Disclaimer: I own nothing

Thanks for being so patient. I was unable to post anything last week because of a 23 page essay. :( Many of you have requested that I make the chapters longer so I am going to try that out. :) This one is double the length of the usual chapters. Yay!! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this new installment!

Chapter 21

Edward squeezed his eyes shut as tightly as he could, silently hoping, to whatever entity may or may not have been out there, that whoever had just arrived would leave him the hell alone. Instead he heard the squeak of the chair as the stranger took the seat beside the bed. Edward wasn't surprised, he and god hadn't been on speaking terms in a long time, "So, finally getting some sleep?"

Edward growled audibly and sat up, ready to chew out the annoyance who refused to let him go to sleep, but the ruthless words died on his lips and he feel silent.

"Hey, don't look at me like that, I'm sorry I woke you," the man didn't look sorry and he made no move to leave. He was clad in a uniform, one Ed had only seen the police here wear, and smiling brightly. Ed finally remembered to breathe. Maes Hughes leaned forward and took off his glasses before beginning to rub at them with a cloth from his pocket.

"W-what are you doing here?" Ed sputtered.

Taking the question in the wrong context, Maes grinned, "The name's Maes Hughes, it's so dull out sitting out there, so I figured we could talk."

Ed was suddenly too overwhelmed to be tired, "M-my name's Edward. Edward Elric." If Hughes was dead there was a remote possibility that he had somehow been sent through the gate. Ed let out another slow breath, "Have we met before?"

Hughes shrugged, "Not that I recall, why?"

Ed couldn't completely mask his disappointment, "No reason."

They sat in what could only be described as awkward silence for a little over a minute, each studying the other with suspicious eyes. Finally, Maes spoke up again. "Did you do it?"

"Do what?" Ed snapped, suddenly irritated.

"Kill that little girl," Hughes leaned back in his chair, evaluating Ed with an intense scrutiny, Ed remembered him only using while he worked.

Ed sighed and closed his eyes, his voice was small and exhausted but his words were honest, "No, no, of course not."

All was silent again and remained so until Ed spoke, his words were carefully chosen from the millions running through his mind, "You're... a... father, aren't you, Mr Hughes?"

Edward opened his eyes and was greeted with a bright smile from Hughes, "Not yet, but I should be very soon." The volume of his voice and the speed at which the words shot out of his mouth increased with his excitement. "It's unbelievably exciting. I don't really know how the whole pregnancy thing works, but Ican'tbelieveI'mgoingtobeadaddy!" Maes shoved a picture of a woman into Edward's face. He couldn't help but smile, recognizing Gracia immediately, her stomach expanded with the new life inside it.

Ed took a breath, "Slow down, would you?" Ed's smile was faint but defiantly present, he'd missed this lunatic. He pushed the picture gently away from his nose. "What are you going to name her?"

"We haven't decided, yet," Hughes' grin never seemed to fade and Edward couldn't help but find himself smiling too. "Any ideas for me, Ed? You seem like a well travelled guy."

"I don't think you want a kid wanted for murder helping you name your child." Ed's lips lost hold of the smile.

"Come on, Ed." Hughes goaded him. "No ideas at all? Nothing that just pops into your head?"

Ed shook his head and Hughes stopped pressing him for ideas.

"What will you do once the charges are dropped?" Hughes asked.

Edward let his eyes close for a moment, "They probably won't be. I did not hurt Nina but I brought her bastard father to the brink of death." Ed laughed humourlessly. "I can imagine how it must look. They took me in off the streets, then the little girl is dead and Tucker's beaten within an inch of his life... I must look like a real jackass." he looked into Hughes' eyes, his golden gaze boring so deeply that Maes could not bring himself to look away, "I wish I'd killed him. I was just a few punches away and I couldn't bring myself to do it. I was too weak to kill him; I can only hope your military is not."

"I think you're confused kid; first off, you don't want to be going around saying you regret not killing someone. Not going to get you any sympathy votes in the courtroom. Second, we aren't military. We're police officers, not soldiers. There a minute difference." he was smiling but the smile wasn't as infectious as before. Ed remained stoic and quiet.

