1. I do not own any of these characters at all in any way, they belong to 'The Cow.'

2. THIS IS IN AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE!

Chapter Four- Moving on

Around seven thirty that evening he heard a knock on his door. He let them enter and the door swung slowly open. Riza came in, followed by a much older and more docile Black Hayate. She wasn't dressed in her uniform any more; she was wearing a long-sleeved white blouse and a brown skirt that accented her skin tone and hair color nicely. Her hair was left down and it shone in the artificial lights of his hospital room. Hayate jumped up and leaned against Roy's bed, gently nosing his hand; he felt the cool, wet nose and rubbed it, scratching up between his eyes and around the backside of his ears, just like he remembered Hayate liking. He heard Riza close the blinds and she walked over to him, sitting in the chair next to his bed and petting her dog's back so he would get down. She had a small smile on her lips, one he hadn't seen before; she looked happy, genuinely happy to see him. Her smile widened when his stomach growled at him for not eating the hospital food; she pulled a paper bag from the table and set it in front of him. He turned his whole body to face her and saw she was holding a small dog in her other hand.

"Well, hello; who's this?" Roy asked, reaching out to pet the little animal.

"This… well, this is Roy. I named him after you in hopes that you would get well…" Riza answered, setting the dog on Roy's lap.

"Hello there Roy; you're absolutely the most handsome dog I've ever seen. You must take after your namesake…" he laughed, handing the creature back to her. She set him down on the floor and he ran off, smacking into Hayate's sitting form next to them.

"Yes, he does take after you; he's reckless and doesn't watch what he's doing… and he leaves big piles of crap all over the place. But I've almost got him trained…" she said, laughter shining from her eyes as she noticed Roy's change in expression at her last comment. They both laughed a little harder as Riza set her hands on the railing on his bed. He heard the clink of metal on metal; she moved her hands and folded them in her lap as he shrugged mentally and opened the bag. He pulled out a container of soup, a small bag of bread and two apples. He smiled widely at the apples; he opened the container of soup and inhaled its warm scent. Tomato soup, rye bread and red delicious apples; no one knows me quite like she does. He thought as he dipped the bread in the soup and began to eat. After he finished, he put the trash in the paper bag and set it aside for the nurse to take away later.

"I hope those apples are satisfactory. They aren't in season right now, so I searched all over to find some…" She trailed off, her voice becoming lower than usual. "Roy, will you tell me what happened at your apartment? All I know right now is that the homunculi known as Envy came to you imposing as me. Then Winry put a few bullet holes in his back to get him off you, but he got away after he healed himself." She said, looking up into his eyes.

"What you said is what happened." He said, trying not to seem uncomfortable.

"No Roy; I know he said much more than you've reported. And I know you're hesitant to tell me these things. But I am the real Riza Hawkeye; I've aged and been injured in ways you wouldn't want to know about. I've got proof that I'm real." She said as she reached up to her neck and pulled a necklace up from under her shirt collar. It was the locket he had given her for her twenty-fifth birthday. He sighed with relief as she let the locket drop to her chest. He reached over to take her right hand in his but she moved it out of the way and let him hold her left one.

"Well, I remember talking about this ring. You…" He paused. "… He said it was a gift from your father and that I was crazy for thinking you had a boyfriend or husband. That you loved me…" His voiced trailed off as he looked out the window. "He quoted rule number 43, title 4; you know what I'm talking about. Then he said 'fortunately for us, you're not in the military anymore.'" He let go of her hand, but she didn't let go of his. She squeezed it tighter and leaned closer to his bed.

"Roy, Listen. Many things about me have changed; but my feelings about you never did. I still followed your path and remained loyal to your cause; I never let myself think of retiring from the military or searching for another job as long as there was a chance you would wake up. Now that I've got you back, I'm not letting you go again without me…" She said, sitting down on the edge of his bed. "The military has changed too; certain rules aren't enforced anymore, and others have been taken completely out of our rule book. But you don't need to worry about rule number 43 title 4; it's been altered but no one enforces it anymore. There are many marriages within what is left of our department. Havoc's wife is the secretary of one of the parliament members; you have to be a member of the military to go anywhere near the parliament building. You might remember her as Elaine Strouse, the mail clerk that worked in investigations. Of course she's now Elaine Havoc and she's going to be giving birth to his child any day now… Winry and Edward got married a year ago and even meek Kain Fuery's gotten married; remember the girl he took to the beach party we went to a while back? They got married after she returned from Eastern Headquarters with the man who became the Furher. She was his aid; now she's got two important men to look after. You should hear the way he talks about her… he reminds me of my father, constantly talking about her in the highest regards; like she's the queen of the country and he grateful to clean the floors she walks on. He treats her like royalty; their wedding was absolutely beautiful…" her voice broke off as she remembered all the things Roy had missed while he was in the coma. He noticed the far off look in her eyes and reached for her other hand to get her to focus again. Before she realized what he was doing, he wrapped his fingers around her right hand and then pulled his hand away in shock as he tried to figure out what he had felt.

"You… your hand! It's … it's…" He stuttered out. Riza lowered her eyes and sighed as she pulled off her gloves and pushed the sleeve on her right arm up.

"It's metal; more precisely, it's automail." She said. It was going to be a long night of catching up and talking.

A/N: OMG! Riza has an automail arm? WTF? Read on to find out!