You can probably guess by the title... -_-;

Chapter 4 : Reminiscence

An aggravated Detective eyed the phone on his desk with such disdain that it looked likely to burst into flames at any moment. It was just his luck; the night he had been called to such a pointless case just had to be the exact night he had planned a date with the latest in his list of girlfriends. This one, however, wasn't like the others who had all been so eager and easy to get. No, this girl was beautiful but she wanted something serious so she was wary of going on a date with Central's most promiscuous beast (as stunningly handsome as he was). As such, it had taken quite a long time to eventually get her to agree to go out, though her rules were a little harsh. Exactly the reason he didn't want to blow her off tonight; she would never agree to a rescheduling and he wouldn't get another chance with her. His reputation would be shattered.

Letting out a pained moan, Roy let his head fall heavily on his desk, still staring at the phone with narrowed eyes. He still hadn't worked up the courage to call her up and cancel the date. Of course, after that he would have to call the restaurant and cancel their reservations, and he wouldn't get the money he had spent on the opera tickets back. It was all so much hassle for one pointless case. Stewing in his own self pity, Roy stayed in his position for quite a while, listening to the clock on his desk.

'Tick...tick...'

"Roy!"

Startled, Roy jumped up, almost falling off his seat in the process. He managed to save himself in time, though and emitted a low growl in response to the irritating voice of his best friend. How did he always manage to sneak up on him like that? "Hughes..." he acknowledged, voice still resembling a growl. "What do you want?"

Hughes just put on a mock pout and moved from his position in the doorway, going up to Roy and slapping him friendlily on the back. "What? A man can't even drop by to talk to his best friend anymore? That's a shame." He looked at the floor and shook his head in fake sorrow as he said this before smiling again and looking down at Roy. "Going to the pub tonight? I've finally got a night off and you just have to see my newest pictures of Elicia. She's so cute!"

Indicating to the pile of disorganised papers on his desk, Roy shook his head and sighed. "No. Sorry, as much as I want to listen to your countless stories of your daughter, I have to go investigate a case." There was just a hint of sarcasm in his voice as he spoke.

Roy leaned back in his chair and put his arm over his eyes, letting out a pained moan. "Besides, I had a date. But now I have to cancel because of such a pointless case!"

Taking a seat on the edge of Roy's desk, Hughes looked at Roy in pity. "Got lugged with the noises complaints around the warehouses, huh?"

"What else? I don't see why we have to investigate it anymore. They never turn out to be anything but children playing."

A chuckle escaped form Hughes' lips and he turned to Roy with wide, curious eyes. "Really? Are you sure? Think about it, Roy. We've been getting complaints like these every month for the past, what, seven months?"

"Yeah, so?" Roy asked, tone bored and uninterested. He sat further back in his chair and put his hands behind his head, placing his feet on the desk. "What's that got to do with anything? The kids are just being pests."

Standing up and placing his hands on the desk, Hughes leant in closer to Roy. "Use your brain, Roy. Don't you think that's a bit too...routine? Do you think these kids are werewolves or something that they only come out once a month? There's too much of a pattern. Something else must be going on."

"If there was something else going on, we would have found it out by now. But every officer who's checked it out has confirmed it to be loud children playing where they shouldn't be. Maybe they're...organised kids." Roy shrugged, not really interested in what Hughes was saying. It did seem suspicious, but they would have found something before, surely.

"You don't get it. Our officers probably didn't even investigate much. Just seen the kids and told them to scram. That could be the diversion. So the officers didn't actually investigate." Hughes moved away from the desk and fixed his glasses on his nose. "Roy, how about I come with you? I want to investigate it more. To see what's really going on. I bet it's a drug ring or something."

A sly smile appeared on Roy's lips and he looked up at Hughes with devious eyes. He had an idea. "Really? You wanna go investigate? Then be my guest. I don't want to go. I'll head out on my date and you can cover for me since you're so interested." It was a perfect solution to his problem, that way, they'd both be happy.

"Hmmm? You wouldn't go? If it's something big, I'd need back up. It'd be better for both of us to go..."

"C'mon Hughes. Do a guy a favour, here. You want to investigate and I want to go on my date. I'm not at all interested in this case. I'd only hold you back. Besides, this is the love of my life. You don't want your best friend to miss his chance at love, right? Can you really live with yourself?"

"Love of your life, huh?" Hughes smirked. "I'm pretty sure you said that last time you asked me to cover your shift. And the time before that. I might be getting tired of this. As much as I want to investigate, it'd be better if we both went. Aren't you the least bit curious about what's really going on?"

