IMPORTANT: Okay, A/N: I'll take a break for a while, I'll upload next one January 11. Just so you all know.
But I promise that chapter 12 is a great chapter, well worth waiting for.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of the Fullmetal Alchemist characters in any way. I only own Patricia, her father, her mother, Sean and Loraine Lewis and my plot.
Chapter eleven: Let Your Body Get the Tolerance
Stairs. Oh, how wonderful isn't that invention? Not at all, really. At least not after they invented the elevator. Nowadays, stairs are just too much.
But nevertheless, Patricia and company went up seven stairs only to get to a certain Mr. Edward Elric's hospital room.
Sometimes Patricia wondered if he was worth it.
"And here we are, girls," a dashing Lieutenant Colonel said to the both assistants.
Scieszka, the hopeless bookworm, was in an even worse condition than Patricia, and that was not easy to be.
Maes opened the door to room C-69 and stepped in, with his assistants close after him.
"Oh, hi Hughes!" Edward said with a wide grin as they came in.
Patricia's eyes widened at the sight of Edward. His head was wrapped in bandage and one of his arms lied in some sort of triangular bandage, and he had wounds and sores all over him. In a corner Alphonse sat, half his body covered with cloth. Underneath it one could see that a big piece of the armor was gone.
"What the fuck did you do?" Patricia whispered. Edward's eyebrows rose giving a surprised look to his face, and then he dropped his gaze to the floor.
"Nah, not much. A small encounter with Scar, that's all."
"A small encounter with Scar?" Patricia sat down on one of the two chairs in the room and let her hand wander up to her hairline, the hand covering the most of her face. She shook her head and mumbled something that maybe could be heard as 'boys'.
"A small encounter with Scar and it turns out like this?" She laughed, but it was a dry, cold laugh. "God, he can't be too good news around here."
A small chuckle escaped Edward's lips. "No, not really good news."
"However, now that you're here, girls, I think I have to go," Maes said with a broad smile. "I still have some paperwork to do, and I bet Gracia's home cooking for me! Goodbye, kids!"
"Goodbye, Mr. Hughes," everyone said with one mouth.
"How come you got into a 'small encounter with Scar' then?" Patricia asked when the Lieutenant Colonel had left.
"Well... that's a long story," Alphonse said from beside her.
"I have plenty of time right now," she said. "If you don't mind," she added.
The room sank into a thoughtful silence, until Edward broke it by saying: "Hey, Al! I just got reaaally hungry! Can you go and buy me a real meal at the shop, instead of that crappy food they've got at this place?"
And Alphonse, who got the hint at once, said quickly: "Of course, brother!" He started to get up from his spot at the floor, when Edward made a small, extremely discrete cough and jerked his head at Scieszka, who at the moment was facing Alphonse.
"Come here, Scieszka!" Alphonse said getting his brother's hint once again. Poor Scieszka got dragged out of the room by the giant armor before she had a chance to object.
Room C-69 went absolutely quiet again.
"Have you... remembered anything else?" Edward said after about two minutes.
Patricia smiled a bit. This happened every time they were alone. Since she practically threw her life's story at him that day at the train station, Patricia had seen him as her personal therapist. He asked her now and then about her amnesia, and she told him what she'd remembered. Easy and effective.
"Nah, nothing special. Just once, the other day when I went shopping. On the way there, I saw a tiny bakery where they baked baguettes. Well, then I saw myself and an uncle baking baguettes. Not much, really."
"You, baking baguettes?" Edward laughed a little. "You look like that kind of person that can't even boil eggs without ruining them!"
"Stop that!" Patricia laughed too. "I'm actually pretty good at cooking!"
"Hah, I believe that when I see it!"
After the laughs had ended, it was quiet again.
'God, I hate awkward silences,' Patricia thought while looking at the oh-so-interesting floor.
"So...?" she said.
"So what?" Edward asked.
"So as in 'why did you send those two out really?' I'm not stupid, you know. It wasn't just to ask what I've been up to."
"...No actually, it wasn't." Then he got quiet.
"What was it for, then?" Patricia asked when Edward didn't continue.
"I thought..."
"Yes...?
"I just..."
"Oh, God! If you're not gonna say anything I can go and get you some food, too! Just spit it out already!"
"I'm gonna tell you."
"What?" Patricia didn't believe her ears. Was he really going to tell her what was going on...?
Edward sighed and cleared his throat, before he started to tell her the entire story.
"I... When we were little, Al and I had a mom too. Her name was Trisha Elric and she was the most wonderful mother a kid can have. She was kind and nice in any way you can think of.
"Our father was gone. He'd run away not even two years after Al was born, so I don't have too many memories of him, but I still hate him, since he left Mom. I remember that she was sad almost out of her mind, but she didn't show it to us. She wanted to be strong. But, she often used to stare out in the distance, almost like she expected him to come home.
"That never happened. When I was eleven, I think, Al and I had gone over to Winry's to get some vegetables and such. When we got home, we found her lying on the floor. She didn't move, barely breathed and sweated. I was terrified. Was she dead?
"We ran back to Winry's to get help, and a doctor came and told us that she'd had this disease for a very long time not, and had hid it from us. Probably she didn't want us to worry.
"But I knew that she was going to die. I didn't want to believe it, but I know that it was true. I think she knew it too."
Edward told her his life's story. Patricia just sat and listened to him, not daring to say a word. It was so terrible. He'd gone through more than most adults, and he was sixteen years old. Not much more than a kid, in her culture.
When story time was over, Edward stubbornly kept looking at his own feet, and Patricia didn't say anything. What could she possibly say after a story like that? 'Poor you'?
Soon, Alphonse and Scieszka came back. Scieszka seemed kind of confused, since Edward and Patricia just sat there looking everywhere but at the other one.
"Oh, you're back!" Edward said blithesomely. "Now I'm hungrier than ever!"
"I think we should go home now, Scieszka," Patricia said. She turned to the boys and continued: "You know, you could come over to my place for dinner sometime. Just call first, so I know when you come."
"O-of course we will come and eat at your place!" Alphonse said.
"Okay, but we have to go now. Goodbye, boys!" Patricia smiled.
"Goodbye!" the boys said at the same time.
Patricia waved and got out of the room.
---
Song of the day: I Don't Care – Fall Out Boy
