Hello readers! Thank you for everyone who reviewed last chapter (11, that makes me sohappy!). And because so many people reviewed, I decided to give you chapter 9 early! :D


"How…how can this be?" Ed whispered at he stared at the sheet of paper that was slowly becoming more and more crinkled in his shaking hands.

Ed had no idea how much time had passed as he stared at the sheet of paper. He was only shaken from his zombie-like state when he felt a slight vibration going of in his pocket. Ed put his shaking hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone; it was Roy.

"H-hello?" Ed answered, trying to force his voice to calm down.

"Ed, did you find what you needed?" Roy asked in a slightly urgent voice.

"Yeah…I found it…"

"Good because we've got company."

"Wait, what?" Ed asked, now brought completely back from his state of mind.

"Jean just heard some police sirens! And he thinks he saw the lights pull into the front of the building!"

"Where are you guys?" Ed asked urgently as he slipped the sheet of paper into his hoodie pocket before shoving his file into the file cabinet and slamming it shut.

"I'm sorry but we had to get out of there."

"What?! Then what am I supposed to do?!" Ed asked as he began weaving in and out of the file cabinets as fast as he possibly could.

"Climb out of the window and then run across the field that's behind the building. Jean and I are parked right by there."

"What?! Who the Hell came up with that idea?!" Ed yelled as he changed direction so he could escape out through the window.

"Just come on! I think the police just got inside! You've got about sixty second to get out of there!"

Ed made a noise similar to that of an injured animal before he ended the call and shoved his phone in his pocket next to the paper. Ed fought with the window lock for a moment before it opened, releasing cool, summer night air into the stuffy office. He glanced over his shoulder for a second before he jumped out of the window and onto the hard concrete of the parking lot.

The sounds of police running through the halls of the building he had just vacated sent much needed adrenaline into his system. Ed forced his soar body across the field of knee high grass and towards the bright lights that, he knew, belonged to Roy's Jeep.

"Ed! Come on! Hurry!" The two teens shouted as they saw the outline of their friend come closer and closer.

As Ed finally reached the Jeep, he grabbed onto the door, jumped over the side of the Jeep and landed in the back seat. Once Roy saw that Ed was inside the vehicle, he slammed his foot onto the accelerator and speed down the dark road.

"That was close." Roy said once he felt it was safe to talk.

"You could say that again." Jean said with a small smile.

"Hey Ed," Roy said in a shaky but completely pissed off voice.

"Y-yeah?" Ed asked quietly.

"Um, remind me to never do a favor for you that involves breaking into a place! Scratch that! Remind me to never do any favor for you again! If you want to get into someplace you go and pick the God damn locks yourself!"

When Roy didn't receive some snarky comment in return, Roy looked up into his review mirror, expecting to see Ed's golden eyes, possibly glaring daggers at him. Instead, Roy saw Edward, his eyes closed and his head was tilted back against the head rest. Whether Ed was asleep or not, Roy couldn't tell, so he let him sit there in silence.


Ed sat on top of his bed. His arms were rapped around his knees, which were pressed against his chest. Hours had passed since Roy had dropped him off at his house and the then dark sky was now a beautiful orange/lavender color; a color Ed could not appreciate or ever begin to care about because his mind was still in shock from his previous outings.

Twenty-four hours.

Twenty-four hours was all it took for his life to become completely flipped upside-down. As Ed sat in the darkness of his room, his thoughts drifted to the several 'what ifs' that he thought he had pushed out of his mind years ago along with new ones that his mind had created, due to what he had just recently learned.

What if I still have a mother?

What if I still have a father?

What if my parents are looking for me?

What if my brother's just as lost as I am?

What if he doesn't know anything at all, just I was?

What if all of them are together?

What if they're not looking for me?

What if Kimblee caused them to stop looking?

What if he told them a lie, like I didn't want to see them?

What if this just a huge scheme created by Kimblee to destroy my life…?

Ed ran his hands over his tired face. He really should have slept. He was exhausted and the adrenaline from before was now beginning to wear off. Edward stifled the yawn that attempted to break free of his mouth and pulled out the, now extremely crumpled, piece of paper and scanned over it again, as if hoping there was a new bit of information he had missed the other times that he had read it over the past few hours.

Name…Alphonse Elric... He must have been the kid in my dream.

Edward quickly tried to remember the dream but when he found it impossible to remember any details he returned to the paper and re-read more.

Date of Birth…July 8th 1994…he's a year younger than me.

Ed moved his eyes across the other useless information until he reached the end of the page. Just like the other times before, anticipation grew in the pit of his stomach as he read and then was completely eradicated from him when he reached the last line

Current Location: -------------Unknown

Ed could tell the document had been tampered with, or at the very least, the information had changed but no one felt like making the change look formal. The original location was scribbled through to the point of no recognition and next to it in thin handwriting that was oddly familar was the word, unknown.

Ed re-folded the paper and placed it back into his hoodie pocket. Once he had made sure the paper was safely tucked inside, Ed closed his eyes and leaned back until the back of his head hit the wall with a soft 'thump'. He let out a sigh in an attempt to calm his buzzing mind.

