be frightened, every reason to cry out against the injustice, even as he tried to contain the tears in his scarlet eyes.
"Not any longer." As much grief as Sarah would probably give him for putting it bluntly, Daniel knew that these children would not survive a war zone with their innocence intact. "The leaders of Ishval have been trying to send a delegation to Central to end this war, but as of now, this is a wasteland. The world changes, and the most a man can do is try to change with it for the better. You'll have to find a new home for yourself and your sister." The boy nodded, his eyes watery but hardening.
Sarah put a hand to the finished bandage before she moved to the next patient. "Just know that you don't have to do it entirely by yourself," she whispered. The reattachment patient let out a slight groan, calling her attention back to her duty as the orderly handed the baby back to her brother.
They could not fix this war. Not as two doctors with no supplies, no government approval, and little support. But perhaps, for just a moment, with help from the Ishvalans who had accepted them into their country, they could put a relieved smile on the face of one wounded young boy as he embraced his baby sister, lowering his lips to her unseeing red eyes.