FMA fic: Transient (part 12)
Title: Transient (part 12)
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Rating: PG
Category: Gen
Approximate length: 65,000
Summary: With Ed suffering from what he thinks is the seasonal flu the Elric brothers track a rogue alchemist in a small town outside of East City.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11
Spoilers: This story takes place about a year before the boys go to Lior. Anything that happened before that is fair game.
Disclaimers: I don’t own Fullmetal Alchemist. This story was written for entertainment only. I’m not making any money.
Notes/warnings on this part: I'm not in the medical profession, so you can blame my poor research skills if you notice any misstatements about Ed's illness. All other mistakes, please speak up.
PART 12
Ed owed a debt of gratitude (and, he was sure, a financial debt as well) to the efforts of Doctor Mark Nikola and his small clinic staff for taking care of him during his illness.
Doctor Nikola was a tall, severe man with gray hair and shoulders so broad that they strained the fabric of the white lab coat that he wore over his shirtsleeves. The doctor had examined Ed in the sheriff’s office and carried him to the bathhouse, but at the time Ed hadn’t been in any kind of shape to appreciate the shear… magnitude of the man. The doctor was so tall in fact that the hair on his head brushed the top of the door frame when he entered Ed’s room, and it occurred to Ed that Al’s armor might have been built with this type of man in mind.
When Doctor Nikola smiled it seemed to lessen his physical intimidation…somewhat, but his smiles were only brief flashes between frowns and he spoke so seriously that Ed felt compelled to answer his questions with a “yes sir” or a “no sir”.
Once Ed was lucid enough to understand what Al and the doctor were saying to him they didn’t waste any time laying the blame for the severity of Ed’s illness right at his feet. The doctor lectured him on the topics of proper rest and nutrition and listening to medical advice in the first place so that an incident like this wouldn’t repeat itself. Al made it clear how worried he had been through his overly attentive hovering punctuated by stoic silences and sudden outbursts like “You could have had brain damage or worse!” Ed didn’t have to ask what or worse meant. He felt like he’d been knocking on Death’s door and that he’d only caught a break because apparently no one had been home.
When Ed began to show signs of improvement Doctor Nikola made him submit to a full physical examination, which Ed suspected was less for the purpose of information gathering and more for the purpose of humbling him.
“Deep breath,” the doctor instructed him. His hand was warm but the stethoscope pressed against Ed’s back was ice-cold. The thought of complaining never crossed Ed’s mind.
Ed breathed obediently, and coughed, and kept coughing until the doctor finished his examination and looped his stethoscope around his neck. He pressed a cloth close to Ed’s mouth. “Cough it up,” he encouraged.
With difficulty Ed kept coughing until he spat a translucent wad of mucus onto the crisp, white piece of fabric that the doctor was holding.
“No blood,” the doctor said, folding up the cloth. Ed wasn’t sure how he felt about someone showing interest in his phlegm, but then someone had to have been overseeing Ed’s bodily functions for the past week and this was probably by far the least embarrassing thing that Ed had produced.
“He’s still coughing a lot,” Al pointed out. “And he’s very weak.”
Thanks, Ed thought as he sagged back, spent just by sitting up for the length of the doctor’s examination.
“Coughing is good,” the doctor explained. He wasn’t the type of man who volunteered information, which meant that Al had to drag it out of him, usually by asking questions that Ed found mortifying. “He’s getting rid of the fluid in his lungs. The infection is clearing up.”
“When can I leave?” Ed asked, once he had the breath to speak.
Doctor Nikola raised an eyebrow at his patient. He took his time answering, which was his way of reminding Ed whose clinic this was, and who was in charge. “Is there any place in particular that you need to be?”
“I need… to report in,” Ed answered weakly. He felt like he was wilting under the doctor’s gaze.
“Hmm. Major, is it? All state alchemists hold the rank of at least a major if I’m not mistaken.”
Ed nodded. So did Al, even though Doctor Nikola seemed pretty sure of himself.
“You are not cleared for duty, not yet. Any military doctor would tell you the same thing.”
Ed stared at him. “Yes sir.”
Ed saw a flicker of reaction in the doctor’s eyes, and it looked suspiciously like offense.
“I’m going to have the nurses start you on solid foods, but you still need fluids. I want you to drink everything that the nurses bring you. Understand?”
Ed nodded again. So did Al.
Doctor Nikola made his way to the door, where he turned and said, “Get some rest, Major.” Then he left and shut the door quietly behind him.
When he’d been gone a few moments Al turned to him and said, with a note of tentative enthusiasm, “Did you hear that, Brother? The medicine is working. You’re getting better. That’s great news.”
“Yeah…great,” Ed replied in a flat, dead voice.
“What’s wrong?”
Oh, nothing. Leon Mueller. Failed mission. Being sick as a dog (and a military dog at that) in a strange place. Barbarian doctor. Angry town folk, possibly carrying pitchforks. The usual.
Ed rolled his head to the side, away from Al. “I just…want to get out of this place.”
The last time Ed had needed ‘round the clock care had been when he’d lost his arm and leg. Back then he and Al had stayed with the Rockbells while Ed recovered and adjusted to his new automail limbs. But that was different. Granny and Winry were as close to family as he and Al had. Here in Rhuel Ed was a stranger, and an unwelcome stranger because of his association with the military. Ed didn’t like the idea of seeming helpless in front of people he didn’t know well enough to trust.
“Are you sulking?”
Ed didn’t answer. In the strained silence he could feel Al’s concern growing.
“If something else is wrong you should tell me what it is.”
As if Al hadn’t spoke, “If I pay the doctor’s fee maybe I can convince him to transfer me to a hospital in East City,” Ed wondered out loud.
“Brother, don’t talk like that. You’re not even well enough to be out of bed yet.”
“Boys?”
Ed hadn’t even heard the door open. Al sat up straighter. Ed could tell that he hadn’t noticed either.
Gloria, the day nurse had her hand on the door frame. She was a straight-laced type, young and sort of plain, but very professional, just the type of person that Ed supposed the doctor would have chosen to work with. Ed couldn’t tell how much of their conversation she’d overheard but Ed was sure there was no way she could have missed that last part. She didn’t show it.
“The doctor said you were well enough for visitors. There’s someone here to see you.”
“Oh, okay,” Ed consented.
Gloria turned and addressed someone in the hall. “Just a few minutes, okay?”
He supposed that their visitor consented to her terms because Gloria left the room and a young woman stepped inside.
Ed took several beats to place her face. “Samantha,” he said.
Samantha’s smile wavered when she laid eyes on Ed. There wasn’t a mirror in Ed’s room so he could only guess what she was seeing.
