Author's Note: Thanks for all of your great reviews! They are very much appreciated! And to clear something up that I forgot to mention… Hughes is ALIVE! He's one of my favorite characters and I was so sad when he died, so yeah…. on with the story! Enjoy!

Sixth Avenue Heartache

Chapter two: Fix You

The rest of the night went by slowly. Ed was constantly in and out of consciousness and started to have a fever after being outside, for god knows how long, in the rain. The moment his fever kicked in the whole house had been in constant movement. Gracia and Hawkeye remained with Ed and took turns watching over him through out the night, tending to whatever needed to be done.

By morning Ed's fever had gone down and everyone was given a chance to rest. Hughes had moved him upstairs into one of the guest bedrooms while Hawkeye and Gracia followed to keep an eye on Ed, incase his fever broke out again. As the hours past, nothing too terrible, that one of the two women couldn't handle, occurred.

Downstairs, Hughes and Mustang remained silent in the kitchen, trapped in their own thoughts while the other four officers (Fuery, Havoc, Falman, and Breda) tried to catch up on some missed sleep in the living room.

"What the hell happened to him?" Hughes said breaking the quiet atmosphere.

"Who knows, for all we know he could've gone on a hunger strike," Mustang said lightly.

"NO!" Hughes slammed his fists on the table, obviously missing Roy's attempt to lighten the mood. "Why was he like that? Why? We've searched everywhere for him and still found nothing! So how in the hell could he have just come up out of nowhere, like that, half dead!" he continued to yell, not caring about anyone waking up. Hughes looked down at the floor with a doleful expression after his outburst. Being caught off guard by Hughes' unusual attitude, Roy sat there stunned. In attempts to comfort his friend, he got up and walked towards one of the cabinets near the stove and pulled out two shot glasses and a large bottle of liquor.

"I would be lying to you if I said that I knew why he was like that, but we did the best we could to find him," Roy told Hughes as he opened the bottle and dispensed the liquid into the glasses.

"It wasn't good enough," Hughes muttered, still down.

"True, but all we can do is suck it up and deal with it," Roy said in a firm tone. Hughes looked up at his friend and gave a sad smile as he took one of the shots.

"Humph… I guess you're right, for once," Hughes smirked as he drank his shot. When his drink was gone, he continued to sit and stare at his empty glass while Roy was lost in his thoughts. The room was once again silent, but both men didn't notice the two figures, who had been listening in on their conversation, walk away.

"Poor Maes, I've never seen him that upset," Gracia observed as she walked up the stairs. Hughes' sudden yelling had caught the women's attention, so naturally they had gone to see what was going on.

"He's just as worried as everyone else," Hawkeye observed.

"Yeah, he had always tried to look out for Edward when ever he could. I guess, with Ed coming back in the state that he did, Maes blames himself somehow," Gracia said sadly as she and Hawkeye walked back into the room Ed was sleeping in. "Roy looked just as worried too," she added quietly.

"In a weird way, Ed is like family to the military. We've all known him since he joined us and…," Hawkeye was cut off by Edwards movements. He began to stir in his sleep and slowly opened his eyes once more.

"Oh! You're awake. How are you feeling?" Gracia questioned as she sat by his side and rested her hand on his forehead. "Your fever is down thankfully." Edward didn't respond to her and barely acknowledged her speaking to him. He continued to stare off in the distance while Hawkeye and Gracia patiently waited for him to respond. Eventually, Ed become conscious that there were other people beside him and he looked towards them expecting them to say something to him.

Seeing that they weren't, he decided to speak up, "long times no see, huh?" he said in a raspy voice as a smile appeared on his face.

"It's good to have you back Fullmetal," Hawkeye said as she approached the bed side. Ed flinched at the sound of his military-given name. He looked down at his arm and threw a glare towards the crude numbers on his forearm.

"Not so much 'fullmetal' as I was back then, huh?" he responded bitterly as he tied to sit up, but gave up and lied back down. Both the women looked at him sadly, but before anyone could say anything to console him, small footsteps were heard nearby. Waiting a few minutes, the door slowly opened to reveal Elysia, who had just woken up.

"Mommy, what's going on? Why is Aunty Riza still here? Did she spend the night?" Elysia questioned as she began to walk closer to her mother and "Aunty Riza." Once she grasped that there was a third person in the room, she looked at him and immediately became scared. "It's the zombie!" she shrieked and backed away.

Trying to find the right words, Gracia said, "Since when was your big brother Edward a zombie?"

"Big…brother?" Elysia asked unsure as she studied Ed's face for a few moments, Ed stared back at her as well, observing how much she had grown. After a few moments past a bright smile appeared on her face, "Big brother Ed! You're back!" she said cheerfully as she rushed over to his side. "You don't look so good, are you sick?"

Ed opened his mouth to respond, but Gracia beat him to it, "yes sweetie, Ed is sick. So we have to help him get better okay?"

"Okay!"

"That's my girl, now I want you to go downstairs and tell your dad and Uncle Roy that Ed is awake," Gracia told her kindly. Elysia immediately turned around to leave and followed her mother's request, hoping that it would help her big brother to get better.

"Daddy, Daddy! Big brother Ed is back! Come quick!" she yelled excitedly as she ran out of the room and down the stairs.

"Zombie?" Ed questioned,"I guess I'm not looking so good, huh?" he continued saying to the women in the room. All they could do was smile in response. Sudden movements could be heard downstairs and a stampede soon came rushing upstairs.

