Finally got around to posting this. DX College has got me writing out the wa'zoo! I'm swamped. I'll try to work on this one as quickly as I can, but there's more of a demand for 'Deep Roots', so I'm going to be working on that one for the next little bit.

Hope you like chapter 2! :D

Moving Ahead

The Central library was busy that day. People coming and going each second to or from the building. She had it under her arm within a small purse, Ed's journal. With a sigh, the girl headed up the steps to apply for a library card. Her knowledge on where Edward was going to be that day could have been classified as stalking. The place she had been sleeping, an abandoned warehouse, was riddled with passage ways and broken windows. There was a great view of the city from the dump she called home, for now.

When she came to Central the quest for the perfect building began. A series of lucky events led her to the one she currently occupied. Windows on all sides, boarded up of course, and tall. Tall enough to see over many of the surrounding buildings. Central was not one of them.

"Excuse me," she said, throat void of any infection. Her earlier cold took a week to heal and she still had a dry cough; something that nearly blew her cover a few times.

"Yes, dear?" the lady on the other side counter addressed her casually.

"I'd like to get a library card." She reached into her purse and emerged with her own pen.

The woman reached under the counter and took out some papers, "Certainly. I'll just need to get a piece of identification."

This caught her off guard, "I-uh..." she blushed, "-I actually had my possessions stolen." The girl held the purse she had up, it looked old, "This was from goodwill. I got it last week."

The large librarian sighed in sympathy and held a hand over her heart, "They'll take anything not nailed down, won't they?" she tapped the counter, "I'll go talk to my supervisor, you can take a look around."

The blond girl smiled, and said, "You're such a sweetheart, thank you." They parted. The scene needed to be put to gather quickly, she got to work. Edward would be here around two o'clock to paw through some books, and he would be entering from the side. She knew this was the day he had a meeting at a branch of Central headquarters. The office in question was in back of the library and down a block; the side entrance was closest. She speculated that Edward was meeting with Colonel Roy Mustang. Her focus wasn't on Roy, but knowing where Mustang was helped her find Edward, she kept an eye on him for a while too.

What she learned about Roy was that he had his own house in town and frequented the bars. She broke into his home on a night he was out partying. She was careful to put everything back in place, for she was also familiar with the colonel's obsessive personality. The goal was to see if he had any information on Ed's past. She found nothing. She did however find it rather peculiar that there was nothing about his meetings with Edward. They met on a weekly basis, but no minutes from their meetings. It did mentioned that the Full Metal Alchemist fell under Roy's command, so that was good enough for her, Part of his 'crew', as it was written in his notes.

She laid the journal on the floor, beneath a bench. It stood upright against the leg. On it's binding, a small piece of tape holding a thread that extended across the middle hallway and to the girl's wrist watch. She knew Edward was a creature of habit, and it was only a matter of time before he reached the 'alchemy reference section'. When he sat down to peruse the shelf, a button would ravel the thread up and tug the book, knocking it over and grabbing his attention. This was phase one. If it failed, she would grab the book and attempt to check it out at the same time Edward was leaving. She was set, everything was perfect. 'I am awesome,' she thought to herself, disregarding the fact that it was sheer luck that puttered her this far along.

Looking at the bookshelf in front of her, she decided to pull out an old favourite. It was an introduction book, but it was by her favourite author. It had been years since she had seen it and it gave her a warm feeling of nostalgia. She felt that 'sitting down and seeing that book first' had some kind of meaning, like 'you're in the right place'. For quite a time she had nearly given up on her endeavors, second guessing herself and getting cold feet. Seeing that comforting text brought some peace to mind.

Low and behold, Edward showed up as if on cue. 'Glad I rehearsed this,'she thought, as her heart pounded, skipping beats as it did. It was the moment of truth. Would he recognize her eyes? Her voice? Body shape? The attire she wore the night the book was stolen hid her curvy frame, and the boots she wore were three sizes too big for her (in case she'd be followed on foot).

The woman at the front desk approached the aisle and spoke, "Miss? I checked into it."

She hit the button and the device worked as predicted. The thread coiled into her wrist watch using a wind up mechanism; that was practically silent. "Oh, thanks." She took the clip board from the lady.

