An Alchemist's Ransom
-Chapter 2-
Havok moved towards the fountain, the brown paper bag held at his side, all the while he was trying to figure out how he had gotten dragged into dropping off the ransom. He could almost understand why Hawkeye couldn't do it, but he had a hard time trying to figure out how he was stuck with the short end of the stick. Nervously he placed the bag next to him on the cement bench then cat down, crossing his arms in front of his check.
From the sides, Hawkeye, Fury, and Harmon all watch Havok anxiously from the corner of an alleyway, "Why isn't he moving?" Fury asked quietly, taking a half step back.
"Trying to be a hero I presume..." Harmon mumbled. The two men face faulted while Hawkeye just stood with her back against the cement wall. They waited for several minutes and no one showed up to claim the bag, and finally they called Havok back over and turned to leave for headquarters. Just as they were about to pile into the car, Hawkeye stopped and peered back down the alley.
"You guys go ahead, I'm going to wait." she said turning back to them.
"Are you sure Lieutenant?" Harmon asking, "If the Colonel found out..." he started, but cut himself off seeing Hawkeye's cold stare.
"I'm doing my job." she said, then turned and went back down the alley.
As soon as she was back in position and looked around the corner, she watched a bulky figure walking down the street wearing a large, brown trench coat. he stood out as odd, then again, a lot of people in the city did too, and because of that, Hawkeye didn't think much about it, until she looked at the fountain and saw that the bag was missing. Quickly she went over and saw another piece of paper and as she got even closer she saw the glint of something metallic holding the paper down. Her heart sank when she saw the State Alchemists' pocket watch on top of the paper, and as she picked them both up she realized that the same scribbled writing as before was also on this paper and as Riza began to read the note she began angry and far more worried:
"Military Personnel,
Your charity is greatly appreciated, for you next task, we ask for some assistance from the enchanting Riza Hawkeye. We are asking her for a few key numbers. (We believe she knows which ones we're asking about.) Please delivery them back here at 3:17 this afternoon. Only two more deliveries, and the precious Roy Mustang will be returned."
Riza gave the letter an odd look, then began to walk towards head quarters. Holding the watch in one hand, the letter in the other, she moved quickly towards the large gray building. She didn't even seem to notice that she past Gracia's house, nor did she see the figure of the bulky man in the upstairs window. Her mind was focused on getting Roy back, unharmed, even if it meant given the captor her dress size, 'pervert...'was the only thing she could think, and while she walked she clenched the letter tightly in her left hand.
"You asked her for her what?!" Roy shouted at Edward, the man was fuming, and it was because of this outburst that caused Edward to question the origins of Roy's title of 'The Flame Alchemist'
"Relax, it's all part of the plan." Edward said trying to calm him down.
"You could have simply asked if it was small, medium, or large! What kind of small pervert lives in that strange head of yours!" Roy shouted back.
"If you had specified what you wanted BEFORE I wrote the note, I would have put it down, you just asked for measurements, and don't call me super tiny!" Edward shouted back.
"...guys..." Al said with a nervous tone before he glanced out the window briefly to notice Hawkeye walking by, obviously upset. "She looks sad..." he whispered, then looked back to Roy and Edward and felt the sudden urge to run very far away. They were in a grapple, Roy had one hand pulled back wit his fingers ready to snap at any given moment, filling the whole room with flames; Edward had his arms in such a way that he could clap and put them into the floor and cause the room to suffer a very similar fate to what Roy would give it.
They both stopped though, as if frozen in that position when they heard Al after he looked out the window. As soon as Roy figured out what had been said, he shoved Edward to the floor and ran to the window. She was almost out of eye shot by the time he got there and slumped to his knees.
"I'm such a bastard..." he said to himself, "she won't be happy...she's going to shoot me...repeatedly...in the head..." he said, and with each emphasis of the coming pain he felt a greater sense of dread. Edward and Al looked at one another, they wanted to say something to comfort him, but they were both pretty sure he was right.
They sat in silence for a few moment before a knocking was heard at the door and Gracia made her way inside with Elicia at her side. The guys looked over and the air seemed to calm down as they all saw the tray of sandwiches she was holding in front of her.
"Thought you guys might be hungry." she said smiling as she walked to the center of the room and place the tray on a small table.
"Thanks!" both Edward and Al said. Roy didn't seem too excited and turned back towards t he window.
"I shink ee's aving econd ought," Edward said as he shoved a sandwich in his mouth. It took Gracia a minute to figure out what exactly he had just said, them moved over and knelt beside Roy.
