Roy wasted no time in doing as Al bid him to, his hands carefully sliding around Ed's unconscious form and rolling her easily onto her side. And not a moment too soon either. The second she was on her side, blood began dripping from her slightly parted lips and onto his nice clean floor.

"Al?" He said the teens name questioningly as his dark eyes locked onto the crimson stain that was steadily growing by the moment.

"It's just Ed's body undergoing excessive strain. This happens more and more often now, among other things."

"Things like what?" Roy asked, his voice sounded furious- hell, he was furious. The gears in his mind were turning at a more rapid pace than usual as Al listed what Ed went through whenever her body was under too much strain from the change.

"Fevers that range from slight to dangerously high, writhing, sweating and crying blood, vomiting blood and other things, passing out, muscle and joint aches, pains and weakness. Difficulty moving, and functioning, difficulty eating, concentrating- the list is nearly endless."

"How long does it usually take for her to get better?"

"A few hours, sometimes a day or so."

"That would explain how the two of you were able to hide her condition to such an extent that we never caught on. She still managed to get over her illness enough to get her missions done on time." Roy said, both pissed off and just slightly impressed with the kids ability to hide something in plain sight. It was no wonder no one had ever caught onto them.

They seemed to excel at secrets and hiding things.

"Yeah- but she only wound up making herself sicker by doing so. I've been with her on all of those jobs and there were a few of them she managed to push herself so far with that she wound up bedridden for days, sometimes even weeks afterwards."

Roy frowned at this and glanced down at Ed again, noting that the blood had stopped leaking from her lips and she simply seemed to be sleeping now. "Will she be alright once she awakens?"

"Maybe. But she was pretty distressed about you, Mr. Hughes and Major Armstrong finding out about her. I'm not sure how she'll react to any of you after this."

"You mean that she'll become skittish around us? Perhaps even uncomfortable."

"It's hard to say exactly. But it is a possibility. She's kind of been skittish around men who knew her secret before." Al said, though he didn't really bother going into details about the reasons why as the door to Roy's office opened and Maes walked back in carrying a plush looking, folded blanket over one arm and a big bag of goodies in the other.

"Sorry I missed the explanation about Ed, one of you can fill me in right," It wasn't really a question. Anyone that knew Maes Hughes knew that he tended to make demands that sounded like questions sometimes. "I got everything that you listed Al, plus a few extra things. I even arranged for the store around the corner from the base to make several deliveries a week with everything you told me you would need for Ed." Maes said as he set the blanket and bag down on the coffee table that rested just a few inches from where Ed lay as he cast the girl a curious look and took note of the blood stains before narrowing his eyes and asking.

"What happened while I was gone?"