Another update! Woo!

Chapter 4

The next few days were a blur as Ed did the best he could to try to stay calm about what happened at the doctor's office. It wasn't until a solid week went by that Ed finally received a phone call from Dr. Sarah Lee.

"Hello, Mr. Elric?"

"Yeah, this is me…"

"Ah, yes. Hello. This is Doctor Sarah Lee. I got the results of your tests back. I'm sorry that I didn't call sooner; I just wanted to be absolutely sure before I called. Would you be able to come to my office this afternoon? I could give you a doctor's note for work. This is urgent."

"Yeah, sure. Of course I'll be there." He wanted to ask if everything was okay, but by the sounds of "this is urgent" he knew that he already had his answer.

The walk to the clinic seemed to take forever and when he walked into the office he felt like he was going to throw up. Again. He hadn't been this nervous in a long time. What was wrong? Was he going to find out that he had cancer? Or something worse? He wondered how many more years or months or days he was going to be told that he had left. As he walked up to the front desk, he didn't have to say a word for the white haired woman to immediately call the doctor with "Mr. Edward Elric has arrived!"

He was once again led down the hallway of the clinic, but this time he was brought into a different room. This room was smaller, and the walls were lined with bookshelves and pictures. In the center of the room sat a large oak desk with two chairs in front of it. Seated at the desk was Dr. Sarah Lee. She dismissed the white haired woman (who politely closed the door behind her) and asked Ed to "please have a seat". Ed obeyed and the two of them sat together in silence.

Dr. Sarah Lee's dark eyes peered at Ed over her glasses, analyzing him, searching for some trace of something that Ed was unsure of. She exhaled softly, folded her hands together on her desk, and closed her eyes. "Mr. Elric, what I'm about to tell you makes no scientific sense. You might think that I'm crazy, and I'd probably say the same thing to you if you told me what I'm about to tell you, but I need you to promise to bear with me until I'm finished explaining. Do you understand?"

Ed stared back, surprised. "Yes, I understand. But wha—"

"And I think that we can both agree that this will be a lot easier for everyone involved if we don't lie to each other. So I'm going to need you to tell me the truth when I ask you questions, regardless of how personal the answers might be. But trust me when I say that anything that you share with me is in complete confidence and I would sooner die than share any personal information about my patients with anyone. Are we clear?"

This woman was very different from the sweet, gentle, young woman that Ed had met a few days earlier. "Yes. We're clear."

"Good. Now then." She unfolded her hands and picked up a piece of paper on her desk. "When we met a few days ago, I suspected that you might have a form of mononucleosis. Which is common in men your age and matched many of the symptoms that you described. I decided to listen to your heart, lungs, and stomach as a standard procedure, when I noticed something odd. When I put my stethoscope on your stomach, I heard a heart beat."

Ed was confused. "So? Isn't it normal to hear my heartbeat? I mean, my stomach isn't that far away from my heart…"

"Not your heartbeat. Another one. A smaller one. One that I usually hear when I listen to the stomachs of pregnant mothers."

"What are you saying?"

"I didn't believe what I was hearing so I decided to run a few tests. I ran the urine sample, and when that came up positive, I ran your blood samples and found that your blood contained HGC, a hormone that is commonly found in the blood of pregnant women."

"What you're saying doesn't make any sense. I'm a man."

"Of course I know that Mr. Elric, do I look like an idiot?" The doctor's voice was angry. She was looking at Ed with steady eyes. "When I realized that my results couldn't possibly be right, I decided to do some more research. A different kind of research." She reached into a drawer on her desk and pulled out a file that was marked "CLASSIFIED" and had the military's seal on it. She had been doing her research in the classified section of Central's military library.