“Oh! Samantha,” Al came to his feet with a metallic clatter. “You work at the bathhouse, right?”
Samantha seemed grateful for the distraction. “Yes, and you’re Ed’s brother…Al?” she guessed. “Sorry. Things were a little hectic when we met. We didn’t get a chance to talk much.”
“No, that’s alright,” Al said enthusiastically. He turned to Ed and explained, “When your fever was very high the doctor brought you to the bathhouse.”
“I remember that,” Ed said vaguely, although he kind of wished that he didn’t. Ed’s memories from the days that he had been very feverish were watery and nightmarish.
“If she hadn’t acted so quickly you might have died.”
“Don’t thank me,” Samantha said, saving Ed the trouble of faking his gratitude, “I’m sure the experience wasn’t very pleasant for you.”
“It’s in the past,” Ed told her. The heat in his cheeks had nothing to do with his earlier anger at Doctor Nikola. “Besides, if what Al says is true then you saved my life, and Al doesn’t lie.”
Samantha shook her head, “I’m not the hero here. You two are… I’m sorry. I don’t mean to embarrass you, but I just wanted to thank you.”
“We didn’t do anything special,” Ed sighed, eyes on the coverlet. “Thank Al if you want but I think that I caused more problems than I solved.”
Now it was Samantha’s turn to look embarrassed. “No… Edward, I don’t think you understand.” She paused. “Al, could I speak to your brother alone, please?”
Al glanced at Ed. “It’s okay. You could probably use a break from me,” Ed told him, wondering at the same time if Al had been away from his side at all during Ed’s illness. Ed couldn’t remember, and the possibility that he really hadn’t left Ed’s side left him with a list of questions that he was too tired to think about.
When they were alone Samantha took a step closer to Ed’s bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Better, I guess.”
“That’s good. Your brother cares about you a lot. You’re very lucky.”
“Is that what you wanted to talk about?” Ed asked bluntly. He couldn’t take his frustration out on the doctor and Samantha was the next available target. Maybe it wasn’t fair to her but he didn’t care.
Samantha’s demeanor changed. She dropped the guise of the shy, mild-mannered bathhouse girl, which Ed supposed had been more for Al’s benefit than for his.
“I suppose I’d better get to the point before the nurse kicks me out. Gloria’s an old friend from school but she’s not going to cut me any slack just because she knows me.” Samantha settled herself on the chair that Al had abandoned. “I did come to thank you, but I also came to apologize.”
“What for?”
Her face was open and innocent. “I was the one hiding Leon Mueller for Mason.”
Ed’s expression turned stone cold. “Why?” he demanded.
Samantha shrugged mildly. “Mason is a very good friend. I’ve known him his entire life. I used to baby sit him after his mom passed away. There wasn’t any reason for me not to trust him.” She was smiling at him softly, as if this should have come as no surprise to Ed, and he supposed she was right.
Ed looked down. “I see… so you knew who I was from the minute you saw me.”
“After we found out what Leon was up to Mason said that there might be people who came looking for him. When you arrived he told me what you looked like,” she explained.
“So you knew our names and faces before I came to the bathhouse the first time.”
“Yes.”
“If you were working against us then why did you help me?”
“It wasn’t a conspiracy, Edward. I think you’re a good person and you were only doing what you thought was right, but so was Mason and so was I.”
Ed let his anger speak for him. “I could still arrest you, you know. I could bring you up of charges of aiding and abetting a criminal.”
Samantha regarded him for a moment, and the look in her eyes made Ed wonder if she’d even heard him. Then she leaned confidently over the bed and cupped Ed’s cheek in her palm. “No, you couldn’t, because you let him go too.” And she kissed him on the forehead. “Thank you, Edward. You did the right thing.”
Samantha didn’t sit back down. She moved toward the foot of the bed. “When you’re feeling better you should stop by the bathhouse. I’ll take good care of you.”
Shame kept Ed nailed to the mattress. “You’re wrong, you know,” he said. “I didn’t do the right thing by letting Leon Mueller go. It was a mistake, and it could cost me a lot more than just my career.” If he and Al lost the military’s support it could cost him the ability to get his and Al’s bodies back to normal. But there was no way he could tell her that, no way that he could make her understand how expensive Leon Mueller’s freedom might turn out to be.
As yet no one at Eastern Command knew what Ed had done for Leon Mueller, unless of course Mustang had spies in Rhuel (Ed wouldn’t put it past the man). If word got back to the colonel about what he’d done, there was a chance he’d be facing a court-martial once he returned to East City. As things stood Ed was pretty sure he’d committed worse offenses than this, but he never quite knew which straw would break the camel’s back.
“Maybe you’re not sure about what you did, but I am. You’ll see. Your instincts about Leon were right.”
“Instincts? No, I was just too tired to deal with the guy.”
Samantha looked at Ed like she felt sorry for him. “You should learn to be a little more trusting.”
“Thanks for the advice, but I can’t afford to put my trust in the wrong people, not right now.”
Samantha looked at him for a long moment. Then she nodded like she understood. “Okay, Edward. I think that’s sad, but okay.”
She turned to leave.
“Samantha?”
Samantha paused at the door, her tiny handbag swinging on her arm.
“Yes?”
“Are you still curious?” Ed asked, looking at his automail hand where it was laying on the crisp white hospital sheets.
“No,” she replied, “I’m not.” And Ed could tell that she meant it.
She left, and Ed sank into the mattress.
“Oh, and Edward?” Samantha said, poking her head back into the room. “You were wrong about one thing: I never knew your name until you came to the bathhouse.”
The image of her grinning face stayed with Ed for several minutes after she had left, and Ed’s own face was so red that when Gloria came back in she checked Ed’s temperature as a precaution.
Samantha was Ed’s first visitor, but once word got out that Ed was on the mend more familiar faces began to appear at the clinic, mostly people whose houses he and Al had repaired. Ed wanted to turn them away at the door or pretend to be sleeping but Al’s face lit up like a Christmas tree whenever he heard voices in the hall. Ed didn’t have the heart to disappoint him, especially when Zelda arrived with a basket of cinnamon rolls to share with the clinic’s staff. And that wasn’t the only gift they received. Mrs. Bosch brought tangy green apples from her garden and the Clebolds brought Lucy, who wasn’t interested in Ed’s recovery so much as she was interested in using Al as a jungle gym.
Doctor Nikola and his small staff tried to keep the visits to a minimum. They explained to the well-meaning townspeople that it was important not to wear his patient out at this stage in his recovery. But if anything the extra company made Ed chafe against the doctor’s orders and turned the itch to be free of scratchy sheets and medicine and bland food into a burning desire. After the Clebolds’ visit Ed began testing the waters, seeing how Al would feel about ignoring the doctor’s timeline and departing Rhuel ahead of schedule.
