Thank you again for all the reviews and favs! It always means a lot! Enjoy this next chapter!

When Riza's eyes finally slipped closed, Roy was so grateful she was finally asleep and not yelling at him anymore. He hated it enough when she started in on him in normal circumstances, but when she looked so sick and still wanted to fight him, he knew she was serious.

A knock on the door broke him of his thoughts and he knew the Fullmetal Alchemist was there. He went downstairs and opened the door to find Edward smiling tightly back at him.

"How is-"

"Awful, get in," Roy said shortly. He didn't have time for pleasantries. "Did you find someone?"

"No," Edward said as he tossed his coat on a chair. "No one can, or wants to, help. The doctors who do want to help already have many patients lined up. I did call Winry. She's getting on the next train out tomorrow."

Roy sighed and he leaned heavily against the wall by the stairs. Edward regarded the older man closely, and realized that Mustang looked like all the energy had been drained out of him. He looked so tired, and also so confused as he placed his head in his hands. Ed felt bad for him. He couldn't imagine something like this happening to Win… er, someone.

"What happened?" Ed asked, coming over and placing a hand on the man's shoulder. Roy glanced at him for a moment and shook his head.

"We got into an argument."

"You fought with a sick lady? Dude," Edward said, and Roy glared at him dangerously. The boy felt bad immediately. He sometimes didn't say the best things in stressful situations. "Sorry," he said quietly. "What did you fight about?"

"Riz- Lieutenant Hawkeye thinks there is something more going on. That it's not a normal illness. She keeps saying 'something bigger is going on,' but I don't know what that could mean." Roy sounded absolutely exhausted, and Ed knew he hadn't been sleeping. He found himself feeling very worried for the Colonel because it looked as though he would be laid up right next to Hawkeye if he wasn't careful.

"Something bigger, huh?" Ed pondered that for a moment. "Well, I don't know what that could mean, but I'll take a look and see if I can find anything." He walked upstairs and Roy slowly followed. Pushing the door open, Ed entered the bedroom where Riza lay in a fitful sleep. She was tossing and turning and grimacing in pain. If it was possible for her to look paler than before, she absolutely did, and Roy felt his heart drop at the sight.

The men came forward and Roy tried to still her flailing form while Ed checked her over. He, of course, wasn't a doctor, but knew a little something, though not enough to clearly identify what was wrong with the woman. He glanced over at her medicine and popped the top open and grabbed a pill.

Roy, meanwhile, was calling to Riza, trying to get her to wake up, or be still, or something that didn't involve her thrashing about. At least, he figured, she wasn't seizing, but she was burning to the touch. She began to cough and Roy sat her up, worried she was going to begin choking on blood or throwing up, but she didn't.

As her coughing fit ended, he pulled her close to him and she seemed to relax a little, but was still moaning in pain. Roy shushed her and stroked her hair, and patted a cool cloth around her face.

"Roy," she whispered, and he wasn't sure if she was awake or not, but he placed a hand on her cheek.

"Riza, shhh," he said gently. "Just rest, it's okay. I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere."

"I'm sorry, sir." She said, despite his request to keep quiet. Roy almost found himself laughing. An apology now seemed laughable, and he couldn't believe that in all her pain, the only thing on her mind was formally apologizing. But, he was also grateful in a way because it proved to him that Riza was still herself, even when in the throes of a fever.

"I'm not mad," he said kindly. "I never was. But it's alright."

She didn't say anything more, though still struggled in pain. At least, Roy felt, she wasn't thrashing as she had before. He glanced up, and saw Ed's eyes go wide as he looked at the pill bottle.

"When did you last give Riza her medicine?" Edward asked, turning to Roy.

"I don't know, a few hours ago? Why?" he asked.

"Shit. Fuck, shit." Edward didn't answer his question and instead ran from the room and into the bathroom. Roy jumped up, quickly following after him and caught Edward as he dumped the pills into the toilet and flushed them.

Roy's eyes widened, and he saw red.

