Author's Note: The timeline this piece of fanfiction takes place in the anime series as a side story around the time of episodes 26 to about 36 or 37. Hughes is dead, but it takes place before the great hunting down of Scar and the Homunculi. It also revolves more around Roy and his subordinates and less around Edward and Alphonse. Treat it as you would the novels written as side stories for the manga series. As far as canon pairings are concerned I believe for the most part the story is going to be Gen (meaning sorry, no Shounen-Ai and no Roy x Riza either.). So if you came to look upon this fic expecting the fluffy pairing of your choice, I'm sorry but you probably won't find that here. So please, if you wish to review please don't review with "Why isn't X-character with Y-character? Please write more with X and Y!" Now that all of that's out of the way please read and enjoy! Thank you for choosing to read my fanfiction!

Author's Warnings: Gen (no pairings), brief parts with Original Characters, side story (some may consider it slightly AU). I must add, this is my interpretation of what Roy's family may be like (as I really have no clue, not much of it has been revealed yet). The characters I add and some situations I describe are not canon for the manga or anime.

Disclaimer: Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye, Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric, and all other characters featured in the FullMetal Alchemist manga, anime, and video games are copyrighted material belonging to Hiromu Arakawa, Square-Enix, Aniplex, Studio Bones, and FUNimation. I write my fanfiction for my own enjoyment and I make no money off of this. However, my descriptions and depictions of Roy Mustang's family as well as a few other characters come from my own imagination and wonderings and are mine and mine alone.

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Law Of The Military

Chapter One: Early Evening Phone Call

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It had been at least two weeks since the death of Maes Hughes. Sadly though, in such a short amount of time everything had resumed to its form of normalcy…and behaved as if the whole murder had never took place. However it was understandable, Roy knew, as in recent years there had been more murders than ever. So it was most beneficial for the system of the military as a whole to go about business as usual, even if your own friend and colleague had tragically passed on. Moving on in such short amount of time was difficult for some, especially Scieska, the secretary and bookworm who had worked under the late Brigadier General. It irked Roy after a while, especially since he knew she blamed him for not trying to prevent it and was angry with him for not investigating farther into it either.

Contrary to what those around him seemed to believe, Roy was looking into it, as he too was baffled by what had happened. Maes Hughes was his good friend from the academy, he worked in the Court Martial Investigation department and had wife and young daughter. Why would someone be out to kill him? Or a group of people? Unless…in one of his investigations he came across a very valuable piece of information. A piece so valuable the only way to keep it from being leaked was to murder the one who discovered it. That was what Scieska was now investigating what Roy pondered about. It couldn't possibly be related to Scar, it was way out of that man's league. The only person who could've done it was someone inside the military. Lieutenant Maria Ross was currently being held for questioning, as she was the last person seen with him. It just baffled him!

Of course, there wasn't much time in the busy day of an important colonel to dedicate all of his time to researching the death of an old friend. Currently, his desk was piled high with assorted paperwork. Reports from his subordinates relaying information of what they found during their travels (mostly from Edward Elric), information regarding Scar, and the newest tidbits picked up from Ed about a group who called themselves "Homunculi". All of this had to be sorted through and worked on among his other usual duties. Though, his colleagues in his office were a big help (Lieutenant Hawkeye especially who sometimes literally had to hold a gun to his head to keep him from procrastinating too long and get his work done), it was still a lot of exhausting work.

It was late in the evening; the sun had already set, when the phone rang. With a sigh, and after a few rings, which sounded like they were screaming at him to pick his lazy self up, he begrudgingly picked up the receiver and held it to his ear.

"Colonel Mustang speaking."

"Sir, a woman is calling from the hospital, shall I patch you through?"

"Yes, patch it through, thank you."

Roy grumbled, rubbing his temple with one hand as he waited. Finally, a voice came through.

"Roy, are you there? It's me," a female voice came through, sounding very distressed and slightly urgent. After a moment of memory sifting he came to a realization and knew immediately who it was.

"Leah! Is that you? You know I work late! Why are you calling me?"

A brief moment of silence. "I'm sorry, I know what your hours are, especially after…" she hesitated. "However this is really important! I wouldn't be calling you unless it was! It's Dad!"

Right away he sat up and listened intently. "What's going on? Is he alright?"

"I'm afraid not, he's been checked into the hospital. Mom's with him. I just talked to the doctor and right now he's in critical condition. Something got into his system that made him fall terminally ill. They're trying to determine whether or not he was poisoned or if it was just a general illness," she replied, trying to hold back the sound in her voice that let him know she had just been crying. "Joseph's with me too, he's comforting Mom at the moment."