Roy pouted and looked at his friend like a child who had been told they couldn't go to the fair. "But this time, I'm sure of it! As much as I want to see you proved wrong, I've been trying to get this girl to go out with me for weeks. I'll lose my chance with her if I cancel. I'll even do any paperwork on the case tomorrow, just cover me tonight. You said you wanted to investigate, so you either go alone, or not at all." Eyes turned mock pleading now, Hughes wouldn't resist going on the case anyway, no matter how much he seemed to not want to go alone. "So, cover for me?"

Letting out a sigh, Hughes shook his head and took his glasses off to rub them. "Jeez, Roy, you really want to go out with this woman, don't you?" At this, Roy nodded fervently, resulting in a smile from Hughes. "I guess, if you're really so interested in her, I guess I can go alone. But this is the last time." He held a serious expression as he pushed his glasses back up. "And I expect to be best man at the wedding!"

Jumping up off his seat, Roy laughed and cheerfully patted his best friend on the back. "Thanks. But, you're joking about this being the last time, right? I mean, you'll need to cover for me on our honeymoon, and any anniversaries, birthdays, Mondays... Duties of a best man. It's really an honour."

Hughes laughed and shook his head. He knew there was a slim chance of this being Roy's future wife, but still. "Looks like I'll have a lot on my plate. All that work...I swear, Roy, you'll be the death of me..."

Roy chuckled at his friends joke and patted him on the back again. "I'm not that bad of a slave driver, you know." He walked to the door and grabbed his coat, Hughes following him. "Now, I better go get ready for my date. Have fun on the case. You can tell me all about your failure to find anything tomorrow night at the pub."

Hughes smirked as they walked out the door. "No, I'm sure I'll be telling you my success story. And you'll get to see even more pictures of little Elicia!" He closed the door after him, leaving the office in loneliness as their continued conversation faded down the corridor.

The world was unaware that the silence and darkness left in the office now would continue to linger, spreading from the detective's mind even months later.

xxx

"It's ironic..." Roy said as Rebecca sat in silence, listening to Roy's tale as the rain battered against the windscreen. They had sat in her car while Roy relived that night, in order to avoid getting even more soaked by the rain. "After that, we stopped sending people out to investigate the complaints. But when an officer was killed, wouldn't it make more sense to send out more forces? Obviously, there was something else going on, so why did they stop the investigations? It's too fishy..."

Roy sighed and looked out the window, Hughes had been right. If only he'd gone with him, would things have turned out different?

Now that Roy was finished, Rebecca took her chance to speak. "They're still looking into Hughes'...death, you know that. But whoever done it must be more wary, cautious now. The warehouses have been demolished, they can't do whatever it was they were doing there anymore..." she kept her voice low, it was easy to see why Roy would blame himself. "But still, it wasn't your fault, you didn't know that things would turn out-"

Roy cut her off, turning to glare at her. "Hughes told me! He was convinced something was going on! Of course I should have known, he's always right about these things. I should have just gone with him, but I was too selfish!" He should have trusted his friend. He should never have abandoned him. How foolish had he been?

Softening his voice a bit, Roy looked at Rebecca with cold eyes. "Stop telling me how it wasn't my fault. I should have trusted my friend. I know it was my fault and you're not going to convince me otherwise. So stop trying."

Rebecca bit her lip and looked away. He could be irritatingly stubborn sometimes. She knew that he would continue to blame himself; there was nothing she could do about it, he wouldn't listen. Besides, it obviously didn't make him feel better. It was as if he wanted to blame himself.

"I'm sorry..." she turned back to him with an apologetic gaze. "I won't mention it again."

"It's okay...I'm sorry for snapping at you, you're only trying to help." He sighed again and rubbed at his eyes. "I should probably get dried off before heading back to the office; I'm already late, nothing wrong with being even later."

He didn't mention anything about what she said about the warehouses. She would probably (correctly) assume that he was investigating it. But he had thought of all that before...the explanations didn't add up, how could the police investigate Hughes' murder when the scene had been demolished? Roy was intent on figuring it all out, for Hughes as well as himself. And he was determined on finding the murderer.

He made to get out of the car, but was stopped by Rebecca's hand on his arm. "It's pouring out there. I'll drive you home and wait for you. You haven't had any lunch yet, have you? I'll get us some sandwiches too."

Letting go of the handle, Roy sat back properly in the seat. "Whatever..."

He leaned his elbow against the bottom of the window and rested his head on his hand as he looked out in silence at the grey surroundings flashing past. Rebecca remained equally silent, focussing on the road as the pouring rain impaired her field of vision.

More memories of that night bubbled to the surface of Roy's mind but remained unspoken as he allowed himself to relive them.

xxx

It was in the early hours of the morning when Roy's phone started to ring, shrill enough to awaken him from his short-lived slumber.

