Chapter Six: Reunion

"He's resting now. Try not to wake him," the doctor said, eyeing Ed's large group of visitors where they stood in Ed's hospital room. He paused a moment, looking at the sleeping boy before he exited the room.

Al, Winry, Mustang, Armstrong, and Hawkeye were all there. It had been three days since Ed had been admitted. As soon as he'd been carried into the hospital, he'd been immediately rushed off into the emergency room with major blood loss and erratic heartbeats.

The last the group had seen of him, he'd been almost as pale as his bedsheets.

After three days of hovering between life and death, Ed was finally open to visitors that weren't just family. As the group looked closer at the sleeping boy, they could see that he looked much better than a few days before.

Still, the number of bandages that covered the blond was terrifying in itself. One was wrapped around his head, due to the hard blow he'd suffered from when he'd been knocked out. He'd been diagnosed with a mild concussion. There was a sling hooked around his arm which supported the stab wound, but not much else could be done. The actual injury was wrapped up and given twenty-four stitches. He was still weak from blood loss, the doctor explained, and it would be a few days before he was strong enough to stand.

So, all in all, it was a miracle he was even alive.

Winry was the first one to reach Ed's side, reaching out and grabbing his limp hand as soon as she could. She said nothing as she looked down at him in what looked to be a mixture of pain and sadness.

"I hope brother wakes up soon!" Al said hopefully as he shuffled towards Winry. But he was only saying aloud what everyone else was thinking.

No one knew when Ed was going to wake up. Not Al, not Winry, not Mustang- no one.

And that was what made it so hard.

Riza, now looking uncomfortable at the silence that filled the room, cleared her throat. "Don't worry, Edward's strong. He'll be up and getting himself into even more trouble before we know it."

"Yeah." Al's tone was halfhearted. "Sure."

From beside the others, Mustang looked away. He couldn't help but feel like he was a big part of the whole incident- maybe the cause of Ed getting hurt in the first place. If only he'd stopped Ed from going out into town that day. If only he'd made absolutely sure that Al was going to keep an eye on him. So many things could have been prevented if it weren't for his carelessness.

Guilt gnawed at his stomach, and this time, he could hardly shove it back down. Ed could have died.

Suddenly, there was a cough. A weak, nearly-silent cough, but everyone's head snapped towards it.

Ed.

As Mustang turned around, Winry's grip tightened around Ed's hand. "Ed?" she whispered, her voice barely above a whisper. "Ed, are you awake? Ed!"

And Ed's eyes opened.

It was the most beautiful thing Winry had ever seen in her life.

"Ed!" she cried, and threw her arms around the injured boy in relief. Ed gasped from both pain and shock, but Winry barely heard it. "Ed, I was so scared you wouldn't wake up! I thought you were going to die! Oh, I never should have asked you to pick me up from the train station when there was a criminal around… now you're hurt and it's all my fault…"

"Wait, Winry," Ed said, his voice scratchy from days of not talking. Taking a moment before continuing, he slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position before he cracked a small smile. "Well, now I know I'm still dreaming."

When Winry looked at him in confusion, he smiled wider.

"Instead of hitting me with a wrench, you're apologizing."

"Ed- what?" Winry blinked. This certainly wasn't the reaction she was expecting.

Ed grinned sheepishly. "It's good to see you, Winry." After staring at her for another moment, he looked around as he took in who was there. His face melted into relief when he spotted Al, the giant suit of metal standing just a few feet away.

"Al! You're here!"

Al rushed over to Ed's beside, nodding vigorously. "Of course I am, brother! I'm so happy you're all right!"

"Sure, I am." Ed grinned, rubbing at his chest. "A little sore, but I'll be good as new in no time."

Al practically sagged in relief. "That's good to hear, brother. I wasn't sure you were going to make it!"

Ed frowned. "Wait, what happened?"

Al scooted closer. "What do you remember?"

"Well... I remember you all finding me." Ed grimaced, shuffling around in his bed. "Colonel Mustang removed the knife from my chest, but I couldn't really see what was going on... there was pain a-and then… well, that's where it gets fuzzy." He looked up at the others. "So what happened after that? I don't remember getting here."

Deciding to finally speak, Mustang stepped forward. "You were in bad shape when we brought you in, Fullmetal. After I sealed up your wound, we took you to the hospital. They said you were going into shock." He frowned at the painful memory. "You could have easily died."

"You lost a lot of blood, brother," Al said sorrowfully as he drummed his fingers together. "You even had to have a blood transfusion. You know, you're going to have to take it easy for the next few days…"

Ed made a face. "What? No!" he protested. "I'm not going to be stuck in here for the next week doing nothing!"

"Never fear, Edward Elric!" Armstrong proclaimed, stepping forward as he flexed his muscles and grinned widely. "I shall keep you company until you get better! You needn't fear being alone!"

At this, Ed's scowl seemed to deepen even more as his temper flared, and Al had to step in before an argument ensued. "That's all right, Mr. Armstrong!" Al said meekly. "I don't sleep, so I'll be able to watch him until he's good to go..."

Armstrong's arms lowered, and the large man looked rather disappointed. "Ah. Very well, then. But my offer still stands!"

"All right, enough of this. Now that we've all had a chance to say something to Fullmetal, I have a question for him myself," Mustang announced, returning to his regular seriousness as he walked to the end of Ed's bed. Cocking an eyebrow, he leaned forward. "So, Fullmetal, what happened?"

Ed blinked. "You know what happened."

"No, I don't." Mustang's stare deepened. "I want you to tell me exactly what happened, starting from where you left my office up until when we rescued you. It's for my report, so don't leave anything out."

