AN: The characters and concepts of FullMetal Alchemist belong to Hiromu Arakawa. This story revolves around the first anime of FullMetal Alchemist, not the manga. Do not flame because of that small difference, I've read the manga and seen the real anime that follows it, but the first anime is what captured my heart about FMA, so this story is tribute. Enjoy the story. The lyrics are "Swimming Home" by Evanescence, I do not own the lyrics to the song. - Carrie.
"Way down, all the way down.
I will hear your voice,
But I'll no longer understand.
I'm sorry, nothing can hold me.
I adore you still, but I hear them calling.
And nothing can hold me."
Fighting against her limbs was like swimming through molasses. Carlina struggled the best she could, twisting and turning violently against the weighted feeling on her chest. What's going on, what is she doing, a male voice cried out, distorted but familiar somehow. Her thrashing increased, panicked tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. Opening her eyes seemed impossible, the darkness clearing little by little the more she fought against the heaviness. Finally her eyes shot open, revealing bright fluorescent lighting that forced her to squeeze her eyes shut.
"She opened her eyes, oh god, she opened her eyes," the voice was less distorted now as she cautiously cracked her eyes open and turned her face toward the source. Carlton Joihanson sat in a plastic chair, shock etched across his features.
Carlina imagined her own face contorted in the same way, her older brother had grown a beard and seemed a lot more muscular since she had last seen him. She couldn't focus on his words, watching as he pulled a flat metallic device out of his pocket. He touched the glass screen with his finger before lifting it to his ear, starting to speak faster than she could listen. Carlton left toward the hall with the device still pressed to his ear, flagging down someone outside the room while continuing to speak. Her limbs still felt weighted down as she experimentally tried moving her automail arm up so she could see her hand. The shock washed over her like ice water, staring at the fully human hand in front of her.
She thought about flexing her fingers, and watched as the hand attached to her wrist followed her commands without delay. A needle stuck out of the back of this hand and she felt a little pain from it, seeing the bag hung on a stand that connected to the needle. Her right arm reached over the sheets, a weird device clamped around her index finger of that hand.
Blinking at all the machines she was unfamiliar with, Carlina touched her hands together and gasped as she felt skin rubbing against skin. Tears blurred her vision as she looked around the room, trying to find how she miraculously awoke to both hands still being attached. The room was not too large, the bed she was in jutted out from the wall, railings set up on either side. She noticed an odd feeling in her nose, pulling out a tube that had blown air through her nostrils. The color scheme of the room was beige except for the bright white ceiling. Carlina puzzled at the light fixtures above, wondering how they managed to make lightbulbs long and flat instead of round like she was familiar with. She took the device off her index finger, running her hand through her hair and watching it through her fingertips.
The amount of hair she had seemed greater than she remembered, swearing it was a couple of inches longer. She shifted on the bed and froze upon feeling something under her shirt, using her right hand to lift the collar of the strange gown out.
Stuck to her skin, below her left breast, was a white patch with a cord coming out of it. A few more patches stuck to either side of her collarbone, as well as the insides of both her wrists. She pulled lightly on the patch and winced as she found it stuck to her skin with an adhesive. Panic surged through her veins, increasing as she heard a weird beeping sound pick up pace. Looking to her left, she saw a screen with a line rising and falling rapidly. Watching the line calmed her down, causing her to tilt her head as the line's pace began to slow. Her temples throbbed from sensory overload, shutting her eyes and laying wearily against the pillows again.
Carlina's chest began to ache, causing her to cough and sit up on the bed. She covered her mouth with her hand as she coughed, curling forward into her knees. Her hand covered in small flecks of blood, her vision going hazy as she stared down at the sheets.
"Lina, are you okay," Carlton asked from the doorway, dropping the small device from earlier when he saw the blood. "Oh god, I need a nurse in here! My sister is coughing up blood," he shouted out into the hall as Carlina felt a sharp pain in her ribcage, as though someone was pushing out from inside her ribcage. Her vision doubled as she laid back against the pillows, her right hand clutching the ache in her ribs as she bit her bottom lip. Carlton dashed into the room and brushed her bangs aside from her face, wrapping his arms around her while kissing her forehead.
"You're gonna be okay Lina, everything will be fine, just don't leave us again. We just got you back," he cooed into her hair, his voice shaking. Carlina lifted her head and saw the tears streaming down his cheeks, removing her hand from her ribs to brush some of them off his cheek.
