Okay, so studying the stats, I see that there are a lot of chapters that seem to be skipped, and those are all the ones that I post within 24 hours of the last one, meaning that they don't show up as updated on the front page. I will therefore just start giving a general warning about that, so for those that missed it, I posted a chapter yesterday.

Chapter twenty-two

"Punctured lung?!" was all Jean had to say. "Then why did you say no to the ambulance?!"

"Because it isn't anymore," Mustang said, blowing out a puff of smoke, his face bitter. "Like I said: alkahestry. All the torture, none of the hypovolemic shock. She decided to stab me in the chest just for the hell of it about two hours ago and I've still got some blood in my throat. Which means that we're not going to the hospital before we've eaten some pizza."

Jean had been peppered with unpleasant details in just a few seconds, yet his mind was still stuck on that last part. "Pizza?"

"Yes, Havoc: pizza."

"Why pizza?"

"Because I've been fed a steady diet of injections and dog food for the last twenty days and I'm not letting our first meal out of that cage be some hospital-made sludge disguised as soup. So yeah, I want pizza. And Ed's getting as much of that orange soft drink as he wants, and that's an order."

Jean hadn't even thought about that, but their boss must be starving for something good to eat.

"Then we'd better let the driver know," Breda said and slid sideways across the bench, causing Ed to yelp loudly as he came closer to his corner. When Breda came all the way up and began knocking on the wall separating them from the drivers, Ed shrieked and dragged his way out from his hiding place and stared around wildly for a second before he began dragging himself forwards until he reached Mustang and then he dragged himself under the bench under him so that he was hiding behind his legs. Then he just stared up at them with frightened eyes from where he was lying curled up with his head raised as he watched them closely.

In response, the Colonel threw the cigarette over the top of the tailgate, letting the cold ground extinguish it. He then bent down and held out his right index finger in front of the scared boy. Ed kept his eyes on Jean, but Jean didn't even move, too confused by this scene taking place. After a minute, Ed reached out his hand cautiously and grabbed the finger, holding it in a very similar fashion to a toddler.

"Hi again, Edward," Mustang said gently, none of the harsh bitterness traceable in his voice. It was just like when he had spoken to him earlier. "You're going to get something really tasty for dinner. You're going to get tasty dinners every day for the rest of your life."

Ed didn't say anything, he only kept his eyes on Jean and his bandaged fingers around Mustang's proffered one.

The bandages gave him an uneasy feeling in his stomach. If they had only been using injections for a week, then that meant that Ed's fingers and toes had been damaged before that.

Which made Jean's stomach twist because he had a nagging suspicion about what that must mean. "They pulled out his nails, didn't they?" Jean said before biting his bottom lip. He hadn't meant to say anything, he just did it without thinking.

"I did." The voice was heavy with anguish, even if it was barely audible. "Otherwise she was going to cut off his fingers. It was right before she gave him that drug that did this to him."

Jean gripped his shoulder again, his heart sinking in his chest. "Sorry, Boss … I shouldn't have asked."

"I probably would have too … Just please don't ask me about anything else right now."

Jean squeezed his shoulder. "Of course, Boss."

Roy felt drained where he lay in his hospital bed. The doctors hadn't found anything wrong with him other than the beginning stages of hypothermia.

Ed was lying in the bed next to him.

And they had fucking strapped him down.

These so-called "professionals" had decided that Ed was surely a danger to himself and those around him and so they had pumped him full of sedatives and strapped him to his bed.

Was Roy really the only one who had any brains in their heads? Ed wasn't crazy or suicidal. He was terrified and he had forgotten about everything it seemed. He wasn't going to act like a rampaging rhino when he was a mouse while everyone else were hungry cats.

And when Ed's eyes finally met his as he slowly tilted his head in his direction, looking so accusingly at him, Roy decided that regulations could go screw themselves. He went over to Ed's bed and unfastened the straps, having promised the others that they were okay for a little while as they made the necessary phone calls and fetched them a bag of crisps and some toiletries. Fact was that no matter how good it felt to see them, Roy honestly didn't know how to act around them anymore. He was their leader and their boss and he was the reason that an innocent kid from their team was unable to speak of the horrors of the last twenty-four days.

And seeing the pain in their eyes made things so much worse.

Ed was looking up at Roy in a way that told him that he had done the right thing in letting him free from his straps. The boy was still terrified, but now he was also sedated to high heaven and had no clue about what was going on with his body, making him instinctively refuse to fall asleep at the same time as the doctors were afraid of giving him anything else because of what he'd been through already. And so his eyelids were heavy and his eyes were begging for Roy to help him.

Roy could understand the doctors's approach to some extent, but Roy had spent a week with Ed in this state, carefully building up some trust and understanding.

Meaning that he was the only one who seemed not to scare Ed shitless. Ed still screamed if Roy carried him because Ed didn't want to be carried and he didn't have the words to express it. He didn't like it when he was trapped and he couldn't move like he wanted to. Ed didn't understand his surroundings and he didn't understand what people said. Not understanding didn't make him crazy.

And so Roy lay himself gently down beside Ed and held up his right index finger in front of Ed's eyes before placing it in his hand, and sure enough, Ed closed his fist around it. It was the equivalent of a hug these days. It had started with Roy offering his hand for Ed to sniff, and suddenly Ed had just gripped Roy's finger in his hand and just held onto it. And that was what Roy did whenever Ed crept back to him at night to keep warm. It was human contact that meant that Ed wouldn't be trapped by anything or anyone.

And it meant that they had each other through that hell.

He gently tugged the duvet over them and marvelled at not having to use another one of those (literally) bloody blankets.

And Roy did not want to let go of him. He guessed that Al would be bringing him back to Resembool and even if Ed would be scared, surely he'd benefit from being in the open country? But if he didn't remember Alphonse or the Rockbells, wouldn't it just make matters so much worse because Roy would be leaving him? Leaving him with a bunch of strangers?

And Roy couldn't really see himself just returning to his normal life after this while leaving Ed scared and whimpering so far away from himself. Roy needed Ed. He needed to know how he was doing because Roy was the only one who knew how it had been for these last twenty-four days. He was the only one who actually understood. And when Ed learnt to speak again or if he began regaining his memories, what then? He couldn't just leave him.

Roy didn't even know what he wanted anymore. He'd been dreaming about this for over three weeks, but now that he was here, he found that he didn't know what to do next. All he knew was that in a few hours he would have to give a report on what had happened these last few weeks. He was going to have to relive it all over again.

He'd have to recount the things they had done to Ed.

Roy felt a tear go down his cheek.

"I don't know what to do anymore, kid."