Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Family Has Its Limits
The year was 1899, Heymans Breda, a ten year old boy, sat on the front stoop of his house. His older sister, Melissa, who preferred to be called Missy, sat beside him looking worried. She kept fidgeting and would often look at the front door expecting their father to come get them. You see, their mother was very ill and had been for some time. It started with a cough, and then she became worse. The cough was accompanied by spitting up blood, fevers, and loss of appetite. Doctors had come and gone, but there was no change in their mother's state. Joe, their father, increasingly lost interest in the well-being of his children, or the need to be at work to make sure their family was financially secure.
"Missy," Heymans began. "Is Mama going to get better?"
"No, Manny, she isn't," she said honestly. Missy was always honest with her brother. She was of the age of fourteen and didn't like to keep information from her brother like the adults did. She always frowned when their father came up with excuses to tell Manny why their mother was sick.
Missy wasn't stupid. She saw the way both of her parents indulged in alcohol. Her mother had started binge drinking on weekends after working fifty hours a week at the factory. Their father often drank on weeknights, indulging in his addiction of the buzzed feeling he got from guzzling the amber colored fluid. He would then become belligerent toward his wife and then his children. Missy saw the signs and always tried her hardest to keep her brother out of their father's reach when his violent tendencies began.
"Missy?"
"Yes, Manny?" Missy said still looking at the front door. She could hear their father sobbing from the inside and tried her hardest to keep her own tears at bay. She knew what that meant.
"I'm scared," Manny told her, his bottom lip trembling.
Missy put her arm around her brother's shoulders, "We'll be all right. Do you want to take a walk?"
Just before Manny could answer, the front door swung open, barely missing the sibling of the front step. The doctor was rushing out, a look of fear on his face. What followed chilled Missy to the bone. Their father held a pistol in his right hand. It was pointed at the doctor.
"You told me she had a few more weeks left!" Joe yelled. "You lying bastard!"
"Joe, I told you she could live up to another six weeks," the town doctor told him calmly. "But she needed to stop drinking."
"She coulda lived!" Joe growled sobbing.
It was hard to imagine a man as big as Joe breaking down in such a public manner. He was a man build like a tank, six feet tall, two-hundred thirty pounds and nerves of steel. He worked in construction, lifting heavy materials all day, and went out to the local tavern at night with his buddies. He had loved his wife, Betty, since the day they met almost twenty years ago. But things went south when Melissa was born. He never wanted to be a father, but Betty begged him for a child and he complied. It hadn't been so bad at first, but then he left everything family related to Betty and often didn't come home until two in the morning. He was almost always plastered, slamming doors loud enough to wake the neighbors. That was when the raping and the abuse started. Betty would try to calm his loud voice, his groping hands, but he was never quiet until he got what he wanted. Betty stopped resisting after a few months and just let it happen, hoping he would never turn on their little girl. It was after a drunken night that Manny was conceived. To cope with the abuse and her failed marriage, Betty had picked up drinking herself, and took longer shifts at the factory to avoid her husband. She left her children in her neighbor's care to ensure their safety.
"Joe, don't do this," the doctor said. "Think about your kids."
"My kids?" Joe asked incredulous. "My kids?! A teenage hussy for a daughter and a mistake of a son? They ain't my kids! They were Betty's and she's gone now!"
Manny had begun to cry and Missy tried to shush him. Joe had always been relentless on Manny. He teased him, verbally abused him, beat him when he didn't listen. The worst had been when Manny was only five. He accidentally broke a window in the house with a baseball. Joe had tied him to the tree in the backyard and chained their grouchy neighbor's crazy dog just close enough to traumatize Manny. Missy tried to make him stop when she noticed how determined the dog was to tear her little brother apart. Their father laughed and was about to let the dog loose when their neighbor's husband, a lieutenant in the military, stepped in. They had stayed a few doors down with their neighbors for nearly a week.
Missy was snapped out of the memory when the gun went off with a loud bang. The doctor screamed having been shot in the leg.
"My wife may have been good for nothing but a cheap fuck, but now she ain't here no more and that's your fault! You killed her!" Joe yelled advancing slowly on the wounded man. The doctor whimpered and started to scoot away. Missy knew what was coming and couldn't let the poor doctor die.
"Daddy, stop!" she yelled and grabbed his arm.
"Get off me, girl!" Joe yelled throwing her back. "You'll be next."
"Missy!" Manny yelled and ran to his sister. Missy grabbed her brother and hid his face in her shoulder.
"Manny," she whispered. "When I tell you to, you gotta run. Understand?"
Manny nodded and asked, "Are you gonna run, too?"
Missy hesitated for a moment, "I'll be right behind you."
