Disclaimer: I don't own FMA

Summary: Roy and Riza's son Maes is the Amestrian version of the Lindbergh Baby. Someone has kidnapped the Furhur's son and Edward Elric arrives to help an old friend save his family.

AN:An entry for fma_fic_contest prompt # 283 Cold Comfort. 2nd Place. Couldn't just leave this with a 250 word count and had to expand on it. Will be a simple 2 chapter fic.


The Mustang Baby

Chapter 1

The Ransom Note


Edward Elric slowly advanced down the corridor and managed to go unnoticed as people hurried back and forth; everyone in a rush to go somewhere just to be able to feel like they were doing something. He stopped as he came to the living room of the Furhur's house where the Mustangs would spend time with family and friends on better days. Today it was where Roy sat alone, shoulders slumped as he stared at his hands with a heavy air of despair settling over him on the sofa. Ed had seen the man in some of the most desperate times, but this was something different. This was a father who was trying to cope with his ability to do nothing despite having the powers of flame alchemy and the resources of Amestris at his fingertips. A man staring at the ransom note left by the kidnappers who took his barely year old son Maes from his crib and left him a scrap of paper.

Ed entered the room and those dark eyes that usually exuded confidence just looked up at him hopeless and lost. He could no longer offer his alchemy to help but it would do little good anyhow. "Let's go get them Mustang, I'll be damned if I'm going to let some bastard take another Maes from this world."

Roy nodded. It was better than the hollow promises and cold comfort offered by everyone else who milled about waiting for the kidnappers to make the first move. He stared again at the ransom note in his hands and stood, absentmindedly brushing off dog hair from his uniform. Even now, on the brink of another personal disaster, he still had to look the part of the Furhur he so desperately wanted to become. His eyes took in the message on the paper again and he wondered if this goal of his would cost someone else their life. So much had already been sacrificed to be here, but none of them were an innocent baby who was supposed to reap the rewards of his life's work. He was supposed to inherit a better world, not end up with Hughes in the ground too soon.

"You just going to stand there all day and read?" Ed snorted.

Roy couldn't help but look up at the blond who was now a respectable height and looked less burdened than he had in his teenage years. In those days Roy had somehow slipped into the role of an older brother and father figure in Ed's life without truly realizing it until the Promised Day. It was like any of his other responsibilities, he just made the Elrics part of his team and protected them. Hell, everyone did, nobody that those kids met ever considered not helping them. It wasn't until he was blinded and wallowing in shock and self pity on the Promised Day that it really occurred to him that it was more than just a friendship or responsibility, they had somehow become a family. Edward Elric, champion of justice, stood there and berated some monster as he was trying to bring about the apocalypse because it was unfair that Roy have his sight taken. He didn't perform human transmutation, this man was better than that. He felt a surge of pride that the kid was standing up for him, for what was right, trying to make Truth and God play by the rules they set down. He was proud of him, then realized that pain in the ass kid was outraged because Truth had taken something from Roy Mustang that it wasn't allowed to have. Him, someone who had a lifetime of mistakes to pay for suddenly was being defended by a kid who lost so much in his quest to restore his family. Of course he sat there, useless, unable to assist him and felt like he let him down in his most needed hour...just like Hohenheim did.

"Mustang!" Ed snapped. "Go get changed into something less obvious so we can start looking for Maes."

"Sorry Ed...my mind isn't exactly functioning properly at the moment." He took a deep breathe and pushed away thoughts of the past and focused on the present. He blew some dog hair off his hand and finally his mind clicked back to operational. "You're right, I'll go change."

"Of course I'm right." Ed smiled.

Roy gave him a warm smile. "Let's go tell Riza what we're up to and see if we can't recruit another member for our search and rescue team."

Ed fell in behind him as the left the family room. All those people who seemed to be rushing back and forth moved aside for Mustang as he strode down the hallway focused on his destination and nothing else. Ed watched their faces and saw relief and optimism, they had no idea how to proceed with this problem and they looked to their leader to tell them what to do. It made him angry, after everything Mustang had given to this country that nobody, save him, was here to ease the burden and help him find the way out of this. Was there nobody that could step up and help? Did they have to make him do everything? Didn't they understand what this kind of situation could do to a man, just the mere thought of his own twins being taken from him had his stomach in knots. He glared at them as he followed in Mustang's wake, and a few people went back to their routine of walking the halls aimlessly.