His life had been fine, crazy when it came to his home life but fine all the same; he had a pretty good understanding of what was going on. But now…now he had no idea as to what to do. Should he try to find where his brother is? Or should he try to find out who had sent out the investigation out on him? Should he tell the others or go running blindly on his own? How would he get to wherever it was that his brother lived if they decided to go?

"Damn it…" Ed muttered as he ran his hands through his loose hair.

Ed turned, looked out of his bedroom window, and remembered that it was here, in this very room, where his life had changed for the better for once. Looking back on it, it seemed so long ago but at the same time, it felt like last week. Ed let himself fall onto his bed in exhaustion and allowed his mind to wonder back to the fateful day…


(1)"So what do you think of Mister Kimblee Edward?" asked his overly chipper nurse as she wheeled him into his new room.

Ed didn't respond, but this didn't bother his nurse one bit; he would go through days at a time when he wouldn't say a single word.

"Let's open up some curtains! It's so dark in here."

Ed let the women do as she pleased until she was done and gone. He had learned that it was just easier to let her be.

"So Edward, do you think you'll want to go to school? I hear they have a great school system here. But of course I'll understand if you don't think you're ready."

Ed stared out of the window for a moment as the young nurse chatted on and on to no one in particular. He closed his eyes, so he could block out the offending sun light, before letting his head drop, causing his chin hit his small chest.

"Edward."

His nurse kneeled in front of him and when Ed didn't make any note of her, she moved her hand to his chin and forced his eyes to look into hers.

Ed stared at his young nurse for a moment. She had obviously dyed her hair because no one on this earth was born with hair that candy-apple red. Even though her large green eyes always held concern for him, Ed never truly believed she gave damn about him.

I'm just a pay check to her. Nothing else.

"Edward."

"Geneva." Ed muttered as his eyes were forced to look into hers.

"Edward…you know that I'm not just your Nurse or your counselor. I'm your friend."

"And a shrink." Ed added quietly.

"Yes, yes. I am a shrink. But that's not all I am! I'm also a very dedicated person." She added with a overly sugar-sweet smile.

"Well aren't you just special." Ed said, his voice dripping in sarcasm.

"Why yes I am very special!" Geneva said, clearly not detecting the sarcasm in Ed's voice. "And do you know why I'm a special person?"

"Because as you started college at the age of 16, you decided to jam a bunch of high-paying jobs together so that you could 'save the world and all of its misfortunate youths' but now you're so busy drowning in student loans that you can only find time to save the world 'one kid at a time' before you go home to your lonely apartment and talk to your cat until you fall asleep while watching Wheel of Fortune? …Did I hit the nail a bit too close to the head on that one?" Ed added in a quieter tone when her smile began to falter.

"You're…you're a very good thinker Edward. I'm sure once you start school you'll blow all of your teachers out of the water with your…with your intelligence and sense of humor."

"Uh huh. How about for once you stop shooting sunshine and lollipops out of every orifice and smack me over the head like you really want to."

"Edward, I would never want to hit you! Even though sometimes I think you might need it. But no, that's not the way I handle things. But back to my original point. I'm a special person because I get to wake up every morning and help people get back on their feet! And-."

"Don't you mean foot?" Ed interjected as he wiggled his only right foot.

"Oh! Oh I'm, I'm sorry! I d-didn't mean-!"

Ed rolled his eyes at his near hysteric nurse/counselor/shrink and let out an audible sigh. She really could not realize when someone was joking. It was almost sad.

"Geneva. Relax. I was joking."

"Oh! Um, yes. Joking. Ha, ha…ha, ha." Geneva said while her face began to tinge pink with embarrassment. "But, uh, remember that if you ever have any problems with anything, you can come to me. Because I-."

"Yeah, yeah. You're a very special person. I get it. You don't need to go preachin' to me. Just wheel me over to my damn bed and let me sleep."

"Fine. Let me just help you with your things." Geneva said as she got up from the floor.

I guess this could be a lot worse…I mean I don't have to share my room with some snot nosed little brat. I get my own room. And that Kimblee guy said that there's only one other boy here who's not that much younger than me.

Ed's eyes traveled around his room. He had a bed, (really it was just a mattress with some bedding but he wasn't ging to complain since it was easier for him), a night stand with a lamp on it, and a dresser that Geneva was currently stuffing clothes into. As Ed looked around his room, he suddenly felt eyes on him. He looked to Geneva but saw that her back was still turned to him. He then looked to the door way but Mr. Kimblee wasn't there. Ed then turned to the window and felt his stomach drop.

Staring at him from the next house over was the prettiest girl Ed had ever seen. She had long blond hair held back into a pony-tail and big blue eyes that looked at him with interest. The girl gave him a small, shy smile before waving to him. Ed, having never talked to a girl like her before, let his head drop so that his face, that was now quickly becoming a color similar to Geneva's dye job, would be mostly hidden from her. After a moment, Ed peaked up from the corner of his eye and, to his disappointment but at the same time slight relief, saw that the girl had left the window.

"So do you think that you'll like it here?" Geneva asked, her big green eyes shinning like emeralds.

"… I think I might." Ed muttered as he stared at the now empty window.


(1) So if you didn't realize, this is a flashback. There will be a lot of them later on.

hmm...what do you think's going to happen?

Please review a lot for me! :)

-FSK