Hey again guys! I am back with the last chapter of this story! (Let's please ignore the fact that I am a couple hours late XD) Anyways, don't blame me for anything cause I put a warning about possible character death…

*Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. I do not own the profile picture. I do have permission from 'wild-springflower' to use her story. All I own is the rest of the plot.

*Pairings: None

Enjoy!

Chapter 3

They have been waiting in the hospital for an antagonizing two hours now. Both Edward and Mustang were undergoing surgeries. Over the course of those two hours, Mustang went into cardiac arrest twice but they managed to get his heart functioning again. The four occupants of the waiting area were sitting anxiously, Havoc was chewing on an unlit cigarette, Hughes was wiping at his glasses and Hawkeye was trying to not let too much of her emotions show on her face but it was obvious she was worried sick while Alphonse was staying as still as a statue.

A few minutes later, a young doctor came up to them with spectacles perched on his nose, holding a clipboard.

"Who's here for Edward Elric?" he asked.

"We are, doctor" said Hughes as he stood up and gestured to the rest before shaking hands with the doctor.

"How is he? How's brother?" asked Alphonse, startling the doctor at his sudden movement and the young voice that emitted from such an intimidating looking armour.

"Don't you worry, young Edward is going to pull through" he smiled softly at Alphonse before turning to Hughes, going back to looking professional.

"Mr. Elric has multiple broken ribs and gashes all over his body. He also has a broken wrist but what I am most concerned about is his head injury. He has a moderate to a mildly severe concussion, so we want to keep monitoring him until we are sure he is going to stay stable. We will have him stay at the hospital for at least ten days. You can visit him in his room but I would like you to stay quiet and let him wake up on his own. He will probably come around in an hour or two."

"Thanks doctor, your help is greatly appreciated. May I ask if you know anything about the status of Roy Mustang? We bought him in along with Edward." asked Hughes.

"Yes, the patient is still in the operation room; the staff working on him were facing problems but I assure you that they will do their best. The doctor in charge of his surgery will be meeting you as soon as they are done."

"Alright thank you doctor, I am sure you have work to attend to so we won't hold you up any longer" Hughes informed him gratefully.

"No problem, I was just doing my job. I wish you all the best." said the doctor, before taking off.

Once he left, Hughes turned towards Alphonse.

"Al, you can go sit with your brother" Hughes said.

"What about the Colonel?" Al asked hesitantly.

"It's alright; we will come inform you once he is out of surgery or if anything happens. We already put in a request to put Ed and Roy in the same room, so don't worry" Hughes told Al warmly and gave a pointed look to Havoc who nodded and caught Al's arm.

"Come on Al, let's go stay with Ed so he will have someone with him when he wakes up, I am sure he will want you to there." Havoc said gently as Al nodded and left with him.

Hawkeye and Hughes sighed before returning back to their seats to continue waiting for Roy's surgery to be over.

It was almost an hour before Ed started showing signs of consciousness. He tried opening his eyes but it felt that something was sticking his eyelids together, right after managing to open them, he shut them back tightly due to the very bright light causing his head to hurt like hell.

"Brother!" Al called but his voice sent daggers of pain into Ed's skull and he groaned.

"Alphonse, let him take his time" Havoc slowly whispered to Al.

After the pain in his head started somewhat subsiding, he tried pushing himself up.

"Colonel…" he muttered faintly.

"Easy chief, you just came out of surgery" Havoc told him as he cautiously pushed him back.

"Havoc?" Ed asked, blinking rapidly to get his blurry vision to focus.

"Yeah kid it's me"

"Brother! How are you feeling? Are you alright? Do you need anything-" his frantic rambling was cut off by his brother's hoarse chuckle. "Calm down Al, I am fine" Ed said trying his best to smile at his younger brother then he reached over to affectionately knock Al's chest plate.

"Mustang… the colonel, where is he?" he turned to Havoc and asked urgently as he recalled what happened before everything went black.

"The Colonel is still in the operating room, we don't know much about his condition yet" Havoc said, trying not to worry Ed too much and apparently Alphonse picked up on it because he didn't say anything.

"Brother you should rest, the First Lieutenant and Mr. Hughes are waiting for his surgery to be over so they will come tell us if anything happens and the hospital is placing the Colonel in the same room as you." Alphonse said slowly.

Any other day, Edward would have complained about staying at the hospital, let alone sharing his room with Mustang but given the circumstances and the danger Mustang was in because Ed wasn't stupid and he picked up on Al and Havoc trying to hide it from him so he just sighed and closed his eyes.

The next time he woke up, it was to the sound of the door opening and the hushed voices of Hughes, Hawkeye, Havoc and Al talking quietly.

"Is the Colonel's operation done?" asked Al.

"Yes, his surgery was just over, they will be getting him here in a bit" replied Hawkeye, a little bit more relieved now that the Colonel was at least out of the worst of it.

"How is he?" asked Havoc.

"Well he is better; at least his heart didn't fail a third time." Hughes said sighing, oblivious to Ed listening to them, whose heart almost skipped a beat at hearing that.

