Yay! I did it. To be honest this took me longer than I thought it would. Not because of writers block or anything, I just didn't realise how full on uni would be, I don't have time to do anything anymore and I'm still failing units ( including the one that is meant to prove I have english competency, English is the only language I know) Oh well. Anyway as I said before this is after the 2003 anime so no Truth sorry (I really like Truth but he doesn't fit with what I have planned). I don't own these awesome shows, just my ideas. Read and Enjoy

Chapter 2: Mysterious Puzzles

House was woken to the sound of someone screaming bloody murder. House was sure it was coming from the lounge room. Carefully he entered, surely enough Edward was screaming and flailing about. "Edward," House said, there was no response from the boy. House frown realising that this must be a nightmare. House leaned close to the screaming child and tightly squeezed his right shoulder. "Edward, I need you to calm down," House said calmly. It didn't help in the slightest. In fact it made it worse, Ed's left arm came around, punching House's face, his left hand grabbed at his right arm. His fingernails digging into his skin, deep enough to draw blood. House carefully pulled back the arm to prevent Edward from causing more harm to himself. Edward stopped screaming, he curled up into a tight ball. "I don't want to die," he whispered quietly enough that House only just caught it. House rubbed Edward's back, Edward's muscles relaxed under House's hand, soon Ed was back in a peaceful sleep. House was tempted to wake Ed and ask what he was dreaming about but if any of his neighbours had heard Ed's screaming, they might had called the police and the last thing he needed if police showed up was a distraught child.

Like clockwork, half an hour later, there was a knock on the door. House opened up looking directly at the tired police officer, realising he probably looked the same. It was 3 in the morning and neither was in the mood for pleasantries. "We got a call about a disturbance coming from this house. The reports said they heard someone screaming," the police officer said. House opened the door wider and pointed to Edward who was now sleeping calmly on his back with one hand resting on his stomach. "I found him in my living room late last night, I was going to bring him down in the morning. He had a loud nightmare that's all," House explained.

"We can take him now, if you would prefer." The police office said eyeing the sleeping child.

House shook his head, "Let him sleep, he looked exhausted," House said, the police officer gave him a sceptical look, "look I'll bring him down in the morning, and if not," he motioned down at his cane, " it's not like I'm going anywhere in a hurry."

The police officer sighed "Fine, I'll leave word at the station, so if you don't come down they will know," the threat wasn't needed as if House would try to kidnap the kid, he didn't like kids for starters.

"Good night or is it good morning?" House said waving (in a sarcastic manner) at the leaving police officer. Walking past Edward on his way back to his room. He stopped to ponder at the strange young boy he had let into his home.

Morning light finally came, House wandered sleepily out of his room. He walked quietly up to the couch to see if Ed was still asleep. The sound of the rustling blanket made House realise, his guest wasn't asleep. "Good morning, Ed-ward El-ric. Did you sleep well?" House greeted the boy.

Ed visibly shivered, "Please don't say it like that. Ed is all that's needed. I slept well thank you," Ed said.

"Really, no bad dreams or loud noises," House said.

"No," Ed said, nothing more than usual he added mentally to himself. House had known that Ed wouldn't tell him but the boy didn't seem to be acting differently from last night so either the nightmares were regular or he honestly doesn't remember them. In fact he seemed to be a bit more social compared to last night. "So, police station right?" Ed said getting up off the couch.

Yeah, but after breakfast. You can't forget breakfast," House said

"Fine, what you got?" Ed said sitting in the same place he had sat last night for dinner.

"Let's see, cereal, cornflakes or rice bubbles, and toast with butter, jam or peanut butter." House said listing what he had left in his kitchen.

"Toast with jam, please and can I get some water as well," Ed said calmly. While making breakfast House had another go at interrogating Ed.

"So, had any luck in remembering what you were doing before you got here?" Ed cast his eyes downwards and shook his head. A clear sign to House that Ed was lying and just didn't want to talk. "Do you know where those bruises came from?" House asked, the bruises were definitely more pronounced than yesterday. "Your uncomfortable couch gave them to me," Ed said his voice dripping with venomous sarcasm. House suppressed a sigh he wasn't getting anywhere. The food was placed in front of Ed and House went to make himself a coffee. "Dr House, what type of doctor are you?" Ed mumbled mouth full.

"Diagnostician," House said proudly

"Okay, Medical doctor. Diagnostics, so do you like challenging puzzles?" Ed asked. While it may have seemed like an off course question, House had his first glimpse at the boy's true intelligence.

"Yeah I do like a good puzzle. What about you?" House asked

"Yeah I guess I like a good puzzle," Ed said.

"Well, I guess we've postponed it long enough. Time to go to the police station," House said tasking the last drink of his coffee. "Hurry up," House said to the boy who was still finishing his water. In an impatient gesture House clicked his fingers, what he didn't expect was the rest of Ed's water being hurled at him. House looked over at the boy who had a distinct look of hazed fear. Ed blinked away the look then apologised for his reaction before muttering under his breath what sounded like "too bloody much like Mustang," House had to admit he was amused by the boy's reaction to his clicking and curious to know where the reflex came from but he didn't have the time to spend with boy to learn what secrets he hid.

