plot holes all over this one. good luck people. i'm running out of ideas for this.
so here we go, by request-sort of, Something About Windows Part 2. Completely different title.
-.-.-.-.-.- story -.-.-.-.-.-.-
Mustang arrived at work Monday morning exhausted and cranky, Edaline had been in his head all weekend. And not just images of her in the shower, conversations they'd fought over, missions he'd sent her on, any interactions they'd ever had. He looked miserable and his team immediately noticed... before quickly pretending not to have noticed. Judging by their reactions he'd need to pull himself together before Edaline came in for her mission because she wasn't going to let him off easy when she figured out he'd spent the weekend thinking about her naked. He stole Havoc's coffee on the way into his office, he'd need all the help he could get.
It wasn't long before the door to the outer office was kicked open and Fullmetal barged in, Al in tow. He heard the usual greetings for the rest of the team and he had mere seconds to compose himself before his own office door was kicked in and he was greeted with a scowling Elric and a curious Elric.
"What shitty mission do you have for me today General Pervert?" She had thrown herself into an opposing chair and watched him with a critical eye. Al calmly took the other chair available and sat down to watch, Mustang wasn't sure if the younger Elric was hiding a smirk behind his quiet smile. Was he missing something?
He looked at Ed for a few moments without answering until she fidgeted. Was he actually making the FullMetal Alchemist nervous?
"Ed, I have a few questions."
"No."
Mustang sputtered, "What do you mean 'no' ?"
"No. I'm not answering questions. We wouldn't be in this situation if you weren't a peeping tom. Give me my mission and we'll go."
Mustang had to approach this carefully or they'd reach a stalemate. She could call him a pervert but couldn't give an exact reason without having to explain herself to anyone in earshot. He wouldn't be able to get information from her without blackmailing her and he really didn't want to do that.
So, time to reverse tactics, if direct questions weren't going to work he'd have to try something else. He let his face fall just slightly, the exhaustion from the weekend slipping into view for just the right amount of time.
"You didn't trust me enough to tell me?" It was partially a question but partially an accusation and her face twisted into annoyance.
"You're not a very good actor Mustang. You can't guilt me into this when you won't even tell me anything about your own history. You just assumed you knew me because you came by my house when I was young."
Shit, she definitely had points on that one. Apparently Ed had been paying attention to how much he valued information. Still, he wasn't comfortable handing out his own personal stories yet. His face recomposed itself into lockdown and she huffed. "You must be tired if I can read you that easily. You don't get anything from me until you share your own. Give me the mission Mustang and we'll go. You can try again when we get back."
Looking at his desk she saw a file with her name on it, "Nevermind." and hauled herself out of the chair to stand and grab the paper, as she leaned over his hand snapped out and locked onto her wrist. Fuck, how the hell could she forget that he was a conniving bastard. Al laughed at her and she growled at him, of course he saw this coming. The paper was obviously a trap. She glared at the General, he'd even managed to snag her left wrist leaving her with only her newly returned right arm for attack, which was much weaker.
"Let. Me. Go."
"No."
He was already cranky, but now anger was starting to show itself. He narrowed his eyes at her and even from across the desk he was able to lift her off her feet with one arm bringing her to his eye level, "You belong to me Ed. You're my subordinate until your contract is up." She threw a punch with her weak right arm but he swatted it away with his free hand. "You will tell me what I want to know."
Al was wide eyed as his sister still chose to fight back.
"I'm not telling you shit jackass."
"You will. I didn't get here by being a pushover." He dropped her suddenly and her legs failed to keep her upright as she fell on her ass.
"Fuck you!" She pushed herself to her feet and was able to grab the paper from his desk. "Al, we're out of here."
It was clear Alphonse had not been expecting this turn of events and he nervously looked back over his shoulder at the angry General as he started to follow his sister through the door. He hesitated, seeing Ed was already at the other end of the main office he spoke quietly, "You wouldn't tell us anything, she's protecting herself."
Mustang didn't respond and Al hurried from the room after his sister.
