The Waters of Lethe
Disclaimer: I don't own FMA, I just like to play around in it's world and torture Ed for awhile
Author's note: post series semi-drabbles and one shots.
Warning:there might be movie spoilers. This series has and will contain violence, death,and sex.
Beta:Jedimasterwithapen
53. Dedication (Widmung)
The Angelika Convalescent and Nursing Home was founded in 1873 by Josephus Stein, the grandfather of the current director. He'd seen the devastation of the Franco-Prussian War and he wanted to create a quiet place for wounded soldiers to recover. He soon learned these soldiers had more than just physical wounds to deal with. Most also had what he called war trauma complicating their recovery. Unlike many doctors of his time, he decided mental wounds had to be treated as well, and he was the first to offer his patients consultations with an alienest. (Now called a psychiatrist)
After he finished his medical studies at Munich University his eldest son, Adolphus joined him at the Angelika, which was named after Josephus's grandmother. She had been a "wise woman" and unofficial midwife in a small Bavarian village. She encouraged Josephus and financed his medical studies, so he admired her greatly. In her will, she left him enough money to pay his college loans and buy the land upon which the Angelika was built.
It was Adolphus who expanded the Angelika's mission to include terminally ill patients. He felt those who couldn't be helped deserved to die with dignity in a beautiful setting. He also established a small cemetery so those patients who wished to could also be buried on the grounds.
Like his father and grandfather, Theophilus was also a doctor dedicated to the well-being of his patients. He had joined the staff in the early 1900s and taken over after his father was killed when a stray shell hit his field hospital on the Western Front during the Great War.
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Theophilus bent over the patient on a table in the examining room and gently probed his abdomen. Once stripped to his boxers, it was clear to Dr. Stein that Edward was far too thin. In the back of his mind, he was already formulating a diet for the younger man.
First would come meat broths. Protein rich and easy to digest, they would build up Herr Elric's strength without taxing his delicate system. Plus he would start him on a program of vitamin supplements. After two weeks, he would add fruits and vegetables, and Edward could have as much as he wished. Finally, once he knew Edward could handle it, meat.
Balanced meals would fill out that stick-thin body of his and bring color to his pale cheeks. Once Edward was physically well, he would get time with the staff psychiatrist to make him mentally fit too.
Dr. Stein finished his probing and straightened up, wincing when his back cricked. "You may put your pajamas back on, Herr Elric."
Edward sat up slowly and looked at him. If this man was his jailor, he was a very kind one. And the Angelika was a very strange sort of jail; no bars, nor shackles.
Edward needed to find out more about this place before he could consider thoughts of escape. Until then, he meekly settled into the wheelchair Klaus brought. He was rolled to the dining hall where his first full meal in two days was a bowl of steaming hot beef broth.
Edward eyed it with such suspicion, Klaus chuckled at him as if he already knew the reason for his hesitation, "The broth is not drugged, Herr Elric. It merely is what it is, so please drink it while it is hot."
Edward finally took a spoonful and he blew on it before taking a cautious sip. But the broth really was too hot and he promptly burned his tongue. Klaus chuckled at him again before pointing out the glass of orange juice. Although he was very hungry, Edward forced himself to eat and drink slowly so he wouldn't vomit his meal right back up. Eating slowly also gave him time to check out some of his fellow patients.
They were a mixed bag. He recognized a few former soldiers by their too-erect posture and very short haircuts. But some of them appeared to be civilians like himself, most of them elderly. He noticed one young woman who wept quietly while she ate her dinner. Edward looked at her a bit too long and when she noticed, she gave him a glare that would strip paint.
He blushed from his neck to his hairline and quickly looked away. After he drank the last of the broth, Klaus wheeled him away down the hall. Not to his room, but to a half moon shaped-room made almost entirely of windows. It was filled with plants in containers, with comfortable armchairs nestled between them. Despite the wind and rain outside, the room was very warm and Edward realized he could easily doze off here.
He decided to ask Klaus some questions to keep himself awake. "Klaus? What sort of people stay here?"
"Well, Herr Elric, the Angelika started out as a convalescent home for soldiers wounded in the Franco-Prussian War of 1873 and you will see a fair amount of veterans here. Many lost limbs, or their sight, or hearing. A few look healthy enough, but they have difficulties with trauma, you know, 'shell shock'. The Angelika has a psychiatrist on staff to help those unfortunates."
"I see some civilians like me here."
"Yes, that is true. We also care for people who are convalescing from surgery, injury, or a serious illness. Dr. Stein has become interested in the new field of geriatrics and the next largest patient group is the elderly. We also function as a hospice. Dr. Stein's father was the first in Germany to provide a quiet and dignified place for the terminally ill to die. That young lady you saw in the dining hall was recently diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer of the blood. Her family brought her here a few days before you arrived."
Edward was mortified. "And I kept staring at her; she must have thought I was very rude. But I wondered why she was so unhappy. I wanted to find out if I could do something to help her."
Klaus, who sat on a bench next to Edward's wheelchair, patted his hand and smiled at him. "It's obvious you have a kind heart, Herr Elric. Unfortunately, medical science can do nothing for her and her doctor has given her six months. She looks healthy now, so she insists on coming down from the fourth floor. But she will be bedridden in a few weeks, and she will eventually just slip away."
Edward hung his head and contemplated. In his world, he hadn't been able to save a little girl named Nina. In this world, nothing could be done to save her alter. He sat still in the wheelchair and watched the cold, grey landscape outside get darker and darker. When his head began to droop, Klaus took him back to his room and drew a bath for him. He washed his face and cleaned his teeth and got back into bed while Klaus banked the fire. The last sounds he remembered was Klaus wishing him good night and the soft click of the door closing.
Edward woke up sometime in the middle of the night. He put one hand behind his head and listened to the wind soughing around the walls of the Angelika. His room was on the third floor, one below the terminally ill patients. He wondered if the alter-Nina was right above him. Edward closed his eyes and tried to send her peaceful thoughts. Although he wasn't convinced telepathy really worked, he felt the gesture couldn't hurt. He rolled over to his left side, shivered, and pulled the covers up a bit more. His final conscious thought before falling back to sleep was of freedom.
She can't escape her fate. But I can. And I will.
Author's note: Don't worry,action fans. Things will be happening in the next five chapters.