Prices to Pay

Chapter 2: Awakening

"Boss, there's no way that kid could of killed Forrester. I mean, with just one arm? You have to be kidding me-"

"I'm not saying he did, DiNozzo," Gibbs growled, striding down the hospital halls in a brisk pace, Tony trotting after him. "I'm just saying he's a suspect."

"But Boss-"

"DiNozzo, what did I just say?" Gibbs glared at him, annoyance as well as a warning in his tone. Tony fell silent and continued to follow his boss like a dog following it's master. The uneasy silence (apart from all the beeping, sound of wheeling gurneys, and a sob from some of the doors) broke once Gibbs found the door to the kid's room. "I hope he's not as bad tempered as the nurses say," Tony muttered before a nurse came out from the door, with a few profanities being heard from inside.

It was dark. Empty of feelings and temperature. Swirling nothingness. But didn't he just say there was no feeling in that odd place? He shook the thought away, and started when he realized that he could still move his head. Wasn't he dead? Corpses can't move. People can't rise from the dead. He can't. And he won't. He won't throw Al's life in the fray again just to save his own ass. Al still had a life to live, a pure life, something that Ed just had to screw up for him. But now everything was over, right? Al had his body back, Ed was dead...Ed was dead.

"I'm dead."

He wanted it to be true, but for some reason he had a feeling that it wasn't. But didn't Truth promise?

"I'm dead. I'm dead."

"No you're not honey. Open your eyes."

Who was that? It sounded female; nice and warm, smooth around the edges of the voice. Almost like his mother's...

Dead people weren't supposed to think. Or hear things. Oh, how the hell should he know? He's dead! But...how come he still felt? This was confusing; death was confusing. But was he even dead? Dead people weren't supposed to hear things...he NEEDED to be dead.

"Honey? Dear, can you hear me?"

Ed was afraid to answer, not wanting the answer he dreaded. If he were alive, then Al...

Damn you Truth, Ed thought, clenching his fist...Fist? Clenching? It couldn't be.

Edward Elric wasn't dead. He was alive.

Alphonse is dead.

Al is dead.

Al...

"Al..." it came out as a pained groan, as Ed's senses returned to their places on his physical body, as his clenched hand tensed then relaxed. Something was itchy on his right arm...wait, what? "Al...phonse...", he knew he sounded pathetic but at that moment he just didn't give a damn. He kept his eyes closed, still afraid to reveal the truth. Damn Truth.

"Nod if you can hear me."

I don't want to fucking nod, lady. But his head obeyed and leaned forward slightly before falling back onto his ,what he recently discovered, comfortable pillow. The lady's tone seemed happier the next time she spoke, in a little chirp similar to a bird's.

"Great! Now I'll be right back, I have to go see another patient. Don't do anything that you can't handle or have the strength to do. Okay?" Ed made no movement but knew that the lady trusted him, because he heard the shuffling of her shoes and the door closing softly behind her. Only then did Ed dare open his eyes.

White. Everything was so white, blobs and soft figures of white, ivory, pearl, whatever titles of white there was. But then, red. There was a tiny spot of red that soon turned into a little drizzled trail. It was coming from his right arm...it was a stump. He felt like everything stopped, even his heart seemed to skip a couple of beats before regaining it's pace, but quickening at the realization of only having one arm. Where the hell did my automail go? Winry is going to maul me... he stopped. Winry. She'd be so pissed at him, for losing his automail and giving up Al's life for his own. What would she think? What would she say? What would Mustang say? Hawkeye? Teacher? Al?

He would loathe, despise, HATE me. He should, he needs to. I deserve it. All of it.

He hauled himself into an upright position, his back screaming in agony. Oh yeah, almost forgot about the damn bullet that got me into this mess. He reached behind his back to rub his back with his palm, feeling the rough fabric of the bandages, feeling damp from absorbing his blood. Great. Can't die now. They took care of it. Damn. I wonder if they took off my auto-mail too.. His fingers curled to rip off the bandage off his back to see how bad the wound was (not really caring how odd he would look doing so), when a lady walked in, her clothes consisting of a green-blue pair of paints and a blue baggy top with multicolored giraffes all over it. Her face was round with big blue eyes resting on high cheek bones, with her honey blonde hair tied up into a neat bun. She seemed like a very enthusiastic person, Ed thought, seeing her lips stretched into a big smile, probably trying to make her seem more nicer than she really was. But she gave off an aura that only someone with a motherly instinct would give off, so Ed immediately knew she wasn't foe. But her lips drew back and her eyes widened when she saw what he was doing.

"Oh no no no no! Don't peel it off sweetie! Your spine is a very important thing to have and we had to be very careful with it. Please don't pull it off."