He scowled at himself. It was true of course, how was Ed supposed to trust him with her secrets if he didn't share his secrets with her? On the other hand, the secrets he kept didn't endanger anyone's life, Ed's secret could lead to him putting her at unnecessary risk. He slammed his fist onto the desk, dammit Ed, why are you so stubborn? His eyes fell on Ed's mission paper, she was supposed to go help build some new train lines in Liore. Who better for transmuting tracks than Fullmetal? He thought about the request for a moment before he realised that something was wrong. Why was this still on his desk? Panic started to rise in his throat and he frantically searched for the other mission he'd been reading. The one he was going to go on himself. The one that he wasn't going to subject his team to.
It wasn't there.
Ed looked over the paper, they were already on the train heading out of town. A cursory glance while packing and changing into discrete clothing had told her that she'd needed to head west, the sooner the better. Now that she had time to read the whole thing and was noticeably less irritated at the General she took the time to get the details.
It made her sick. Usually Mustang didn't send her on these types of missions.
The military was after a man that posed as a day care instructor to lure children to abandoned buildings before murdering and dismembering them... not in that order.
The police would arrive to find body parts strung up as mobiles from the ceiling. Ed felt she was going to vomit.
"What's the mission brother?"
Al had returned from the dining car with some food and was setting it out before them as he waited for the specifics. She couldn't answer, not yet. She should have left Al at home.
He finished putting the plates and drinks out and finally noticed her pale colour and haunted expression. "What? What is it?" He looked at the mission paper and went to grab it, she quickly snatched it away from him and destroyed it. The contents had been burned into her memory anyway, there was no need for her little brother to see it.
"Kidnapping."
He sent his sister an annoyed look, obviously there was more to it than that, "I'll find out when we get there anyway, you could have just told me."
Shaking her head she fixed him with a stare. "You're not coming."
"Ed, I'm already on the train."
"You're getting off at the next stop and you're going back."
"I'm not leaving you to handle a mission on your own that you are so scared of you can't tell me about it."
Ed stopped arguing, but only because the next stop was another half hour away and she'd rather not spend that time bickering. She'd get her brother off the train and continue on, and even if he caught the next one it was still a day later so hopefully she'd have the entire thing settled by then. One day timeline. She could do it.
It hadn't been that hard to get him off the train, she stole his ticket stub when he wasn't looking then with a little help from her pocket watch, reported him to the conductor. She knew she wouldn't win in a fight against him and nothing she had to say would convince him to leave her side. So she'd advised the station officials to hold him on the platform until long after the train pulled away. She saw the angry betrayal in his eyes but smiled back and promised to return soon.
!-!-!-!
Al caught the next train as expected. He'd even slept at the station to make sure he didn't miss it. He'd been mad at first but with the time he had to think about it he realised that even though they'd both seen Truth, she was still scared for him and was just trying to protect him. Now though, he needed to get to where she was going to protect her from anything bad that would happen. There were a few issues, he'd known the final destination of their tickets when they got them, but wasn't sure if that was just a transfer point or if it was the location of their suspect. He'd have to ask around once he got there and that would waste time.
!-!-!-!
Mustang had sent Havoc after Ed to stop them from getting on the train but Havoc had missed them at the station, forcing the General to catch the next train a day later. He was low on sleep and high on stress. Maybe he could get there before she found any leads. Maybe she'd be lazy and he'd find she hadn't even started. His gaze travelled to the window and his stomach dropped to the floor as Alphonse got on the train at the next stop. Or maybe she'd send away her only backup and go into this situation completely alone. Mustang couldn't stop himself from a small panic attack. He shouldn't have left the paper on his desk! He should have locked it up. His fault his fault his fault, the mantra repeated in his head until Alphonse called his name and shook his shoulder. The look on the boy's face told him that it wasn't the first time he'd been called.
"General? Are you ok?"
"Alphonse, where is Ed?" He hoped with everything he had that she'd been on the platform with Al and he just hadn't seen her.
"She went ahead."
Mustang faltered and then composed himself. He didn't want the younger Elric to worry so he fought down the returning panic. Besides, neither of them could do anything about it until they got there anyway.
"I'm sorry Al, this was my mission. She grabbed it by accident."
"What does she have to do?"
