Ed had been a bit suspicious of him from the start. To be fair, he was suspicious of everyone at first. Tucker just never managed to turn off his internal "you don't know this person" alarm. He had no idea why, the man just seemed a bit too cold to him, or something. The talk about equivalent exchange over tea reminded him of the Freezer, and not in a good way. It's not that the logic itself was bad, it's just that in Ed's experience, people with that kind of logic often applied it where it didn't work. Apply that to a chimera that was so frigging miserable that it killed itself (Alphonse… miserable… no, no, cut off that thought, this way lies madness), and you come up with…

Well, Ed wasn't completely sure what was wrong exactly. He had a vague idea (It made him sick already), but he needed more data, and he needed it fast.

There was only one way to find out what Tucker was doing behind closed doors without listening at the door or hiding in a closed for the whole night.

"Ed? Do you still think there's something wrong with Mr. Tucker?" A quiet voice asked. They were in their dorm room and the door was closed tight, and in the early hours of the morning there was no real danger of being overheard.

"Yea. I hate to do this... But I need you to spy on him for me. I'll have to... "forget" you in his lab tonight. Will you be ok?"

"Of course, brother. He won't even notice me, don't worry. Even if he does, I'm just a toy, remember? Just put me somewhere high up, so Alexander can't chew on me."

The call came early in the morning. Roy was a bit distracted by the shitstorm investigation of the state alchemist murders, so it took him a few seconds to pick up.

The last thing he expected to hear was Ed's voice, shouting hysterically, "Tucker is going to use his daughter!"

"…What?"

"The chimera! Coronel, he used his wife two years ago, and now he's going to use Nina! You gotta stop him, right now!"

Roy's eyes widened. Not only was this the longest he's heard Edward speak in one go in a while, what he was saying… He shouldn't believe him so easily, with no proof… But it sounded terribly, disgustingly like the truth. From what he knew about Tucker, aside from his talking chimera phenomenon, he was a nobody in the alchemical community. He never made any other important discoveries, and most of the research he did was never published. Roy paled.

"How did you find out, Fullmetal? Are you sure? I need proof, I can't just arrest him because you said so."

"I'm fucking positive, alright? I snuck into his house last night. He was talking to himself, the crazy fuck. Also, the circle he's working on, it has elements of… you know frigging what! Just get your ass here fast! I'm at a phone booth outside, I'm gonna go pretend to study again, watch over Nina. "

"Wait, are you sure you'll be alright there? Maybe you should wait for MP's…"

"No! Are you nuts? I can't leave Nina alone with him now! And what's he gonna do to me, throw chalk at my head? He's not a fighter."

That was fair. Roy had to admit that no matter his age or physical strength, Tucker was no Fullmetal.

"Alright, do it. Just try not to give yourself away, don't make him suspicious, we don't want him to destroy his notes, they'll be the main evidence. Do you know for sure you weren't seen snooping?"

"Yea, no, I wasn't, he was asleep, and I know what I'm doing."

"Then go."

Roy wanted to add, "Be careful anyway!" but Edward had hung up on him already.

When Riza pulled up to the Tucker residence, Edward was sitting on the grass outside, Nina in his lap. He was seemingly trying to teach her a clapping game, and she was giggling as she tried to keep pace. When he saw her opening the front gate, his shoulders dropped down in obvious relief.

"Hi Ed, hi Nina! Nina, love, do you remember me? I'm Riza Hawkeye."

Nina hid behind Edward's leg, hugging it, and Riza's eyes stung just a bit. Edward's hand came down to rest upon the little girl's hair, gentle and calming. She's never seen him show physical affection to anyone before. She was starting to wonder, but… Maybe there was still some hope for Edward's heart, after all. She should have known the boy had it in him.

The military police arrived just a few minutes later, and Tucker was led out in cuffs. Nina was already in Riza's car, sharing the backseat with Edward, sufficiently distracted for the time being. Good. She didn't need to watch her dad be roughly pushed into a police vehicle by the officers. They'll have to sit her down for a talk later, and find out if she has any living relatives… What a mess. Riza shuddered at the thought of that little girl in the middle of transmutation circle, hugging her dog and smiling as her father prepares to destroy her life forever.

Edward Elric was a paranoid little shit, but just this once, Riza was thankful for that.

Reading Edward analysis of the transmutation circle from Tucker's confiscated notes, for the first time, Roy felt grateful that human transmutation was easy as breathing for him. Maybe saving Nina will let Edward start on the road to forgiving himself.

The boy was sitting in the chair in front of his desk, his legs crossed, staring out the window. Roy's eye fell upon the plush toy, whose head was visible from Ed's usual backpack.

'He'd be proud of you, you know,' He wanted to say. 'He wouldn't want you to keep punishing yourself like this. Don't you see that you deserve to be saved too?'

He tells the boy to go and rest, instead. Maybe, one day, Edward will be ready to hear it.