AN: Went down to San Diego for some fun in the sun. Spent a few days petting bat rays, feeding sealions, and getting splashed by orcas and pilot whales. Oh, and the Atlantis ride is pretty awesome, too. Yayz for spring break! Vacation almost over, but I thought I'd give you a new chapter of All Wrong before the weekend's over. Enjoy!

Thanks very much to everyone reading, alerting, favoriting and especially reviewing! I'll use the system to respond this time.

Roy was tired, cranky and highly distracted when, against Riza's strong recommendation, he made his way, alone, back to the hospital room where Fullmetal was being held. He had just met with Hughes, Ross, Riza and several of the doctors who had been attending to Edward, including the psychiatrist who performed his evaluation earlier that day. They all seemed to be saying the same thing. This was Edward Elric – at least an Edward Elric – who seemed to have crossed from his reality into theirs when he passed through the Gate. And the psychiatrist would have said that such wild claims made him delusional, but they couldn't dismiss the evidence Winry had found on the automail. Maes had even called in an expert on something called quantum mechanics who started talking about wave functions and probability amplitudes until Roy felt like pounding his head on the table. Then two sentences emerged from the intellectual fog that struck Roy with clarity "Every possible outcome to every event defines or exists in its own "history" or "world." In layman's terms, this means that there is a very large, perhaps infinite, number of universes and that everything that could possibly happen, or could possibly have happened, in our universe (but doesn't) does happen in some other universe(s)."* And if the Gate was a way of moving between worlds, as this Edward claimed, couldn't it also move between universes? Roy could really use an expert on the Gate, but there wasn't one - at least as far as he knew. Those who had seen it rarely spoke of the experience. Roy really needed to talk to Al.

Ross and Brosh had been re-assigned back to their normal duties, so a pair of unfamiliar guards stood outside Ed's hospital room. Roy managed to return their salute, hopefully without looking as wasted as he felt, and pushed through the door into the room beyond, his eyes focused on the floor, his thoughts swirling around in confusion.

"Winry –" Ed's voice issued in soft protest was the first thing he heard, followed by the wet sound of lips coming together.

Roy stopped dead in his tracks and looked up to see the young blond woman lying on top of the golden-eyed young man in the bed. Winry's legs were spread wide across Ed's hips as she leaned over his prone form, her hands pressing his shoulders back into the bed, her head leaned down over him as she pressed her lips eagerly against his. They were both very attractive people and normally Roy would have found the sight rather erotic, especially with the young woman's obvious ardor, but Ed turned his face away from her kiss with a violent jerk of his head and directed his gaze out the hospital window. Roy shifted uncomfortably, feeling trapped in their tableau. He really should leave, but he felt glued to the spot…

"I said stop," Ed hissed quietly at her.

Winry sat up with a shocked look on her face. "But I don't understand, Ed. You know how I feel about you. I love you, Edward. I always have. I'm tired of waiting around for you to figure that out. I can't risk losing you again." Winry's voice was soft and broken. Her hands clutched at the blanket over his chest.

"I know," the young man answered, closing his eyes against the pain in his best friend's face.

"Don't you feel anything for me at all?" she pleaded.

"Winry, I-" He bit his lip as if to stop himself from saying more. His eyes opened, but his narrowed gaze stared fixedly out the window.

"Edward, please. I've waited so long. At least be honest." Roy could hear the tears in her voice and he winced in sympathy. He had no right to be here. He needed to leave before this got any more awkward – but Ed's next words stopped him in his tracks.

"There's someone else," Ed breathed the words out, full of pain.

"What?!"

"I'm sorry, but I'm in love with someone else." And Ed did turn his face back to look at her then, as though to convince her of the truth of his words through the pain and conviction that shone from those gilded irises. But instead of focusing on Winry's face, the windows of Ed's soul shifted their focus to Roy standing mute and unmoving just inside the door, and Roy didn't miss the young man's involuntary wince of pain at the sight of Roy or the bright flush of anger that followed.

The sound of Winry's hand striking Ed's face filled the room with a resounding crack. Ed's eyes had gone back to focus on her face even as her handprint flushed an angry red welt on his cheek. She had scrambled off of him and stood trembling beside his hospital bed.

"I'm sorry," Ed said quietly, watching the young woman as if he was afraid of what else she might do.

"I – " Winry started. She snatched the automail arm from where it lay beside him in the bed, recently unfastened from the restraints. She clutched the arm to her chest like a shield against her own pain. She drew a shuddering breath, but seemed unable to collect her thoughts.

"Winry, please. I do love you, just not like that. You're like a sister to me. You'll always be part of my family."

