Ed was having trouble hanging on to the real world, the flames she'd created were leisurely consuming the shed but she was no longer encouraging them to do so. Larger problems demanded her attention, like several sharp objects that were intimately acquainted with her muscle matter. On top of that Mustang was trying to talk to her but aside from the generic 'don't die' she couldn't really understand most of what he was saying. At least she was off that fucking wall.
She knew the adrenaline in her system was wearing off so the pain from twenty something stabbings was beginning to take over but damned if she could do anything about it. A coat sleeve fell across her skin and that was the last thing she noticed before it was lights out.
!-
Consciousness found her in the hospital for a few short moments. She briefly wondered how much time had passed before dismissing it as an inconsequential question. Mustang was there, thankfully, though he was with Hawkeye and they were arguing about something. Had she just heard the words 'fire alchemy'? Shit, that was her fault this time. Well, she'd deny it. It's not like she wanted to be scrutinized for that particular ability, all the male alchemists she'd run into were weirdly obsessed with "their alchemy" like they were married to their style and any desire to argue with them about it was stabbed out of her just recently. Hopefully Mustang didn't throw her under the bus. Oh good. He said he'd done it, that would save her some paperwork, though it would give him more, haha, stupid-
Ed didn't get to finish her thought because suddenly her brain lit up in pain. Her nerves had finally decided to send their updates on the broken state of her body and the sheer volume locked up her ability to do anything else. Including breathe. Ed found herself struggling for oxygen for a moment before someone in the room figured out she was awake. There was a flurry of activity around her and then sweet relief was flooding through her system. Probably another stabbing. Stupid needles.
The pain receded and she felt the power of drug assisted sleep pulling her under quickly. She was left with a close up image of Mustang's worried face, if that was his worried face anyway. She'd never seen it before.
The next time she woke up she was freezing, her body was almost convulsing with the shivering and she wondered if they'd been keeping her drugged so she'd remain unconscious. She didn't react well to anesthetic but at least this time she couldn't feel anything more than a fraction of the pain that had halted her breathing earlier. Someone was piling blankets on top of her but when she tried to open her eyes she wasn't able to drag herself out of the haze. Mustang? She could hear his voice but what the hell did he mean 'don't fight it'? She wanted to be awake dammit.
Third time's a charm, sort of. Ed woke up without drug-fuzzed thoughts, success! Though it wasn't like she actually had any choice in the matter. Unfortunately the clearer thinking came with higher pain, but at least it was what Ed would call a 'happy medium'. The pain was still agonizing, but it wasn't so bad she couldn't breathe. That was a 'FullMetal Win'.
Ed clenched her jaw against it and took a look around, testing her head's range of movement at the same time. It looked like it could be night, the lights were dim and there wasn't much activity in the hall from what she could tell.
Her movement startled Mustang out of sleep on a nearby chair. Too near? Near enough that she realised he'd been resting with his hand against her neck. What the hell was that about? She narrowed her eyes and watched as he shook sleep from himself and stood up, raising an eyebrow at her suspicious glare. But Ed didn't trust herself not to re-open any of her cuts if she started yelling. Maybe he'd explain himself without prompting.
He didn't, instead opting to check her blankets and pillow for comfort and fluff levels before placing the backs of his fingers against her neck again. Taking her pulse! The jackass. She was clearly fine and he could stay the fuck out of her business. In fact, she'd tell him exactly that. Ed took a breath, flinching slightly when it pulled the gash in her abdomen, but she didn't get to say what she wanted. Mustang's hand clamped firmly over her mouth.
"Shut up Ed. I can't take much more of this. Just shut up and stop getting into fights and stop getting kidnapped and blowing things up so i can have one damn day of peace and quiet without worrying about if you will live to see another sunrise."
He loosened his hold on her mouth but didn't completely remove his hand, sliding it partially across her chin. "Now, are you going to tell me why the fuck you didn't let that lunatic stab me instead? I'm your superior officer for a reason! I'm the one that's supposed to protect you!"
Ed had not expected him to be so upset, especially since she'd saved his life! She tried to launch into her tirade again and he re-clamped his hand over her reply.
"No Ed. No fighting. I will acknowledge that you saved my life. One hundred percent you are a hero, the hero even. But i need to know why you didn't let me do my job and keep you out of the hospital."
Since it seemed like the only way out, Ed forced herself to calm down and eventually Mustang removed his hand; but not before warning her, "I swear to fucking god Ed if i let you speak and you re-open any of your wounds i'm having them drug you into oblivion for the next month."
A moment passed between them while she glared, "First of all, General, what the fuck makes you think i wouldn't do this for anyone else? Second, YOU were kidnapped too, so don't go thinking I was the target."
Mustang seemed exasperated, "You're always the target! Also, I know you'd do that for just about anyone and it stresses me out every time you're not in my line of sight."
What the hell did that mean? "Third," she decided to just ignore his response, "I've completed my goals. Alphonse has his body back, I've got my arm. There's nothing else for me to do. It's YOUR turn to step up and do YOUR life goal thing. And fourth, you're such a baby, I took the damage because I didn't want to listen to you cry the whole time."
Ed rolled her eyes at him to punctuate her last point, even though it was only to get the conversation back onto their normal banter. She expected a quick rebuttal but the silence stretched and started to make her uneasy. Did she need to say something else to lighten the mood? Her pain-muddled thoughts weren't sticking together like they usually did. Maybe if she-
"Ed. You scare the shit out of me. Daily. And I'd chalked it up to some sort of 'older relation' type of dynamic and dismissed it. Which worked until a few days ago when we were dragged off the street in the middle of the afternoon and i found out you were a woman and would take 30 fucking stabbings for me!"
Ed almost sneered, it wasn't thirty stabbings... Shit. Was it? Maybe it was, she couldn't remember. She'd definitely got to twenty something by the time she'd finished the circle.
Mustang was starting to look like he might have a meltdown, and he took a breath and composed himself, turning his stress-venting into a sort of stress-calm. Ed liked it better when he was yelling, his cool confident facade annoyed her.
"You've been out for days and I've been here thinking the whole thing over and over. There are so many puzzle pieces missing and it annoys the shit out of me that i don't know how the hell we got into that situation. I want to know what happened on the street. How we arrived in that shed. I remember we were arguing and then it felt like someone was following us so I turned around. Next thing i know we're chained to the wall and you're yelling at me to wake up. What the fuck happened?"
Ed looked away. His calm facade had lasted until he said the word 'shit' and then he'd gotten all wound up again. She thought about what had happened and wasn't sure she wanted to tell her side of the story, it definitely wasn't going to do her any favours. Especially if he was already mad about the stabbings.
He seemed intensly desperate, "Ed. Tell me. I need to know."
She still hesitated but decided to explain it now before he started bringing witnesses in. He couldn't get too mad when she was in the hospital, right?
"Welllll, it's kind of my fault. I wasn't paying attention because you were annoying me so much and i was only focusing on going forward to get away from you. So when i realised you weren't there i turned around to see where you'd gone and found out you were on the ground and that kid or apprentice or whatever had a baseball bat."
Ed had a bad feeling about telling the rest of it, but Mustang was stone faced staring at her and it didn't look like she could get away with ending it early. She decided to look at the ceiling instead, "Soooo, when he put a gun to your head and told me to get in the van i kind of let my guard down while i was keeping an eye on you and he knocked me out."
Mustang's voice was very smooth. Almost soothing. Her stomach dropped.
"You what?"
Yup. Trouble.
"Are you telling me that they used me to get to you and you fucking let them?!"
"How was i supposed to know what would happen?" She was suddenly tired and very anxious, his stress was getting to her.
Mustang wasn't done. "So just to recap, they knocked me out, and because of that, you let a crazy person kidnap you and stab you almost 30 times? Ed I'm losing my mind here. Did you do all that to save me? I'm starting to think you might have feelings for me which is crazy because you're too young and you work for me and i didn't even know that you're a fucking woman!"
