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Gunslinger Alchemist: A Crossover Fanfiction

"The boy has a mechanical body, but he is still an adolescent child…"

Chapter 4: A Broken Heart in my Hands, The Truth Revealed

VIII. Notes of a Tortured Soul

Edward buttoned his shirt top to bottom as a chill ran down his body. He sneezed loudly and wiped his nose with the back of his hand.

"You're not getting a cold, are you? Looks like someone's talking about you, then!"

"Probably that damn Colonel." He shivered irritably toward white-coated nurse. "It's freezing in here."

"The cold temperature is better for storing the medicine, sweetie; you know that, don't you?" the redhead wrapped the stethoscope around her shoulders. "I'd have thought you'd be used to it by now." She giggled softly to herself as she scribbled something on her clipboard.

The alchemist suppressed a comment with utmost difficultly. This mere nurse was as quick to pick verbal fights as he was and just as sharp-witted. It would be pointless and tiring to object and he didn't have the durability to prolong it or even end it for that matter. He was always as stubborn as to have the last word, but try as he might, he knew he couldn't win.

Despite tendencies to rant and her obsessive personality, Miss Maria Collins was the closest of the laboratory staff to him and the one he got along best with on most occasions. She was very pretty, in her mid twenty's, with very long orange-colored hair and small square cut glasses that she frequently adjusted. Her attire was of the standard medical staff: a long white lab coat and blouse with a short black skirt. Collins was the only female on the staff but had the honor of working along side Dr. Marcoh in diagnosis and development, often taking his place for doing status checks because of the close cooperation needed. It was her job to calculate the how much of the conditioning should be administered and its effect on the bodily functions, especially the important organs. Depending on what she felt at the time, Collins could decide if the situation would be better off with Edward having minimal conditioning and more or less normal functions to being completely drugged. In more ways than one, this nurse had far more power over him than even the Colonel. "Your biological and physical statistics have been improving over the last few weeks," she said over the clipboard. "The medication is, too." She sighed longingly. "Amazing stuff, the human body, isn't it?"

Edward never really quite understood why none of Society staff would never call the "medicine" by its true name, or even address it as a drug in his presence. He did hid best to follow suit. "My body's not that special," he shrugged.

"What do you mean, 'not that special?!'" the nurse retorted, giving the alchemist a menacing look. "It's simply incredible how your body functions maintain so perfectly even withstanding foreign substances, like mechanical nerves, and all the while the upholding overall structure and endurance with the enhancement medicine; extraordinary, isn't it?" She flicked him in the chest with her pointer finger. "Our medication is injected directly into your blood which is carried throughout your body, strengthening every bit of you," the nurse grinned. "Fascinating organ, right?"

Edward lifted a finely tuned brow, bitterly rubbing the bruise that had developed. "What you going on about?"

"It's fascinating how it operates, how it never stops working, its procedures," Collins mused, "especially yours." She leaned in close enough to his face that he could smell the bitter-sweetness of her lavender perfume. "You could say hones the medicine, kind of like a storage system." She chuckled softly to herself. "Seeing a living heart beat is such a beautiful experience, even in researching dissected animals, it's just the same." Edward could have sworn there were sparkles dancing in her eyes by her excited manner. "It makes me want to open you up and see what's inside!" The nurse clasped Edward's hand and held up a shining scalpel, a huge smile across her face. She was dead serious.

Edward backed into his seat, twitching slightly. "N-No way in hell," he answered shakily, retracting his hand.

Collins frowned glumly, pocketing the scalpel, and sulked. "Awww, that's too bad," She turned her back away from him, writing up the prescription form in a red-colored pencil and lifting it at an angle which could not be seen or read. "You were so much fun to play with."

"Play with?! This is my life you're talking about!" Edward yelled angrily. "Are you always this upfront with your experiments?!"

The nurse whirled around giving him an almost sympathetic look. "Oh, I'm not going to kill you or anything like that," she replied in an indifferent tone. "You're too important to us right now." She gazed wistfully toward an anatomy chart hanging on the wall. "Our understanding of ourselves is still quite limited, so the more you get inside, a hands-on experience you might say, the more you know. It's my goal to finalize the medicine and make medical knowledge even more advanced!" she grinned warmly.

"Getting inside, huh?"

"With technology and machinery these days, they can finally make people who've given up walk and live normal lives again! Using my mechanic and auto-mail skills, I want to be able to give that hope to others!"

The alchemist couldn't help but smile in his thought of the similarities. "Heh, you sound like someone I know."

"Do I, now? Who? A girlfriend, perhaps?"

Edward reeled forward. "Sh-She's not my girlfriend!!" he yelled, his face bright red.

"Aha! It is a girl! How cute!!" she laughed.

"Yeah, right, Collins."

"Oh, by the way," Collins pulled the teenager suddenly into a close hug, Edward's face shoved into the front of her blouse. He had become quite a frequent victim of strangulation these days, he had noticed. "Didn't I ask you to call me Maria?" she exclaimed squeezing him tighter. Edward could have sworn he heard a crack of bones. In his luck, a loud knock came from the closed door, interrupting the nurse's choking embrace. "Come in!" she called out loosening her grip by only a bit. Seizing the opportunity Edward lifted his head taking a gulp of air.

Colonel Mustang turned the handle, opening the door and walking into the strange scene raising a brow. "Collins, what the hell are you doing?" he asked monotonously, flicking his gaze at his student.

"Nothing," the nurse answered normally her hold on Edward still firm as he desperately tried to wriggle away.

