When Breda rang his doorbell just before noon, Havoc had long noticed that he would not be able to repeat his achievement of the previous day anytime soon. Even walking with his crutches proved painful and straining, so when he opened the door sitting in his wheelchair, he was in a foul mood.
"Want to come and wave the General and Hawkeye goodbye?"
He grumbled. "And how would I get to the train station?"
Breda shrugged and pointed with his thumb over his shoulder. "Armstrong let me lend his car, I figured that you wouldn't be able to walk all the way after last night."
With a huff, Havoc wheeled himself back into the hallway and grasped his keys from the table. "Seems like you won't let me escape. At least take my crutches, will you."
A wide smile adorned Breda's face as he helped him close the door. "Of course. Come on! I'll throw them on the back seat, then the chair can go in the trunk."
On the way to the station, Breda was uncommonly silent. Havoc drummed his fingers on the inside of the car door in an erratic rhythm. When even that did not provoke a reaction, his patience ran out. "What is it Heymans? Something bothering you? I thought you wanted company, but you haven't said a word since we left."
His friend sighed, "Sorry. I was just thinking about last night. The General wasn't home when we passed by his house, and now Hawkeye is even more worried."
So he had been right, he had had a different destination than his house. "Did you find out where he did go then?"
Breda pulled a sour face while he turned onto the square of Central's rail station. "Come on, where does Mustang go on a nightly excursion if not to Madam Christmas' bar?"
"Ah." Havoc stared out of the window. He could see Hawkeye's slender figure standing in front of the railway entrance. Perfect posture in her perfectly ironed uniform as always, but no sign of the General yet. He saw a parking spot, but Breda, worked up as he was, just drove by and had to stop abruptly to let a pedestrian cross the street.
"Yes, 'Ah'. You see why Hawkeye is worried? He hasn't done that for months. Not since he got his sight back."
Havoc pointed one row ahead. "There's a free space over there." He paused a moment, then continued. "I don't see why you would worry about something so trivial though. The boss has a right to visit his friend's grave whenever he wants."
"Perhaps." There was a silence while they parked the car and Breda sighed again while he turned off the contact. At the same time, a military car stopped in front of the station's entrance, and from Hawkeye's impeccable salute, he guessed that the Brigadier General had arrived with the soldiers that would accompany them East. Now that Mustang was promoted, those two would not be allowed to travel alone anymore. An escort would be unavoidable.
It irked him that it wasn't him that led the General's bodyguard. The others had scattered across the continent, Fuery South and Falman North, and Heymans even out of the military entirely, but he somehow believed, no, he knew, that if he had still been there to lead their field ops, he would have managed to bring them back and keep them together. It was his fault that the boss now had to travel with a bunch of half-baked soldiers fresh from military school, rather than his own trusted team. If he only had been a little more alert during that attack, if he had not been taken so unaware by her claws through his spine, none of them would be in this messed-up situation.
"Get my crutches, I'm not going to face them in my wheelchair." He glared at Breda, who obviously wanted to say something about how unwise that would be, but who also closed his mouth as soon as he saw just how angry he was.
He hobbled towards his friends, Breda hoovering close behind him like a mother hen. Really, he appreciated his friend's concern and his way of driving him forward during this painful revalidation, but sometimes he wished he could just be treated like an equal again. They had known each other since military school and both retired as second lieutenants, there was no reason why…
BANG
He had barely arrived on the sidewalk, but the loud sound made him drop his crutches and shove Breda down to the ground in an instant. He ignored the excruciating pain in his legs as he landed on his knees, but made sure he pushed Breda behind his back. Damn, if he only would have had his gun. Those young soldiers that were standing around the General didn't even move! Had they lost their minds?
bang
It sounded softer now. Looking around, he found that Mustang was in a similar position as him. The boss was sitting on one knee, his one hand ready to snap, his other holding Hawkeye firmly down to the ground while he scanned the environment.
Their eyes met.
Realisation dawned for both of them in that same instant.
They had been startled by the exhaust of a faulty car.
The soldiers were hurrying towards the General, obviously concerned. Havoc took a deep breath and turned back to Breda who was lying on his back beside him.
"I… I'm sorry, Heymans. It's just…" He was too ashamed to say what he really meant to. How often as cadets had they laughed with soldiers who had returned from the war and had reacted just like this? He wasn't laughing anymore, that was for sure.
Breda was already getting up, and offered his hand to help him stand too. "Don't mention it. I get it, we all get jittery sometimes. Seems like Hawkeye is telling the General the same thing.
True enough the boss was briefly apologising to Hawkeye who dismissed his excuses with a move of her hand. It struck Havoc that while this senseless reaction to something so trite was a first for him, it might be different for those two. Mustang had not earned his title of 'hero of Ishval' sitting by a desk, and Hawkeye had not always been the adjutant to a high-ranking officer. He knew that, they all did, but rarely did they think about what that truly meant. What their past really had been like.
He took his crutches from Heymans and made his way towards his friends.
"Sorry about that, sir. I should have noticed it was a car. Shouldn't have given you the wrong impression." He didn't even bother to greet them first.
Mustang shrugged and smiled, "Not the first time this happened to me. Won't be the last either. No harm done." Despite his casual words, Havoc could see how furious the boss was with himself. Within moments the anger was gone from Mustang's eyes, and his expression was composed again, but Jean had seen what he had seen. There was no one as judging about the actions of General Mustang as the General himself. It was why the boss learned so quickly from his mistakes, it was what drove him ever forward. Sometimes Havoc felt that Mustang just used Hawkeye to yell at him for things he already felt bad about in the first place.
"Jean?" It was Hawkeye in her soft but decisive voice, and he turned around to face her.
"Really, I'm fine Lieutenant."
She looked over his shoulder, and he just knew she had shared a look with the boss. "Talk about this to someone while we are gone, will you? You've been through a lot lately and sometimes it takes a little help to leave these things behind you. This thing that just happened…" She hesitated a moment before she continued, "it gets so much harder when you wait too long."
He resisted the urge to start laughing out loud. Just see who's talking, he wanted to say, as if he needed the help more than they did. But then he saw the sadness in her face when she stared once again over his shoulder, and he understood.
