Here we are, the final chapter, and I'm sorry that it's a bit short.

I'm also sorry that I haven't posted since Sunday, but I've been busy for the last two days with doctor's appointments and similar, and haven't really been in the mood to create the ending that I wanted before now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

And thank you all so, so much for all your support! Thank you to all the readers, followers, favouriters and reviewers! You're the reason these stories happen!

Chapter Thirteen

Roy was tired. He was hungry. He was cold. He was worried about the kid who was lying on the ground next to him. He didn't know how long they had been here. It had to be a few days, right? Their pocket watches were back at the hospital as they had forgotten to remove them from their old clothes. The two of them were shivering. Roy would usually have hugged the child to him to share the precious body heat that would have been helping to keep them alive. But he couldn't do that.

The iron pole sticking three inches out of his abdomen said so.

The small amount of wood that they had available, had already been spent, and so the last embers of the campfire Roy had built had died out a few hours ago.

Roy had managed to find another torch as the one they had used had died out sometime yesterday, but he guessed that they would run out of light during the next twelve hours.

And then we're going to be left in total darkness.

When Roy had checked the kid yesterday, he'd found that the wound in his side had become infected, and so Roy had had to cauterise that one too.

He didn't want to admit it to the child next to him, but Roy was definitely living on borrowed time by now. He wasn't even sure that he was going to live to see it when the torch died out. He most certainly had internal bleeding. He had checked his abdomen as the kid had been sleeping yesterday. Judging by his sweating, while constantly shivering, Roy was afraid that he had had a fever for the last eight hours or so, which meant that the wound may have become infected as well. He was not going to be able to pull the pole out on his own, and neither was the kid. He wouldn't have the strength left either to cauterise the wound on his back. Also, pulling it out now would just cause further bleeding and kill him even sooner.

And then there was the kid's leg. There was obviously some bleeding inside it, and it was turning darker each day. Chances were that even if they got rescued, the leg would have to be chopped off.

Roy couldn't bring himself to tell the kid the news, but the chances of them surviving the next twelve hours were slim. For all Roy knew, they could both be in the early stages of Sepsis.

He couldn't just leave the kid in the dark about this, though.

He had begun calling him by his first name for about two days now. They weren't really CO and subordinate in this situation, but a grown man who was supposed to look after a child. They were both dying, he didn't care about the military now. He hadn't given up hope, but he still had to say that he wasn't as optimistic as he had been when they first woke up here.

Roy was angry. He had failed. He wasn't going to get to change this country. Alphonse Elric would be unable to get his body back and have to live without his only family. His team would probably be disbanded by the Führer. Edward Elric would have lost his life for nothing.

It was all such a damned waste!

The hours went by, and Roy kept looking at the sleeping child next to him. He was getting visibly paler. Roy was honestly wondering which one of them would die first. He couldn't decide properly. He did not want to see as the light flickered and died in those golden orbs. He felt cold just imagining it. But that was the selfish part of him talking. The other part, the largest part of him, wished that that would be the way it went, because then Ed wouldn't be left to die alone. He didn't want to let that be the last thing the child experienced.

Roy had only known the kid for a month, but he already knew that he cared about both him and his brother. If Roy had been in the fight with Banks again, he would still have made the same choice to save the kid. Otherwise he'd have been left to die all on his own.

Roy shifted himself over to the sleeping boy, leaning his head agains Roy's chest while putting an arm over the kid. "I'm not going to leave you behind," he told him.

Roy felt the sleepiness come over him soon after that, wondering slightly if any of them were ever going to wake up again.

Maybe this was best. Just going out the both of them, lying here in the peaceful clutches of sleep.

"I'm sorry, Edward. It seems I couldn't keep my promise after all. I let him kill you. I'm sorry."

Everything around Ed was white. Bright, bright white.

Am I dead?

Then he heard beeping. After a while he saw blurred shapes moving around.

After some time the shapes became recognisable as people moving about.

I'm in a hospital?

"C-Colonel?" Ed said in barely more than a whisper.

"I'm here, Fullmetal," a tired voice said to his right.

Ed slowly turned his head towards the sound. Yes. It was him. They actually survived. They were actually alive.

And so Ed fell asleep once again, smiling weakly to himself.

They had managed to save his leg. They were both going to be fine. And Banks was being court-martialled for trying to kill two of Amestris' State Alchemists, as well as Lieutenant Hawkeye when she had come to look for them. That would of course be after he was released from the hospital after a severe case of lead poisoning (Hawkeye-style). After all, she had been acting in self defence.

All in all, Roy was as happy as possible at the moment. He didn't even remember exactly how badly they had been doing when they had been brought in here three days ago. They would have to stay here for two weeks, but Roy didn't mind. They were actually alive.

When Roy had been able to tell Alphonse that his brother had briefly woken up, he had seen one of the greatest things ever to be witnessed by mankind.

Alphonse Elric had begun skipping.

The seven-feet tall suit of armour had been skipping across the hospital room in pure, childish joy.

And Hughes had caught it on camera.

Roy was going to get a copy of that and keep it in his office drawer for rainy days.

It was a month after that that Fullmetal was allowed to go back to work. And then he was only allowed to do office work. Which meant that Roy was going to assign him to help him with his paperwork. Which also meant that Roy had placed an extra desk inside his own office as there really wasn't enough space for the kid in the main office.

Besides, Roy really wanted to keep an eye on him until he was sure that he had made a full recovery.

And so, when the kid showed up in his usual red and black, the only thing that really spoke of their ordeal was the cane he was ordered to use for the next two weeks, as well as that his arm was still in a sling.

They had of course anticipated his return, and they had a large, festive banner saying "WELCOME BACK!"

Havoc had even thrown a handful of confetti and glitter at the boy, which he didn't really seem to appreciate that much, but at least he wasn't attacking the man.

They had cake and fun, which was all Roy had ordered that they'd do that day, which was one of the perks of being their boss. No, this was how it was supposed to be. Here they all were, doing what they did best, which was to look after each other.

Roy had to say he was proud of Team Mustang.

There you go! I hope you all enjoyed!

I'll be posting a new parental story soon, so if you enjoyed this, you're probably going to like that one too!

Thank you all for reading this!