Ed's face turned red. Ok yeah, she might be an itsy bitsy bit in love with him. But there was nothing wrong with protecting the ones you loved. She'd been doing it all her life. The nerve of this asshole to tell her she wasn't allowed to do that was-WAIT! Days?! She'd been out for days!?
Her brain finally caught up with something Mustang had mentioned twice and she let herself be distracted so she didn't have to answer the question. Her brain was her most precious asset and not remembering time was a huge deal. She felt a flicker of panic.
"Did you say- Have i been unconscious for days? Plural?"
It must have shown on her face because Mustang's expression softened. "Four days, yeah." His fingers ran over her forehead and through her hair in an absent-minded way as her blush returned full force. "Your injuries are pretty severe. If you move too much in the next week or so you'll rip the gash in your abdomen back open, not to mention your arms are basically useless because of the damage to your shoulders. The doctors say that we can keep you here until the end of the week if there's no big emergencies and you should be able to walk slowly after that. But you won't be able to lift anything for a few months."
Useless. She was useless now. All the times she'd made fun of him for it and it was coming back to bite her in the ass. It felt like her spirit was close to breaking and Ed closed her eyes to hide it. She didn't want to deal with this anymore and couldn't even form a reaction to Mustang's new touchy-feely side. She defaulted to humour, "Maybe i should just cut them off and get some automail."
Her joke fell flat but she didn't feel like salvaging the situation. "Can you call Al for me? They can stay at my place and-"
"I tried already."
Tried? Ed felt tears prickling at the back of her eyes and squeezed them shut tighter, was it her emotions that were making the pain more intense or had she hit the point where whatever drugs she was on were starting to wear off? Whatever the case, her heart was not able to handle Mustang's gentle stroking of her hair or his upcoming announcement of her brother's rejection.
"Al said Winry was having complications in her pregnancy and they can't travel right now."
Ed choked on the lump in her throat. "I could go to them. You just have to put me on the train-"
"No."
She had no other family and what little self-control she had was crumbling around her at Al's rejection. Her voice broke as she tried to cajole him into it, "Com'on Mustang, I can pay you to drop me off at the station."
"I said No!"
She'd flinched away from his voice and hissed when the movement pulled at the hole in her shoulder.
Mustang was grumbling under his breath as he shamelessly readjusted her head on the pillow, "Fuck. Sorry. You are stressing me out. I told you not to move. And I'm not letting you take any mode of transportation in your condition, especially not the train that bounces around constantly. How idiotic are you? You'll end up bleeding out before you even get there."
"I, I don't have anyone else." It was a whisper and an admission of helplessness all in one.
"Ed. You're coming to my place. I've got the spare room already set up and i've hired an at-home nurse to stay for the month."
Her eyes shot open, locking on to his. She couldn't form the words she wanted but she had a vague feeling she didn't need to, the pain was causing all of her emotions to display across her face without filter. An open book he could probably read easier than any report she'd ever written. But still... his house? Mustang's house? Where he'd have to take care of her and, and, and see her naked? Though, technically he'd already seen her half naked in the shed.
"I mentioned it to Alphonse and he said that you'd be ok with it. Actually, he said you'd love it and it would make you very happy to stay with me."
It was clearly a redirect but it worked, Ed's cheeks coloured in embarrassment until she realised her brother's betrayal. That little shit sold her out. She'd kill him.
Her reaction seemed to encourage him and he continued to press her buttons, "He told me lots of things actually. I think I know everything there is to know about you Edaline."
Mustang's insufferable smirk could be seen from space, she was sure of it. She closed her eyes to try and hide her expression. Stupid confident pervert.
"But right now i can tell you're drifting off again. So we'll talk more later about why you let yourself get injured like this, why you hid your identity from me, and also why you've been calling my name in your sleep for the last 12 hours."
Maybe she hadn't closed her eyes to hide her thoughts, because now that he'd said it she found she wasn't able to open them again. Jackass. He'd probably hypnotised her, somehow. She tried to resist sleep just out of spite but he'd gone back to stroking her head and her last thought was his comment about her calling his name. Which had to be a lie, right?
!-
Ed was awake a few days later when Mustang carried her to the car. Apparently there'd been several large explosions on the other side of town and there were no ambulances available. Even worse, there was some inexplicable shortage of stretchers. Though she was pretty sure 'inexplicable' meant 'Mustang is a perverted jackass' and she glared at him when he mentioned it.
So she was stuck here, in his arms, as he carried her out of the hospital. Personally she hadn't wanted to be conscious during this for several reasons, embarrassment and pain being at the top of the list, but her injuries had their own agenda and they'd woken her up and were now keeping her up to date on every single step Mustang took. She clenched her jaw and squeezed her eyes closed in an attempt to block it all out.
"Almost there Edaline. Almost there."
And Mustang had not stopped calling her by her full name. She growled at him through her clenched jaw and he made kissy noises at her.
This was his new thing, being cute when she was angry. Extra sweet when she was irritated with him. It only served to increase her anger, which the back of her thoughts insisted was to get her to focus on something that wasn't the everlasting agony she was in. It sort of worked, which she should be grateful for, but her ability to play mental chess with him was severely hampered by her constant exhaustion, so she wasn't able to overcome her temper.
She knew her body was expending a lot of energy healing, which was great, but it meant she'd missed a lot of what was going on during the passed week and Mustang had started making decisions for her.
He hadn't even asked, she'd just woken up halfway through a conversation between Mustang and the Personnel Housing Manager about her dorm room being cleaned out and her stuff moving to his place. What the fuck was that about?! And where was she supposed to live when she got better?
When she'd started swearing at him he hadn't even hesitated, grabbing a large roll of tape and taping her mouth closed. Almost like he'd been expecting her to wake up right then. Or, fuck, that this wasn't the first conversation he'd had about something like this.
And the shithead just went back to conversing with the Personnel Housing Manager. She rolled her head back and forth trying to get the edge of tape to peel up against the pillows. Turns out you need to move your shoulders to get a good enough angle and just as she was weighing the consequences of using her shoulder for leverage Mustang returned to her bedside. And he was furious.
"I fucking warned you! I told you if you opened one of your cuts there would be consequences. So this is what you get." He was gesturing to her automail leg and she looked down. Bleeding, right above the connection. She hadn't even realised. It must have been a subconscious effort for the missing leverage.
Her gaze returned to the furious general, he was pressing the nurse's call button. "Listen Ed. You didn't give me a choice about me being healthy and you being injured. So now you don't get a choice. I will strap you to this bed if I have to to keep you from hurting yourself."
Ed's heart skipped in a way she didn't understand and she stayed still as he removed the tape, watching as he marched back across the room to sign papers from the Personnel Manager. Presumably about her housing situation. A nurse came in shortly afterward and injected something into her arm, despite her pleas and protests.
Her leg hurt with new pain, and now sufficiently chastised she felt exhausted. Or was that the drugs? Tired and useless and alone. Tears once again threatened their existence and Ed dove into sleep. Anything to avoid that humiliation.
!-
The memory blipped and Ed was confused for a moment as they arrived at the car. She had assumed she'd be put in the back seat and Mustang would drive, so when he carefully crawled in with her still in his arms it took her a moment to be able to see that Havoc was driving. Weird.
The trip was a bit bumpy but Mustang managed to soften most of the big bounces. At least in the last week her injuries had stopped causing her pain just because they existed. Now it only hurt when she moved.
*bump* or was moved.
She caught the concerned look on Mustang's face, "I'm fine." You overbearing beast.
"Ed I have bad news, the nurse i hired for you got sick and no one's able to contact her, so the agency has sent me someone i haven't personally interviewed. Since i don't know this person, i need you to not scare her off in the next few hours because i have to head out almost as soon as we arrive."
