Hey guys! Here is chapter 2! Reviews are appreciated, they are helpful and give me warm and fuzzies! I hope that you enjoy!


I woke up this morning

And I heard the news

I know the pain of a heartbreak.

I don't have answers

And neither do you

I know the pain of a heartbreak.

It isn't easy, it isn't clear.

And you don't need Jesus

Til you're here.

The confusion and the doubt you had

Up and walk away, they walk away.

When a heart breaks.

-Ben Rector, "When a Heart Breaks"


Chapter 2

Roy was annoyed when he heard the ear-splitting sound of his phone ringing beside him, waking him up once he had finally been able to fall asleep. He was even more annoyed when he saw the red numbers on the alarm clock telling him that it was 2:30 in the morning. With a loud groan, Roy reached over and slid the bar on his phone to the right.

"Hello?" Roy was absolutely sure that the voice that would be greeting him on the other line would be the voice of his justifiably pissed off fiancé. After all, Roy could think of no other person who would be dumb enough to wake him up so late at night.

"Uh, yes…Hello…I'm calling from the Bellevue Hospital Center on 26th and 1st, is this Roy Mustang?" The voice on the other line was unexpected. It was a woman, who by the sound of it was having a very hectic day.

"Oh," Roy instinctively reached for the lamp on the bedside table and flicked it on. The room filled with an excruciatingly bright light that caused Roy to rub his eyes in frustration. "This is Roy Mustang."

Wait. Did she say she was calling from the hospital?

In a matter of seconds, Roy went from languid and tired to wide awake and alert. What happened? His heart was hammering hard against his chest and the seconds that it took for the squeaky-voiced woman on the other end of the phone to answer felt like an eternity.

"Hello, Mr. Mustang. We have you listed as one of the emergency contacts for Edward Elric. I'm afraid that there's been an accident, and I'm going to need you to get to the hospital right away. We've already spoken with his other two emergency contacts, and they're on their way."

Roy stopped breathing. An accident? What kind of accident?

"Is Ed okay?" Roy heard the tremor in his voice, the unmistakable sound of fear and dread. He jumped to his feet and grabbed the closest pieces of clothing he could find – a dirty shirt, a pair of pants…

"I'm afraid that the only information that I've been given is that he's in critical condition. You should try to get here as soon as possible."

"I'm on my way."

Adrenaline is a powerful hormone. Within minutes of hanging up the phone, Roy Mustang was throwing money at the disgruntled cab driver and racing into the glass doors of the Bellevue Hospital Center.

"Hello, how can I help you?" The woman behind the desk was smiling. In his frantic state, Roy couldn't help but wonder how she could be smiling at a time like this.

"My name is Roy Mustang and I'm here to see Edward Elric!" Roy's ears were ringing and he felt like his head was on fire. He needed to see Ed. He needed to see Ed right now.

"Ah, do you know what floor he's on?" The woman responded politely, seemingly oblivious to Roy's urgency.

"What?" Roy felt his temper starting to rise. He needed to see Ed. "I have no fucking clue! I just got a call saying that my fiancé was here because he was in an accident! I have no fucking idea what floor he's on!" The uncharacteristic behavior that Roy was exhibiting was frightening even to him; he was normally the calm one.

"Excuse me sir, there's no need to be so rude." She picked up a phone on her desk and dialed a number. "Have a seat, I'll let you know once I find out the situation on your fiancé. Elrid, you said?"

"Elric! Edward Elric!" If Roy didn't find out what was going on soon, he was going to need a doctor himself. He felt like he was going to vomit. He couldn't breathe.

"Roy!" a familiar voice greeted him from behind, and Roy turned to see Winry running towards him, her eyes red and wet. "Roy! You're here! Thank god!"

Roy never thought that he'd ever feel so relieved to see the young mechanic. He caught her as she flung herself into his arms and kissed the top of her head.

"What's going on?" He choked out softly. His heart was beating out of his chest, his eyes were burning. Winry had a history of crying about things that weren't a big deal, but she had never hugged Roy. Things had to be bad.

"Ed was in a car accident. Hit by a drunk driver…I guess the car slid on some ice or something…" Her words were muffled and shaky, but Roy knew that he hadn't misheard her.

"Is…" The question was on the tip on his tongue, but he hesitated to ask. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer. "Is he okay?"

The sob that escaped Winry's mouth was almost inhuman. She tightened her grip on Roy's back and dug her nails painfully into his skin. And then, without another sound, with barely any movement, Roy felt her shake her head.

No.

"Where is he?"

"They just brought him in for emergency surgery. The doctor told Al to start making arrangements…" As though she had just remembered that she left the oven on at home, Winry let out a loud gasp. "Al! We have to get to him! I left to get him a bottle of water – he's all alone!"

