Alphonse knew Edward wasn't telling him the complete truth. It was like a sixth sense he had picked up, or maybe a replacement sense. He had let it slide, though, because he had seen the knowing look Edward had given the Colonel. Something had happened. Something had definitely happened, but Alphonse decided not to push it. He hoped that maybe in time Edward would tell him what happened. Right now Alphonse was just relieved that Edward wasn't dead. When he had received the call from headquarters he had been so scared. He wasn't sure if Edward was going to be okay. His mind automatically drifted back to horrific moment.

~

Alphonse was reading an interesting book about possible ways to bypass the law of equivalent exchange. None of them had been useful or very accurate, but the topic was interesting.

Alphonse sighed as the phone began to ring.

He stood up and crossed the room to where the phone rested on a small table.

"Alphonse Elric speaking." Alphonse spoke into the phone.

"Alphonse, this is Hawkeye. I'm sorry, but something happened, and Edward's been shot."

"What?" Alphonse whispered shakily into the receiver as if speaking much more would trigger something.

"Is- is he okay? I- I mean, how i- is he?"

"I'm sorry, Alphonse. I don't know. I was only just informed by the Colonel. He called me from the hospital he took Ed, and h-"

"Hawkeye! What hospital did he take my brother to?" Alphonse squeaked.

Hawkeye told him the name of the hospital. she started to go on, but Alphonse interrupted her saying:

"Thanks, Hawkeye. Bye." He hung up the phone.

Alphonse didn't actually know the where the hospital Hawkeye had said Edward was, but he wasn't going to let that stop him.

~

Alphonse cringed at how much help he had needed to get here. If he had known where he was going he would have arrived at the hospital a lot sooner than he really had. Alphonse glanced guiltily over to his brother.

Edward was noticeably paler on the hospital sheets, and it kept surprising Alphonse every time he glanced over to check on his sleeping brother. Edward had been ranting the entire time the Colonel was leaving, and had strained his wound. A nurse had to come in and give Edward some pain medicine that had made him pretty drowsy. Now he was sleeping some what peacefully.

Hawkeye watched the Colonel's back as he walked out of the hospital. The way he was rubbing his middle finger and thumb together did not go unnoticed. It was like the man was itching to snap his fingers and set something on fire or, considering their earlier conversation, someone.

"Hawkeye, I need you to find out who may have wanted to drug me and who would have access to my coffee other than you."

"Yes, Sir. But are you sure it was your coffee?"

"I'm sure. That's all I had today." Roy frowned.

"Consider it done, Sir. And you should eat something, if I might say."

"I will get to that later, after we get the guy who drugged me. I don't want the risk of something like this happening again. Trust me, Lieutenant. If I thought one of my subordinates was killed I wouldn't stop until I knew that the killer had died a horrible death. We can't have it happen again."

"I trust you."

"Good."

"Now, let's find this guy because I don't think I have enough patience to wait on burning him alive."

Mustang's whole team, except for Hawkeye and Mustang himself, sat silently in the office. It had been several hours since they had over heard Hawkeye inform Alphonse about his brother. None of them had any idea what had happened, and were quite stressed about it. Havoc was the first to get up the nerve to say something.

"Do you think the Chief will be okay?" Havoc asked with a frown set on his face.

"I don't know." Breda answered soberly.

"I hope so." Feury softly said.

"Hawkeye never said how bad it was."

In the end no one got any work done out of pure stress for the short alchemist.

The Colonel stormed into the office, not looking at anyone as he went into his inner office and locked the door behind him.

There was a knock at the door, and then the door knob was tried.

"Sir, the door. Please unlock the door." Hawkeye was being very patient with the Colonel, but how long could that really last?

Roy didn't want Hawkeye in here with him he needed her to find that man who drugged him. He needed to think by himself. Think of anything, but what happened because the truth was terrifying. Fullmetal almost died. And the guilt would have rested on Mustang's shoulders.

No! Think about anything other than the gunshot. Don't see how much blood the kid was losing. Don't see his face as he was slowly fading. Don't see the almost none existent breaths he struggled for. Don't see the gun in your hands. Don't feel the life draining out of the kid. Don't feel the end drawing near. Don't imagine the end.

Roy wanted to be sick. He shot his subordinate. He almost killed Fullmetal. It was not right in anyway. Whether or not it had been a hallucination or not, it was Roy's fault. Whether or not he had really been forgiven, he pulled the trigger. He almost ended Edward. He almost killed Fullmetal.

"Sir?"

"Lieutenant, I would like you to focus all of your resources on finding that man."

There seemed to be a reluctant pause from the woman outside the door. She had already promised to him that she would find the culprit.

"Yes, Sir."

"Thank you." Mustang whispered, not loud enough for anyone to hear, though.

Mustang smacked his head against his desk. "I can't be trusted."

Hawkeye frowned. The Colonel was shaken. She knew him well enough now to see his fear behind his well crafted mask.

"How is he?" Fuery asked with a worried expression gracing his young face.

"Edward will get better." Riza sighed.

"I- I wasn't talking about Edward." Fuery blushed.

"The Colonel?"

Fuery nodded

"I'm not sure. He's not 'okay', but he isn't going to give up."

There was a slight sense of relief that settled over the team.

Hawkeye glanced at this information. Two possible leads on who might have been able to add the drug to Mustang's drink.