He hesitated, "We're catching a kidnapper. He's pretty gruesome. Yesterday morning before you both arrived in my office I received more intelligence on the case. I'm not going to tell you specifics."
Alphonse waited for more but the General was done talking. He didn't want specifics though, he just wanted to help his sister.
"Will Ed be ok?"
Mustang wouldn't meet his eyes and clearly avoided the question, "There's no information in the report on what the man looks like so she'll have to spend some time looking around. I'll be there soon."
"We'll be there soon."
"Alphonse!" Mustang rounded on him, "The only reason you're allowed to stay on this train is because you're going to keep her away from this mission when we find her. Neither of you are going into combat."
Al backed down but Mustang noticed the boy didn't give any form of agreement.
!-!-!-!
Ed's train arrived early in the morning and she set to work immediately. She'd go to the most popular day care and ask about new competition, if there wasn't any they knew about, she'd get a list of registered day cares from the town hall and cross reference that with what she could find at schools. If there were any discrepancies then she'd start there. She'd thought about going to the town hall first but gossip moved faster than fact in small towns and she had a feeling she'd have better luck doing it backward.
She arrived at a small school-like building after a bit of wandering and some directions from locals, there was a playground to the side of it and adults off to the side keeping an eye on the children and chatting. As she got closer she was able to tune into the conversation.
"Billy and Suzie were pulled out of here yesterday, Amy says she's found a place that's half price."
"Half price! You can't even afford food with that!"
"I wonder what the teachers are being paid."
"I don't think there are teachers, just the one owner."
"Amy said she was lucky to have heard of the place, she got the last two spots."
"Good for her I guess, she needs the savings since Andy lost his job."
"I hope at those prices that the kids are ok though."
"Excuse me." Ed popped her head into the conversation, "Do you know where this new day care is?"
A few of the teachers jumped and one was startled into blurting out an answer. "Edge of town, near the old Smith place."
"Could you be a little more specific? I'm new to the area."
"Kid, who are you? Why are you asking?"
Irritated at being called a kid even if she was dressed like a sixteen year old boy, Ed pulled out the pocket watch to surprise everyone. She still managed to keep a polite smile in place while asking, "Could you tell me where the old Smith place is?"
They were all stunned and she was able to get an answer from the same person that blurted before. Thanking them she ran off. That had been incredibly easy, this guy must have had to ask around town for clients and "edge of town" was a huge red flag. You don't put day-cares on the edge of town, they go in populated residential areas. The police should already be on to this guy with that amount of obviousness. She headed off to the town hall for maps and survey information, she needed to know the layout if she was going to make a plan.
Two hours and lunch later she had all the information she needed. She sent word to the local police station for backup before heading out, no reason to be stupid about this, she knew nothing about how many children were in trouble or what this man was capable of.
It only took her about a half hour to walk from the town hall to the specific edge of town she was looking for and the closer she got the more unease she felt. Still, she snuck around the perimeter and transmuted a trench around the building at a fair enough distance to not be seen and deep enough no one could crawl out. This way the only escape was through the front, and as planned, through her. Double checking her handiwork she finally surveyed the front door, it didn't look rigged but that didn't mean it was a good idea to go through it. She had a brief moment where she considered waiting for backup before implementing the plan, but as she crept near the door she could hear crying. Now she was torn, she couldn't just barge in and expect everything to be ok. Not this far away from military help, and there were child hostages! She definitely couldn't wait around listening to children crying.
Idea! Hiding behind a small bush she threw a rock through the front window. This way she'd get to take a look at her suspect and he'd be away from the children momentarily. Perfect!
Even better than she'd hoped, as soon as the rock went through the window an old man ran out of the house and onto the front lawn cursing and yelling about hooligans. She clapped and hit the ground and the old man was buried to his knees in his front yard. Perfect.
She came out from behind her cover and the man started shouting at her.
"What the hell are you doing to me kid? I come out to check on a broken window and you attack me? I got my kid in there screaming and you're out here throwing rocks!"
She hesitated and looked him over, "I'm here to arrest you for murder."
"MURDER?! I ain't ever murdered anyone! I live here and that's my kid. Let me out so I can see what he wants."