"Anyways, he had a mildly severe concussion and several broken ribs as well, but because he took the majority of the blow, a rib punctured one of his lungs. His right shoulder was dislocated, a lot of his muscles and ligaments were torn and his back was pretty messed up too – many bruises and wounds but thankfully there were no spinal injuries or anything permanent. They will keep him in the hospital for three weeks though in order to avoid any further complications."

"He shielded me, didn't he?" Edward asked, making them aware of his consciousness, as he vaguely remembered Mustang throwing himself at him.

"Ed?!" exclaimed Hughes startled that he heard them, they all thought he was still asleep.

"It's not your fault Edward, the Colonel did what he thought was right" spoke Hawkeye, knowing his bad habit of making everything his fault somehow.

"Yeah, look where that got him!" snapped Edward but grimaced soon after as the action strained his broken ribs.

"Calm down Ed or you will hurt yourself more." said Hughes sympathetically, letting Ed cool down instead of talking him out of his thoughts there will be time for that later.

It was soon after, that Roy was wheeled in on another bed, covered in bandages and the customary hospital outfit. He had an oxygen mask, to reduce the exertion on his injured lung and had an IV line inserted on his right hand. Mustang remained unconscious for the whole time Hughes and the others were there, although he was doing good enough that they took him off the oxygen mask. By eight at night, everyone was asked to leave as the visiting hours were up. After some protests they were allowed to stay till ten but no one was able to get permission to stay overnight as both patients were in a bad condition and needed their rest as the staff put it. Hawkeye phoned the office to let the rest of the team know everything and told them that they won't be able to visit before the morning. Each of them then headed to their apartments and Hughes invited Al to stay over at his place, who politely and gratefully accepted his offer.

Ed had woken up by mid night and couldn't fall back asleep although he was still feeling pretty exhausted. After a long two hours, just as he was about to finally drift off, groaning from the bed across the room startled him awake. He gazed at Roy's bed to see the man sluggishly moving.

"What on Earth happened?" Mustang muttered under his breath as he settled back into the bed, resigning to the fact that he couldn't move.

As the memories flooded back to him the cave, Daniel, the collapse and Ed's alarmed expression.

"Edward!" he yelled in a raspy voice before falling into a coughing fit.

"Hey Colonel" Ed called out.

Roy looked over, relaxing in relief upon seeing that Ed was more or less alright.

"We are at the hospital, huh? How are you feeling?" asked Roy.

"I am fine! I am not the one whose heart stopped twice!" Ed snarled angrily.

Heart stopped twice, what the hell is he saying - then it clicked that Ed was talking about him. That bad, huh? Now he understood why he felt so awful, it was as if he was run over, not that what happened was of much difference.

"Well I am sorry, I didn't exactly want that to happen, you know" Roy replied, slightly annoyed at Ed's accusing tone.

"Why did you cover me, you could have freaking died! I didn't ask you to protect me Mustang!"

"So what did you want me to do? Let you die?" Roy snapped back.

"I wouldn't have died!"

"Yeah and how are you so sure? Both you and I know that you would have died if you were hit head on, you were in a pretty bad shape before the whole damn thing collapsed, look what it did to me and I was in a far way better condition than you" And your body is far more smaller, and suddenly it didn't feel funny anymore because Ed probably wouldn't have stood a chance if he didn't help him.

"I don't care! you can't just do something like that!"

"Edward, I wouldn't have left you to die, at least for Al's sake, do you know what would your death do to him?!" Do to me.

"But-"

"Just shut up Fullmetal! I bought you into the military so the least I could do is at least keep you alive!" Roy finally yelled. Ed's eyes widened at his statement before continuing.

"You didn't force me into it Mustang. I did it out of my own free will, I need the resources to get Al's body back and the military was the only way."

"But it is a fact that you wouldn't have joined if I didn't offer it to you."

"You know I would have-"

"I know you wouldn't have, no child would think that the military would accept him just like that and no sane person would go to the military when he committed the biggest taboo there is, Edward" Roy stated pointedly knowing full well that he won that argument.

"Is that why you apologized?" Ed asked more out of curiosity than anything but at Roy's confused expression he elaborated "Back in the cave, 'I am sorry, Ed', that's what you said before it crumbled and buried us"

"Yes, pardon me for thinking that that might have been our last moments" he murmured.

"Still, I don't blame you Mustang, you don't have to protect me" Ed said looking away.

"I know, maybe I don't have to but I want to, so that's that" Roy stated boldly before realizing how sappy that sounded.

Ed gave him an amused look while trying to cover that odd bubbly warm sensation swelling in his chest.

"Thank you, Colonel" he said with as much gratitude as he could muster up, catching the man off guard because Edward Elric didn't thank people, he just didn't. But the man did deserve it, he saved his life after all,

"You're welcome" he replied, masking his surprise, however with an unknowing smile gracing his features.

Edward then gave him a devilish grin "You are still an arrogant, manipulative bastard though!"

"And you are still an annoying little brat." Roy said as he smirked.

Oh man finally! I am done with the last chapter, it actually turned out longer than I expected but I didn't kill anyone so yay! XD

Hope you enjoyed the story. Thanks for all your support, bye! =D ~DarkFlameFantasy