Hughes slept peacefully on the floor by the couch. It, unfortunately, wasn't too far off from the beds they had at that hotel he'd been staying at. Though, at least, those were made for sleeping.

A slight noise rang in his ears. He couldn't allow his brain to process this information while he slept, though. A name came through and triggered something in his brain. Ed. What was wrong with Ed? Was something wrong?

Hughes rolled over and his arm, which turned out to have been holding something on the couch, fell to the floor with a gentle thud. It was enough to jostle him out of his sleep.

Alphones hovered over a still lump on the couch. "Alphones, what... what are you doing?" Hughes asked through a yawn.

Alphonse's voice was shaky and terrified. "M- Mr. Hughes, I- I don't think Brother can breathe very well..."

At that Maes, shot off the floor. He was also hovering over Edward now.

Edward's breaths were coming out very shakily. They were so weak that they were barely even there. It seemed as if he had to fight for each breath. "Edward? Wake up. You need to wake up."

Edward didn't even twitch he just tried to breathe. Hughes grabbed his shoulders, feeling the heat that spread through the kid. He propped Edward up so that breathing would be easier for the teen.

"Alphonse, I think we need to take him to a hospital. They will know how to help. We need to wake Roy an..." Hughes had turned to face Edward again. He felt an ice-spike impale him in the chest. It chilled him to his core. A new breath never replaced the last. He waited but it still didn't come.

"Oh, God, No," Hughes choked.

"He's not breathing... Mr. Hughes, he's not breathing! What do we do?!" Hughes laid the boy flat on his back. He was terrified as he pinched Edward's nose and opened the boy's mouth. He breathed into his mouth, not being successful as Edward did not begin breathing of his own will. He heard Mustang's gasp but kept at his work. The man must have been aroused by Alphonse's terrified shouts.

Hughes took in a huge gulp of oxygen, and breathed deeply into Edward's lungs. Nothing. His chest rose and fell with faux breath.

"Mr. Hughes," Alphonse sounded shaken and stricken. "Is he...?"

"No!" Hughes and Mustang both denied, though Mustang had said it only out of refusal to believe that he could be gone.

Maes pulled Edward off of the couch and onto the floor none to gently. There was no time. Six minutes and permanent damage could be done. He started compressions, pounding them into Edward's chest. He counted them off as Mustang dropped to the floor beside him, at Edward's head. Hughes signaled Roy to give the boy a breath.

Two breaths; one after the other, and then the compressions again. Hughes was losing hope. He turned to his friend who, he now noticed, looked near tears. It was not normal for Roy, but he had thought his subordinate was dead. Everyone had grown close to Edward so it was like a part of them was ripped out when they first heard the news of his death. But it had been sewn back together, and Mustang seemed desperate not to let that piece go. He couldn't give up on Edward, and neither could Hughes.

Hughes began the compressions again as he watched Edward's chest fall and fail to rise again. He wondered how long they had been trying to revive the teen.

Too long. Hughes swallowed back tears. A cough, and a gasping breath. Maes almost kept going with the compressions then it clicked. Edward was breathing. Coughing and breathing. He wasn't dead.

"Edward!" Mustang and Hughes simultaneously shouted.

The said teen was inhaling breaths too fast to actually breathe correctly.

"Fullmetal, take it slowly," Mustang gasped out.

Edward's eye was wide and frantic. It was glazed but far clearer than before. He choked on the much needed oxygen. Hyperventilating was quickly becoming a very real possibility. His eye drooped shut.

"Fullmetal, calm down. Everything's fine. Al is here. Do you want him?" Edward's breaths slowed so very slightly.

"N- no." That was like a dagger to Alphonse's faux heart. Hawkeye, who had stationed herself nearby Alphonse, grabbed his shoulder.

They all stayed like that for a long while. Numb and watching as Edward's panicked breaths finally evened out. "Co- c- colonel," He sounded awful, now, but it, at least, seemed a little better. "I- I'm c- cold and tired..."

Roy didn't know what to do. What was Edward wanting him to do?

"Do you want my jacket? I can put yours back on and give you mine as well?" Roy was already moving to remove his own jacket when Edward shook his head- very weakly.

"Can you hold me?" Roy was taken aback by that question. He then realised that it was just Edward's fever talking. He still couldn't say no. He wouldn't say no. Not after he nearly lost the kid again; only right after getting him back. He wouldn't tell him no if he could do it for him.

"S- sure, Fullmetal." Roy bent down and drew Edward up into his arms.

"Ya' warm." Edward buried his face into Roy's chest, surprising the man. "Can I sleep?" Edward opened his heavy eyelid watching Mustang's reaction through the hazy eye.

Roy looked to Hughes as if for confirmation. Maes shrugged. Apparently, Edward took the silence that followed his question as a yes. He closed his eye and snuggled further into Roy's chest, falling asleep nearly immediately.

"Roy," Maes started. "That was too close. We need to take him to a hospital, or to an expert who knows what they're doing."

"I know, Hughes, I know, but we can't. Edward's is supposed to be dead and buried. It would draw unnecessary attention to Edward, which we don't need right now." Roy frowned. He looked down at Edward's sleeping face.

"Granny and Winry can help," Alphonse said solemnly.

Roy nodded at the boy's comment and turned back to Hughes. "Hughes, we've go this under control."

"Roy, I don't think we do. I think we are way over our heads." Roy knew Hughes was right as he looked back down at Edward in his arms.

We are definitely in over our heads.

A/N: This was supposed to be out yesterday, and I forgot. Sorry.

-UNAU/IME