We All Fall Down
When Ed opened the door to the outer office, he gave the other five in the room his usual greeting. His usual greeting consisting of him not saying a thing and just storming over to the Colonel's office, report in hand, scowl already in place.
This time however, he got a slightly different response back.
He had just closed his hand over the doorknob, and was about to throw this door open as well, when he was stopped by a few, rather hesitant words.
"Um… Ed?"
He froze, and without taking his hand of the doorknob, he turned slightly so that he could see First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye easily. It suddenly occurred to him that this was not where her desk usually was.
If he had been slightly less confused by this first turn of events, he might have noticed her hand was shaking.
"What's going on Lieutenant?" Ed asked, surveying the room to see what else was out of place. Nothing, if you didn't count Havoc, Fury, Farman, and Breda not working away at whatever it was they did on a daily basis. Though, thinking back, Ed couldn't remember the last time he had seen them actually hard at work. Still, he had a feeling that the staring wasn't normal.
Standing up and pushing her own chair under the desk, she offered one to Ed with a small wave of her hand (which was still shaking rather violently), in the general direction of the chair on the other side of her desk. "You might want to sit down."
Now extremely wary of what was happening, Ed refused. Well, not so much refused as got very, very distracted. He noticed, with growing horror, that the light in Mustang's office was out; he had the feeling that this was not because he was late coming into work. "Where's, where's, where is he?" He demanded, once again facing Hawkeye.
It was just about now that he noticed the ink splatters on her uniform, and the tear tracks on her face. He felt his knees start to shake; the only thing keeping him on his feet by now was his death grip on the doorknob.
"We, we told them they needed to find you. Needed to bring you home. But, but, they said you could be told when you returned. Said you were just a, a subordinate. They… They wouldn't listen to me. I tried to tell them. They just wouldn't listen." Hawkeye stumbled over her words, making Ed's anxiety greater still. Hawkeye never lost her composure, ever; she just blew things to pieces.
He turned to the others, looking for answers. Answers better than the ones he had a feeling Hawkeye was about to give him.
He didn't find any.
"I'm so sorry Ed."
And all it took was four little words for the whole world to come crashing down.
End
a/n: did I just… write that? -blinks- I get the feeling I just killed Roy. But I can't be sure. Hasn't quite sunk in yet. -blinks- Huh.