She closed her eyes as she saw their father standing directly over the doctor. She got ready to tell Manny to run, but the sound of the gunshot, louder than before, shocked her too much. She said it too late, but Manny didn't move. His head was no longer buried in her shoulder; he was peaking behind her, his eyes wide. Their neighbor, Lieutenant Robert Faux, stood behind the Breda siblings.
Before Missy could open her eyes, a pair of arms wrapped around her and Manny. She heard a woman's voice, she recognized it as Nellie Faux's voice, telling them to stand up and not to look behind them. Robert was walking past them as they got to their feet.
Nellie tried to usher them across the street toward her home. Manny had tried to turn around, but Nellie promptly turned him forward to shield his view of the scene. Once they were across the street, Missy looked to her front yard. What she saw made her sick, the doctor was dead, his blood soaking into the soft dirt. Her father was also dead, he had fallen in a way that contorted his body and it didn't look natural at all. There was a hole in his head that was dripping blood. Nellie noticed she was looking.
"Missy!" Nellie said turning her away. "Come on, let's get you two cleaned up."
xxXxx
It wasn't until the sun fell below the horizon that Robert came home. Missy had been sitting on the couch staring into space most of the afternoon. What she had seen would never leave her. Manny hadn't seen anything, but he heard the entire ordeal. It wasn't until the sun fell below the horizon that Robert came home. Missy had been sitting on the couch staring into space most of the afternoon. What she had seen would never leave her. Manny hadn't seen anything, but he heard the entire ordeal.
"Missy," Robert had said sadly when he saw her. "Come with me, Darlin'."
She followed him to the porch where he sat her down in the rocking chair. The summer breeze, which she normally welcomed, felt sick on her skin.
"Stay here, I'm going to get your brother," he told her.
A minute later, Manny was standing on the porch with them. Manny looked like he was about to cry.
"Mr. Faux, are you gonna yell at us?" Manny blurted out.
The military man looked shocked at the question, "Of course not, kiddo. I just want to know if you two are all right."
"Are Mama and Daddy gone?" Manny asked.
Robert nodded, "I'm sorry, Manny, they are."
"Daddy can't hurt us anymore?" Manny asked.
"No, not anymore," Robert told him. He looked at Missy who still hadn't said a word. She was staring out over the fields toward the pond in the distance. "Missy, are you all right?"
She didn't know how to answer. She just kept staring into the fields.
"Missy?" Manny asked.
She was thinking about everything their father had done to them growing up; everything he had done to their mother. It broke her heart to know their mother was dead, but she was hurt knowing how relieve she was that their father got what he deserved.
"Melissa," Robert said.
Her head turned to look at him and she immediately broke into tears. Her entire body lost its tension as her chin sagged to touch her chest. Her shoulders shook violently with each sob. Seeing his sister crying set Manny off right away. Robert crouched and hugged both siblings to his chest. He let them cry until their shock died down.
He pulled back and looked at both of them. Missy was wiping her eyes and put her free arm around her brother's shoulders. "It's okay to be scared or sad." Robert told them. "Mrs. Faux and I are going to be here for you as long as you need us, you understand?"
Manny nodded and hugged Robert. The military man ruffled his hair and lightly pushed him toward the door to go inside. "Mrs. Faux is going to help you get ready for bed, all right?"
Once Manny left the porch, Missy looked up at her savior. "We're gonna live with you?"
"Of course you will!" Robert smiled lovingly at her. "We'll take care of you as long as you'll have us."
"But what about Bobby and Marlena?" Missy asked.
"What about them?" Robert asked not understanding why she was so concerned about his own children.
"Do they want us here?" Missy asked.
"Oh, Missy," Robert sighed and pulled her into a hug. "My entire family welcomes you and your brother. We always have and we always will. Now, why don't you head inside and try to get some sleep."
Once Missy and Manny were settled in the guest room at the Faux home, they both tried to sleep, but no drowsiness came. In the dark of the room came Manny's small voice.
"Missy?" he asked.
"What Manny?" she replied.
"Are we gonna stay here forever?"
"We're gonna stay as long as we want to stay."
"Okay."
There was silence as the siblings lay quietly in the dark room.
"Missy?"
"Yeah, Manny?"
"Are you happy Daddy's dead?"
"I don't know how I feel, Manny."
"Oh," he paused. "I'm happy Daddy's dead. He scared me."
"I know. But we're safe here now."
"I'm still scared, Missy."
"Me, too," Missy answered. "I love you, little brother."
"I love you, too."
"Try to get some sleep," Missy told him. After a few minutes she heard her brother's soft breathing fill the dark room. She thought of her sick parents and of the lovely neighbors they were now supposed to call family. She knew they'd be all right now, but she was still scared. The shadow of their parents would always haunt them.