Flashback
By steelphoenix
Disclaimer: I do not own Full Metal Alchemist. The characters exclusively belong to Hiromu Arakawa (Hail Arakawa-sama!).
Author's Notes: There is no police force in Full Metal Alchemist. Here I have made it an extension of the military, a little like the MP (Military Police) most armed forces have.
As this is my first piece, please R'n'R!
Warnings: PG-13. Violence, references to prostitution, minor language.
Master Sergeant Cain Fury looked at his watch. It was just on 8am, right on time. He walked through the foyer, noticing a civilian coat dropped on the floor.
"That's strange," he muttered to himself, and went over to investigate. As he picked it up, Second Lieutenant Jan Havoc strolled idly up to him, already smoking his first cigarette of the day.
"What's the matter, Fury? Where did that come from?" Havoc grinned down at his shorter subordinate.
"I don't know. But there's a hole in the shoulder. It's probably something old. I wonder what it's doing here."
"What's that coat there for?" butted in another voice. Warrant Officer Farman and Second Lieutenant Breda joined the pair. "Let's take it up to the office," continued Farman. "Lieutenant Hawkeye might recognise it."
The four strolled along the corridor, speculating about the coat, which Fury was still carrying. They reached the office and pushed open the door.
"The lights aren't on. That's strange," commented Breda. "Lieutenant Hawkeye usually puts them on, since she comes early." He flicked the lightswitch, and the four men gasped in horror at the tableau that presented itself to their eyes.
Two figures lay on the floor in the centre of the room, close to one of the desks. Riza Hawkeye lay on her side, arms and legs haphazardly placed as if she had fallen or been dropped, loose hair streaming over the floor. Bruises covered her face, obscuring smoky, seductive makeup. A filmy top and indecently short skirt were her only clothing, and she wore no shoes. Sprawled across her, face down, was another figure, a man.
The four ran to the pair, Havoc and Farman heaving the man off Hawkeye. The movement stirred her. She blinked and woke. Breda bent down to help her sit up, but as he reached out, awareness flooded into her injured face, and she leaped up.
"Roy! Where is he? Roy? Roy!"
"It's all right, Riza, he's here," said Havoc. He crouched, supporting the man who had been with Riza. "Though he's in bad shape. We'd better get an ambulance," his voice turned purposeful. "Farman, call the hospital. We want an ambulance here as soon as possible. Fury, stay with Hawkeye, get her a coffee, check those bruises, find out what the story behind this is. Breda, get the first-aid kit. We need to try and patch up the Colonel as best we can. The ambulance could be a while."
Gently, Havoc eased Roy Mustang to the floor. He was indeed in bad shape. His trousers and shirt were ripped. A bullet hole drilled through his left shoulder dripped, re-opened by Havoc and Farman's unintentional rough treatment. Roy had obviously been bleeding earlier. He was pale, and a small, smudged pool of blood stained the linoleum.
Breda rushed up, and narrowly avoided tripping over the coat, which Fury had dropped. He crouched down beside Havoc and the unconscious Roy. A pair of field dressings, over entry and exit wounds, stopped the bleeding.
The two men looking after Roy were peripherally aware of Fury's gentle stream of talk to Riza, but hadn't realised that she hadn't moved. As they finished binding the stopgap bandages, Riza crawled over from where she knelt to sit beside Roy.
"It was all my fault, Jan. All my fault."
OOO
FLASHBACK
OOO
"It's all your fault, Hawkeye. All your fault!" Inspector Donaldson was furious, Riza knew. His face was going red, and his voice had a nasal buzz to it, which only ever happened when he got really angry.
"Yes, sir. I know, sir."
"I know it was your first job, but you lost us a vital lead. If we'd had that, we might have been able to break the chain, but no, you had to go and scare the man off! Now they're changing their routes. If we're lucky, they'll only change around the town. If we're not, the entire East Area network could change. It'll take us weeks, maybe months, before we know exactly what's going on! Do you know how many man-hours it took to find the exact routes?"
"No, sir."
"Yessir, nossir! How did you get into this?"
"Through the military Intelligence Division, sir."
