in all honesty, this should have been put up like a while back. i don't know why I didn't do it then. i apologize for the lack of updates. my job is not kind and trying to type has been like trying to climb a mountain. i'm trying to get back into things.

also keep in mind that this isn't the same ed so he doesn't know some things canon ed would know.

Maes smiled at Edward as he laid in the hospital bed with one child in each arm. He looked annoyed and miserable at the same time and Maes couldn't help but tease him a bit.

"Well… at least you got those triplets… albeit in a strange way."

Edward gave him a hard glare but looked at the twins in the crook of either arm. With the other boy technically born on the same day, Maes was right and he had had a weird set of triplets. He just hoped it would be the last time he would be pregnant. The nurse came in and grabbed up the two boys to take them back to the examination room. Nina watched her take her brothers away and got up to go to her father.

"Daddy, I have so many brothers now!"

He just smiled, exhausted and mentally drained. The whole transformation thing took a toll on him as well as almost immediately having to have his twins when he got to the hospital. As Maes had promised, no one disturbed them. Edward was sure he had threatened the staff on pain of jail for life if they attracted anyone to the predicament at hand.

"I went ahead and asked them to get a sample of your blood so they could look into what is in your blood." Edward turned his head at that. "I was wondering why that guy said you were the 'perfect guinea pig' and my friend Jean got some information from Will and Solaris about your body. I'm having them run tests."

Edward nodded and yawned, ready to have a nice little nap.

"I'll take Nina home and give you some privacy. Dear god, if you get kidnapped again I'm going to have to put a collar on you that has muy name and address for someone to return you, okay?" Edward gave a smile. "Just try not to get taken again."

"Bad people keep finding him, Mr. Maes." Nina said, defending her father.

"I know, sweetie, it's called a joke. I know Edward can't help it." he said as they walked out.

Edward had to agree that it was starting to get a little comical at how often he was kidnapped. For now, though, Maes had placed two officers outside of his door who would monitor the flow of people. Edward just hoped they were trustworthy officers and not working with someone else. He seemed to run into shady people all the time.

The next day, the nurse was showing Edward how to properly feed his first son when the doctor came in.

"Hello, Edward, I'm Dr. Marcoh. Your guardian asked me to do a test on your blood to see if we could figure out what's going on here." Edward nodded a little. "I have some interesting news."

He looked at the nurse and she left, leaving Edward to struggle with the baby. He didn't get to take care of Nina when she was born, Will and Solaris doing that until she was old enough to do everything by herself, so this was the first time he was having to do this. The baby made a noise and Edward tried to hold him properly. Dr. Marcoh walked over and moved him around.

"Here, that might help."

Edward nodded and continued feeding the baby as he looked up at Dr. Marcoh in expectation.

"So we found out that your blood is… very interesting. It looks like what Professor Kinya was saying had a deeper meaning than we anticipated. Your cells actually have an alchemical circle on them that allow for things to be done to you without too much consequence." Edward turned his head. "It's a little complicated to explain but I'll try. From what was gathered, your blood cells have an alchemical circle on them that enables you to do certain things when the circle is activated. There's a certain element that has to be in any experiment that will activate the circles on your cells and allows you to follow the chemical makeup of whatever was injected into you."

What's an alchemical circle? Edward asked, holding up his writing pad.

"Alchemy is the study of the elements. We use the circles to change their appearances or purposes and thus are able to advance to a degree. Using alchemy on the body is called bio-alchemy. It enables changes with the body and parts of the body. In your case, the very things that make you up, your cells, have an alchemical circle on it and it can change you in certain ways."

Like clay?

"Kind of but it's on a deeper level than that. It essentially means the same thing but this is on a much larger scale." Edward nodded and the baby let go of the bottle, done with his meal. Edward pulled him up to burp him as he nodded for him to go on. "In this instance, your cells have a special circle that is activated by a certain element and then your body changes however it needs to to work with the serum presented."

Edward wrote on his notepad awkwardly. So the circles make me do weird stuff I shouldn't be able to do?

