Iserlohnn - continued

The Rocky Road to Recovery

By the time they arrived at Central’s Base Hospital Edward was beginning to regain consciousness. Now his head ached along with everything else and he had just enough strength left to glare at the Colonel. “Bastard,” he spat.

The Colonel ignored him and both he and the Princess got out of the car. Mustang had no problem getting the attention of a pair of medics and they grabbed Edward just as he was getting out of the car. Edward didn’t like being forced onto a stretcher and tried to fight them off but his efforts were short-lived. His body gave out before his will and he slumped onto the gurney his consciousness fading.

As Edward was taken into a treatment area of the emergency room the Princess followed the Colonel into the hospital where they were met by the Armstrong, Hughes and Alphonse.

“Doctor Ferguson is with Tenshi,” Hughes told Mustang. “How is Ed?”

“Stubborn,” the Colonel stated flatly. “Had to knock him out to get him in here.”

Hughes rolled his eyes. Typical, he thought. “Guess we’ll just have to pull up some couch and wait.”

The only good thing about the waiting room was the couches at least were comfortable. The Princess found an intact copy of the day’s newspaper and handing it to Mustang, who proceeded to split the sections amongst his comrades. Alphonse wasn’t interested in the news. He wished somebody would tell them what was going on with his brother. The Princess tried to cheer him but her kind words didn’t do much to allay his fears.

A few hours passed before anyone approached their group. A staff surgeon still clad in scrubs and looking a bit tired stepped up to them asking, “Which one of you is responsible for Edward Elric?”

“He belongs to me,” Mustang stated. “How is he?”

“Lucky to be alive,” the doctor stated. “He’s in recovery. You can come with me. I’ll take you to him.”

“And me!” Alphonse insisted. “He’s my brother!”

The doctor looked at the armored figure and his eyed widened in surprise. “Uh, okay,” he stammered. “This way.”

When they entered the room where Edward laid Alphonse gasped. He had no idea Edward had been that badly injured. His torso was bandaged and he was connected to an IV that dripped both blood and medicine into his veins. Edward heard them enter and he turned to look at them. The painkillers made him appear glassy-eyed but he seemed otherwise alert.

Edward smiled weakly and asked, “How is Tenshi doing?”

“We haven’t heard yet,” Mustang stated. “And I think you should be more concerned about yourself right now.”

“I’m okay. They patched me up real good.”

Mustang sighed. He had decided long ago that Edward was probably just too damn stubborn to die. He also knew that Edward probably blamed himself for what happened to his comrade. It was because he didn’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s life that Edward usually worked only with his brother. But his days of flying solo were over. It was going to take a team effort to defeat their current opponent. Mustang considered their options. Currently Central had the greatest concentration of Alchemists in all of Amestris. However, as far as he was concerned, there were only five others he knew he could call on without question. And the downside of trusting so few people was it made things hard when two of those you had the most faith in were flat on their backs in the hospital.

“What you said before, about going back to Iserlohnn,” Mustang began. “It’ll happen but not until we assemble enough of a force to make a stand.”

Edward pondered that thought for a moment before asking, “By force do you mean armed troops or a crack team of Alchemists?”

“Both.”

Edward nodded. “We’re going to NEED both,” he stated. “I think the only thing that has a chance of dropping that white-haired freak show would be an alchemically charged bazooka.”

Mustang chuckled softly. “I’m surprised you didn’t try to make one.”

“It’s not like the thought didn’t occur,” Edward remarked acidly. He tried to sit up but the searing pain in his midsection made him think the better of it. “Goddammit!” he swore under his breath.

Mustang put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Ed, just relax. We have a lot of planning to do. Don’t worry. You’ll be kept in the loop.”

“I’d better be,” Edward warned gold eyes flashing.

Alphonse had heard quite enough. His impatient impetuous elder brother could really irritate him sometimes. “Edward…shut up,” Alphonse commanded.

Edward looked up at his brother and then at the Colonel. He wasn’t really in a position to do much, so he laid back and closed his eyes.

“Wish I could get him to listen to ME like that,” Mustang muttered under his breath.

A nurse approached them saying, “You’ll have to go now. When we get Mister Elric settled in his room you can visit with him then.”

The Colonel and Al left and allowed the hospital staff to attend to Edward. Mustang caught up with Doctor Ferguson in the hallway and cornered her long enough to ask, “How is Tenshi?”

“He’s being given the anti-venom now,” she told him. “It took the analysts a while to figure out what he’d been dosed with. But he is going to survive.”

“What was it?”

“Sea snake venom. Very rare and usually fatal,” she explained. “Whoever did this to him not only knew how much was needed to just knock him senseless but also knew that Tenshi’s body is mostly Auto-mail.”

“Which means the attacker knew Tenshi,” Mustang surmised his tone grim.

