Chapter 2: That Guy
Edward cracked his eyes open and his blurry eyes attempted to focus on the world around him. His senses were entirely askew, and he could not concentrate enough to locate his limbs. Even with his eyes open, he remained disturbingly disoriented. A massive, distorted suit of armor sat on the floor against the wall, barely a few inches from his bed, with the head bowed pensively. He inadvertently released a quiet grunt when he attempted to sit up, resulting in the suit's immediate attention. Neither spoke-or Edward remained much too disoriented to acknowledge speech around him-as the hospitalized boy struggled to sit up. He noticed his automail had been removed and an IV thread into his remaining arm.
The blindingly-white Central Hospital room scorched his corneas, and a light ringing echoed in his ears unpleasantly. The barely-detectable sound irritated him, but noises outside the room covered the monotone bells. He only heard the sound in silences. He compared the bells to attempting to see through darkness. If his surroundings were dark, his eyes showed him tiny specs of light that a well-lit area could mask with little effort-although the tiny lights never truly disappeared. The tiny specs of light acted as the soft bells: loud in silence and barely noticeable when he heard other noises.
The metal suit watched agitatedly, too dazed to speak until, "Edw-"
"Where is Lieutenant-Colonel Hughes?" Edward demanded. He attempted to sound gruff and firm, but too much life had been zapped from him to allow him to sound too intimidating.
"Out in the hall..."
"I need to speak with him immediately." The alchemist's voice remained clipped and detached.
Alphonse feared his older brother felt anger toward him for attracting the lightning bolt that landed him in the hospital, and he therefore did not want to speak with him. He did not argue and stood unsteadily on his partially-melted joints to call out into the hall. "Mr. Hughes? Brother's awake. He wants to see you," Alphonse's meek voice echoed through the empty armor to the man.
The unshaven man scratched his chin and set his coffee on the table next to him and his slumbering wife and daughter. As soon as his office received the news of Edward's accident, he and his family worriedly rushed to the hospital to monitor the boy's health. His young, innocent daughter refused to leave until she knew her surrogate big brother would survive. Although the family arrived nearly 12 hours ago, Elicia never once complained about the uncomfortable chairs in the waiting room or the lack of tasty food in the hospital cafeteria. Any complaint she vocalized regarded the unbearable wait to learn Edward's latest status.
Maes rubbed his eyes in exhaustion and heaved a hefty sigh. He adjusted his spectacles as he stood, straightened his shirt, and marched into the alchemist's room. Despite the lack of sleep and the early morning hour, he portrayed himself like a well-rested and energetic man. "Heya, kiddo! How are you feeling?" he boomed cheerfully. "You gave us all quite a scare, y'know!"
Edward stared at the wall parallel to him intently. "Can we talk in private?" He glanced to the suit of armor distastefully, clearly indicating his desire for the boy to leave the room.
Maes raised an eyebrow in confusion. Usually the situation was reversed with Edward wanting to speak to Alphonse without military ears present. Nonetheless Maes nodded to Alphonse to dismiss the boy and turned back to Edward only after the younger Elric closed the door behind him. "So what's up?"
Edward rose his hand to his face, rubbing life into his skin. "What happened?" His hand lowered to his side with a sigh. "What am I doing here?"
"Well, what's the last thing you remember? Let's start there." Maes grabbed the nearest chair and straddled the back to make himself comfortable.
Edward's eyebrows furrowed in thought and he clenched the blanket beneath his hand to contain his frustration over his inability to remember such recent events. "I... I was in Risembool getting my automail checked..."
Maes nodded in confirmation.
After a few more moments of brain-busting silence, Edward shook his head. "And that's it."
"So you don't remember the lightning?"
"Lightning?" Edward turned to his metal stump and only then noticed the melted material from the intense heat of conduction.
"It's a miracle you survived, really. You've been out stone-cold for hours." Maes watched the teenage prodigy stare at the damage at his shoulder before yanking the blankets off the bed to inspect the damage to the port as his thigh. "The lightning stopped your heart."
Edward continued staring in awe and disbelief at the news and his miraculous survival, ignoring the burn bandages located at the bottom of his human foot and metal-encased shoulder and thigh. He finally heaved a heavy sigh. "Winry's gonna kill me..." he moaned.
Despite himself, Maes chuckled. "If that's all you're worried about, you're gonna be just fine." He climbed out of his position on the chair and turned to leave. "Speaking of which, she should be here sometime today to fit you with new automail."
"All right, thanks, Hughes..." Edward mumbled.
As Maes gripped the door handle, he heard the boy behind him ask, "Hey, Lieutenant-Colonel?"
Resting his hand on the knob, he turned and inquired, "What is it, sport?"
"Who was that guy?"
"What guy, Ed?"
Maes released the door and turned completely to face the bed. "What are you talking about?"
Frustrated with the man's insolence, Edward huffed, "Who else? The guy that was just in here! Who is he, and what was he doing in my room?"