“No.”
Ed frowned at his brother. “What do you mean ‘no’?”
“I don’t care what you want. We’re not leaving, not until Doctor Nikola says you can leave. You’re going to stay here and you’re going to get better.”
“C’mon Al…” He knew that he sounded like a spoiled brat, whining because he couldn’t have his way, but he didn’t care. He tried a different angle. “We’ve wasted so much time here when we could have been looking for the philosopher’s stone. Who knows what clues we might be missing out on while I’m stuck here in this bed!”
“We’ll never know. But what we do know is that if you push yourself too hard your recovery will just take longer. You’re still coughing and you had a temperature again last night. I think it’s because you were up so much yesterday.”
“I felt better…” Ed excused himself.
“If you feel so much better, then why don’t you get up and walk around the room?”
Ed sat up. The room spun. He lay back down. “I’ll did it earlier when you weren’t looking.”
“Brother, you’re staying here until you’re better. I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. You’re going to do this as a favor to me. Promise me that you’ll do whatever the doctor says.”
“Fine, I promise.”
“Even if he tells you that you have to stay in bed for another week? Or even a month?”
Ed’s mouth fell open, “Wait- ”
“Even if that’s what he says you need to do. Promise me you’ll do it.”
Ed hesitated.
Al pleaded with his soul-fire eyes.
“I’m going to have trouble keeping that promise,” Ed mumbled.
“Then I’ll help you.”
“Ed?” a soft voice said. It was Carmen, the night nurse, who had just come on shift. She was an older woman with gray hair and a nurturing disposition. Of the three people who worked at the clinic Carmen was the only person whose presence seemed to calm rather than irritate Ed. Ed couldn’t understand the reason for this until he found out that Carmen was married to Walter, and the two of them shared the same disposition. Carmen was a good nurse. She did her job and made sure that Ed he ate and slept and took his medicine, but somehow she made everything seem like a good idea. Ed never felt the need to argue with her. “There’s someone here to see you, dear.”
Al glanced at Ed, who shrugged listlessly.
Al looked apologetically back up at Carmen. “Can you tell them to come back tomorrow? I don’t think that he’s up for any more visitors today.”
“I understand. I wouldn’t have asked except that he says that he came all the way from Central.”
This time Ed did sit up, and he didn’t care that the room was spinning. “Who is it?”
Carmen glanced backward into the hall and a dark-haired man wearing glasses and a loud tropical shirt stepped past her.
“Lieu- ” Al started to say. Then Maes’ Hughes made a small signal with his hand and Al corrected himself, “Mr. Hughes. What are you doing here?”
“Well, I was on my way to East city on business when I heard that my wife’s favorite nephew was sick and I just had to stop by! How are you feeling?”
“Uh, okay,” Ed said. Wife’s nephew, huh? So that was the cover that Hughes had used to get past the doctor. Ed knew that no one here liked the military but maybe Hughes was going a bit far.
“Good to hear!” Hughes said, grinning and wagging a finger enthusiastically. “And I’ve brought just the thing to cheer you up and help get you back on your feet!”
Ed felt as if the world was moving in slow motion as Hughes reached into his shirt pocket and brought out his trump card, a picture of his two-year-old daughter Elicia, her hair done up in pigtails, hugging a baby lamb.
“Isn’t she adorable?” Hughes gushed, glancing back at Carmen. “Gracia and I took her to the fair last month and I captured every precious moment on film!”
“She’s very cute, Mr. Hughes,” Carmen told him with a polite smile. It was immediately clear to Ed that Hughes had talked at length to her on this subject, just like he did to everyone that he met. But unlike everyone in Central, Hughes hadn’t bored her to tears yet. On the one hand Ed felt glad that Maes Hughes had found a new audience. On the other, he felt extremely sorry for himself because he knew Carmen wasn’t going to be sticking around. Sure enough, she reminded Hughes to go easy on Ed and quietly excused herself from the room. Hughes appeared not to notice as he bombarded Ed and Al with a stack of photographs, all featuring his daughter squeezing the life out so some poor fuzzy barnyard critter with her tiny arms.
When the door was shut firmly behind her, Hughes seemed to forget the pictures that he’d spread all over the bed and nightstand. All of the images of Elicia lay forgotten and Hughes turned a serious searching eye on Ed. “How are you really doing?” he asked in a low voice.
Ed looked down at his arms, lying on top of the sheets. The automail limb was the same as it had always been, but his left arm was pale skin over bone and stringy muscle. It looked like it belonged to someone else. Illness had eaten away at Ed’s muscles and burned through what little fat he had to spare. He felt weak and pathetic. His body was struggling to support the weight of his automail. Doctor Nikola had said that the arm and leg had complicated his illness and had predicted that they would also hamper his recovery. The doctor had even suggested removing the limbs for a while. They simply took too much strength and energy to maintain, and those were things that Ed didn’t have at the moment. Not to mention that Ed was still growing (no matter what anyone else said). It might take him weeks to recover and even then it would be months until he regained his full strength.
Ed considered downplaying his illness to Hughes but thought better of it. Hughes was a top investigator for the military and would see right through it, so Ed settled on evasion, “I’ll be better once I get out of this place.”
“What happened?” Hughes pressed, and Ed got the impression that he was about to find himself on the wrong end of another scolding.
Ed took a deep breath and launched into his explanation, “The colonel sent us to Rhuel to find someone who was impersonating a state alchemist- ”
Hughes held up a hand, palm facing Ed. “Stop right there. I’m not interested in the case. You can save that for the colonel. What happened to you?”
“Oh,” Ed said. Despite the mistakes he’d made on this mission it would have been easier to talk about the rogue alchemist than answer questions about himself. He decided to keep it simple. “I had a cold when I left East City. It… got worse.” E looked guiltily up at Al. “I made it worse.”
“He had pneumonia,” Al simplified.
“But I’m over it now.”
“He hasn’t completely recovered,” Al corrected.
“I’m much better, though,” Ed said through gritted teeth.
Al looked directly at him and said, “He’s still very weak.”
Ed heaved a long-suffering sigh, knowing that he deserved the torture that Al was putting him through.
Hughes looked back and forth between the two of them, like he was watching a tennis match, and it was pretty clear which of them he thought had the better argument.
“Pneumonia,” Hughes said gravely. “You’re lucky, Ed. People die from that, you know.”
“I know,” Al said, deathly serious. His pronouncement effectively halted the flow of conversation for a few moments and drove home the grim reality of Ed’s illness.
“Lieutenant Colonel, what are you doing all the way out here? You didn’t come just to see us, did you?” Ed asked, trying to take the conversation in another direction.
