Decision

Mustang hadn't seen Fullmetal for the past few days. This wasn't uncommon, the kid had been sent away and usually took a few days to return. But when the Colonel walked out of his office and saw Hawkeye standing next to Ed, he hadn't known what was going on.

"Fullmetal?" Mustang asked. "Have you come to bring your report?" The kid looked up with red puffy eyes. Well, this was new. It wasn't every day that the child prodigy of the military walked in crying. Mustang suddenly wondered where the rest of his staff was, though dismissed it. Hawkeye and Ed had probably asked them to leave.

"Colonel," Hawkeye spoke up. "I think it would be best if Fullmetal took a few days of medical leave."

"And what illness would prompt Fullmetal to need medical leave?" Mustang asked.

"I'm pregnant," Ed spoke up.

Well, he hadn't seen that coming.

"Are you going to explain yourself?" Mustang asked, feeling very much like the parent he wasn't as he stood in front of the couch Ed was sitting at, arms crossed over his chest with his foot tapping. "Edelle Elric, if you don't start talking, I might lose it."

"It happened when Al and I were in Rush Valley," Ed answered. "It was just a one-time thing."

"A one-night stand?" Mustang asked. Ed twitched when the Colonel said this.

"With due respect, sir," Hawkeye interrupted. "Ed came to me to talk through her options. She doesn't need a lecture right now with such a difficult decision ahead of her."

"All right, well, what do you want to do, Ed?" Mustang asked. "The floor is yours."

"I can't have a baby," Ed said in such a desperate voice. She didn't want to make this choice, wishing someone else could just do it for her. "I'm only seventeen, and I'm in the military. I can't travel around the country on missions and take care of a baby."

Mustang knew Ed was right about one thing; she was only seventeen. Too young to have a baby. Too young to make this decision.

"Then you have to make the decision on what to do," Hawkeye said. "Luckily it's still early, so you have more options."

"What about the father?" Mustang asked. He wanted to know who was responsible for causing the teen to go through this. He wanted to bury the body and throw away the shovel. And you could bet Mustang would get away with it too. "You need to tell me who he is so I can wring his neck."

"He doesn't and won't know. You won't know who he is," Ed said. She wasn't saying a thing. No one would ever know who the father was.

"God dammit, Ed; I thought you weren't interested in stuff like this," Mustang groaned out.

"I'm not..." Ed trailed off. "But when everyone's talking about it all the time, I feel like I'm the only one not getting the joke."

"You don't have to be going out and having sex with someone just because you want to know about stuff, and if you're going to, at least use birth control," Mustang said.

"Oh, I won't be doing this again for a long time," Ed responded. "I think I learned my lesson. It wasn't even all that fun."

"Didn't need to hear that," Roy said with a sigh before asking, "well, what are you going to do?" Roy asked.

"I think I know what I should do..." Ed trailed off. "But I'm scared to do it alone." It wasn't like she had told Alphonse about all of this. He was just as much in the dark as the father was.

"If you'd like, I'm sure the Lieutenant wouldn't mind going with you," Mustang said.

"Would you go with me, Colonel?" Ed asked.

Roy nodded.

"Thanks."