The man furrowed his eyebrows, slowly realizing what Edward was asking. "Are you talking about the armor?"
"Of course I am! Jeez, what's wrong with you today, Hughes?" Edward spat.
"You don't know who is in the suit of armor?" he asked slowly to confirm.
With an aggravated sigh, Edward asked, "That's what I've been saying, isn't it?"
When Maes determined Edward was entirely serious, he covered his mouth and exhaled, "My God, you really don't remember..."
Edward's tone softened as the gravity of his father-figure's words sunk in. "Why, should I?"
Maes pursed his lips and considered the possible courses of action. He could not allow Alphonse to find out about his brother's amnesia until Edward spoke with a specialist. Until he discovered how much of the alchemist's memories was compromised, Maes concluded few people should be notified. First he needed to find a nurse to check the newly-awakened boy's status.
"Why don't you get some rest? I'll find a nurse," Maes declared as he turned to the door.
"Lieutenant-Colonel," Edward called. A hint of worry tickled his voice. He recognized the deep concern etched in the man's face, and Edward wanted to know the source. "Is something wrong?"
Maes did not trust his facial expression to face the amnesiac, and replied to the door calmly, "No, Ed."
He strode out of the room and ordered Alphonse, "Wait out here." Without missing a beat, Maes continued to the nurse's station down the hall. A young nurse wearing a pink uniform sat behind the desk, surrounded in paperwork. She did not acknowledge his approach, buried in her work, and continued to scribble on papers and cross-reference documents.
"Edward Elric in room four twenty-one is awake," he announced.
The brunette lifted her head from her task and smiled. "Good to hear!" she chirped as she stood. "I'll go check his vitals again."
"There's something else." Maes folded his arms on the counter, holding his elbows in either hand, as he leaned forward and lowered his voice. "Do you have a neurologist on call?"
"Of course!" the woman replied proudly. She glanced at the clock behind her and continued, "In fact... he should be coming in soon."
"When?"
"In about an hour."
Drawing his fingers across his scalp, elbows firmly planted on the counter, Maes sighed, "I need you to call him in early. You should probably call in a psychiatrist, too, while you're at it."
"Is there a problem, sir?"
"I'm pretty sure the lightning affected his brain. He seems to have suffered some memory loss, and I need to find out if anything else is wrong."
"He should be fine until the doctors arrive for their scheduled hours-"
"Please," Maes interrupted with a glimpse at her name-tag. "Janice, I just want him checked out before his automail mechanic gets here. They're childhood friends, and I don't want him under unnecessary stress if he can't remember. So the more information I can pass on, the better. My boss is going to want a status report soon, anyway."
Janice acquiesced and reached for the telephone. "I'll be there in a moment," she informed the man with a polite smile.
He mirrored her gesture and nodded. "Thank you," he whispered. Maes turned and strode down the hall. He quickly discovered Alphonse's creaking, disfigured joints and clunking metal armor woke his family during his absence.
"Daddy!" Elicia cheered from her place beside Alphonse, dolls in each hand. Her snow-white teddy bear rested in Alphonse's lap, and Maes concluded he just intruded on Elicia proudly presenting her new toys to her surrogate big brother. She scurried to her father, arms outstretched.
He scooped her into his arms and continued walking with hardly a pause. She immediately gripped his shirt sleeve and tugged insistently. "Daddy! Daddy, big brother Al said little brother is awake!"
Maes nodded and glanced to his wife, who watched him with a worried frown, and replied, "Uh-huh."
Not satisfied with his response, Elicia tugged on his sleeve more roughly, repeating, "Daddy, little brother is awake!"
"I know, sweetie," Maes assured as he raised a hand to ease her tugs.
"I want to go in and see him!" she begged. "Please?"
"Not right now," he muttered. He kept his voice low to avoid alarming Alphonse to Edward's condition.
"But why?" she whined with a disappointed scowl.
"Some doctors have to make sure he's okay before everyone can see him," Maes explained vaguely. He could not lie to his little angel by telling her that Edward was the epitome of health, but he did not want her to worry before a doctor could confirm what he discovered. He stretched a grin on his face and declared, "Hey, I know! How about you and big brother Alphonse and Mommy all go get some breakfast? Maybe the doctors will say you can see him by the time you get back!"
"Yay!" she squealed. Elicia squirmed excitedly for escape until her father set her on the floor. She trotted to Alphonse and grasped three of his fingers with one hand. "Let's go, let's go!"
Although Alphonse possessed more than enough strength to overpower her, he allowed her to drag him to his feet and down the hall without protest. Gracia lingered behind, drawing Alphonse to glance in her direction. He knew Maes was trying to keep a secret about his brother's condition, but he did not want to ask the man in Elicia's presence. When Gracia called, "I'll catch up with you in a minute," Alphonse knew he faced only one option: to wait for the answer and continue to the cafeteria with the little girl.
