The nurse at the infirmary's front desk looked startled as the trio entered. Riza supposed she had every right to be. After all, it wasn't every day Colonel Mustang was more or less carried in as a patient.
"The colonel's not doing so well. Perhaps one of the doctors can have a look at him." Riza spoke calmly; breaking the nurse's stunned stupor.
"A-ah! Yes! Of course!" the nurse exclaimed, hurriedly snapping up a clipboard, "If you'll just follow me…" she trailed off, clearly still in a state of surprise as she led the way to a small room.
There was a medicine cabinet and modest desk lining the wall. A single cot sat in the middle of the room, clearly intended for patient use.
"I-if you wouldn't mind waiting here, sir..." the nurse spoke nervously, addressing the colonel.
Roy grunted and tried to straighten slightly, "Fide…I'll wait here." He murmured groggily.
Havoc took the cue to lower the flame alchemist onto the cot, "There you go, chief." He said mildly.
Roy shivered. He faintly wondered if Havoc's words warranted a reply. The small part of his brain that still seemed to be functioning through the haze of fever told him it did. Havoc had, after all, kept him steady on the trek down the hall. "Th-Thadk you…Havoc."
The second lieutenant smiled in spite of the dull, sickly sound of Roy's voice. "No problem, colonel."
"Er… I hate to interrupt, but-" the nurse began.
"I'll handle his paperwork." Riza stated calmly, "The colonel is incapable of thinking clearly at the moment."
"Oh! Alright. Thank you." The nurse unclipped some papers from her board and held them out to Riza.
As the first lieutenant expertly filled out the papers, her words slowly sunk into Roy's mind. Any other time they would have stung. The same way it stung to be called useless in the rain. This time, however, he felt just weary and feverish enough not to care. Besides, not having to do paperwork right now sounded pretty good to him. His eyelids fluttered. The notion of sleep once more struck him as tempting now that he was in a relaxed position.
"…Here you are." Mustang heard Hawkeye's voice echo as he drifted closer to sleep.
"Thank…" the nurse's tone faded out, his subconscious deeming it as unimportant.
His ears strained to pick up any other sound, but it all grew muffled as his fevered mind hovered on the brink of sleep.
Suddenly, an increasingly familiar tingling in his nose brought his senses back to life. He grimaced inwardly. Why wouldn't it leave him be?
"…think he's asleep?" he caught the tail end of a question- Havoc's.
Roy's breathing hitched, causing his first lieutenant to tilt her head slightly, "I'm not so sure."
"Heh…Hehhh… Hhhhpt'CHUUUU!" Roy bolted up into a sitting position with the blast, barely containing the sneeze into the crook of his arm.
"Gesundheit, sir." Havoc smiled sympathetically as Roy scrubbed at his nose.
"Where did I put Furey's handkerchief?" Roy wondered absently, sniffling wetly.
Riza procured a tissue box from the nearby desk and held it out to Roy, "Looks like you could use one, sir."
Mustang sniffled gratefully and plucked one of the tissues from the box, pressing it against his chafed nose. He emptied what he could from his bothered sinuses into the single tissue before reaching for another. Though offering only temporary relief, it seemed to clear just a bit of the fog from his mind. He satisfied himself with a final blow.
"Geez, colonel. How many tissues you gonna go through?" Havoc asked mildly.
Roy ignored him and instead slowly turned his gaze up to Hawkeye, "Thadk you, Lieutedadt…. Do you know… where the waste bid is?" It seemed he'd found enough decency to not want to sit around with used tissues in his lap.
Riza set the tissue box down and brought over a small, circular trash receptacle, "By the way, you're welcome, sir." She said in reference to his prior expression of gratitude.
Roy offered a wan smile as he dropped the tissues into the bin, but said no more.
Hawkeye returned the waste bin to its rightful spot just as a doctor walked in.
He was a rather plain man, clad in a white coat that proclaimed his profession. A stethoscope was draped around his neck and a clipboard was held firmly in his hand.
The colonel gazed at the doctor slowly, ebony eyes blinking sluggishly.
The man promptly snapped into a salute.
"At ease." Mustang sighed, coughing slightly into his hand.
The doctor relaxed, and glanced down at his clipboard, "Now I know what it says here, but just to clarify- what seems to be the problem, colonel?"
The flame alchemist rubbed his temples between his thumb and index finger, trying to find the words to explain exactly how he felt, "…I'b so tired…" he muttered almost inaudibly, "…And by head…it's killing be." He shuddered. Why was it so hard to think?
"Says here you've been experiencing periodic chills and bouts of dizziness…" the doctor tried to be helpful.