"Military. Huh! So you've been a spy, then?"
"Not really, sir."
"Elaborate."
"I was drafted into the Intelligence Division due to my scores in the IQ and departments test when I enlisted, sir. I was originally trained in the South Area, for spy and assassination work. When I narrowly failed the last test, which you are allowed only one attempt at, I was transferred to office work in East Area HQ. However, when the police requested surveillance officers, the Intelligence Division chose me."
I wonder why. I suppose it's because they wanted people who had spy training, but weren't actually tied to the Intelligence Division. Bitter memory welled up, and Riza remembered the feelings of the day she had been informed that she had failed. It still hurts! Damn it – two percent. Two percent, and my life would be so different!
But you wouldn't know all the people at HQ, said the treacherous voice in the back of her head. Havoc, Fury, Farman, Breda. And Roy...
"I'm giving you one last chance, Hawkeye, you hear? You do this one perfectly, or you're out of this permanently," Inspector Donaldson interrupted her thoughts.
"Yes, sir."
"Dismissed."
As the door closed behind her, anger and shame twisted together in Riza's mind, and forged into determination. I can't fail again, not when I was trained to do this! I know I can do this!
OOO
Riza stood on the street corner, trying to look confident, like she knew what she was doing. It was hard when she was in a skirt shorter than she'd ever worn before, and a top that showed every detail of her shape, whether she was under a light or in the shadow.
Her target strolled, seemingly aimlessly, among the women of the red-light district. She watched with care as the target made the drop, handing a wad of notes and a small cloth bag over to one of the women, and then taking her away, as would seem a normal transaction.
Riza followed, as they went into an alleyway. Another man, this time the woman's pimp, met them, and appropriated the bag. In the conversation that followed, Riza caught three names: 'Tom' – the pimp, 'Jimmy' – the target, and 'Carson'. The last name was immediately hushed up.
As she strained to hear more, a heavy hand landed on her shoulder. "Hey, girl. I've got an offer you can't refuse!" Riza spun around, almost unbalancing the man. He was stocky, and would be hard to get away from in these clothes. She'd have to talk her way out of this.
"Really. What's this offer?" asked Riza coolly, trying to make him believe she might be interested.
"I'll pay you two hundred for one go, and an extra hundred for another," said the man, a nasty leer on his face, his voice disturbingly amused.
"No. Not interested," she replied, dismissing him coolly, as she planned.
"Then I'll just take it!" The man grabbed her around the waist, and dragged her into the dead-end alleyway right behind them. His voice was triumphant, and Riza suddenly realised, He's been planning this! He's been waiting! I have to fight him! As soon as the thought flashed though her head, she kicked out, catching him on the shins.
He dropped her, and as she struggled to her feet, he grabbed her again.
"Whore! I'll teach you a lesson!" he snarled, no longer amused. Pinning her against the wall, he hit her, open-palmed. Riza struggled, and hit out at him. A quick shove, and she was facing him, in the middle of the alleyway. She had to get past him to get out. He swung at her, and she dodged, dropping a blow on his shoulder. Then he punched again, a short jab that she couldn't block. It clipped her head, starting a ringing in her ears. She continued to fight, but although some of her punches landed, more of his did, and she began to lose.
As she staggered from a hard punch to the stomach, he swung again. His closed fist hit her head, and she collapsed into blackness.
OOO
END FLASHBACK
OOO
The howl of a siren dragged Riza out of her reverie. The ambulance had arrived.
As the orderlies lifted Roy on to a stretcher, Havoc helped Riza stand up. "You'd better go, too, Hawkeye. Some of those bruises look like they hurt."
"Yes. I'll go," replied Riza. I sound just as tired as I feel, she thought, irrelevantly. "I have to go with Roy, anyway."
"Come to think of it, someone ought to go with them," pointed out Havoc. "I'll stay, since I'm the highest-ranked."
"I'll go," said Fury, quickly.
"Oh, and Hawkeye, do you have a coat here, or anything? You'll get cold just wearing that," added Havoc. At her quiet negative, he emptied the pockets of his greatcoat and gave it to her. She pulled it on, and she and Fury went out to the ambulance.
