Chapter two, and I'm behind schedule already… Heh. Like WAY behind schedule.

For my High School fans: I'm working on the next chapter, but I'm trying to end the whole Fuu drama, and it's difficult. This story is so much more INTERESTING… But the next chapters in High School will be very crack-tastic, containing Bradley going all psycho and spiking melons, and Fuery eating one… Well, let's just say it's not going to be very serious. XD

Most chapters won't have a theme song, but this one's is "Everybody's Fool" by Evanescence.

"Yes, thank you. I'll be in touch as soon as we finish. Yes. He'll be out of surgery in an hour. Thank you. Goodbye." Roy watched the blonde nurse hang up the phone and turn to him. "May I help you, sir?"

"Do you know the condition of Riza Hawkeye?" he asked, his eyes worried.

"I'm sorry sir, but we've run numerous tests and there's nothing wrong with her physical body at all. She's perfectly okay…" Roy stared at the blonde nurse standing before him in shock

"You're telling me that pain I saw her go through is made up?" he yelled, clasping her shoulders, his eyes wide and scared. She slipped out of his crushing grasp, massaging her shoulder with a delicate white hand, her eyes as wide as saucers.

"That's the conclusion we came to, sir," she gasped. "We fear her mind may be… losing…"

"SHUT UP!" he roared at her, clenching his fists. "SHUT UP!"

"I'm sorry! It's just what the doctors think! We have no other leads, please sir, I'm sorry!" she pleaded, shielding her face from his wrath. As her blue eyes vanished from his sight, the boyish haircut startled him out of his rage. For an instant, she was a young, innocent version of Riza, shielding herself from her father's angry blows. He faltered- he couldn't hurt Riza. He could never hurt Riza.

Roy sank to his knees, temper replaced by concern and self-accusing anger. He curled his fingers into a threatening fist and slammed it against the tile floor. "Do you think she'll be all right?" he asked desperately, looking pleadingly up at the nurse.

She shrank back, not willing to be the bearer of bad news, her blue eyes wide with pity. "I'm afraid you'll have to let the doctors tell you that, sir. I'm not sure I know the answer." He cradled his head in his palm, cursing softly. "I wouldn't…I wouldn't give up hope though, sir," he heard her say, patting him gently on the back. He looked up at her. "You've seen so much, sir. You can't give up hope now."

"How can you, who see death every day, say something like that? Why should you hope?" he asked, breathing shakily.

"I may have seen death, sir, and I do see suffering. But I also see miracles, and that's what keeps me going. Everyone can have a miracle, but you can't have miracles without hope." Roy felt the corners of his mouth tug up, but swallowed the smile.

"You're right miss…"

"Green. Maya Green," she said, plastering on the smile most nurses wore on duty and offering her hand.

"Miss Green," he paused and took it, standing up, now looking down at the petite blue-eyed blonde clad in starched white. "Do you think that I…could see her?" he asked, sounding more like a little boy terrified of his own shadow than a decorated war hero. Maya tucked a strand of short hair behind her ear.

"She's asleep," she said uncertainly. "She won't be able to talk to you…"

"I know." Roy smiled this time- the first time since he had received the terrifying phone call in the middle of the night.

"We could do that," she said softly.

"Thank you."

~**~Break~**~

Riza's pain had faded to a low, dull throb that threatened to spike at any moment. She stared up at the ceiling of the hospital, trying to forget everything. She tried to do anything but feel and wallow in a deep pit of fear and succumb to the dark depths of her terrified mind.

"Hawkeye! You're awake!" her breath caught in her throat as oxygen turned to fire again. She hated this. Hated this. She wanted it to stop. It couldn't be that she wasn't in Hell if it felt like magma pouring down her skin every second she was exposed to the outside. Riza couldn't be alive- was this the hell allotted to her?

"Hawkeye!" she heard through the screaming pain. "Hawkeye, can you hear me?" Perhaps Hell was merciful, allowing Riza what had kept her on Earth for so long. She reached her hand out blindly, seeking the reassuring touch that hurt so much. A strong, calloused hand again met her own, and though she withered, Riza only gripped his hand tighter, clinging to the last comfort in her world. She grit her teeth and dared herself to let go- she had waited so long for his touch, and she wanted the pain it gave her. Flames licked their way up her arm- was Roy burning her again? She never asked, he wouldn't, he wouldn't, he wouldn't…

~**Break**~

Riza jerked upright in the hospital bed, shaking in a cold sweat. The pain was gone.

Finally.

"Hawkeye?" she heard a timid voice ask as she looked down to find Roy's hand still entwined in her own.

