Chapter two

Roy was sitting in the waiting room with Hawkeye, silently thanking gods he didn't believe in that Maes and Gracia were currently staying with him for their week-long visit that was mostly dedicated to celebrate Elicia's eleven-month anniversary. Roy doubted it was a thing, but Maes firmly believed it to be a big cause for celebration, and Roy did now too, but for different reasons.

Mainly that Maes and Gracia, together with Elicia in their arms, were currently taking Alphonse to all the different newborn medical examinations while Roy was waiting for Fullmetal to come out of surgery.

Another blessing with having Gracia here was that Alphonse was hungry. Alphonse was hungry and there was no way in hell that Fullmetal would be happy with having a stranger working in a hospital breastfeed his baby brother.

There was also no way in hell that Roy would be feeding that baby infant formula after all the horror stories that Maes and Gracia had told him two days ago about having to get the measurements just right or the child could die of more nutritional deficiencies than Roy wanted to think about. And there were bacterias that could do so and so and babies that weren't breastfed tended to get asthma apparently and so when Gracia said that it really was no problem, Roy just thanked her and politely looked away as she flipped down her bra for the screaming infant.

Roy let out a deep sigh and ran his hand through his hair once. Maes had brought him a clean shirt as they picked them up on the way to the hospital just to get someone who knew about newborns to look at Alphonse, so at least he hadn't had to walk into the hospital bare-chested.

He still had blood stains on his new shirt too, however, and it felt like the iron scent was practically reeking from him where he sat.

"They'll be done soon, sir," Hawkeye said to his left. "And they'll get to stay together no matter what."

Roy knew that full well as Lieutenant General Grumman had personally sworn to let the news slip to the ladies working in the cafeteria. The beauty about telling them things was that there was this unspoken rule that if they knew something, that meant that it was common knowledge as everything else was kept top secret from them.

So letting them know this first meant that most of HQ would know by now as lunchtime began an hour ago, especially as the rest of the team were busy spreading the rumours everywhere else.

"What the hell do we do with them, Hawkeye? Fullmetal's going to be discharged from the military and he's blind and has a newborn to look after. We can't send him back to Resembool because the kid may only have been in the military for ten months, and yet the last time I checked, he's already put about five hundred criminals behind bars because of his luck mixed with his gift for nearly always getting into trouble with gangs of twenty or more people on a good day! Those boys need protection and a safe and stable environment, especially seeing as how Fullmetal doesn't even have his eyes anymore!"

"That's easy, Roy," Maes suddenly said as he came strolling over to them, carrying Alphonse in his arms, the baby sound asleep, bundled up in a blanket. Gracia was following him, Elicia sitting in her pushchair, currently gnawing at the trunk of her blue plush elephant while eyeing Al with slight scepticism. "Me and Gracia have been talking, and we'd be more than happy to take them."

Roy just looked up at his friend, lost for words.

And felt a pang of fear go through his body.

"So you'll be taking them back to Central?" Roy asked, slightly discomposed.

For some reason, Maes smirked and turned to his wife. "Seems we were right, Gracia, Roy-boy here cares a bit more about the Elrics than he wants to admit."

Gracia chuckled good-naturedly. "Be nice, Maes."

Maes smiled and then sat down carefully next to Roy, keeping Alphonse close to his chest. "No, but really, Roy, we're serious about this. Those boys need a home and we know a lot about newborns and how to care for them."

Roy sighed heavily. "I know, Maes, but I don't think Fullmetal would be comfortable with moving in with a couple of strangers he's only met once and that was when he was sitting curled up on my lap in agony from having his eyes removed while panicking as well as grieving over his little brother. I don't think he'd be willing to move in with you when he's in such a vulnerable state and is already questioning who he can trust."

Also, I haven't told you the truth about how he lost his limbs and now his eyes and I don't think he wants you to wake him up as he's screaming because he's having nightmares about the night he performed human transmutation for the first time…

Because Roy had seen just what some of those nightmares did to that kid. The boy had fallen asleep on the office couch once as he waited for Roy to get back from a meeting, and Roy had walked in to find him screaming on the floor, shaking and thrashing and drenched in sweat as he cried for his brother and for "the black hands" to release him.

It had been lucky that Roy had been working overtime to catch up on his paperwork and so he had been the only one in the office at the time.

And yet for some reason unknown to man, Maes was still smiling at him. "You're not letting those boys go, are you, Roy?"

Roy sighed, not really knowing just what the hell he wanted because damn it, this was all his fault! He was responsible for the kid and look at what had happened! Roy didn't know whether the right thing to do was to hold the boys close and help them however he could or if the best thing would be to push them as far away from him as possible in order to keep himself from burning them further just like everything else he touched.

Maes just smiled at him, his eyes glinting with that smugness he got when he thought he had a great plan.

Ed woke up to a kind of dull throb of pain from his eyes. He felt weak and he had no desire to open his eyes or get out of this bed.

Wait… This isn't my bed! And it smells like a hospital, but why am I here?!

Ed opened his eyes, but found it to be impossible. He had obviously been blindfolded. He was blindfolded and he was in a strange hospital. This was really, really bad.

Ed sat up sharply, panicking even more at the realisation that his weight told him that his automail had been removed.

Which surely all added up to one thing.

"IF YOU'VE STOLEN MY ORGANS, I'LL KICK YOUR ASS!" Ed shouted and began to pull away his blindfold, only to have someone grab his left wrist and what remained of his right shoulder and pull him to their chest. Ed immediately began kicking and shouting obscenities, trying to get free from the strong grip and completely drowning out the baritone voice that belonged to his assailant.

"FULLMETAL!" the voice said sharply and Ed froze in recognition.

"Colonel? What the hell is going on here?! What are YOU doing here?! What the hell's up with the blindfold?! Where are we?! Let go off me!" Ed demanded, his panic not having faded at all. Also, the Colonel was dangerously close to something that could be considered a hug, and there was no way in hell that Ed was going to face that sort of humiliation, even if it seemed like a strong possibility that the two of them were currently victims of kidnapping organ-stealers. Why else should Colonel Bastard be in his hospital room not even dressed in his uniform?

The grip only strengthened. "Fullmetal, you need to calm down or they're going to strap you to your bed as you've already broken an orderly's rib, given a nurse a black eye and broken a Consultant's nose!"

"Then tell me what the hell is going on and why I'm still wearing a fucking blindfold!" Ed protested angrily, feeling a lump grow in his stomach and chest for some unknown reason. Ed guessed it had something to do with the strange urge he had to cry, but that was stupid and the Bastard Colonel was being stupid and Ed just needed to get this blindfold off so that he could get back to work and back to his brother.

The thought made his stomach twist for some reason and Ed found the tears even harder to fight which made him even angrier because he wasn't going to cry in front of Mustang of all people!

"Edward, you know that that isn't a blindfold," the Colonel said unusually softly. "You know why you're in this hospital, so just breathe and take it easy and stop fooling yourself."

Ed's mind had stopped working at the point when Mustang told him it wasn't a blindfold, his mind being flooded with the knowledge of what had happened.

"You really are a fool."

Ed's left eye began tingling and he could only watch as it began to appear on that thing's "face" as Ed's own vision disappeared on his left eye.

Then his right eye began tingling as well and Ed's vision began to blur and then…

Black.

Everything was black and his face was on fire and he was lying on his side, clutching his face with a yell of agony.

And then he heard it: the baby. The wailing baby that was lying somewhere in front of him.

Ed disbelievingly felt the chalk lines on the ground and knew instinctively that the baby was lying in the centre of the circle.

Ed froze, tears began forming under his bandages. "N-no… Alphonse."

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