What? He was leaving her? At least that explained Havoc's presence.
He grinned at her, "Look at that face, i knew you liked me." Ed schooled her expression back under control. She was still having issues hiding her thoughts from him. "I do have to go though, so the nurse will meet us there and then Havoc and i are heading out to check on the cause of the explosions and get a good look at the crime scenes. There have been a few around the city lately and i might not be home tonight."
He seemed really concerned about it so she didn't comment and soon they arrived at Mustang's front door. Though it turned out, the nurse wasn't there yet. Mustang brought Ed upstairs to the spare room and put her in bed. Her eyes went wide, all of her stuff was here.
Mustang answered the unasked question, "Just until you're healthy again and you can get your own place. They needed the dorms for the extra troops coming in."
Extra troops? Ed started to feel nervous, what had she been missing in her sleep? Mustang was going into danger and she was useless!
"There it is again." he was grinning, "Don't worry about me. The extra troops are just for the alchemist skill-assessment and re-certification demonstration. You should be worrying about what clothes i ordered for you."
Ed was so confused, the painkillers, the pain, the exhaustion. Her brain just wasn't functioning at normal levels and she knew Mustang was taking advantage of it. "Clothes?"
An evil smile lit up his face. "Miniskirts!"
what-
He laughed at her expression and kissed her forehead. "Be good. Don't scare away the nurse. I'll be back as soon as i can."
And he was gone before she'd barely managed a wave. Not a real wave, more of a palm open and face up on the bed beside her. She'd been practising moving her hands and arms when she could, it was painful and slow, but it was there.
A minute later she heard talking downstairs, Havoc, Mustang, and a woman's voice. The nurse must have arrived. Then seconds after that the car drove off, followed by footsteps on the stairs. Time to meet her new nurse, this was going to be so awkward.
Or not awkward. No, this wasn't going to be awkward at all.
The nurse smiled from the bedroom doorway. This was going to be actual hell. Features Ed recognised from a week ago were displayed on the top of a tall lanky body. The nurse's identity was almost undeniable, right down to the matching crazy eyes. Fear slid down Ed's spine. The lunatic doctor. A relation?
The nurse came in and sat down on the side of the bed. "He was my brother. He was a bit off but he had big plans that needed the philosopher's stone, and you were supposed to give it to him. He actually told me that if i didn't hear from him by 7pm that night that he was dead, along with my son. When i drove by later that night and saw the military crawling all over the place, i knew you'd taken them both from me."
Ed didn't have any response. Her brain felt frozen, unable to move passed the fear and recognition.
"Do you know why he took you? It was because you killed his wife two years ago when a building collapsed on her. A building you transmuted the support beams out of in a fight against that nice man that was ridding the world of Alchemists."
Ed was quickly becoming terrified. This woman was just as crazy as her brother. The eyes, the happy tone to her voice as she spoke about awful things. And here Ed was, completely useless, alone. Stuck in this house with a psychotic nurse.
Her fear must have been obvious because the nurse smiled and threw back her covers, "Let's see my brother's artwork. He told me his plans and i'm hoping it turned out as beautiful as it sounded." Ed couldn't fight back but at least the fear and adrenaline were kicking in as painkillers, if she could move she might be able to avoid immediate death.
It didn't work, or rather, her body didn't work for her and crazy nurse was able to peel all the bandages off one by one, then pull out stitches and cut open the healing scabs.
She didn't wait for Ed to get any handle on the new pain she was inflicting, quickly pressing each of her thumbs into the wounds on Ed's shoulders as Ed screamed. She couldn't help it. The actual stabbings hadn't hurt this much, though that was probably because she'd been perfectly healthy last time and not fresh out of the hospital with nerves raw from a week of ointments and bandages.
"Perfect! From what they said downstairs we have the whole night together so let's enjoy it! I'm going to go make some tea and i'll be back in about twenty minutes. Does that work for you? What am i saying, of course it is. You have nowhere to go."
The nurse flicked her in the shoulder for good measure and sauntered off down the stairs. It took several moments for the pain to recede before Ed could think straight. She felt despair pulling at her heart and she fought hard against it, she had to live. She had to live and get stronger and beat the shit out of that jackass for leaving her here with this lunatic.
Ed held her breath and managed to move her arm until it fell over the edge of the bed. Then she shuffled her body closer so she could touch the floor with her dangling hand. The wound on her stomach tore open as she reached the edge and she almost screamed, maintaining silence only by clenching her jaw in agony. Fuck it hurt so much, she was going to burn this bitch just like her brother. Fuck that whole family. Her fingers brushed the floor and she suddenly realised the futility of her plan. She couldn't draw another circle in blood. There were too many obstacles, getting blood to run down her arm at this angle wouldn't work unless a cut on her actual arm opened, the shoulder was tilted the wrong way. There were no sparks here and she couldn't hope one presented itself like last time. And finally the stupid floor was carpeted and the blood wouldn't maintain a circle even if the first two issues resolved themselves.
Ed almost cried, she was dead as soon as that woman came back up here. There was literally nothing she could do, she couldn't move her arms, she couldn't do alchemy, she couldn't run. The tears escaped. She'd lost.
There were footsteps on the stairs, slow, deliberate. Had it been twenty minutes? Or worse, had she blacked out for a moment in her agony? She fucking hated missing time.
That stupid woman was singing some awful happy-time children's song. It was a terrifying prelude to the pain she knew was coming. And then there she was, back in the bedroom with Ed and smiling happily, until she saw Ed had moved. She tsk'd at her and put her tea on the bedside table. "Now now, i don't know where you thought you could go, but i didn't give you any permission to leave. Let's get you back in the middle of the bed so i can sit beside you."
Ed screamed. Over and over as the crazy nurse grabbed her gut and shoulder and hauled her back to the middle of the bed.
"Shut up."
Screamed as several cuts on her right arm were deliberately reopened when the woman twisted her wrist. Her poor weak right arm.
"Shut up!"
Maybe someone would hear her, hopefully someone would hear her. Mustang had to have neighbours. It was mid afternoon, they couldn't all be at work. Please please don't all be at work.
"Shut! Up!"
Suddenly the screaming stopped and it took her pain muddled brain a moment to figure out it was because she couldn't breathe. The crazy nurse had wrapped both hands around her neck and was slowly crushing her throat. Ed closed her eyes, she didn't want this woman's face to be the last thing she saw, not when she had perfectly good memories to go through. And really, what was she so afraid of dying for anyway, she'd accomplished her goals. Her brother was safe and healthy, she'd travelled, she'd fallen… love.
!-
Ed slowly came to. Everything hurt, everything. Her arms and legs and throat and head. She could feel the weight of a strap-like object across her chest, holding her down. Crazy nurse must have brought her somewhere, would this hell never end? At least she wouldn't make more of a mess in Mustang's house.
She gradually opened her eyes and the ceiling came into focus. Well, at least it looked like she had a normal ceiling above her, not another shed. Though a shed was probably easier to burn down. She carefully took a deep breath, testing the strength of the strap across her chest, she didn't dare otherwise move or make a noise in case anyone was in the room and noticed. Her throat burned with the effort.
Except now the strap was gone, the surface she was on jostled slightly and suddenly Mustang's face was right above her. His hand lightly on her cheek.
Ed stared at him and his unreasonably close face in confusion. Was he really here? Both of them kidnapped again? It couldn't be, he'd been across town. She'd probably finally cracked from the pain. Or maybe she was dead. But there was no way she'd made it to heaven with her track record, plus she could definitely feel pain. Hell then. But why was Mustang here? He wouldn't be in hell, at least not with her. Besides, Mustang wasn't even dead, as far as she knew. So clearly … clearly she was just crazy.
