Sorry for leaving you guys hanging like that! Studies were in the way, but now I'm back with the second chapter. Thanks a bunch for favs/reviews! The response from you is what makes it so much fun to write!


He was greeted by a white ceiling when he opened his eyes. He didn't know where he was, what time it was or why he was here. All he knew right now was that his body felt as heavy as lead and that he was lying in a bed.

Ed clumsily sat up and scanned the room. The absence of furniture and the mint colored walls were way too familiar for him. He had been here a couple of times in his life.

He was in a hospital.

"Nii-san, you're awake!" a familiar voice exclaimed in relief. Ed turned to the source of the voice. Golden eyes widened in horror at the sight of Al.

Al was a mess. His armor was dented and pieces of it were missing. There was a big hole where his right arm was supposed to be.

He couldn't remember why they were in this state. He didn't know when it all had turned black for him. The only conclusion his foggy brain could come to was that they either had been attacked or gotten into a fight with someone.

Al noticed the confused look on his brother's face and a frightening thought struck him. It was a possibility that the fall could have caused a memory loss. He had to prove himself wrong.

"What's your name?" Al blurted out. This seemed to snap Ed out of his state.

"What kind of question is that?" Ed asked and stared at Al like he was suffering from memory loss.

"A very important one! Now answer me, what's your name?" Hearing the worried tone in Al's voice, Ed realized what he was up to and sighed.

"I'm fine, Al. Nothing to worry about." Glowing red eyes stared at him intensely, apparently he was still not satisfied with the answer. "Alright, it's Jack."

"Nii-san!" Al warned and Ed just snickered. That was proof enough for Al. Ed was being the troll he was notorious for.

Ed's expression became serious again. He remembered leaving Mustang's office, but after that it's like his memory has been wiped clean. It was frustrating and frightening not being able to remember what had happened afterwards. He barely had time to open his mouth before someone stepped into the room.

It was a nurse, accompanied by someone he didn't want to see right now.

Colonel Mustang.

Ed wanted to snarl at him for coming here. Mustang had a tendency to draw out the animalistic side of Ed. The nurse interrupted him before he could do so.

"Glad to see you're awake, Edward. How are you feeling?" she asked kindly.

Besides from a sore back and the fact that he was having a nasty headache, like someone had smashed him in the head, he was actually feeling fine. He gave her that as an answer and she nodded like she understood.

"I heard from your brother here that you fell a couple of meters. Luckily we didn't find any internal bleedings nor was anything broken. You must have a guardian angel on your side to have gotten away with only minor injuries."

"Yeah, I guess I have," Ed replied. He didn't want to tell her that he couldn't remember anything of what had happened.

"You will stay here during the night for observations. You should be able to leave in the morning."

Ed didn't want to stay longer than necessary in hospitals. Staying here during the night for "observations" was his definition of unnecessary. However, he decided to not pick this fight.

Mustang made a coughing sound from the doorway, probably on purpose. The nurse took it as a hint for her to leave them alone for a while.

"I'll leave and go tell the doctor that you're awake. Just call if you need anything, Edward." She gave him a warm smile and left the room. The temperature seemed to drop a few degrees in the room and there was a moment of silence. Ed turned his face to the window, but he could feel those damn onyx eyes in his neck. It was like Mustang was waiting for Ed to explain things and it annoyed him. He turned his head and glared at his superior officer.

"Well, why are standing there wasting time by not saying anything!" The annoyance in his voice was evident, but Mustang just looked at him calmly.

"I expect you to explain what happened. All I know is that the military found you in the sewers after what seemed to have been an explosion. I am here to get the details out of you. Now tell me what happened," the man said and folded his arms over his chest. It almost looked like a father wanting an explanation from his kid, which was disturbing for Ed.

"You're making it seem like I've done something wrong!"

"Wherever you're, there's always destruction involved," Mustang stated as if it was a fact. "And we all know that's what you do best, Fullmetal."

Ed childishly thought that this wasn't fair. He clenched his fists and shot a dark glare at the Colonel.

"If you must know, I can tell you this much: I don't remember what the hell happened after I tried to hand in that damn report!" Ed almost yelled. "You hear me, it's all blank afterwards!" There was this trace of panic in his voice. "If someone should be asking what happened, it should be me!"

Mustang was a bit taken aback by his subordinate's outburst and he frowned.

"Uhm," Al started hesitantly. "Excuse me Colonel, but may I be a part of the conversation? I can tell you what happened."

Both Ed's and Mustangs eyes landed on Al. Seeing the state the suit of armor was in, it was obvious he too had been involved in whatever had happened. Well, his brother was always involved in the things Ed was involved in.

"Of course, Alphonse. Go on."

He told them that Scar had attacked them on their way back to their dorms. He was generous with the details. When he came to the part where the stones had stopped raining upon them, he hesitated. There was this inner battle going on inside of the suit of armor right now.

