Nine months earlier, Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye were ordered to serve time in prison for their crimes in Ishval. They were spared the death penalty but faced their fate willingly, one year in one of the most notorious prisons in Amestris. Because of their high profile nature, they were kept in solitary confinement for their own protection, in cells side by side. They were allowed early release under the condition that they finish out their sentence with community service.
Edward Elric had promised to come visit as soon as their sentence was complete and as soon as he found out the date, he booked a train with Winry and his son to Central.
Once they arrived, Ed tried calling Mustang's apartment but there was no answer. He didn't think they would be back to work so soon, so he tried Hawkeye's and a voice picked up, but not one he expected, "Hello?"
"Havoc?" Ed asked, "Is that you?"
"Oh, hey Ed!" Havoc chuckled, "I guess you're back in town. Sit tight, I'll come pick you and Winry up."
"So, where are they?" Ed asked as he buckled his son in beside him, "Hey! You gotta wear a seatbelt!"
Havoc sighed, wondering how much to tell them. They would find out soon enough, "They're uh, at the hospital."
"What?!" the two shouted together.
"Chief's just visiting, Hawkeye is going to have to stay a few days." Ed could tell by Havoc's voice that something was amiss.
"What's wrong, is she alright?" Winry asked.
"It's a little complicated and I'm not sure I'm the one to tell you. Especially with small ears in the car." He said, indicating the confused toddler.
When they arrived, Havoc had to step back to keep from being trampled as he opened the back door of the car. He could tell they were anxious to see their friends. As he led them down the hallway, Rebecca ran from the waiting room and swooped up the little boy in her arms, "Look how big you're getting! You're gonna be taller than your dad aren't you?"
Ed muttered something under his breath and got a swift elbow to the ribs from his wife.
"I'll look after him while you two go visit," Rebecca promised, "He can see Aunt Riza and Uncle Roy later."
"Okay," Winry handed over her bag, "Thank you."
Ed found Roy sitting on a couch in the lobby. Judging by the wristbands, he had been a patient here earlier but was released, possibly against medical advice. "So, you going to tell us what this is all about?"
Roy looked like hell. He was down about 30 pounds and looked like he hadn't slept in days. He'd grown scraggly facial hair. Without knowing who he was, one would never peg him for a military man. His sleeves were rolled up past his elbows revealing red marks on his wrist from being shackled. Being an alchemist, his wrists were secured in boards twenty-four hours a day to prevent any transmutation that could aid in an escape.
"It's a long story."
"I've got time." Ed sat down beside him worriedly, "How's Hawkeye doing?"
"Hard to say," he could tell Roy didn't want to talk about it, "She's going to be staying in the hospital for a while. If you think I look like hell, you haven't seen anything yet. Nine months ago, when we were convicted of our crimes, we knew one of the options was the death penalty. We decided that if that were on the table, we would marry so that we could be buried side by side. Scar performed the ceremony and that was that. The next day, we were sentenced to serve a year of hard labor in Central Prison."
"You and Riza got married?" Winry asked incredulously, "I guess we should stop calling her Hawkeye then, unless she kept her name."
"She didn't," Roy told her, "She said she wanted to leave that part of her life behind her."
"So you got married, then what?"
"A few weeks in, she told me she was pregnant."
Winry almost shrieked, "She had a baby?!"
Ed placed a hand on her shoulder, calming his wife, "I take it there's a little more to it than that?"
Roy nodded, "Requests for medical attention were denied. She went into labor two days before our release. She gave birth in chains in her cell."
"Oh my God," Winry gasped, "How is she? And the baby?"
"Small, but healthy. It's a boy."
"Awww," Winry wrapped her arms around Roy, "Congratulations! I can't believe it! You guys had a little baby!"
Roy stiffened a little in her arms, "I'm not sure if it's mine."
"What?" Winry practically threw herself off him, "How can you say that?"
"Because the guards took whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted." Roy refused to look up from the floor, "From that first night on, I heard what they were doing in the cell next door. And I couldn't stop them." He felt like a failure. Unable to protect the one he loved most when he was so close. She kept silent whenever they entered her cell, not wanting to give them any more satisfaction than what they took by force, but Roy knew what they were doing. The guards would often describe it in detail to him through the bars, knowing there was nothing he could do.
Ed shook his head, "To hell with biology. That kid is yours. And don't you ever think for a moment that there's something wrong with her or that baby. That kid is going to need a dad, not just a father who created him."
"I couldn't even be there for her when she gave birth. She was in agony for days and I couldn't do a damn thing. What kind of a parent is that?"
Ed socked him in the jaw, feeling his knuckles crack as he made contact, "Damn! That hurt. Don't you dare give up on that kid. Or her. They still need you. This is the start, not the end. You're acting like it's too late, well it's not unless you make it the end by being a jackass!"
