Chapter 2

Ed woke up in a strange place. He tried to figure out where he was. Then he remembered he was in the hospital he had been attacked in an alley. He looked down at his leg and noticed the cast. 'Ugh,' he thought, 'It was bad enough to lose a leg but now to break the perfectly good one. That's just some good old irony.' Ed sat up quickly to look around. That was a huge mistake. He started to cough and cough and cough. 'Oh shit they're gonna find out about my condition,' Ed thought as he started to cough up blood.

"Ed you have fungal pneumonia," the doctor said while placing an oxygen mask over the young man's face. Ed nodded. "You know?" the doctor asked in shock. Ed nodded again. "Did you know how serious it was?" Ed nodded. "Well let us hope you make it out alive." The doctor made Ed comfortable and walked out of the room. Roy and Hughes were sitting in the chairs next to Ed's bed. Hughes was looking away from the bed and Roy was pinching the bridge of his nose. Ed knew that could only mean one thing. Roy stood up and walked over to the bed. *Thwack* sounded Roy's hand as it met with Ed's cheek.

"What the hell were you thinking Elric?" Roy commanded his voice booming.

Ed took the mask off his face, "I had to keep going to find the Philosopher's Stone."

"Well you really can't if you're dead."

" Hughes back me up. It was a noble thing to do."

That's when Hughes lost it. He stood up towering a bit above Roy and looked at the eldest Elric brother. Hughes had fire in his eyes and an evil look to his face.

"That was not noble. That is the most idiotic reason I have ever heard for not telling your commanding officers you were sick. Roy is right you are no good to your brother dead. Your no good to him now hospitalized. This illness could have taken over you. You're small and it could spread very quickly," Hughes immediately regretted using small in the sentence. Ed took his monitor stand and smacked Hughes in the shin causing the man to double over in pain. Roy gave Ed an evil glance that said, 'even in the hospital you still get upset over being called small when the person is talking about your health. Ed glared back at Roy. He hated to be called small even if it was for his health. No one wants to be reminded of their size at any point in their life. Ed knew that his Cos had won the battle. He rested against the pillows sighing deeply. 'I want to give up this fight, I want to die, but I can't because Al still needs me. He needs me to be there for him,' Ed thought

"Ed are you gonna be alright?" Roy asked.

"I don't know," Ed said looking at Roy while putting his oxygen mask back on. He looked at Roy with pleading golden eyes. Roy knew what the stare meant. It meant, 'Take care of AL if I well you know,'

Roy stormed angrily out of the room with a confused Hughes looking at him.

"What was up with that?" Hughes asked.

Ed just shrugged his shoulders pretending he had no clue what had just gone on between him and Roy. He couldn't get it out of his head though. He couldn't accept the fact that he was weak. Too weak to even take care of himself let alone his brother. He thought for a while all the time looking at Hughes. Ed felt a tickle in his throat as he watched Hughes. He started to cough. And cough. And cough. Ed just couldn't stop coughing. He knew why of course but he didn't like it. He looked over to Hughes who was standing up to come over to him.

"Ed what's wrong? What do you need me to do? Ed?" Hughes asked.

Ed motioned for the mask to be taken off and Hughes obliged carefully removing the oxygen from the kid's face. Ed kept coughing. Hughes though he was literally going to cough up one of his organs. Ed sat there retching coughs trying to stay alive. Hughes pressed the nurse alert button and a nurse came rushing in just in time to see Ed coughing up blood. She ran out of the room once again hitting her pager. "We need a doctor in her Mr. Elric is unstabalizing. Get a crash team." When Roy heard this he flew back into Ed's room. Looking at the boy he gasped. Ed was spitting up a lot of blood some dripping on the sheets most of it covering his shirt.

The nurse came rushing back with the crash team. Ed looked at the nurse. 'This is the biggest battle that I'm going to have to fight. I wonder if I can do it. I hope I make it out alive.' After that everything went black.