Chapter 4, yay! Enjoy, please read and review! It makes me happy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist.
Riza stepped out of the black car parked in front of Joeys Drinks. She noticed Ed and Al were already there, sitting next to the door looking extremely bored. "Hello, boys." Riza said as she walked up to the two.
"Colonel Hawkeye! You look so..." Ed's voice trailed off as he struggled to find a word fit her appearance. "out of your element." he finished. Even though it could be perceived as anything but a compliment, Riza took it as one smiled. She wasn't wearing anything different than what normal woman wore on a daily basis, but for someone like Riza Hawkeye it was strange. She wore a tight-fitting black dress that went up just above her knees. It had a v-neck and wrapped around her neck was a pearl necklace and her blond hair flowed down her back.
"You look like you're going on a date." Al said with a little chuckle.
"Thank you, Al. Well, I'm heading in. If you need anything, give me a shout." Riza said as she turned to the bar, smiling as she went. Inside she saw 1st Lieutenant Havoc already sitting at the counter. The bar wasn't the usual casual bar, it was actually a little fancy, like a restaurant where you can buy lobsters and drink expensive wines. She was glad she dressed up for the occasion.
Havoc gave a whistle when he saw her, "Too bad Roy wasn't here." he said, making Riza give an uncharacteristic blush. It came with an aggravated frown and scowl at the Lieutenant.
"Anything yet? Where is Breda?" she asked as she sat down with a sigh.
"He said he would be an hour la-," Havoc didn't get a chance to finish his sentence when Colonel Hawkeye had already started heading to the indoor payphone and dialed a number after slipping in a coin.
"Breda, where the hell are you?" she growled into the phone.
"Uh, sorry Hawkeye!" Breda said nervously over the phone, a little worried he would later get a bullet through his head when he finally did arrive. Riza hung the phone up, hoping he would get the message she was trying to convey.
Time ticked by slowly as the three, Breda getting there as fast as possible after the phone call, waited for anything unusual to happen. It was already 7:00pm, and normal people had gone in and out of the bar, no sign of anything strange happening at the moment.
That is, until there was screaming heard from outside the front entrance, followed by more and more screams of different voices. The three soldiers on stakeout leaped out of their seats, pulling their guns simultaneously out from their hiding spots.
"Ed! Al!" Hawkeye called, followed by Havoc and Breda when they ran outside. There was a large crowd of people, most of them in panic-y fits, some crouched down, as though they were looking at something. Hawkeye burst through the crowd of people to see Alphonse lying on his side, small pools of blood around him. Blood seeped out of his mouth, but Riza could see the small rise and fall of his chest. "Alphonse... Al." she said, shaking him slightly.
"I'm sorry." he mumbled, eyes still closed. "Where's brother?" he asked.
"I don't know. Havoc, Breda! Go find Ed!" Riza barked at the two lieutenants, who nodded in response. "Al, tell me what happened." she said to the bleeding boy on the ground. He looked shaken and scared, but his eyes finally opened to reveal frightened gold eyes. He may be a strong boy, but his fear seemed more like a spooked horse, or someone who has just seen a ghost.
"I was waiting out here while brother had gone in back to watch the back entrance. I heard something coming from that trash can." he said shakily. Riza followed his gaze to where two metallic trash bins stood unmoving. "I went to check it out thinking something may have been trapped in there, like an animal. Then I felt multiple bullets through my back." Riza's eyes widened as he spoke, realizing she hadn't heard any gun shots coming from outside. "Nothing hit me in any vital areas, but I think I lost a lot of blood and fainted." he told Riza, looking more and more dizzy by the second.
"Thank you Al. Rest until we can get an ambulance here." instructed Colonel Hawkeye in a gentle voice.
An ambulance pulled up the street and was about to take a once again unconscious Alphonse to the hospital when Edward Elric yelled "Al!" as he ran up to the group surrounding his brother. "W-What happened?" he asked nervously with wide eyes.
"He was attacked." Hawkeye said, feeling extremely stressed out. This wasn't going to plan at all. They didn't even catch the attacker, or see him. Maybe he had realized Al was watching out for him and the soon-to-be-missing person was inside, waiting for his cloaked kidnapper. Or maybe he was in this crowd, feigning worry over an attacked boy, and noticing it wouldn't happen tonight. There was no way of knowing, for now.
"Damnit!" Edward growled, obvious worry plastering his face. "How did I not hear this going on?" Ed said. So he hadn't heard it either, Riza thought. Neither had anyone else, she assumed. She was sure she would have heard a bullet, so perhaps it wasn't a bullet that had pierced his back multiple times, to fast for him to transmute. So what was it?
Riza drove Edward to the hospital to see how Al was doing, followed by Havoc and Breda. They stepped into the florescent-lit building and Edward walked up to the secretary to ask for his brother's room. He wasn't ready to be seen quite yet is what she told them, so they waited in the visitors room. "I'm going to call the Brigadier General." Ed nodded and Riza stepped out of the room to call Mustang.
"Hello?" she heard from the other line.
"Sir, I'm afraid the stakeout didn't end well." she gulped, then said, "Alphonse has been injured. Nothing fatal, but we are in the hospital." she sighed and put her hand on her forehead, knowing his reaction wouldn't be pleasant.
"What the hell?" Riza winced away from the phone as he shouted. "How did this happen, Colonel?" he half-yelled, half-growled. Colonel Hawkeye knew him well.
"I'm not sure, sir." she said calmly, despite her worry for Al and the fact she was being yelled at.
"I'll be there soon." Roy said morosely, and he hung up the phone. Riza let out another sigh and went to sit with Edward.
"It's okay, Ed." she said kindly. For some reason she was able to talk with such kindness that always seemed odd to heard coming from her.
"We should have stayed together." Edward said with a fallen face.
"You can't use alchemy, and Al can. He doesn't always need his big brother there for him. If he couldn't take this person down himself, maybe you couldn't either. It's better only one of you had to go through this." Riza said, attempting to comfort Edward. He had grown so much yet parts of him still didn't understand the imperfections of the world, even after what they had gone through.
"I guess so. Thanks, Colonel." he let out a small bit a laughter, trying to lighten the mood. "It's weird saying Colonel without meaning Mustang. He would've said something like 'You're a fool Ed. Stop blaming yourself and get your act together. You're acting like a child.'" Edward sighed. "I guess he would be right."
Riza just nodded."Sometimes he can be blunt, but he's just trying to help." she admitted.
The two were interrupted by a nurse, who walked in and said "Visitors for Alphonse Elric?" Ed stood up slowly and nodded.
"I'll be waiting for the Brigadier General here. You go." Riza Hawkeye said. Edward smiled grimly and followed the nurse. Riza then left the visitors room to wait for Mustang, smiling grimly as she did so.
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