Roy

Roy hurried through the halls of the hospital, scanning the signs on the door. Each was numbered, starting with the floor and then the room. Mia was in room 325 and Roy was just passing 310. His suitcase, while not forgotten, might as well have been. It hit against the back of his ankles, tossing it off balance as he walked. The damned thing jerked his arm outwards as he tried to keep a hold if it, but eventually Roy resorted to simply tugging it irritably back to his side. His movements were absentminded. He had far more important things to concern himself with.

"Sir?"

Roy halted, noticing the nurse looking rather alarmed at his behaviour, though still managed seem sympathetic. She'd appeared as if from nowhere, giving him a fright, although perhaps, Roy reasoned, that was more due to his haste and distraction.

She was speaking to him in Xingese, and Roy had enough of a grasp of the language to determine what she was saying.

"Can I help you?" Her question was kind, and her tone eased his rapid heart rate a little bit. His breathing came easier once someone had interrupted his racing thoughts.

They'd been running rampant for the last couple of hours and had not been kind while he travelled alone on that military craft.

He stammered slightly before gathering his wits and escaping the panic which had had a constant grip on him for the last couple of hours. "Yes, I'm looking for patient Mia Mustang?"

He tripped up a bit on the word "patient", and she noticed, nodding in understanding. There was no doubt she'd noted his poor Xingese too. He'd strived to learn his mother's language, however trying to learn it and Cretian at the same time, so he could follow in his father's footsteps too, was difficult. Plus, it had been years since he'd had to use either of them. He'd become complacent, letting his practice slip.

Right now, for his daughter's sake, he really wished he hadn't.

"Yes, of course. Here." The nurse gestured for him to follow and walked a few steps down the hallway, Roy following eagerly behind with his errant suitcase. After a few doors she gestured towards another closed one. There was a small window looking in, however from the angle, he couldn't see much. The room was dark, lit by the soft white glow of machinery. There was a whiteboard on the front, the writing in Xingese. However, it was as if something had been wiped off before it and quickly replaced, because written in letters he recognised, was Mia's name.

"So your wife could understand." The nurse nodded and pointed towards Mia's name.

Wife…

Riza.

His chest tightened and he blew out a heavy breath. Everything in him ached but he nodded and shot her an appreciative smile. "Thank you so much."

She inclined her head and smiled kindly before opening the door quietly to Mia's room.

Roy didn't bother to correct her about the wife comment.

It tugged at his heart and he was filled with a yearning for what could have been. What he still secretly wished for even after all these years.

The nurse stepped inside, holding the door open for him with a finger pressed to her lips.

Roy had no idea what was on the other side, and he was simultaneously dreading to find out and eager to step through to see his little girl. To see both women who owned his whole heart.

He made it a few steps inside before he was halted.

Riza was asleep by Mia's bedside. His eyes were tempted to venture over to her. His worry for both of them were fighting for control, but ultimately, the fear for his daughter won out.

Mia looked pale. Too pale. She looked so small lying in her hospital bed, hooked up to numerous machines which revealed her current state of being and health. The constant beep of her heart rate stole his breath away as it penetrated Roy's skull painfully. Invaded it roughly, burrowing painfully into his chest so that every beep made him flinch.

Beeping is good. Its her heart. Its beating and its regular. Its strong.

Still the panic rose.

His daughter, his child, was in such a state that she needed to have her heartbeat monitored every second of every day –

"Sir?"

The nurse broke him from his thoughts. His breath exhaled roughly over his lips, returning him to the present. Her prompt reminded him to breathe. Turning, he regarded her with wide, fearful eyes.

Sensing his current state, she smiled encouragingly and gestured for him to sit in the chair at the side of Mia's bed.

Riza was currently asleep in a bed next to Mia's. She was as close as can be with all the machines around her. Her hand hung over the side of the bed, as though even in sleep, she was reaching for her daughter.

The nurse started to patiently explain Mia's condition to Roy. He nodded along as he understood what she was saying – that she was in a coma to allow her body to recover and they were unsure when she'd awaken but were confident she would. It was difficult to tell when. She'd suffered a bad concussion, and her left femur was broken. It had been set and was healing, though.

Roy felt as though needles were pricking into his legs as the nurse explained it all.

Every word, every explanation felt like a blow to his gut. He was left winded as he listened to the nurse. He was eternally thankful to her, for she was able to inform him of his daughter's condition, however every sense of his decorum and sense went right out the small window in Mia's room as soon as he set his eyes upon her. He felt completely helpless, useless, a disappointment.

She'd been here for a week already. And he hadn't even known.

