Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Impossible! ❯ Denied Pain ( Chapter 6 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Rizenbool, July 11th 1910
Around noon, they had the machine ready in the surgery room. Grandma Pinako began to attach all the wires from Ed’s body to the machine as Winry went to fetch some things from the kitchen. She came back with a big plastic bowl and a piece of wood that was big enough to be Den’s biting toy.

Both of the Elric brothers watched the Rockbells curiously.

Winry put the plastic bowl beside Ed’s straightened bed and covered the wooden stick with thin cloth. Satisfied, she searched under the bed and pulled out a leather belt. She buckled the restraint to his chest.

Ed choked on his surprise, “What the-! Winry, what are you doing!”

She gave him a stern glare, “Don’t do that! You startled me!”

Ed pushed the belt aside with his left hand, “Well, next time explain what you’re going to do first! What am I; a prisoner?”

Winry rolled her eyes, “No, stupid! This is a necessary procedure!”

“Tying your patients on the bed like lunatics?”

She huffed, “No, protecting you from yourself!” Something twanged in her chest, but she ignored it.

“What’s the difference!”

“Dammit, Ed-!”

Al parted the two of them with his large metal hands, “Okay, stop it, both of you!”

Pinako gave a sigh and said, “This is necessary, Edward. Winry, it might be better for you to tell him first what you are going to do.”

“Sorry, Granny,” said Winry automatically.

They glared at each other for a while before the boy finally sighed and replied, “Fine.”

Winry thought of a comeback, but held back, “I’m going to buckle your chest, torso, hip, left wrist, and also you right thigh and calf, okay?” It was not really a question, but she was not in the mood to find another way to tell him.

Ed did not give her any reply but she took it as a yes. Winry proceeded to tie the rest of his body to the bed.

“I’m done, Granny,” she said after securing all the belts.

“I’m done, too,” said Pinako. The eldest Rockbell raised her head and finally gave all the occupants in the room an affirmative nod. “Let’s start, then.” She turned to Ed, “Ready, Edward?”

“Yes,” replied Ed.

Winry fisted her hand, and took her position on the left side of the bed, while Al stood beside her, near the end.

Pinako positioned her forefinger near the machine’s power switch. “When I turn on this machine, you’re supposed to feel tickle on you shoulder and leg, understood?”

Ed nodded.

Pinako pushed the button. A blue, green, and yellow light suddenly turned on. A red light stayed off.

Ed’s body gave a squirm and he muffled a surprise. His shoulder and leg twitched slightly, but from the look in his eyes, he did not appear like he was feeling pain.

Winry felt her heart tighten. “Just be strong, Ed,” she whispered, but he did not hear her.

“You feel it?” Pinako asked the blonde boy.

“Yes,” replied Ed, nodding.

Pinako pushed a button under the green light; it went off. “Do you feel hot?”

“Yes,” he repeated.

Pinako switched the green light back on and turned off the yellow.

Ed choked a cry and squirmed more, his eyes wide open. “Dammit, baaba! That tickles!”

Pinako rolled her eyes, “The temperature and touch nerves are definitely working then,” she said not to anyone in particular and turned the yellow lights back on.

Ed’s squirm reduced.

“We’ll go on to the next step then,” said Pinako, “Winry, the stick, please…”

Winry picked up the nearly-forgotten wooden stick and turned to Ed. “Open your mouth and say ‘Aa’!” she smiled, she would have grinned if she didn’t know what was going to come.

Ed raised his eyebrows but complied, “Aaah..?”

Winry brought the wooden stick to his mouth. “Bite this and don’t let go.”

Ed gave her a questioning look, mouth still open. Winry could literally saw question marks hanging around him.

She smiled again reassuringly, “Just bite this no matter what, okay? Your life depends on it.”

Ed looked like he did not really believe her, but complied without protest. He muffled something that sounded like ‘okay’ but quickly realized that he could not talk without letting go of the stick. He nodded instead.

Seeing Winry had gotten her task done, Pinako turned back to Ed, “Count with me inside your head.” Then, she began, “One.”

Winry took Ed’s flesh hand into hers.

“Two,”

‘Be strong,’ Winry’s mind prayed.

“Three!”

Ed’s body jolted violently, his eyes shut closed, and he released a muffled groan, biting hard on the piece of wood in his mouth.

“Pain nerve is working,” Pinako muttered again, this time sympathetically.

“Nii-san!” Al shouted in alarm.

Winry clenched Ed’s hand, her heart beating fast. She knew this would happen. Pain nerve was the most responsive one. So, although the machine stimulated all three kinds of nerve, the most the patient was going to feel was pain.

Winry raised her eyes to her Grandma, “It’s okay now, right Granny? We can continue tomorrow?” she asked hopefully.

Pinako turned to Ed, “We can stop, Edward, or we can continue to the next step.”

Still biting on his stick, Ed turned to Pinako and gave her a determined look.

Pinako smiled painfully, “You want to continue, then?”

Winry felt her heart froze.

Ed nodded.

“Nii-san!” Al shouted again, clenching the end of the bed so hard it was a wonder that it did not snap.

Pinako reached for a black button beside the red light. The button was much bigger, and it worked by turning it in clockwise direction. Around it was a scale in autojolts, the terms used for automail stimulation. The current position of the arrow on the button was pointed to ‘10’.

