Chapter two

"So, what can I help you with?" The DCI asked pleasantly. "I would guess that those boxes are yours?" He pointed towards the cardboard boxes marked with 'RH'.

"Yes, sir."

Riza felt frankly ridiculous that she didn't help with carrying her own stuff, but she couldn't exactly ask her new boss to carry the plant that was as much of a behemoth as the man that had given it to her. Luggage was obviously preferable to orchid when dressed like he was. Riza was looking dishevelled enough to pull off carrying a giant plant.

Detective Chief Inspector Roy Mustang was not.

And so she only watched as he went back and forth, placing box after box on the trolley before rolling it with him over to Riza. Then he began walking alongside her, obviously very much a gentleman and very understanding of her situation as he smiled pleasantly at her. "Well, welcome to East City, Sergeant Hawkeye."

"Thank you, sir." She had to say that he was making her feel at ease and highly uncomfortable at the same time.

"So, you only took the Sergeant's exam a few weeks ago, correct?" he asked, actually succeeding in keeping a normal conversation with complete disregard of the giant orchid. It was a fairly impressive feat.

"Yes, sir."

"I saw you graduated with the highest marks though, so it seems that you are more than qualified."

"Thank you, sir, that is very kind of you to say so." She seriously hoped that he wouldn't base his opinion of her on this one conversation as it was highly compromised by the giant flower.

"And I also heard that you were recently separated?" He sounded a bit concerned, obviously caring about the personal life of his work partners. It was a very good approach to the matter, and it was putting her more at ease with her situation in relation to her new work partnership.

"Yes, sir. My ex-husband was cheating on me." Riza still felt awkward about it and slightly ashamed even though she saw it happen often enough during the course of her work. And, considering what had happened, even though they weren't divorced as of yet, Riza felt very much disinclined to keep referring to him as her 'husband' when he had made it very clear that he had no interest in him continuing to be so.

"Don't see why he would."

Riza looked over at the DCI curiously. Was he complementing her or hitting on her?

"Your records are impeccable and you clearly have your best years ahead of you. Why someone would drop all that I really can't say," he told her calmly and smoothly.

Nice save.

"It is very kind of you to say so, sir." She seriously wanted to make a good first impression, meaning showing a lot politeness and respect for her new boss.

"That's my car here," the DCI said with a nod towards one of the vehicles in the parking lot. "You just try to get that flower and manoeuvre yourselves inside the front seat while I unload the trolley. You can put the rucksack inside the back if you want."

"Thank you, sir." Riza was still trying to get a read on the man. He spoke so smoothly it was both intoxicating but also extremely annoying that he could take it so calmly when her insides were in complete turmoil.

He sat down inside the car once he was done putting the trolley back and extended his right hand to her. "Well, your hands were rather full earlier, now I can finally get to take a good look at you at least," he said with a small and slightly encouraging smile. It was almost impressive how he didn't make it patronising in any way.

And so Riza shook the proffered appendage, feeling awkward once again.

The DCI turned back towards the steering wheel and began moving to start the car. "So, I hear that you're taking in two boys as a foster parent?"

"Yes, sir." Her stomach clenched slightly in something akin to panic at the thought.

"What are their names?" Once again smooth and pleasant.

"Edward and Alphonse."

The man suddenly paused just as he was about to turn on the ignition. "Elric?" he asked, looking at her with a tiny hint of concern.

"Yes, sir. Did you hear about their case?" Riza asked interestedly. If he had met the boys and knew more about their personalities than what the incompetent Ms Wendy Bones had had to offer her, then that would certainly be of much help.

"You could say that. I was the one that stopped that kid from bleeding out after what his stepfather did to him," he said darkly, giving her a strong feeling that the crime scene was one of those that you don't forget easily. And he didn't appear to be exactly too fond of the idea of them needing to change foster homes so soon after what had happened to them either.