Al had difficulties lying. He barely did. Now was one of those rare moments he considered to change the truth. What would happen if he told them that Ed was the reason his arm was destroyed and that he had caused a big hole in the ground by performing alchemy without even clapping his hands. Or even using is hands for that matter. What would the Colonel do with him? And most importantly, what would his brother think of himself? His brother carried enough weight on his shoulder and Al didn't want to add to that weight. Especially if this was, what he hoped, an accident that would never ever happen again.

His hesitation didn't pass by unnoticed by the two and Al shouldn't have expected it would have.

"Yes, Alphonse?" the Colonel interrupted his thoughts.

"Sorry, Colonel. It just occurred to me that I could have lost my brother." Al tried to cover it up with something that was actually true. It seemed to work since Mustang just nodded.

"Scar destroyed the ground when he realized that we had him cornered. We fell into the sewers. Luckily for my brother, the fall wasn't very high. He was unconscious when I got to him. I didn't dare moving him since I right then didn't know if he was badly injured. So I waited until the military came to our aid and then we ended up here," Al finished, his eyes locked on the Colonel.

"And how did you lose your arm again?" Mustang asked. The way he asked indicated that Al had missed that part, or even suspected that Al had left it out on purpose.

Al didn't hesitate this time.

"Scar destroyed it when I got in the way."

Mustang was biting the inside of his chin. For some reason he wasn't entirely convinced, even though he knew that Scar had attacked Alphonse before and Scar's typical way of escaping was going under the ground. From experience, he also knew that Ed's brother was a loyal person and wouldn't lie. He decided to leave it be.

"Thank you, Alphonse, this made it clearer. Maybe this helped refresh your brother's memory too," Mustang said and shot a glance at Ed.

Ed, who had been unusually quiet and trying to remember, looked up to meet his eyes.

"Sorry Colonel, but I still don't remember anything." Mustang almost looked concerned for a moment, but it was quickly replaced by that serious and slightly cold expression. Ed couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed. Ed might have actually liked Mustang if the man would have showed that he cared for him. The lack of emotions made him doubt Mustang would miss him if he had been killed.

Ed suddenly realized that he was getting a bit too sensitive about this. Getting too sensitive about thoughts that involved his superior officer was very unlike him. Maybe the hit in the head affected him in some weird way.

Right now he wished he could say that magic word superior officers were privileged to use. The word 'dismissed'. People would leave without questioning as soon as that little word was uttered.

"Was there anything else?" Ed asked annoyed and let his eyes drop to his hands instead.

"Yes, don't forget to hand in the report," Mustang reminded him and a small smirk appeared on his face before he turned his back to the two brothers.

"Yeah, as soon as I'm outa here I'll hand in the damned report," he said between gritted teeth. "bastard," he finished.

"I'll see you soon then," Mustang answered, unaffected by the nickname Ed used regularly.

The silence filled the room as soon as the man had left. Ed rubbed his bandaged forehead carefully and thought that his head must have gotten way too many hits during his life.

"I'll fix you, Al. I just need to get out of this hospital," he muttered the last sentence and stopped rubbing. "Lucky me my automail seems to be just fine. If I didn't get internal bleedings from the fall, I sure would have gotten it from Winry's wrench." He grimaced at the thought. Sometimes he was sure her wrath could take down any homunculi.

"Yeah," Al answered absent minded.

Ed looked at him examining. Al's eyes were directed to the window, seeming to be deep in thoughts. Ed couldn't help but get this déjà vu feeling and it suddenly felt like his windpipe shrank. The thought that struck him was that of an unpleasant experience involving his younger brother. Right then his armor was also a mess.

"What's wrong, Al?" he asked worried and Al snapped out of his own world.

"What?"

"You.. you're not thinking those thoughts again?" Al didn't understand what he meant.

"What thoughts, nii-san?"

"You know, after the fifth laboratory incident," Ed mumbled quietly.

Al suddenly felt guilty for making his brother worry over that.

"No, of course not! I was just thinking about other things," he replied quickly. "About unimportant things really," he added.

Ed let out a small sigh of relief.

"Don't scare me like that."

"Sorry, nii-san. I didn't mean to."

The doctor came in a moment later and checked to see if everything was fine with his patient. He told Ed what the nurse already had said before leaving the two alone for the rest of the night.

"Guess I better get some sleep," he said with a yawn and crawled under the covers. "See you in the morning, Al."

"Good night, nii-san."


I know not much happened in this one, but it was a necessary chapter. I don't want to rush through this story and I'm sure you don't want it to be rushed. Hope you don't dislike Roy too much in this story, he'll get better in later chapters. Unlike Ed, I'm sure he cares about him. Please tell me what you think and I'll "see" you in the next chapter :)