Work Text:
Riza’s eyes had latched onto Edward the moment he walked in. No, not walked. Limped. He was favouring his automail leg, failing to hide his wince every time he put any weight on his real leg.
"What happened?" She demanded.
"Nothing." Edward snapped back, making his way over to the couch. "I got in a fight, is all."
"Did you win?" Jean asked.
Riza glared at him and Jean raised his hands in surrender. He knew better than to mess with the Hawk when Ed came in like this.
"Where's Alphonse?" She asked.
"How should I know?" Ed said. "I'm not his keeper, you know."
"So the fight was with him?” Riza asked.
The fact that Edward didn't answer was answer enough. The boys fought often enough and sometimes Ed got hurt just by virtue of Alphonse being a 7 foot suit of armour but usually it was just sparring going too far and emotions running too high. None of those fights had ended with Ed limping so badly though since he usually played off any pain that he was experiencing as to not draw attention to himself and more often than not to make sure that Al didn’t feel bad about it.
"Lieutenant Havoc," Riza said. "Get some ice."
Jean moved slowly, watching Riza as she assessed Ed's leg. The fact that he even let her check his knee just went to show that her intuition that something was wrong had been warranted and as she saw the way Ed's whole body was trembling, a bead of sweat rolling down his forehead, she only grew more concerned.
"Ed," She said carefully. "Have you ever dislocated your knee before?"
"Of course I have."
"I think you've done it again but when it went back in, it didn't go back right."
"You only have one knee and you still managed to dislocate it? Impressive." Jean whistled.
One more glare and Jean obediently went to grab the ice.
"I'm going to have to re-set it." Riza said.
Edward flinched away from her, his eyes wide.
"No way." He said. "I'm fine. I can walk it off."
“Ed,” Riza said patiently. “If you would prefer me to get a doctor I will, but the longer you don't treat this the worse the swelling will be. You won't be able to walk at all and it might cause permanent damage. Do you really want that?"
Ed chewed his lip, weighing up his options.
Riza assumed that Al didn't know how badly Ed had hurt his leg given that the younger boy wasn't here fussing over him, which meant she would have to do this before Al came looking for him less the poor kid freak out over what he had done. Ed must be thinking the same thing because he nodded, clenching his fists as if to steel himself.
"Do it." He said.
"It's going to hurt." She warned.
"Oh please," Ed huffed. "Look at me, I'm kinda used to pain don't you think?"
Ed wiggled his automail fingers dramatically and Riza had to fight to not roll her eyes.
"Okay," Riza said. "I need you to relax as much as you can and breathe deeply."
Before Ed could grumble a response, Riza put one hand on Ed’s knee while the other pulled Ed’s leg out straight.
Edward screamed.
In an instant he was tilting forward but Riza kept him upright, giving him several moments to just sit there shaking.
“Hell.” Ed gasped, swallowing roughly.
“You did well.” She said. “Some people pass out.”
“Yeah, well,” Edward said. “Some people don’t have to get their nerves reattached every few weeks.”
“It wouldn’t be every few weeks if you stopped getting into fights.” Riza said. “Ah, there you are.”
Riza helped Edward to reposition, his legs laying straight with his back against the arm of the couch.
Jean handed her the ice and Riza carefully set it on Ed’s knee, neither of them commenting when Ed flinched back either from the cold or the pain. Even if his knee was now in it’s proper place, it was going to take time for the swelling to go down and it would probably be longer before he should be allowed to put any weight on it. But this was Edward Elric so any time spent on this couch would be more time than she should expect.
“Lieutenant Havoc,” Riza said. “Get some food from the cafeteria.”
“What am I, some kind of butler?” Havoc grumbled.
Riza did not even have to glare this time before Havoc left the room, keeping her attention on the injured boy.
“I’m not staying here.” Ed snapped. “Especially not to be waited on like some kind of invalid.”
“Okay then.” Riza said. “I suppose I won’t show you the Colonel’s notes, if you’re in such a rush to go.”
That piqued Edward’s interest, golden eyes already flicking around as if trying to understand pages that he hadn’t even been shown yet. Riza held back a smile, not feeling the need to brag about her victory, and went over towards Roy’s desk. She grabbed Roy’s journal and brought it back over, holding it out to Ed.
Ed reached for it but Riza held the journal of notes away from him.
“The Colonel does not hear about this.” She warned lowly.
“Not a peep.” Ed promised.
Riza knew full well the journal she handed to him was just a decoy that used a completely different code to the one that Roy actually put his alchemical notes into but it should at least distract Ed for a while. If anything, she was curious as to how long it would take the boy genius to work out that it was a fake.
She went back to her own desk but Riza did not return to her work, watching Edward out of the corner of her eye as he practically vibrated with excitement, pouring over the pages. She would have to take the ice off of his knee and reassess it later and he would probably be limping for a few days but for now she just enjoyed watching him work knowing that he was safe and that he was actually resting his body for once.
It was almost peaceful with just the two of them in the office, the peace only breaking as the aforementioned 7 foot suit of armour stumbled in shouting apologies with Jean Havoc running in after him, gasping loudly as if he had ran across half of the compound.
“Relax Al, I’m fine.” Ed grumbled. Then, he broke out into a smile. “But check this out!”
If Riza did not do any work in the time that Ed and Al spent hunched over some fake encoded notes then that was her business alone. And if she got Havoc to call Roy back to the office at the perfect time then that was her business alone too.