“I have a feeling he knew Edward as well,” she said. “The way he treated him when they were fighting. It was like he was toying with Ed, purposely trying to make him angry enough to misjudge the situation.”

“And I think I know how he got so well briefed on Ed and the rest of your team,” Mustang stated. “Kimbley.”

The Doctor nodded in agreement. “Logical conclusion Colonel. So now what do we do?”

“Get everyone healthy first, Doctor, that is all you have to worry about right now.”

“When you do decide your next move, I’d like to be a part of whatever team you assemble,” she said.

“So noted,” the Colonel replied evenly. He turned to Alphonse and said, “Come with me. We need to update the others.”

Alphonse nodded and waved a shy goodbye to the Doctor. She smiled back and quickly moved off to resume her duties.


By the time the Colonel and Alphonse told Hughes, Armstrong and the Princess what they knew a charge nurse notified them all that both Edward and Tenshi had been moved into their rooms. The five of them went upstairs to the medical-surgical section of the hospital where they discovered someone had the good sense to put the two Alchemists in rooms next to each other. Alphonse and the Princess immediately went into Edward’s room while the others congregated in Tenshi’s. The little Alchemist was still unconscious. He was receiving the anti-venom in a tube that was connected to a vein in his chest. He no longer looked as deathly pale as he had when he was first brought in which was a relief to all assembled.

A doctor walked in. He approached the Colonel saying, “Mister Hikaru will make a complete recovery. But he probably won’t regain consciousness until tomorrow.”

“And Edward?” Mustang asked.

“If he stays in bed and lets us do our job three days,” the doctor replied his tone making it apparent he had already had a few choice words with Edward Elric. “If he is uncooperative he could be here for a week.”

“I’ll talk to Mister Elric,” Mustang stated in a less than pleased tone.

“Thank you,” the doctor said and left.

“Ed’s running true to form,” Hughes commented.

“And that’s the problem,” Mustang told his friend. “They won’t put up with his crap here. I think I’m going to have to reign Fullmetal in.”

Hughes chuckled. “Good luck.”

Mustang sighed and left Tenshi’s room and went into Edward’s. He was awake and talking quietly to his brother. Princess Katarin was sitting on a chair nearby. The Colonel couldn’t read Alphonse but had a feeling he was less than happy with his brother right now.

Edward saw him enter but didn’t say anything until he approached the side of his bed opposite Alphonse. “Did you see Tenshi?” he asked.

“Yes, and he’s going to be just fine,” Mustang told him.

Edward looked relieved. “Good.” He got the bed remote and used it to reposition his bed so that he was sitting up. “Did you talk to him?”

“He’s still unconscious,” Mustang said. “And you should be resting.”

“I am,” Edward stated a little annoyed. “I promised Al I’d stay in this bed and obey the doctor’s orders. But while I’m stuck here I want to know what’s going on. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

Mustang looked at Alphonse. “He really promised he’d behave himself?”

Alphonse nodded. “I made him pinky swear to be good.”

The Colonel raised an eyebrow speculatively at Edward. “Pinky swears?”

Edward sighed and actually looked a bit embarrassed. “Back home whenever we made a serious promise, the kind you aren’t going to break no matter what, we’d seal the deal like his,” Edward explained as he extended his Auto-mail hand, the flesh one being unavailable as it was connected up to the IV, to his brother and the two of them linked pinkies and shook hands that way. “That Colonel is a pinky swear.”

“And such promises are kept no matter what?” he asked eyeing Edward meaningfully.

“Yes, they are,” Edward reassured him.

“I’ll remember this for the future.”

Edward glared at him. “Only Al can ask this of me,” Edward told him in a no-nonsense tone of voice. “No one else.”

Mustang made no comment. He knew the bond the two brothers shared went beyond their unity of blood. When Edward made the Blood Seal using his own vitae to bind Alphonse’s soul to that armor, he had forged a union between himself and Al that nothing short of death could break. They were two souls bound together by love, fate and the oldest of Alchemy’s rituals. There was nothing the Colonel knew of that was stronger than the ties that bound the two Elric brothers together.

“I understand,” the Colonel said after a long pause. Changing the subject he asked, “Anything you want brought to you? A book perhaps?”

“Well if you could transplant my entire office here I’d be a very happy man,” Edward remarked with a wry grin. “However, I know that’s impossible. So, maybe whatever can be dug up on Scrying Arrays would be nice.”

“I’ll see what we can do,” the Colonel told him. “In the meantime, get some rest.”

Edward smiled slightly and nodded. “Thanks.”

Mustang said his goodbyes and left. Out in the hallway he met up with Hughes and Armstrong who both looked unsure about what to do next.

“Go home,” the Colonel told them. “We’ve done all we can for today. Tomorrow we’ll all reconvene here to plan out next move.”

“Here?” Armstrong asked puzzled.