Roy moved his jaw slowly, making sure it was still properly attached. Even without a metal arm, Ed could still pack a punch. "I'm not giving up. I'm just wondering if this is part of our punishment. One year seemed like a pretty light sentence after all we did. I didn't think it would be easy, but I never imagined all of this."
"You two served your time," Ed told him, "Don't you think for one moment that this is payback for what happened. If there is a God, or any kind of balance to the universe, He's a psychopath if He thinks this evens the score."
"Does anyone know what happened?" Winry asked softly.
"Grumman knows," Roy confirmed, "An investigation is underway but what's done is done."
"Riza?" Roy poked his head into his wife's room, calling her name softly. She didn't seem to hear him though, she was clutching a blue blanket tightly in her arms, rocking slowly back and forth.
"They took him away to get him a bath and get his weight. He'll be right back, but this is the first time I've been without him," she whispered.
Roy sat beside his wife, gently wiping away her tears, "Hey, he's just with the nurse. No one is going to take him away from you." Upon their release, the guards had tried to wrestle the baby out of her arms. Needless to say, she resisted with all the strength she had left, "He does need a bath though. Especially with all that hair you gave him. No wonder you had heartburn."
She smiled softly, remembering Roy's reaction when their son was first born. When the baby's screams finally joined hers, he felt relief wash over him. She knew he was just in the cell next to hers but couldn't see her or the baby. He felt like he was a blind man once again. She'd described him to his father while she held him for the first time. Roy was crying, wanting nothing more than to be there beside her. To cut the cord, to help her hold the baby, anything. But he had never felt more useless in all his life. She had done all the hard work. She suffered alone with only his voice to sooth her pain.
A nurse brought in a freshly swaddled bundle, "Here he is, all cleaned up," she placed him gently in his anxious mother's arms, "He's gained an ounce since he's been here."
"That's all?" Riza asked, "I've fed him three times today, he has to have gained more than that!"
"He's only five pounds, an ounce is a lot. Most babies lose weight at first, it's normal," the nurse assured her, "He started out small but he's healthy. You're doing everything right, and judging by the size of his diaper he's feeding just fine. Although I think he might be hungry, he was a little fussy after his bath."
Ed and Winry stared in shock from the doorway. She was so thin it was hard to tell she had just given birth. Her loose blonde hair had grown out to her waist. Roy finally gestured for them to come in once the baby had settled in his mother's arms, curled up at her breast. "Hi Riza," Winry whispered, "So this is your little guy?"
She nodded pulling the blanket off her shoulders a little so they could see, "This is Maes."
Ed grinned, not at all shocked by the baby's name. He wasn't quite sure if he should be watching something so intimate but he hadn't been shot or burned yet. The newborn opened his eyes to look around at the newcomers, but he quickly lost interest, fixating on his mother until he fell asleep. With his dark tufts of hair and dark eyes, Ed didn't know how Roy could possibly doubt that this was his son.
"He's so precious," Winry cooed, "Can I hold him?"
Riza was a little hesitant at first, looking over to Roy for encouragement, "It's okay, she knows how to hold him, and she's not going to take him anywhere."
She carefully handed over the sleeping boy who barely noticed the change, making only a slight grunt as he transferred to a new set of arms, "Hi there, Maes."
"Do you guys have what you need?" Ed asked, remembering how prop heavy babies could be. For such small children, they were very needy, "Bed? Bottles? Clothes?"
Roy froze, realizing that they had nothing for the baby once they went home. He wasn't even sure if they had a home to go to. Where would they live? His place? Hers? Would they need to find a bigger place for the baby?
Riza put her hand on his, "It's alright, Armstrong and Havoc said they were going to work something out. I don't know details, but they said not to worry about it."
"That does make me worry." Roy chuckled.
Once their visitors left for the night, Roy helped her get ready for bed, tucking their son away in a bassinette not far out of reach. A nurse had offered to take him to the nursery so she could try to rest, but Riza had insisted that he stay by her side. She didn't care how much sleep she lost, she had to know he was there and that he was safe.
President Grumman slipped in the door as the nurse left, finally getting some time alone with the new family, "Now, there's just the little matter of what to do with you two."
"What do you mean?" Roy asked.
"Well, you two got married with the expectation that you were both to be executed. And don't get me wrong, I'm glad that wasn't the outcome, but it does complicate things a little," Grumman chuckled, "I'd assume that after your sentences are up you two would like to return to your positions, but a general and a captain? It just doesn't match up." Despite all the changes being made in the country since Bradley's downfall, relationships between the ranks were still strictly forbidden. And President Grumman had stated that it would remain that way. There was too much potential for abuse, the law existed for a reason.
"Are you saying that we have to divorce?"