There had only been two other officers around while Hawkeye was preparing coffee for the team. Though, neither seemed to gain anything. One was a Lieutenant, he had a low paying job, but he also wasn't likely to be at all affected by something happening with the Colonel, and the other was another Colonel. He had a well paying position that would be greatly desired, but again, likely wouldn't be affected much by anything happening to Mustang.

"Him," Mustang pointed to the file with the other Colonel's name written on it. "Scrap the other lead, It's him. We have never gotten along and he has more than once threatened my life."

Hawkeye frowned at Mustang. "I can't remember ever seeing you two together. When has he threatened you?"

"Lieutenant, One man threatening to kill another man? Do you expect him to do that in front of the assistant, and sniper, of the person he is threatening?"

"I guess you are right, sir. But why did you never report this?"

"No evidence." Mustang shrugged.

"We can try to catch him in the halls?" Hawkeye offered.

"That is the best idea."

Mustang and Hawkeye walked down the halls trying to find the Colonel. Mustang stopped, motioning for Hawkeye to stop as well.

"Hawkeye, I will confront him. You stay back and be ready to take him if he tries anything."

"Yes, sir."

Mustang walked up to the man he had spotted while walking along.

"Colonel Marshall, fancy meeting you here? I thought you were going to South City? What was it? You were visiting family?"

Colonel Marshall looked confused.

"What? I never was going to visi- What are you onto this time, Colonel Mustang?"

"What are you talking about 'this time'?"

Colonel Marshall glanced up and down the hall seemingly deeming it empty.

"What is this about, Colonel? I am beginning to think you are just asking for trouble." Marshall frowned.

"You seem anxious," Mustang calmly said, ignoring the slightly threatening tone in the other Colonel's voice voice as well as the question asked.

"I don't know what it is you are talking about?" Marshall said.

"Anxious means experiencing worry, unease, or nervousness." Mustang said matter-of-factly.

"I know what it- Colonel Mustang, is there a reason that you stopped me?"

"No, I guess not. I'm just worried about what I'll tell Fullmetal's family."

"But I thought the wound didn't turn out to be fatal?"

"Wow, you got that information quickly. Not even all of my team know how he is," The second part wasn't actually true. They didn't know all the details, but they did know he would live, if all went well.

"I- I make it my business to know when my fellow officer is in danger of dying."

"Then you have nothing to do with the hallucinogen I was given?" Mustang said strongly implying the opposite.

"Why ever would you think that?" Marshall slyly smirked, understanding in that moment that he was found out.

"No questioning the fact that I was drugged? That information was never released."

"How did you find out, Colonel?"

Marshall hissed.

"You can't possibly believe or count on the fact that I wouldn't try to find you?!" Mustang shouted. "I almost killed Fullmetal!

"No, I was counting on a more concrete death from your subordinate." Colonel Marshall slyly smirked again.

"So fullmetal was your target?"

"Not exactly. You were also a target, but I knew if I killed both of you it would look suspicious if two of Amestris's prized alchemists were murdered. And this way it's two birds with one stone. You being the stone." Marshall seemed much more open with his plan now.

Roy wanted to punch the man. "That doesn't make any sense."

"What?" Marshall have Mustang a confused look.

"You wouldn't be effected quite as much as you think."

"Now that's where you're wrong. I have done quite a few favors for the good old General, and I can easily seeing myself replacing you."

"Well, I hate to tell you, but I think it will be pretty hard for you to replace me when I'm not leaving and when you've admitted to that type of crime."

"The thing is, Colonel, you've been known to shoot fellow officers. Do you think they will have any reason to doubt me when I tell the higher ups that the reason I shot the Flame Alchemist dead was that he attempted to kill me after falsely accusing me of murder."

"No one will believe you." Mustang hissed.

"And why is that?"

"I'm not the only one here." Hawkeye understood her cue and stepped out into the hall with her gin pulled and pointed at Colonel Marshall.

"Well, Mustang, I have to say I underestimated you."

Mustang snapped his fingers, allowing coils of flame wrap around Marshall. Not enough top kill the man, despite Mustang's wishes.

Roy smiled with a satisfied smirk, as the agony filled screams seceded. He normally wouldn't feel this way especially after Ishval, but Marshall had indirectly hurt one of his subordinates.

"You're under arrest for the attempted murder of a State Alchemist. And don't even think about touching Fullmetal ever again." Mustang finally felt like he could breathe again.

"Ed, I was really scared. Please, don't ever leave me alone." Alphonse whispered to his sleeping brother. The fact that his brother so easily could have died scared Alphonse.

"I won' " Edward slurred sleepily.

Alphonse was taken by surprise. He hadn't known that Edward was awake. He also didn't know what to say.

"In that case, Brother, I promise to never leave you either. Now go to sleep. You heard the Colonel."

"I hate him." Edward said, though, something in his voice stated otherwise.

"Yeah, Ed. Just go to sleep."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I scared you."

Alphonse wished he could smile at his brother.

"It's okay. Just promise me you will never do it again!"

"Okay, I promise. Good night." Edward turned over in the bed, falling back asleep.

"Good night, Ed."

A/N: I'm so sorry! I was so busy, and I just didn't have any inspiration when I wasn't. Also out doesn't help that I have 23 stories planned and partially written so I'm working on so much right now. I still feel bad. I hope you liked the chapter. I didn't like it, but I had left you all waiting, so sorry. I tried to fix it but this is as good as it will get.

Please review! Thanks for reading!

-UNAU/IME