Disclaimer: as stated before, the storyline is mine, and I will never own, nor have I ever owned FMA or Bones in my life

Ed's POV

I was woken up as shivers laced up and down my body, pulling the blanket Temperance had left for me closer I tried to warm up. I had felt cold from the moment I had woken up locked in that room, the chills only worsening as the days went on.

A yawn interrupted my thoughts as I pushed myself standing, walking over to pull the shades up and hopefully bring some light into the almost black room. An automail hand closed around the cord, pulling it down and letting light spill into the room.

The effect was almost instantaneous.

I stumbled back, my eyes narrowed, and then closed against the bright light that was coming in through the window. I managed to slowly inch my way back to the couch, collapsing onto it in a tired heap. I could attribute the fatigue and lack of hunger to traveling through the gate, and on top of that how I was injured. But the sudden inability to look at light, that was something new.

I pressed my hands over my eyes, letting out a strained laugh. "I'm just falling into pieces over here… aren't I?" I muttered to myself, trying to ignore how scratchy and strained my voice was getting, just adding to the list of symptoms that had decided to pile up.

I tried to stand up again, narrowing my eyes against the light pouring in from the window. I made it a few steps before running into what I had to assume was a small table and toppling onto the wooden floor.

Temperance POV

I had been woken a few times during the night, each time I had no idea what had woken me. It wasn't until the last one that just before I managed to fall asleep, I heard it. It was an awful wracking cough that echoed through my apartment, but it died down just as soon as it had shown up. I didn't give it another thought, as sleep had already dragged me under by then.

I was awoken for the final time by a large crash, quickly followed by something heavy colliding with the floor. Shooting out of bed, I ran to my bedroom door and wrenched it open, to be greeted by the golden haired teen half splayed on the floor and trying to push himself up off it.

My mind just couldn't wrap around what could be wrong. He seemed so healthy and fine yesterday and it didn't seem reasonable that he was suffering from blood loss with no symptoms of it showing in any of the time before now.

Apartment POV

Ed managed to push himself up into a sitting position, glancing through narrowed eyes toward the door he had heard open earlier. Luckily, it was still dark enough in that direction that he managed to look nonchalant enough by the time he noticed Temperance looking worriedly down at him.

"Ed… are you all right?" She said leaning down, offering one hand to help him the rest of the way off of the floor.

Ed gratefully accepted but did his best to hide the knowledge that he would have most likely stayed on the floor for a good part of the day without her help. "Yes, I'm fine… I just tripped getting up; it is pretty dark in here after all."

Brennan looked around the room worriedly, it seemed fine to her, if even too bright. "Ed… are you sure, it's brighter in here just from the sun then it was last night, and you seemed just fine getting around then."

The boy noticeably stiffened in front of her, realizing he had picked the wrong thing to say. "Ah… well… I suppose it's just me eyes this morning… still getting used to being awake I suppose." He hastily spouted the lie, praying she wouldn't care enough to look into it, or make him look at the light.

Brennan laced her fingers around his arm, guiding him back to the couch. "Ed… can you look up at me, there might be something wrong with your ey-" She was cut off by her phone ringing on the counter and picked it up, glancing worriedly back at the teen on the couch.

Edward took this opportunity to stumble his way back to the bathroom, only to grab tightly onto the sink when he flipped the lights on. "Damn… this can't possibly end well…" He rubbed a hand over his eyes, trying to block out at least some of the light that seemed to burn them so badly.

"Barry… I swear to God If you had any part in this, I will break you into smithereens right now." He growled, picking up the piece of metal off the counter. The metal immediately replied, a bit too loudly, "You really think I would mess with you, The FullMetal Alchemist, especially after you dismantled me and currently hold me by my blood seal? What kind of stupid do you think I am?!"

Ed clapped his other hand over the blood seal, hoping to at least muffle anything else the killer tried to say, glancing toward the door to see if Temperance was about to pull the door open and catch him red handed and with a killer literally in the palm of his hand. "You idiot be quiet!" He hissed. "Do you really want her to find out about you, and then me?"

"Oh calm down kid." Came the muffled response and Ed tightened his grip on the metal. "In case you haven't noticed Barry, you're nothing more than a soul tied town to a piece of metal, and alchemy shouldn't exist in this world at all!" He pulled one hand away from the metal, running it through his disheveled golden hair. "So if either of us is found out before we finish off Envy, which even I doubt will be easy, seeing as he's already dead."

"Aww come on kid, there's gotta be some way to fix all this, heck you may run into somebody else just like me and you have to take care of them before going on your merry way, right~?" Came the chuckling response.

"Fine fine… I'm sure that it's just that… it has to be that…" Ed tucked the metal into his pocket, carefully pulling his hair back into a quick ponytail, not about to take the time to put it into this signature braid. "I had better be able to feel better before then thoug-" He was cut off, this time by Temperance shoving the door open, her clothes hastily pulled on and hair still half brushed.

"We have to go, now… sorry for the suddenness, but Booth says now. And he sure as hell means it this time..." Already she was pulling open the front door and waiting for him to follow suit.

He trotted into a quick pace behind her, narrowly managing to keep up as it was. "What exactly happened, can you at least tell me that much?"

Brennan barely looked back at him, while making an attempt to pull her hair back. "We have a new case… more important too." Ed couldn't really grasp how figuring out one killer to another could be more important, especially when one they had caught had just magically disappeared. "It's for the FBI this time… they've found an agent who's been missing." She let out a slow breath. "It isn't something we've seen before, but apparently his skull was blown apart from the inside."