"No, although that seems like the simpler choice, it's actually not." Grumman had meticulously reviewed the options in the months leading up to their release.
"No paperwork was ever filed, according to the state, we never married." Riza explained.
"So our son is a bastard?" he sighed, looking over at Maes.
Grumman shook his head, "As far as anyone will know, Maes was the result of the crimes committed by those guards. You're merely helping a friend raise a child born through an unfortunate set of circumstances."
Roy balled his fists up tightly, shaking as his nails cut into his palms, "You're taking away my wife, you're taking away my son, what more do you want from me?"
"I'm not taking away any of those things," Grumman insisted, "I'm just changing the words behind them. Riza is your wife, you know that in your heart, you swore an oath to God himself. But without paperwork, that's hard for the government to enforce. That also means no one can take it away from you. As for your son, he'll always be yours, and you don't need a paper to prove it. Look at that little face," the Fuhrer gently pinched his cheeks, "He gets those cheekbones from his mother's side though!"
"You say you're not taking anything away from me, I just have to pretend that they're not mine?"
"None of them are yours!" Grumman snapped, "They're people, not things. Riza is your wife because you pledged your love to her, she's not your property. Maes is your son because you love him enough to raise him, not because you made him."
"It's the only way we can stay together as a family, Roy," Riza told him, "It isn't perfect but it's the best we can do right now for our son."
Hayate bounded forward as soon as the car stopped, desperate to see his master for the first time in months. He stopped in his tracks, tilting his head to the side at the sight of the baby in her arms. The human puppy was new.
"Hayate, this is Maes," Riza said, bending down slowly, "Maes, this is Black Hayate. He'll keep you safe." The dog wagged his tail eagerly, sniffing the baby and giving him a soft lick of approval. The boy squirmed away at first but made soft sounds of delight, reaching out for the fluffy newcomer.
Roy reached down and patted the dog's head gently, "Hey, boy. I've missed you too."
Havoc handed Riza the keys, "It's not much, but we all pitched in. Babyproofed and everything."
She stared in shock. She hadn't been expecting this. Looking around her apartment, she could barely recognize it. All of her furniture had been moved to accommodate some new additions, some from Roy's apartment, some new for the baby. Her old office was painted a soft yellow color. It had a crib, a changing table and a little dresser. She felt a hand rest on her shoulder, reassuring her that this was real.
"You okay?" Havoc shook her gently, "I know, it's a lot to take in." Havoc smelled a lot cleaner than he used to. Rebecca had made him quit smoking cold turkey as soon as they found out about the baby. It was a small price to pay to be able to spend more time around the newborn.
"Welcome home!" Armstrong embraced the two tightly, "Mr. Mustang, Mrs. Mustang." He added softly. Despite the rules against it, by now everyone knew about their union. Legal or not, there was no doubt those two were married.
"This must be the little guy," Fuery knelt down to see the baby, "He's so cute!"
"Yeah, if I didn't know better, I'd say he looks a little like someone we know," Breda chuckled knowingly.
Roy watched as his wife nursed the four-day-old boy, whispering softly to him as she rocked back and forth in her chair by the fire. After he was sure his son was finished, he scooped him out of his mother's arms, "Come on, little man, time for bed."
It had taken some time, but whether by instinct or by choice, Roy had embraced the role of fatherhood. She had heard no complaints about diapers, although he had trained Hayate to fetch them for him, a useful skill for when Maes would pee just as a fresh one was put in place.
After washing up for the night, he found his wife already in bed with the lights off. Now that Maes was asleep in bed, she had about two hours before he would wake up again. He was nothing if not punctual, just like his mother. Roy slowly slipped into bed behind her, not sure how she would react. To his relief, she let him wrap his arms around her, holding her close.
"I leave tomorrow, to finish out the rest of my sentence. Out in the eastern slums." He had been given an opportunity to choose his assignment. Helping those whose lives he destroyed seemed like the least he could do, but he wasn't even sure if the Ishvalans would welcome his help. Only time would tell.
"I'll be joining you in six weeks," she told him, "Same assignment, but the paperwork cannot be processed until my doctor clears me for field work. Winry is coming with me to help out with Maes and do some charity work. She's looking forward to it, there's a lot of demand for automail and not a lot of people can afford it. She has a good heart."
"She takes after her parents." Roy agreed, "You know, you don't have to come with me. There's a lot you could do closer to home."
"I agreed to follow you, even into hell. I'm not looking to change that position now."
"I know. But I never wanted that for you."
"No one ever does, sir."
"Are we back to this then?" he chuckled.
"I suppose we should get used to it, at least for now. That's the way it's going to have to be."
Roy nodded in agreement. It didn't mean the intimacy wasn't there, it just meant it had to be different. Things would always be different from this point on.