"Essentially, from what Will and Solaris explained, you really are the best guinea pig for anyone in the scientific field of study. Your body will absorb whatever formula is made and can be tested on many different levels. You could be used for medical advancement to find cures for illnesses, you could be used for experimentation of certain things, you could be used for biological research… so much can be gained from you and your body is malleable enough to do it with. Professor Kinya said that you were rewritten, reprogrammed, right? That's what you had written out."

"Uh huh."

"You were kidnapped when you were eight and found when you were eighteen… so that means the mad scientist had a decade to perfect and develop the perfect circle that will do exactly what he wanted. Now, as for the exact element that activates the circles, we're not sure, but what we do know is that depending on the amount of this particular element mixed with other things, it will cause a specialized effect or a general effect. In the case with your pregnancies, it allowed your body to harbor a child with a specialized effect. In the case of Professor Kinya's formula, it allowed you to harbor a child as well as have a rapid pregnancy. This half-serum he had for your first baby seemed to only progress the growth to term… In the case of Will and Solaris, they didn't know what exactly activated the circles and just injected you with whatever they made up. That being said, the creature Maes said you turned into was a result of that serum not having enough of the active ingredient but the other ingredients were there. When Professor Kinba injected you with his serum, he had the right amount but the dormant serum was there also. It would explain your ability to growl and snarl and your dexterity and strength. The process was there but it couldn't go through completely but the second serum was enough to kickstart the monster's serum as well as do it's own magic."

Edward cradled his son in his arms as he went to sleep and made a face.

"Freak." He said softly.

Dr. Marcoh smiled a little. "No, kid, you're not a freak. You've been used and abused by people trying to capitalize on the way your body was made. Admittedly, anyone of science would want to have you as their guinea pig just because you're able to give so many answers in a quick setting and on a human, where the answers would be 75% more accurate than on an animal. I understand the want."

Edward sighed, wishing he wasn't so 'desirable'. They needed to keep their magic shapes to themselves. He didn't want them and he definitely didn't care how valuable he was to the scientific community. He was still Edward, a human.

"I do have some good news though." Edward looked up. "We might be able to get you to speak properly. Although very softly, you'll still be able to have a voice." Edward turned his head in curiosity. "We decided to check on what exactly was causing your voice problems and found that your vocal cords are tight. When you talk, your vocal cords need to be loose to enable all the sounds to be given properly, be able to expand. Yours, though, are tight like violin strings. Probably from the strains of your capture." He nodded. "But, if we get you into speech therapy, they might be able to give you some exercises to stretch those vocal cords out and let you talk a little better."

Edward smiled brightly and Dr. Marcoh did too.

"I thought you might like that. You're a very smart boy, Edward. You taught your daughter how to speak even though you couldn't and taught her how to read and write. I think it's time you get a bit of TLC for you as well."

TLC?

"Tender loving care."

He nodded and yawned, tired again.

"Here, I'll take him back to the nursery. You should be able to get out soon so rest up."

He nodded and fell asleep almost immediately after he left.

"Okay, I got these onesies and these onesies. I wasn't sure what you wanted." Maes said, holding up a descending hanger of onesies on each hand.

One set was lighter colors and the other was on the darker end of the scale. Edward pointed to the lighter colors and Maes nodded.

"Good, light. I thought so, but you know." He started taking the onesies off the hangers. "By the way, you need to name these kids. It's annoying calling them One, Two, and Three."

"I wanna name one!" Nina said, looking at her brothers over the table. "Daddy, can I name one?"

Edward made a face but if she came up with something halfway decent then maybe…

"Meh." He said. Maes looked over as he held up his notepad. I already know one name.

"Oh?"

Roy.

Maes smiled. "I think that's a great name."

"I wanna name this one Wynn." She said, pointing at one of them.

"Wynn?"

"Uh huh!"

Maes looked at Edward. "You like Wynn?"

Edward shrugged. It was better than what he thought she was going to say.

"Wait! I don't want Wynn! I want Way!"

"Ray?"

What about Wynn Ray?

"I like that. So we got Roy and Wynn."

"And Nina!"