"Oh. There wasn't much about it in the file I was given by Social Services, I was going to look it up once I came into the office," she told him, trying to stay professional about the matter.

"I see... Well, it was only luck, really. I got a call over the radio and was only a few minutes away from the house. I arrived just in time to get that bastard away from them. He'd cut his stepson's arm clean off and was preparing to finish the job." He was frowning slightly, his voice a bit bitter, even if still calm.

"That's horrible." She felt her stomach clench. The Elrics obviously had every right to be traumatised.

The DCI sighed. "Yes, it is, Sergeant. I hope you take good care of those boys, they've been through hell and plenty of it."

Riza walked inside the new flat, putting down the giant flower in the middle of the area that was the not-quite living room. The description was because of the way it was connected to the kitchen without anything separating the two 'rooms'. Although she would refer to it as 'living room' to make life easier for herself.

She heard her boss walk inside the hallway from behind her, asking Riza where he should put the boxes.

"Over here would be perfect, sir."

She walked past him in the small hallway as she went outside to gather the rest of the boxes. They passed each other in silence as they went back and forth and up and down the staircase. When the DCI moved to leave once they were done, Riza immediately decided to stop him. "Would you like a coffee before you leave, sir? It's the least I can do after all your help today." She didn't want to start off at the wrong foot with her new boss after all, especially what with her highly... distinct state of dress compared with his immaculate one.

He nodded and gave her a little smile. And so Riza moved over to one of the boxes and fished out a couple of coat hangers. Then she took the coat from her superior as well as her own jacket and hung them up carefully in the wardrobe in the hallway. She then grabbed a couple of mugs from one of the boxes marked with 'Kitchen' and placed them at the kitchen table in front of him. And so Riza prepared the coffee machine as he sat down by the kitchen table. "Do you like it strong, sir?"

"Yes, thank you."

Riza sat herself down in front of him about fifteen seconds later, finding him once again to be looking at her pleasantly. The table was small, but would just about fit three people.

...This might just work.

She looked over at the gigantic plant once more and admitted defeat. "Sir? You wouldn't happen to know exactly where I am supposed to place that thing?"

"So I take it it was a gift?" His voice carried a bit of humour, obviously trying to put her at ease.

"Very much so."

"Well, I guess you could put it into that corner over there." He pointed towards a corner over by the window. "May I make a guess as to the gift-giver?"

"Of course, sir."

"Inspector Armstrong."

Riza sighed. "You would not be mistaken."

"Well, I'm not DCI for nothing."

She couldn't help the faint smile tugging at her lips. Riza had to admit, he was a handsome man, but she certainly wasn't up for that kind of thing right now. Her marriage to Will had showed just how much luck she had with men. She had been young, foolish and in love, only to be blinded by it to the extent that she hadn't seen what he had been up to before he had made a very obvious fool of her.

At the same time, it had been what had pushed her to finally take her Sergeant's exam so that she could move beyond Central and get away from him. Maybe it was all for the better in the end.

"You seem thoughtful, Sergeant. Is there something wrong?" Mustang asked her with his right eyebrow raised slightly, a bit of concern to his tone.

"No, sir, it's just that there's a lot that's going on right now and I'm afraid that I may have acted a bit rashly about taking the boys in. I should probably have waited until I was at least done unpacking." Sharing facts about her current life situation was more or less professional. Working as a team without knowing where their partner's head was at, wasn't a good idea.

"Or that might actually help, as it would let the boys decide where things would go, giving them a feeling of not just arriving at someone else's already established home." It seemed that just about everything he said was delivered in that smooth baritone of his.

Riza hadn't even thought about his suggestion before now, but she had to admit that he had made a good point. "I guess you're right, sir." She moved from the chair, now that she saw the coffee was done dripping, and poured the hot liquid into each of their mugs before putting the pot back. Riza moved to sit down before she remembered to ask something. "Do you take milk or sugar, sir?"

"No, plain black is my favourite."

