Chapter Fifteen

"So..." Mustang said as he sat down in front of Ed. They had planned to meet up for lunch for some time now. Alphonse was still in the hospital from the Promised day with an NG tube* to support his malnourished body. Mustang had been trying to get Ed out of the hospital for some time to no avail. Finally, she had agreed. "When were you going to tell me that you were actually a girl? And why did you pretend to be a boy this entire time?"

"I wasn't, actually," Ed responded. Mustang's sight had thankfully been returned to him with the help of Dr. Marcoh. Even Havoc's walking had been restored, and the man was back in the military again. With practically everyone knowing about her gender, Ed stopped going to so many lengths to hide her true identity. She didn't bother with wrapping her chest in ace bandages anymore or wearing incredibly baggy clothing. It was obvious now that she was a girl. "As for my lying…I don't really know. It just felt like a good idea. I always told myself it was so I would get the respect of a man in the military, but I've had so many strong women in my life that I don't really think I can use that as a reason."

"Well, I understand wanting respect," Mustang said. All he wanted was power from the military and the respect that came with authority over someone when he was younger. Well, that's what he wanted after the war. Beforehand, he thought he was truly going to help change the world. "Edelle Elric..." Mustang commented, remembering the name from when Bradley had referred to Ed as such. "It's not such a bad name. You don't prefer it?"

"No," Ed responded. "I like Ed. My dad always called me Edelle. I chose to be called Ed a long time before even bothering to join the military."

"Where is your father?" Mustang asked.

"I don't really know," Ed answered. "He kind of disappeared after Al went to the hospital. I should have expected it. Disappearing is what he does best."

"But he accepted you toward the end," Mustang added. "He called you Edward during your fight with that Homunculus."

"That he did," Ed responded. "Anyway, what did you want to come talk to me about?"

"I just wanted to check up on you," Mustang said. "Make sure you were taking care of yourself. Alphonse needs you to be healthy too."

"I'm healthy," Ed said. "I'm healthy as can be. Never felt better."

"You just look like you've lost a little weight," Mustang commented. "Riza was hounding me on getting some food into you."

"Haven't had much of an appetite lately," Ed reasoned. "I mean, with the hospital food I've been around constantly, I haven't been very hungry."

"Alphonse has been in the hospital for a few days now," Mustang said. "You've been losing weight for some time, Edward."

"Points for not calling me Edelle now that you now," Ed said with a laugh. "But seriously, I'm fine."

"Fine," Mustang said with a sigh. "At least let me treat you today. Then you can go back to running yourself ragged with worry over Alphonse."

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Ed said. She lifted a menu and looked through it. She still didn't have much of an appetite. To tell the truth, she had been feeling a bit sick for the past week. She hadn't been able to address it, though, with everything that had been going on. She was busy with the Promised day.

The waitress appeared pretty quickly to take their orders when she saw the military uniform Roy was wearing.

"What sounds good?" Mustang asked as she saw Ed struggling with the menu. It wasn't like her to ever deny food. Even when she was at the young age of twelve, her stomach had been known as the black hole of the dining hall at the Command Center.

"I don't know..." Ed trailed off. "I'll just eat a BLT or something."

"I'll have the same," Mustang told the waitress, who took down their orders and their menus before walking off. "Are you all right?" Mustang asked as he saw Ed appearing slightly pale.

"Huh?" Ed asked after zoning out for a moment. "I'm fine." She told herself that mostly. She must be coming down with a flu or something. Probably shouldn't be around Al with his weak immune system... she thought to herself.

Ed sat mostly in silence while waiting for the food, and Mustang didn't bother her. He could tell she was thinking deeply and she needed some time to think for the time being. She had been running herself ragged with Alphonse ever since he had been restored.

Their food returned to them sooner than Mustang thought and he waited for Ed to begin eating before he did. When she took her first bite, he was about to take his when Ed bolted from her chair and headed outside the restaurant.

"Ed?!" Mustang called out with no answer. He threw some money down onto the table, not caring about anything else but getting to his subordinate. He ran outside the restaurant in Ed's trail only to find the girl vomiting on the concrete outside. "Oh, Ed, you're sick."

"Shut up," Ed groaned out as she wiped her mouth with her sleeve. "It was just the food. It was gross."

"Ed, I've eaten at this place before," Mustang said. "And you have too. The whole team ate here when we worked late, remember?"

"Must've changed," Ed said. "Look, I need to get back to the hospital with Al. He's probably gonna wake up soon and there's no one there with him."

"At least let me walk you?" Mustang suggested.

Ed shook her head quickly. "No thanks, I got this." She turned before he could argue any further and began to walk in the direction of the hospital.

When she reached the hospital, Ed was about to walk into Alphonse's room when a nurse stopped her.

"Miss Elric," the woman called out. Ed stopped. People had been referring to her by feminine pronouns lately and Ed didn't care all that much anymore. They had been doing it ever since Ling found out anyway.

"Yes?" Ed asked, turning toward the woman.

"I have the results of your blood test back," the nurse said. "Would you please follow me?" Ed nodded and followed the woman to an examination room. She had blood tests done when she had her wounds taken care of. The doctors needed to know any background information before they performed a surgery on her. She had been waiting on the results before they could start the preparations for it.

"Well, Edward, I believe some congratulations is in order," the nurse said with a happy smile. "You're pregnant!"

"What?" Ed asked. "No, that's impossible. I'm a-" Ed stopped short. But she wasn't a virgin. It had been only a few weeks ago when Greed had her in the empty patients' cottage in Resembool. "Oh my god..."

"You're about three weeks along," the nurse said, though she caught on that this was very unplanned. "It's still early, so we have plenty of time to go through your options."

"I have to go!" Ed exclaimed, jumping from the examination table and out of the door. She didn't even go to Alphonse's room, she just left the hospital.

What was she going to do?


*For those of you who don't know what an NG tube is, it's just a feeding tube that goes through your nose into your stomach. There are other types of feeding tubes that go through your stomach, but surgery is required to put it in and I figured Al wouldn't be healthy enough for such a surgery. So, he's got an NG tube, which is simpler. He can still eat foods, but the NG tube is just to get him healthy enough to leave the hospital.

Also, I've gotten a lot of hate for putting up that implied rape scene back in chapter twelve. Let me explain now that this chapter is up. The entire manga was resolved in the last chapter, after the Promised day when Ed and Al returned to Resembool. Well, I can't just stop it there, otherwise I would have ripped off the entire ending of the manga without doing anything of my own. My entire goal was just to get to this point and work my way further. The rape scene was only put here so that Ed could get pregnant. She needed to get pregnant so that I could work from there and make a new story. That's it. Right there. Boom. Done. I'm losing readers because they hated the rape scene, and I get it; I understand. Though, I've had people send me hate and get really angry because of it. I think everyone assumes this is going to end like the original because of that, but I'm taking a different direction now. Anyway, good luck and good day.

Also, I wrote the nausea scene with my entire feelings because I was nauseous the entire week I was writing this. I'm still nauseous. Pushing on two weeks now.