"And Nina… hmm. You should name the last one yourself. Nina is named because that's what Roy wanted, Roy is because of Roy, and Wynn is because Nina wanted it. What name would you like?"

"Alf..u."

"Alfu?" Edward shook his head and made a motion for Maes to keep trying. "Al…phones?" Edward nodded. "I kind of like that… Nina, Roy, Wynn, and Al."

Edward nodded but then turned his head a little.

"Meh." Maes looked up. "Name?" he said, pointing to himself.

"Edward…" he said with a funny look.

He shook his head and grabbed his notepad.

Edward _?

Maes looked at him and smiled.

"Hughes, of course. That's my last name."

Edward was surprised at the answer and wanted to cry. In fact, he did, silently. The first person to ever treat him well as Roy but Maes was a close second and now he wanted him to have his last name like he was his own son? He knew Roy would have done the same thing if he had lived, but knowing Maes would do it too just was too much. He wiped his tears and tried not to make any noises.

Nina looked up and saw her dad was crying.

"Mr. Maes, Daddy's crying."

Maes looked up as Edward wiped his nose. He smiled and looked back at Nina.

"He's happy. Those are tears of joy."

Edward held up his notepad. &Even with all these kids? Even though I'm a walking victim? Even… even though I can turn into that thing?&

Maes finished dressing the boys and told Nina to keep an eye on them for a second as he took Edward's hand in his.

"In regards to the kids, yes, of course. Will it be a bit crowded? Yeah… I might have to find a bigger place. As for you being walking victim, I'm hoping that it stops now. I won't let them take you anymore and I'm going to tell them all that if they want to try, they will have to come through me. The monster thing… well… as long as you don't turn into it and destroy the house it's the lesser of the evils I think."

Edward nodded slightly as Maes lifted his head back up to him.

"You come with a lot of baggage, kid, that much is true. But I wouldn't take anything else in the world than for you and your kids to stay with me as if you were my own family. You just know that. Besides, my girlfriend already thinks of you as my kid and that if we get married you would be her stepchild." Edward smiled. "So stop moping, Edward Hughes: we're going home."

Edward grinned and they finished getting the boys ready for leaving.

As they left the hospital, Edward was overjoyed with knowing he was going to be part of a family. Sure, most of it was his kids, but they would love him and he would love them and Maes would love them all.

"Excuse me, are you Edward?"

Edward stopped and swallowed hard. Don't turn around. Don't turn around. You might get kidnapped again. Leave it alone…

"Hey, are you Edward?"

Edward just couldn't help himself and turned slightly as a nurse held out an envelope to him.

"Someone dropped this off at the front desk for you. I forgot to give it to Dr. Marcoh to give to you."

Edward took the envelope gingerly and nodded at her, bustling quickly with Roy in his arms to where Maes was waiting.

"What happened? You scared me for a second." Edward held up the envelope. "Oh, okay. Get in the car before you're spirited away from me. Here, give Roy to me so I can strap him in."

Edward did and got in the front seat of the Model T, opening the letter.

Don't get all high and mighty, Guinea Pig.

You may have the military on your side, but your body is a prize to anyone with a dream. We will find you. We may not act on it for a long time, but we will take you again. You belong to science and you always will.

Never forget that, Edward.

Never forget what you were made for.

Never forget that you will never be safe, you will never be alone, and you will never be free.

Edward licked his lips softly, his breathing getting tight.

"Daddy? What's that?"

Nina pulled him from his fears and he smiled at her.

"Note."

"From who?"

Edward thought for a moment but smiled a little, crumbling it. I'd take all the chances in heaven that God will allow even if the demons of Hell might take me again. I can't live in constant fear. I have things to protect and people who love me. I won't let this consume me anymore.

"No one."

Nina smiled and Maes got into the driver's seat.

"Alright, let's head home."

Edward nodded. "Mmm." Home…

and that's the end of that story. edward finally has a home with people who love him and a brood of kids. poor kid needs some down time. but, will he truly be free of everything? does't matter now, does it?

i thank you for being patient with this story and coming on this journey with me. i'll see you at the next fandom!