"Is this really necessary?" Ed whined as Roy adjusted the bulletproof vest over his abdomen, wincing when Roy pulled it a little too tight against his broken ribs.
"Yes, Fullmetal. This is completely necessary. Someone already shot you twice, we're taking every precaution to make sure it doesn't happen again." Roy replied, adjusting the straps so that it was tight, but not tight enough to hurt the kid. Ed had been released from the hospital earlier that day, and as inconspicuously as possible, they snuck him back into headquarters, avoiding any unwanted attention. The rest of the team had been waiting for them in the office.
Havoc stood next to Ed, holding his flesh arm up, as the sling had to be removed to get Ed into his vest. Breda was on the other side, gripping Ed's automail to make sure Ed didn't topple over onto his braced right leg. As soon as Roy finished with the vest, Breda helped ease Ed down onto the couch, while Havoc hurriedly tied his arm back into the sling. Ed wore a grimace the whole time, obviously unimpressed with the whole situation. As Ed stared into the distance, looking done with his life, Roy took advantage of his lack of focus and slipped a black helmet onto his head. Ed's expression changed from looking disgruntled to jaw dropped with shock.
"You cannot be serious." He griped, chuckling nervously. Roy smirked.
"I told you we were taking every precaution Ed, and I'm a man of my word." He replied smugly, buckling the helmet under Ed's chin. Ed looked like he was about to protest further, when Al piped up.
"It's for your own good, brother." He reasoned, pushing Ed to lie down on the couch and covering him with a blanket. "You know I can't stand to see you hurt, I don't want it to happen again." He added solemnly. Ed's expression dropped. His lip puckered out into a frown, looking guilty.
"But Al... " He whined, sinking into the couch. Al tucked the corners of the blanket around him and placed his leg on a pillow.
"No buts, Ed. This is for your own good." He lectured, fluffing the pillows behind Ed's back. Ed groaned and leaned back into the couch. Roy watched Ed warily. The kid's pain threshold was impressive to say the least. He had been shot twice and hadn't mentioned anything about his pain, not even after he had initially been hurt. Hell, he ran on a leg that was not only shot, but broken too. He should have been dealing with a kid that was sobbing and writhing in pain, but he had barely made a peep the whole time. Roy wondered just how much pain the kid had gone through over the years to learn how to deal with it so well. Maybe it was when his limbs were torn off, maybe it was the automail surgery after the fact, or maybe it was the many injuries he had sustained on the missions Roy had sent him on. Maybe it was a little of everything. Roy wished he could take his pain away. He was just a kid, he shouldn't be taking pain like a hardened soldier. He just wished the kid knew it was okay to lean on others a bit more. He wished he knew he didn't have to take the pain alone.
"Okay, well I'm already bored." Ed announced, twirling the edge of the blanket around his metal fingers. Al sighed.
"Well brother, what do you want to do? I could get you a book from the dorms if you want." He offered, standing from his place on the couch. "After all, no one's trying to kill me, and even if they were they wouldn't be able to do it." Ed's brow creased uneasily.
"They could still get your blood seal, Al. I don't want you to get hurt." Al didn't have a chance to respond before Havoc interrupted.
"The chief's right, Al. We don't know what these people are after. They might want to get to you too." He reasoned, rocking back onto two legs of his chair. "I'll go with you, make sure everything's okay. We need to get Ed some clothes and stuff anyway." He added, dropping back onto four legs and standing from his chair. "We'll go in a bit, I want to have a look at your brothers arm and leg first." Al nodded in understanding, while Ed grimaced. Havoc padded over to Ed, crouching next to him and flipping the blanket off of his leg, exposing the chunky boot keeping Ed's bones in place. He undid the straps and eased off the top part of the splint. Inside, Ed's leg was swollen and covered in splotches of blue and purple, with a long bandage covering the incision line on the outside of his ankle and the bullet wound. The area was still tinged orange with surgical iodine. Havoc lifted Ed's leg out of the boot by his toes, placing the bottom of the boot to the side. Ed sighed in relief as his foot was exposed to the cool air. Havoc chuckled.
"Feel better, chief?" Ed nodded.
"Uh huh. It is unbelievably hot in that thing." He muttered, leaning his head back against the pillow and staring at the ceiling. Havoc smirked and peeled back the bandage a bit, revealing the many stitch marks running down Ed's leg. It looked red around the edges, but not dangerously so. He pressed the backs of his fingers to the skin around the stitches, feeling relieved upon finding no unnatural heat. He rolled back the bandage and smoothed the edges of the tape back down.
"Looks good, no signs of infection." He assured him, moving up to his shoulder. Some of the incision was covered by the bullet proof vest, so he just lifted the bandage on the furthest edge, peeked under it, and pressed it back down upon seeing that it looked okay. "Same deal here. No doubt it's sore, but they'll heal." He added sympathetically. Ed shook his head.
"No, it's really not that bad. Throbs a little, but nothing I can't handle." Ed replied, looking unbothered with the fact that there had been surgeons digging around inside him and screwing things into his bones not even 24 hours ago.
"Okay, kid. The doctor gave you some meds if to help, say something if it starts to hurt and we'll give you some." Havoc informed, patting Ed gently on his automail shoulder. He turned to Al. "Ready to go, Al?" Al nodded and offered a hand to Havoc, pulling him out of his crouched position.
"See you later, brother. We'll be back soon, don't do anything crazy while I'm gone!" Al warned, waving a hand at Ed. Ed's eyes glanced around the room, eyeing the many soldiers that were watching him like a hawk.
"Don't worry, Al. I can't do anything even if I wanted to." He muttered, eyes narrowing in exasperation. Al giggled and opened the door for Havoc, waving at Ed before closing the door behind him.
･ﾟ: *･ﾟ*-｡･:･ﾟ｡･:･ﾟ･ﾟ: *･ﾟ*･ﾟ: *･ﾟ*･ﾟ: *･ﾟ*
Al and Havoc had arrived at the dorm with no issues, though Havoc had been on edge the whole way there after being shot at the day before. His hand twitched the entire time, ready to reach for his hand gun if he needed it. They both let out a sigh of relief when they saw Ed and Al's dorm in the distance.
Al dug through drawers, packing clothes and everything Ed would need while they stayed at the office. Havoc was busying himself with looking over everything in the dorm, trying to find anything out of the ordinary. He checked under tables, behind curtains and in drawers, he was beginning to think everything was fine, when his eyes landed on a small irregularity on the leg of the bed frame. He pried it off of the metal. Upon closer look, he discovered that the small wires and chips were that of a microphone, no bigger than his thumbnail. He smirked, it was a good thing he decided to check everything over. He tucked the bug into his pocket and continued his search of the room. Luckily, it was the only one he could find. He would tell the Colonel, and he would probably have someone from investigations come and take a look anyway. He looked up as Al clipped Ed's suitcase closed, picking up a few books which Havoc assumed were alchemy-based and placing inside his chest plate for safe keeping. Havoc avoided letting Al know about the microphone just yet, no use to worry him until he got the little device to Fuery to figure out exactly what it was anyway.
The walk back to HQ was quiet with tension. Havoc was back to worrying about being shot, even more so now that he had found out that Ed's dorm had been bugged. He knew that the kid had some enemies, he had a bit of a talent for pissing people off, but he surely hadn't done anything that justified getting shot or stalked. Something really bad was going on here, and Havoc didn't like the taste of it.