"Fill this out, signature here, and bring it to the front desk before you leave." She smiled and left.

While she was receiving the clip board, she heard the younger Elric exclaim about the journal. She looked down the aisle to see what they were celebrating (as if she didn't already know). "Found what you're looking for," she said, making it look like an attempt at breaking the ice.

Ed flipped through the book, keeping an eye out for missing pages, "Not really. My journal was stolen a few days ago and it just turned up under the bench."

"Maybe he was planning on coming back for it?" Al suggested.

"Stolen?" she sounded surprised. The girl referenced the bag on her arm, "I had my other purse stolen too. This city is bad for crime; my stuff was lifted right off my table as I ate. I didn't even notice. It kind of makes me regret moving."

He shut the book, "Is that so? Where are you from?" He sympathized with the girl, he knew how tough money got when you were on the road. Though Ed could always rely on the military to supplement him, there was no way calling them where the was no phone lines.

The girl proceeded to tell where she was from. A little 'nowhere town' in the middle of nowhere. It was on the way to nowhere, after you leave the edge of nowhere. "I lived there since I was born, I wanted to go to school and I had no options, so I came here. By the way, I'm Eve Nightingale, nice to meet you."

"I'm Edward Elric and this is my little brother Alphonse," he drew attention to the large suit of armor.

"Nice to meet you," he said.

Her eyes widened. She had been following them, but she never really heard their voices before. He had such a sweet voice for such a massive man. He didn't sound any older than thirteen or fourteen. "I thought you two looked familiar. You were featured in a article last month."

Edward's head became enlarged, "Yeah. We're pretty famous in the area. Too bad it doesn't help out more on the road."

"Really? Even from where I'm at I've heard of you. People can be such shut in's." She reached into her bag, "I got a news paper from back home. If you mail out an envelope to the post office in another town, they'll send you a set of news papers from that area. I always kept up on Central's news; it's our capital, right? So it helps to know what's going on."

"I never knew that," Alphonse emerged from a book that was threatening to steal his attention away. "We'll have to tell granny about that, I bet she'll be interested."

"Yeah, and every time we end up in the paper, Winry calls and demands to know the status of my automail." He held his right hand up to Al, "There are nearly three-hundred screws in this arm. She's going to want to see if they're all there."

"Automail?" Eve said in surprise (this time for real), "You have an automail arm?"

He nodded, "I guess it's a trait that doesn't make it to the press. You said you travel?" Ed finally closed up his book when he was satisfied all was well and nothing was dog eared.

Eve shook her head, "Not usually. On my way here, I had to ride cheap. I'd end up in one town and have to work for a while to earn some money before I could go again. It's been a couple years in the making, but I'm finally here."

"What do plan on doing next?" Al asked, keeping the conversation going. Alphonse had a feeling they would be taking this girl out to eat. Along the road, they frequently met travelers who had been hungry for days, surviving on the bare minimums. This girl seemed to fall under that classification.

"I'm going to work for now. I need to find a job and save so I can take my state alchemy test next year." She reached into her bag and emerged with a central paper from a couple years ago. "I saw you in the paper a long time ago and it kind of inspired me to pursue alchemy more. My dad wanted me to do it, mom wanted me to fix cars, so, I had to leave. I was tired of the bickering."

"Did they consider what 'you' wanted to do?" Ed asked, rather annoyed. He hated it when people were pushy like that.

Eve shook her head, "That's just it, what 'I' wanted to do wasn't on the table because I wasn't sure yet. Traveling and working different jobs sounded like it would give me time to decide and gain experience all at once."

"You seem so young, did you travel alone?" Ed looked at her face, her expression looked scared.

"Well, yes-I, uh. I did. And...it was hard at times. But luckily I was able to make good connections and travel safely. That's actually one of the reasons it took so long. I had to make sure I could trust the people I traveled with. I mostly stuck with farmers and sales men." She blushed, "I don't mean I..." she composed herself, "I was a hard worker and all I required was a seat and a meal. I would work for them and only ask to travel with them in return."