Ed couldn’t see Hughes’ eyes for the reflection on his glasses, but his usual smile was gone and his jaw was tense. In contrast, he kept the tone of his voice light and casual, “Well, I’d like to tell you that I was just in the area and felt like dropping by. The truth is that I was overdue for a visit to East City anyway. Roy asked me to stop and check in on you, find out when you were going to be back on your feet.”
Ed felt his face turn red at the mention of Roy Mustang, but only half of his anger was directed at the colonel, the other half was for Ed himself.
“That bastard,” Ed muttered through gritted teeth. “I bet he’s got some pain-in-the-ass assignment to punish me for screwing this one up. Well, the doctor hasn’t even told me when he’s going to let me out of this white-walled prison, so you can just tell him that I’ll get there when I get there. Another thing, if he wanted a status update so badly why didn’t he march his lazy ass down here and get it? It’s not like he doesn’t have the time.”
Under normal circumstances Ed would have continued his rant until everyone in the hospital knew his grievances against the colonel, but Ed was still in pretty poor shape and had to pause, wheezing, after only a few sentences. When he did, Hughes was able to get a few words in edgewise.
“Ed,” Hughes said smoothly, “Calm down and let me explain something to you.”
“I’m calm!” Ed snapped.
Hughes and Al exchanged a look that Ed didn’t like at all.
Hughes leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Ed, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that the people in this town aren’t exactly big fans of the military.”
Ed glanced down at Hughes’ loud civilian shirt. “Tell me about it.”
“Well, with that being said, Roy started to get a little anxious when the two of you failed to check in. He called the sheriff to see what your status was and that’s when he found out that you were in the hospital.”
“I’m sorry,” Al spoke up. “I talked to the lieutenant the night that Ed started to get so sick but I never called after that. I should have checked back with the colonel but I didn’t want to worry anyone.”
“Al,” Ed said gently, hearing how upset his brother sounded. “It’s not your job to keep the Bastard up to date on everything we do.”
Ed turned to Hughes, “Sorry, Lieutenant Colonel. I know you two are friends.”
Hughes laughed, “That’s alright. Roy’s been called much worse names than that. Actually Roy is the one who feels like he dropped the ball. He called the sheriff and tried to figure out why you hadn’t returned to East City. That’s when he found out that you were in the hospital.”
“So he talked to the doctor?”
“Not exactly. The doctor wasn’t happy to hear from a colonel, so he hung up on him and refused to take anymore of his calls.”
Ed stared, mouth slightly open, shocked that anyone, even that polar bear of a doctor would have the guts to hang up on the colonel.
“So the colonel decided to come to Rhuel and see for himself what was going on.”
Ed could feel the color draining from his face. “He was here?”
“Yes he was,” Hughes assured him.
“I don’t remember…” Ed said slowly, glancing up at Al.
“I didn’t see him, either,” Al said.
“That’s because the doctor wouldn’t let him past the front door.”
Hughes’ visit made much more sense now. So did his shirt, and his insistence that they not say his rank in front of the nurses.
Ed pictured the colonel standing in the rain out in front of the clinic, soaked to the bone. To his surprise that image didn’t bring him any sort of satisfaction. It reminded him of Leon Mueller’s story about the military patrol that he’d seen passing through Rhuel, trying to find food and lodgings only to be turned out by everyone that they met.
“But he’s my superior officer…” Ed protested.
Hughes pushed his glasses up and shrugged. “That would have meant something if you’d ended up at the military hospital at headquarters, but you didn’t. You ended up here.”
“The sheriff didn’t try to help?” Al asked.
“Speaking from a legal perspective, there wasn’t anything he could do. This may be a military state but the military doesn’t control everything. There are a lot of people in the private sector who have fought very hard to keep it that way. Without a piece of paper naming him as your legal guardian, all the brass in the world wasn’t going to allow Colonel Mustang to put so much as a toe inside this clinic, legally speaking.”
Ed was mortified. Although he’d suggested earlier that the colonel come to Rhuel himself he hadn’t actually considered the possibility that the colonel would do just that. “I bet he’s pretty angry.”
“That’s a fair assumption.”
“What should I do?”
“Well, you can start by giving him a call, but I’d wait until you’re feeling up to it.” The fact that Hughes didn’t deny that Mustang was furious with him didn’t exactly infuse Ed with confidence. “I’m headed to East City tonight. I’ll let him know that you’re still among the living.”
“Lieutenant Colonel, I’m sorry that you had to come all the way out here for no reason.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘no reason’. I got a chance to see you boys. It’s just too bad you’re not feeling better. I’d ask you to show me around. This looks like an interesting place.”
“It’s always interesting around festival time, at least that’s what we hear,” Ed reflected Hughes’ smile weakly. “Thank you, sir. I promise we’ll come visit you and Gracia in Central when we have the chance… that is if the colonel doesn’t have me running errands all over the country for the rest of my career.”
Hughes shook his head dismissively. “I wouldn’t worry too much about Roy if I were you.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You’ll be all the way in Central. You won’t be able to hear the yelling… probably.”
Hughes laughed. “Well, I always try to keep a safe distance from things that might explode.”
Hughes steered the conversation in a lighter direction after that. He talked about the goings-on in Central and the latest news and political gossip, but somehow almost always ended up on the subject of his daughter or his wife. Despite Hughes’ assurances Ed’s thoughts kept drifting back to the colonel. He couldn’t help imagining what would happen when he returned to East City to face Colonel Mustang’s wrath. After a while Ed found it increasingly difficult to follow the conversation, let alone participate, and the harder he tried to keep his eyes open, the quieter Al’s and Hughes’ voices became.
“Ed?” someone whispered.
“Is he asleep?”
“Yeah… I think so.”
“He really looks like he’s been through the wringer. Are the two of you okay here? Are they treating you alright? Is there anything that you need? Food? Books? Anything?”
“Please, Mr. Hughes, don’t trouble yourself. We have everything that we need. Everyone has been so kind, really.”
A warm chuckle, “The nurses speak pretty highly of you, you know. Everyone I’ve talked to is so protective of you two. Careful, because I think they might want to keep you.”
“Brother would never let that happen.”
“Of course not. Still, it’s good to know that someone is looking out for you.”
Al sighed. “Brother takes so much looking-after sometimes.”
“Even the colonel can’t watch his back for him all the time, no matter how hard he tries.”
There was more to the conversation, but it might have been in Xingese for all Ed knew. The words were only buzzing in his ears. Even that faded away completely as sleep took him and for the first time in recent memory Ed didn’t dream about water. He dreamt about fire.
