Disclaimer - I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist
Chapter Twenty-Five - Flashbacks
Hohenheim hadn't been up for very long and he decided to go and check on Nicholas before he started cooking breakfast. The boy's wound had been healing fairly well but he wasn't completely out of danger from infection so Hohenheim was still keeping a close eye on it. The man walked down the hallway and knocked on the door of the boy's room.
Hohenheim waited for an answer from the boy but he didn't receive one. He knocked on the door again, a little louder this time, but still he received no answer.
"Nicholas." Hohenheim slowly opened the door and peered into the room.
He gazed around the darkened room but there was no sign of the young boy.
"Now where did he run off to?" Hohenheim wondered aloud. The boy was still recovering from a fairly serious stab wound and shouldn't be over exerting himself.
Shaking his head, Hohenheim left the boy's room and went down the hall to his own room. He grabbed his coat and then left the room.
"I have to go and find him," Hohenheim said to himself as he pulled on his coat.
With that Hohenheim left his house. The man hadn't the slightest clue where the boy could have gone so he just walked down the sidewalk, hoping for the best. As he walked Hohenheim's mind kept wandering back to the young boy who'd been living with him for the past few weeks.
Hohenheim had been on his way back home when he heard a loud noise issuing from a dark alley.
"What the. . ."
Deciding that he should investigate the unknown noise Hohenheim walked into the alley cautiously. When his eyes adjusted to the dimmer light in the alley, he gasped.
A young boy lay in a crumpled heap in the back of the alley.
Hohenheim ran over to the young boy and knelt down beside him. Gazing down at the child he noticed two things, both of which made him gasp yet again. The first was that the boy was covered in blood, the second was his appearance.
"It can't be. . ."
Then, deciding that discovering the boy's identity could wait, Hohenheim scooped the boy up into his arms.
"Uhn," Hohenheim groaned, surprised by how difficult the boy was to lift. He was so small and yet he was surprisingly heavy.
The boy was wearing white gloves but the right one was ripped and through the hole Hohenheim saw a glint of silver. The man's eyes widened: the boy had an arm made of metal.
"How?"
At that moment the boy in his arms grimaced in pain and Hohenheim decided to put his thoughts on hold and get the boy some help. Hohenheim carried the young boy quickly back to his house, doing his best to avoid people. He had no desire to explain to people he didn't know why he was carrying a bloody child in his arms.
Once he arrived home Hohenheim quickly carried the boy into a spare bedroom and placed him on the bed. Hohenheim quickly removed the boy's black shirt and his undershirt and searched for the source of the blood. Finding nothing on the front half of the boy's body, Hohenheim carefully rolled the boy over onto his stomach.
That's when he found the vicious stab wound in the small of the boy's back.
"This is bad," Hohenheim said to himself as he surveyed the wound. "I think I may need some help with this."
So Hohenheim wrapped a temporary bandage around the boy's waist and then walked out of the room and over to the phone. He picked up the receiver and dialed.
"Hello?"
"Ian? This is Hohenheim Elric."
"What can I do for you Elric?"
"I have a young boy here who's been stabbed in the back, literally," Hohenheim explained. "I could really use your help if you can spare the time."
"Can't you just take the boy to the hospital?" the man named Ian asked.
"I'd prefer not to," Hohenheim said.
Ian picked up on the tone of his friend's voice and understood. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Thanks Ian," Hohenheim said.
Hohenheim hung up the phone and then walked back over to the bed where the young boy lay. He sat down on the edge of the bed and gazed at the boy's artificial right arm.
"Auto-mail," Hohenheim whispered. "I've seen work very similar to this, back in Resembool."
Sunlight shining through the room's solitary window caused something around the boy's neck to glimmer. Hohenheim removed the silver chain from the boy's neck and stared down at the piece of rectangular metal hanging from the chain. The piece of metal was blue with what looked like a cross between a lion and a serpent etched on the front, super imposed over a six pointed star. Hohenheim turned it around and discovered words engraved on the back.
Nicholas Edward Elric
Fullmetal Alchemist
"So I was right," Hohenheim thought to himself. "But how did he get here?"
Hohenheim's thoughts were interrupted when he heard a knock on the door. He placed his hand on the unconscious boy's shoulder as he stood up. "Help's here kiddo."
Hohenheim left the small bedroom and walked down the hall toward the front door. When he reached the door he quickly opened it and came face to face with his friend Dr. Ian McLeod.
"Welcome Ian," Hohenheim said, stepping aside so that Dr. McLeod could enter the house. "Thanks for coming."
"Don't mention it," Dr. McLeod said. "So where's the boy?"