"If you back out now she'll just be even more upset, and you'll get even more bullets shot into you." she said, Roy looked like he thought for a moment, then nodded.
"I know...this still isn't a very easy day." he said looked to Gracia.
"You'll do fine...Maes would be very proud of you." Gracia said managing a smile and looking over at Elicia who had helped herself to one of the sandwiches.
"I told her she could have mine." Al said noticing Gracia's look.
"...he was always talking about how I need to settle down...come to think about it...Hawkeye hung up on him once...or twice...maybe more." Roy said, simply looking back made him feel somewhat more confident, "I just always associated it with me not getting any work done otherwise."
"See, it'll be fine Just try and stay relaxed." Gracia said as she stood up, she placed a hand on Roy's shoulder as a for of reassurance, she then turned and walked over to pick up the tray from the table then went towards the door.
"Here Mr. Mustang!" Elicia said as she skipped over to him and held up the last sandwich.
"Thank you Elicia." he said giving her a slight smile at which seeing this, the girl's cheeks reddened, and she gave a slightly squeak, then ran to her mother's side.
"Don't have too much fun. Let me know when I can help out more." Gracia said, then left the room, shutting the door behind her.
Roy sighed and gave Edward a hard stare, he was still upset, but wasn't about to set fire to his flesh; seeing both Gracia and Elicia reminded him that there were people in the house, people he cared about, and had silently promised Maes Hughes he would protect.
"We have a lot of time..." Al said looking to Edward, "Why did you give them such a large gap this time?" he asked.
"Because I figure they'll intensify their search now that the person's asking for more ransom," he winked at that, "Not to mention, Hawkeye will be having a hard enough time trying to figure out why they'll want her dress size. I just figured I'd be nice this time." Edward explained leaning back a bit.
Hawkeye's eyebrow twitched as she looked down at the slightly crinkled piece of paper. Black Hayete looked up at her curiously from his position on the floor. She didn't notice Fury walk in carrying a slightly steaming mug in front of him. He carefully placed it in front of her and took a couple steps back, half expecting her to jump up and pull her gun as an automatic relation. It both relaxed and disturbed him when she slowly raised her head and simply looked at the cup.
"...Lieutenant..." Fury said very concerned at her reaction, after he spoke she moved her gaze up to see him, then shook her head when she fully realized that she was in the presence of another human begin. She then sat up fully in her chair and picked up the cup of coffee.
"Yes Major?" she asked looking at him. Now Fury was always a very kind, and soft spoken officer, and it was almost as if he could read some people like a book, but not usually Riza Hawkeye, she had always been someone who seemed to be very duty oriented, and there was normally nothing about her to read...but now.
"I was just going to ask you what the next move was." Fury said, "and to bring you something to drink." he said giving her a slight smile. It was strange for him to be in a situation like this, mostly because he'd never seen Hawkeye like this before.
"Thanks..." she said, then sighed and looked back at the newest ransom letter.
"What do you think they really want?" Fury asked moving over to pet Black Hayete.
"I'm not sure..." Hawkeye said sitting back up, "First they ask for an odd amount of money...now..." she twitched slightly again. Fury stood up and glanced at the note, he didn't take too much of a look at it, all he needed to see were the words 'Hawkeye" and "numbers" and he knew something was up.
"No wonder you weren't too thrilled when you came back." Fury said pulling up a chair. Hawkeye nodded slightly moving one hand to her pocket to grip onto the pocket watch that had held the note down.
"Lieutenant!" a male voice shouted as Harmon ran into the room, "We have a problem..."
"...we have a lot of those..." Hawkeye said giving him an odd look.
"No...witnesses around the city say they haven't seen Colonel Mustang, but..." he said waiting to make sure the two officers were listening, "They've seen Scar."
"Scar!" Fury said quickly standing up out of his sear. Hawkeye only gripped the watch tighter and glared at the note.
"Harmon, go send out a defense team, find him and get him out of the city." Hawkeye said standing up, she then turned to Fury, "have the other up the urgency in the search of Colonel Mustang...now more than ever we can't risk Scar finding him." Hawkeye ordered. Fury nodded, then both men saluted. "Move out!" Hawkeye ordered, and with that, both men turned and hurried out of the room.
Seeing that Fury had actually closed the door behind him, Hawkeye pulled the State Alchemist's pocket watch and just stared at it, "...Roy..." she said, then lost it as she fell back into her seat. She held the pocket watch close to her and lowered her head and let a few of the frightened tear cross the threshold of her tightly closed eyes. Black Hayete sat up and rested her head on her left and just wait for her to let all that was going to come out go.