"Edward!" Hughes exclaimed while busting open the door. The rest of the military group came in closely behind him and Elysia weaved her way past them to return to Ed's side.

"Hey," Ed said giving them a meek smile. An awkward silence filled the room and Gracia soon stood up and ushered everyone out saying that he needed his rest. Before leaving, she turned towards Ed and gave him a smile then left. Now all alone in the room, Ed took in his surroundings. It was still early in the morning from what he could tell. He suddenly let out a heavy sigh. There wasn't much that he could do in his current state except lie there.

In his heart, he knew that he was happy to be back, but that didn't stop the sick feeling in him. He didn't deserve to have this kind of happiness. Why would he? Ed's thoughts didn't go on for long. He let out a tired yawn and closed his eyes while he waited for the nightmares of the past to come.

"Did you hear about that Aryan crap- theory that's going around?" a dark haired man said to his companion.

"Yeah, it doesn't make much sense. If you ask me this entire Aryan and Nazi party thing is all stupid," the dark haired man's companion said.

"You'd better watch your mouth Ed. Who knows what will happen to you if one of those Nazis catches you saying that kind of stuff," Ed's friend said to him in a worried whisper.

"You worry too much Matthias. All of this shit will be over soon. I mean, who the hell is dense enough to buy all of this Aryan purity crap and Nazi ideas?" Ed told Matthias with confidence.

"You're right! What's the worse that could happen?" Matthias responded with a smile.

Edward's eyes suddenly snapped open and wave of sadness soon followed in his wake. Letting out a heavy sigh, he again closed his eyes as his memories flooded his mind. Those dreams haunted him whether he was asleep or not. It was a constant reminder of what he had left behind. Ed didn't have much time to think about a lot because he soon became alerted that he wasn't alone in the room. Quickly opening his eyes once more, he looked to the side and saw that Hughes, who was currently staring back at him with a smile, was sitting in a chair near his bed.

"Rise and shine!" he said with a goofy smilewhile raising a hand to wave at him. "You've been asleep for a few hours, are you hungry?" Edward nodded his head in response.

"What? Can't speak now?" Hughes teased.

"What do you want me to say?" Ed questioned in a dull tone.

"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to Ed, but you gave us all quite a scare coming in the state that you're in."

"Sorry, I had nowhere else to go," Edward said in a dejectedly. At this, Hughes became concerned. In any normal situation, Ed would've just given some smart-ass comeback, not say sorry. Hell, he never even heard Ed say sorry for anything, even if he was at fault.

Getting up to get Edward some food, Hughes gave him a sad smile of understanding and left the room. Shutting the door quietly behind him, Hughes ventured down the stairs and into the kitchen where Roy, Hawkeye, and Gracia were waiting. Looking around and seeing that everyone else was gone, he figured that they had gone home.

"So, is he awake yet?" Mustang inquired while taking a sip of his coffee.

"Yeah, I'm getting some food to bring back up to him," Hughes retorted while gathering the food that Gracia had made especially for Ed.

"Did he say anything?" Hawkeye questioned.

"Yeah, and with what little that he did say, I can tell you that he's changed a lot."

"Good change or bad?" Gracia asked becoming concerned.

"I'm not sure, but I would say it's a bad change. While I was up there trying to talk to him, it was as if he didn't have any will to even open his eyes, let alone say something with any real emotion." The room remained silent, letting Hughes' words sink in. Without another word, Hughes placed Ed's food on a tray and began to walk back to the guest room.

Finally reaching the top of the stairs, Hughes entered the room and saw that Ed was in the same position that he was in when he first woke up; turned on his side and eyes closed. Hughes looked at Ed and no longer saw the Fullmetal Alchemist and Hero of the East lying in the bed, but a little boy who had seen too much and had been forced to grow up too fast. Approaching Ed, Hughes placed the tray on the bed and sat down it the chair that he had occupied. Edward sat up and stared at the food, beef stew and a roll, his favorite.

"You should hurry up and eat that, it'll get cold soon."

"Oh, right," Ed mumbled and picked up a spoon to eat the stew. In the past, Ed had proven to be a pig when it came to eating. Now though, he slowly started to eat it and didn't inhale anything and everything that was on his plate. Not long after, he placed his spoon down and picked at a roll. Hughes watched him eat and noticed his lack of an apatite. I'm not surprised, he thought, with how skinny he is right now, I'm sure his stomach can barley hold any food in.

"Are you done?" Hughes asked.

"Yeah, sorry I couldn't finish it. It was good though, I wouldn't have been allowed to eat anything like that back there," Edward said quietly to himself more than to Hughes. That remark caught Hughes' attention.

"What do you mean?" no response, so Hughes continued to ask questions in hopes that Ed would open up to him. "I can tell by looking at you that you haven't eaten in a decent meal in awhile, but what do you mean by allowed' and back there?" he repeated.

Ed once again gave no answer. Hughes didn't understand. Did someone try to starve him on purpose? But why would anyone do that to a person? Questions continued to fly through Hughes' head. Mixed emotions weld up inside of him: worry, fear, anger, and sadness. He couldn't begin to imagine what Ed might have gone through. Seeing that Ed wasn't going to answer any of his questions, Hughes picked up the tray and left the room.

What the hell happened to you Edward?