"You didn't need to do this, sir. I'm fine," she didn't believe a word she said, but she was strong, she could handle it, she could deal with the pain herself. He didn't need to worry about her.

"No, you're not. Do you have any idea how much that scared me?" Riza shook her head, both annoyed and relieved that he saw through her lies. "A lot, that's how much. More than a lot, actually- you scared me half to death." Her hand was still clenched in his, and he showed no signs of letting go. She didn't want him to, preferring to keep their hands entwined forever, keeping him by her side.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, her eyes blinking in and out of focus.

He brushed a stray blonde wisp from in front of her eyes. "It's alright, you have nothing to apologize for. I'm right here, and I'm not going to leave, Hawkeye," he muttered. She turned away, trying to hold back her tears. A silence enveloped them, seeming to hold Roy's very breath back to keep the suppressing hush in play. "They…They don't know what caused it," he said finally, his hand still rubbing slow, calming circles in her palm. "No one knows." Another long silence began to suffocate them.

"I'm scared," she finally admitted.

"We all are, Hawkeye. I'm scared too. But you'll be fine. They'll find out what you have, and there'll be a cure and you'll be fine." Riza was not reassured by the tone in his voice- it was the tone he used when he could barely hope himself. It was the tone he used when his hope was forced on himself. (She knew the tone well. It was the voice he had during the entirety of Ishval, and it would take death for her to forget it.)

"I'll be fine," she repeated, mimicking his tone without mocking it.

"Sir, I hate to interrupt, but we've searched the records and we think we've found something," Roy and Riza's heads jerked up from their trance. It was Maya, nervous and timid, scared to break the sacred silence but feeling like her sense of duty called for it. "It was a long time ago, but a young woman named Trisha Elric had a very similar case. She was a only few years younger than Lieutenant Hawkeye. There are no more cases, and the records are very limited- country doctors don't write down much in the way of observations, it's always been a fault of theirs- but from the little we've analyzed, the illnesses are very similar." Riza's hand in his grip stiffened and her steady hands, so reliable and firm, began to shake. Roy clasped them tighter, as if his own trembling hands could calm the spasms that shuddered through her delicate fingers.

"Trisha Elric? She lived in Resembool, right?" he asked, scared to hear the answer.

"Yes. She had two young sons- one was the Fullmetal Alchemist. There's one more thing, sir…" Maya wrung her hands, scared to yet again be the bearer of bad news.

"…She's dead. We know." Riza said, expressionless.

"Oh, you know…" Maya's voice trailed off. "Trisha also contracted tuberculosis, though, and we can't tell if she died of that or..." she began to chew her lip.

"Thank you." Riza forced out. Maya nodded and shrank back into the hallway, wisely retreating.

"Trisha Elric. Small world, huh?" Roy spat bitterly.

"You need to go home, sir," Riza said, turning away from Roy and shrugging her hand out of his grasp. "How long have I been here?" she asked next, still avoiding his pleading gaze.

"A few days," he answered.

"How long have you been here?"

"…A few days," he admitted after a second of awkward silence.

"Go home, sir. I'll be fine." she hissed, still turned away.

"I don't...but…please…no…" he stammered.

"Visiting hours are almost over anyway, sir," her voice was different than normal, high and cold instead of the warm and firm he usually heard in her tone. A million thoughts ran through his head, each vying for the spotlight in the center. There were only two things he was absolutely sure of.

Riza was trying to push him away. She was scared-terrified-and didn't want to show him weakness.

He didn't like it one bit. He wanted her closer, not farther away, and she was pushing him that way.

He gave in, scraping his chair back and backing slowly out of the dimly lit hospital room, "All right, lieutenant. I'll be back in the morning."

"Don't bother, sir. You need to work." she said curtly.

"I'm going to visit whether you like it or not, Hawkeye," he retorted, running a hand through his messy dark hair. He heard her sigh. "And one last thing, Hawkeye."

"Yes sir? What is it?"

"Don't die. That's an order, lieutenant, and I expect you to obey it. There'll be hell to pay otherwise," her head turned a fraction. Her long blonde hair rippled over her shoulders, somehow still lush when the rest of her was beaten and gray. He left without another word, leaving her to her demand.

Riza sank back into the multitude of hard pillows, unsuccessfully attempting to hold back the hot tears and choking sobs that shook her frame.

She wanted him there, that was certain, but her stubborn pride would not allow it. He had to read her mind- he had done it before, right?

1,711 words. Review!

oh, and this is sunarose. I'm the beta fairy. muahahahahaha. :D also review!