This didn't add up, she was sure it was the right place. "Your kid has been crying for the last fifteen minutes and you're only concerned about him now?"
"I was trying to make dinner."
"Call him out here."
"He's in his room."
"Better make it loud then."
He looked at her and smiled, completely dropping the charade. "Billy, you'd better come out. The Fullmetal Alchemist is here to see you." Then he clapped and hit the ground. Earth and rock exploded around her and she flew back several feet; tucking and rolling she was able to recover into a defensive position.
"You look a little confused kiddo. If you come inside for a drink I'll share my story with you and the children." He started walking toward her. Slap, clap, explosion.
Ed dove to the side and snarled at him, "Let them go you sick fuck." She sent a counter attack of stone fists from the ground and he dodged them all. Not wanting be in close combat with her weaker arm she opted for stone enclosure, he blocked that and managed to send a thin spike from the ground through her automail leg, crushing some of the gears. She went down.
Where the fuck was backup? Quickly transmuting the broken automail into a single non-moving stilt she jumped and rolled, narrowly avoiding what would have been a shattered skull. He was still walking toward her.
"Aren't you interested to know how I can transmute without a circle? Don't you want to know my story? I don't get to tell it very often and i like to share."
"Not in the slightest asshole!"
Spikes of earth and stone shot at her again and she rolled. Dodging all but one, it shot up faster than she could move and pierced her gut, narrowly missing her vital organs. Sometimes, only sometimes, she had great luck. But now she was stuck unless she could pull the spike straight through. As she reached for it the old man's boot came down hard on her already weak hand, she held in a scream as she felt bones breaking. Reaching down he pulled the spike out for her. "Is this what you wanted? It's not going to help." He tossed it aside and kicked her in the stomach. "Now, I insist you come in for a drink."
Grabbing her by the hair he dragged her across the lawn as stones dug into her back, then up the stairs and into the house before throwing her into a chair. Ed was too dazed to react quickly enough to avoid the restraints as her captor clapped his hands and transmuted locks for her wrists then secured her to the arms of the chair.
The child was still crying in the background.
She could barely speak through the pain, "Let them go."
"I'll think about it. Time for drinks!" He disappeared into what must be the kitchen and she could hear him getting glasses.
While he'd been dragging her along the lawn she'd grabbed a rock with her working hand, now that she had a moment she slipped it from hiding and started to carve a circle into the arm of the chair under palm.
He returned too fast and she was forced to cover her efforts and wait.
"Ok. I think you'll love this. It'll take the pain away from your hand." He poked at the broken bones and she bared her teeth to help contain her scream.
He set the drinks down between them and smiled at her, "Want to see something neat?"
"No."
He slammed his fist into her broken hand and this time she did scream.
"I'm telling a story, don't be rude." He composed himself. "Several years ago I lost my wife. She was so beautiful; she should have lived forever. When my family was at her funeral my father said a very funny thing, he said that as long as I remembered her she'd live in my memories… well, I was devastated, if I died now then she'd be gone forever and I could not let that happen. I had to live forever so that she could live forever."
Ed was having a hard time following the story, the pain from her hand and the blood loss from the gash in her side was taking its toll.
He saw her eyes droop and she barely had time to prepare before his hand cracked across her face, "WAKE UP! I'm still sharing here." Her head bounced against the wooden frame of the chair and he calmed himself again. "Anyway, I started doing some research on how to live forever and came upon the philosopher's stone. How handy! You just need a few human lives to make one. So easy! But then I learned that other people were looking for a stone and I had to be very careful about hiding mine. Which was very tricky until I learned that I can keep it and make it inside myself."
There was a creak from the floorboards of the front porch and the story stopped. "Excuse me. I think these are your friends." She started to shout a warning but he'd grabbed a corner of her coat and jammed it into her mouth. "Quiet! Don't ruin the surprise!"
He left and she listened to the screams of police officers as she carved more of the circle into the chair.
He was back within minutes and sat down to continue his story, not bothering to remove the cloth from her mouth. "Sorry for the distraction. Now, I left off with how to hide the stone." He seated himself comfortably back into his chair, "So, once I discovered how to conceal it, I knew how to make it and everything fell into place perfectly! Children are the purest of life. They've got everything in front of them and the love of their families. It was a perfect choice. It's not that hard to drain them either, you just cut off their limbs and hang them up."
