Whumptober 2020 Day 20: Toto I Have Feeling We're Not In Kansas Anymore—Lost/Field Medicine/Medieval
Word Count: 1087
Author: Katie/Ally (aquietwritingcorner/realitybreakgirl)
Rating: T
Characters: Riza Hawkeye, Edward Elric
Summary: Ed and Riza run into some trouble. Now they're lost in the woods with Riza shot in the side.
Notes: This one got away from me and I had to cut it off before it turned into some massive multi-chaptered thing. I think I need to return to this one, though!

Wounded and Lost

Edward was doing his best not to panic. He wasn't prone to panicking, or at least he thought he wasn't, but this was definitely a situation where panic seemed to be an understandable response. It was just him and Hawkeye, they were lost in the woods, their car wrecked, and she was shot in the side. They were being searched for by enemies, and Edward hadn't had the time to even begin to look at Hawkeye's wound.

Right now, they were laying in a small hollow that they had found, Hawkeye trying her best not to cry out in pain or do anything to give them away. They were uncomfortably squished together, but they needed to hide. Edward had transmuted them some cover that looked, hopefully, like the forest ground around them. They still needed to hold very still and be very quiet, though.

Edward had a close up look at Hawkeye while they were like this. Her face was pale, pinched, and she was sweating. Her eyes were closed, and she was clearly trying very hard to regulate her breathing and not let out any noise. His brow creased. He was worried. He needed to see to the wound soon or she would run the risk of bleeding out. He had done his best to make sure that the wound was, at least, not directly on the ground or the dirt. Hopefully that would help cut down on infection.

The footsteps seemed to fade, but neither of them moved yet, waiting longer to make sure that the men were further away from them. Edward didn't move, though, not until Hawkeye tapped him. He glanced back at her. Her eyes were open now, clearly in pain, but she did seem to have her sense about her. He understood what she was saying, and he very carefully pushed back their cover and looked around. He could hear the click of Hawkeye readying her gun even through her pain.

Fortunately, no one seemed to be around, although Edward wasn't sure how long that would last.

"They're gone," he said, his voice barely above a whisper.

Hawkeye nodded, and attempted to sit up, her free hand clutching at the freely bleeding wound. "We… we'll need to leave," she said. She was breathing hard, and Edward didn't like the sounds of that. "Ed… can you bandage me up?" she asked him.

He hesitated. She really shouldn't be moving in her condition, but he didn't see that they really had a choice. "Yeah. Just hang on."

She nodded, her hand on her wound and clearly grimacing now, and he quickly stripped off his coat. Red wasn't the best color to be wearing in the woods anyway. He thought for a moment, clapped his hands, and quickly turned his coat into some bandages. They were still red, but at least this would be easier to work with. And he had sterilized them as much as he possibly could, too.

Moving closer to her, he readied the bandages. "Lieutenant… I need to take a look at the wound."

She hesitated for a moment, and then painfully and very carefully pulled the bare minimum of her shirt up. He had never thought of Hawkeye as the extremely modest type, but he filed that away for later consideration. The wound was messy, but it had gone through, which meant that the bullet wasn't in there, at least.

"This is going to hurt, Lieutenant." He waited for her to acknowledge that, which was little more then a grunt, and then he got to work.

She stiffened, and she could hear her breath catching as he packed the wound as best he could, pulled her shirt back over it to help hold the packing in place, and then wrapped her middle in bandages. By the time he finished, she was swaying in place, her hand holding tight to the log they were half concealed behind, and her knuckles white.

"…Lieutenant?" he questioned.

"….we should move…" her voice was thin, but she clearly wasn't giving up.

"You should rest for a moment," Edward protested.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. She looked terrible, but there was determination in her still. "No. We need to move. We don't know when they'll be back. We need to move. I'll need your help, Edward."

Ed nodded. Right. If she thought that she could move, then he'd help her. He looked around once more, not seeing any sign of anyone, and then stood, going over to her. He helped her up, keeping her steady as she wavered on her feet.

"Where to?" he asked.

Hawkeye shook her head. "I'm not sure. They'll have someone at the car. And we don't need to go in their direction."

Ed readjusted his grip on her, and then looked around. "Alright. So, we go opposite, and hope that we can get away from them." He turned them, and they started walking.

Edward wasn't sure if the men had just given up on them, or if they were waiting for both of them to pass out, but no one caught up with them while they traveled. He tried to leave as little sign of them behind as possible. Hawkeye, it turned out, was a big help with that, knowing what would and wouldn't show tracks as easily. She also knew how to track, and could identify signs of various kinds of animals, as well as the plants around them, which she had him carefully pick some of.

He wanted to ask her just how she knew these things. He didn't know much about the lieutenant's background, and he was curious, but she was obviously having a hard-enough time just moving forward. The sun was just starting to go down when they stopped, Hawkeye obviously unable to go any further at that moment in time. They had found a small cave to stop in, and Edward eased her down to the ground, doing his best make her comfortable. She was obviously exhausted and in pain, and very quickly she slipped into sleep.

Edward hid them as best as they could for the night, setting up a few things to work as traps or alarms in case anyone came too close to their hiding place. He check on Hawkeye, worried about her, and settled in for the night. They were lost, and he was doing the best at remembering the field medicine that she had made sure he learned—but he certainly hoped that Mustang found them soon.