Here we are, the final chapter.

Thank you so much to the people who have read (and hopefully enjoyed) this story! Thank you so much to every reviewer, favouriter and follower, your support means the world to me!

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

Chapter Eleven

Maes was absolutely horrified when he saw the state that Ed was in. The kid must have been through absolute hell. And the way he hadn't even reacted to having a large cut of about six inches carved into his chest, infuriated Maes to no end.

Somehow he still managed to grin though, out of sheer relief as this boy asked him his name.

"Hughes? The one with the pictures?"

"The very one. Do you want to see?"

"Please, no."

The tired, pained voice in which the kid said it, made Maes actually stop himself from dragging his photographs out of his inner pocket. He felt a strong urge to just hug the kid, the way he looked was just terrible. And the way Charles had talked about how he was his possession, made Maes concerned that the man may have done other things to this kid. He just had to know.

"Tell me, Ed, what were you doing inside the house?"

"He was washing my hair."

"What?" Out of all the answers Maes had expected, that was not one of them.

"Just ask the Colonel. I don't really want to repeat all the psychotic crap that man said right now. He didn't do anything unsavoury if that's what you think."

Maes was relieved. At least the kid had been spared from that. And he still seemed to have the fire in his eyes that Roy had once told him about.

Maes put his hand on the kid's right shoulder, which seemed about the one part of the kid that wasn't hurting him.

Maes had never been more thankful of the urge nine-year-olds had to defy "no trespassing " signs. A couple of local kids had snuck onto the property the day before, and been shell-shocked after they had heard a shot and a scream from inside the old stables. The parents had finally managed to get the kids to talk after they had been woken up by the pair of them having nightmares at about four in the morning. And so the parents had reported it to the police and the police had talked to Maes, and so he had grabbed Riza with him and they had gone off to find the old farm on the off chance that they would find the two alchemists.

Luckily they had been right.

Which meant…

"Which one of you were shot?"

"Both."

"What?!"

"He shot the Colonel in the knee and me in the thigh."

Maes felt the urge to hug the kid intensify. He was thirteen for god's sake!

Then suddenly the gravel crunched and Hawkeye came out, supporting Roy who was hopping on one leg. He didn't look even close to how bad Ed looked though, which made Maes even moe furious.

"Fullmetal!" Roy shouted.

"I'm alright, Colonel."

Well, that's relative…

Roy hopped over to the wheelchair, sitting down heavily into it with a groan.

"I'm going to phone for an ambulance," Hawkeye stated and left for the house. She too seemed unnerved by the way that Ed looked.

Maes had to agree that it was probably a better idea for them not to be moved inside the car, especially Ed.

How many broken bones does he have?

"Thanks for coming, Maes," Roy said.

Ed was back in the hospital in Amsel. Although this time he had a few more visitors than the last time. Also, this time, he didn't have the room to himself. The Colonel was in the bed by the door. The two of them had both needed surgery, Ed for his hand and shoulder, as well as for removing the bullet fragments in his thigh, and Mustang for his knee. Ed's whole upper body was covered with bandages and he basically felt like hell from all the nausea that the painkillers gave him.

Mustang's presence did have a redeeming feature, as he was having a slightly interesting reaction to the painkillers, and Ed was enjoying his blissful babble rather a lot.

"Maes, you know, when I am Fuhrer, I am going to make everyone wear miniskirts!" Mustang declared, pointing his right index finger strictly at Hughes.

Ed didn't know whether he was going to laugh or choke at the mental pictures.

"Boss, you do know that that would include yourself?" Havoc said, obviously having some rather unpleasant mental pictures.

"NO! Because it would only concern the ladies, and all my subordinates would be female! And YOU, Hawkeye, YOU would have to wear a miniskirt!"

"And you, Colonel, would find yourself with a bullet lodged in your skull before you even gave the order," Ed said, laughing, cringing slightly as it upset his arrow wound as well as his shoulder.

Mustang froze. "Hawkeye would wear trousers, then."

Hawkeye sighed. "Thank you, Sir."

Mustang grinned. "You're very welcome, Lieutenant."

Ed was looking around him, taking in the many bouquets of flowers, one from Mustang's team, one from Hughes, one from Major Armstrong although he thankfully wasn't present, as well as one from Anthony and his mother.