Mustang’s eyes had an odd gleam to them. “Yes,” he said. “Here is the last place anyone would expect me to be when I’m planning my next major military offensive.”

Hughes nodded in understanding. “You think this person Edward fought has someone on the inside?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Mustang pointed out. “You were almost killed by a shapshifting homunculus that managed to get in disguised as someone you knew.”

Hughes would have wished he could forget that incident, especially since the homunculus in question had gotten past base security because it was using the form of his wife Gracia. It had entered his office while he was on the phone and shot him in the chest at point-blank range. He only survived because the bullet had missed his heart by inches. They never caught the thing that shot him but they did discover it operated under the code name Envy. What this Envy creature’s true appearance was no one knew but after that incident security around Central had tightened considerably.

“Okay, we’ll be back here at oh-eight-hundred,” Major Armstrong stated and they all agreed.

Mustang glanced back into Edward’s room. Princess Katarin was now at Edward’s bedside talking to him and, as she conversed, she kept finding subtle ways to make physical contact with him. Edward was enjoying the attention but he wasn’t in a position to respond in kind to her flirting. It was apparent he was just too exhausted to do more than smile and nod.

He turned to Hughes and asked, “What should we do about her?”

“The Furher wanted her to stay at the Palace as his guest,” Hughes told him. “But I have a feeling she isn’t going to want to do that.”

“She seems quite taken with Edward,” Armstrong observed.

“Can you blame her?” Hughes remarked with a wicked grin. “Ed’s pretty easy on the eyes. It’s his mouth that ruins any chances he’d have to get lucky.”

Mustang rolled his eyes. “I’ll find out what she intends to do.”

The Colonel returned and Edward eyed him speculatively. “Forget something?” he inquired.

The Colonel turned to face Princess Katarin and said, “I was asked by the Furher to escort you to the Palace. He wishes you to be his guest during your stay.”

“That is very kind of him,” she replied. “But tonight I want to stay here.”

“As you wish,” the Colonel said bowing rather formally to her. “I’ll see both of you in the morning.”

“We’ll be here,” Edward quipped his tired eyes the only thing reflecting how he really felt.

“Get some sleep Ed,” the Colonel said. “That’s an order.”

Edward chuckled softly and giving an off-hand salute replied, “Yes sir.”

Mustang turned on his heel and left.

The minute he was gone Edward said quietly, “I am tired. I do want to sleep but I need one of you to do me a favor before I call it a night.”

“What do you want?” the Princess asked.

“I need someone to stay with Tenshi. If he wakes up during the night in this strange place and doesn’t see someone he knows he’ll lose it. He NEEDS a friend to be there with him. I’d do it but I can’t. So I’m asking one of you to help me.”

“We’ll both stay with him,” Alphonse volunteered before the Princess had a chance to respond. “Two friends are better than one, right big brother?”

Edward smiled and nodded. “Good thinking Al. Thanks.”

“Come on Princess,” Alphonse said in that light friendly tone he would use when he wanted people to do what he wished. “We’ll see Ed in the morning.”

It was obvious to both brothers that the Princess was not very happy with the arrangement. Edward didn’t let on that he knew the real reason his brother had taken her along on the mercy mission. He knew Al didn’t trust Katarin. The idea of leaving her alone in Ed’s room while he slept was something that made him uncomfortable. Edward wasn’t sure if he trusted her or not but the fact Alphonse had his doubts convinced him to err on the side of caution. Alphonse was often a better judge of character than Edward and for that reason he went along with his brother’s plan.

When he and the Princess left, Al turned off the lights in Edward’s room but didn’t close the door behind them. He could still look in on Edward during the night and be there for Tenshi, which worked out well for the younger Elric. The Princess collapsed into a soft lounge chair near Tenshi’s bed and Al took a spot on the floor that was out of the way yet gave him a clear view of the sleeping Tenshi. Al liked Tenshi well enough but he wasn’t as attached to the little Alchemist as Edward was. The relationship Edward had with his Kohai bordered on paternal at times.

Al hadn’t seen Edward show any deep feelings for anyone but him until Tenshi arrived. It was good to see his brother still had the capacity to love someone who wasn’t his own flesh and blood but at the same time it bothered him that the love Edward was showing was that of a parent for a child. As much as he didn’t want to share Edward with anyone, he knew what Edward really needed was the kind of companionship that only a loving woman could provide. Tenshi was a sweet kindhearted soul but he wasn’t what Alphonse thought Edward needed. But telling Ed that would be a waste of time because he knew his brother would just do as he pleased not caring if it was right, wrong or psychologically healthy.

While the Princess sprawled on the lounge chair and sulked, Alphonse tried to think of something other than fixing his brother up with a nice caring girl…
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I would have posted this sooner but my Internet conneciton was down ALL WEEKEND!
Grrrrr! Wireless SUCKS!