A/N: I'm really sick right now. Too sick to proofread. It feels like my eyes are going to fall out of my skull.
Chapter 5
Roy had been prepared to search every inch of the area surrounding the town of Howlseye. However, it didn't turn out to be the arduous task he thought it would be. As soon as he was off the train, Mustang went searching for a phone to check in with his staff. With no payphones on the streets, he checked into the only Inn in town and requested use of their phone.
"Sir," Hawkeye's tone was very serious and Roy knew immediately that something had happened. He felt his mouth go dry and dread fill his stomach. What if he was too late? What if something terrible had happened? What if-
"Alphonse called."
Alphonse called. Roy felt his breath catch and his lungs stop working.
"They are both at the hospital, Edward is injured…"
Ed was injured, but he was alive. He was actually alive. The relief caused Roy's composure to slip. Alive. After weeks of dead ends and not having any idea where the boy was, the sudden notion that Edward would turn up this quickly, seemed too good to be true. It couldn't be this easy; nothing had ever been this easy for Roy or Edward.
Mustang's throat constricted and he was only able to make a strangled sounding noise in response.
"Sir." Hawkeye prompted. Not a question, but a reminder. It was time to go to work. The Colonel straightened up and he took one deep breath. "Alphonse knows you are coming. He's waiting for you."
Another deep breath.
"Understood, Lieutenant."
Roy ended the conversation quickly after that, not even giving a proper 'goodbye' before he hung up the phone and walked briskly from the building. Once he was out on the street, he stopped the first person he saw and asked for directions to the hospital. It was down the road, on the main street. Small towns kept everything near the main street.
Roy was walking, jogging and then sprinting. He was so focused on getting there as quickly as possible that he initially ran past the entrance. It wasn't until he heard a familiar voice call his name that he skid to a stop and spun around to see Alphonse standing just outside the doors. Al had been watching from the window, waiting. When he had seen the Colonel run past he had run outside to chase after him. Roy stumbled and then tried to walk, respectfully, with dignity…
"Colonel!" Al sounded as though he was crying and he started walking forward with his arms extended. "You're here, you're actually here." Al sounded so relieved and scared. Ideas of maintaining an air of respectability vanished and Colonel Mustang ran the last few meters to the younger brother.
"I'm here. I'm here. It's all right. It's all right." Roy found himself repeating as Alphonse barreled into him, nearly knocking him over. Al was wrapping his arms around the Colonel and hugging him too leaned over and rested his metal head upon Mustang's shoulder. Roy's frame shook with the great sobs that the boy was emitting.
"I'm sorry it took so long for me to find you both. I'm sorry Alphonse. It's going to be all right."
Standing outside of a tiny hospital in some town in the middle of nowhere, Roy wondered at one point had the Elric brothers become so important to him. At what point did their wellbeing start to matter so much? This amount of caring was going to destroy him some day, but the Colonel wrapped his arms around Alphonse as best as he could and accepted his fate.
He would always be there for them. No matter what.
"Ed's sick." Al explained brokenly. Mustang didn't comment on the way the younger boy was gripping his shoulders so hard. After several minutes of uncontrollable crying, the Colonel had only just been able to calm Al down enough that the boy could start explaining.
"He's really, really sick, Colonel. And they won't let me into the room anymore! And Ed, Ed. He- he's not, he's not, he's not-"
Roy wasn't sure if it was possible for Al to hyperventilate, but it definitely sounded as though he was about to.
"Alphonse," Mustang started, but he cut himself off before he could tell the boy to take a deep breath. "…Calm down," Roy said instead. "Start from the beginning, what happened? We've been looking for you. Your brother was reported as missing days ago."
"Sorry, Colonel! There weren't any phones! And then when we got here, Ed was really sick and I was so worried and I forgot until this morning. It's just- there was so much- Ed fell into this river and he got so hurt." Alphonse quickly ran through an account of what had been going on, but he was talking so fast the Colonel was losing track of the story. A river, a family, an old doctor, a trip in cart in the near freezing weather and now the hospital…
"Why aren't they letting you in the room anymore?" Mustang interrupted the boy's frantic story.
"Ed broke a nurse's jaw." Alphonse whispered quietly. "But he didn't mean to! He didn't know where he was and he started yelling. I was holding him down, but his arm got loose and he punched a woman across her face. It was awful. He has a fever and… well, nightmares. He still has trouble sometimes when he wakes up and they don't understand all of that. Brother can't always tell where he is, he was just scared." Al trailed off, sadness overtaking him for a moment.
"His leg got hurt and now it's infected. They said if it doesn't get better… they said… they said they might have to amputate, but they can't! They can't! Please explain it to them! Ed can't lose anything else!"
"Alphonse." Mustang wanted to comfort him. He wanted to tell the boy that Ed wouldn't have to lose the leg, but if the infection was bad…Roy felt like he was going to be sick. "I will make sure everything is done to save it, but if it came between that and your brother's life…"
Al nodded slowly, but he looked absolutely miserable.
"I'll will talk to them, I'll try to get you back in to see him. I can't imagine he's horribly pleasant without you there with him."
"They had to sedate him to get him to stop," Al whispered again. Mustang wondered if he would ever stop feeling as though the ground was falling out from underneath his feet.
"I will talk to the Doctor." Mustang offered, though a horrible feeling was building in his gut. Despite his efforts to remain calm, Roy felt as though he was beginning to panic. The relief of finding the boys alive had quickly dissolved and given way to a helpless kind of worrying.