Riza hadn't been able to call to tell him as soon as it had happened. Roy had been unable to be here for his daughter, had been unable to comfort her mother as she lived through this alone. Tears burned behind his eyes.

"I'll let you get settled." The nurse bobbed her head in a farewell and left him alone.

His eyes were unable to be torn away from Mia. As much as he wanted to check on Riza too, he couldn't. Not until he checked on his hurt little girl.

Despite it all, she looked so at peace. But there were dark circles beneath her eyes. She looked frail and pale, completely at the mercy of her own brain, her own body, and whatever had transpired to leave her in this condition in the first place.

Roy's exhale was loud and harrowing. It rattled out of his lungs, shaking his very being as he was rocked to his core.

He couldn't even begin to imagine how Riza had been feeling. She was Mia's primary caregiver. She'd taken care of Mia her whole life, had nurtured her. And here she was, left lying in a hospital bed, and there was nothing anyone could do about it, other than wait. It must have been torture. Even setting his eyes upon his daughter had been a form of torture, so Roy couldn't imagine what it must have been like for Riza so far. To receive that call and have no one to comfort her…

The nurse closed the door behind her, but Roy didn't even have a single thought about that as he took a shaky step towards Mia's bed. His suitcase was forgotten by the door.

Roy tentatively reached forward and gathered Mia's hand within his. His heart ached that it was so cold. He gripped it within both of his and rubbed it gently, trying to stimulate some warmth back into her. To comfort her. Wishing he could take on all her suffering, so she didn't have to deal with it.

His legs shook as he lowered into the chair at her bedside. He pulled it close, as close as he could, so he could be near his daughter.

"I'm here, Mia," he whispered. He pressed a kiss to the back of her hand. "I'm right here with you. So is Mum. And I won't leave you. Ever again."

He glanced over at Riza.

"We're both waiting for you to wake. We've got so many adventures to catch up on, Mia girl." His laugh was laced with his tears. "Come back to me. Come back to us." Another desperate kiss was pressed against her slowly warming hand. "We'll be right here waiting on you."

Roy was exhausted but he wouldn't be able to sleep. He watched over the woman he loved and his daughter as they rested, whishing his daughter would wake up soon.

Riza

Her body jerked when she awoke from her slumber. Her dreams had not been kind as of late, and this brief period of sleep was no different. It left tears lingering in her eyes and brought such sorrow to her heart that it left her breathless. She refused to even think of them again as they were so upsetting.

Mia never woke up.

Riza sighed and stretched out her body. It was stiff, as though the tension from her days haunted her even in sleep. Everything ached as she rose to a seated position on the bed the staff had kindly provided her.

She had very little grasp of the language, much to her regret. She'd cried when Mia's primary nurses had brought her phone and typed her words into a translate app, letting the robotic voice tell her what they could do for her.

"We will bring you a bed to sleep in. You must take care of yourself too."

The woman was so kind and comforting, even with the language barrier.

Grief and sorrow transcended every language.

Riza jumped once she realised there was another presence in the room, across the bed from her –

… Roy.

Their eyes met.

He looked how she felt. Run down. Sad. Pained.

Riza's breath shuddered from her lungs. "Roy?" She choked up on his name.

Immediately he stood and Riza was a beat behind him. Her legs shook as she moved, her knees rattling with her relief at seeing him.

She was alone no longer.

They crashed together in an embrace. Riza clutched him tightly. Her fingers dug into his back as her heart raced and every emotion from the past few days overwhelmed her. Tears flowed through her with ease, soaking his rumpled t-shirt, as her quiet sobs filled the room. Roy's hands rubbed up and down her back. One rose to cradle the back of her head to him. He peppered kisses against her temple, her head, wherever he could reach. Constant murmurs of "it's all right", and "I'm here", filled her ears as she rode out the emotions consuming her.

She was finally where she'd always felt safest. With him here, she could finally let go of everything.

Once she'd rode out the worst of her emotions, her sobs quietened. Roy remained steadfast, holding her tight. She felt his own tears seeping into her hair.

"You're here." Riza hiccupped out the words.

She didn't doubt for a second that when Roy said he'd be here for Mia, he would be, however with everything that had happened, with the despair Riza had been feeling, it felt unobtainable. Unlikely.

But that was simply her fears talking.

Roy held her even tighter. A kiss was pressed to the top of her head.

"I'm here," he confirmed.

He was real. This wasn't a dream. Riza inhaled the familiar scent of him. Let him flood her senses completely so for that the first time in weeks it felt as though she could finally breathe.

"I'm here, and I'm not leaving. Ever again."

Riza clung to him. As if her hold were enough to keep him tethered to her side forever, like she'd always wished.