Winry lead Roy through the hospital and into a small, quiet waiting area. Al was sitting in a plastic chair in the corner of the room, his head in his hands. There was a flat screen TV on the wall in the waiting room, the weather man was advising New Yorkers to prepare for a nasty snow storm that would likely limit transportation to and from all areas of New York City.

"Al, I'm sorry it took so long. I ran into Roy." The blonde mechanic sprinted to where Al was sitting and knelt down on the dirty white title. She reached into her leather purse and pulled out a bottle of water, which she handed to her broken boyfriend.

Al accepted the water and looked up at Roy. Their eyes met and Roy knew that if there was anyone else in the world who would be destroyed if anything happened to Ed, it was his brother Al. The dirty blonde's hazel eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks were flushed.

"I.." Al spoke slowly, stopping to swallow and breathe before he went on, "I thought he wasn't supposed to be home for two more days…"

The guilt hit Roy like a tidal wave. This was his fault.

"Yeah…he came home early to surprise me…" Roy sank down in the chair next to Al. "We uh," He rubbed his eyes. "We got into a fight… He left…" There was an unmistakable quivering in his voice as he struggled to say what was weighing on his mind since the moment he got the phone call, "This is my fault."

The silence in the room was almost tangible. Roy wasn't sure if they thought that he was right, that they did think that it was his fault, or of they just didn't know how to console him while dealing with their own guilt and grief.

The silence was broken only by the sound of Al's name being called by a doctor. The doctor's scrubs were bloodstained. Were those bloodstains from Ed? The grim-looking doctor motioned for Al to come over and Al stood up and walked silently in that direction.

Roy couldn't hear anything that Al or the doctor was say saying. He saw the doctor explaining something. He saw the doctor point over to Roy and Al nod. He saw the doctor say something to Al and shake his head slowly. He watched as the doctor put a consoling hand on Al's shoulder and felt his heart break in half as Al slid to his knees and covered his mouth.

No. This couldn't be happening.

The doctor made his way over to Roy and Winry. The ringing in Roy's ears was so loud that Roy wasn't even sure if he'd be able to hear what the doctor had to say.

The doctor looked worn down. He had black hair and glasses, and the five-o-clock shadow told Roy that he was probably on the 6th or 7th hour of his overnight shift.

"Hello, my name is Doctor Knox, I'm the head surgeon on duty." The doctor's face was grim, his voice low. "I'm sorry to have to tell you that Edward Elric did not survive the surgery. We did all we could, but the damage from the accident was too severe."

"Ed is…" Winry sounded like all of the air in her lungs had disappeared; "dead?" the last word was barely a whisper.

"I'm afraid so. You can talk to the woman at the desk about how to make arrangements. I'm sorry for your loss."

I'm sorry for your loss.

Roy wondered how many times Dr. Knox had needed to say that. He imagined that the Dr. Knox that said it for the first time had probably done so with tears in his eyes and a heavy heart. The Dr. Knox that told them tonight had clearly built up a tolerance. A script. Dr. Knox had seen hell that Roy could hardly imagine.

Roy didn't know what to do. Everything in his brain had shut down. He was in complete shock. Ed was dead. He was dead and was never coming back. Roy lost control of his legs and collapsed once again into one of the plastic hospital chairs. The ringing in his ears wouldn't stop. His heart wouldn't get out of his throat. His world was crashing down around him and the pieces were being scattered across the linoleum floor.

Roy felt a comforting arm wrap around his shoulder, and looked over to see that Al had gotten up and walked over to where he was sitting. Al was looking at Roy with and expression that made his heart break even more. After a car accident took Ed and Al's mom when they were children, they were the only thing they had left. The two of them did absolutely everything together. They shared a bond unlike any that Roy had ever seen.

"It's not your fault." The words left Al's lips and Roy felt his eyes starting to burn. He felt the sobs start to shake in his body. He felt himself breaking down. Al didn't know how wrong he was.


Roy woke up to a knock on his bedroom door. He groaned loudly and rolled over in bed. Waking up had been the hardest part of being alive.

The door opened and the familiar, stern face of his best friend came into view.

"Roy, it's time to wake up." The blonde spoke assertively; Riza Hawkeye seemed to carry a sense of purpose with her everywhere she went. She walked over to the window and pulled back the dark curtains, filling the room with blinding light.

Roy groaned again in protest and massaged his aching temples. His head was throbbing in post-intoxication agony. What time had he finally managed to fall asleep last night? And how much had he had to drink?

Roy heard the clinking sound of bottles being picked up and turned to see Hawkeye picking up the various empty bottles that were scattered on his bedroom floor.

"Jesus Roy, how much did you have to drink? I just cleaned these up yesterday. You need to stop." She tossed the bottles into the garbage can in Roy's bedroom. "You drank an entire bottle of Jack Daniels?" She said in disgust as she discovered another bottle on Roy's dresser. "How are you not dead?"