OOO
Half an hour later, the emergency department staff had fixed Roy's bandages and hooked him up to a drip, to help restore his lost blood. He lay limply on the hospital bed, still unconscious. Riza sat on a chair next to him, quiet, just looking at his face.
He saved my life. I wonder why...? she thought, and the treacherous voice at the back of her head whispered a possible reason. No, that was unlikely. It might have been out of friendship, but nothing else.
"Lieutenant Hawkeye," said Fury from the ward door. "I'm going back to HQ now. If you'd like to stay, I can come back this afternoon, or get a car sent for you. Otherwise..."
"I'll stay," Riza interrupted. "You can come back this afternoon. Roy should be awake by then."
"Yes, ma'am..." said Fury, nervously, and Riza realised that she had sounded harsher than she had intended.
"Thank you, Cain," she said, and stood, slightly creakily. The bruises she had received the night before were starting to hurt. She began to take off Havoc's coat. "I'm sure Havoc will want his coat back."
"Er, no, ma'am... um, er... I'm sure it's fine..." Fury began to go red, and again Riza realised that she had made a mistake. Fury hadn't ever seen her in civilian clothes, and to go from military uniform to the... indecent... style of clothes that she was wearing was rather a shock to his system. Quickly, she wrapped the coat around herself and sat down.
"Er, anyway, ma'am, I'll be going now," said Fury, mentally wallowing, trying to think of what to say.
"Yes, of course. Thank you again, Cain."
Fury left, and the room was quiet. Only the plip-plip-plip of the drip and Roy's steady breathing could be heard.
OOO
FLASHBACK
OOO
Riza woke to steady breathing. Then the world lurched, and she was heaved up on to someone's shoulder. It was the same man, it must be! Instinctively, she began to writhe, trying to get free.
"She's woken up. Hah, have fun trying to tame her. I saw the last bit of that fight. She gave you a bit of a beating there." A voice taunted her bearer.
A familiar voice.
Roy's voice.
No, it can't be, she instantly thought.
"I'll relieve you of her. I like them that way. It's more fun," continued the voice, and as her carrier got closer to the speaker, Riza became certain that it was Roy's voice. What the hell is he doing here? And why doesn't he help me? she thought, somewhere between horrified and shocked.
"No. I want her," growled the man carrying her. "No-one else is getting her. Only me. I'll get rid of her before I'll let anyone else have her." He suddenly dumped her on the ground. She helplessly fell backwards, knocking into a pair of legs. The owner of the legs fell, and they ended up in a heap, her on top of him.
Roughly, he shoved her away, and got up, walking in front of her, talking to her abductor. "Look, I want her, okay. I want a woman tonight, and I want one like her." As he walked past her, she looked up, and in the dim light, she saw it was Roy.
"No!" yelled the abductor. "She's mine! I told you I'd get rid of her!" and as she watched, he pulled a gun from the back of his belt.
"Alright, alright," said Roy, stepping back. "You can have her. I don't want to get shot. Just put the gun away!" Damn! I thought this would be easy! he thought. Now how can I get Riza?
"Everyone else will want her! I have to get rid of her now!" The man levelled the gun at Riza.
A thousand thoughts flashed through Riza's head, the uppermost being I don't want to die! But there was also another thought. Roy!
Riza! screamed through Roy's mind. She can't die! I won't let her die!
The man's finger tightened on the trigger.
Riza closed her eyes.
Roy dove.
BANG!
"Oomph!"
Riza opened her eyes slowly. She wasn't dead.
Roy staggered, and dropped to his knees, bending over, clutching his left shoulder. Anger surged through his body. He deserves to die for this! he thought. For trying to kill Riza! I killed enough for a lifetime in Ishvar, but Riza is mine! I won't lose her!
Reaching into his civilian coat, he pulled out the spark glove he had brought just in case. As he yanked it on to his right hand, pain surged, but Roy fought through it, his rage driving and fuelling his effort.
"Now, you die!" he gasped, his voice shaking but full of resolution and righteous anger.
He snapped his fingers.
The abductor became a column of flame that burnt for maybe half-a-minute, then died to white ash.