And though Roy knew how important those words were to someone like Edward Elric, who would sacrifice everything for family, he also knew the effect that "I love you like a sister" could have on a woman's ego when she had expected something so different, so much more. Winry had paled and stepped back from Ed as if he had hit her. Her frantic blue eyes, bright with tears, turned towards the door seeking escape and saw Roy just standing there. An angry, humiliated flush bloomed over her cheeks and the blue eyes hardened. She dashed passed Roy on her way out the door.

"Winry- !" Ed called hoarsely, his voice full of concern and shared pain. But the young woman had no interest in hearing any more from him right now. When the sound of her footsteps faded down the hallway, Ed turned his amber gaze toward Roy.

"What the hell do you want?" he asked roughly.

The young man looked and sounded so much like the boy Roy remembered that it was hard to reconcile this image with the desperate young man who'd pulled Roy down into a tearful, passionate kiss yesterday. But then he saw the flinch of pain again before Ed looked away and he remembered that the boy's instinct had always been to hide his pain with anger.

"I wanted to talk," Roy said, steeling himself against the awkwardness of the moment. He moved closer to the bed.

"Take a number and get in line," Ed growled, glaring out the window.

"Fullmetal –" Roy started.

"Look, if this is going to end in some awkward heartfelt confession, I've had enough of those for today." Ed sighed and closed his eyes. " I'd prefer if you just snapped your gloved fingers and put me out of my misery."

It was Roy's turn to wince, especially when the amber eyes came back to settle on him with such a sharp, painful, pleading expression. Roy's mind floundered, caught between how he would have addressed the boy he had known and what he could possibly say to this young man that he didn't really know – maybe had never known… "Al's coming."

The young man's face paled and his eyes widened, a smile trembled at the corners of his mouth, but collapsed into a frown. "I don't think – I'm not sure if that's…" Ed stopped while his mind and heart fought for control over his emotions. "I'm not his Ed," he finally whispered.

"You don't want to see him?" Roy couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yes! No! Oh hell, I don't know! This is so messed up!" Roy saw the blond's lower lip tremble before it was caught between his teeth. A fierce scowl crossed his face. The golden stare was fixed on his own lap as the fingers of his flesh hand flexed and strained against the restraint. "Al…" Ed whispered, somewhere between a prayer and a supplication.

Roy stopped a few feet from the side of the bed. "Al's the only person I know who's also seen the Gate, Fullmetal. He might be able to help us understand what happened…"

"I don't want him to see me like this!" And the golden eyes returned to Roy's face, desperate and pleading.

Roy closed the gap between them and started working loose the buckle on the leather restraint. He could feel Ed's gaze on him and hear his surprised gasp, but he didn't look up.

"Should you be doing that?" Ed asked quietly, his breath a warm puff of air on Roy's neck.

Roy turned his head and his eyes widened in surprise at how close they were. Ed had sat up and with Roy bent over they were almost eye to eye, mere inches apart. He felt an involuntary blush creep up his cheeks and he couldn't help but remember the feel of the young man's lips pressed against his own. Roy knew he was staring at Ed's lips before he saw them curve into a smirk.

"Aren't you worried that I'm dangerous to you?" Ed's voice was a low growl that sent an unexpected thrill through Roy. He tried to convince himself it was fear or at least uncertainty.

Roy didn't speak until he had finished undoing the restraint. He stepped back slightly, but continued to hold that fiery gaze. Roy cleared his throat. "I want to believe that you are Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, the Hero of the People. I want to believe that you are sane, not delusional or brainwashed. I need to show you that I trust you so you will learn to trust me. I want to understand you – and help you, if I can." Now Roy did look away, gazing at the bandaged wrist that still lay unmoving in the unbuckled restraint. "And I'm sorry about how I reacted when you –" Roy frowned. Saying the words made him see the event in his mind. Being so close to the blond made him remember the feel of Ed's body pressed against his, and brought an unexpected heat to life within him. Roy didn't understand where this reaction was coming from. Maybe Riza was right after all. Not that he had actually done anything with the teen, but had he been feeling this chemistry toward him even back then?

"Yeah, okay, I get it," Edward said hastily, waving off Roy's comments with his newly freed hand. "Let's not talk about it anymore." He didn't seem to want to discuss what happened between them yesterday anymore than Roy did. "So..." Ed drew out the syllable into a long sigh. A silence stretched between them, filled with countless unasked questions.

Roy watched the young man scratch irritably at his beard. He smirked. "I never thought I'd see you with a beard."