Riza was very relieved. She had asked automatically without making sure that she actually had either object. Riza certainly hadn't brought milk, but she thought that she might have some sugar in a small tin in one of her many boxes. And so she sat down at the table where her boss was already gently sipping his coffee.

...Riza felt like she really needed a shower and little else when she looked at him.

Roy tried taking in the woman sitting in front of him. She was certainly a pretty one, even with the results of the limited washing options that had been available aboard the train between Central and East. He might get in trouble for that. He was faultily known as a womaniser and recruiting a young, recently promoted sergeant instead of one of the many other and more experienced applicants, some of which he knew personally, might make it seem like he was just chasing skirts and little else. He had purposely avoided any pictures of the applicants as they could both have been misleading and make one prejudiced just by not liking someone's face. But fact was, he had phoned Central after he had looked through her application, having been certain that there must be some sort of joke or a serious case of cheating when he had looked at her test scores from the Sergeant's exam. He had been proved wrong, however. Riza Hawkeye, despite only being twenty-two, had had a perfect score when it came to marksmanship, her understanding of the legal system had been just as well-formulated as what he had delivered himself on his application for the position as DCI, her way with words was obviously superb, her memory and sense of order were also impeccable, and her scores on the physical skills exams had been above average. All in all, it had seemed too good to be true, and still did. And so he had taken a chance and had convinced the superintendent to appoint her to the new position.

Well, if she was as good as they said, then Roy had found himself a perfect addition to his team, even with her currently dishevelled state and slight show of temporary scatterbrained-like behaviour. But that was only natural under the current circumstances. And it also served to give him a slight clue as to her personality when off duty.

And she obviously had a good heart, a very good one, agreeing to taking in the Elrics after what had happened to them.

He was just driving home when the call had come over the radio. A child had apparently been crying that 'Barry is going to kill Mom!' and had given the address to a house that Roy was definitely the closest officer to. Knowing that it was probably a prank call, Roy got out of the car at his regular pace, just as a high-pitched scream tore through the night from the inside of the house.

It had been the sound of a child in a lot of pain. In agony, in fact.

Roy ran forwards and kicked the door in, and the screams didn't seem to stop. The bloody, parted body of a brown-haired woman, barely recognisable from the way she had been butchered, was lying on the floor to his right, and a laughing man with a meat cleaver in his hand was advancing towards two young boys who were both screaming, one of them crouching down in front of and leaning over the other, a lot of blood pouring from where his right arm should still have been attached.

Roy didn't even think as he acted. He grabbed the man and slammed the hand with the meat cleaver against the wall, making him drop it. Then Roy grabbed his wrist and quickly handcuffed him to the radiator before throwing off his suit jacket and running towards the heavily bleeding boy. He was still clutching his remaining arm around his brother instead of trying to stem the alarming flow of blood. Roy knelt down next to the boy and pressed his jacket against the bleeding stump, pulling him on to his lap to keep him still and to keep checking his level of consciousness. The boy just began shrieking in agonised panic."NO! GET AWAY FROM HIM! TAKE MY OTHER ARM! MY LEG! MY HEART! ANYTHING! JUST DON'T HURT HIM!"

Roy overpowered him easily enough and held the screaming, bleeding child. He looked over at the other boy, who thankfully seemed to be unharmed, although spattered with his brother's blood. "I'm not going to hurt you, I'm a police officer. What's your name?" he asked the boy, who was staring at his bleeding brother, his face pale and tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Al," the young boy said quietly and shakily.

"Okay, Al, run out into my car and grab my radio for me, we need an ambulance for your brother." Al looked terrified for a second before looking at his brother and then he ran, bringing Roy his radio within twenty seconds.

The boy in his lap was still screaming with pain and fear. Al gave Roy the radio and Roy immediately called for an ambulance and for backup. Al sat himself right in front of his brother and looked over at the twisted, bleeding form that had once been their mother and began shaking with tears.

...And then he shrieked.