To be continued... part 13
Thank you for reading. Feedback is welcome.
Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist
Rating: PG
Category: Gen
Approximate length: 65,000
Summary: With Ed suffering from what he thinks is the seasonal flu the Elric brothers track a rogue alchemist in a small town outside of East City.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11
Spoilers: This story takes place about a year before the boys go to Lior. Anything that happened before that is fair game.
Disclaimers: I don’t own Fullmetal Alchemist. This story was written for entertainment only. I’m not making any money.
Notes/warnings on this part: I'm not in the medical profession, so you can blame my poor research skills if you notice any misstatements about Ed's illness. All other mistakes, please speak up.
PART 12
Ed owed a debt of gratitude (and, he was sure, a financial debt as well) to the efforts of Doctor Mark Nikola and his small clinic staff for taking care of him during his illness.
Doctor Nikola was a tall, severe man with gray hair and shoulders so broad that they strained the fabric of the white lab coat that he wore over his shirtsleeves. The doctor had examined Ed in the sheriff’s office and carried him to the bathhouse, but at the time Ed hadn’t been in any kind of shape to appreciate the shear… magnitude of the man. The doctor was so tall in fact that the hair on his head brushed the top of the door frame when he entered Ed’s room, and it occurred to Ed that Al’s armor might have been built with this type of man in mind.
When Doctor Nikola smiled it seemed to lessen his physical intimidation…somewhat, but his smiles were only brief flashes between frowns and he spoke so seriously that Ed felt compelled to answer his questions with a “yes sir” or a “no sir”.
Once Ed was lucid enough to understand what Al and the doctor were saying to him they didn’t waste any time laying the blame for the severity of Ed’s illness right at his feet. The doctor lectured him on the topics of proper rest and nutrition and listening to medical advice in the first place so that an incident like this wouldn’t repeat itself. Al made it clear how worried he had been through his overly attentive hovering punctuated by stoic silences and sudden outbursts like “You could have had brain damage or worse!” Ed didn’t have to ask what or worse meant. He felt like he’d been knocking on Death’s door and that he’d only caught a break because apparently no one had been home.
When Ed began to show signs of improvement Doctor Nikola made him submit to a full physical examination, which Ed suspected was less for the purpose of information gathering and more for the purpose of humbling him.
“Deep breath,” the doctor instructed him. His hand was warm but the stethoscope pressed against Ed’s back was ice-cold. The thought of complaining never crossed Ed’s mind.
Ed breathed obediently, and coughed, and kept coughing until the doctor finished his examination and looped his stethoscope around his neck. He pressed a cloth close to Ed’s mouth. “Cough it up,” he encouraged.
With difficulty Ed kept coughing until he spat a translucent wad of mucus onto the crisp, white piece of fabric that the doctor was holding.
“No blood,” the doctor said, folding up the cloth. Ed wasn’t sure how he felt about someone showing interest in his phlegm, but then someone had to have been overseeing Ed’s bodily functions for the past week and this was probably by far the least embarrassing thing that Ed had produced.
“He’s still coughing a lot,” Al pointed out. “And he’s very weak.”
Thanks, Ed thought as he sagged back, spent just by sitting up for the length of the doctor’s examination.
“Coughing is good,” the doctor explained. He wasn’t the type of man who volunteered information, which meant that Al had to drag it out of him, usually by asking questions that Ed found mortifying. “He’s getting rid of the fluid in his lungs. The infection is clearing up.”
“When can I leave?” Ed asked, once he had the breath to speak.
Doctor Nikola raised an eyebrow at his patient. He took his time answering, which was his way of reminding Ed whose clinic this was, and who was in charge. “Is there any place in particular that you need to be?”
“I need… to report in,” Ed answered weakly. He felt like he was wilting under the doctor’s gaze.
“Hmm. Major, is it? All state alchemists hold the rank of at least a major if I’m not mistaken.”
Ed nodded. So did Al, even though Doctor Nikola seemed pretty sure of himself.
“You are not cleared for duty, not yet. Any military doctor would tell you the same thing.”
Ed stared at him. “Yes sir.”
Ed saw a flicker of reaction in the doctor’s eyes, and it looked suspiciously like offense.
“I’m going to have the nurses start you on solid foods, but you still need fluids. I want you to drink everything that the nurses bring you. Understand?”
Ed nodded again. So did Al.
Doctor Nikola made his way to the door, where he turned and said, “Get some rest, Major.” Then he left and shut the door quietly behind him.
When he’d been gone a few moments Al turned to him and said, with a note of tentative enthusiasm, “Did you hear that, Brother? The medicine is working. You’re getting better. That’s great news.”
“Yeah…great,” Ed replied in a flat, dead voice.
“What’s wrong?”
Oh, nothing. Leon Mueller. Failed mission. Being sick as a dog (and a military dog at that) in a strange place. Barbarian doctor. Angry town folk, possibly carrying pitchforks. The usual.
Ed rolled his head to the side, away from Al. “I just…want to get out of this place.”
The last time Ed had needed ‘round the clock care had been when he’d lost his arm and leg. Back then he and Al had stayed with the Rockbells while Ed recovered and adjusted to his new automail limbs. But that was different. Granny and Winry were as close to family as he and Al had. Here in Rhuel Ed was a stranger, and an unwelcome stranger because of his association with the military. Ed didn’t like the idea of seeming helpless in front of people he didn’t know well enough to trust.
“Are you sulking?”
Ed didn’t answer. In the strained silence he could feel Al’s concern growing.
“If something else is wrong you should tell me what it is.”
As if Al hadn’t spoke, “If I pay the doctor’s fee maybe I can convince him to transfer me to a hospital in East City,” Ed wondered out loud.
“Brother, don’t talk like that. You’re not even well enough to be out of bed yet.”
“Boys?”
Ed hadn’t even heard the door open. Al sat up straighter. Ed could tell that he hadn’t noticed either.
Gloria, the day nurse had her hand on the door frame. She was a straight-laced type, young and sort of plain, but very professional, just the type of person that Ed supposed the doctor would have chosen to work with. Ed couldn’t tell how much of their conversation she’d overheard but Ed was sure there was no way she could have missed that last part. She didn’t show it.
“The doctor said you were well enough for visitors. There’s someone here to see you.”
“Oh, okay,” Ed consented.
Gloria turned and addressed someone in the hall. “Just a few minutes, okay?”
He supposed that their visitor consented to her terms because Gloria left the room and a young woman stepped inside.
Ed took several beats to place her face. “Samantha,” he said.
Samantha’s smile wavered when she laid eyes on Ed. There wasn’t a mirror in Ed’s room so he could only guess what she was seeing.