Roy walked into the study and saw Riza at his desk with a map of Central City spread across it. She was maintaining her focus by keeping control over the security detail she was in charge of. Investigations division head, Lt. Col. Fraizer, was standing beside her with a notebook of suspects he had compiled. It was a long list, Roy knew that, between the surrounding countries, pissed off top brass, scared aristocrats, bitter politicians and some irritating citizens...there were a lot of people who would want him to lose something so precious to him. To see him brought to his knees and push him to the brink of anger and destruction that he had visited when he confronted Envy. That Flame Alchemist would terrify the people of this country, that man would undermine everything they had tried to achieve in the last few years.

Riza looked up at him, his soft eyes expressing his silent apology for not preventing this and for not having Maes back in her arms already. She knew better than to ask if he had some news so she let her eyes shift to Edward as he walked in behind Roy. She was surprised to see him, but not surprised he would come. He must have been on the first train out of Resenbool when he heard the news. She put down her pen and walked over to give the young man a hug. "Ed, I'm so glad to see you."

Ed smiled as a rather heavily pregnant Riza Mustang tried to hug him. Now he knew why she wasn't out looking for Maes herself. It had to be killing her to be out of this and behind a desk. At any other time he would have started teasing Mustang about making up for lost time and popping out as many kids as he could in succession. He felt guilty for not keeping in touch, for not knowing that Riza was expecting again.

Roy moved over next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Quietly he said, "We're going to go out and look."

She wanted to demand to know what exactly the two of them thought they could find in this city that the police, Military police and damned near every citizen couldn't. However he was already bent down and holding the ransom note to Black Hayate's nose and she felt a catch in her throat as she realized he had finally come up with a plan. She was so distraught that she had actually doubted him, thinking they had finally found the one scenario that Roy couldn't tackle.

"What do you think Hayate? Can you leave your Mom for a little while and come with me? Help us find Maes?"

Hayate wagged his tail and sat down, looked up at Riza and waited for instructions.

"Please, boy, find your little brother." Riza said, choking back a few tears.

Roy rubbed the dog's head and stood, placing a light kiss on Riza's cheek before whispering. "I don't want to leave you with this..."

"I can handle it." She finally pushed back her emotional response and looked to him. "Just promise me you won't do anything rash."

Roy took a deep breathe but didn't have a chance to say anything as Ed piped up.

"Don't worry, we'll bring them in for a trial when we find them." Ed answered. "Come on Mustang, go get changed into something less obvious."

Riza watched Roy shake his head and thought she heard him mumble something about advice from Fullmetal about less ostentatious apparel before he left the room. She grabbed Ed's arm and he knew what she was going to ask. "You know his temper..."

"Yeah." Ed didn't need a reminder of that night in the tunnels with Envy. He knew that rage would bubble to the surface and push aside any rational thinking when they found the kidnappers. Then again he was not one to judge, he tried to beat Shou Tucker into a pulp once upon a time. "I'm a little less prepared to talk him down this time. I don't have alchemy...and..."

Riza took her pistol and her back holster off and pressed it into his hand. The same gun she had given him when he was just a teen and the weight of it was no lighter now that he was older. "Ed, you shoot him if he goes that far again."

Ed felt his heart pound as he stopped breathing. "I can't do that..."

"Don't kill him, just wound him." She said. "It's going to be your only defense against him. The only way you're going to be able to talk to him if he...loses control."

"I..."

"You can shoot straight and hit a target can't you?" She asked, now concerned that a injury might end up a fatal wounding if Ed's aim was terrible.

"I can, yeah." He said.

"I hate to ask you to do my job, to carry that burden for me, but this is a battle I can't fight with you two." She sighed. She kept telling herself someone needed to be here to be in charge of the investigation, to be here in case the kidnappers called or made more demands, but in reality she was nine months pregnant and not fit for field duty.

"I can do that." Ed said, though his voice cracked and betrayed his lack of confidence.

Riza heard her husband's aggravated voice from the hall and her shoulders slumped. "You might need to prove that to me right now."

Ed was surprised as the raised voices got closer and he wondered who was pissing off Mustang. He could only hear Roy's voice and the source of his irritation hadn't had a chance to reply back, or was doing so quietly. "Who's that?"

"My grandfather." Riza said quietly. "Who has not quite realized that retirement means he should stop trying to tell the current Furhur how to do his job."