House went to change his wet shirt and returned to see Ed out in the living room. His clothes collected from the bathroom. Ed put on the red coat and stuffed the gloves into his pocket, he didn't bother putting on his boots figuring they would just be a tripping hazard. He doubted House would have any better fitting clothes or shoes. So he glared with slight anger and frustration at the gate's idea to revert him to a child and as of yet he hadn't looked out a window so he had no clue where he was but he was guessing it wasn't Amestris since House hadn't reacted to his name and Edward Elric was a famous one in Amestris. Out of habit he began to fiddle with his pocket watch.
"What's that?" House asked curiously.

"It's just a pocket watch," Ed said, House's words further cemented the reality that he wasn't in Amestris as any adult citizen would recognise the symbol of the State Alchemists and he suspect that most of the neighbouring countries would recognise the engravings as being Amestrian. The gate had probably dumped him somewhere where he had little to no hope of going home. He made a note is his mind to test if he could still perform alchemy when he had some time to himself.

"Where did you get it from?" House asked, he watched Ed blink clearly being startled out of deep thought. "The pocket watch, where did you get it from?" he asked again

"Oh, A friend gave it to me," Ed said

"Birthday present or something," House said thinking it was a strange gift for a kid that age.

"It was confirm I was one of them," Ed said lazily. The idea of Ed being in a gang had been slipping throughout the morning instead the idea of him being in some sort of cult was seeming more possible. He was showing that he had more intelligence than what was usually found in street gangs and the pocket watched hinted at some sort of formal membership and organisation The whole idea did leave an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

House noticed Ed's hesitation as House opened the door. Ed paused fearful of what he might find outside, he took a deep breath before following House outside. Ed tried not to stare at the cars they looked completely to what he was used, a noise above caused Ed to look up there was something in the sky. What he saw was like nothing he had seen before it wasn't a bird and something told him it was man made. "That plane's flying a bit low," House said. At least Ed now knew what it was called but the casual tone House had spoken about the plane made Ed realise that he was suppose to know about these things. He would just have to research it later.

House opened the door to his car and looked back at Ed waiting for the boy to get in. Ed stood slightly dazed looking back at House. "We aren't walking?" He asked sounding slightly frightened.

House realised that Ed clearly had little experience with cars and what experience he did have either was a bad experience or too long ago for him to remember. "It's okay I'm a good driver," House said.

"Sure you are," Ed muttered sarcastically climbing in the car. He sat on his seat arms crossed grumpy with the whole situation.

"Your shoes and pants are a tripping hazard, you look like you were just beaten half to death and I can't walk that far," House said trying his best to explain the situation to the stubborn child. Ed nodded silently but as they drove House could see the boy's anxiety piling up. He constantly played with the pocket watch. "Ed, I know you clearly don't want to but you're going to have to tell the police what happened to you?" House said.

"You really want to know, don't you," Ed said a smirk quickly flashed across his face. "I did it to protect my brother, I was willing to give up everything so he could be himself. I wasn't expecting to live." Ed had a sad smile on his face and it was easy to tell he wasn't lying. Ed cast his eyes down and stared at his right shoulder, his shirt and coat had fallen down to reveal the scratch marks. He poked them experimentally and sighed. "They weren't there last night," he said. He seemed to pout at them before falling back to playing with his pocket watch. House still wanted to know more about the boy but the he could see the police station approaching fast.

House entered the police station with confidence, Ed followed cautiously a few steps behind. Ed had stuffed the pocket watch into his pocket, he handed out death glares to any police officer that can within 50 steps of the boy. "I said I would be here this morning and I am," House announced loudly to the secretary. He gave a frustrated and confused glare to House before shuffling around his papers. "Gregory House, with the kid?" He said, House nodded. He was handed a form "Fill out the incident report and we'll take the kid. Hey Matt we got a kid for child services," The secretary yelled. A police officer, who can assume to be Matt stood up and started walking over to them. Ed surprising let out a low growl and moved closer to House, his finger brushing against House's shirt. "Come on kid I ain't gonna hurt ya," Matt said calmly. Ed gave House a brief begging look before hanging his head and slumping shoulders, he walked slowly over to Matt and following Matt out the room, although Ed was 10 steps behind. House filled out the paper and left the police station still thinking about the puzzle that was Edward Elric.

He had definitely discovered more in the morning. House was now sure Ed had involved in a cult, the way the boy was out of touch with the world, and his caution and fear of authority meant that it had treated Ed pretty badly. House could guess that they would "punish" Edward regularly and whatever they did "punish" him with made a clicking noise to produce to sort of fear he had seen after this morning's incident. They had provided Ed with some sort of education and House was sure Ed was smarter than he let on. House frowned he wasn't sure why he was still pondering the puzzle of Ed that case was closed as far as he was concerned there was nothing new he could learn after giving up the boy, but even as he reasoned this with himself he could feel his mind trying to tempt him back to the enticing mystery.

There you go. I actually stopped this chapter earlier then I was meant to but that should mean I might be able to get the next one but quicker because 1. I can't wait to write the next chapter and 2. semester break with nothing planned because the younger siblings are still at school of a good chunk of it and I get to go home and experience the new fireplace my parents put in while I was away. I really can't wait to spend the worst part of winter in front of the fireplace reading, writing and generally lazing about. See ya next time!