Jean was working on a case late into the evening when the phone rang in Mustang's office. Jean looked at the door in apprehension. Should he answer it? I mean, it was the Colonel's office… The phone kept ringing and he got up, opening the door and picking the phone up.

"Colonel Mustang's office?"

"There is a caller from an outside line, Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye? Do you accept?"

"Yes."

There was silence and then the line clicked over.

"Havoc?"

"Yes?"

"Oh, good… you're still there…"

"Hawkeye? What's going on? Why are you-"

"Jean, please send anyone you can to this address. It's about the Colonel…"

She told him the address and he frowned when he heard her coughing and heard the sound of a baby wailing.

"Hawkeye, what's going on? What are all those noises?"

"It doesn't matter, Havoc. Just get the medics over here. I… I can only do so much now…"

Jean's frown deepened. "Hawkeye, what's wrong?"

"Just… just get people here…"

She said nothing else and Jean waited but didn't hear her.

"Hawkeye? Hawkeye?! HAWKEYE!" he screamed into the phone.

She didn't answer and he hung up, ringing the medical team and the rest of Mustang's team to meet at the address Riza had given him.

In a desperate attempt to make sure that his friends were alright, Jean didn't realize he had sped halfway to the lab until he saw it almost twenty minutes later when it took almost forty-five to actually get there. There were no paramedics there yet from where he was but he could see the smoke where the building had collapsed and burnt to the ground. He frowned as he drove slowly, seeing if he could see them since Riza had called from an outside line. As he drove closer to the facility, he found the pay phone and with the window down, he could hear crying. He picked up speed and drove over to the pay phone.

He parked the car and went to the pay phone, finding Riza passed out in the actual booth with a black haired baby laying beside her in complete dismay and coughing and an older gentleman leaned against the booth. Jean knelt down and picked up the child first, since that was the only one conscious and the only one distraught and he began to rock the baby gently in his arms, humming a lullaby his mother used to sing to him. Eventually the baby calmed down and only coughed every couple of minutes. Jean wiped away the baby's tears and smiled at him a little as he bounced him in his arms.

"You're alright, kid. Jean's got ya…"

Now that the child was alright, Jean knelt in front of Riza's frame in the booth and shook her. She didn't budge but Jean checked her pulse and she was breathing. Jean then went to the man leaning against the booth. He looked oddly familiar… that was when he saw the busted arm and leg.

"Aw, Chief, they got you too… Damn it…"

In response, Edward coughed and Jean lifted his head so he didn't choke on his own spit. Thick blood oozed from Edward's mouth and Jean began to assess the damage and the wounds. As he did, he finally heard the ambulances coming. He met them halfway and identified everyone, except for the baby… but he had a sneaking suspicion of who it was.

Jean sat in the waiting room as the other people from the Colonel's direction began to appear as well as Alphonse.

"How are they?" Breda asked, sitting next to him.

"I haven't heard anything. I know Edward is… he's pretty close to death."

"Brother? What happened to him, Lieutenant?" Alphonse asked, his eyes glowing.

"As everyone knows, the Colonel got caught up in a strange aging experiment that made him begin to regress in age. When Ed and Hawkeye went to get him, it looks like Edward got caught up in it too and so he was progressed to an older age and… well, it looks like the Colonel regressed fully into a baby. Dr. Striker is dead and there is only one bottle of the serum left. Here is the issue on that: if we give it to the Colonel, he will be himself but Edward will still be old. If we give it to Edward, he will return to his normal self and the Colonel will have to grow from a baby to an adult again. If we try to split it, it will not do much good for them. From what I gathered from another bio-alchemist who happened to be working on the serums with Dr. Striker, splitting the dosage will only cause minimal help, but it will help… So… we have to make a decision as a group: do we let our superior go or not?"

Everyone was quiet as they thought about the possibilities when Fuery spoke up.

"We all know the Colonel wouldn't allow Edward to be in that state. He would give his life up for him to go back to normal. The Colonel would have a second chance at life, Edward will have his life taken from him. The Colonel would make sure Edward was safe."

Everyone nodded, even Alphonse. Jean nodded.

"You're right, Fuery… Even if the situations hadn't changed, the Colonel would have gladly siphoned off some of his years in order to make it right for Edward. He cares too much about his subordinates to leave them in the lurch… So… who is all in agreement?"

Everyone raised their hands and Jean nodded.

"I'll tell Hawkeye our decision and then… well, we will have to tell our superior goodbye."

Everyone nodded gravely as he got up to go to Riza's room.