OOO
END FLASHBACK
OOO
Roy blinked, and opened his eyes. He tried to stretch, but was brought up short by bandages. Ouch! I shouldn't be doing that! he thought, as a throbbing pain in his left shoulder made itself known.
"Roy!" said a happy voice. "You're awake!"
"Yes. I almost wish I wasn't, though... ouch." He turned his head to see who had spoken. Riza. Of course, he thought. After you blacked out, you didn't think that she'd stay with you? She wouldn't abandon someone wounded.
You're trying to justify it, aren't you? said the familiar nasty voice in his head. Don't deny it, you wanted her to stay for your sake, not just for duty.
"This is the hospital, isn't it? What time is it? How did I get here?" Roy asked, and was shocked at how weak his voice sounded.
"It's the afternoon after. You got here by ambulance." Riza grinned mischievously at the oblique reply. "You remember how you fainted in the lobby of HQ? Well, I got you to the middle of the office, but then I tripped, and hit my head, and passed out. This morning, when Fury, Havoc, Farman and Breda came to work at 8am, the door was unlocked. They're used to that, so they came straight in, and discovered us, unconscious. They called an ambulance, and here you are."
"It's good that they managed to find us in time," Roy smiled. He pushed at his pillows, trying to sit up further. His pillows held him at an awkward, halfway-up angle. As soon as he had achieved his goal, he began to feel light-headed. He lay back down, blood pounding weakly in his ears.
OOO
FLASHBACK
OOO
The blood pounded in Roy's ears, the pain in his shoulder pounding in time with it.
"Let's get you to the hospital, Roy. Or at least home. You need a doctor." Riza's worried voice shocked Roy, and he woke from his daydream.
"No. HQ. It's closer." Short sentences were all that he could manage. For some reason his breathing seemed to be getting harder.
A painful quarter-hour of walking later, Riza largely supporting Roy, they reached HQ. The guards let them in the gate quickly enough when they saw Roy's ID, though they did look askance at Riza's clothes. She dismissed it with a quick, garbled sentence about undercover agents and spies.
Five minutes later, as they struggled into the lobby, Roy suddenly collapsed into unconsciousness. Riza pulled off his coat, and a quick glance at his shoulder confirmed what she suspected. Bright blood had leaked all down the left side of his shirt.
How can I get him to a first-aid room? Each office has its own first-aid room, but I've only got the keys to ours.
It's only a hundred metres. I can carry him. A fireman's lift, that'll work.
OOO
Yes, the first forty metres were easy. The next twenty were okay. The twenty after that was hard. You should have found a trolley! Riza berated herself. But there was only twenty metres to go, and she couldn't give up now, though the beating she had taken had weakened her more than she expected.
She reached the office door. Finding the keys was easy enough, but balancing an unconscious Roy as she unlocked the door was next to impossible. But I can't put him down, I'll never be able to pick him up again! And if I do that, I won't be able to get him to the first-aid room to stop the bleeding. He could die... Her thoughts were confused, but the one thing that they all came back to was that Roy could die.
No! He mustn't die! I won't let him die! He's too precious to me for that!
As she weaved her way across the office, the last ten metres, her vision began to swim in and out.
A ridge in the floor appeared out of nowhere, and she tripped.
Bang! Her head knocked against the edge of a desk, and she remained conscious just long enough for her to register Roy's weight falling on her.
OOO
END FLASHBACK
OOO
"You remember what happened in the alleyway?"
"Yes. Not something I'm going to forget in a hurry," he said wryly, and touched the bandages on his left shoulder. "How bad is the wound?"
"You're lucky. An inch down and to the right, and it would have hit your heart." Riza grinned. "But it didn't, and you're still with us, which I'm glad of..."
"Really?" Roy asked. Suddenly the tone of the conversation became more serious.
"Yes, I am glad." Riza stood up from her chair, and came and sat on the bed. "There is one thing I want to know. Why did you follow me, last week and tonight?"
"You knew?"
"Yes."
"I didn't want you to get hurt."
"How did you know what I was doing?"
"There are some advantages to being your commanding officer."
Riza smiled gently. "Thank you. For doing that for me."