"I was just checking it," Ed told her, disgruntled that wherever the hell he was, he wasn't allowed to check on his own wounds. But then again, Amestrian hospitals wouldn't exactly let you do that either...he shook the thought away. "It's my wound isn't it?"

"Well yes, but you have to let us do it. I'd get in trouble if I let you do that." Ed rolled his eyes but let his arm fall limp to his side, letting his head flop back on his pillow. "So does that mean I have to let you bastards look for my brother for me?"

The lady looked shocked but then slowly grew into anger. "You don't call people who help you bastards-"

"I can do whatever the hell I want, lady! Like right now, I'm going to go look for my brother!" Ed snarled, pushing himself up in a sitting position, eyes narrowed and glaring at the nurse. "Unless you're going to do it for me? No way in hell I'm going to let you look for my own brother!"

"But you're injured! You only have one arm! How do you think-" she stopped, sucking in a deep breath, seeming to try to calm herself. Then she said in a much more nicer tone, making Ed scoff. "Until we get you a prosthetic for your arm and you're completely healed, then you can go look-"

"That reminds me. What the hell did you do to my auto-mail?" Ed snapped. "The first thing I remember from being spit out here from the Gate is having my auto-mail!" She rose an eyebrow. "Your auto-what?"

"Auto-mail. Are you that thick, woman? Auto-mail. You'd have to be completely delirious if you don't even know the slightest thing about auto-mail!" Her expression read clueless, with a raised eyebrow and a somewhat amused look. "Do you think this is funny, woman? It's not funny when my baby brother could be dead for all we know and you son-of-a-bitches are just standing around doing nothing. Nothing! Oh for damn sake just call up HQ and tell Coronel Bastard to just pick me up! Well, what are you waiting for?" The nurse only shook her head.

"Young man, you sound like the delirious one here, not me. And as far as I know of, I have no idea what HQ you're talking ab-"

"The one in East City!" Ed interjected, too impatient for her 'slow' mind to process what he was telling her.

"There is no East City in DC or in any of the neighboring states. Want me to go look it up?"

"WHERE are you going to LOOK IT UP!" Ed roared. "JUST LOOK AT A FUCKING MAP! IT'S NOT THAT HARD TO FIND!" The woman flinched back, shocked at how much built up frustration the boy was letting out. "UNLESS YOU'RE BLIND, MAPS ARE EASY TO READ!"

"Don't hurt yourself!" she warned, but Ed just looked even more pissed off. He had it. "Screw me! Right now we have to worry about him, my brother, who could possibly be dead-"

"Do you know why?"

"BECAUSE THE TRUTH IS A FUCKING SON-OF-A-BITCH, THAT'S WHY! Forget it! I'm going myself!" Ed flung the sheets off of his body (which were put in hospital clothing) and swung his legs around over to the side of his bed, standing up. He was looking at the wall for a split second before his body lurched forward and then his face made impact with the floor, making a loud 'thud' on the floor. He tried to push himself back up into a crouch but then he fell on his left side. For some reason he felt...lopsided. Starting to panic (ignoring the nurses cry of shock and calling for help) his eyes darted down to his legs.

His automail leg was gone.

"Well shit."

"Good afternoon, Special Agent Gibbs," the nurse greeted, a smile planted on her face as she shook hands with the Special Agent before shaking hands with Tony (And with you, Special Agent DiNozzo). Then she turned to Gibbs and informed him, "He just woke up again after we seduced him. He's calmer now but he's still a little 'fiesty', so be careful. He talks like a crazed man."

"What does he talk about, Miss..?"

"Appleton. Marie Appleton."

"So, Mrs. Appleton, what does he talk about?" Gibbs asked, Tony taking out his notepad. Mrs. Appleton shrugged.

"Random stuff. 'East City', 'HQ', 'Amestris', 'Truth', 'The Gate', all of that. I think he even mentioned some people names.."

"And they are?"

"Well..he said something about a 'Colonel Bastard', so I guess that was a nickname for someone he knew, and an 'Alphonse', his little brother. He keeps saying he's going to die or he's already dead." Tony rose a brow and an amused smirk. "Colonel Bastard? Most likely knows someone in the military..."

"Possibly our dead Lieutenant, but he's not a Colonel, DiNozzo. The kid must of mistakened his title..."

"But Boss, you honestly don't think that some shorty like him could honestly kill a full-grown man-"

"SAY THAT TO MY FACE AND I'LL BREAK OFF YOUR FEET AND STICK 'EM TO YOUR HEAD!"

A/N: That last quote just had to be there, I couldn't think of anything else xD I thought that I made Ed a little OOC, but I guess I won't know until you guys READ AND REVIEW. Thanks xD