OVER 100 reviews! :D I would have never believed that I would ever get so many... THANK YOU! :) You made me really, really, really happy! :) Here is the next chapter, things are finally starting to clear up! :)
Riza woke up. She felt warm sun on her face and the soft blankets around her. Her body felt heavy against the mattress. She felt pain, but somehow it felt good. It meant that she was alive; she had survived. Riza opened her eyes slowly and was blinded for a second by the bright sunlight. She smiled. It felt good to be alive. It felt good to feel some warmness and see some light after what had felt like a long cold night.
When she finally saw something, she realized she was in a small room. The walls were plain white and all seemed somehow too clean. She had to be in a hospital, it would made sense. But how had she ended up there? She didn't remember much. Her mind had been confused by pain and fever, all she remembered were flashes; she had been held captive for so many days, she had been shot and had her tattoo seen. But then she remembered Roy's voice. Roy's hands around her, his voice begging her to hang in there for a little longer. Once again he had saved her life. If she wasn't careful, he might get even with her.
Then Riza noticed that Roy was there, asleep in an armchair next to her bed. He had dark circles under his eyes and even though he was asleep, he looked worried. Riza couldn't help but wonder how long he had been there. Knowing him, probably the whole time she had been sleeping. Riza smiled. She hadn't believed that she would ever see him again. But there he was, next to her and all their dreams were possible once more.
Roy shivered and opened his eyes. It was like he had known that she had woken up. Roy met her eyes and smiled. Riza returned his smile; they had all the reason to smile. They were alive. They had each other. "Time for you to wake up, General!" Riza said teasing Roy. He answered her teasing with a wide grin. "I have waited for my Lieutenant to wake up for three days and you dare to tease me for closing my eyes for a second!" Roy said acting like he was offended. But the words he had said ruined Riza's good mood.
"Three days? Have I really slept that long?" Riza asked, more serious. Roy's grin disappeared too. "Yes. But you had a high fever and that gunshot wound and that broken leg of yours really needed some time to heal. You look a lot better now," Roy said and took her hand into his. Riza's heart skipped a beat with that touch. Roy really was there and his skin felt smooth against hers. Riza collected herself and nodded to answer. She did feel better.
"I can't say same about you. You look like you haven't slept in a while," Riza said worried. She knew already that she was the reason that had kept him awake. "Don't worry about me. I will sleep better now that I know that you're better. You had me worried for a moment, Lieutenant!" Roy said, trying to keep a light tone in his voice. But Riza saw fear in his eyes and knew that she had been close to death.
"How did you know I was alive?" Riza asked. Her head was quite a mess and she needed to have some clearness. She wanted to keep the conversation away from the fact that she had almost died. "A train accident. I knew something like that wouldn't kill my loyal subordinate. Black Hayate helped us to find the first clue. He smelled your scent from outside the train and after, we found out that the letter you gotten from Winry and Ed wasn't really from them. We were sure someone had planned your kidnap," Roy explained with a little smile.
"So they had planned it from the start. I should have called Ed and Winry before I left. Maybe none of this wouldn't have happened if I had. I caused you so much trouble. I heard they even tried to kill you," Riza said, her eyes looking at Roy and apologizing. "You couldn't have known. They had planned all well. And don't worry about the murder attempt; it was quite badly planned. They must have acted in the spur of moment and it helped us to find you when we saw the linkage between your kidnappers and the mine," Roy said and squeezed Riza's hand. He wanted to make sure she didn't blame herself for all of this.
There was a moment of silence as Riza thought about Roy's words. Roy took the chance and asked a question that had been on his mind in the passing days: "I have a one question for you too. How did you get all those wounds? It didn't really look like they wanted to kill you." Roy didn't understand why the men had shot her in her shoulder and then healed it. It made no sense.
It was Riza's time to smile. "Do you really think I wouldn't put up a fight against what they were trying to do to me? I attempted to flee and almost got out of there, but the bullet stopped me and after they caught me, they made sure that I wasn't going to do that again." Roy grinned. Of course she had tried to do something like that. It maybe hadn't been wise, but it was so much like Riza.
"Why aren't you at work? You should be taking care of the country. You're going to be Fuhrer soon!" Riza said trying to change the subject to something lighter. Roy smiled. Work, of course she always thought of that. "I'm having a little free time to make sure my Lieutenant is going to be fine. The Fuhrer himself wanted me to take care of you!" Roy said. The Fuhrer had called him a couple of days earlier. He had also asked Riza and Roy to visit him when they would get back to Central. It seemed still a little odd that he had made such a request, but Roy didn't really care. He was just happy he hadn't made him come back just yet.
"That sounds like the Fuhrer. But still, you shouldn't waste your time here," Riza said, and yawned. She was still feeling a little tired. "You're not a waste of time. You shouldn't worry about anything, just focus on getting better. I will be right here," Roy said smiling. Riza smiled back and closed her yes.
Riza didn't want to stay in bed for long. Just a day after she had woken up, she insisted to go out. She was tired of being inside. After a while, Doctor Curley cave in and gave her crutches to walk with. She made short walks with Roy and Hayate, but mostly she and Roy were sitting outside watching how Hayate ran around. Riza's strength didn't allow her to walk too much and the wound from the shot in her shoulder made using crutches a little more difficult than it usually was. It would be a long time before she would be totally healed.
They talked a lot about what had happened. Everything had started to click together. Campbell and his men had planned it all from the beginning: the letter and the accident. And when Riza told her side of the story, they found out that Bob had been the one Roy had caught outside the warehouse before the car had came. The silent guard Riza had hit while escaping was the same who had tried to kill Roy and who they had took as their prisoner. Mark had been the one found unconscious in the car.
And when it came to the alchemist who had drawn Riza's tattoo and tried to kill Mustang, it seemed he had been forced to do so. After he had woken up, he had told them that David had threatened that he would lose his job, and when that hadn't done the trick, he had threatened him with his family. Ed had told them that the man had looked quite unwilling when drawing the transmutation circle and it seemed to fit his story. But no matter how he had been forced to do so, it was still wrong and he needed to be convicted.
The hardest part for Roy was to tell Riza about the man he had burned. He was afraid that Riza might never forgive him for doing it. Riza listened carefully to every word Roy said. She didn't really approve of his actions, but it was too late to do anything about it. It had been done and nothing would change that. They had killed many people in missions; it was something that couldn't be avoided. And that man had tried to kill Mustang.
"I know that you would have shot me right on the spot if you had seen me. It was like Envy all over again," Roy said quietly. It was hard to confess to Riza that he still hadn't learned to control his emotions. "There's no point in thinking about that. It's over. I do wish he could have been judged but he was guilty. If somebody had told me the same things about you and threatened me, I might have shot a bullet to shut that person up. From your description, I can say that he was the man holding me down when they crushed my leg. He would have been in prison for a long time," Riza said, trying to comfort him. They didn't talk about it anymore after that.
Havoc had called Roy from Central and had let him know how things were developing. Havoc, Fuery, and Breda had headed to Central before Riza had even woken up. There was a lot of work to be done to make things clear. David and his men had been arrested. It seemed that there was no one else involved that they hadn't already caught. Most of the mine workers had no idea what had been going on behind closed doors. To Roy's relief it seemed that most of the people of Ishval doomed David's actions. For a moment he had been worried that all the work he had done was going to vain.
But even as Roy and Riza spoke of the things that had happened, they avoided certain things. Riza didn't want to describe the pain or the desperation, or tell him that she had given up her will to live. Roy didn't tell her about his desperate need to find her alive or his outbursts when he had found out about the accident or when he had seen her picture in the newspaper. He also didn't tell her about his nightmares, not even when he realized that the night he had seen Riza in the pool of blood and begging to let her die was the same night that she had been shot.
But even when those things were left unsaid, they both kind of knew. It was so visible in their small gestures and glances how close they had come to losing each other, how much they cared for each other. Those words were not needed to be said. They were both still alive and it was enough for both of them. Other things didn't really matter.
They both knew that they loved each other and soon all the words that had been left unsaid could finally be spoken. Roy was sure that soon they could finally be together. But Riza's mind was confused. She didn't know what she wanted anymore. She wanted to protect him. It had been a horrible feeling to let others look after him, knowing that one bullet could have been his end. What if there would be more enemies, what if somebody would try to kill him again? How could she give up her position knowing that? Roy sat next to her, smiling peacefully, but Riza's mind didn't leave her alone.
After Riza had woken up, Riza and Roy had moved to the Rockbell's house. Ed and Winry were happy to have Riza and Roy as their guests and the week seemed to fly by quickly. Winry and Riza had started to plan Ed's and Winry's wedding, which was planned to take place next summer, just four months from now. Ed didn't really care about the wedding preparations. He just stated that he wanted to marry Winry and continue their life together. So most of the time he played card games with Roy and they both did their best to avoid taking any part of wedding planning.
But after a week, Riza was finally well enough to travel and Roy and Riza had to go back to Central. Ed and Winry came to train station to say goodbye. As the train was about to leave, Roy pulled Ed away from Riza and Winry. Ed was little confused about this odd behavior as he and Roy still had hate-love relationship. Roy stared at the ground and it seemed that what he was going to say was hard for him.
"I never had time to really thank you. Without you Hawkeye might be dead," Roy muttered and slowly raised his eyes from the ground. Ed grinned, he hadn't expected this. It was rare that Roy admitted something like that and it was even rarer to see such gratitude in his often so cold eyes. "Hawkeye is important to me too. I didn't give it a second thought. Of course I saved her while I had a chance," Ed said, feeling awkward. He wasn't used to hear thank you from Roy.
"I know, but still. I owe you a lot. You saved my reason to live. So thank you," Roy said. At some other time Ed might have teased Roy for admitting how he felt, but lately Ed seemed to run out of things to annoy Roy with. Ed was just happy that Roy and Riza had finally started to show their feelings.
Ed nodded and offered his hand as he didn't know what to say. Roy took it and they shook hands. Then they returned to Winry and Riza. The train was about to leave. "Remember to come to the wedding!" Winry said as Roy helped Riza into the train and Hayate jumped in after them. "We wouldn't miss it for any prize!" Roy said smiling, and Riza nodded to agree. And with that they closed the door and started their way back to central.