"I don't know what's wrong, Mustang. Why isn't he happy?"
"It appears that Fullmetal was serious."
"Of course he was serious! But…" Al trailed off, not knowing how to complete that thought.
Hawkeye slowly laid her hand on Al's shoulder. "Sometimes, people do realize that they don't actually want to die. I guess…I guess Edward is not one of those people. Yet." She paused, "He'll get there. We just have to support him and help him recover."
Al sniffed, "Okay." He raised his head defiantly. "I won't give up on him! Never!"
Hawkeye smiled sadly, "Good. Let's get back then." She led Al back into Ed's room, where a doctor was checking Ed's heartbeat.
Ed cradled his hurt arm in his lap, staring with empty eyes, and his metal arm was tied to his side. "Ed?" Al whispered, before the doctor silenced him with a gentle wave of his hand.
The doctor leaned over, trying to catch Ed's attention. "Edward? Your brother is here. With your friends." When Ed did not respond he continued, "They're here to make sure you're okay. Will you talk to them? They want to help take care of you." Ed's only movement was to pull him arm into his chest. The doctor sighed and stood up. He beckoned Al and the others to the hall. "I guess he doesn't feel like talking quite yet. He'll get there. It will take some time for him to recover. Don't worry about it, okay, son?" He patted Al's shoulder. "He'll be perfectly fine. Just you wait. Until then, he'll have to be on 24 hour watch. We've started to check everyone at the door for sharp object, or anything else that Edward could use to hurt himself. I hear that your friend Winry will be arriving later today, yes? And she's Edward's mechanic?" Al nodded. "Well, we have to ask her to properly remove Edward's automail. We can't let him transmute it again. We tried to remove it after the blade was taken off, but none of us know how it works. As you've noticed, we have it restrained, but we can't keep it like that. Send her my way when she gets here, will you? For now, I think our Edward needs a bit of rest." With one last pat, he walked away and flagged down a nurse to watch Edward.
Al stood at the station as the train pulled in. Winry practically jumped out the door before the train came to a complete stop. She ran to Al and cried into his shoulder as she grabbed him tightly. "Is he okay?" Her voice cracked.
"He's alive. But he's not talking. We…You need to take his arm off. The doctor says he could try to hurt himself again."
Winry buried her face into his shirt again, but she nodded in agreement. "Let's go," she whispered, pulling back and wiping her eyes. She grabbed Al's arm as they walked slowly back to Central Hospital.