Alphonse was surprised, "You may be young, but you're really smart."

She blushed again, "I don't take compliments well," Eve said and laughed at herself, "Thank you. I'm just resourceful. I walked in the library thinking that you may have been looking at the same books. Then I actually run into you. It makes me feel like I made the right choice to come here."

Ed seemed intrigued, "It seems like the state alchemy exam is going to be in your near future; what are your skills like?"

Eve glanced along the wall of books, an aisle away from her original shelf, "I think I saw the one..." she skimmed the beginning of the shelf on the hip-level books, "...Right here," she said, pulling out a popular reference novel. "I left off on the last on shortly before I made it to Central, and I need to check this one out." It was the next issue in the seven part series. "Number five: Kinetic Alchemy."

"Oh," Edward said with surprised, "Alchemy powered machinery, impressive."

"With the oil situation becoming more of a problem, I wanted to look into ways of making Alchemy more accessible for motor companies. The things they have now aren't really practical. I want to try and make them smaller and more affordable to the public."

Ed nodded, "The military would definitely be interested in that kind of skill. Making the defense cheaper to maintain would take a chunk out of their annual budget."

"Exactly," she beamed.

"I think the exam is being held next year. Have you gotten your name on the list?" Al questioned.

Her expression calmed, "Come again?"

He nodded, "There's a waiting list. What if there's no spot available for you?"

She panicked, "I'll have to wait, like, five more years?" Her arms folded across her chest, "Well I'm glad I found out now. I can't imagine how it would have felt to be turned away at the door."

Edward rubbed the back of his neck, "I think I might be able to do something for you."

This wasn't part of her plan. She was going to grind her alchemy skills and then participate in the exam next year. If the waiting list was going to be an issue, she would have to seek employment until the allotted time. But a possibility presented itself, "Really? I don't want to impose."

He shook his head, "Don't worry about it. I'll let them know what it took to get you here. If you're skilled enough, they might make an exception."

"No wonder they call you a 'hero of the people', you're just amazing." Eve was gushing by this point. Even though she needed to exercise underhanded tactics to gain the knowledge to pass the state alchemy exam, she truly did admire Edward. The story she told him about the news paper was true, he really did inspire her to do great things. She was running out of time though, and needed to further her own ends with his notes.

Ed took in all the praise, "Occasionally. Doing the things you 'enjoy' for a living is the only way to live. I've had hard times myself, and if it weren't for the people willing to help along the way, I don't know where we'd be."

"I don't even want to imagine," Al shook his head, "We've just made so much progress, it's hard to picture it."

Ed laughed, "Now that you mention it, you're right." He turned his attention back to Eve, "How mcuh longer do you plan to be here?"

She shrugged, "I don't have to be anywhere else."

"When we're done, do you want to go someplace to eat? We haven't eaten since breakfast," he offered.

Her orange eyes lit up, "That would be great. Could we discuss alchemy over this meal?" she playfully inquired.

"Why not," he said with a smile.

You may be wondering why the character has the same name as myself. There is a reason. Eve Nightingale was originally a fan character for Beyblade. She was an Irish mechanic and blah blah blah, made her back in high school and what not.

I spent a lot of time developing Eve's back story and didn't want to throw the character to the wind. I was going through an old file folder that had been laying around the house, and I found some old pictures from back as early as 2003. I drew Eve more than I wrote about her. Her stories existed in role play format in school scribblers. I also used her back story as a creative writing project for English 12. She had a great story on her own, even without the Beyblade universe. I really liked the name I came up with and since I never wrote and/or posted anything with Eve in it, I began to use it as my pen name.

With my love for FMA, and my desire to finally use Eve, I tweaked her character to fit in this universe. She is reborn in this story and I hope you'll get to enjoy her.

In my defense, I did try to change the character's name. But nothing else felt right. :S I tried Ella, Ellen, Esther and a few others but nothing rolled as nicely as 'Eve Nightingale'. The name isn't important to the story and it's just hard for me to picture the character I'm writing with a different name. Role with it, kay?

Sorry to be chewing you ear off, but I like to take some pride in my work. Even if it's for fun. :) R&R, thanks.