Ed stopped scratching and cast Roy a sideways glare. "It wasn't planned, believe me. It's kind of hard to shave with both your hands restrained," he grumbled sarcastically.

"It makes you look like Hohenheim." As soon as he said it, Roy regretted it. The boy had hated his father for abandoning them.

But Ed's face looked thoughtful instead of angry. "I do, don't I?"

"Well, sort of a pint sized version."

"Who the hell are you calling so short he's only half the man his father was?" Ed ranted, waving a clenched fist in Roy's face.

Roy smirked.

"You're still a bastard, Colonel," the young man sulked.

"President, actually…"

Ed blinked and stared at him owlishly.

"Wow, slow take of the year," Roy gloated.

"Shut up, Bastard!" Oh, how those marvelous golden eyes could burn! It was a nice contrast to the faint blush that stained his tanned cheeks.

"Snappy comeback. You know I really missed these intellectual discourses…"

"You're really gonna miss my fist in your face if you don't knock it off!"

Roy started laughing, a genuine, tension-relieving laugh, because even at 25 the young man was so easy to get riled. The familiarity of their exchange felt so right to him. Maybe this wouldn't be as difficult as he'd feared.

Ed's body slumped back into the pillows when Roy started laughing. Those amber eyes softened considerably and a smile played at the corner of Ed's mouth. "I love it when you laugh," he rumbled. "You should do it more often."

Roy shrugged as his laughter died. "There hasn't been a lot of cause for enjoyment."

Ed grunted in agreement, but then the spark was back in his eyes. "But you're President. You fulfilled your dream. Surely that has to count for something."

"It's –" Roy stopped, his lips pursed. He wasn't sure how much to say to this Ed. But he was trying to build trust, after all. He looked out the window. "Things have changed, I believe for the better, but –"

"It's not what you thought it was going to be…"

"Yeah," Roy said, lowering his gaze to meet Ed's eyes. "And it doesn't stop the nightmares…"

Ed frowned up at him and they both sighed simultaneously. Ed tore his gaze away first and stared at his hand where it plucked fuzzy pills off the worn hospital blanket. "If I'm going to be here for awhile, I guess I need to get some more information before I go around sticking my foot in my mouth."

Roy almost teased him about this new found social awareness, but at least Ed had gotten to the heart of what Roy had come here to figure out. "Okay. Where do you want to start?"

"Everyone seems to think I disappeared from here ten years ago."

Roy nodded. "We assumed you were killed during the fight with Scar and Kimbley in Liore."

"Ah –" the golden eyes clouded over, like sunlight through a mist of fog. "Liore. I remember. It was terrible. All those lives lost."

Roy shook his head. "But just think about how many soldiers you saved because you stopped Scar from performing that transmutation."

"Huh?"

"You don't have to play dumb, Fullmetal. Al saw you. He knows that you killed Kimbley and then he said you and Scar started fighting. He tried to follow you, but he said you disappeared. We all saw the array around the city light up and then fizzle out. We found Scar's body, with the mark of your automail blade across his throat. But we never found you…"

"What about the homunculi?"

"Gone. They disappeared into the countryside. We get reports of them from time to time, but they've been pretty quiet for the last ten years. It's like you cut the head off the serpent and they didn't know what to do."

"But Bradley was still in charge –"

"No. Al and I followed him back to Central and fought and destroyed him after we thought we lost you in Liore. It was time to stop the madness…"

"You and Al fought him. That explains why you weren't badly injured."

"Al was amazing. I almost think he didn't care if he lived or died that day."

"But you needed something from Bradley's original body."

Roy nodded and stared down at his hands. "Yeah. It was a cruel twist of fate that Bradley's adopted son, Selim, brought the bag containing Bradley's human skull with him when the mansion caught on fire. He thought he was saving his father's most precious possession. He was very lucky that Al was there to protect him from Bradley's wrath."

"Al…" Ed mused, a smile turning up the corner of his mouth. But then his eyes flew wide in surprise and horror and he searched Roy's face. "But there was no philosopher's stone!"

Roy frowned in concern. "No. We never found anything more substantial than the red stones."

"So no one ever… Al, he's –" Ed put his hand over his mouth.

"What is it, Edward?" Roy put a hand on the young man's arm as if to sooth him. "I told you, Al is coming back from Xing to see you. He should be here within the week."

"Al's still in the armor…" Ed managed in a strangled voice.

AN2: Poor Al, fourteen long years trapped in the armor… *Oh, and in case you think this many worlds thing is entirely a figment of my own imagination, you can find my direct quote in Wikipedia under Many-Worlds Interpretation. Wild stuff... Until next time!