The expression on Mustang's face was changing from panic to relief and Ed decided she'd had enough of trying to figure out where she was. Forget being awake, consciousness was overrated. Sweet sweet blackness was what she needed and she let herself fall right back into it. Fuck whatever this place was with its lies and trickery.
!-
When she woke up again, there was no strap holding her down. Not that she could move anyway. She had a sneaking suspicion she'd lost more time somewhere. She got acquainted with the ceiling again and then turned toward a dim light source against the wall, expecting a night-darkened or curtained window. Instead her vision was blocked by a wide awake flame alchemist staring straight at her from six inches away, his arm bent as a pillow under his head. Probably the window was behind him.
"Wha-" Holy fucking hell talking was a bad idea. Fucking fuck how could she have forgotten she had almost been strangled to death. It occured to her that she must look like a fucking gold fish right now, frozen halfway through talking. Her eyes wide with pain and her mouth gaping open to complete the picture. Mustang flew off the bed, returning seconds later with a cool glass of water and two painkillers, she definitely hoped they were painkillers, he tilted her head forward before placing them on her tongue and sticking a straw in her mouth.
It hurt to swallow but the cool water was so soothing on her throat they cancelled each other out. At least now she knew this wasn't some weird dream. Waking up with Mustang sleeping beside her was usually reserved for inside her head.
Plus she was pretty sure she wouldn't dream about him fussing. Which was clearly what he was doing now. She felt her limbs being slowly placed and replaced as he checked bandages and inspected bruises. Last was her neck. It was disconcerting to have his face so close to hers again but at least he wasn't staring into her eyes.
She huffed at him through her nose and finally he stopped. He looked so lost. He shouldn't be lost, wasn't this his house? It smelled like him, though this wasn't the same room she was in before, this one had more personality to it. More him. Her eyes went wide, was she actually in Mustang's bed?
Finally Ed's thoughts were getting themselves back together. She'd been in the spare room, with crazy nurse, her stomach hurt, the screaming. The PAIN.
She hadn't realised she'd started shaking until Mustang stretched another blanket out on top of her. Then he pulled a second pillow over and lay down next to her again, placing his arm across her chest.
"You're in shock, focus on my voice. Does it hurt when my arm is there? It didn't seem like it and you don't have any cuts across this particular part of you so i thought it would be safe and i just, need to touch you right now."
Ed nodded after a moment when it seemed like he really needed an answer.
"Ed I'm so sorry. That wasn't the nurse i hired, the original got sick and this one had said she'd been asked to take over. I should have checked, i should have called them and confirmed."
Ed scrunched her face up to dismiss his nonsense, people like that didn't get opportunities, they made them. It wouldn't have mattered if he'd done sixteen background checks, that woman would have found her way in.
Mustang barreled ahead without reading her thoughts. Which was quite rude in Ed's opinion, since he'd done so damn much of it in the hospital. "I'm sorry it took me so long to figure it out. We left here and when I arrived on site i felt really uneasy about the whole thing, i was about to send Havoc straight back to the house to check on you because something was bothering me about that nurse. But before he could leave Hawkeye brought me a list of all the places that had been blown up. Places you'd been to in the previous two weeks. They were after you and i'd left you alone in the house with a stranger! I jumped in the car and we were halfway back before I was able to remember that I'd heard the nurse's voice before. Not her voice exactly, but the cadence was the same as that doctor lunatic from the shed."
He looked like he'd been beating himself up about this for a while and she wasn't even mad. If she could talk or move her useless arms then she could comfort him, and it really bothered her that she couldn't.
"I got back here as fast as i could and when I opened the car door i could hear you screaming."
He paused for a moment and almost choked on the next sentence, "And then you stopped screaming and I.. I haven't felt that much terror since Ishval."
He wiped the tears from her face, but didn't seem to realise the tears were for him. He was too focussed on pushing past unpleasant emotions and telling the rest of the events.
"When we got upstairs Havoc was first through the door and he tackled the nurse to the ground. I wanted to burn her. To erase her from existence, but Havoc said you wouldn't want that, you'd want proper justice."
Ed didn't think it was a good idea to tell him that she'd contemplated the same thing at this moment. Not that she could speak anyway. And it looked like he needed to try and explain himself, like he thought she needed to understand he'd done all he could, even though she'd never doubted him. Because even if he hadn't made it in time she never would have blamed him for any of it. He'd done everything he could. Even if Havoc had longer legs and was first through the door. Ed's eyes went wide at her stray thought and she struggled to keep the amusement off of her face. It'd break him if she laughed at him right now. Probably. Though maybe she'd tease him about it later.
Mustang seemed to interpret her wide eyes as a lack of memory about the events and barrelled on with his narrative. His voice was almost whispered horror and her amusement vanished, "Ed you were COVERED in blood, even your neck was smeared red and, and you weren't breathing. I had to do CPR and Havoc called emergency. I don't remember too much of the evening after that."
He took a moment to calm down again, "You didn't wake up and I wouldn't let them take you back to the hospital so I just made the doctors come here. They gave me a list of things i needed to do, but none of it is different from when you were in the hospital the first time and i've spent the last 48 hours re-living events in my own personal hell. And that's when I realised that the explosions were a decoy to draw the military away from you. Draw me away from you. And i fell for it. I'm so sorry. Ed i'm so so sorry."
Mustang was asking her forgiveness for not knowing the inner workings of every terrorists brain with a vendetta against her.
Ed rolled her eyes and huffed at him again. You couldn't control everything, though it was part of every alchemists existence to think you could. But just because you could realign the physical properties of things around you didn't mean you could control people. Idiot.
Her annoyance at him was obvious and he seemed to relax a little. The hand that was still holding her cheek from when he'd wiped her tear away earlier started to move away and she was mildly surprised to learn it had been calming both of them. "I don't think you have to worry anymore, I dug as far as I could into everything and it looks like that was the last of that family. Crazy nurse will be in prison for the rest of her life. Plus, I'm going to work from home now and you're not leaving my sight for the next two months. As soon as you can walk i'm putting a cat bell on you until you have the strength to remove it."
Ed mentally shook off her contentedness and glared at his stupid joke.
He smiled back, "Too bad Ed. i already bought the bell. Plus it'll make me feel better to know where you are, because if i wake up without you beside me again i'll probably burn the entire city to the ground."
He hadn't changed the tone of his voice, so it sounded like a joke, but Ed was getting used to his expressions up close and she'd seen his eyes go dark for that last sentence.
"Now sleep, those painkillers should help you relax so you can heal faster. I'll wake you up for dinner later. Though it won't be too exciting with your throat all damaged."
Ed nodded. If he was going to pretend this was normal then fine, she would pretend that she didn't see the bags under his eyes or the amount of stubble on his face, or that she was pretty sure he was wearing the same clothes she'd seen him in when he left her with the nurse a few days ago.
!-
Epilogue
Ed woke up late in the afternoon, surprisingly she couldn't hear Mustang existing downstairs like usual but she could hear a woman's voice. Her heart took a hit. It'd been two months since that crazy nurse had attacked her and she was just starting to get her strength back, most of her wounds had healed enough to convince Mustang to let her start training. Though just barely. Through all that Mustang had been there, she'd started to think maybe he liked her, he was still being cautiously flirty and making kissy faces at her when she was mad at him, but nothing had been mentioned out loud. The woman's voice continued downstairs and Ed started to doubt herself, she must have read too much into the situation. He just felt guilty, that's why she was here. In his bed?
Ed didn't have an answer for that so she pushed it aside. Maybe she'd go downstairs and see what was happening, not because she was jealous or anything, she was a naturally curious person after all.
She crept carefully and slowly down the hall and down the stairs, then passed the kitchen until she could see the living room. Hawkeye. With her head on Roy's shoulder. His arm around her.