Sighing, all Ed could do was shrug. "There's… not much to tell. I was picking up some apples for Winry, and Al had already gone up ahead. I was just leaving to catch up with him when someone grabbed me and pulled me into an alleyway…"

From then on, Ed told the group what had happened, from being knocked out to waking up and finding himself tied to a chair, his metal arm missing. He explained what Slicer had told him about his methods of taking off his victim's arms and putting them on himself as he tried to perform better alchemy. He'd been planning to remove Ed's as well. Ed quieted as he told them about Slicer's methods of torture against him, but chose not to go into too much detail as Winry's eyes filled with tears. Finally, he revealed his plan, which was to anger Slicer enough into letting him go. But it had drastically failed when he'd been stabbed instead.

"After that, I don't remember much," Ed admitted, drumming his fingers against the side of his bed. "I'm just glad you found me when you did. If Slicer had actually managed to cut off my other arm, I-I…" Brave as he was, Ed couldn't help but shutter. The thought of losing another limb brought back memories to that awful night- the night when Al had lost his body, when he himself had lost his arm and leg. All of that pain was starting to resurface.

The others saw Ed's expression, too, and Al quickly rushed to his aid. "Brother, it's alright to be scared." His arms fell to his sides. "I don't know how much you went through, or even what it felt like to be that scared, but... " He slammed his fists together. "If only I stayed with you, brother! I never should have left you alone! And because of that, now you're-"

"WHO YOU CALLING SO SMALL HE COULD DISGUISE HIMSELF AS A FLY AND NOBODY WOULD EVER KNOW HE WAS THERE EVEN IF HE SCREAMED AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS!?"

"Relax, brother! I was going to say 'hurt'!"

As the two brothers slowly entered a bickering match, Mustang watched with pained eyes before he had to turn away, clenching his fists at his sides. Unable to hold back his anger any longer, he punched the wall, barely feeling the sting that accompanied it.

He was a child, dang it.

Why couldn't Slicer had taken Mustang instead?

Vaguely, he heard Ed and Al now arguing over Ed taking his painkillers. Ed, of course, refused to take any kind of medication, claiming that he didn't need any help with his pain which wasn't even that bad in the first place, but Al was just as stubborn and insisted that his brother take the pills. Winry and Armstrong's attention was drawn to them as they struggled to calm the two boys down, leaving Hawkeye as the only one to notice Mustang in the corner.

"Sir?" she asked quietly, walking over to where he stood. "What's going on?"

Mustang grimaced, embarrassed for getting so worked up over nothing. "It's nothing. Forget it."

"You look upset."

He didn't answer.

"Is this because of Edward?" Her face was expressionless as she folded her arms. 'He doesn't blame you, you know. Nobody does."

Tensing, Mustang looked away. She'd seen right through him- was he really that obvious?

Sighing, he decided to give in. "It was my fault, Lieutenant. I only warned him once about Slicer, even when I knew there was a chance that he'd be taken if he went off by himself. And now, because of my foolishness, he's the one paying the price. The price that I should be paying right now."

Hawkeye watched him with curious eyes. "I thought you said he was only a dog of the military. That it didn't matter whether he was a child or not."

"Of course it matters," Mustang snapped, now meeting the woman's eyes. "I see that now."

His gaze drifted back over to Ed, where the boy sat sulking as Al and Winry tried to coax him into taking his medicine. Ed would have nothing of it, crossing his arms in defiance as he looked away.

"It's either this or you drink some milk," Al threatened.

"No. I'm not taking either!"

"Edward, if you don't take your medicine, you're never going to get better!" Winry said angrily. "And if you don't drink your milk, you'll stay small forever!"

Ed nearly shot out of his bed, Al being the only one able to keep him down. "WHO YOU CALLING SO TINY HE COULDN'T EVEN BE SEEN IN A MAGNIFYING GLASS UNLESS HE STOOD ON HIS TOES?!"

"EDWARD!" Winry huffed. "TAKE YOUR MEDICINE!"

"NO!"

Now smiling, Hawkeye turned back to Mustang. "You see? He already looks a lot better to me. He'll recover very soon, with medicine or not." She raised an eyebrow. "And he doesn't blame you for this, you know. Nobody does. Even if you had ordered him not to go into town, he would have disobeyed you anyway."

This was true, Mustang realized as he nodded. Ed was the most stubborn boy he'd ever met, and even if he'd tied him up with his own two hands, the teen still would have found a way to escape.

"You could be right," Mustang said, rubbing his temples. "But still-"

"But what? Look at him, Colonel. Tell me what you see."

Surprised, Mustang did so.

And what he saw wasn't the angry, loathing boy as he'd expected. He was a smiling one, now laughing as he, Al, and Winry shared a joke. These injuries weren't going to slow him down - no, not in the slightest. He was already prepared to push forward.

"You might not be Edward Elric's favorite person in the world, but it seems like he's already accepted what's happened and has moved past it. Follow his lead, Colonel- you should too."

And as Mustang took another glance at Ed, he realized that what Hawkeye said was true. Ed was going to live, and he clearly didn't blame anybody for what had happened. It was time to accept that, and do exactly what Ed was doing- move on.

"That kid's going to be the death of me," Mustang muttered, turning back to Hawkeye.

The other woman laughed, crossing her arms as she nodded thoughtfully. "You know... he just might."

~FINISH~

Thanks so much for all your support, faves, follows, and reviews, guys! I REALLY enjoyed writing this and I hoped you liked reading it too! Also, special thanks to katurdi for helping me edit this chapter! You're a lifesaver. XD

Shoutouts to reviewers last chapter: Lord Jaric, southernstar, katurdi, lonesome pine tree, EggfaceManUno, and animalsarepeopletoo! :D

Drop a review on your way out if you liked it! Thanks so much, guys, and I hope you have a great week!

Happy reading,

~thepurplewriter333