Pinako quickly turned it to ‘20’.

Ed groaned painfully and his body gave a violent jerk.

Winry choked on a sob. She stroke his flesh hand with her thumb gently, but knowing that he would not be able to feel it against the jolts of pain that were now raking his entire body.

Fifteen minutes later, Ed’s pained groans were fewer and his body did not shake as hard.

Winry turned to her grandma. “He passed 20 autojolts, Granny….”

“You want to stop, Edward?” Pinako turned to her patient.

“Granny!” Winry shot in horror, her eyes widened. How her could Grandma do that! Ed was clearly in pain!

Ed shook his head no.

“Ed-!” Winry turned to the boy, but he ignored her.

Pinako turned the button to ‘30’.

Ed gave another violent groan and his body was jerking so hard that the bed shook with him.

Al shouted his brother’s name again and made a movement like he was going for the machine.

Before Pinako could say anything to stop the younger Elric, Ed spat the wood and shouted, “Don’t you DARE, Al-! Argh-!”

Winry did not have time to pick the wood again. She quickly thrust two of her finger into his mouth, just in time to prevent him from biting his own tongue.

She winced in pain and let out a breathy whimper.

Ed did not notice that it was not his stick that was in his mouth, he groaned again and bit on harder when he felt another rush of pain.

Suddenly it was all over. Ed’s body suddenly stopped jerking violently, his groans of pain reduced to gasps of breath, and his teeth grew slack on the two fingers in his mouth.

Grandma Pinako had turned off the machine.

Ed’s figure still twitched in the aftereffect of his pain, but he released the fingers and began to cough violently like he was choking on something.

Winry knew what was coming.

She instantly reached for the plastic bowl and shoved it right under his bowed head.

Ed vomited right then and there. Nothing really came out, because his stomach was almost empty, but he spat a little blood.

Winry almost panicked, he was not supposed to have internal bleeding. She looked at her Grandma, but found Pinako still stood beside the machine; sighing and shaking her head like nothing really bad had happened.

“Wipe his mouth, Winry,” said Pinako. “I’ll get a bandage for your fingers,” she left the machine and made her way to the first-aid-kit cabinet.

Ed had finished throwing up by then and slumped limply, his breath ragged. “Next time, Al…” he began hoarsely, “I want you to stay outside.”

Al did not protest; he seemed to be still in shock. Winry didn’t blame him; maybe he didn’t know that the treatment would be that painful. At least he took it better than most people after seeing someone have a nerves treatment.

Winry grabbed a clean rag a wipe Ed’s mouth gently. That’s when she realized that there was blood dripping from her hand, it trailed down to her elbow and dripped to his hospital gown.

She blinked.

Ed moved his face away from the rag and looked at the blood on his lap, then at the hand the was holding the now bloody rag in front of him, then to the person the hand belonged to. “Winry…,” his eyes widened, “What-?”

He sounded so disoriented that she couldn’t help but smile, though it was not a happy one.

He looked at her hand and back to her again, “Is that… did I?”

Not knowing what to answer, she gave him a tired laugh, “Told ya’ not to let go….”

He gaped at her for sometime, “I…”

She shook her head and reached for the leather belt on his left wrist.

Al stopped her promptly, “Winry, no! I’ll do it!”

“Thanks, Al,” Winry smiled and let him unbuckle them. She turned to the other boy, “Are you okay?”

Ed looked at her disbelievingly. He did not answer immediately, but once again fixed his gaze to her hand that was hidden beneath the rag, “Winry, your hand…”

Pinako suddenly appeared, cutting off his sentence short. She pulled Winry’s injured hand closer, and without so much warning, sprayed disinfectant.

Winry hissed in pain, she had not realized that her wound stung until that moment. “Granny…!” she pleaded, trying to pull her hand away.

“Hush,” shushed Pinako. She quickly finished bandaging the two fingers in an expert manner and patted the back of her granddaughter’s hand, “Good job, Winry.”

Winry beamed.

Pinako turned to Ed, “We’ll continue this tomorrow night,” she said in a final tone.

Winry half expected that Ed would argue, but thankfully he didn’t.

“I understand,” replied Ed solemnly, his eyes glued on the bandage on Winry’s fingers.

Pinako nodded in satisfaction. “How do you feel, then?”

Ed rose his gaze to the elder Rockbell, then his brother, and then to the girl standing beside him.

Winry smiled again painfully. They both knew that there was no turning back, not ever.

He retuned her smile with his own twisted one. “You’ll get used to it,” he replied finally.


Ooo TBC ooO

A/N: That’s it, what do you think? This nerves treatment is my own fragment of imagination, a mixed product from the scene in the anime where Ed groaned when having his automail surgery, and some insane logic that maybe only make sense to me. Hahaha. I don’t remember Arakawa-sensei mentioning about the process of automail surgery… yet. But, this fanfic still has the potential for being a half AU, since we didn’t know the ending for the books yet. ;)

Well, next chapter should have focused more in the aftereffect of the Nerves Therapy. I’ve had it written down, but as always, still needs more polishing. :D

Anyway, I’m starting college on August 4th! So my update might slow down a little, I don’t know yet. And my German classes also start this week. I think this will be a pretty busy year:D


Ooo DICTIONARY ooO

(o)baa-ba: grandmother (rude)

(o)nii-san: older brother (polite)