“Oh! Samantha,” Al came to his feet with a metallic clatter. “You work at the bathhouse, right?”
Samantha seemed grateful for the distraction. “Yes, and you’re Ed’s brother…Al?” she guessed. “Sorry. Things were a little hectic when we met. We didn’t get a chance to talk much.”
“No, that’s alright,” Al said enthusiastically. He turned to Ed and explained, “When your fever was very high the doctor brought you to the bathhouse.”
“I remember that,” Ed said vaguely, although he kind of wished that he didn’t. Ed’s memories from the days that he had been very feverish were watery and nightmarish.
“If she hadn’t acted so quickly you might have died.”
“Don’t thank me,” Samantha said, saving Ed the trouble of faking his gratitude, “I’m sure the experience wasn’t very pleasant for you.”
“It’s in the past,” Ed told her. The heat in his cheeks had nothing to do with his earlier anger at Doctor Nikola. “Besides, if what Al says is true then you saved my life, and Al doesn’t lie.”
Samantha shook her head, “I’m not the hero here. You two are… I’m sorry. I don’t mean to embarrass you, but I just wanted to thank you.”
“We didn’t do anything special,” Ed sighed, eyes on the coverlet. “Thank Al if you want but I think that I caused more problems than I solved.”
Now it was Samantha’s turn to look embarrassed. “No… Edward, I don’t think you understand.” She paused. “Al, could I speak to your brother alone, please?”
Al glanced at Ed. “It’s okay. You could probably use a break from me,” Ed told him, wondering at the same time if Al had been away from his side at all during Ed’s illness. Ed couldn’t remember, and the possibility that he really hadn’t left Ed’s side left him with a list of questions that he was too tired to think about.
When they were alone Samantha took a step closer to Ed’s bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Better, I guess.”
“That’s good. Your brother cares about you a lot. You’re very lucky.”
“Is that what you wanted to talk about?” Ed asked bluntly. He couldn’t take his frustration out on the doctor and Samantha was the next available target. Maybe it wasn’t fair to her but he didn’t care.
Samantha’s demeanor changed. She dropped the guise of the shy, mild-mannered bathhouse girl, which Ed supposed had been more for Al’s benefit than for his.
“I suppose I’d better get to the point before the nurse kicks me out. Gloria’s an old friend from school but she’s not going to cut me any slack just because she knows me.” Samantha settled herself on the chair that Al had abandoned. “I did come to thank you, but I also came to apologize.”
“What for?”
Her face was open and innocent. “I was the one hiding Leon Mueller for Mason.”
Ed’s expression turned stone cold. “Why?” he demanded.
Samantha shrugged mildly. “Mason is a very good friend. I’ve known him his entire life. I used to baby sit him after his mom passed away. There wasn’t any reason for me not to trust him.” She was smiling at him softly, as if this should have come as no surprise to Ed, and he supposed she was right.
Ed looked down. “I see… so you knew who I was from the minute you saw me.”
“After we found out what Leon was up to Mason said that there might be people who came looking for him. When you arrived he told me what you looked like,” she explained.
“So you knew our names and faces before I came to the bathhouse the first time.”
“Yes.”
“If you were working against us then why did you help me?”
“It wasn’t a conspiracy, Edward. I think you’re a good person and you were only doing what you thought was right, but so was Mason and so was I.”
Ed let his anger speak for him. “I could still arrest you, you know. I could bring you up of charges of aiding and abetting a criminal.”
Samantha regarded him for a moment, and the look in her eyes made Ed wonder if she’d even heard him. Then she leaned confidently over the bed and cupped Ed’s cheek in her palm. “No, you couldn’t, because you let him go too.” And she kissed him on the forehead. “Thank you, Edward. You did the right thing.”
Samantha didn’t sit back down. She moved toward the foot of the bed. “When you’re feeling better you should stop by the bathhouse. I’ll take good care of you.”
Shame kept Ed nailed to the mattress. “You’re wrong, you know,” he said. “I didn’t do the right thing by letting Leon Mueller go. It was a mistake, and it could cost me a lot more than just my career.” If he and Al lost the military’s support it could cost him the ability to get his and Al’s bodies back to normal. But there was no way he could tell her that, no way that he could make her understand how expensive Leon Mueller’s freedom might turn out to be.
As yet no one at Eastern Command knew what Ed had done for Leon Mueller, unless of course Mustang had spies in Rhuel (Ed wouldn’t put it past the man). If word got back to the colonel about what he’d done, there was a chance he’d be facing a court-martial once he returned to East City. As things stood Ed was pretty sure he’d committed worse offenses than this, but he never quite knew which straw would break the camel’s back.
“Maybe you’re not sure about what you did, but I am. You’ll see. Your instincts about Leon were right.”
“Instincts? No, I was just too tired to deal with the guy.”
Samantha looked at Ed like she felt sorry for him. “You should learn to be a little more trusting.”
“Thanks for the advice, but I can’t afford to put my trust in the wrong people, not right now.”
Samantha looked at him for a long moment. Then she nodded like she understood. “Okay, Edward. I think that’s sad, but okay.”
She turned to leave.
“Samantha?”
Samantha paused at the door, her tiny handbag swinging on her arm.
“Yes?”
“Are you still curious?” Ed asked, looking at his automail hand where it was laying on the crisp white hospital sheets.
“No,” she replied, “I’m not.” And Ed could tell that she meant it.
She left, and Ed sank into the mattress.
“Oh, and Edward?” Samantha said, poking her head back into the room. “You were wrong about one thing: I never knew your name until you came to the bathhouse.”
The image of her grinning face stayed with Ed for several minutes after she had left, and Ed’s own face was so red that when Gloria came back in she checked Ed’s temperature as a precaution.
Samantha was Ed’s first visitor, but once word got out that Ed was on the mend more familiar faces began to appear at the clinic, mostly people whose houses he and Al had repaired. Ed wanted to turn them away at the door or pretend to be sleeping but Al’s face lit up like a Christmas tree whenever he heard voices in the hall. Ed didn’t have the heart to disappoint him, especially when Zelda arrived with a basket of cinnamon rolls to share with the clinic’s staff. And that wasn’t the only gift they received. Mrs. Bosch brought tangy green apples from her garden and the Clebolds brought Lucy, who wasn’t interested in Ed’s recovery so much as she was interested in using Al as a jungle gym.
Doctor Nikola and his small staff tried to keep the visits to a minimum. They explained to the well-meaning townspeople that it was important not to wear his patient out at this stage in his recovery. But if anything the extra company made Ed chafe against the doctor’s orders and turned the itch to be free of scratchy sheets and medicine and bland food into a burning desire. After the Clebolds’ visit Ed began testing the waters, seeing how Al would feel about ignoring the doctor’s timeline and departing Rhuel ahead of schedule.
