All is Fair in Love and War
Part Two
The grenade had not hit them, luckily, but had exploded in the air causing the hole to cave in and blocking the entrance out. Edward had been spared by inches from the weight of the crumbling debris. The place was dark, all light having been cut off. Any and all exits were now blocked off from the debris that had fallen.
Hawkeye groaned and opened her eyes, only to shut them again when a headache assaulted her. She waited and let it pass before opening her eyes once more. She looked around only to see darkness.
"Edward, are you there?" She called out in the dark.
She heard a moan of pain.
"Edward, where are you? I can't see you."
Another moan came, so she slowly followed it slowly crawling along the ground. Her hand felt something soft, so she touched it and discovered it was Edward's hand. She followed it up to his arm and then face. She felt his face to find any wounds and found the blood pooling around his head. She found the gash in the back of his head. She examined it with her hand; it had stopped bleeding awhile before.
"Hey, are you there?" Hawkeye whispered.
No answer was given back.
Hawkeye moved her hands down his body to find more wounds and found the object on his legs.
"O great, just great."
She positioned herself and placed both hands on either side of the rock and tried to push off of him, but only received a loud groan of pain from Edward. She got an idea in her head and got on the right side of him. She put her hands underneath the right side of the object pulling up and applying pressure to the left side, knowing that that was where Edward's auto mail leg was located.
She continued huffing and puffing, pulling it upward and pushing it on its side, and sitting back down to rest her bruised and tired body.
After regaining a fraction of her strength, she checked Edward's wounded leg, and found it to be broken. The concrete slab had landed on it cutting into the leg and busting the bone in two.
"We got ourselves into a mess didn't we?" Hawkeye said talking to herself.
She sighed and took of her jacket wrapping it around the broken leg as tight as she could get it. She hoped it would stop the bleeding at least until help could arrive, she didn't know even would come, seeing as they didn't know they were down here.
She sat next to Edwards head and put her hand on his forehead, feeling the temperature. He wasn't very warm but still wasn't cold. She knew she would have to wake him up or he could die.
A small smile came to her face when she remembered when he first came to the military; he had been so short that everyone joked about it. He had yelled and threw a lot of fits but that was to be expected from the little guy.
Now he had grown up, his face had become older, more experienced, and wiser. He had also grown up in height and now he was as tall as her so they could see eye to eye. He was still very handsome, with the same long hair, but it was in a pony-tail instead of a braid. He also had a toned body with perfect muscles that fit his form.
Hawkeye shook her head to clear her mind and set about doing the task before her.
She started with just whispering his name in his ear, but that had no effect. So she started to shake him gently, trying not to damage him anymore than he already was.
"Edward, wake up," She said slapping his face gently, "Come you have to wake up."
A moan came from his mouth.
"That's it, come on, wake up."
"Hawkeye?" Edward whispered.
"Yes I'm here, you have to stay awake."
"My head hurts."
"You cut it when we fell down here."
"Are you hurt Riza?"
The use of him using her first name surprised her, but she recovered and answered.
"Yes, some bruises but I'll be okay, it's you I'm worried about."
"I'm sure I'll be okay."
"Good to know, just stay awake okay?"
"Yeah sure no problem, that'll be a piece of cake." Edward said with bitterness in his voice.
"Can we get out or are we blocked in?"
"I can't see the sky so I think we are blocked in."
"If I could get some strength I could use alchemy, let me just rest and then I'll do just that." Edward said, his voice going to a whisper and fading and then there was silence.
"Edward? Are you still awake?"
"Edward! Open your eyes, you need to stay awake."
"I need to go to sleep Riza, just let me." Edward said voice once again fading.
Hawkeye slapped his face, hoping that she hadn't done any damage to him.
"Wake up! That's an order Fullmetal."
"I thought I was higher than you?" Edward asked.
"I'll order you around all I like."
"That's sounds nice." He whispered.
"Don't fall asleep Ed." She said in a gentler tone.
"Was that an order Lieutenant?"
"Yes it was, so you have to obey it."
"Yes ma'am." He looked at her, opened his eyes a crack and smiled up at her, hoping that she saw that.
"So . . ."
"What?"
"If I asked you out to dinner, would you turn me down?" Edward asked.
A smile came to her face.
"Where do you have in mind?"
"I don't know, somewhere romantic I guess."
"I didn't take you for the type Ed."
"You're a very gentle person on the inside, even though you put on the tough façade, I can see right though it. So I would have to presume you would like to go somewhere quite, soft music, good food and dancing. I've never danced before, if you don't know how to we can teach each other, how does that sound?"