Lunging for the boy, he grabbed him back and peered into the toilet as though the pills would still be there. He turned to Edward, looking as angry as he ever had been, and Ed was afraid for a moment that Roy was going to burn him right then and there. And, to his credit, Roy was certainly debating the idea.

He threw Ed against the wall, causing some toiletries on the sink to fall over with a high pitched clicking sound. "What the fuck did you just do? Riza needs those pills, you bastard! Are you crazy? How could you?" Roy's voice was loud, but deep with an angry fury that Edward didn't think he'd ever heard before. The man wanted so badly to murder the boy, but he instead gripped Edward's arm so tightly, they both thought it might break.

"Ow, stop! Colonel!" Edward shouted back, just as loudly but more desperate. "I'm saving her life, Mustang! Those pills were killing her!"

Roy's eyes widened and he let go of Edward. The younger man rubbed his arm ruefully while Roy's face circled through pain, anger, and utter confusion. "What the fuck are you talking about?" he asked, his voice now hoarse from shouting at the Alchemist.

"I recognized those pills from my research. The size, the smell. They were poison, Mustang," Edward explained. "Designed to keep her sick. That's why she got worse after taking them. A few more and she'd be…" Ed couldn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to; the Colonel knew exactly what he meant.

Roy slumped against the wall and let out a shaky breath. He then absolutely crumbled and put his head in his hands. Ed wanted to come over and comfort the older man, but he was also afraid that his anger had not subsided.

"Roy…" Edward started.

"I've been killing her." Roy interrupted, sounding defeated. Broken.

"No, Colonel, you couldn't have known."

"I've been killing her, Edward. I've been literally giving her poison."

"And what was the alternative?" Edward rationalized. "A doctor prescribed her something, you gave it to her. It would have been stupid not to."

They sat in silence for a long moment, the only sound breaking through being that of Roy's sharp and heavy breaths. Edward wanted to comfort the older man, but he didn't move any closer. He just watched, not sure if he should give the Colonel space, but also not wanting to leave.

"Colonel," Edward started. Being soft was not his strong point, but now that the war was over, he was trying to reinvent himself. He accepted his past as a reckless, wild orphan, but now he was ready to move on to becoming a reckless, but slightly less stupid, man. "You love her, don't you?"

The question lingered in the air for a moment and Edward thought he wasn't going to get an answer. That was fine, he just figured he'd ask. But he saw the Colonel slowly nodding his head, and he knew the answer was a firm 'yes.'

Edward smiled. He'd always known, and really so did everyone else. Especially after what happened on that day when they'd all fought together, when he saw how they looked at each other, how scared they were to lose each other, it was obvious. They had a kind of silent, unspoken care for each other that went beyond love, if there was such a thing. At the time, Edward, being a kid, ignored it, but looking back on it, it was the kind of love people wait lifetimes to find.

"I think she loves you too." Ed finally said and the Colonel looked at him strangely. What in the world did some kid know about love?

"How would you even know?" Roy asked with a bit of bite, though he truly didn't mean to sound harsh.

Ed laughed. "Really, Colonel, you're dumb if you think everyone else hasn't noticed," he said. "The way you two act and look at each other… It's obvious. You guys have really only fooled each other."

Roy found himself smiling. For how stupid that boy could be, he really saw through people. Glancing at the toilet, he sighed and looked back at Ed as he both picked himself off the ground. They walked back to Riza's room, finding the woman to have stilled and relaxed, though her body was entirely too warm. Ed grabbed some ice and Roy worked it around her head and neck, hoping to cool her down.

"Hopefully," Edward said. "If we just let her body try to recover on its own, she'll be alright."

Roy nodded. He looked down at Riza's sleeping face, scrunched with pain and exhaustion. He couldn't believe someone had done this to her. Poison wasn't prescribed by accident, someone had done this deliberately. He didn't know how, and he didn't know why, but he was angry, and his emotions were almost too much for him to handle.

"Colonel?" Edward asked and Roy looked over at him with a burning emotion Ed had never seen before.

"Yes, she'll get better," he said in a low, dangerous voice that didn't sound at all like his own. "But I'm going to kill the motherfucker who did this to her."