"Hey, you've had a hard couple of days. Do you need anything?" Hughes hand fell short of Ed's own hand on the bed, crossing some invisible boundary. Ed nodded, a very small movement but Hughes seemed to understand.

"Well, what then?"

"This may be overstepping my boundaries as a prisoner but could you uncuff me?"

"Sorry no can do, want to try again?" Hughes grinned, a smile Edward had missed.

The team sat in silence around their briefing table. Hotch's face looked as if it was chiselled from stone, not a single emotion crossed his hard features. Morgan's chin was buried in his hand, contemplating the severity of the situation, while Reid tapped his pointer finger absently against the wooden table. Rossi's eyes were glued to the window, his body still, his eyes looking but not seeing anything beyond the pane of glass. Finally it was Prentiss that broke the tense silence, "JJ might be looking into another case for us."

Morgan's head snapped up and when he spoke his voice was hard, unforgiving, "Why the heck would she be doing that?"

"Because the director would have ordered her to, all of us are getting too involved in this thing. I'm not saying this little girl doesn't deserve our attention, but you and Reid are too emotionally invested in the Elric boy. It might affect your judgement. If the director gives the direct order you are going to step back." Hotch recited calmly.

"Edward aside, that little girl was murdered," JJ said from the door. "I've requested that you be given some time to find the killer before you're pulled off the case. You've been allotted three days. I suggest you get too it."

Every face in the room was sober, disguising the emotion surging within. Reid and Morgan wanted desperately to go back to Edward, to make sure he wasn't being harassed by another officer who thought he was guilty. The others wanted nothing more than to put the murderer of a four year old girl behind bars. No one but Reid and Morgan particularly seemed to care if Edward was guilty or not. The image of that little girl on the floor was a little too much for their minds to wander elsewhere.

Garcia was next to appear in the doorway.

"Any luck with the name we gave you, babycakes?" Morgan piped up, temporarily forgetting all this trouble at the sight of his favourite computer technician.

She glanced down and shook her head, "No use. There are no Winry Rockbell's in any database I can gain access too."

Morgan ran his hand over his face and sighed heavily.

"So where do we go from here?" Reid asked softly.

"You are going to stay away from that boy for a while." Hotch said, his voice echoing a little harsher than he had intended. "Rossi and I are going to the hospital to see what we can get from Tucker; we'll stop in on Ed and interrogate him afterwards."

Reid nodded solemnly, Hotch was right, "What do you want us to do then?"

Hotch's mouth pressed into a firm line, and Rossi turned away from the window, "You are going back to the crime scene. Figure out what the hell was going on in that hellhole."

Reid and Morgan nodded in unison and moved quickly out the door.

Hotch and Rossi followed them shortly, bidding goodbye to the remaining members of the team. Once they were en route to the hospital Rossi spoke up, "Do you really think that kid would be stupid enough to kill that little girl?"

Hotch blinked slowly, his mind reeling with the possibilities, "I honestly don't know."

Rossi was quiet again, Hotch was so rarely at a loss for words, this case really must have been tough for him, after all he had a young child of his own.

"If you think about it, he had the opportunity to escape but instead he stayed with that family for a whole day. He spent time with them, they seemed to accept him. Why would he stay? Why wouldn't he kill them and leave, if that was his intention? The way he beat Tucker wasn't even close to the way the little girl was killed. That was rage, pure and total blood rage. How does one come to hate a man that much in only one day?"

Hotch shook his head, "I don't know. We need more information before we can come to any conclusions."

Rossi nodded, just once, his mind still listing off questions that he had no answers too.

When they arrived Tucker was asleep, but stable.

"It was a close call," the doctor said taking in a deep breath. "I haven't seen a beating like this in years. I'd hate to have to meet the man who did this."

"It was actually a sixteen year old boy," Rossi explained quickly. "When do you think Tucker'll be awake?"

The doctor's mouth opened and closed, making him look similar to a fish out of water, "Just a kid?"

"Yes." Hotch snapped, "When will Tucker be awake?"

"Oh yes, he'll be woken for another examination in about thirty minutes. If you want to wait, we can come and fetch you when we're finished."