"Oh." Ed turned as Roy came back with a scowl on his face escorting former Furhur Grumman into the study. The old man also seemed miffed. He could understand that, he was never all that thrilled when Pinako told him how to be a parent or brushed off his demands by saying she was a great-grandmother and could spoil the twins as much as she wanted. This had those vibes all over it.

"Riza, your grandfather seems to be lost." Roy said coldly. "Maybe you can remind him this isn't his house anymore and have him escorted home."

"God dammit Roy!" Grumman snapped. "Quit treating me like I'm senile just because you don't like what I'm telling you!"

"You're telling me that I have no right to go look for my son!" Roy growled.

"You are Furhur! That responsibility means you have to let your people do this for you! It's no different than when you were in command of troops!" Grumman hissed back.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Roy glared at him. "I'm going to take the dog for a walk, play some fetch. Can't do that in a blue uniform without getting dog hair on it."

"Maybe you still are too young for this job." Grumman mumbled.

"Maybe you are too old to remember you don't outrank me anymore." Roy looked to Ed and said. "I forgot to ask if you wanted to put your bag in the guest room."

Ed nodded and he and Hayate followed Roy out of the room, having to jog to keep up with him as he stormed down the hall and to the main stairs. Now those people who were milling about just averted their eyes to avoid his wrath. He trotted up the stairs, having a hard time keeping up with Mustang's pace. "So I take it he's not here to offer support and wait for the return of his great grandchild?"

"Nope." Roy said and opened the door to the guest room as he reached it. "Son of a bitch just won't let the job go. I appreciate having an adviser, but I'm not going to have him criticize how I take care of my family."

Ed nodded in understanding. God, they were getting old if they could sit down and share a drink and bitch about in-laws. "Yeah, I know how that is."

"I'll get changed and be right out." He squeezed Ed's shoulder thanking him for being a friend. "I needed a reason to get my blood boiling, grief only clouds my judgment."

Anger does too. Ed didn't want to start a fight with him so he kept that to himself and walked into the bedroom to get settled in. Ed never really considered what kind of life the Mustangs were choosing to live when they took over running the country. It was an interesting contrast to what his own life was now: no alchemy, two kids ,a wife and money pit house he was always fixing. Even the most constant thing in his life, Alphonse, was hundreds of miles away in Xing with his princess and his own family. Life now was surprisingly quiet and stable, something that he didn't expect to ever have after they lost their mother. He still had the wanderlust, eased by visits to Xing or a quest for knowledge to some far country, but he was growing homesick faster now that he had Winry and the twins waiting for his return.

Here however, Roy and Riza were finally married with a family and it was all under the spotlight. Their house was hardly a sanctuary, it was as busy as the Furhur's office at Central Command. Every aspect of their life was under scrutiny, every decision had to be made as a professional not a personal one. To fix the country for everyone else and future generations, they had sacrificed their own privacy and time to keep it all running smoothly. He stood there and drank it all in and wondered how many gray hairs Roy really had. He knew the man's vanity, he would never let a sign of age or stress show, so he had to be dying his hair to cover the reminder that this job was draining away his life.

He looked up as he heard the door and wondered how long he had been standing here getting depressed about his former commander's chosen life. It didn't impact him until now that the man clearly felt this was some sort of penance for what he had done along the way to get here. Ishval, Winry's parents, Hughes's death...nothing seemed to be enough to make up for those lives. Then again, he was no stranger to the cost of a soul, the cost of a life. He had to get himself together, right now they were on a mission to save another innocent who had no part in any of this and shouldn't have been taken.

Roy tucked the fedora down further over his eyes and waited for Ed to emerge from the room. "We'll have to slip out the kitchen to avoid being seen. There's a back stairwell over here."

Ed stepped outside of the room and frowned. "Seriously? You go incognito in a three piece suit?"

Roy smirked. "Always so critical."

Hayate trotted down the stairs ahead of them and jumped off the last stair into the kitchen. He wagged his tail and waited by his leash for Roy.

"Critical?" Ed scoffed. "More like realistic. We don't have time to be fending off fangirls."

"Are you complimenting my appearance?" Roy stopped and turned to look at him as they neared the kitchen.

"Just wondering if you started dying your hair." Ed grinned.

"Fullmetal, you're taking that househusband job of yours way too seriously if you're wanting to talk about hair care products and fashion." Roy smirked as he saw the scowl on the blond's face. "Thanks for coming."

Ed's scowl disappeared and his face took on a softer expression. "That's what friends are for."