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 Five- Confessions… or not

"It's metal; more precisely, it's automail." She said. It was going to be a long night of catching up and talking. She pushed her sleeve up as high as it could go. He put two and two together in his mind and figured this must have been the injury that had almost gotten her discharged from the military. The cold, hard metal shone in the dim lights in his room and he ran his hand over her metal fingers, tracing his way up her arm and stopping right next to the pushed up sleeve.

"How… how far does it go?" He asked, not wanting to cross any lines with her.

"All the way over to here." She said, pointing to her collarbone. "I had my arm removed at the same place Edward's was so Winry wouldn't have to make many different adjustments when she had to make my arm; Ed and I could practically trade arms without noticing anything wrong. We're the same size and the same person services our arms, so who knows? I could have Ed's arm right now…" She said, her eyes sparkling with laughter again.

"Pipsqueak grew up; how did that happen?" Roy said, looking up at her face before going back to her arm.

"If he heard you say that he would still throw a fit; I guess when him and Winry finally decided they wanted to be together she told me one day during lunch that she gave him an ultimatum. Either he had to drink milk or she wouldn't be with him; so he began to drink milk and this is what happened, four years later." She told him as he smiled.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye… wait. Can I just call you Riza?" He asked glancing up into her eyes.

"Please do, since I can tell you'll never remember to call me Lieutenant General Hawkeye…" She said, her heart beating quicker each time he said her name.

"Ok, Riza; Will you tell me how you got this? I mean, everyone else told me about things happening outside in the real world; tell me about you and what's happened to you." Roy said.

"Well, I guess I should tell you what happened after you killed the Furher the first time…" She took a deep breath and began her story, every once in a while pausing from the pain of the memories. "You didn't kill the Furher; you kind of… impaired him for awhile. You had passed out from loss of blood and exhaustion and I was almost to that point too; but when I saw the Furher rise and come after you, I lost any respect for him I had ever had. Remember the eye patch he wore? It hid the sign of the homunculi that was on his eyeball; that's when I was about to give in and let him kill me too. You some how woke up and basically fried him to a crisp, but not before he got one last swing at you; he hit you on the back of your head and you ended up motionless, bleeding on the floor in front of me. I pulled your gun off you and fired every single bullet into his head; I'm sure you've heard my famous threat. It took exactly eleven bullets for his body to disintegrate and the philosopher's stone inside to explode; he was finally dead. I called for help because I knew I couldn't move your body without wounding you even more, or wounding myself even more than I already was. Finally Edward heard my screaming and came to help; he helped me get you out of the building and to the hospital. I remember the last thing you said before you fell into your coma was 'Hawkeye… blame it on me; don't go to jail because of me…' I visited you everyday; never did I miss coming to see you unless work prevented me from doing so. Two years ago I got Roy when he was a little puppy and I began to bring him with me to visit you. He would snuggle himself under your hands while you were unconscious. He was the person you reacted to when you began to wake up; he had crawled up to your neck and was licking your cheek while I sat and watched him. You smiled and moved your hand a little; that was all I needed to continue to give me hope. Eventually Roy stayed with you day and night; the nurses fed him and took him out. One day they came in to check on both of you and you had your eyes open; you were moving your hands as if you were asking for something. Rachel picked the dog up, put him in your hands and you laid and petted him until I showed up. You started talking and you kept asking for me; you kept asking if I was hurt, if I was in jail for something you did. I sat beside you and cried, rejoicing that you were waking up, but still sad because no one knew if you would remember anything. That happened almost a year ago; in between then and now, a plague ripped through our country and killed a third of our population. One of my good friends died from the illness; do you remember how Maes reacted when you mentioned Gracia earlier?" she said.

"Yes; he looked like it hurt to hear me say those words." Roy replied, his mind reeling from everything she was telling him.

"That's because she was one of the thousands of people who contracted the illness and didn't make it. The military tried everything to stop the plague; we eventually quarantined the people with it and had to kill them. Again, the hands of the military spilled blood; but we did wipe out the disease. Maes took it really hard, but Elysia seemed to handle it a little better than we all thought she would. I think that was the hardest six months of my life; I was afraid to come see you because if I had the disease on my skin, I could pass it to you and it could kill you. That's when the new Furher finally got the Parliament set up and the rebellions became ten times worse than they had been. During the first rebellions, Major Armstrong led our unit into battle and I came across a woman that had gotten caught up in one of the cross fires. Before I could get her to stand and get her to a medic, Envy came from behind me and practically cut my arm off, right across the shoulder. I have too many scars from him; He stabbed me several times in the back until the woman I had found took my gun and shot him. Major Armstrong found both of us and got us to the medics; I was in the hospital for almost four months. I remember waking up one morning to hear Winry Rockbell's voice; she and I became friends as she helped me recover. I found out my arm would be useless and I would never be able to use it for anything ever again. The Furher presented me with a bravery medal and told me to pack my things for an honorable discharge from the military. I told him I wasn't leaving; I still had someone to look after. About that time Winry joined the military; that's it. That's all that's happened." She said, her eyes shining with tears. "When I was ordered out of town with Ed and Al for a month, I ordered Rockbell and Major Havoc to keep watch on your apartment once you had woken up completely and had been sent home. Good thing I did; had she not been there he would have killed you for sure." She explained, finally letting the tears flow down her beautiful face. "I would have lost you… again."

"Wait. You don't sound like the Hawkeye I remember. You would never say something like that to me; are you sure that's all that has happened to you? You're so different now…" he said, letting go of her hands.