"He's also been fairly sneezing his head off." Havoc interjected.
"And coughing." Riza said calmly.
"…By arbs and legs feel heavy…and I albost passed oud after cha'ging clothes…" Roy found himself admitting, tongue loosed by fever. "I…I was so dizzy…" he recalled, continuing to massage his temples.
The doctor frowned, a simple action that did not go unnoticed by Havoc or Hawkeye. "Well then..." he set down his clipboard on the desk and reached into one of the medicine cabinets, "I'd better take your temperature, colonel." A frown still donned his face as he produced a thermometer.
Riza didn't like that expression when worn by anyone in the medical field; it made it feel like the doctor had passed the death sentence on his patient.
Roy lowered his hand from his head, tilting his head back slightly as he opened his mouth and lifted his tongue. As out of it as he felt, he knew what was coming when he saw a thermometer.
"Any guesses what he's down with?" Havoc asked casually, trying to clear the tension in the air.
The doctor slipped the glass thermometer under the colonel's tongue before adopting a thoughtful expression, "I'm not quite sure... I'll have to finish examining him first."
"It came up on him so fast too." Havoc continued mildly, as if he expected the doctor to divulge further information if he pressed. He reached for a packet of cigarettes in his pocket, but thought better of it when he met Hawkeye's glare.
"Yes, well, there are a lot of things going around this time of year."
Roy returned to massaging his temples, he couldn't be bothered with the conversation transpiring around him. All he wanted right now… all he craved… was sleep. His fevered mind cried inwardly at the realization that he would in fact be denied sleep a while longer.
"…thermometer…" he zoned back into the conversation long enough to hear the single word. Roy lifted his head slowly, blinking against the light.
The doctor plucked the mercury filled utensil from the flame alchemist's lips and studied where the red line stopped. He frowned once more, "Well… it's no wonder you needed some support getting here."
"What's it say?" Havoc asked, arching an eyebrow.
"The line stops between the thirty-nine and forty degree marks. I'd say he has a fever of roughly thirty- nine and a half degrees Celsius." The doctor stated, "Most people are disoriented with a fever like that."
"I thought he seemed quite warm." Riza commented calmly.
Havoc glanced back at his commanding officer.
Roy's eyebrows had quirked and his mouth hung half-way open, "Heh…"
"Oh boy. Here it comes." He thought, taking a step back.
"Hehhh… Hhpt'CHUUuu!" Roy sneezed into his hands, forgetting all decorum in favor of shielding the three other people from his spray. He sniffled and groaned.
"Gesundheit." The doctor replied reflexively.
Roy didn't reply; he simply stared down at his hands a long moment. Would it be so bad to wipe the mucus away onto his pants? He wondered.
Riza seemed to read his mind and frowned in distaste. She quickly retrieved a pair of tissues from the box and held them out to the colonel, "One for your nose, one for your hands, sir."
Roy blinked slowly. How had she…? Oh, never mind. He carefully took the first tissue to wipe his hands and blew his nose into the second.
"If you don't mind, I'll take a listen to your breathing now." The doctor spoke up the moment Roy was through.
"Nngh…Okay." Roy murmured, doing his best to sit up a bit straighter. His arms trembled slightly in the effort and he shivered.
The doctor adjusted his stethoscope so he was wearing it properly and proceeded to take a listen to Roy's chest. He instructed him to breathe deeply and hold his breath alternatively as he worked.
The sudden extremes of the controlled breathing sent the flame alchemist into another coughing fit, causing tears to spring in his eyes.
The doctor pulled back, letting the stethoscope rest around his neck once more, "Hm." He returned to his clipboard, jotting down his findings.
Roy panted in an effort to regain his breath, staring lethargically at the wall.
The doctor proceeded to examine his throat and ears, trying to be as thorough as possible… even if he was fairly certain of the ailment that had befallen the colonel.
"So. What are we looking at?" Hawkeye asked the doctor, feeling almost impatient. The man seemed to have had his mind made up moments after he'd seen Mustang.
Havoc too was growing impatient with the doctor. He'd crossed his arms and was tapping his elbow in an effort to keep himself from lighting a cigarette.
"It looks like he's come down with a case of influenza." The doctor stated, flexing his fingers in a mildly nervous fashion.
"Influenza?" Havoc felt sweat forming on the back of his neck. He'd heard tales of the influenza virus claiming more than a couple lives.
"Yes, well, it seems to be more common with this time of year…" the doctor trailed off, glancing at the colonel.
Roy seemed to only be half listening; his fever leading his mind elsewhere.