"I don't know what you're talking about, you're the ones who left me. This is probably a dream anyways, I'll wake up in Central or Risembool without you," she spoke softly, not letting any of her own tears slip out. Carlton pulled away from her in bewilderment, checking her forehead for a temperature, "Risembool? Central? What are those? You seemed fine when you woke up but maybe I shouldn't have caused such a fuss…" Carlina tilted her head and went to open her mouth, cut off as the pain returned in her ribs. She groaned and clutched her ribs, closing her eyes and slipping back into the dark.
The molasses feeling had returned again, this time the pinkette fought harder against the sinking feeling. She thought of Carlton's eyes when she had mentioned their old home town, his old headquarters, the confusion she had seen. This drove her to continue fighting, needing the answers he was about to give her before she passed out. Carlina clung to his voice and the feeling of his lips against her skin, four years she longed to see her siblings and the time had finally come. The weight on her chest had lifted, replaced by things grasping and holding down all four of her limbs. She panicked, remembering the small black creatures from inside the gate, the ones that stole her left arm.
Her eyes flew open and she immediately knew things had changed. The strange light on the ceiling was gone, replaced by faint shadows of fading daylight coming from the single window on the right wall. Carlina was breathing heavily, looking at her limbs to find the source of the weight.
Ed was standing next to the right side of her bed, his left hand laced in hers with his right pushing her down into the mattress by the shoulder. Al held her left shoulder to the bed as he stood to her left, Hughes and Havoc anchoring her knees and ankles from the foot of the bed. All four men looked disheveled and surprised. Havoc was the first to release the pressure on her leg, the other three following suit. Ed's cheeks flushed as he took his hand out of hers, Carlina ignoring the implications as her eyes burned into Jean's.
"Where's Carlton," she tried to speak firmly, her voice wavering when she said her brother's name. She took a few seconds to look around the room, beige walls with wood floors and paneling on the bottom half of the walls. The bed she was in was flimsy and much more simple than the one she had been in before, her hospital gown a light green piece of cloth tied together in the front.
Havoc looked as though she had slapped him, his eyes bugged out of his head. "What are you talking about, a week ago you told me he was dead," he spoke as though talking to a small child. Carlina bit down on her bottom lip, guilt welling up in her chest from having ripped open the fresh wound of her family's death. "He, was here. Next to me. He said I left them, that I was gone for a while. Carlton had this small glass device, metal too, and he was talking into it. He held me and kissed my forehead and told me not to leave, but I felt it," she protested, sitting up off the bed and wincing as pain blossomed in the spot just below her left breast.
"Careful, the doctor said your ribs will still take a few weeks to heal even though they set it," Al chastised, forcing her to turn and look at him. She raised her left arm to place it on his armored shoulder, freezing at the automail she saw.
Lifting the arm in front of her face, she lifted her right hand and touched it against the cold metal. She shuddered and watched as the automail responded to all her commands, dropping both her hands unto the sheets over her lap. "Ed, you made sure she didn't hit her head on the fall, right," Hughes teased, flinching at the glare the older Elric shot him from the implication. "Of course I protected her head! What do you think I am, useless? From what Winry said on the phone, she sometimes gets disoriented after this happens. I guess a vivid dream of her brother was part of it this time," he said, looking startled as tears glistened in Carlina's eyes.
"I know he was there. It was real. You can chalk this up as my imagination, but nothing you say will change the truth," she cleared her dry throat, her voice hoarse after not using it in a few days. Al passed her a glass of water and she drank heartily.
"Did your friend Winry tell you anything else useful," Hughes asked, looking at Carlina in concern. "She said this happens when Carlina pushes herself too hard. Her alchemy reacts with her automail and shocks her into a coma. Winry seemed confused until we told her about the four fractured ribs, turns out if Carlina has a serious enough injury or illness her body can't keep up fighting off the effects and dishing out powerful alchemy at the same time. As long as we make sure she rests and doesn't get too injured, she'll be fine-," "-you're done here, Ed," Havoc cut him off, causing all eyes to turn on him.
"Havoc, you can't speak for the woman, she has to make her own choices," Mustang reprimanded his subordinate as he and Riza walked into the room. "Sir, with all due respect, she should stay here with us. She lost one family and with her hallucinations of Carlton she obviously needs some structure in her life," Havoc continued, his fists clenched and shaking.
Carlina finished drinking, propping her pillows against the headboard and sitting with her back against them, looking over the scene unfolding before her, "Can everyone slow down long enough to tell me where I am? And how long it's been? Havoc said a week since I addressed the group but it only feels like a couple of days to me!" Ed sat back down in the chair by the head of her bedside, his arm laying on the mattress next to hers. "You've been out for a little under a week, Lina. Once they took you to the hospital in Central and reset your ribs, Mustang wanted to take you back to Eastern with him. Brother worried the train ride would hurt you though, and they fought, but finally they agreed and moved you. We've been in Eastern for about three days now," Al explained, Carlina nodding her head.
