DISCLAIMER: Ed Elric, Al Elric, 48 (helmet), Lust, Maria Ross, Denny Brosh, etc. © Hiromu Arakawa / Marina, Araphon © author.

Key:

Normal text - speaking/narration

Italics - thoughts

Ch 23: One Thing Leads to Another

I immediately slid off of Araphon's back and jumped in front of the homunculus, bewildering her.

"Marina, what are you doing?! Get out of the way!" It appeared that our escorts had come after us, and met up with Al in the process.

"If you want to shoot her, you're gonna have to shoot me first!" I yelled towards the Lieutenant. "She saved my life back there. It's only fitting that I do the same for her!"

"Marina, as touched as I am, I'm immortal. Bullets won't hurt me."

Ross sighed, understanding that I wasn't going to budge unless metaphorical claws were retracted and guns put away. "Stand down! That's an order!" Muttering was heard among the rescue squad as the soldiers stowed their weapons. She approached me, hugged me. "I'm glad you're all right!" Lust cleared her throat, and Ross relinquished her hold on me.

"Er, right............more introductions. Ross, Brosh, Al, everyone else concerned; this is Lust, and the helmet she's holding is known as Slicer. Yes, she's a homunculus, but she is now working for us. Both Ed and I have confirmed this. The same goes for Slicer too." More muttering arose from the group at this announcement. Ignoring it, I continued, "Lust and Slicer, these are our escorts; Lieutenant Maria Ross and Sergeant Denny Brosh, as well as Ed's younger brother, Alphonse Elric." I motioned to each person, the military officers saluting when mentioned.

"I'd be lying if I said it was nice to meet you, Lust."

Said homunculus laughed. "It's nice to meet you too, Lieutenant!" She stuck out a hand for Ross to shake, who held out her hand cautiously. Seeing this, Lust commented, "Don't worry, I'm not going to bite........hard." Ross then shook hands with the homunculus without hesitation, an uncharacteristic grin on the Lieutenant's visage.

My left arm suddenly decided that it was bored and wanted to make life difficult for me. I winced from pain that shot up the injured appendage. "Marina, are you OK? What happened in there?" Ross questioned, concerned.

"Let me see your hand." I held out my left arm so Lust could examine the hand in question. "Hmmmm..........you want to hear the good news or the bad news first?"

"The bad news, I suppose."

The homunculus arched an eyebrow in surprise. "All right. Bad News: about 85 percent of the bones in your left hand are severely broken."

............OK, so that's more than I originally thought, but it'll heal eventually, right? I mused.

"WHAT?!?!" Ed blurted out. "Marina, was that from th––"

Lust held up the hand that wasn't being used as my hand-rest, interrupting the state alchemist and preventing him from getting another word in edgewise. "Good News: your hand seems to be healing itself at a remarkable rate, and will be completely healed in a week at most." Ed soundlessly opened and closed his mouth several times, not unlike a fish.

I shrugged. "One week is better than, say, one year."

"You're incredibly calm about all this, Marina."

"Define 'all this'." I looked at Brosh, the person who provided the comment.

"Well, um, let's see.......you got kidnapped, you can't do much with your left hand because of a bunch of broken bones, and one of your kidnappers is willingly working with us."

"Yeah, well, I guess my mind just kinda stuck everything in the It'll-Be-An-Interesting-Experience Folder, and left it at that."

"..........I see."

I grimaced as pain manifested itself in my arm once more. This, of course, did not go unnoticed by Ed. "OK, hospital time."

Shaking my head, I responded, "No, I'm fine. Really." Cue another ache, another grimace.

"No, you're not. Hospital, here we come!" The blond started tugging me away from the ruined research center, took several steps..............and subsequently came to a halt, realizing that the hospital was a good mile or so from our current location.

About ten minutes later, we arrived at Central Hospital via car. Ed marched me to the ER, demanding to see a doctor immediately––even though it was one or two in the morning. After having me jump through various hoops, the doctors came to the same conclusion Lust had, and my left hand was neatly bandaged up. Apparently, I was free to move around as long as I took care not to injure my arm any further. Ed however, was confined to a hospital bed, auto-mail arm in a makeshift sling.

"Edward sir, I apologize in advance for this!" Ross and Brosh stood at attention beside the blonds' bed.

"Huh?"

The lieutenant smacked Ed rather forcefully and Brosh looked at his partner, shocked. "Doing that stuff on your own, you could have lost your lives back there! First, recognize the fact that you're still children. Next, don't try to do everything by yourselves. Please trust the people around you..........Can't you put a little more faith in us adults?" Ross stood at attention again, startling Ed. "My conduct was improper for a lower officer, sir. Forgive me."

Brosh imitated his partner. "Forgive me too, sir!"

"No, you've got a point," the state alchemist sighed. "I'm sorry." Both military officers looked oddly thankful at this apology, exhaling held breaths. Ed sweat-dropped. "Why are you so relieved?"

"State Alchemists are equal to majors in rank, even though they aren't regular soldiers. We could be fired at a single word from you," Ross explained.

"I didn't get my license because I wanted status in the military, and you don't have to speak so formally to a kid."

The lieutenant was nonplussed. "Oh. Really?"

"Well, the thing is that it was really annoying to have to talk like that to someone younger than me, you know?" Brosh supplemented, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Well, if that's all.........." I yawned. Sleep is starting to sound really good right about now...........

"Oh yeah, you haven't gotten any sleep since we were in the library. Why don't you go take a nap?" Ed suggested. I shot a skeptical look in Lust's direction.

".........I'm not going to kidnap you; that was a one-time thing. If anything, I'm going to be doing the exact opposite."

"Riiiiight." I exited the room, curling up on a bench in the hallway and promptly falling asleep. Lust followed me out and leaned against the wall directly across from me, taking her new self-appointed job seriously.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~A day or so later~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ed managed escape his confinement, insisting that he needed to see me. "Hey, Marin––"

"Shhh!" Lust put a finger to her lips, indicating that the blond should lower his voice. "She's sleeping."

Ed complied with her request and continued in a whisper, "Still?! Wow, she must've been really tired." He gently covered me with his red coat, tucking a stray strand of hair behind my ear and kissing me on the cheek.

"Nhhhh, Ed......." I stirred, but didn't wake. Said alchemist smiled and leaned on the wall next to Lust, watching me catch some 'Z's.