Roy nodded, taking in every word. He hadn't seen his parents in years (since the Ishbal Massacre) and was too ashamed to ever face them. Unfortunately, he had missed a lot of important events since then, including his own younger sister, Leah's, wedding day. His father had served in the military in a previous war when he was young, but would never have allowed to himself to perform the horrific tasks Roy had been asked to do. Though if it weren't for his own foolish mistakes, he never would've met the love of his life, Da Xia the nurse from Xing who aided him when he took a severe hit to his pelvis that paralyzed him from the waist down. He was then dispatched from the battlefield and sent to do investigative work and he would forever spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. His father and Da Xia married a few years after and soon they had their children: Roy, his older sister Cyne, and his younger sister Leah. Cyne grew up and left the family with her head held high and her heart for the physics and chemistry field, Roy decided to take after his father and go into the military academy as well as study alchemy, and Leah grew up to become a lawyer. It was after the war in Ishbal that Roy decided to cut off from his family, and now, with this news about his father, he knew he had to face them once again.

"I see, tell everyone I'll be there as soon as I can alright?" he told her quietly.

"Alright, Joseph and I will meet you outside. Bye." She hung up and he did as well.

Riza Hawkeye looked up from her paperwork. "What happened? You seemed especially tense just now."

Standing up, Roy sighed again. "It's my father, he's in the hospital. My younger sister just called to tell me…I really have to go."

She nodded but then glanced at his desk. "But sir, your paperwork…"

"I'll handle it in the morning!" He called to her as he grabbed his coat and hurried towards the door.

Riza sighed, "Alright! But with recent events I'm accompanying you to cover as backup in case anything goes wrong!" She too grabbed her coat and followed after him.

"Do as you wish!" Roy called out as he slammed the door, which she caught just in time.

Within minutes, they had picked up a car and they pulled up in front of the hospital. Standing next to the lamppost he saw a man and a younger woman looking at his car. The man was fairly tall, with short cut light brown hair, brown eyes hidden behind a pair of rounded spectacles, and a very squared jaw with a heavy essence of five o'clock shadow. He was clad in dark brown business suit that was a bit wrinkled and ruffled, showing that it looked like, he too rushed from work. The woman beside him was smaller, with brown hair so dark it appeared to be black cut just above shoulder-length with a few strands hanging in her face, dark blue almond-shaped eyes that looked identical to Roy's, broad cheekbones and a rounded jaw. She too was wearing a business suit like the man beside her, however one could notice a slight bulge protruding from her lower torso. He recognized the woman immediately to be Leah.

"Roy! Thank goodness you're here!" Leah rushed over to him as he stepped out of the car after Riza had parked. She threw her arms around him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"I'm glad to see you too, Leah," Roy chuckled softly and kissed her back on the opposite cheek.

"Oh!" she turned to the man who stood awkwardly behind her. "Roy, this is my husband Joseph Rosenthal. Joseph, this is my brother Roy." Leah stepped back as she introduced the two men.

Joseph reached his hand out and grasped Roy's tightly as he shook it. "Very nice meeting you sir, but please call me Joe."

"Pleasure's all mine I assure you," Roy nodded and shook back.

Riza cleared her throat and gave a polite wave. "Hello."

"Why Roy!" Leah exclaimed clasping her cheeks with her hands. "How dare you not introduce us to your wife! I thought you'd never get married!" Both Roy and Riza looked outright shocked at her assumption.

Roy tapped Leah's shoulder. "No Leah, you're misjudging. The woman accompanying me is my colleague Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye. It's best for me to have backup in case something pops up while I'm not at my office."

Leah had to cover her mouth to keep herself form laughing and Joseph just sighed and shook his head. "Oh! Well, why didn't you say so in the first place!" She turned to Riza. "I'm so sorry ma'am, it's just common for those in the family to make such assumptions about him. Pleasure to meet you, I'm Leah Rosenthal, and I'm sure as you noticed I'm the Colonel's younger sister."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Riza nodded with a slight smile. The young woman seemed nice and cheerful enough, despite the situation at hand. Definitely different from her superior officer…

"Now that we're all in the loop now, shall we go inside? I'm sure Mom must be miserable all alone in the hospital. Knowing her history, she's probably reliving a few startling memories. " Roy said softly, motioning towards the door.

Lean nodded, "Good idea, I'll show you to his room."

She led the way inside clutching her stomach which by that point Roy could tell it was because she was pregnant and didn't want to reveal it yet, followed closely by her husband and then Roy and Riza. Roy wasn't sure what to expect when he faced his parents, though his sister didn't seem to think anything less of him except for the fact he was still single, and he hoped his parents would be the same way. All he cared about at the moment was that his father was going to survive…

Note: Sorry for the choppy and shortness of the chapter, I'll rewrite it when I get the chance. Chapter Two coming soon!