Havoc knocked on the door and opened it, finding Riza sitting up and reading. She looked at the door and smiled.

"Havoc."

"We have all decided that Edward Elric should receive the serum, Lieutenant." He said with a salute to her. "That's final."

Riza nodded. "Yeah… that was my thought too."

Jean sighed and sat next to Riza in the chair.

"It's going to be so hard to say goodbye to him like this… How will you tell the Fuhrer? Rather, will you tell the Fuhrer?"

"Yes. I will let him know. I have to since the Colonel was on the case and got caught up in it. The Fuhrer will need to know the status of it and of the Colonel."

"And… what will you do, Lieutenant? Will you take him in?"

Riza sighed. "I'm still in debate. I don't want to keep him and know him but have to ignore that, but… I don't want to be out of his life. I promised the Colonel that if anything happened that I would help him assume a new identity and I will hold to that promise…"

There was a slight knock on the door and a young man's head stuck in.

"Are you Lieutenant Hawkeye?"

"Yes…"

"Hi, I'm Dr. Hamilton, one of Dr. Striker's assistants."

Riza shook the red headed man's hand and Jean did as well.

"What brings you here?"

"I wanted to let you know that I will do everything in my power to try and get your superior back to normal but… I'm not as skilled as Dr. Striker and it may take me some time… I did want to let you know that I *do* have something that will help things along while I'm in the process of making the growth serum."

"And that would be?"

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small vial of pink liquid.

"This is a serum that I made with Dr. Striker. It's a growth serum but it's not as perfected as Dr. Striker's and so it will only work after your superior turns one year of age and it will only age him five years. No more, no less. Butit will help push things along so that the years don't seem that long."

Riza smiled, a secret relief washing over her as Jean smiled too.

"Great! Aw, but that means that we still didn't get out of the baby stage…"

"True, but like I said, I will be working day in and day out to try and get your superior back. The only thing is is that I have nowhere near the ability to make it where he doesn't remember anything from his past. From what I understood from Dr. Striker, the memories from his past will emerge at the ages that he had them. Anything traumatic will come back, any memories will return and that's with both his original life and the one that happened here with the serum. It'll converge all into one."

"What will that do to him?" Riza asked.

"He'll have nightmares and questions. There's no reason to hide them from him unless you just want to. It won't destroy his brain or anything from having too many lifetimes or something silly like that. He'll just have confusion as to if they are nightmares or memories. Whether any of you want to tell him the truth is up to you."

Riza and Jean nodded as Dr. Hamilton put the serum on the table.

"I'll leave this with you, Lieutenant Hawkeye."

"Thank you… although… How do I know that you're not giving us bogus serum?"

"If you like, you can test a drop of the serum on a seed of your choice. Plant the seed in the ground, drop a drop of serum onto it, cover it up and water it. Over the next five days, you will see a sapling grow up a year every day until five years."

"Why will it work with a seed but not the Colonel's current form?" Jean asked.

"A seed is a condensed genetic code that doesn't have complex functions. A human is much more complex than a tree. Motor skills, intellect, and other factors play a part in how a child develops rather than a tree."

Riza nodded. "I understand, Doctor. I will try it out when I get home and test to see if it's alright. Thank you for even giving it to us."

"You're quite welcome."

Dr. Hamilton left and Jean turned to Hawkeye.

"Do you trust this guy?"

"I have to. It's our jobs as officers to follow our superior and since we are losing him, getting him back would be nice. A jump start would help a lot…"

Jean nodded. "I guess that makes sense… I'm going to go see the Colonel and talk to him for a bit… Do you think he's forgotten by now?"

"He's a small child now without a memory. The smoke inhalation probably helped with that. He's a normal baby now… The big issue is what new name do I give him?"

"Why not just keep his 'nephew's' name and call him Chris?"

"I may just do that…"

Jean got up and pat Riza on the shoulder.

"It'll be alright, Hawkeye. You have the whole team with you and Edward and Alphonse as well. We'll all be here and we all know what's up so the feelings you have won't be felt alone."

Riza nodded as Jean left. When he was finally gone, Riza cried in her hands, knowing she would be losing her Colonel for a very long time… time that she would never get back.

just to let yall know, dr. hamilton is a legit person. no plot twist there and for the record, edwards wounds aren't that serious if he were in his younger state. the fact that he is older, was breathing in smoke, and fought so hard with them in that older state that's causing the issues. plus, the stomach and leg wounds are the worst because. the shoulder wound is a flesh wound but his age doesn't help that fact either...

and i decided to keep mustangs name chris for easiness