“No.”
Ed frowned at his brother. “What do you mean ‘no’?”
“I don’t care what you want. We’re not leaving, not until Doctor Nikola says you can leave. You’re going to stay here and you’re going to get better.”
“C’mon Al…” He knew that he sounded like a spoiled brat, whining because he couldn’t have his way, but he didn’t care. He tried a different angle. “We’ve wasted so much time here when we could have been looking for the philosopher’s stone. Who knows what clues we might be missing out on while I’m stuck here in this bed!”
“We’ll never know. But what we do know is that if you push yourself too hard your recovery will just take longer. You’re still coughing and you had a temperature again last night. I think it’s because you were up so much yesterday.”
“I felt better…” Ed excused himself.
“If you feel so much better, then why don’t you get up and walk around the room?”
Ed sat up. The room spun. He lay back down. “I’ll did it earlier when you weren’t looking.”
“Brother, you’re staying here until you’re better. I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. You’re going to do this as a favor to me. Promise me that you’ll do whatever the doctor says.”
“Fine, I promise.”
“Even if he tells you that you have to stay in bed for another week? Or even a month?”
Ed’s mouth fell open, “Wait- ”
“Even if that’s what he says you need to do. Promise me you’ll do it.”
Ed hesitated.
Al pleaded with his soul-fire eyes.
“I’m going to have trouble keeping that promise,” Ed mumbled.
“Then I’ll help you.”
“Ed?” a soft voice said. It was Carmen, the night nurse, who had just come on shift. She was an older woman with gray hair and a nurturing disposition. Of the three people who worked at the clinic Carmen was the only person whose presence seemed to calm rather than irritate Ed. Ed couldn’t understand the reason for this until he found out that Carmen was married to Walter, and the two of them shared the same disposition. Carmen was a good nurse. She did her job and made sure that Ed he ate and slept and took his medicine, but somehow she made everything seem like a good idea. Ed never felt the need to argue with her. “There’s someone here to see you, dear.”
Al glanced at Ed, who shrugged listlessly.
Al looked apologetically back up at Carmen. “Can you tell them to come back tomorrow? I don’t think that he’s up for any more visitors today.”
“I understand. I wouldn’t have asked except that he says that he came all the way from Central.”
This time Ed did sit up, and he didn’t care that the room was spinning. “Who is it?”
Carmen glanced backward into the hall and a dark-haired man wearing glasses and a loud tropical shirt stepped past her.
“Lieu- ” Al started to say. Then Maes’ Hughes made a small signal with his hand and Al corrected himself, “Mr. Hughes. What are you doing here?”
“Well, I was on my way to East city on business when I heard that my wife’s favorite nephew was sick and I just had to stop by! How are you feeling?”
“Uh, okay,” Ed said. Wife’s nephew, huh? So that was the cover that Hughes had used to get past the doctor. Ed knew that no one here liked the military but maybe Hughes was going a bit far.
“Good to hear!” Hughes said, grinning and wagging a finger enthusiastically. “And I’ve brought just the thing to cheer you up and help get you back on your feet!”
Ed felt as if the world was moving in slow motion as Hughes reached into his shirt pocket and brought out his trump card, a picture of his two-year-old daughter Elicia, her hair done up in pigtails, hugging a baby lamb.
“Isn’t she adorable?” Hughes gushed, glancing back at Carmen. “Gracia and I took her to the fair last month and I captured every precious moment on film!”
“She’s very cute, Mr. Hughes,” Carmen told him with a polite smile. It was immediately clear to Ed that Hughes had talked at length to her on this subject, just like he did to everyone that he met. But unlike everyone in Central, Hughes hadn’t bored her to tears yet. On the one hand Ed felt glad that Maes Hughes had found a new audience. On the other, he felt extremely sorry for himself because he knew Carmen wasn’t going to be sticking around. Sure enough, she reminded Hughes to go easy on Ed and quietly excused herself from the room. Hughes appeared not to notice as he bombarded Ed and Al with a stack of photographs, all featuring his daughter squeezing the life out so some poor fuzzy barnyard critter with her tiny arms.
When the door was shut firmly behind her, Hughes seemed to forget the pictures that he’d spread all over the bed and nightstand. All of the images of Elicia lay forgotten and Hughes turned a serious searching eye on Ed. “How are you really doing?” he asked in a low voice.
Ed looked down at his arms, lying on top of the sheets. The automail limb was the same as it had always been, but his left arm was pale skin over bone and stringy muscle. It looked like it belonged to someone else. Illness had eaten away at Ed’s muscles and burned through what little fat he had to spare. He felt weak and pathetic. His body was struggling to support the weight of his automail. Doctor Nikola had said that the arm and leg had complicated his illness and had predicted that they would also hamper his recovery. The doctor had even suggested removing the limbs for a while. They simply took too much strength and energy to maintain, and those were things that Ed didn’t have at the moment. Not to mention that Ed was still growing (no matter what anyone else said). It might take him weeks to recover and even then it would be months until he regained his full strength.
Ed considered downplaying his illness to Hughes but thought better of it. Hughes was a top investigator for the military and would see right through it, so Ed settled on evasion, “I’ll be better once I get out of this place.”
“What happened?” Hughes pressed, and Ed got the impression that he was about to find himself on the wrong end of another scolding.
Ed took a deep breath and launched into his explanation, “The colonel sent us to Rhuel to find someone who was impersonating a state alchemist- ”
Hughes held up a hand, palm facing Ed. “Stop right there. I’m not interested in the case. You can save that for the colonel. What happened to you?”
“Oh,” Ed said. Despite the mistakes he’d made on this mission it would have been easier to talk about the rogue alchemist than answer questions about himself. He decided to keep it simple. “I had a cold when I left East City. It… got worse.” E looked guiltily up at Al. “I made it worse.”
“He had pneumonia,” Al simplified.
“But I’m over it now.”
“He hasn’t completely recovered,” Al corrected.
“I’m much better, though,” Ed said through gritted teeth.
Al looked directly at him and said, “He’s still very weak.”
Ed heaved a long-suffering sigh, knowing that he deserved the torture that Al was putting him through.
Hughes looked back and forth between the two of them, like he was watching a tennis match, and it was pretty clear which of them he thought had the better argument.
“Pneumonia,” Hughes said gravely. “You’re lucky, Ed. People die from that, you know.”
“I know,” Al said, deathly serious. His pronouncement effectively halted the flow of conversation for a few moments and drove home the grim reality of Ed’s illness.
“Lieutenant Colonel, what are you doing all the way out here? You didn’t come just to see us, did you?” Ed asked, trying to take the conversation in another direction.