"That won't be necessary, we have other business to attend to," Rossi said and they headed for Edward's room.

Edward had never been so happy to listen to Maes Hughes ramble before. He smiled as picture after picture was thrown into his lap.

"Oh, and she makes the very best apple pie. It's extraordinary! I'll have her make you some and the next time I'm off duty I'll bring it to you!" Hughes grinned again and flashed a picture of him and Gracia in a park eating pie. Edward vaguely wondered how the man carried around so many pictures, but he was happier than he had been in a long time. He'd forgotten how much he missed this big goof, he only wished that Al was there to see him too. Ed glanced at the clock; they'd spent almost two hours talking about trivial things and Gracia.

"You know, my brother and I helped deliver a baby once." The corners of Ed's mouth twitched slightly at the memory of the night Gracia gave birth. His birthday. That was defiantly a night he wouldn't soon forget. "I think it might be a little generous calling what we did helping though. There was a lot of screaming, most of it from us." His smiled grew. "It's an amazing thing, childbirth. A new life is brought into the world and that's an invaluable experience to witness. Really helps you appreciate your own life, you know. The sanctity of it all."

Maes ruffled Ed's hair gently, the fatherly contact caused conflicting emotions to rise to the surface of Ed's mind, but he refused to let his smile fade. "You're right. I knew you were a smart kid."

Ed couldn't help the pink that appeared on his cheeks with the praise, "Would you do me a favour, Mr. Hughes?"

"For the last time, it's Maes or Hughes. No mister." Hughes drew his head back. "What do you need?"

"Well, two actually... just make sure you're always around for that wife and kid of yours. Don't do go doing anything dangerous, or risking your life. And... Do you think... if I'm still around... could you show me a picture of your baby?" Ed looked down at his hands. "When she arrives, I mean."

Maes faltered slightly, this kid was being investigated for murdering a little girl... he quickly brushed the thought aside, he'd only spent a couple of hours with Ed and he felt like he'd known him for years. "Of course, Ed. I'm sure my baby will be the most beautiful you've ever seen. And you don't have to worry about me; I don't plan on dying anytime soon."

Ed let out a breath he didn't even realise he'd been holding. There was silence for a few seconds before a thought occurred to Hughes, "What do you mean, if you're still around? Where do you think you'll be going?"

Ed wasn't about to tell this man that he was planning to escape. This man looked like Brigadier General Hughes, he even talked like him and showered you in pictures of his family every chance he got, but he was not the man Edward had known in his own world. He couldn't tell him he was going to escape. There was another problem. If Edward could not escape... if he was convicted of killing Nina... "If they put me to death here... I won't be around to be looking at any pictures."

Hughes laughed, a booming laugh, and slapped Ed's back as if he'd just made the joke of the year, "This isn't Texas!"

Ed scowled and raised an eyebrow, the possibility didn't seem very funny to him. "I don't... follow."

Hughes wiped at his eyes, "We don't kill people here, kid. The worst you can expect is to spend the rest of your life in jail. And then... well at least you're still alive."

A sinister smile spread across Ed's face. Jail. He could escape from jail, easy-peasy. Things were suddenly looking up. "Oh."

"Well, I'm glad I could put that morbid thought to rest." Hughes patted Ed's head again.

A sharp rap came at the door and Ed frowned, he was, seriously, never going to get a nap.

The knocker did not wait for an answer before pushing the door open and entering the room.

"I was concerned that you'd abandoned your post," Rossi said to Hughes, a frown permanently etched into his features.

"I got bored," Hughes shrugged, obviously undeterred by Rossi's harsh tone. "Besides, Ed is very interesting conversation." He winked at Edward conspiratorially and moved towards the door.

"About that name..." Ed ventured, calling after Hughes.

The older man's hand paused on the door handle, "Yeah, what about it?"

"How about... Elysia?"

Hughes grinned once again, "I like it! I'll run it past the wife."

Then he was gone, and Ed felt oddly empty.

:D Please review! :) 3 If you like the longer chapters I'll try to keep it up. As always, ideas are more than welcome.