Go on. Talk to her. Tell her. The mischievous voice in Roy's head began talking again, and Roy decided to follow its advice.
"Do you know what I was thinking when I pulled out that spark glove? I was thinking that he deserves to die for this, for trying to kill you. I killed enough for a lifetime in Ishvar, but you are mine, and I won't lose you!" Roy's voice was quiet, but intense, meaning every word of what he said. He knew that this would sound strange, very strange, but this might be his only chance to speak openly about what had happened. How will she reply? Please don't let her reject what I've said...
"Do you know what I was thinking when I was carrying you through the office?" Riza answered, her voice as intense as Roy's, not even noting his odd phrasing. "I was thinking that you mustn't die, I wouldn't let you die. I was thinking that you were too precious to me for that."
Black eyes met golden-brown, asking and answering.
Roy lifted his left hand, though painful and encumbered by drips, and Riza caught it. They sat, fingers entwined, for a while. Then she leaned forward, and laid a gentle, light kiss on his forehead. He lifted his other hand, and touched her face, quietly, tenderly. Then his hand slipped around the back of her neck, and he pulled her into a true, full-lipped kiss.
When he released her, he smiled up at her. "I think I've been waiting for that for a long time, only I didn't know it."
"I think so, too." She leaned forward again, and happily gave him another, better than the last.
At which point Fury and Havoc walked in.
Havoc dropped his cigarette for the first time in his life, and Fury went even redder than when he saw Riza's clothes (or lack of). Immediately, by mutual consent, they walked straight back out.
A conversation in whispers began.
Fury's totally bewildered voice was the first to beheard."When did that start?"
"I dunno... could've just started," was Havoc's reply, and the two listeners supplied the lazy shrug that went automatically with that tone.
A long silence followed, and then Fury pointed out, fearfully, "If he dumps her, she'll try and shoot him."
A sigh from Havoc indicated that that was impossible. "No she won't. Not when he's supposed to become the Fuhrer."
"She might... she shot at Hayate, remember, and he only made a mess..." Fury still sounded sceptical.
Apparently Havoc was considering it, and then he agreed. "Yeah. If he dumps her, he's in trouble...But right now we'rein trouble. Can you imagine what the office would be like if those two start going all mushy?"
There was a brief, contemplative silence, and then a simultaneous "Ewwww."
Fury then hurriedly tried to change the topic."I thought dating wasn't allowed, not in the military."
"Mmm.I don't think that it is forbidden. Because there are married people at HQ," replied Havoc, without thinking. Then he realised what he'd said, and his next words indicated exactly the expression on his face: "Married... shit, that's a scary thought!"
Roy and Riza, listening to this conversation, grinned. Roy laughed, and said, "Do you think we should let them tell the rest of HQ?"
"I don't see why not."
"I hate to think what people are going to think of you..."
"I'll be fine. And people will think something's strange, when you don't give up on me after one date."
"I can live with that..."
OOO
Two days later, Riza was back where this whole fiasco had started – Inspector Donaldson's office.
"I'm pulling you off this case, Hawkeye," Inspector Donaldson didn't sound happy. "You did this job well, but not perfectly. I can't have someone out there who's recognizable by their bruises. Also, your commanding officer asked for you to be taken off the case."
"Yes, sir," Riza wasn't sure whether she was glad, or not, that Roy had got her out. As exciting as it was, and despite the fact that she had been trained for it, perhaps the thrill of danger around every corner was not a good enough reason to risk another beating like the one she had had. Roy didn't seem to think so, anyway.
"Dismissed."
Riza saluted, and walked to the door.
OOO
Once outside, she looked at her watch. It was just on 12 noon, right on time for lunch. She quickly walked through the corridors to the office. Then, as she walked through the office, a civilian coat fell from a desk to the floor. It was Roy's coat. Wearily she picked it up, her bruises complaining at every inch.
The departing staff watched with interest as she opened Colonel Mustang's door and entered. They were disappointed when the blind fell.
Roy smiled as she closed and locked the door. "Hello. Time for lunch?"
Riza's smile was slightly predatory as she crossed to his desk. "Yes."