"Sounds like a plan."
"So that's a yes then?"
"If we get out of this, both of us, then yes I will let you take me to dinner . . ."
"As my girlfriend or just as officers of the military, State Alchemist and Lieutenant?"
She could feel his eyes on her.
"How about as friends?"
There was silence for a full minute.
"That's good too. Maybe later you'll think about going farther."
"Yes maybe later." She didn't want him ever to know that she was actually blushing at what he had just asked of her.
Do I like him? She thought to herself. Please, I can't like him he's still just a child, no he's not he's 17 almost 18 and that's a full grown adult, yeah but I'm 23, grandma years compared to him. And besides I still have Roy, o come on Riza, you know Roy won't ever want to settle down and have a family. She sighed aloud.
"Is there something wrong?"
Hawkeye jumped, his voice startling her.
"No I was just thinking that's all, why do you ask?"
"You were quite all of a sudden."
"No need to worry, I'm good as can be expected, how are you doing?"
"My leg and head are throbbing and I'm still very tired, but other than that I'm peachy."
"Okay, just don't go to sleep." She said her voice was filled with concern.
"Do you like the Bastard?" Edward asked.
"The who?"
"Colonel Mustang. Bastard can be our nickname for him."
Hawkeye laughed, "That's a good name for him, but anyway, I guess I still like him even though he's a pompous jerk. I don't think he will ever like me though, he likes woman that are sluts, or ones that bow to his every will."
"Don't you do that?"
"Only in the job, other than that, I've given up on it; I'm no ones lap dog."
"I don't think you're a lapdog."
"That's good to know."
"And even if you were a lapdog you would look good as one, meaning of course that you're very pretty."
Once again, Hawkeye's face turned a deep shade of red.
"I think I am strong enough to get us out of here now."
Edward said and started to move his body into a sitting position.
"You shouldn't get up; you'll hurt yourself even further."
"And we will both die if I don't get out of here."
"But."
"No buts, I want to live to go on that dinner . . . date."
"And you'll die if you keep trying, don't take me wrong I want to get out of here as well, but I . . ."
"Relax Riza I'm just going to do a little bit of alchemy; it won't hurt me a bit."
"Be careful Edward."
Edward clapped his left hand to the broken auto mail on his right and placed it on some concrete, it glowed a bright blue before the wall of broken concrete returned to where it all had been previously. In the middle of the transmutation, he also created steps heading out; this made it easier to get out.
When the transmutation was complete Edward fell foreword, exhausted. Hawkeye caught him before he hit the ground and laid him on his back, readjusting his wounded leg so he would be more comfortable. He moaned in pain.
"Edward are you all right?"
"Tired."
"You can't go to sleep just yet; we're almost out of here. I don't know if I can carry you."
"Just a minute, that's all I need, a minute, then I'll be good as new."
Hawkeye looked down at him in concern.
She herself got up and went topside to see if anyone was there. She went back down and retrieved her gun from the ground where it had previously been dropped. She made sure the gun was working properly and the clip was still full.
She went up and pointed her gun in every direction that an enemy would be able to hide in. Seeing as it was clear, she stepped out in to the fading sunlight. When she heard a loud voice, she dropped low and swung her gun in the direction the sound came from.
"Lieutenant, Lieutenant."
She lowered her gun seeing that it was only Havoc running toward her, waving his arms like an idiot. He finally got to were she was standing and bent down breathing heavily.
"I . . . finally . . . found . . . you." Havoc stuttered, breathing heavily, "Everyone's been looking for hours, even Colonel Mustang was out there, well he was just giving orders but still."
"Where's the enemy?"
"We drove them back and I think they might be considering surrendering."
"Okay forget that, we have to get Edwa . . . I mean Full Metal to the hospital, he's hurt bad."
"O right, right." He went down the steps and gently picked Edward up, under Hawkeye's watchful eye.
"Be careful."
"Yes ma'am, very, very careful."
A jeep drove up next to them, and Havoc put Edward in the back and helped Hawkeye up, where she sat next to Edward, making sure he was as comfortable as possible.
The drive to the hospital was short, seeing as all traps and enemies were gone. They arrived at the hospital and Hawkeye and Edward were both admitted. Edward was taken to the Intensive Care Unit and Hawkeye was escorted else where.
Two days and two nights passed, Hawkeye was filled with worry about her wounded friend. She hadn't heard any news about him and was about ready to go find out herself.
Only problem is she did not know where he was and if the nurses or doctors caught her they would strap her down for sure, just like they threatened, trying to ease her anger telling her that she wasn't well and she needed to rest more and when news came in she would be the first to know. Of course that was the day before and no news had come in.