Once the children moved out of earshot, Gracia asked, "What's going on, dear?"
He frowned and watched over her shoulder to make sure the departing duet could not hear him and to avoid eye contact. "He suffered some kind of trauma to his brain. He didn't recognize Alphonse," Maes explained quietly.
Her eyes widened, and she raised her closed fist to cover her mouth. Gracia shut her eyes and exhaled, "My God..."
"Al doesn't know, and I don't want any more people to see him until he's been evaluated," he finished, turning his gaze to her.
"How are you going to tell him?"
"I don't know," he admitted. "I just want to find out how much memory he's lost and go from there." Maes heard footsteps approaching from behind, so he twisted his head to identify Janice as the newcomer. He turned to his wife and smiled softly. "I'll stay here; you go catch up with Elicia and Alphonse and get some breakfast."
"Do you want me to get you anything?" she offered.
He wrapped his arms around her torso. "No, thank you," he murmured before he touched his lips to hers. "You go ahead."
She smiled, turned, and began her journey to the cafeteria. Maes rotated in place 180 degrees to address the nurse. "Did you reach the doctors?" he inquired.
Janice nodded. "They will be here soon." She motioned to the door. "Would you like to join us, sir?"
Maes reached for the door handle in reply and held the door open for the woman. She bowed her head gratefully and proceeded inside with Maes close behind. While he remained by the door like a loyal watchdog, Janice approached the left side of the bed and chirped, "Good morning, Mr. Elric!"
The patient's head whipped away from the window on his right to face his visitor. He graced her with a smile. "Good morning."
Encouraged by his response, Janice inquired, "How are you feeling?" She halted at the side of his bed and gathered the tools she required.
"Tired," Edward admitted.
"Not surprising," she assured. "Your heart took quite a beating!" The nurse wedged her right hand beneath his torso to support between his shoulder blades, and she offered her left hand to his to lift him into a sitting position. "You're pret-ty lucky, ya'know."
"So I've heard," he smirked.
Janice placed the earpieces of her stethoscope in her ears and reached the receiver under his shirt to rest on the rib area of his back. "Take a deep breath for me," she instructed.
Edward inhaled through his nose and exhaled through his mouth, as instructed, several times while Janice's focused expression looked at nothing and shuffled the device around his back. Finished monitoring his lungs, she withdrew the tool and set the stethoscope to the side. Edward watched her movements intently as she lifted his wrist to record his heart rate.
"So how long have you been nursing?" he prodded.
"I've been an apprentice for..." she muttered as she scratched his heart rate down on his chart, "a couple different doctors since I was ten." Janice plucked a black arm cuff from the nearby table of tools and wrapped the device around his upper arm. "And I applied for a job here when I moved here a couple months ago," she finished.
Equipped with her stethoscope once again, receiver pressed to the inside of his arm, she squeezed the pump to tighten the cuff on her patient's bicep. She stared at the attached monitor silently for a few moments before releasing the pressure and recording the results. As she popped the stethoscope's earpieces from her ears, she chirped, "Your vitals are excellent, Mr. Elric!"
"'Edward' is fine," he consented. Edward watched her slip the blood pressure monitor from his arm and asked, "Do you like nursing?"
"It's hard work and long hours, so it doesn't leave much time for fun-"
"I know the feeling," he teased with a smirk.
She visibly muffled her forming smile. "-but I like helping people. I also get to meet some interesting characters."
"You don't say," he commented smoothly.
Watching the exchange, Maes could not believe his eyes. He met both Elrics years ago, and Maes felt he knew their personalities fairly well. Observing Edward's conversation with the nurse, however, flabbergasted him. Maes heard the alchemist prodigy speak with beautiful young women in the past, but Edward never behaved the way he did toward Janice. Edward's charm changed to full throttle. Maes felt eerily reminded of his best-friend-slash-superior Roy Mustang: on a mission to woo with no intention of long-term commitment.
Without the mental and emotional baggage to return his brother's body to flesh and bone, Edward's world expanded beyond his brother and their goal of restoration. Since Edward did not have to consider Alphonse's well-being, he could shift his focus to subjects important to average teenagers. Judging by his shameless flirting, Maes concluded, Edward discovered women with his newfound mental freedom-and perhaps learned his methods from Roy.
Janice nodded and hummed, "Mm-hmm."
Edward graced her with a smile. "Once I'm discharged, you and I should go out to dinner, so you can tell me all about it. My treat," he tempted.
Her cheeks flushed the lightest shade of pink, and the corners of her lips twitched with the effort of not returning his smile. "I'm flattered, but my boyfriend probably wouldn't take it too kindly," she giggled.
"It's just a casual dinner! Why would it bother him?" he defended innocently.
She eyed him with a barely-suppressed smirk. "No thank you," Janice articulated. The nurse gathered her tools and ventured for the door. "Your doctors will be in to see you soon."