His date had went surprisingly well, considering how he had managed to turn up nearly ten minutes late. She had, however, turned down his request to head over to his apartment and perhaps spend the night.

Even so, they had parted ways nearly a couple of hours after midnight; he dropping her off at her house before continuing to his own.

As such, he was obviously grumpy at being woken up when he had only been asleep for a few hours.

Thoughts of who could possibly be ringing at this ungodly hour ran through his mind before settling on one person. Hughes. Roy let a smirk cross his face as he imagined Hughes ringing to tell him how much of a failure his 'mission' had been. He only cursed himself for not betting with Hughes on that.

It was only when he picked up the phone, answering with a weary grunt by way of a greeting that his heart stopped beating and the breath caught in his throat.

Listening to the person on the phone had been a challenge at first as Roy attempted to keep his eyes open, rubbing at them with his fists. Two words were all it took to wake him. "...Hughes...killed..."

Roy had initially thought it was a joke. Some sick prank played on him by an even sicker person. Unfortunately he recognised the voice of the superintendent and he was not the type of man to appreciate any kind of joke, never mind one such as this.

What he did after finishing the call was mostly a blur to Roy. The shock of hearing about his best friend being killed was hard to comprehend and it was all that filled his mind at the time. He only remembered pulling on trousers and a shirt over his boxers and lifting his coat before heading out the door and speeding towards the crime scene. It was as if his body had been turned on to automatic.

Arriving at the scene, Roy hardly stopped his car before jumping out and running past the officers and into the warehouse where Hughes had been killed.

An officer met him and led him up a staircase to an upper level of the warehouse which held wooden crates and a few shelves for storage, but was open, providing a view of the ground level.

His heart pounded so hard and loud in his chest that he hardly heard the sound of the officer's voice, presumably telling him details of the death. He didn't want to hear them at this point in time, anyway.

As Roy neared the crates behind which the body lay, he slowed his pace and almost tip-toed towards it. The other officers who had been collecting evidence from around the area and talking about the death, stepped back to give Roy space while he seen the body. They all knew of the almost brotherly relationship the two men had and knew how much Hughes' death would hurt Roy. It would be best to leave him alone for a little while.

Roy moved slowly behind the crates, noticing the blood on the ground around them. When he finally saw the body, he stood back and let a gasp escape, clenching his fists to prevent any tears falling. To see his friend covered in so much blood...it wasn't easy, something like that could never be an easy thing to see.

He moved closer and let himself drop beside the body of Hughes, most of the evidence had been collected already and, frankly, Roy didn't really care if he was disturbing the scene, He was far too shocked.

Hughes was lying sprawled on the floor, face down and turned to the side, with one arm stretched out above his head and the other so that his hand was level with his face. He had been stabbed at least three times; once in the arm which appeared to have held his gun (which had been lying on the floor a good distance away, as if it had been kicked to the side) and twice in the gut and chest.

If it was any consolation, the doctors would later tell Roy, Hughes had dies relatively quickly from his wounds so he hadn't had the pain of a slow death bleeding out and unable to do anything to stop it. This hadn't been any kind of consolation to Roy.

No longer able to see his friend in such a state, Roy stood up and made to walk away when a flash of red caught his eye. He walked over and picked a small, bronze object up. It held a small carving of a snake of some sort, on ruby eye glaring up at him. Looking around for the other officers, Roy dropped the piece in his pocket and turned to walk towards them, passing Hughes' body on the way.

But as he moved past, he noticed that the hand which had been level with Hughes' face was clutching something. Roy moved closer and knelt down, gently uncurling Hughes' fingers from around whatever he had been holding, revealing it to be a photograph of some sort, covered in Hughes' own blood.

Roy held the bloodied photograph in his hand, looking at it with sad eyes. It was a picture of Hughes standing with Gracia and Elicia, a huge grin plastered over his face. He smiled sadly, trust Hughes to clutch onto the photo in his dying moments. He made to tuck the photo into his friend's pocket, but something made him stop. Was that...writing on the back?

Turning it over, Roy's eyes widened. On the back of the photo was a message which appeared to be written in blood. But it was terribly smudged and he could only make out a few things. 'Bad...eye? Drama...? War.' The last word was the only one he could really make out, the rest making no sense as they were far too smudged. He could have shouted in frustration, there was no way he could decipher this. But if Hughes had went to the trouble of leaving the message, it must mean he had found out something big.

It was clear now that Hughes had been right earlier. There was something else going on. If only he hadn't doubted him!

Roy jumped as an investigator tapped him on his shoulder and he pocketed the picture and made his way out of the crime scene, watching as the coroners placed his best friend in a black body bag and carried him away.