She looked back at her godparents, Hughes and Havoc with a confused expression. "Now that Al got that out-of-the-way, what kind of decision do I have to make?" "You have to choose whether you want to go into Military service, or travel like Fullmetal does," Riza responded, causing Carlina to grin.
"Well obviously, I choose travelling with Ed and Al! I don't know what I want to specialize in with my alchemy, going new places and seeing new things will help with that," she was enthusiastic, her face falling as she saw the stern look Ed was giving her. "No Carlina. You can't come with us, it can get dangerous and I'm sure everyone who knows you would kill us if anything happened to you-" "-a couple minutes ago you were talking about watching over me! And what about what you said when I finished my written exam, that you could use another capable hand? This is bullshit," she cut Ed off, glaring at one another with fists curled close together on the bed. "I'll make this easy for both of you, she goes with Fullmetal and Alphonse until she finds her specialty," Mustang said, smirking as Ed growled and Carlina grinned up at him.
Ed rose from his chair, looking Mustang in the eye, "I can't let you do that Colonel, you know she could get hurt! She's your god-daughter, don't you want her safe!?" "Are you implying you would fail at taking care of her, Fullmetal? It's already been decided, I signed the orders yesterday for her to go with you. I feel like this could be a learning experience for all," he taunted, smiling at his god-daughter before leaving the room with Riza and Havoc.
Hughes pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and put it in Carlina's automail hand. "The number for the house, try not to call too late or early for the sake of Elicia and Gracia. I want you to let me know if you need anything, even just an old man to talk to, I'm free when you need me," he ruffled her bangs and kissed her forehead, making her chest ache from Carlton's gestures as Maes left the room. Once the door shut behind him Ed sat, looking at the place Carlina's fractured ribs were. "Any pain? They said as long as you're here, they can give you medicine for it," he said, watching as she finished the last of the water and gave the glass to Al. He left the room with the glass, intending to find more water. "I'll be fine, how soon am I allowed to leave? After that, how soon can we leave Eastern to start on your mysterious adventure that could kill me," she teased, sticking her tongue out at Ed as he sighed.
"You can get discharged in the morning, we might be able to catch a train from here tomorrow night. If not, the day after tomorrow for sure," he said, blushing as she grabbed his human hand in hers. "Thanks for taking care of me and making sure I didn't hit my head." "Uh-sure. No problem." Ed's blush deepened, making Carlina tilt her head at him.
"What's the matter? You were holding my hand when I woke up." "That was different! You were struggling against us and we were all afraid you were going to hurt your ribs more. I thought some skin contact would maybe calm you down and I kinda forgot I was doing it by the time we all started restraining you," he protested, blinking as Carlina sighed and removed her hand from his. "Fine, I was just trying to thank you for helping me, but I guess this is a one way street. God forbid I hold your hand as a sign of gratitude or the big manly Ed will start melting into a puddle of blush," she exaggerated, her cheeks heating up as he held her hand with his again.
A couple of seconds of silence passed before Carlina blinked, looking confused, "Ed, you didn't have to hold my hand again you know, I was just teasing." "Shut up and sleep, you've been through a lot and I can tell this is helping somehow. Just don't expect it to happen again! I'm just proving I can do this without turning into the puddle of mush or whatever you called me," he retorted, looking back at her stubbornly. Carlina chuckled a little before adjusting the pillows so she could lay down normally on her right side facing the wall. Ed had his chin propped up on his automail hand, his elbow resting on the mattress next to their entwined hands. The stubborn expression on his face had softened a little, Carlina falling asleep while looking up at him.
AN: Once again, feeling horrible this took so long but at least I had the update up before Thanksgiving! I got my wisdom teeth extracted a few weeks ago and this weekend I am getting a new laptop, so hopefully most of my busy days are behind me and the other updates will be quicker! Speaking of updates, Ed is failing miserably at trying to hide his feelings, but he's still trying! Carlina however, seems like she just enjoys watching him scramble to cover everything up ;D Thanks to Ed's Curious Kitten and Hetaliacrazed98 for reviewing the last chapter, it always makes me happy to read the reviews posted! I hope you enjoy this chapter, and let me know through a message or a review! Everything is always appreciated. Speaking of the story, next update we start diving into the real FMA storyline, wonder where they will head!? Thanks so much for reading everyone, happy holidays to all celebrating within the next week! -Carrie.