Yup. Looks like she'd guessed wrong on her relationship with Roy. Ed glanced back at the stairs, time to get the hell out of here, preferably without getting caught, so she could go back to bed and feel sorry for herself in quiet.
"Ed, come here a minute."
Mother f-
Ed was so startled she jumped back, forgetting she was still incapable of jumping, or landing, and didn't have the balance that both actions required.
Her jump was more of a surprised tilt and her hip bounced off the table behind her before she fell to the floor. She looked up in time to see Mustang vault over the back of the couch.
"Are you ok? Dammit Ed why didn't you ask for help? I knew you weren't strong enough for this yet. I should have brought you down stairs when i heard you wake up"
He seemed to be mumbling to himself and since Ed was not prepared for his concern she stayed silent as he scooped her up and brought her to the couch where Hawkeye was trying her best to compose herself. She had a huge book with her that looked like a photo album. He placed her next to Riza and fussed about her injuries before sitting on a chair facing them.
She waited, expecting him to talk.
Instead it was Riza that started the conversation. "Ed. I need to tell you about Flame Alchemy."
Ed looked at Roy, accusing. "But i didn't do any-"
"Ed."
So much for his discretion. She glared at him. "Ok. I did. I can do a lot of things. But why are you telling me and not Flame Brain?"
Roy raised an eyebrow at her, she hadn't called him names since she'd moved in. He'd moved her in. But she was annoyed at being put on the spot after finding him with his ex. Even if his ex was Riza and she liked Riza.
"I'll tell you why."
And she did. For an hour. It turned out the photoalbum was only for Riza's benefit. They had removed all the evidence of her involvement with her father's work. But she'd wanted to show Ed that she had a very good reason for needing to keep Flame Alchemy out of reach of the 'bad guys', whoever they turned out to be.
Ed was horrified when she saw Riza's back. What Mustang had done to it. Without thinking she clapped and placed her hands on Riza's skin.
"Ed! NO!"
Mustang wasn't fast enough. Not that he could do anything anyway. Ed had seen Shou Tucker's work, she'd read everything he had on sewing life, moving skin, and she didn't need a trip through the gate to fix Hawkeye's back.
She could do a lot of things.
Ed opened her eyes in Mustang's bed. She could hear Mustang and a woman's voice downstairs. Riza? Or had she dreamed that? Her arms hurt. She tried to sit up and swore at the pain when she didn't have enough strength.
The talking downstairs stopped.
Crap. She didn't really want to talk to anyone, least of all Mustang before he went out on a date. She couldn't think of anything else he'd be doing with a woman downstairs. And if it really was Riza then she definitely didn't stand a chance.
But here he was anyway, with Hawkeye right behind him. She managed to throw her arm over her eyes, "Go away."
"Edaline. Are you ok?"
"I'm fine, you can leave now."
"You don't look fine."
Ed was getting annoyed. "I'm fantastic. You guys can go do whatever you wanted to do. If i didn't die before i'm not gonna die now."
She felt the silence hang for a moment before footsteps went through the door, it clicked closed. She wasn't going to be able to keep it together very long and she hoped they made it downstairs at least before she started her pity party.
"Ed."
Fucking hell-
She jolted and her arm flew off her eyes and out to the side. "What the fuck asshole? Twice in one day?"
He sat down on the edge of the bed and wiped his thumb across her cheek. "We're not together Ed. I'm not dating her, she's not dating me. We're not interested in going back to that."
She didn't feel like believing him, "I fixed her back though, didn't i?"
"You did. And i'm a little offended you think i'm so shallow."
"Well you haven't done anything to prove otherwise."
Mustang hesitated, "... fair enough. Though maybe you'll change your mind in a moment." He took a breath, "Ed, when you clapped your hands i thought you were going through the gate again. I thought that this would be it, you weren't coming back." Mustang paused, as if considering what he was going to say next, "I, my heart, i think it stopped. And then you fell over. You were hurt but you were here and breathing and i had you back. Ed, i need you! I need you to live. You can't leave me."
Oh shit. Ed's heart skipped a beat.
"I don't think i can handle it if you get hurt again. I don't know what i'd do if we were kidnapped in that situation again." He shook the thought from his mind and kissed her forehead before getting up, "I'm going to go get dinner started. Please don't go anywhere, i don't want to have to tie you down."
Ed stared, he needed her. And she needed to make him feel better. "If you don't want to tie me up then I have some bad news about the kind of sex I like."
He'd been halfway to the door and froze, turning slowly to meet her eyes, she was serious and she grinned at him.
"Ed. You are going to kill me."
!-*-*-*-*-*-
And an alternate ending. But maybe don't read this one before bed or something.
!-*-*-*-*-*-
They'd brought Ed to the hospital in record time. Mustang noticed she'd lost more blood being transported than she had in the shed and was internally freaking out about it. They arrived to find someone had called ahead and there were doctors ready to rush her into surgery, he made a note to thank his team later and followed the doctors into the operating room. They'd frowned at him but blood spattered dress blues seemed to stop any questions and he settled on a chair in the corner while they worked.
He wasn't sure what he should be thinking about. Dammit Ed. She'd found one last way to annoy him.
No! It wouldn't be the last. He couldn't think like that. She'd be fine. She'd lost two damn limbs for shit sakes. If she could survive that at such an early age she would survive this.
She had to.
Roy watched the doctors carefully as they worked, cataloguing every cut. He was not going to let her get away with pretending she was fine. Not after what she pulled. Taking all the damage, leaving him almost completely unscathed. The only injury he had was a stupid black eye. Why would she do that? It bothered him a lot because he knew his subconscious knew why, though he wasn't going to acknowledge it. Not with her so close to never telling him in person.
They were there for over two hours. Pulling out objects, stitching up the large gashes and holes, taping up the small ones and then finally wrapping Ed in gauze and disinfectant. When they wheeled her out of surgery and into the intensive care unit she looked like she might have regained some colour. As soon as the nurse left the room Mustang set himself up in a chair next to Ed's bed. Watching. He had to make absolute sure she lived, there couldn't be another option.
He didn't know how long it was before Hawkeye arrived, she'd brought some dinner on a tray and normally he'd be thankful but he couldn't think straight right now. There was no time for food. If he looked away from Ed she might stop breathing and then-
Don't think about it.
He heard Riza place the tray on a nearby table and then pull up a chair beside him, she was waiting for his inevitable questions. Some would be rhetorical, others she might have answers to. He needed a moment.
His mind ran through the events over and over, a timed loop that started with them playfully arguing on the sidewalk and ended with Ed setting a shed on fire. He made a silent vow to himself to burn down all abandoned railyard buildings then put 24-hour-a-day surveillance on FullMetal. Not that she'd allow that but if he made plans for the future then she had to live.
Finally he acknowledged his lieutenant, "Did you find anything in the shed?"
Hawkeye shook her head, "The van didn't have any information either. I'll be getting a report on the other abandoned buildings later tonight and then we'll be able to check if there were any surviving accomplices. It would have been nice if you'd left at least one of the kidnappers alive for questioning though."
Mustang continued to watch Ed's breathing, he couldn't look at Riza even if he'd wanted to, "It wasn't me."
Hawkeye leaned over to check his head injury. He shook her off in annoyance and turned to meet her confused look, repeating himself in a whisper, "It wasn't me."
She became very pale, "Roy, the focus of the flame was on the bodies and the boards around where you were held. It was alchemy! Normal fire doesn't burn like that!"
He motioned for her to keep her voice down.
She continued in a whisper, "It was your fire! What do you mean it wasn't you? My father-"
He cut her off. "I know."
"Why aren't you more upset by this? My back, the notes!"
"I know Riza, I know.."
"But!-" Riza hesitated, stopping herself off and taking strength from Roy's silence, forcing her thoughts to calm down. The realisation came quickly. "It was Ed."
The statement was without emotion and he nodded confirmation. Now she wasn't sure how to feel. Ed knew fire alchemy? Of all people Ed had the biggest heart, all her decisions were good decisions. But fire alchemy was damaging, fire itself consumed, killed, destroyed. The knowledge of how to control it was coveted by any that would use it as a weapon. Use Ed as a weapon, use Ed's heart to control her, to destroy.
Fire alchemy on the scale that Ed did regular alchemy was almost incomprehensible. The girl could probably incinerate the entire country in seconds with a good vantage point. Which was terrifying! Riza couldn't think about it. She'd done everything she could to keep Mustang safe, to get him to declare his knowledge to the military and confirm that the studies were destroyed. That there was no one else that could ever learn it. He'd willingly become a pawn in the military to further his own agenda and hopefully take over as Amestris' leader. His "full disclosure" of her father's work (the scraps he'd purposely left behind after burning the worst of it) had saved him from being targeted or singled out, and it meant that the current government were the only ones that could control him. Or try to, because he was constantly undermining their plans in small ways.
But Ed, Ed had no plans to stay in the military. As far as either of them knew, she was going to continue travelling, which would make her a target in any country she visited. An easy target. One woman travelling alone, even FullMetal, could be captured and used, and-
God help us all.
The door opened, startling Riza. Roy was too far in thought to react.
Breda invited himself into the room.
"Sirs, no extra evidence in any of the other buildings. It looks like these two worked alone. We're trying to identify them and then we'll check out the families."
"Thank you Lieutenant Breda."
"One more thing sir, I was able to get a closer look at the shed where you were held captive before the brass arrived, and i saw that you probably had to cut yourself to draw your circle in blood. Your arm or wrist probably."
Mustang stared at him carefully, then nodded.
"I thought so sir, in which case you'll need these bandages until your wrist heals." Breda tossed him a roll of gauze. "There was so much blood it washed the circle out right after you activated it. Please take care of yourself." He saluted and left.
Mustang got the message loud and clear, he'd left evidence that Ed could use fire alchemy. It must have been obvious. The shackles had been at different heights, there'd been a circle in blood where Ed had been held, his circle. Breda had just told him that they'd erased anything that could point in her direction.
He should have done it before leaving, or burned it when he'd put his gloves on. Why hadn't he drawn the circle in his blood instead of her? Because you were blindfolded. He shook his head, he still could have done it, if she'd told him where she was and what to burn like she'd said she was going to.
Suddenly Ed twitched in her sleep and Mustang was close enough to reach his arm out and rest the back of his hand on her pillow, pressing the backs of his fingers into her neck to check her pulse. She calmed immediately. And so did he. The slow steady rhythm of her heart reassuring him that his idiocy had not killed her. His mind jumped back into the loop of events, what could he have done differently? But each run through brought the same conclusion, nothing. Which normally would assure him he'd done everything right, but in this case that conclusion had to be wrong because if he'd done everything right then they wouldn't be in the hospital and Ed wouldn't be full of holes.
He barely registered Hawkeye heading home for the night, memories of her father and what Roy had had to do to her back were probably resurfacing and she likely didn't want to look at him for a while. His thoughts flicked to their past. They'd continued a relationship for a while, after he'd melted her father's work off her skin, but neither of them could shake the memories of that awful time. The screams, the burning flesh. He shuddered, it was a wonder she was even friends with him.
Ed stirred again and Roy realised his hand had fallen away, he replaced it and his touch once again calmed her. He had so many questions. Why the lies? How had she tricked him? Who was she really? Why had she saved him?
He moved his chair closer and wedged his hand under her head, holding the only part of her that wasn't injured, he could sleep like this, as long as he could feel she was alive.
!*
Ed woke up screaming in the middle of the night, scaring the life out of Roy. He'd flown out of his chair as doctors rushed into the room, injecting painkillers and checking vital signs. He hadn't known what to do and was made to hang back out of the way, guilt eating him up inside.
He really was useless.
It didn't take long for the painkillers to kick in and Ed's screaming died down fairly quickly, she remained awake for a while as the doctors took notes and updated her chart, asking her questions about how she felt. When they finally left he ended up only having a few moments alone with her.
"Thank you Roy."
This was not what he had been expecting, "You're thanking me?!" he was incredulous. But she just smiled as if to reassure him.
"You got me out of there and you're here now."
It was such a un-Ed-like comment that he thought maybe the blood loss had affected her brain. He didn't get any clarification though, because before he had a chance to take a breath she was out again.
This was so messed up. He was completely fine because of her and she was thanking him.
He slumped back into his chair as his adrenaline drained away. He needed to try and sleep. Plus he'd have to call Alphonse in the morning and there would be piles of paperwork about this. Hopefully he could move his desk into this hospital room and stay here. It was the least he could do.
!*
The phone call was short, Al wasn't there. Winry informed him that Riza had already called and Al was on the morning train. Mustang expressed his concern that Al had left her during her pregnancy but Winry assured him that Alphonse would be returning to her on the evening train, then she'd said goodbye and not given him any more information.
Why would Al only come up on a day trip when his sister was this gravely injured? Why wouldn't Winry come with him? She couldn't be so far into her pregnancy that travel was forbidden.
Ed started to wake up so Mustang shoved the thoughts to the back of his mind, he needed to stop her from any sudden movement and then call the doctors. When they arrived he kept himself within view as they administered painkillers, hoping it helped, but she passed out so quickly afterward he didn't get to talk to her.
The absence of her voice made him feel oddly empty so he decided to start organizing the rest of the room into his new work place. He'd arrange with the team to have his work brought in for him tomorrow.
Al arrived at the hospital just before noon with lunch. Mustang was startled out of his chair and his thoughts but greeted him warmly. They sat and he inhaled the meal, realising only afterward that Al looked like he was waiting to speak to him. Not for Roy to speak, which was unnerving from the usually silent Elric.
He tried anyway, "About Ed."
Al put his hand in the air, halting him. "You don't have to explain anything to me. Hawkeye already told me the situation over the phone."
"I don't-"
"I have a few things to tell you Roy and then I have a favour to ask."
"I already know she's-"
The younger Elric smirked at him as he interrupted again, "I had actually thought she'd already told you her secrets a few months ago, when she promised me she was going to." He cast a loving yet irritated look at his older sister. "But it's more than that. None of it is good actually."
Mustang's anxiety shot through the roof but he swallowed it and pushed forward, "Ok. Everything then. Don't leave anything out."
Al smiled half-heartedly at him before starting.
Without anymore preamble he told Roy everything, their start, their reasons, their training, and their first trip through the gate. He even told Mustang about the time when he had figured out Ed had fallen in love with her commanding officer and that she'd shoved all the feelings away just to save him first. He emphasised the times that Ed put herself in harms way to save other people, there'd been so many. And then what he knew of her thoughts on alchemy and what it should be used for.
And when the life story was over Al went back and described their first trip through the gate with another point of view. How when she'd been dragged in she had thought of saving their mother with alchemy, then again when she'd had to grab his soul and attach it to the armor. Both times, Alchemy was the goal. The answer. So the gate had shown her compete truth of alchemy. A complete answer.
Al described how he'd gone through the gate screaming for Ed and his thoughts had been on family, so he'd been shown the truth of people's hearts. That love held lives together and heart was what they needed to survive. All of which he'd promptly forgotten as a 5 year old.
They'd discovered later that that had saved him.
The 'saved him' part of it would have confused Mustang if he'd been given any time to process it but Alphonse barreled on, not allowing any reactions or questions.
Ed had told him once during their travels that being able to remember everything she learned at the gate had been a blessing and a curse. But she hadn't elaborated and he'd had to learn what she meant on the Promised Day when he went through the gate a second time. Because this time he had been prepared, focussed on relationships again as he transmuted his own soul to save his sister.
The issue was this, the knowledge that the Gate had given Ed was too much for a human brain to hold. Alchemy was all intelligence and no heart and required so much mental strength and space, space that humans, even a genius like Ed, just didn't have. Her own father had used philosopher's stones to stay alive for years after he should have died, used them to contain what he'd learned.
What Al had learned in the gate that second time, was that his sister would not live to see her niece's tenth birthday. That her brain would destroy itself piece by piece until she didn't exist. Truths would overlap, memories would blend, and she wouldn't notice things for what they were. Like a page being constantly overwritten until you could no longer read any of it. Because she hadn't just been through twice, she'd been through three times. The first when they'd tried to bring back their mother, and an immediate second to grab his soul so she could pin it to the armor.
Twice would have been enough to destroy anyone, but Al had been spared that fate because he hadn't immediately remembered, and because most of his memories from his trip through the gate could be stored in the heart, splitting the burden with his mind.
When he'd finally been able to talk to Ed about it she said she already knew, that she could feel the knowledge as a living thing, growing beyond what she could manage. And that she'd done it anyway because it would save his life.
Al paused in his speech, he hadn't tried to stop his tears as they streamed down his face and he took a moment to compose himself.
"Then she'd said that she needed to leave Resembool. That she wouldn't be able to live with herself if there was a possibility that she'd hurt us, or hurt our daughter." Al gave a hollow laugh, "We hadn't even know Winry was pregnant." he fidgeted with his hands in his lap for a moment before looking squarely at Roy, "She said that the team in Central would stop her from hurting people when it came to that."
Al looked like he was struggling to keep it together, "General, she didn't say 'if it came to that' she said 'when it came to that'. And then she hugged us both and left. To come here." He'd wiped his tears away but his eyes were shining with the promise of more, "Roy, I'm begging you, please watch her. If you could check on her every few days I think we could accept that. I'm sure you're the only one she trusts in Central to do what needs to be done." he took a deep breath to steady himself. "But if you're unable to or uncomfortable then i can look for someone else while I'm here. Winry said I should try Armstrong."
Mustang opened his mouth but no words formed.
Al stood up. "I don't need an answer right now. I can give you some time to think about it. I'll come back in a few hours to see what you've decided. And if you need more time then I can come back in a couple of weeks. I'll have to find her a nurse or someone to help her around after she leaves here anyway."
He walked around the hospital bed to Ed's right side. "She's allergic to one of the anesthetics. Ether, the desflurane derivative. Don't let them give that to her." He brushed a stray hair off her forehead.
Then he left.
Mustang sat in stunned silence for over an hour. A bomb had gone off. A giant Elric sized mental bomb from a family that had never done anything in half measures. If what Al said was true, Ed would not live to see much passed her 30th birthday. She wasn't going to allow herself to meet her niece in person, she wouldn't get to grow old with someone she loved, raise a family.
And the main point, Alphonse had just asked him to kill her if she lost control.
Kill Edaline Elric, the FullMetal Alchemist, Hero of the People.
He couldn't think of a single person he wanted to keep alive right now more than Ed. She had just saved his life. What cruel bullshit was this? Hadn't she suffered enough? Hadn't she paid for her sins?
Mustang's heart rebelled. He'd lost too many people already. He couldn't go through this again. He wouldn't go through this again. Fuck this whole fucking thing. He would not allow one mistake made by a 9 year old child to cause such devastation. A mistake that had already been rectified a hundred times over. He was making a new plan.
He would save her.
Now he was motivated, a plan had taken root in his thoughts and he grabbed it. Ed's life depended on him. When Al returned hours later he felt like he finally had things ironed out. Phone calls had been made, professionals had been hired. He'd put his plan into motion.
He had started by calling Winry again and asked her to label everything that was Ed's at their house and get it to the train station for shipping. He could send someone to help if she needed. He called the Personnel Manager for military housing and had them pack up all of Ed's things that were left in the dorm room and ordered them brought to his place as well. Then he had to call recruiting and HR to get Ed released from her contract. The paperwork was being brought over with a notary.
When Al showed up he seemed prepared to accept rejection, so when Mustang outlined his plan the younger Elric blinked back his emotions and hugged him. A spark returned to the blond's eyes that had been missing when he'd first showed up and Mustang knew that he was doing the right thing. There couldn't be a more perfect solution.
He would convince Edaline Elric to marry him.
It would be a fight no doubt, she wouldn't want to burden him with her problems, to stunt his ability to find a wife that could live the rest of his life with him and have children. But if his career went the way he wanted it to, he wouldn't have time for children anyway. He'd just have to assure her of that.
Al didn't think he'd have as much trouble convincing her as he was anticipating and said so, "She'll say yes Mustang, it won't even be as bad as you're thinking. And if she still says no, tell her that it's 1915 and her only surviving male relative has given her away in exchange for lunch and a hospital bill."
Mustang almost couldn't contain his grin at Al's joke and he raised an eyebrow, "Alphonse, you are welcome to tell your sister anything you want, but if you're going to tell her that then i'll need a three day head start and i'm going to tell her it was your idea."
Al just laughed.
!*
The next two weeks flew by and though Ed was spending more and more time awake each day she didn't seem to be able to fight the pain long enough to find out what was happening.
Her cognitive abilities were hampered by the pain but that didn't mean she was going to accept the situation easily. Mustang knew she'd have some colourful words for him when she woke up in his house instead of the hospital. After two weeks her largest cuts had finally scabbed over and stopped seeping and there was no sign of infection, so on the day she was to be moved he purposely kept her conscious before travel time so that she'd be too tired to stay awake during transportation.
Halfway through planning for her to move in with him he was surprised to discover that he wanted her to love him. He needed it because it might just save them both. She calmed his heart even while she was clinging to life in the hospital, and he knew that he did the same for her, he just needed to get her to admit it.
And marry him.
!*
It was 21:00 before she finally woke up and he was seated next to her bed and ready for the argument. He watched her take in her new surroundings, helped her up for some painkillers, now in pill form, and water.
"Are we at your house?"
"Yes."
She hesitated, her eyes narrowing in suspicion, "Did you speak with Al?"
That was unexpected. "Yes."
"I see. Whatever he's paying you-"
Mustang suddenly laughed out loud, her reaction wasn't anywhere near what he'd been expecting, "He's not paying me. I happily offered my house as an option and he said that that would be something you'd like."
Her eyes went wide. "He said what?"
Mustang was so excited that she wasn't fighting him he almost gave her a reason to start one, "You're mine now Ed." and he kissed her forehead before almost skipping out of the room. "I'll make you some dinner. You like stew?"
He heard a confused agreement as he headed down the hallway to the kitchen. This was going to be way easier than he'd first thought and he recalculated the wedding date in his head.
It took two months for Ed to heal almost completely and start trying to lift more than a book or a plate of food. Mustang had started going into the office a few weeks before that. The nurse he'd hired to take care of Ed would stay at the house for another month to help with heavy lifting.
He'd originally hired the nurse for the sake of Ed's own dignity. He'd jokingly suggested he'd be the one to help her use the toilet and shower and laughed when she called him a pervert. She couldn't throw anything at him and he'd already called the nurse agency.
Five months after that Ed had a lot of her physical strength back as well as a contracting job for a building repair company. She seemed mostly herself, happier, whole. Mustang thought things were going smooth enough to pop the question. Judging by the ensuing fallout he might have misjudged the situation. Ed lost her mind. She berated his choices, told him that he'd find better, reminded him he wanted kids, then broke down. None of what she said was a rejection he noted, but he sat on the floor with her as she told her side of what Al had already explained to him. That she was a danger to herself and others, she couldn't have kids, have a family, that she was a burden and needed to be locked up. And last, that she didn't have long to live. And then she told him the rest that Al hadn't said. The depths of her knowledge. That she could transmute solid objects, fire, water, souls, blood, chimeras, humans. Anything she'd seen anyone else do. That she was an atomic bomb worth of alchemical knowledge.
