Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. Hiromu Arakawa does. I only own the OC characters.

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Mustang almost regretted intruding. He was greeted with the sight of Alphonse holding his older brother in his arms, the blond in question sobbing uncontrollably. He stood awkwardly by the door, looking on at the spectacle unfolding. Eventually, Alphonse noticed him, and motioned for him to come sit in the room. The colonel grabbed a chair and settled himself on Ed's left side. He made sure not to jostle the IV pole positioned there.

Ed's sobbing was soon reduced to quiet sniffling, until he finally pulled himself from his little brother's embrace. He sat up, rubbing away the remaining tears. He had noticed the colonel come in when he had felt Alphonse gesturing towards him. He didn't feel like saying anything, so he just sat there until Mustang broke the silence.

"How are you feeling, Edward?" the older man asked. Ed was taken aback by the use of his name rather than his title. After a short pause of staring incredulously at the colonel, he replied, "I could be better."

Mustang smirked slightly, but there was no humor to it. "Well, that's an understatement if I've ever heard one." His face fell again, returning to his previous mask of concern. "You've been missing for three weeks, Ed. The investigation will be closing once we convict the man we arrested. We need an official statement from you that labels him as the culprit. You'll have to testify."

Edward knew that this was coming, and he dreaded the thought of retelling what had happened. He instinctively drew his knees up to his chest, burying his face in the sheets. He shook his head very slowly, refusing to acknowledge what the colonel had said.

Mustang sighed. He knew that this would be difficult. Hell, he could barely say what he needed to. Dammit, dammit, he should've tried harder to protect the boy. He didn't deserve something like this, not after all he had been through. He cursed silently to himself, self blame threatening to consume him. "Edward, you need to tell me what happened. I can't say that I know what you're going through, but I do know that it must have been-"

Suddenly, Ed violently turned over onto his right side facing away from the colonel. He wrapped his arms around himself, curling into a ball. "You have no idea what it was like!" the teen shouted, his voice filled with anger and hurt. He wasn't mad at Mustang, however. He was mad at himself, at the man who had done this to him. The thought of having to face him again was too much to bear. He imagined he would crack if he had to listen to that smooth, deep voice again. "My pretty little sunflower..." Ed shivered at the memory of those horrible words.

Mustang sighed. It broke his heart to see Ed like this, the once proud and stubborn individual reduced to a shaking wreck. This child did not need to suffer like this. "You're right, I don't know what it was like. But it's necessary that you give testimony against David Forschner. It's the only way we have to go through with forwarding these charges."

Edward froze. So, that bastard finally had a name. For some reason, it did nothing to alleviate his fear. "It's okay, Brother." The young prodigy looked up at the sound of Alphonse's voice. "I'll be right here."

The tension in his body melted away. It was nice to know that his little brother had his back for something like this. Though he wasn't comfortable talking about this in front of Alphonse or Mustang, he realized that he would have to get it over with. He nodded once at the suit of armor, and sat back up in the hospital bed.

He bunched the sheets up in his hands, not knowing where to start. He took a few shaky breaths, Alphonse resting a hand on his shoulder, steadying him. He decided to start at the beginning. "It was really dark every time I woke up. I didn't know where I was or what was going on. He came first. He was the first one who..." he trailed off, swallowing hard. He remembered the terror he experienced when he heard that man's fly unzip, the belt being undone. "He - he t-touched me when he..." Ed brought his hand to his mouth. He couldn't bring himself to say it.

"It's alright, Ed," Mustang assured. "You don't have to describe that to us." Ed took more deep breaths, trying to calm himself down before he continued. "He said things, dirty things that made me feel disgusting and uncomfortable. He kept calling me his pretty little sunflower." He paused again, trying to collect himself. The recent memories were threatening to overwhelm him. But there was still more to say. "There were others," he said. Mustang looked up when the young prodigy said those words. "I - I think he paid people to do it. They always gave me a shot before they did. It made me feel... really weird. I didn't like it." The horrifying memories were coming back to him now. He could feel their hands on him again, groping and stroking, trying to get some sort of reaction out of him to satisfy them. Tears started welling up in his eyes again. "It hurt so much," he choked out. He wrapped his arms around himself again. "All kinds of people came. I begged them to stop, but they weren't listening. They couldn't hear me." His tears fell down his cheeks again. "Sometimes, there were two at a time. And some of them made me..." he quelled the wave of nausea that built up inside him. "It was disgusting."

Mustang clenched his folded hands together. Alphonse lowered his head, the red glint in his eyes going out. The older man knew exactly what these people had done to Edward. That same feeling of protectiveness and anger welled up again. This was Forschner's fault. He was the one who subjected his subordinate to these horrible things.