"It will be all right." Roy said, even though he was beginning to doubt it.
Once Roy had let the staff know that he was Edward Elric's commanding officer and was responsible for the boy, they had given him permission to visit Ed. However, they would not allow Alphonse to accompany him. Stating that Edward wasn't allowed visitors at this time, but they would make an exception for the Colonel since he was the closest thing to a legal guardian.
"He should be coming out of sedation," a nurse at the desk informed him in a clipped tone.
"Colonel…" Al spoke nervously, obviously upset over the situation. Roy spoke over him, deciding that authority was best in this situation.
"Can you tell me why he has been sedated?"
"It was for his own safety and the safety of the staff here." The nurse paused here and studied Mustang's appearance. She must have seen something worth pitying because her tone softened slightly. "Most of the nurses were refusing to go near him. It came down to sedation or removing the automail and his brother asked us not to do that," the nurse nodded at Alphonse, "he said it would be gravely upsetting to him."
On some rational level, the Colonel understood. However, he was exhausted and, quite frankly, he was pissed. He felt a fierce protectiveness course through him that would have made Hughes proud.
"You are not going to sedate him again."
"Colonel Mustang-"
"He will not be sedated again, do you understand?"
"This is not a military hospital, sir." While the woman was capable of compassion, she was not easily swayed. Mustang tightened his jaw.
"Which room?" He would continue this argument later. He needed to see Edward.
"Down the hall, third door on the left." The nurse motioned quickly and then turned back to her paperwork.
While Al paced anxiously in the waiting area, Roy walked quickly down the hall. Once he found the correct door, he took a deep breath to calm his racing heart and stepped inside.
There was Ed, still and looking almost dead on the hospital bed. Most of the boy's face was taken up by a large rubber oxygen mask. It was securely fastened to the boy's head and Roy could easily see why Ed would have panicked over having something like that forced upon him. As he stepped into the room, Roy realized that Edward was strapped down to the bed. Mustang felt anger course though him again. This must have been a new development. Al would have told him, if had known that Ed had been confined in this way.
During Edward's previous hospital stay in Central, there had been discussion about having to strap down Fullmetal to the bed. However, Roy had convinced the staff not to try to tie down Ed, convincing them that it would cause the boy too much distress.
Mustang strode forward and began undoing the buckles around Ed's torso, hips and legs. This tiny, rundown hospital didn't know Ed's medical history. It wasn't a state hospital and Edward had no connections here, so they had no way of knowing the first thing about caring for the boy. As he worked on the strap around the boy's torso, Edward twitched and his eyes fluttered open. Startled, Roy paused in his movements. He was relieved to see those eyes struggling to open. After looking for so long, here was Edward, really alive. Ed's blinked multiple times before his gaze wandered over to the Colonel's face and Roy froze. Was he lucid? Would he panic? The moment dragged on, until Roy couldn't take it anymore.
"Fullmetal," Mustang whispered, and his voice sounded so fragile, what the hell was the matter with him? Ed stared vacantly and Roy thought he must have been too out of it to actually understand, but then Ed tugged very pointedly at the restraints over his chest. He then cast a look at Roy that seemed to ask what the hell was taking him so long.
"Right," Mustang gasped out in that choked voice. He quickly undid the strap, completely freeing Edward's shoulders and arms.
Immediately, Ed weakly reached up and began clawing at the mask. He struggled to get his fingertips underneath it and pry it from his face.
"Leave it." Roy tapped at his fingers, pushing them away.
Ed's hands searched for a moment before he determinedly grabbed the Colonel's hand and began slowly tracing something into his palm. Letters. Mustang realized. Edward was trying to talk to him. The mask probably muffled his speech a great deal.
Al? Ed was asking.
"Outside, they kicked him out."
Edward made a noise a this, but didn't seemed surprised by the information. After a moment, Ed was writing another message in Roy's open palm.
Morphine.
Roy blinked. Unsure if Ed was asking for morphine or admitting to wanting some. Sensing his confusion, Ed motioned to the IV hooked into his arm.
Morphine.
It clicked then in the Colonel's mind. They had given him morphine.
"That's all right. It's all right. Will worry about it later."
Ed's brow furrowed and his eyes began watering. Fighting off frustrated tears, he went back to clawing at the edges of the mask.
"Calm down, Edward. Leave it alone."
It was then that a nurse walked into the room. Her eyes widened at the unbuckled straps and she began to move to the side of the bed, hands lifting towards Edward's form.
"Don't you dare!" Roy snapped and the woman stopped in her tracks, but her expression had moved from surprise to distaste.
"Sir, this patient must remain restrained. He is a danger-"
"You are going to stay the hell away from him." Roy now had one arm over Ed's chest as he snarled at the woman.
"Our hospital policy-"
"I don't care about your backwards shit policy. Get out." Mustang bit out. The nurse frowned, but hastily turned and left, her short heels clicking loudly on the floor.
To hell with this place. Roy thought as he undid the last fastener by Edward's feet. This hospital had no idea how to deal with Edward. He wasn't going to let him stay here.
He was taking him home.
To be Continued…
A/N: I am ill. There might be a delay in the next chapter. We've almost caught up to what I have written already and I can't concentrate anymore right now. I need to go to sleep. Sorry if there are mistakes. Bye. I love you guys.
