Heir to the Flame

Chapter 17: Glimpse of a Life

Riza viciously beat down another craving, this time for apple and peanut butter of all things. She hated peanut butter. Why was she thinking about food anyway? Roy was under the knife and all she could think about was food and Hayate! She was still petting Black Hayate vigorously and a stomach twinge came over her. She forced herself to take deep breaths. It was alright, it was just a false contraction, everything would be okay...

She had heard a rumor that stress often caused early births...

She shook her head and she felt another contraction, though it wasn't as bad as the first.

She took deeper breaths and Hayate whined at her, pacing to and fro on the hardwood floor of the automail establishment. She had to take her mind off of it, she had to... she looked around the 'clinic'.

There were pictures hung up, which contributed to the fact that this place was very much like the Rockbells's operation; a house turned job site. Apparently Roy's uncle Glenn lived here with his only son Vergo. This was deduced by the simple fact that there were no pictures of other children, and the fact that the mother was either dead or seperated stemmed from the observation that there was only one picture of her. Riza guessed that she had died and that there were many more pictures around, just not hung up.

She was seated on a couch and she looked next to her, startled to see an old photo album sitting there. It looked like Roy's old album... she never looked in Roy's album; she had always been meaning to ask him so they could sit down together and look at it, but being pregnant made her forget many more things than she would have liked.

She hesitantly turned the page and thought that it must be the father's album. It contained many black and white photos of a younger Glenn and what must have been his brother, Leroy. Roy's father. Her mother had always said 'If you want to know what the man will look like when he's older, look at his father.' She guessed it was true. Leroy Mustang at his prime, age thirty, looked almost identical to his son. Unfortunately, this was all that Riza would see of Leroy's 'old age', since he had never reached his thirty-first birthday. She wondered what Roy would look like in twenty years. She shook her head again. She should be thinking of now and the baby that was due. Well, it wasn't now... Riza thought again as her stomach pained her again.

She didn't know how long she had been sitting there, staring at pictures in black and white that abruptly turned to color; Glenn, his son, and his wife on a family vacation, Glenn and his brother out for a night on the town, there was even one of an infant Roy. She smiled and traced the borders of the picture gently with her finger. Now she knew what her baby would look like. Little Roy and little Maes wrestling, and over a camera no less. In the next picture, little Jean Havoc had stolen it away and the other two, bruised up, ran after him.

The next one was Jean in a tree throwing spiky pine cones at Roy and Maes while sticking out his tongue, the camera hung safely around his neck by a strap. Roy and Maes were running away, their hands around their heads for protection. The next picture was Roy with his father's oversized flame gloves burning pine cones and the branch that Jean was perched on while Leroy chuckled to himself in the background and Maes held his hands out to safely catch the camera when it fell, Jean and all.

She laughed to herself and Hayate rested his great head on her thigh, sighing deeply and twitching one ear. She scratched it and he sighed even more deeply. She swore that when Roy came out she'd kiss him so hard his face would blow up from the heat. Okay, maybe not that much, but the equivalent without blowing up his face.

Vergo came out with a surgical mask, apron and gloves on. His apron and gloves were stained with blood and he pulled the mask down and sighed. "It's finished now; we just sewed him back up. It wasn't very bad... that Major Armstrong snapped it clean in two and dislocated it from the bone. Dad managed to take it out, transmute it back to normal, and fix it back into it's original place on the bone. I don't think it'll break for a long while yet. We made some adjustments so it's stronger and more durable than before. You'd better remind him not to use his right arm too much for the time being though, he may not find it comfortable yet."

Riza nodded, standing up and asking if she could see him. He shrugged. "I'll go ask Dad. I have to see if he's finished cleaning him off first, and if my cousin's got enough anesthetic in him to keep him from screaming himself to death as soon as he wakes up."

Glenn poked his head out. "He's all set; he should be waking up in twenty minutes, give or take."

"I hope it's take," Riza said, waddling over to the room. Roy had been moved to a bed and there were machines hooked up to him to check his vitals. Riza had never seen anything like them before.Vergo smiled, obviously pleased at her curiousity. "Dad's a bit of a technology whiz, he's been able to do some pretty amazing stuff with automail and machinery. He even made his own legs, put them on himself too. I hope I can be as good as him someday..." Vergo looked wistful, then pulled himself back to reality. "Oh! It seems he's coming around already." Roy groaned pitifully and Riza stroked his hair. "It's okay, Roy, you're still alive..." Roy groaned again. "I could've sworn I saw Dad at the end of the tunnel..." he muttered, opening his eyes groggily. He inspected his right shoulder. It looked normal enough, even if it was sewn up and a bit bloody. He felt the urge to move it but Riza stilled his hand which he couldn't feel anyway because of the anesthetic. She kissed his brow and he grinned. "I won't be able to spar with Armstrong for a while..." She closed her eyes and Roy thought that he might have said the wrong thing.

He knew for sure when he heard a loud smack and his head was flung into the headboard. He whimpered and another one flew his way, making his head smack again into the headboard. He hunkered down in the bed and whimpered again, waiting for another blow to the cheek. Riza sighed and gently fingered the red marks on his cheek, and he winced. She massaged his cheek and he hoped that that meant his punishment; or the hand-to-cheek part of it anyway, was over. There were tears in her eyes and she buried her face into his chest. "I was worried about you!" she cried. "And you're talking like it was no big deal, when you could have lost your arm, or you could have died!" She was hitting with her fists, but they were little flails of frustrated sadness. It was like a small child was hitting him. Roy put his one good arm, his left, around her. "I'm sorry... I just... thought it would make you feel better, but it didn't... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." She looked at him again and sniffed. "Don't do it again, okay?" she asked, sounding small.

"I'll try not to," he replied, and they laid there for a few minutes.

"Roy," she whispered.

"Hmm?"

"I was scared I was going to lose you... I was scared my baby wouldn't have his daddy."

"You don't need to be scared anymore."

"But I still am."

"... well... I'm not sure what to say, I'm not sure what would make you feel better, but... I'm going to be around for my son. And my wife."

She smiled again and bit her lip in pain. "What is it?" he asked, sounding concerned. "I-I don't know... I'm having contractions... but they're not bad..."

"Do you think it's time?"

"No, not yet..."

Roy got up from the bed and allowed his uncle to dress his right arm in a sling. "I'll drive us home then, just in case. I need some sleep anyway, we both do." He took the medicine Vergo instructed him to take every three hours and thanked his uncle for the short-notice operation. "You're a life-saver," he said, waving good-bye with his left arm. Riza looked at him, then at the car, and back at him worriedly. "Will you be able to drive?" she asked, not feeling entirely safe. Black Hayate jumped into the backseat without a problem and Roy gave her a reassuring smile.

"What? The arm? Don't sweat it. Between you and me, I'm probably the better one to drive.Who knows when those contractions will hit? I've heard they're pretty painful."

"They are," Riza said rather frostily, and Roy thought she was having another moodswing.

"Haven't I ever told you? I happen to be ambidextrous!" he said proudly. "It's a good trait to have when your life relies on the snap of a finger."

Aye, more clarification. Roy's automail is not exactly for his entire shoulder, but for the bone that makes sure the shoulder works. Glenn's prosthetic for it is basically an auto-bone that's a replacement for the bone that Roy lost. How he lost it, you'll find out later, mwahahahah! On a note, the baby will probably be born in two chapters, maybe three, so hang tight. The story does by no means end after the baby is born!

-T A