"You see, the doctors in this town are granted access to certain files in the military's library. I've never had any reason to look through them. Well, until now." She opened the file to reveal a military report with a picture of a middle-aged man paper-clipped to the top. "This file contains information about a man who became pregnant. He had apparently been charged with murder after he tried to transmute his two twin daughters into one after one of them had died of illness. As you can imagine, he killed his other daughter in the process. After spending some time in jail, it was discovered that he had become pregnant from another inmate. The doctors at the time believed that when he had tried to transmute his daughters, he did something to his body. He did some sort of permanent damage that resulted in parts of his insides changing. Basically, he somehow grew a uterus." She closed the file in disgust and slammed it onto her desk. "Now, I know that alchemists claim to be scientists, but there is no science behind something like that. That's supernatural and bizarre. And the craziest part? He wasn't the only account. Another man was also found to be pregnant, but this scientist tried to bring his dead boyfriend back to life. When it failed and took his left lung, he moved on and found a new boyfriend, and they were shocked to find out that they were going to be having a baby."

Ed sat across the desk in horror. He knew why she was telling him this. And he knew that she wasn't lying. The two of them sat in extremely heavy silence for what felt like hours.

"I was young. My mother died. We just wanted to see her smile again." It had been a long time since he had said those words. It had been a long time since he had to reflect on the nightmare of his past. "It…It took my leg. That's why it's automail."

The doctor continued to stare at him. "Mr. Elric, I know that I don't have to tell you that meddling with human lives is extremely dangerous. While I was at the library, I did a bit of research on you as well. You'd be surprised how much of your life has been documented by the military."

"Well that's what happens when you sign your life away to the state. Not even your past belongs to you."

"Mr. Elric, I want to help you. I believe that you weren't trying to play God when you did what you did. And I know that getting pregnant was never on your to-do list. If you take this to the military they will do experiments on you."

She was right. Even with Bradley gone, there were still too many shady parts of the military. It would always be like that. When an entire nation runs on a science that's built on trial and error, there will never be a time when experiments on humans isn't a part of the military's dirty secrets.

"So... I'm…pregnant?" Ed barely managed to get the words out. They sounded so strange coming from his mouth. He wanted to say that it was impossible. But after all he'd seen, he knew that nothing was impossible.

The doctor nodded. "It would appear so. You're about 2 months along. You're going to need to take a leave from work for a while. I know that it's going to be hard to do because there isn't anyone you can even go to because the nation still doesn't have a new president, but-"

"There is someone." The idea was horrible to even think. Dragging Roy into this was going to be a disaster. But even without a president, Roy Mustang had managed to work his way into a very considerable position of power. Although he was still technically ranked as a "Colonel", everyone knew that the military had granted him more authority and responsibility until they had time to properly promote him. Roy would definitely be able to give Ed the time off that he needed. And since Roy was…well, the father…He deserved to know that truth.

Ed explained everything to the doctor. He explained Al. His mother. His relationship and intercourse with Roy Mustang. And he explained that telling Roy Mustang the situation could get him the time off from work that he needed. But he also explained that there was no way in hell that Roy Mustang was ever going to believe that Edward Elric was pregnant.

"Can you bring him here?" The doctor asked. "I was able to convince you pretty easily. Maybe it will be easier for him to understand if he hears it from a professional. Can you bring him by on Wednesday?"

Wednesday. Two days away. Sure. That was enough time for Ed to mend things up with Roy and convince him to go to a doctor's office with him, right? Haha, of fucking course not.

"Sure. I'll bring him by."

"Great. I'm sorry that I had to be so harsh with you. This is a lot for me to handle as well. Alchemists have done a lot of good to the world but at the same time they've also done a lot of damage. It's upsetting to watch. But we'll be in touch. Hang in there."

When Ed got back to his apartment, he knew that was only one thing that he could do. He walked over to his phone, punched in the numbers, and waited for the phone to ring.

"Hello?"

"Al…"

"Ed? Hey! What's going on! I haven't heard from you since you visited! How are you?"

Ed was so happy to hear Al's voice. "Al, I need to ask you a favor."

"Brother…is everything okay?" Al always knew when something was wrong. He knew Ed better than anyone.

"There's actually… something happened. And I need you to be here with me for a little while. Do you think you could…just for a few days…come out to Central?"

He knew the answer before Al spoke the words.

"I'll be there tonight. I'll get on the first train out of here. Should I call Mustang to drive me…?"

"No!"

"…"

"No, uh, I'll call a cab. We shouldn't bother him right now. He's got a lot going on with the whole trying to become president thing…you know…"

"Oh yeah. Okay. Well I'll see you soon brother!"

"Yeah Al. See you soon."