"It helps." Roy admitted, pulling himself up.

"It doesn't help. It numbs. I'm not going to let you keep doing this to yourself, I was tolerant until today because I know how hard it's been, but after tonight it stops." She was opening Roy's drawers and pulling out articles of clothing. "I bought you coffee and hash browns, they're in the kitchen." She opened Roy's closet door and stepped inside.

Today was the day. Today was the funeral. The past few days were all a blur in Roy's mind. Sure, Roy was alive, but Roy wasn't really living. Food had no taste. He couldn't sleep. His world had stopped the night of the accident. He had lost everything.

Hawkeye stepped out of the closet holding one of Roy's black suits. She carried it into the bedroom's bathroom and Roy heard the shower turn on. She returned holding a towel.

"Let's go. Get in the shower."

Roy was monumentally grateful to have a friend like Riza Hawkeye. He probably wouldn't be alive if it hadn't been for her undying and unwavering support through this whole thing. Even as he drunkenly confessed to her the sins of the night that it all happened – when he told her about Rose, about the lies, about the fight. She never once left his side. She held him as he cried, cleaned his vomit from the bathroom floor…she was there for him, and he would never be able to repay her.

Roy dragged himself out of bed and took the towel from his friend. "Thanks." He said weakly, and walked into the bathroom.

Deciding to brush his teeth first, he walked over to the sink and reached for his toothbrush. He felt his heart sink even further than it already had. In the small glass cup that sat on the corner of his bathroom sink were two toothbrushes – a red one and a blue one. Roy picked up the red toothbrush as though it were made of glass and felt his eyes start to burn. No one would ever use this toothbrush again.

He was overcome with grief so powerful that he could barely stand. He fell blindly into the shower while still wearing his boxers and began to weep. He remembered brushing his teeth in the mornings with Ed beside him, he remembered Ed's anger when he had brought home citrus toothpaste instead of mint. He remembered all of the little things – the little things that were gone now. He wasn't sure how long he sat there on the floor of the shower holding the toothbrush desperately to his chest, but before he knew it Hawkeye was knocking on the door to tell him that he needed to hurry up. He finished his shower and placed the toothbrush in the lowest drawer under the sink. He had no use for it anymore. No one did. No one ever would again.

The funeral was long and painful. Ed was buried in a plot next to his mother in upstate New York where he grew up. Roy numbly accepted the tear-filled hugs of people he had never met as they told him that they were sorry that Roy had to go through the pain of losing a lover. But Ed was more than that. Ed was Roy's best friend - the only person in the world who knew him. They were planning to spend their lives together and now…well, now it was all over. What was the point of going on with life?

Al gave a beautiful speech and Roy held Winry as she sobbed. Ed's father even showed up – a man who Roy had only met once before. Roy smiled to himself at the thought of how angry Ed would be if he knew that his father had turned up at his funeral.

"Who does that bastard think he is?" He'd say. Roy could almost hear him.

After the funeral, everyone went to Winry's grandmother's house to reminisce about good times and cry about all of the things that Ed would never get to do. Roy coped with this by drinking heavily the entire time. Plans were made to spend the night, and one by one everyone fell asleep – leaving the terrible day behind them. For everyone else, the world would keep on turning. Even for Al, who was taking this just as hard as Roy, had something to live for. But not Roy. He had nothing. He couldn't sleep, and in his drunken state he decided to go for a walk. The cemetery was in walking distance from the shop where Winry's grandmother lived, and before he knew it, Roy was standing over Ed's grave gripping a bottle of Jameson tightly.

"Ed…Ed I'm so fuckin' sorry…" He let his tears blind his vision. "I fucked everything up. I'm such a fuckin' bastard." Roy could barely talk straight. He stumbled around drunkenly, talking to no one.

"But you can't hear me anyway. There's no point is there? Why am I even here?" He took another swig of liquor, "Why am I the one who got left behind? Why wasn't I killed? Is this some kind of sick punishment?" He was shouting now. Shouting at the sky.

"DO YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY? HUH GOD? IS THIS SOME KIND OF FUCKIN' JOKE?" He threw down the bottle angrily and fell to his knees. "GIVE HIM BACK YOU BASTARD! GIVE HIM BACK TO ME! HAVEN'T YOU TAKEN ENOUGH FROM THOSE BROTHERS!?"

Roy's head was spinning, and he felt himself struggling to stay conscious.

"JUST GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE. PLEASE. PLEASE JUST…" he grabbed his hair and pulled it in anger, "JUST LET ME HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE TO FIX IT! YOU CAN'T TAKE HIM. YOU CAN'T."

Roy's vision was fading to black, and he felt himself fall over. Suddenly, he was falling. Falling fast. Falling into darkness.

"Do not forget: humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return."