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.A t e l o p h o b i a.

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The irrational fear of imperfection.

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Colonel Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist, gasped heavily, dropping next to his subordinate and good friend, Jean Havoc. Havoc was unconscious, bleeding heavily on his lower left side. A side of his face was bleeding heavily. His Commanding Officer, Brigadier General Roy Mustang, was looking over from the side of his head grimly. There was Major Hawkeye to the side, holding her pistol steadily in petite hands although they were at a temporary base camp with other soldiers around them.

"Can you do it, Fullmetal?" Roy choked out, coughing from the smoke of his flames lingering in the air. Edward would have blown up at Mustang for distrusting his abilities, but now was not the time. Old texts and information was passing through his head, making sense of them as he inspected the bullet wound with a dirtied, gloved, hand. Edward grimaced. He looked up, into the face of anxious soldiers.

"You guys sure you don't have doctor?" he asked hesitantly. "I mean, I could do it, but someone experienced - "

"No, we regrettably don't sir. The main base camp is a good four miles away." Hawkeye curtly replied, her eyes showing worry and anxiety. Edward pressed his lips together, nodding. He stood up, straightening out his posture.

He sharply turned to a young, brown-haired soldier, who jumped in place. "You, Avery." Avery performed a nervous salute. "Go get me the first aid kit. ASAP." The soldier ran away with his tail between his legs. "Falman!" he barked suddenly. The gray and black haired man stood at attention, used to Edward's commands. "Go get anesthetic and some alcohol. Cloth, bandages, a scalpel. Surely we have a medical room if there used to be a doctor here. Make sure they're clean." Edward's voice turned slightly hoarse at the thought of the dead doctor that died in a shooting, but shook it off.

Edward turned to Roy and sighed. Both men looked incredibly tired, and Mustang rubbed an eye with his transmutation gloved hand. He took a glance at the younger, blonder man.

"Fullmetal?" he asked quietly. Edward knew what his Commanding Officer was talking about. Could he do it? He didn't know. His stomach was all full of butterflies, and he thought cryptically, was this how Winry felt when she was delivering that baby? But he focused on the necessities. When they were younger, Winry's parents may have been the doctors, but she couldn't read properly for the longest time. So Edward had to read to her and Alphonse, and he had subconsciously (or maybe not) gathered the information in his photographic brain and kept it there. But also, he had studied medical alchemy and the human body when they were planning the Unforgivable, and after that to how to get his body back and different things from the Philosopher's Stone, and also from when he was simply bored. So, all in all, he had a pretty impressive knowledge of medical treatments, plus the extra knowledge from the Gate helped. Still, he was so unsure of himself.

"I don't know, sir." he replied tiredly. Edward wouldn't have added the respect at the end, but Mustang was still his superior, in the end. He would be damned if now wasn't the time to treat him like one. "I probably could, and there is a very high chance he will survive. But he will be out for a few weeks; his spine has just been fixed from last time, so he would take some time to recover, although the bullet hit no vital organs. Two or three weeks, at most."

Roy Mustang sighed in relif; his subordinate and friend wouldn't be that harmed. But he stole a look at Edward, and the force of what he just said and how he said it just hit him. Edward sounded very official, much more like a doctor than a military officer. Even though sounding like both scared him.

"Fullmetal," Roy started, regaining his commanding persona. "Tell me your medical expertise." Edward turned sharply toward him, eyes wide in confusion.

"What - "

"Now."

Edward pursed his lips when he saw how serious Mustang was, how this was so important to him. Hughes died, and although Havoc would live, it was still a major blow.

"I've treated many of my own injuries, including impalement, illness, broken bones, and once a delivered baby." Well, the last part was a little fib, but Mustang needed to trust him to do this. He was the only one who could. He could see the surprise in Mustang's eyes, and the man actually stared open-mouthed in shock, which caused him to go red with embarrassment.

"You delivered a baby?"

"Shut up, you - "

"Colonel, sir!"

Edward turned around to see Avery and Falman, and his eyes hardened. He took a deep breath and starting commanding orders, clapping his hands once to clean himself and his gloves off. He turned to Havoc, who was on a spare bed breathing heavily. There was a crudely tied bandage over the bullet wound; Edward didn't so much wince when he took off the blonde man's jacket to see the damage done. He took off his own military jacket, feeling it weighing him down.

He took a deep breath, and hardened his resolve.

He would not fail, because he couldn't fail. He had to get that bullet out before Havoc bled to death, and he would do it right. Alchemy, Medicine, they both needed perfection. Because if something was out of line, there would be a serious rebound; someone could die, someone could get hurt. And that was what made him afraid, what made him decide that after this he would study a bit more on the topic, that way he wouldn't be so hesitant the next time something like this happened. That way, nothing would be out of place and that person would be saved and he wouldn't get any mistakes done.

His friend couldn't die, he wouldn't die, if everything was absolutely perfect.

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