"I assume you have the prescription sheet?"

"That, I do; but you know it's for the Brigadier General's confirmation not yours. I need to bring it over later."

"I have a meeting with him right now, so I can give it to him there. It'll save you the trouble." He showed her proof of his statement in the form of summoning slip; Michael Mount's signature at the bottom. All the while the Colonel's eyes never left the spot in which he stared.

"Ah, thank you sweetie! That's really nice of you, Colonel. Now where're my notes?" In a swift almost poetic motion, Collins released her grip on Edward, dropping him to the floor in a crumpled heap, and retrieved the clipboard which was lying on the floor. She ripped of a very descriptive document and started to hand it off to Mustang. Before he could take it, she snatched it away holding it from his reach. "So what's this meeting about?" she asked curiously, seemingly oblivious to the fifteen-year-old coughing, recovering from the almost-chokehold and pulling himself upwards to stand.

Mustang could never put his guard down or his full trust in this woman. Just her being in the inner circle of the staff members made him uneasy, and there was the fact that she knew much more than she let on. She looked harmless but in reality she was anything but. "Briefing, mostly for the next mission-"

"But if it's directly from the Brigadier General then it must be a very important case," Collins interrupted thoughtfully. "It's not common for a high ranked official to arrange sittings like that. It will most surely involve my prescription, you can be sure of that."

"You mean that this won't be any normal circumstance case?"

"Life or death, you might say." Her tone was serious and urgent, a vast difference from but a moment ago.

The Colonel's expression darkened and became as hard as stone at her words. "I suppose you could say that."

"In many ways," she gestured to Edward again in an odd sort of glance, grinning. "You're attending the meeting too Ed, correct?"

"Huh? I am?" he turned to face his handler who nodded stiffly. Edward seemed a bit sickened by the thought. The two adults had a good understanding of how much he hated Brigadier General Mount. Edward usually couldn't stand talking, even looking at him, much less a private sitting. But he suddenly relaxed as if he had remembered something crucial of the occasion. "Oh, that's good," he responded a little slowly, out of sorts. "I've actually been meaning to ask him something."

"Ask him something?" Mustang said, puzzled.

"Uh huh," the teenager answered.

Collins blinked, surprised at Edward's inquiry. "Mount is very strict. I doubt he'll even listen unless he's interested," she sighed wearily.

Edward grimaced. "She-She says everything so frankly!!" he thought.

"Well, I shouldn't keep you too long." Collins leaned over and kissed Edward on the forehead causing his cheeks to flush a slight pink. "Good luck, sweetie. I hope everything goes okay." She straightened up and smiled.

"Um, thanks," Edward mumbled.

"Good day then, Collins." Mustang gripped Edward's shoulder steering, almost pushing, him toward the door himself following closely behind. It was so plainly obvious that he had no intention of staying longer than need be.

"Until next time, Colonel?" Collins called after him in her usual chipper manner just before he shut the door behind him.

Mustang stopped but didn't speak. He gave her a quiet, disapproving, almost angry stare, his eyes burning, and retreated from her sight, his fingers still tightly enclosed.

Little less than a minute later, still standing at of the closed door, Edward broke free from Mustang and stepped back in front of the man, his shoulder throbbing. The Colonel's face was just as hard as it was back in the examination room, his fists clenched so tight Edward thought he might bleed. "G-Geez, Colonel, what's with you all of a sudden?"

"What?" Mustang glanced back to Edward. His expression loosened instantly. "Oh, it's nothing for you to worry about." He turned to leave down the hallway.

Edward followed. "Hm, what's with women?" he joked. "They're so violent."

Mustang grinned and shook his head, ruffling his student's hair.

"Colonel, if I've told you once I've told you a thousand times, GET BACK TO WORK!!"

"You have no idea…"

Maria pouted as she was left alone in the small white room. The Flame/Fullmetal pair was so much fun to toy around with, anyway. It was worth the Colonel's distaste. She knew Mustang had such a heavy disposition to her in particular; she couldn't blame him for that. To him, she was the bad guy in this situation no matter what. She had gotten used to the cold shoulder, had to, many years ago in Ishbal where she was an Amestrian surgeon on the battlefields. It came with the job. And there was that incident about the conditioning four years ago…

She leaned back and collapsed against the wall her hands shaking, but her eyes cold and firm. "It'll maintain normal functions, but not for long…"

First off, I'd like to sincerely apologize for the serious lack of updates. I've been having a hard time keeping up with posting of new chapters monthly…School sucks right now, I'm sooo sorry!!! Anyhoo, back to the fic…

Miss Maria Collins…is another important OC. XD If you've been keeping track, she's the fourth so far, though there aren't too many. I usually try limit the OCs I make in fanfictions. The name "Maria" is NOT taken from Maria Ross from FMA (I hated her in the anime, always sticking her nose in private business) but is actually my mother's name. She is a redheaded heart nurse in real life, and oddly enough, her love of seeing a live beating heart is very true XD. Collins is also based on several others including Rachel from the DS game Hotel Dusk, Winry, and Hudson from the fanfiction Experiment A by Selim. Maria's character design was actually my image of Hudson, and in a way this is my fic's version of her (very different though, I'm sooo sorry Selim-sama!!)

So did everyone get the news? As of last week, Death Note will be shown on Adult Swim!! YAYNESS!!! XD I caught the news of it last night before they aired the second episode (I already saw the subbed first episode, so lucky break), I was so happy I could cry. BTW, Happy Halloween!!!