"I was so scared," Ed whispered shakily. The fear was back, threatening to drag him back to that dark room. He barely registered being encircled by someone's arm and pulled into a strong embrace. Mustang had pressed the boy against his chest, rubbing small circles on his back. Without thinking to, Edward returned the hug, breathing in the colonel's comforting scent.

Edward finally felt safe.

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Mustang didn't feel like doing this. In fact, he would rather spare himself the trouble and be done with it. But he had to see this through to the end. He just hoped that he would keep himself from murdering the guy he was going to interrogate.

The colonel walked into the interrogation room, flipping through the file that he had in his hands. He paused at the door to look up from the picture of the man that was seated at the table opposite him, his wrists secured to the surface by handcuffs. He didn't look any different than when he had first seen him back at the crack den. He had noticed Ed's reaction to his voice when he had been yelling at them earlier. Mustang took an enormous amount of effort to keep his expression calm and collected when he laid eyes on the one who severely injured one of the members of his team, in more ways than one.

David Forschner glared at him, clearly indicating that he was going to be giving the silent treatment. It didn't matter to Mustang. There wasn't much he needed to say anyways. He moved to the chair opposite to the fugitive, dropping the file on the table.

"Mr. Forschner," he addressed, starting off neutral and unimposing. "It took us awhile to find you, but it seems your luck's run out." He skimmed through the file he had already read. "Let's see: possession and distribution of illegal drugs. It also says here that you're a registered sex offender. It's surprising that you've managed to maintain your low profile for this long."

"Is there a point you're trying to make?" David asked, an exasperated tone to his voice. Mustang glanced up at the man, no, the scumbag, sitting before him. He looked like he was holding a demeanor that suggested that he had been through this kind of thing before. He most likely had. But there was nothing this person could do to crawl his way out of the hole he had dug for himself.

"The crime you're charged with could earn you a death sentence, and that's only if you're lucky," Mustang said, voice dangerously low. "Especially since you committed such a heinous act on a military officer and a minor."

David leaned back in his chair. "It was only business, Colonel," he said calmly. "Everyone has to do what they have to to get by-"

Mustang shot to his feet, his hands slamming down on the table. He leaned forward until his face was inches from David's. "You paid people to rape him. Every. Single. Day." He hissed out each word between his teeth, showing off barely concealed rage. "I bet you couldn't contain yourself, either." He spat out those last words.

David smirked. "Who couldn't?" he said. "Sure, I had to make a living somehow, but someone who's that pretty is just begging to be knocked up. I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity."

Mustang slammed his fist on the table, the sound of it contained inside the room. He held that position, looking down at the smooth surface. He hoped that David hadn't noticed he was trembling. "You're insane," he ground out.

David snorted, that cocky expression still on his face. "Oh, no, Colonel. I don't think insane is the correct term. Really, it's the same feeling that you get when you see a pretty girl. Except I just prefer mine on the younger side."

Mustang realized that there was no reasoning with this man. Unclenching his fist, he nodded, and began collecting the contents of the file back together. David regarded him, clearly confused. "I think we're done here," the colonel said. "Your trial's in a few days. The evidence is stacked against you, so there's no doubt you'll be convicted." He gathered up the rest of the papers and closed the manila folder. "If you plead guilty, they'll most likely just give you the death penalty."

David's face dropped into a scowl, still trying to defy the colonel. Mustang, however, was not swayed. Before walking away, he said, "And when all this is over, you will be someone he will gladly want to forget." He exited the room, the door slamming shut behind him.

He never realized how much he needed that. He let out a long sigh, releasing the knot of tension that was bunched up between his shoulder blades. One of the hard parts was over, one of the many hurdles that had to be cleared before the road to recovery would finally begin. Mustang smiled to himself as he walked outside to his car to drive to the hospital, imagining Edward's reaction when he told him that he would have to take therapy.

Yes, the damage had been dealt, and it would take a long time for the boy to return to his old self, if he ever could. But there was comfort in knowing that there was a chance that he would get better.

END

Author's Note: And so, we have reached the end. I'm glad that so many of you enjoyed this story. It was kinda hard coming up with a name for this psycho pedophile, but I managed. I also decided to post before I go to my dad's for the weekend.

Speaking of which, since my birthday's tomorrow, my mom got me a copy of Journal 3 from Gravity Falls, so I'll be obsessed reading that for awhile. The things on my bucket list include searching for the Cipher statue. If you couldn't tell that I'm obsessed with Gravity Falls, I guess this is more evidence of that.

Stay tuned for the next story. I've had it in mind for awhile, and I'm really excited about sharing it with all of you.

Praise is appreciated and constructive criticism is encouraged.

-The_Mayflower