Ed couldn’t see Hughes’ eyes for the reflection on his glasses, but his usual smile was gone and his jaw was tense. In contrast, he kept the tone of his voice light and casual, “Well, I’d like to tell you that I was just in the area and felt like dropping by. The truth is that I was overdue for a visit to East City anyway. Roy asked me to stop and check in on you, find out when you were going to be back on your feet.”
Ed felt his face turn red at the mention of Roy Mustang, but only half of his anger was directed at the colonel, the other half was for Ed himself.
“That bastard,” Ed muttered through gritted teeth. “I bet he’s got some pain-in-the-ass assignment to punish me for screwing this one up. Well, the doctor hasn’t even told me when he’s going to let me out of this white-walled prison, so you can just tell him that I’ll get there when I get there. Another thing, if he wanted a status update so badly why didn’t he march his lazy ass down here and get it? It’s not like he doesn’t have the time.”
Under normal circumstances Ed would have continued his rant until everyone in the hospital knew his grievances against the colonel, but Ed was still in pretty poor shape and had to pause, wheezing, after only a few sentences. When he did, Hughes was able to get a few words in edgewise.
“Ed,” Hughes said smoothly, “Calm down and let me explain something to you.”
“I’m calm!” Ed snapped.
Hughes and Al exchanged a look that Ed didn’t like at all.
Hughes leaned forward and lowered his voice. “Ed, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that the people in this town aren’t exactly big fans of the military.”
Ed glanced down at Hughes’ loud civilian shirt. “Tell me about it.”
“Well, with that being said, Roy started to get a little anxious when the two of you failed to check in. He called the sheriff to see what your status was and that’s when he found out that you were in the hospital.”
“I’m sorry,” Al spoke up. “I talked to the lieutenant the night that Ed started to get so sick but I never called after that. I should have checked back with the colonel but I didn’t want to worry anyone.”
“Al,” Ed said gently, hearing how upset his brother sounded. “It’s not your job to keep the Bastard up to date on everything we do.”
Ed turned to Hughes, “Sorry, Lieutenant Colonel. I know you two are friends.”
Hughes laughed, “That’s alright. Roy’s been called much worse names than that. Actually Roy is the one who feels like he dropped the ball. He called the sheriff and tried to figure out why you hadn’t returned to East City. That’s when he found out that you were in the hospital.”
“So he talked to the doctor?”
“Not exactly. The doctor wasn’t happy to hear from a colonel, so he hung up on him and refused to take anymore of his calls.”
Ed stared, mouth slightly open, shocked that anyone, even that polar bear of a doctor would have the guts to hang up on the colonel.
“So the colonel decided to come to Rhuel and see for himself what was going on.”
Ed could feel the color draining from his face. “He was here?”
“Yes he was,” Hughes assured him.
“I don’t remember…” Ed said slowly, glancing up at Al.
“I didn’t see him, either,” Al said.
“That’s because the doctor wouldn’t let him past the front door.”
Hughes’ visit made much more sense now. So did his shirt, and his insistence that they not say his rank in front of the nurses.
Ed pictured the colonel standing in the rain out in front of the clinic, soaked to the bone. To his surprise that image didn’t bring him any sort of satisfaction. It reminded him of Leon Mueller’s story about the military patrol that he’d seen passing through Rhuel, trying to find food and lodgings only to be turned out by everyone that they met.
“But he’s my superior officer…” Ed protested.
Hughes pushed his glasses up and shrugged. “That would have meant something if you’d ended up at the military hospital at headquarters, but you didn’t. You ended up here.”
“The sheriff didn’t try to help?” Al asked.
“Speaking from a legal perspective, there wasn’t anything he could do. This may be a military state but the military doesn’t control everything. There are a lot of people in the private sector who have fought very hard to keep it that way. Without a piece of paper naming him as your legal guardian, all the brass in the world wasn’t going to allow Colonel Mustang to put so much as a toe inside this clinic, legally speaking.”
Ed was mortified. Although he’d suggested earlier that the colonel come to Rhuel himself he hadn’t actually considered the possibility that the colonel would do just that. “I bet he’s pretty angry.”
“That’s a fair assumption.”
“What should I do?”
“Well, you can start by giving him a call, but I’d wait until you’re feeling up to it.” The fact that Hughes didn’t deny that Mustang was furious with him didn’t exactly infuse Ed with confidence. “I’m headed to East City tonight. I’ll let him know that you’re still among the living.”
“Lieutenant Colonel, I’m sorry that you had to come all the way out here for no reason.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘no reason’. I got a chance to see you boys. It’s just too bad you’re not feeling better. I’d ask you to show me around. This looks like an interesting place.”
“It’s always interesting around festival time, at least that’s what we hear,” Ed reflected Hughes’ smile weakly. “Thank you, sir. I promise we’ll come visit you and Gracia in Central when we have the chance… that is if the colonel doesn’t have me running errands all over the country for the rest of my career.”
Hughes shook his head dismissively. “I wouldn’t worry too much about Roy if I were you.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You’ll be all the way in Central. You won’t be able to hear the yelling… probably.”
Hughes laughed. “Well, I always try to keep a safe distance from things that might explode.”
Hughes steered the conversation in a lighter direction after that. He talked about the goings-on in Central and the latest news and political gossip, but somehow almost always ended up on the subject of his daughter or his wife. Despite Hughes’ assurances Ed’s thoughts kept drifting back to the colonel. He couldn’t help imagining what would happen when he returned to East City to face Colonel Mustang’s wrath. After a while Ed found it increasingly difficult to follow the conversation, let alone participate, and the harder he tried to keep his eyes open, the quieter Al’s and Hughes’ voices became.
“Ed?” someone whispered.
“Is he asleep?”
“Yeah… I think so.”
“He really looks like he’s been through the wringer. Are the two of you okay here? Are they treating you alright? Is there anything that you need? Food? Books? Anything?”
“Please, Mr. Hughes, don’t trouble yourself. We have everything that we need. Everyone has been so kind, really.”
A warm chuckle, “The nurses speak pretty highly of you, you know. Everyone I’ve talked to is so protective of you two. Careful, because I think they might want to keep you.”
“Brother would never let that happen.”
“Of course not. Still, it’s good to know that someone is looking out for you.”
Al sighed. “Brother takes so much looking-after sometimes.”
“Even the colonel can’t watch his back for him all the time, no matter how hard he tries.”
There was more to the conversation, but it might have been in Xingese for all Ed knew. The words were only buzzing in his ears. Even that faded away completely as sleep took him and for the first time in recent memory Ed didn’t dream about water. He dreamt about fire.
To be continued... part 13
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