Bido dropped his armfuls of stuffed toys.

Upon entering Greed's room, he was met with the usual assault to his senses. The air tasted of too many candles with not enough ventilation. The smell of strong medicines and old gauzes filled his nose and his eyes adjusted to see in the dim light. There was only one thing different.

The bed was empty.

His senses left him. His vision doubled, his hearing buzzed and his mouth went dry. For a moment instinct took over and the green tinted man dropped to all fours and scurried in a quick circle, sniffing at the ground. Had she left? Was she wandering around?

...No. He severely doubted the bed bound babe had suddenly trotted from the room. Besides, the floor didn't smell of her.

So then what happened? Where was she? Where had she gone?

Was she actually gone?

Had it happened?

His knees wobbled but he resisted the urge to fall to them. She hadn't been gone long; the room still smelled like a hospital ward. He'd find Roa. Maybe the giant Ox was walking around with her again. If something had happened, if someone would've found her lifeless, someone would've told him.

Bido turned quickly, his fully grown tail whipping behind him.

He heard a sound.

Stopping in his tracks, hairs standing on end, the frantic gecko stilled himself to listen. It was a familiar sound, quiet and almost rhythmic.

Scratch. scratch.

He turned his head slowly to glance back in the room. Upon closer inspection, most of the sheets had been pulled off the opposite side of the bed. He hadn't noticed in his panic.

Something was over there, just out of sight, scraping a familiar rhythm at the floor. A toy? Maybe? Knocked on its side and moving happily in some repetitive motion.

Had his little mascot fallen off the bed and knocked it over...pulling the sheets with her? Had she been placed too close to the edge with toy on hand? Had she dropped it and reached for it? Had she rolled over? Tossed in her sleep?

Was she still on the floor?

It was extremely uncharacteristic, the way Bido froze. Usually, the gecko would spring into action at the very thought of the lavender babe facing even the slightest discomfort.

But now, as his mind raced a mile a minute, the seemingly surreal possibility of a dead child laying entangled in expensive sheets on the floor... with a malfunctioning toy laying just out of reach… Well that was not something he could muster the courage to charge into.

Infact, it had been an exact nightmare he'd had twice now.

Scratch. Scratch.

"Little one?" He spoke softly, rubbing at his tail to insure that he was indeed awake.

The scratching stopped.

"Who's there?" His voice cracked as if he hadn't used it in days. Fear tightened his vocal cords.

The tense chimera slowly crossed the room to the bed. His feet felt heavy, and his head light in anticipation. A fully grown but sensitive tail dragged miserably forgotten behind him. It was possible for him to irritate it on the dirty floor, not to mention the fact that it was Greed's room, but the thought was far from his mind.

He wasn't ready to see any of the things he'd dreamed. The things he currently stood imagining... All of the things he had been preparing himself for were still very much fresh nightmares. He wasn't ready.

God. He wasn't ready.

He'd give her back. He'd put her back where he found her if he didn't have to see this.

"I shouldn't have taken her. I should have left her somewhere safe. If you don't do this, I'll put her somewhere safe. I promise." He shut his eyes tight in prayer, rounding the bed. "I don't want to see anymore tiny bodies."

"Bido." A small raspy voice called.

/.../

It had been a little over a day since Bido had suddenly emerged from Greed's room cradling his friend in his thin arms. He'd found her on Greed's floor, scratching at the floor board that hid the sin's stash of little red stones beneath it.

The gecko hadn't spoken; just laughed with a tearful expression.

Her skin was pale and sickly, with messy hair that stuck to her sweaty face before drying in frizzed patterns. Marta had obviously abandoned her mane. Her lips and eyes lay sunken into her face and if it weren't for one small detail, her handful of guardians would've surely assumed she'd died.

She was awake. Tired eyes looked around the main hall, striking everyone they met.

"What...shes…how?"

The chimera swarmed their Green and pastel companions, not caring for the gecko's obvious defensive posture. He didn't seem to have the energy to object for long however.

Marta's eyes had widened, brimmed with tears. "How?"

"I fixed her." Greed spoke suddenly, appearing in the main doorway. It said something to the group's current state that, in a room of genetically enhanced humans, no one had heard him coming.

"You did this, boss?" Dolcetto squatted, fatigued and overwhelmed, looking from the sleepy mess of a child to the homunculus who cried savior. His voice was high and strained.

"What did you do?" Marta asked with a shaken voice, standing with hands hovering over the sleep child, too scared to even reach down and touch her.

"It doesn't matter."

"Greed!" Marta objected reflexively.

"No, Martel." Roa's deep voice emerged for the first time. He placed a large heavy hand on her slender shoulder. He looked toward his leader, and then back to the blonde in front of him. He shook his head. "It doesn't matter."

Marta looked with a furrowed brow at the ox, but her eyes drifted back to the babe, where they stayed. She was awake, and without a scratch on her. He was right. It didn't matter how Greed brought her back from the brink of death; all that mattered was that he did. "Thank you for this, Greed." She whispered, feeling herself slip downward before she'd even realized she was taking a seat.

Greed nodded slowly, only half responding to the snake. Something about his expression was only partially present, as if he too was in a state of heavy relief.

Roa let his strong hand fall as he sighed and leaned against the crate behind him. Resting his face in his hand, he cried quietly. He was the picture of stress; or maybe the picture of relief.

It was the second time the group had been emotionally battered to the point of sitting together on the floor.

Greed joined them this time.

"No more children. Ever." He declared in an exhausted tone.

There were no objections.

Life felt as if it could move forward again.