Shining Stars (A Fullmetal Alchemist FanFic)

A Promise of A Lifetime

Pain. So much pain, it was unbearable and no words could express the sheer amount of it that Cheryl felt as she underwent the surgery. Even though the doctor did give her something to bite on, her screams of pain where still heard and still sounded inhuman.

Rachel, who was watching from the Gate, was on her knees, crying. The boy with her, who had introduced himself as Alphonse or Al, looked down at her sadly and rubbed her back, not knowing what kind of words to say or do to make her feel better.

"I need to b-be with h-her...she can't go on...l-like this..." the brown haired girl sobbed as she watched her sister go through the pain, shutting her eyes as she heard the screams. After what seemed like forever, the doctor was finally done and he moved away to clean off the blood from his tools.

"Help her into a sitting position, William, I'll have to fine-tune the automail for her," James instructed. The farmer nodded and slowly helped the rather petite girl up. Cheryl felt sore all over her body and everything throbbed painfully. She winced when her body had to move, even the slightest miniscule movement hurt.

"O-ow..." she gasped weakly, throat dry and sore from shrieking in pain and her jaw hurt so much from biting down on the cloth for too long. William lifted a hand and slowly rubbed her back, using light touches as he tried to ease some of the pain away without hurting her too much.

"I've managed to stop the bleeding and took care of you wounds. I couldn't do anything about your eyes however, medical science isn't advanced enough to do a miracle such as giving a person working eyes," the doctor said, walking over and made some final adjustments to the automail.

"I...I understand...but why didn't you give...me...antiseptic? T-that hurt a lot..." she asked, wincing in pain again. Both men had more or less gotten used to the fact that she had no eyes and weren't as creeped out about it. Doctor james sighed.

"Considering the war, not many decent medical supplies could be afforded, antiseptic included, so I couldn't give you any," he answered albeit remorsely. He never wanted any of his patients to be in any sort of pain, even ones so young such as Cheryl. Said girl frowned a bit but slowly nodded a bit.

"Why does my arm and leg feel heavy?" she inquired very softly. The doctor exchanged looks with William who simply shrugged and gave him a look that seemed to say, 'It's up to you if you want to tell her.' James cleared his throat slightly and focused his attention on the young dark brown haired girl. She looked up, noticing the shift in the mood and sensed the swirling pool of emotions in the men. She didn't know how she did but it was noticeable for her.

James stuttered over his words, trying to explain without wording it harshly, not sure if the young child could handle it well. Finally, unable to stand it, the eyeless girl all but yelled, "JUST SPIT IT OUT ALREADY!" That was probably a bad idea since her throat stinged immediately afterwards, making her cough slightly, sounding horrible to the ears. She then looked at the general direction where the doctor was, unaware that she was staring straight into his eyes as she did.

"I have given you automail, in replace of your actual limbs, think of them as mechanical body parts. They require special care however and will need some tune-ups from time to time. And as for the period of healing from your rather intense predicament, the minimum is 2 years," he finally said rather nervously, as if it wasn't so obvious by that flicker of color coming from him. Wait...what?

"What do you mean 2 years?! That's way too long! I need to heal quicker!" she exclaimed, coughing again and WIlliam placed a gentle hand on her back in a silent gesture to tone down the yelling a couple of notches to be on the safe side. 

"If you put a lot of effort you could half it, it would mean coughing up blood frequently, can you handle that?" the doctor asked. Who did he think she was? She just went through hell and he asks her whether or not she can handle coughing up blood.