"How should we treat him?" Riza asked, following the doctor's gaze.
"Ah, well, we can treat the symptoms. I can give him some medicine to help bring down his fever and lessen his aches and pains…And he ought to drink plenty of water… Otherwise, rest and comfort measures should do him a world of good." The doctor spoke evenly and sighed, "In any case, the survival rate of influenza has been slowly improving over recent years. With rest he should be fine." Truth be told, it was nerve-wracking playing doctor to a high ranking officer, especially when dealing with something like influenza.
Both Hawkeye and Havoc visibly relaxed a degree.
"Though he should make contact with as few people as possible…" the doctor wrung his wrists, not so subtly implying that Mustang should probably be quarantined.
"I see." Riza nodded, "In that case, I'll gather the paperwork he'll need to fill out for a leave of absence." She said calmly.
The doctor nodded, "A wise idea." He turned to Mustang, "Colonel?"
Roy looked up blearily after several long moments, "Mm?"
"I'll have the nurse bring you some medicine and water." The doctor spoke plainly.
"Mm…alrighd." Roy nodded slowly. He grimaced as his head punished him for the bobbing motion.
"Can the chief rest here a while?" Havoc inquired as he looked the colonel over, "I mean, he doesn't seem like he's in any state to drive at the moment."
"Yes… of course." The doctor nodded.
Roy would have been mildly annoyed by their discussing how to 'deal with him' were it not for the fact that the word 'rest' sounded more blessed than any other word he'd managed to catch since they'd gotten to the infirmary. Ah yes, sleep. His body had been crying desperately for it and his mind as well. How wonderful it would be to lay back and close his eyes for a little while…
"…get home?" Havoc was asking a question again, but Roy had missed the most of it.
"I'll drive him to his apartment after my shift." Riza replied easily, "That way I can assure he doesn't wind up in a car accident. Not to mention, it gives him a chance to rest a bit." She mused.
"Ah, good idea. No point in being a bodyguard if you don't have a body to guard." Havoc smirked slightly.
Roy slowly put two and two together and came to the conclusion that Hawkeye would be driving him home later… he supposed he didn't mind.
"Get well soon, colonel." Havoc was saying, giving Roy's shoulder a pat before exiting the room.
"I'll be back in a bit with those forms, sir." Hawkeye addressed him, bending down so they were at eye level.
"…Forbs?" Roy questioned vacantly.
"Yes, colonel, for your leave of absence." Riza explained, quickly realizing that he'd been fading in and out of the conversation more frequently than she'd initially thought.
"Ah…righd…I knew that." He lied sluggishly, noticing the hints of concern in her brown eyes.
Hawkeye returned to her full height and saluted her superior, "Get some rest, sir. I'll return." With that she turned on her heel and stalked out of the infirmary.
Roy watched her a moment before his mind once more disjointed from coherent thought. He leaned back against the cot's pillow, eyelids fluttering as fevered dreams threatened to claim him. He wasn't sure when it was that the doctor left the room, nor did he care. Sleep seemed to be the only thing that was relevant. Nothing else seemed quite so pressing as the desire, no, the need to succumb to the awaiting arms of slumber.
Roy fell into a fitful doze before the nurse could so much as reenter the room.
Author's Note:
So ends chapter four. Yes, this confirms it- Roy has the flu. *cuddles him* Now I know what some of you are thinking: 'Influenza? Deadly? What the heck?'
Though I ask you to consider the timeframe this series is set in. In the early 1900's influenza was a lot scarier than it is today. People did die from it a lot more often. And if my research is right, there was a Spanish flu pandemic in 1918 which claimed many. While I realize FMA is not a carbon copy of the real world, I just can't shake the feeling that people in Amestris during that time period would treat influenza as more of a threat than we tend to nowadays. Rest assured, I won't come close to killing Roy with it (That wouldn't fit into the canon at all and besides, I like him too much to kill him).
On another note, showing his temperature would be infinitely easier with an electronic thermometer, but it just wouldn't feel as time authentic. Blah… I've probably already mashed up several past concepts with those of modern day. Hope you can see past any inaccuracies and enjoy the story for what it's worth. *nervous laugh*
Anyway, this is the last of the daily posted chapters. I will continue to update this fic, but it will probably be a bit slower. These day to day updates were holiday exclusive! *laughs lightly*
On that note, Happy holidays to everyone and a Merry Christmas to all who celebrate (myself included)! =)
Reviews make me happy and I'll see you in chapter 5!
Footnote:
39.5 Degrees Celsius is roughly equivalent to 103.1 Degrees Fahrenheit.