Guess what, people? This chapter is actually a happy one! (Sort of)

Chapter twenty-three

The nurse was not impressed with Roy's antics and Ed immediately squealed as the door was opened, squeezing Roy's finger as he sluggishly curled in on himself.

"Colonel Mustang! What's the meaning of this?!" the woman in her forties exclaimed and stormed forwards. "He was restrained for a reason! Now get back in your own bed immediately and let us deal with Major Elric!"

"No." Roy's answer was firm and left no question.

"I know you've been through a lot, Colonel, but you are not a medical professional and you're putting yourself and Major Elric at risk!" she said sternly, pulling the duvet off of them and causing Ed to shriek.

"Listen, lady, you have no fucking clue what we've been through and if you strap him down to that bed again, then I swear I will get you arrested for patient abuse, you hear me?"

The nurse paused, looking at Roy. "We are doing this for his own and your safety, Colonel Mustang. Now please get out of the bed or I shall have to call the nurses's station."

"Our safety, huh? So you think that the best approach to treating a scared child who's been stuck inside a cage for twenty days and has been tortured with numerous injections is to pump him full of sedatives and strap him to a bed? I suggest you put that duvet back and leave us alone because Ed was doing a hell of a lot better before you stormed in and removed what sense of safety he had just regained!" Roy spoke quickly and murderously and glared at the woman.

"I will have to inform the doctor about this, Colonel Mustang," the woman huffed.

"Then please make sure to give him my reasonings and my kindest regards."

She looked straight at Ed's terrified eyes and her face paled. "You just watch yourself or they're going to strap you down too," she whispered, but it wasn't a threat.

It was a warning.

She draped the duvet back over them and left.

"She's gone, Ed, you're safe."

Ed whimpered a few more times and then he went quiet, even if he was still curved up into a ball.

The peace and quiet lasted for about four minutes and then the doctor stormed in with three nurses, although the one he had talked to was gone. Ed squealed again and pressed his back against Roy's chest, his hand tightening its grip around Roy's finger.

"Colonel Mustang! You get out of that bed right now or I will have to restrain you! Major Elric is a high-risk patient and I shall have to separate you if you don't do exactly as I tell you!" the doctor said loudly.

"So you're just going to continue the torture, is that it?! He's not insane! He's scared as hell because he doesn't remember how to speak or who people are and he's been tortured with injections ever since it happened! I swore to protect him whenever I could and if that means fighting you, then that's what I'll do!"

"Nurse Lydia, please go fetch security."

Roy acted instinctively, grabbing Ed and running back into the corner of the room, the two nurses and the elderly doctor obviously sceptical about restraining him as he was definitely a more skilled fighter. He put the shrieking boy down on the floor, knowing that he was going to just curl up behind him as they were backed into a corner.

"Colonel Mustang, you're only making things worse for yourself. Security will be here any second now," the doctor said sternly.

"Screw you, nobody's hurting my boy." Then Roy bit down on the inside of his right wrist, instantly resulting in a small stream of blood, and Roy got down on his knees, quickly drawing up a transmutation circle with his blood. Just as the doctor moved forwards to stop him, giving up on his angry rants, Roy activated it and with a flash of blue alchemic light, Roy had transmuted two walls around himself and Ed, making the doctor unable to get at them. Roy had made sure to leave about thirty centimetres between the walls and the ceiling, giving them plenty of light.

Roy looked back at Ed and the boy was in fact not curled up, but staring at Roy's bleeding wrist with wide eyes, even if he was shivering. "A! A! A!" he exclaimed.

Roy froze. Was Ed remembering something?

Ed slammed his hand down on the stump of his left leg as quick as he could. "A! A! A! A! A!"

Then he slowly drew an invisible circle on the floor in front of him and Roy began recognising it as the design of Al's blood seal. "AAAAL!" Ed shouted, then he clamped his hand over the stump of his arm. "Al."

"Edward? Are you remembering Alphonse?" Roy asked, stunned.

Ed just kept clutching his stump. "Al-Al-Al-Al-Al!"

Roy decided that a visual aid might help and drew up a small transmutation circle and activated it, creating a small model of Alphonse's armour and held it up to Ed. "Is this Al?"

Ed looked at it, no recognition in his eyes. Instead he just redrew the invisible blood seal on the floor and muttered "Al-Al-Al-Al-Al…" before putting his hand on the stump of his missing arm. "Al."

Then the moment was lost and Ed looked at Roy's bleeding wrist and slowly took his right index finger in his hand before placing Roy's hand on the floor between them. He then took the extra fabric of his left trouser leg and placed it on top of the wound before taking Roy's left index finger and lifted his hand to rest on top of the makeshift compress.

Then Ed clutched Roy's right index finger with his hand, shivering.

"Colonel Mustang! You come out of there right now!" the doctor shouted.

Roy felt unusually reckless and giddy with happiness over the fact that Ed had just spoken. He had remembered something that could mean that Al wouldn't have a brother who didn't know who he was. And so Roy had something warming his insides in a way they hadn't been for twenty-four days.

He was bubbling with hope.

"Don't think so, doctor!" Roy laughed. He was actually in control of the situation to some extent. He could keep these people away from Ed. He could actually protect him. "In fact, you can go screw yourself for all I care!" Roy moved so that he was leaning his back against the wall facing the doctor and what he guessed were a few security guards. He kept his right hand on the floor so that Ed could keep holding his finger. He was looking curiously at Roy's laughing face, before glancing at the wall and then he lay down so that Roy could keep his trouser leg on his wrist while Ed could also place his head on his lap. And so Ed lay there, looking at Roy curiously with his finger clutched in his hand. He seemed to relax at having this protective barrier between himself and his tormentors.

"What's going on here?" Roy heard a familiar voice say. "You okay, Boss?" Havoc called out from over by the door.

"Excuse me, Lieutenant Havoc, but we're in the middle of a situation here. You need to go outside," a nurse said.

"I'm not letting them strap Ed down to the bed, Havoc. For some reason, the bastards don't like it!" Roy told him.

Next second came the crackling of plastic and then a bag of crisps landed next to Roy, causing Ed to yelp, but then Roy laughed. "Get you, Boss, I'm gonna talk with Riza's grandpa then!"

Roy began giggling at that. "Say hello from me!"

"Sure!"

Roy felt great. His team were still just as loyal as ever, not even questioning his actions. They trusted him. And Roy had protected Ed. He had protected Ed and Ed had spoken and now they were going to share a bag of crisps until he got to talk to someone who wasn't a complete idiot.

Roy smiled down at Ed while he grabbed the bag of crisps with his left hand and used his teeth to pull it open, figuring that when they had been sharing a fucking water bowl for twenty days, it didn't really matter that he used his teeth.

And so Ed looked at the bag curiously and Roy took out a crisp, popped if into his own mouth and chewed it before holding one out in front of Ed's mouth. Ed sniffed it and then he gently stuck out his tongue and licked it. After that, he put his mouth around it and sucked it experimentally, his eyes going wide. Then he started chewing, obviously enjoying the flavour.

"Good, isn't it, Ed?" Roy smiled, giving Ed another one before popping another one in his own mouth. Roy had never before known crisps to taste this good, but this was heaven.

And it seemed that they had both just tuned out the sounds of the angry doctor, for once able to just ignore someone who was threatening them. It was great.

"I heard there was some disagreement over here about the treatment of the two State Alchemists?"

Roy froze at the sound of that voice.

There was no mistaking it.

Shit! It's the Führer!