He wouldn't mention the note or the little piece of what he would assume to be an ornament of some kind to the other officers. He would investigate this on his own; it had been his best friend who had died and he wanted them to be dealt his kind of justice.

He would find out the meaning of that message. And he would find out who had done this. Roy was sure of that, at least.

xxx

The rain did nothing to help lessen Bradley's foul mood as he stomped up to the doors of his manor, a servant hurrying to keep up with him and keep the umbrella he held over Bradley's head.

He stopped in the hallway once he entered his home and didn't even wait for the servant who was now putting the umbrella in its stand to help him off with his coat before he had it off himself and flung over in the general direction of the coat rack.

Bradley walked over to the small table which held his phone and picked up the receiver, stopping when he noticed two pairs of wide, worried looking eyes staring up at him. He slammed the receiver back in its cradle and beckoned them over towards him.

"I suppose you two have the chores I left you done?" he asked in a harsh tone of voice, glaring down at the boys as they nodded vigorously. Though they still seemed to be quite worried.

Al started to say something, but Ed cut him off before the words even came out. "The phone rang today while no one was in. We weren't sure if we should answer it or not. I decided to pick it up but whoever had been ringing had hung up by then. I'm sorry!" Ed spoke quickly, scared of what Bradley's reaction would be but wanting to protect his younger brother from further harm. Al's eyes widened at his brother, but he said nothing, the pain in his back was still too sore for him to want another beating. Especially over something so trivial.

Much to both boys surprise, Bradley didn't make a move to hurt Ed. Instead, he stood up and turned around a bit before turning back to Al, swinging his hand through and back-handing the boy across the cheek as he did so. The force was enough to make Al lose his balance and fall to the floor.

"I know it was you, boy." He spoke to Al in a cold tone, ignoring Ed. "I said before, don't be so weak! Letting your brother take the blame for you...that's just cowardice! You need to be tougher than that! Now get up!" Bradley shouted at the boy and glared down at him while he picked himself off the floor before turning his attention to Ed as well. "Now, both of you get to you room!"

Neither boy needed further encouragement to leave Bradley's presence and both scurried up the stairs like frightened rats. Bradley watched the boys go and waited until he heard their door shut before picking up the receiver again. Though he had to admit, the older one showed some guts, at least.

He swiftly dialled a number and waited for the person on the other end to pick up, all the while tapping his foot impatiently on the marble floor.

After what seemed an age, the person finally picked up and Bradley stood straight at his voice, even though he was only speaking over the phone.

"Yes. It's me." He started, voice quite respectful. "About the newest ones...I failed to get them destroyed and there's no chance of me getting them now." A pause while the person on the other end spoke, seemingly annoyed. "Yes. I know. There are some in Central...The woman took them, I'm fairly certain she lives around there...they might be brought back, but they'll have to follow and see...Soon, I know. I'll get them by tomorrow...Sir."

Bradley relaxed a bit as he set the receiver back down. Things could be easily fixed, now he just needed to make another phone call.

xxx

Riza let out a sigh as she unlocked the door to her apartment. She had still managed to get soaked in the short distance from the car to the doors of the apartment building; she had thought there would be no need for an umbrella if she would only be out for a few seconds. The rain had soon proved her wrong.

Entering her apartment, Riza placed her umbrella in the holder and carefully shut the door behind her. Something black bounded towards her and she smiled as she reached down to pet the little dog. "Hello Hayate." She greeted her pet in a soft voice, smile increasing as the dog licked her hand happily. "I bet you're looking for lunch, huh? I'll get it ready now."

She took off her coat and placed in on the hanger before slipping out of her wet shoes and into a pair of slippers which sat by the door, ready for instances such as this.

Moving into the kitchen, Riza set the files she had been carrying on the small kitchen table before pulling a can of dog food out of the cupboard, opening it with a tin-opener and pouring it into the dog's food bowl. She picked up the water bowl and filled it with fresh water, setting it down and scruffing Hayate's head lovingly as he dug in happily to his meal.

She watched the little dog eat for a while before standing up and stretching. She needed to get out of her wet clothes before she caught a cold. A nice hot shower was just what she needed right now, she could worry about the files –and Bradley- later.

Omg...this took so long, I'm sorry v.v

I'm not overly happy with this chapter, but...meh. Things might actually start to get interesting in the next few chapters, yay! So, it wasn't all a flashback type thing...Bradley, Ed, Al and Riza all got a little bit at the end. But I felt the flashback should go here, sorry if it seems too much/oddly placed. And I figured I would separate my notes and the story better, hence the line...

On a side note, it felt so weird passing the 11th/12th without seeing a new chapter of fma...how depressing.. D: