Disclaimer- I don't own FMA

Chapter 25

Long Awaited Meetings

It wasn't much, but it was enough to make Kate extremely agitated. Trying to remain completely calm and act as if nothing had happened when she had touched Winry proved to be much more difficult than she would have thought. Dinner was hard to get through especially since Roy somehow became the main topic of the conversation and it was him that she was most upset with.

"State Alchemists," she mumbled to herself in the darkness of her own room after everyone had retired for the night and the house was dark and quiet. "No wonder he didn't want me to know anything. That damn idiot had my brothers become State dogs so he would look good. I'm going to kill him."

Unable to sleep and growing more irritated with every passing second, Kate flung the sheets off of herself and slowly rose from her bed, wincing at the stiffness in her leg. Getting dressed quickly, she packed a small shoulder bag and slipped out of her room and then the house.

"Have you called your sister lately," Roy inquired of the two boys sitting in front of him.

Ed shook his head. "No, not in about two weeks. To be honest, I sort of lost track of time going through Mr. Tucker's research." Smiling bashfully, Ed chuckled and rubbed at the back of his head. "We'll give her a call later on today. It's still kind of early, I don't want to wake her up. She needs her rest, right, Al."

The suit of armor that served as Al's body nodded in agreement. "Yeah."

"Well, what's your plan for today? Going back to Mr. Tucker's?" Roy asked boredly, turning in his chair to stare out the window behind him.

"That was the plan," Ed replied.

It was a dull, dreary day. The clouds were gray and heavy and a chill wind was starting to whip its way through the streets of East City.

"It's going to rain," Roy mumbled to himself before spinning himself back around. "Don't get in any trouble."

Face pulling into a scowl, Ed glared at Roy. "It's not like we go looking for trouble, you know?"

Raising an eyebrow to imply that he didn't quite buy Ed's words, Roy nodded. "Right," he drawled. "So the reason why you're so well known is because you're a perfect angel, right?"

Scowl deepening, Ed stood up. "I don't want to hear that I'm a troublemaker from a perverted old man."

"Hey, I'm not that old," Roy protested.

Scoffing, Ed turned to stalk from the room. "At least you didn't deny that you're a pervert, stupid Colonel," he mumbled to himself.

Shaking his head at his stubborn older brother, Al followed him out of the room, waving goodbye to Roy on the way. Walking alongside his brooding brother who was muttering under his breath as they walked, Al couldn't help but to laugh to himself. It was nice to see Ed acting like himself again. The first few weeks after Kate's reappearance had been hard, for the both of them, and neither had really acted normally. Now though, they both knew that Kate was okay and they both believed that their beloved sister would forgive them when the time came for them to confess their sins to her.

Shivering despite the red flush to her cheeks and the feverish warmth that was heating her body and making her sweat, Kate leaned into the brick wall of a building a few blocks from the train station. She didn't know why she hadn't just gotten a taxi to take her to the military offices where she knew she'd be able to find Roy, but she hadn't. Now she was stuck walking a much greater distance than she was used to with her prosthetic leg and her body wasn't handling the stress of it well.

She was breathing as if she had run a marathon, her breaths tumbling from her lips in quick gasps while her chest rose and fell. Her teeth were clenched and her eyes narrowed slightly in pain. She hadn't realized it yet, but she was unconsciously grasping at her right leg just above the metal joint that connected her fake limb to the real one.

Sweat was dripping in small beads down her forehead, occasionally blurring her vision and forcing Kate to wipe the dampness away with the sleeve of her sweater. Needing a break to rest, she caught sight of a bench just a few yards ahead of her and limping her way to it, she plopped herself down with a tired sigh. Head falling into her chest, she let her golden orbs shut as she clutched at her right leg and let the pain fade and her breathing return to something that resembled normal.

The more normal her breathing became, the more pronounced the burn in her lungs and the itch in her chest and throat became. Swallowing in an effort to stop the coughing fit that she knew was threatening to break from her lips and weaken her further, Kate took a deep breath and stood back up, repositioning her bag over her shoulder she began to walk slowly the remainder of the way to the East City military headquarters.

Her limp was hard to ignore and it was harder to ignore the fact that with every step that she took her right leg became heavier and heavier until she began to feel as if it were made of stone. She knew that it was stupid of her to have left without a word to Pinako or Winry, but she also knew that she wasn't going to get straight answers out of them regardless of how hard she tried. She also figured that Winry would keep far away from her to avoid any other incidents of coming into direct contact with her. So instead of wasting more time, Kate decided that it was best to go to the source of the memory she had seen. Roy.

He had come to visit Ed and Al with Riza. Winry had focused mainly on Roy who had been speaking to her brothers about becoming State Alchemists, after that the young girl had sat down with Riza in the hall. The rest was fairly blurry, but Kate had seen enough to be able to figure out on her own that Roy had recruited her brothers. The realization had irritated her to no end. He was supposed to have looked after them, not have them become dogs of the military so that he could look good.

There had been no way she could ignore the small bit of memory that she had seen when she had touched Winry and she had no intention of being placated by Pinako and given excuses by Roy over the phone. She would find out the truth and when she finally stepped up to the large building that served as East H.Q, she let out a long breath and began the climb up the steps to the entrance.

Most of his team, Havoc, Falman, Breda and Fuery walked in the door moments after Ed and Al had left. They all had cups of steaming hot coffee in their hands and Fuery even had what looked like an egg sandwich on a plate in his other hand. They all took their seats at the desks that were set up in rows in front of Roy's and began to sip their coffee and flip through the days paper to see what was in store for them.

"We ran in to Ed and Al in the hall. They going to do some more research over Tucker's," Havoc asked, glancing over at Roy who looked unusually sullen today.

"Yeah," Roy answered blankly.

"Something wrong, Colonel, you seem out of it," Breda observed.

"He's just mad that I won't let him go and get his own coffee so he can disappear and spend the morning sleeping in one of the cars again," Riza spoke upon entering the room with two mugs of steaming hot coffee.

"I wasn't going to disappear," Roy grumbled childishly. "I was simply going to go and inspect the storehouses. That's it."

"Of course it is. Maybe you should get to work so you're not here all night. Again," Riza replied stonily, setting his coffee down on his desk and staring at him challengingly until he sighed began to rummage through the piles of paper and folders on his desk.

It was only about ten minutes after Roy had begun to trudge his way through his work that a commotion in the hall caught the attention of everyone in the office. He was about to stand up to see what was going on for himself, but Riza stood first.

"Keep working, I'm not going to chase you through H.Q again today. I'll see what's going on and handle it," Riza told Roy, giving him a warning glance that told him not to argue.

"But I'm the superior officer," he protested.

"If it's something that needs to be brought to your attention, then I'll bring it to your attention, Colonel," Riza said, making her way to the door.

She had just reached the door when the sound of uneven footsteps making their way hurriedly down the hall, followed by shouts and protests, caught everyone's attention as they neared the door. Reacting on instinct, Hawkeye's hand reached for her gun and everyone in the room stood, prepared to take action should it be necessary.

When a red faced, chestnut haired girl stumbled through the open door panting for breath and her golden eyes narrowed in what looked more like anger than anything else at the moment, everyone gasped.

"Kate?" Roy questioned in disbelief stepping from around his desk to hurry towards the girl that was obviously having a very hard time standing up.

"Bastard," she hissed through her clenched teeth while wiping at the sweat that was rolling off her forehead with her now soaking wet sleeve that had mopped up as much dampness as it could.

"Ka-" Roy never got to finish asking what Kate meant, he was sent stumbling backwards when her small, gloved fist collided with his cheek.

Blinking in shock, Roy could only stare at Kate while her chest rose and fell rapidly and she gave him a glare that he knew meant she had learned something he had been trying to keep from her. Not knowing what, he wasn't sure how to proceed, but when a group of security officers and other military personnel flooded into his office with every intention of pouncing on Kate who likely couldn't do much to protect herself, he straightened.

"Stop," he commanded loudly, his authoritative voice carrying throughout the room.

"But sir, she-"

"I don't care what she did," Roy cut in seriously. "I can handle my employees on my own. Now get out."

Confused and uncertain, the group of men that had rushed after Kate exchanged glances and a few words of questioning over his statement that she was his employee before Hawkeye started to shoo them all from the office.

Once the group was gone, leaving Roy, Kate and his rather stunned team alone, Roy glanced over to Kate. She didn't look well to say the least. Her face was splotched with bright red patches, her hair was damp and sticking to her forehead, cheeks and neck from the sweat that was pouring off of her. Her thin shoulders were slumped forward slightly and heaving with every breath she took. She was also tightly grabbing at her right leg with her right hand and keeping as much weight off of the limb as possible.

Frowning, Roy stepped towards her again. He needed to figure out what she knew and then get her to calm down and rest. It had only been a few months since her surgery and moving around as much as she likely had wasn't good for her body.

"Kate," he began again, his hands out in front of him.

"Shut up, bastard," she seethed, swatting his hands away from her. "Where are they? Where are my brothers?"

"I don't know-"

"Bull," Kate yelled, the effort it took raise her voice causing her to cough into her left hand and squeeze her eyes shut while ignoring the burning in her lungs that was spreading throughout her entire body. When she pulled her hand away from her mouth, she noticed, but ignored the several, small specks of red that now adorned it. "Bull," she repeated with much less force. "Why wouldn't you know where two of your subordinates were? They work for you, right? As State Alchemists."

Roy's eyes widened. He had to step very carefully in order to see what it was that Kate knew. So far he knew that she believed both of her brothers were State Alchemists, it wasn't true, but he wasn't sure he should mention that.

"You," she hissed. "I asked you to look after them not to make them dogs that are bound to the military to do whatever the bloodthirsty Fuhrer decides is right for this country. How dare you! Using them to make yourself look good, to score yourself points! They're children!"

Roy sighed, but spoke up. "They're not children anymore, Kate. They're not the same as you remember them from three years ago."

Growling and bristling at the comeback that seemed to have little emotion, Kate narrowed her eyes further. "That may be so. I'm starting to learn that there are a lot of things that aren't how I remember them."

Lowering his head, Roy briefly closed his eyes. His words had been harsh, he knew that, and as much as he hated hurting Kate there was only so much he could do and say at the moment. "The choice to become a State Alchemist was Edward's. He made the choice on his own."

"And Al, what about him? Was the choice his or did he have no choice in the end," Kate asked.

"Al isn't a State Alchemist. It's not that he didn't chose to become one, he can't become one."

While Kate froze, her eyes widening in incomprehension, everyone else simply stared in tense silence between the arguing pair. No one else dared to speak, they were too afraid of saying something that would not only put her wrath on them, but that would give away more than she already knew. Something that they knew Roy would want to avoid until he knew exactly what was going on himself.

"What do you mean he can't become a State Alchemist? He's always been more detail oriented then Ed, even if he is more kind hearted than Ed, he's still skilled at alchemy," Kate said.

"It's not important, what is is-"

"Don't tell me what is important and what's not," Kate interrupted, her chest heaving and her small body rocking from side to side. "They're..They're.."

"Kate," Roy called, dashing forward to catch the small girl before she could slam into the floor. Her knees had given out on her and she began to cough and hack violently as he lowered them both to the floor and kept her in his arms.

"Kate," Roy questioned worriedly. Even through the layers of clothing they both wore he could feel the heat of her fever radiating from her body. "She's burning up. Kate?"

"I'm fine," she snapped through ragged breaths, pulling her hand away from her mouth when her coughing subsided only to see that it was covered in blood that was dripping from her fingers. Her eyes widening at the sight, a sudden sense of weightlessness and lightness made her clutch onto Roy in an effort to get the room to stop spinning wildly.

"Kate," Roy called out when the exhausted woman in his arms began to lose all her color and her head lulled back onto his arm when she fell into unconsciousness. "Kate."

Getting up from behind his desk that he had sat back down behind, Falman approached the couple on the floor and laid a hand on Kate's forehead. "She's running a high fever. We need to do something to lower it as quickly as possible."

"We can take her to my apartment, Hawkeye," Roy said, looking up at the blond woman.

With a nod, Hawkeye turned and made for the door. "I'll meet you at the back door, you won't have to carry her far that way."

Hesitating once Riza was gone, Roy held tightly onto the raggedly breathing and fevered woman in his arms. Once he had thought about his next decision, he sighed and glanced over to Havoc who lifted a brow questioningly.

"I have an idea of what you're thinking, but do you really think that's wise," Havoc asked.

Hanging his head and putting his cheek against Kate's sweat dampened hair, Roy sighed again. "Probably not, but we can't keep lying to her, she's bound to find out what's going on eventually and now that she knows we've been lying..."

"She's more likely to try and keep doing this on her own or forcing it out of us one way or another," Havoc finished.

Roy nodded. "It's best that she find out what happened to her brothers from their own mouths."

"You're the boss," Havoc said, standing lazily and making his own way out of the office.

Ed could only stare up at Havoc in disbelief. It took him a moment to finally snap himself out of his stupor and frown before looking over his shoulder at his brother who was playing with a small girl no more than five and a large, fluffy dog in the green covered yard of a large house.

"So Kate's here, in East City?" He asked, his eyes still on his brother.

"Yeah," Havoc answered, his cigarette bobbing in his mouth and the thin line of smoking trailing from it, curling in the air. "The Colonel is taking her to his apartment and wants me to take you two there. She's got a pretty high fever and is unconscious at the moment, but I think he wants you to be with her when she wakes up. He wants her to hear what happened from you since it's obvious she's not going to give up and will just keeping hurting herself until she finds out the truth."

Hanging his head, Ed nodded and clenched his fists at his sides. "We knew the time would come to face Kate eventually, but... Does it have to be at the perverted, bastard of a Colonel's apartment?"

Chuckling, Havoc shook his head. "There's a lot Kate doesn't know and there's a lot you don't either, kid. For now let's just focus on getting you and your brother to your sister, alright?"

Eying Havoc suspiciously, Ed was tempted to ask what it was that he didn't know about Kate and the perverted Colonel, but thinking better of it. He turned around and began to walk to where his brother and the small girl, Nina and her dog, Alexander, where all playing. Upon seeing the look on his brother's face, Al's laughter died and a silence engulfed the small group who all seemed to sense that it was better to not saying anything and wait for Ed to speak.

"We need to go for today, Al," Ed said quietly.

"Brother, what's wrong," Al inquired worriedly.

Having a hard time meeting his brother's eyes, Ed shifted his weight around for a moment. "It's Kate. She's in East City."

Roy sat in his living room, hands clasped and his chin resting atop his fingers while his dark eyes blankly stared at his coffee table. Riza was in his bathroom with Kate. After helping to get the girl into the bathroom, he had left her with Riza who was going to remove her sweat drenched clothes and shower her with cool water in an attempt to get her fever in check before dressing her in clean clothes and with Roy's help, get her into bed. Everyone else had stayed at the office to get as much work done as they could.

When Riza called for him to help her, he stood quickly and went to the bathroom to smile lightly at the sight of Kate engulfed in one of his white t-shirts and a pair of old black sweatpants that looked much too big for her. The brown haired girl was asleep against the wall and he bent down to lift her into his arms and carefully carrying her to his bedroom down the hall.

"Her fever is down. She just needs rest and lots of fluids when she wakes up, she's probably dehydrated. Will you be alright looking after her on your own," Riza asked.

Nodding, Roy sighed softly. "I'll be fine. I think it's best that there are as few people here when she wakes up as possible."

"You're probably right," Riza agreed, glancing at the unconscious woman in the bed briefly. "You know it's not going to be easy for her to accept what happened. She's going to be upset."

"She has every right to be upset after what she's been through and that's why I'm worried that she won't understand the reasons her brothers did what they did."

After a moment of silence, Riza nodded. "I'll be at the office if you need anything."

"Thank you for your help."

Smiling softly, Riza nodded again and then disappeared from Roy's apartment.

"Ah, Lieutenant Hawkeye, how's Kate," Havoc asked when he noticed the blond woman stepping out of their superior's apartment.

"She's still asleep," she answered, eyes wandering over the visibly distressed boys behind Havoc. "But she should be fine. We're to go back to the office."

Blinking, but understanding that it was probably for the best to leave the boys and Roy alone with Kate, Havoc shrugged. "Sure. You two gonna be okay," he asked Ed and Al.

"We'll be fine, thanks," Ed replied, walking past both Havoc and Hawkeye to stand in front of the door to Roy's apartment.

When he heard the door open, Roy left the bedside and made his way back to his living room to see Ed and Al standing by the door. Their heads were down and they looked scared, not that he could blame them.

"So you came," he said.

"Of course we came. I'm not about to leave my sister in the hands of a pervert after all," Ed replied, but his voice didn't hold the same teasing anger that it normally did.

"She's still asleep, if you two aren't ready then I suggest you leave and come back when you are," Roy said. His intention was not to be harsh, but to point out the reality of what was going to happen. If the two teenagers weren't ready to spill all of their secrets then it was best that they left until they were able to handle the fact that they had no idea what was going to happen once everything was told.

"It's not that we aren't ready," Al spoke up. "It's that we love Kate. We don't want to hurt her, but that's impossible. She's going to be hurt and she's going to be upset because of what we did. We know she deserves to the truth from us and we want to give her the truth, but we just don't want to hurt her when she's been through so much already."

"Kate means a lot to us. She's our only real family left and we've always know that she would be hurt and angry.... We want to be honest with her, but we're worried about what happens after that," Ed added.

"Like if she doesn't forgive you?" Roy asked.

The boys both lowered their hands again, Al's squeaking quietly as metal rubbed against metal.

Leaning into the back of his couch and folding his arms over the white button up that he wore beneath his jacket that had been removed since he was no longer required to be in uniform, Roy looked away from the boys and at a picture that sat on the desk was in the corner by a small window.

Noticing the way the silence had grown heavier, Ed looked up and followed the dark eyes of the Colonel. Al's did the same a moment later and it was him that would gasp when he realized that the picture was of Kate and Roy, when he looked down at his older brother he was surprised by the lack of animosity in the bright eyes that stared at the picture. Instead he wore a look that seemed to say he had expected something along these lines, his lips twitched into a frown and his hands clenched when he looked away from the smiling picture of Kate who had her arms wrapped affectionately around Roy's neck.

"I've been wondering what I'll do if she doesn't forgive me for everything I've done and kept from her. It's not something I like to think about. I don't want to lose her, but like you, I know that's a possibility. Your sister is special-"

"Why didn't you tell us," Ed cut in, his voice shaking with anger and bitterness.

"Big brother..."

Shrugging, Roy let out a long breath and ran a hand through his black hair. "It just didn't seem like something you needed to know."

"She's our sister! You were in love with our sister and you didn't think it was important to tell us that," Ed argued.

"I'm still in love with your sister," Roy replied.

Fist shaking at his sides, Ed glared at Roy. "Yet you're the one that gave up on her! You betrayed her and tried to forget about her because your guilt was too heavy to carry!"

"Ed, please," Al pleaded, laying a hollow metal hand on his brother's shaking shoulder. "I'm sure the Colonel had his reasons for not telling us about he and Kate."

"Yeah, like he's a coward. You don't deserve our sister and you know it."

Roy winced at Ed's words, but he didn't really have the strength to say anything back. To say that he was wrong because he was right and Roy knew it.

"Ed, I know you're upset, but please...Remember that Kate's asleep and she probably really needs her rest right now. Traveling all the way from Resembool on her own only a few months after her surgery couldn't have been easy on her."

"I know that, Al, but I'm not letting this go. Tell me why you didn't tell us about you and Kate? There has to be a reason, doesn't there," Ed inquired bitterly.

Al sighed beside his brother and hung his head slightly, knowing there was nothing he could say or do that would get him to stop.

For several moments, Roy remained silent before he finally tore his eyes from the picture of he and Kate and looked at Ed who resembled her so much. "It was because if I was going to help you at all I needed your trust. I made a promise to look after you two should anything happen to Kate, if I had told you the truth about us, would you have trusted me at all? If I had told you that we were involved and it was my failure to keep my promise to her that had caused her to disappear from your lives, would you have trusted me?"

Ed replied quickly, his words startling not only his brother, but Roy as well. "It wasn't your fault. We both know that and we've both always known you blame yourself, we could see it in your eyes. We may be young, but we're not stupid. You should have given us more credit than that," Ed said, looking up defiantly, angrily. "Just because you felt guilty and blamed yourself, doesn't mean that we did, or that even Kate did. If you knew Kate then you would have known that she would never blame you. She's not like that. Neither are we."

Able to only blink at the teenage boy in his living room, Roy was so caught up in his own awe that he didn't hear the door down the hall open or the quiet, uneven footsteps that were slowly making their way towards him.

Al was the first to notice the shadow that appeared from the hall and the first to see his tired, frail looking sister leaning into the wall for support as she entered the room, looking around at the three people in it with sleep heavy eyes.

"Kate?"

Hearing the name fall from his brother's lips, Ed's head snapped around to land on Kate, her face pale and her breathing shallow while she used the wall to support herself and to keep from falling over. He wanted to move to help her, but he was frozen to the spot and could only stare at her while she blinked from him to the suit of armor that she had yet to find out housed her youngest brother's soul.

~A/N~

Yet another cliff hanger.... Sorry...

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