"Come with me."
Hohenheim led Dr. McLeod down the hall to the small bedroom where the young boy lay. He opened the door and motioned for the man to enter the room ahead of him.
Dr. McLeod entered the room and walked over to the bed where the young boy lay. "I'll need hot water."
Hohenheim nodded and left the room. He returned a little while later carrying a bowl filled with hot water, which he placed on the table that was located beside the boy's bed.
Dr. McLeod removed the makeshift bandage and cleansed the wound thoroughly. Then he stitched the wound closed and covered it with a sterile gauze pad.
Once he'd taken care of the boy's wound Dr. McLeod washed his hands and then he and Hohenheim retired to the den. Hohenheim sat down in a chair beside the fireplace and Dr. McLeod sat down on a sofa that was set off to the side.
"So tell me about that young man's arm," Dr. McLeod said.
Hohenheim had known that Ian would have questions about the auto-mail so he'd had a little bit of time to plan his response. "My grandson Nicholas lost his arm in a tragic accident and I wanted him to remain as functional as possible so I designed that arm for him. It has slightly more mobility than the usual prosthetics."
"I see," Dr. McLeod said, his voice filled with awe. "You should patent that invention and sell it."
Hohenheim shook his head. "Maybe at some point, but right now it still has some problems that I would like to work out. So I'd appreciate it greatly if you didn't mention this to anyone."
"My lips are sealed."
"Thanks," Hohenheim said.
During this period of reflection Hohenheim had wandered some distance from his house and he soon found himself at the alley where he'd first found Nick. And to his great surprise he found the boy standing in front of that very same alley.
Hohenheim quickly walked over to the boy. "Nicholas, what in the world are you doing here? You shouldn't be up."
Nick turned to face the man, a strange look on his face. "You sounded just like my dad just then. That was creepy."
Ignoring that comment Hohenheim placed a hand on the boy's shoulder. "What are you doing here?"
Nick gazed sadly at the alley. "I was looking for a way home."
"How did you know to come here?" Hohenheim wanted to know.
"I don't know exactly," Nick said, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Well come on," Hohenheim said. "You won't find the Gate here so we may as well go home. Besides, it's dangerous to be wandering the streets in these troubled times."
"Okay Gramps, have it your way," Nick said.
"Gramps?"
Nick smirked and started walking in the direction of Hohenheim's house.
Hohenheim shook his head and followed the boy.
When the two reached Hohenheim's house the older man noticed what appeared to be a wet spot on the back of the boy's gray vest.
"Nick," Hohenheim said as he closed the door. "Take off your vest."
"Huh?' Nick said, confused.
"Your vest, take it off," Hohenheim repeated.
Nick shrugged and unbuttoned his vest. He pulled the vest off and tossed it onto the back of a nearby chair.
"Damn," Hohenheim muttered.
"What?" Nick wanted to know.
"You've pulled your stitches loose," Hohenheim said. "Take off your shirt."
Nick unbuttoned his white shirt and pulled it off. Then he looked at the back of the shirt and saw the large blood stain. "Great."
Hohenheim pulled a chair out and pointed at it. "Sit down and I'll clean you up."
Nick obediently sat down and Hohenheim cleaned the blood from the wound and examined it.
"Well it looks like the wound has healed enough that you don't need new stitches," Hohenheim said. "So I'll just re-bandage the wound."
"Okay," Nick said.
Hohenheim gathered together some first aid supplies and then went to work. He cleaned the wound and then placed a sterile gauze pad over it, taping it in place with a few strips of white tape.
"There," Hohenheim said. "You're all patched up. Now the next order of business would be clean clothes."
Thinking back to the bloodstained shirt and vest, which Hohenheim had given him, Nick bowed his head. "I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about the clothes Nick," Hohenheim said. "It's not that big of a deal. I'll go out and buy you some more clothes later this morning. Until then I'll lend you one of my shirts. It will be way to big for you but it will work for the time being."
And with that Hohenheim walked back to his room. He went over to his chest of drawers, opened the top drawer and pulled out a white button up shirt. Then he walked back to the living room and handed the shirt to Nick. "Here you go kiddo."
"Thanks," Nick said pulling on the shirt, which was about five sizes too big for him and made him look as though he were wearing a dress.
Hohenheim laughed but wisely chose not to comment.
Nick glared at the older man and quickly began to stuff the shirt down into his pants, so at least he wouldn't look like he was wearing a dress. Nick was grateful that the man managed to refrain from laughing at him over the incident but he was still mortified and the red glow of his face was proof of that fact.
"Why is it always me?" he thought to himself.
A/N - hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review and tell me what you thought. The Musician