Anthony and Mrs. Evans had showed up the day before about an hour after Ed had woken up after surgery. The woman had been sobbing profusely, thanking them from the bottom of her heart for working so hard on keeping her son safe.

"And then you got so hurt, just for him and it's just not right! But thank you! Thank you so much! He's all I have left!" she had wailed before she planted a big kiss on Ed's forehead before turning on Mustang and hugging him before planting a big kiss on his cheek. "I could never repay any of you!"

Mustang had ended up trying to soothe the sobbing woman while also fighting back hysterical giggles at being kissed on the cheek by a woman in her forties.

Anthony had just given Ed a weak smile, obviously finding the situation difficult. Ed could sort of understand why the kid was blaming himself for this, but Ed didn't want him to. After having met Charles, Ed was just glad that the kid was fine and unhurt.

"You know it wasn't your fault, right?" Ed had asked him.

"How can you say that? If you hadn't tried to help me, you would never have been hurt!"

"You met Charles, who's fault would you say it was? The thirteen-year-old being held hostage or the man that actually fucking shot me with an arrow?"

"But still…"

"But nothing. The man was a fucking lunatic, Anthony! He wanted to hurt us, did you?"

"Of course not!"

"Then it's not your fault. It's that simple."

The kid had seemed to accept it, which made Ed happy. Now the only problem was that it was going to be a long time before he would be able to write letters without having Al write them for him.

Roy was happy. He was really happy. His subordinates were around him, as well as his best friend. And Charles was dead. Hawkeye had shot him, so it was no question that he was dead.

But for some reason they were all looking at him a bit funny as he warned them about the ants that kept climbing down the wall and could walk straight up in the air to climb over the beds.

Hawkeye left the room saying something about talking to a nurse.

Four hours later, things weren't so funny anymore.

Which was when Hughes deemed the time right for them to know how they were found.

Roy felt his stomach clench uncomfortably at the thought of how many more days, probably weeks they would have been stuck in that hellhole if it weren't for those kids. It had just been luck. Stupid, dumb luck.

And god knew he was thankful for it.

He could take a lot of pain, a lot of torture, but being forced to watch as the man tortured a thirteen-year-old kid that he was supposed to protect…

Listening to the screams and the whimpers and the yelps…

He didn't know how much more he could take of that.

Because Fullmetal sure looked like absolute hell.

Yet the kid hadn't been sobbing, not even once. And it unnerved Roy to no end. It once again brought the question to his mind about whether he had really done the kid a favour or not by bringing him into the military…

Roy still felt like he was going to be sick when he remembered the way the kid's one hand had looked the morning when Charles had been shot. It had been swollen and blue and the fingers were all twisted and clearly broken.

And he hadn't complained, not once. He hadn't even brought it up.

And it scared Roy.

It scared Roy that the kid had hardly let himself feel the pain and the fear like a kid should. Roy should have been holding a sobbing, screaming form that just wanted to get out. Roy should have been taking so much more pain than this child. But the kid had been acting too much like a soldier.

Have I stolen his childhood from him?

When they were finally released from the hospital, the two of them were invited to dinner by Mrs. Evans. Roy didn't have the heart to refuse. The woman had been trying to find a way to repay them, and wouldn't just accept the fact that she didn't need to do anything for them.

And so Roy and Fullmetal were limping with a crutch each through the hallway before coming to a stop outside of the small apartment. Roy leaned carefully against the doorbell and they stood there, waiting for the two inhabitants to open the door for them. A pair of smiling faces appeared, and Mrs. Evans hugged him and then kissed Fullmetal on the forehead before leading them into the living room. There they were met by a large, brightly-coloured banner, spelling out "THANK YOU!"

The woman had gone to a great length with the meal, having prepared three courses, including steak and a large cake that was delicious.

Anthony and Fullmetal had a lot of fun it seemed, and were laughing and joking before they went into a long conversation on a book on plants that Anthony had lent Fullmetal while he was in the hospital.

All in all, it was an enjoyable evening, and Roy had realised with a smile that at least all of Fullmetal's childhood wasn't lost to him.

And so there we are! I just couldn't help but give the story a happy ending, so I hope you all liked it!

And if anyone's interested, I've just started another story that is sort of the same style of parental!Roy/Ed, so if you enjoyed my way of writing, you might want to check it out. (It's called "The Trust Project")

And thank you all so much for sticking with me to the end of this story!

And HAPPY NEW YEAR!