It scared the shit out of Mustang, not for himself, but for her. He hid his reaction and just smiled and kissed her ear, "and even after all that I. still. want. you."
The rest of her argument was just a repeat of what she'd already said and Mustang buried it under a barrage of kisses, increasing in frequency and intensity until they were in his bed. He happily noted after the fact that it was going to be their bed and mentioned it.
She smacked his shoulder again and he noticed she was still troubled and trying to fake a happy response. He grabbed her and dragged her back under him. "Edaline. I am in love with you. You are in love with me. Who better to protect you from your own brain? If you ever even reach that point."
She had to concede the point, Mustang had always trusted her to do what she needed to do, so she would have to trust him to do what he needed to do, he was strong enough. Even if he didn't believe he'd need to.
He saw the decision in her eyes, "That's a yes! I saw it! You're officially mine as of right now." and then he kissed her with his whole heart.
!*
They received a call the next day from Grandma Pinako. Winry had gone into labour. Ed cried she was so happy. Mustang casually suggested they take the train down that weekend and her reaction was an immediate 180. No. She might end up hurting them. She had to stay here.
Roy just smiled, "You've done absolutely nothing so far to indicate you're losing your mind, and even if that's not enough of an argument, I'll be there to stop you."
!*
The visit was great, Ed's mood was significantly better than Al had thought it would be. Mustang could see the relief in his eyes.
They'd worked out a system on the train ride down. As long as Roy was physically touching her, she could do everything she wanted to do. If he wasn't there or wasn't touching her, she wouldn't approach or hold the kid or Winry because she was still healing. Al was strong enough to fight her off, Winry and a baby, not so much.
Mustang knew the precautions were extreme, but it concerned him to see Al taking all of it seriously so he decided to put more effort into following their new rules when they were out and about.
The first event was only a few weeks later, when they were back at home and having dinner. Ed just forgot what potatoes were in one second and remembered the next. Normally Roy would have brushed it off as tired forgetfulness but Ed didn't know she'd made a mistake. He wrote it down. Maybe if he logged these events he could avoid future ones or at least mitigate them.
After that he made sure to keep an arm over her shoulders when they went out together. She accepted it happily.
!*
The wedding went off without a hitch and there was over a year without any further incidents, at least as far he knew, he couldn't confirm while he wasn't at home but he was with her the other 16 hours a day and there hadn't been any stories from her work that seemed misaligned.
The next time she glitched was on the train back from another successful Resembool visit. She'd called Winry Wanda and once again carried on like nothing was wrong. This time however she noticed Mustang's face and immediately knew she'd done something. At first he wasn't going to tell her but that made her panic more, so he explained it. It helped but she was on edge for the rest of the trip.
She calmed down when they were back in their house together and no one else was around. He made her dinner and let her work it out. He could hear her in the basement with the punching bag the entire time.
They had a break for three more years before she suddenly experienced a glitch that lasted much longer than the others, though considering the circumstances he didn't consider it a progression, just stress.
She'd been out with him at a work dinner party, then he'd turned around during after-dinner cocktails and she wasn't there. She didn't usually travel too far without him unless one of the team was with her, but since this was a work party and his whole team was there with him and she wasn't, he panicked.
They'd felt the rumble and suddenly he was running. Ed had used alchemy. Something she'd been avoiding since that train ride when she'd forgotten Winry's name, because it didn't feel safe to her any more.
By the time he found her, several blocks away, there were fists sticking out of the ground all over the place and hopefully three thugs knocked out in the street. She was sitting on the ground in her party dress with blood leaking from her head.
"ED! Ed are you ok?"
She didn't respond until he placed his hand on her shoulder, the touch bringing her back to present. "I'm ok, a little bump on the head i think but I'm a bit worried about Hawkeye, i think i knocked her out. She wanted me to come see something at this store down the street. Her and her new friends."
Hawkeye had been with him and Havoc the entire time at the party.
"Then she hit me, so i hit her back. I have no idea why she'd pick a fight with me. I'm sorry Roy, can you see if she's ok?"
"Sure thing love. She's right here." He motioned Hawkeye over and told her to just agree with everything Ed said because of her head injury. He wasn't prepared yet to let the team know they might have some issues in the future. He'd have to tell them soon, but right now he had to deal with what looked like a team of professionals trying to kidnap his wife.
The glitches increased steadily after that, 4 one year, 5 the next. Mostly little things, forgetting foods and items, or forgetting where they were. But sometimes she forgot people. They didn't exist or they were someone else. She wasn't hurting anyone, but then she'd found his journal of her 'events' and she'd immediately quit her job and doubled the size of her library. If she was reading she wouldn't be near people, therefore no risk.
Which worked for a couple of months, until her 32nd birthday. Roy had come home with flowers and she'd mistaken it for his birthday. That in itself wasn't the problem. And it would have been kind of cute if it was only a mix up of dates. Unfortunately is was so much worse that Mustang forgot to hide his reaction. He stared in growing fear, her skin was pale, he could smell blood, and it took him a moment to notice that the red liquid was trailing from the kitchen to Ed. There didn't seem to be anything immediately wrong, she was smiling, which caused unease to grip his heart. She finally showed him the bowl of red berries she made. He looked down, into and then passed the bowl, at the floor where she was standing. He almost threw up.
She'd cut her own toes off.
The hospital was stressful, as hospitals are. He couldn't keep touching her so she shut her mouth and didn't move unless someone moved her. She knew something was wrong, he could tell on her face she was confused, but she wasn't going to say anything without him around. Which made him look abusive but whatever.
She never remembered she had toes after that. It was like they were permanently stricken from her mind. Something that he tried to forget as well, because she still recognised his moods. In fact, she never forgot him. A fact that was mostly comforting.
The last incident was only a month later. The big one. The one you can't come back from, not when you know you're spiraling.
He'd invited Hawkeye and Havoc over for dinner. Ed had been mostly lucid for a while now. She even looked like she was recovering, which was great. They were years passed what Al had first said to him. Mustang felt hope.
The doorbell rang and because he was in the middle of cooking Ed answered. There was a yell, a slap, the floor rumbled and then the sound of a gun hammer being drawn.
Mustang bolted around the corner knowing and fearing his nightmare had come to life. Ed's mind had finally gone.
Riza was half kneeling, leg severed and gun drawn in front of Havoc, who was unconscious on the floor with what looked like a broken back. Parts of the floor had clearly shot up and cracked his spine.
He whispered in shock, "Ed, what have you done?"
Ed went from happy to confused. "I got the humonculi." she took a closer look at his face. "Didn't i?"
"No Ed."
She looked suddenly very sad. "This is the end then."
It wasn't a question and Roy couldn't answer, his throat had closed up.
"It is. I can tell by the look on your face. I did something awful and i don't even know what it is." She approached him and he let her put her hands on his face, his friends lay injured in the doorway and he could do nothing. This was his fault. He should have answered the door, he shouldn't have invited them over.
"I can give you the power to fix this." her eyes glued to his. He could see the real Ed in there, one last time. She took off her wedding ring and placed it in his hand. "I love you Roy."
Roy was buried under the weight of what had happened and he couldn't react in time to stop her as she stepped back and clapped her hands.
"Are you ready?"
He shook his head, "No."
Ed smiled her biggest smile, "me neither."
She clapped and slammed her hands into her own chest, above her heart.
He stood frozen as she performed human transmutation a fourth time and final time, on herself. His heart shattered into a million pieces as the only woman he'd truly ever loved disintegrated in front of his eyes. Until there were only two things left in her place, a pile of ash, and a glowing red jewel.
A philosopher's stone to save their friends.