Everyone had come in to see her, minus Colonel Mustang of course, the guys said that he sent his regards but he had work piled to the roof so he wasn't able to come, but that was okay with Hawkeye because she didn't really want to see him anyway.
She waited on the bed for 2 more hours before the nurse came in clad in white.
"How are you doing Lieutenant?"
"If you keep asking me that, I swear that it will be you in this bed and not me."
"So your grouchy today, that's okay, I'm sure you'll cheer up when I tell you the news of your friend.
"You've got news, is he alright? Is he awake? Can I go see him?" Hawkeye questioned the nurse.
The nurse smiled at the onslaught of questions directed at her. "Yes he is alright, no, he is not awake right now, ad you can go see him as soon as he wakes up, he's very tired I hear. There was some damage to the auto mail but nothing that's not fixable, his head injury will heal nicely and his leg wound will take awhile to heal but we wrapped it up nicely so no one will even notice that he's hurt. He'll be here for another 2 days before we can let him go, just to be on the safe side, is that okay with you Lieutenant?" The nurse finished and took in a large breath of air and exhaled.
"Yes I guess that's okay."
"O by the way your being discharged in 1 hour so kindly get dressed and you can come back tomorrow morning he will most likely be awake at that time." The nurse said with a smile on her face and walked out.
Hawkeye sighed with frustration.
Two days later
Hawkeye was already at the hospital before their doors unlocked, she rushed to the Intensive Care Unit now knowing the correct path to where it was located.
She burst through the doors searching each bed. After 5 minutes of searching different rooms she found him. He was lying on his back and looking out the window. His forehead was wrapped up in white bandages and his blond hair was undone and lying loosely around his head, the blanket was wrapped around his waist so his chest was uncovered and bare.
He turned his head toward her when she came in the door and smiled at her.
"Hi." He said.
"Hello." Her heart was racing in her chest and she could feel her cheeks burning when he looked at her with his intense golden eyes.
He kept the smile on his face, "How are you feeling?" He asked.
"Me? O I'm okay, small headache but nothing I can't handle. How about you, you look a little pale." She didn't mention that he looked extremely good lying on the bed like that.
"I'll live. They will let me out of here in a couple hours but I don't think I can walk anywhere so I'll need some one to drive me around."
"I'll do it!" Hawkeye said a little too quickly.
"Are you sure? Because I can get someone else, if you're not up to it."
"No I can do it, you've done so much for me already, it's the least I can do."
"Okay."
Two hours later, Hawkeye was wheeling Edward out to the car that was parked close the building. She and the driver helped him in the back seat where she also sat next to him.
The driver put the wheelchair in the trunk, closing it and proceeding to get in the car and drive. Hawkeye gave instructions as to where to go.
"You'll have to stay with me in my apartment; yours is still being set up."
"I don't mind, it will give me some time to get to know you anyway."
"And visa versa."
They arrived at the apartment, and Edward managed to get inside with out much assistance from anyone but crutches. They both sat on the couch, while the driver put the wheelchair in the guest room.
Edward got settled down in the room. Dinner was bought, and brought to them every night. They laughed and talked a lot together, they both decided that Edward could stay until he could get better.
After 3 weeks, Edward's leg had healed sufficiently so that he did not need help from the crutches but the occasional help from a human, preferably Hawkeye.
They both went back to work at the military.
Everyone sat at there individual desks, Colonel Mustang at the head, Edward and Hawkeye were on different sides of the room. They continued to give each other looks from across the room.
When work ended the weekend had come. Hawkeye got up first cleaning up her desk, Edward following suit except with a slower pace. Everyone was talking and telling each other where they were going and then they turned and looked at Hawkeye and Edward, Havoc slung his arm around Edwards's neck punching his auto mail arm playfully.
"So . . . where are you going Full Metal?"
"Me? I am going on a train with Hawkeye and going someplace extremely nice for dinner where there are actual waitresses with skirts BELOW their knees," Edward said indicating Colonel Mustang. "I think we'll have a great time, what about you Riza?"
"Yes quite fun. Now if you'll excuse us gentlemen we have to pack." This was said at Colonel Mustang. Hawkeye turned with Edward by her side, hand in hand; making sure Colonel Mustang saw this.
After they had left, the others looked at Colonel Mustang to see the dumbfounded look on his face and they actually burst out laughing at him. He snapped out of his trance and cleared his throat.
"Get out of here!" Colonel Mustang yelled at them, not with much grace though.
He slumped back in his chair dumbfounded, while Edward and Riza were on there way home to have the time of their lives.