Suddenly the glasses on the table came into view and she gagged. He noticed her gaze and jumped up from his chair, "Oh! You must be thirsty!" He pulled the coat from her mouth before holding the cup to her lips and tipping it up. She could smell the iron in it but when she tried to turn away he grabbed the back of her neck and forced it into her mouth. She threw up.
He jumped out of the way cursing at her for wasting the "gift". She fought away her nausea and used his distraction to finish the last two lines of the carving. Tapping the fingers of her right hand to the circle she activated the transmutation and the chair she was on exploded into sharp stakes before driving themselves into every section of his body. She'd fallen to the ground as the chair had transformed under her and now that her hands were free she clapped and locked his body to the floorboards. Her shattered right hand screamed in protest but she couldn't let him get away, as unlikely as it was with all the chair shards in him. She stayed on the ground and though she couldn't bring herself to kill him directly, she could definitely watch the blood leak out of him from her previous attack.
Trying to stay conscious to watch for new threats was becoming increasingly difficult. Her hand hurt so much and the blood loss from the hole in her side was significant. Still, she managed it for quite a while; watching as more police and some neighbours arrived. Someone in a uniform heard her mumble something about "children" and "basement". The police chief almost cuffed her as a murderer until she threw her pocket watch at his head. Then the officer she spoke to before returned, whispered to the chief, and both of them rushed back to where the basement door probably was, she wasn't able to turn around and confirm. From there she remembered something about being loaded into a car and then hospital doors.
It wasn't until three days later that she fully regained consciousness. And not in the best way. Her dreams had been of dismembered children, bled dry and sewn back together; they'd been dancing and drinking their own blood and she'd had to join them. She awoke dry heaving and shivering and when she tried to lean over she remembered several things: she was missing a leg, her side was ripped open, and her right hand was practically shattered. The pain of movement was so sudden she stopped breathing for a while and just stared wide eyed over the edge of the mattress. Mustang was there in a second, placing a cold compress to her forehead and easing her back onto the bed.
Closing her eyes to focus on breathing, she heard him call for more pain meds.
"How long have I been out?"
"Three days."
"Did they find all the children?"
He hesitated, "Yes."
"Alive?"
Silence.
Her voice hitched, "How many made it?"
He sighed, "Three out of the five we found."
Three, she'd saved three lives... two lost.
She shivered again and he grabbed a blanket and threw it over her, then placed his hand back on her forehead. She wasn't entirely convinced it was just to hold the compress in place, especially when his fingers were against her temple checking her pulse. Conniving jerk; learning things about her without permission. She wondered how many times he'd done that over the last three days and couldn't bring herself to comment.
She changed the subject, "How mad is Al at me?"
"He's fine. Though that might change when he sees you're awake. I insisted he sleep in the on-call room to make sure he heals his body properly. He's there right now."
She mumbled some sort of acknowledgement and fell silent.
The nurse came in with some pain medication and a glass of water and left it on the table beside the bed, she checked Ed's vitals and wandered out.
"No needles?"
"Not while you're awake. I warned them."
She mumbled a thank you then eyed up the meds on the table. Her muscles twitched at the thought of moving and she realised she wasn't going to be able to sit up and reach either of those things, especially because the table was on the side of her busted hand. She stared at the table trying to come up with a plan, maybe if she punched down hard enough on the surface with her cast she could get it to fly into the air and catch it in her mouth.
Her plan must have shown on her face as she calculated it. "For fuck sakes Ed, just ask." Mustang grabbed the pills and water from the table, offering each in turn. When he placed the water to her lips she froze, pupils dilating as her eyes became unfocused, the colour drained from her face.
He withdrew the cup immediately. "Ed!"
shit! The water was quickly placed back on the table and his hands were on each side of her face in an effort to get her to look at him. "Listen to my voice Ed, I'm here, we're in the hospital. Jacobs is dead."
He saw her take a deep breath. "He tried to make me drink their blood. I could hear them crying and he wanted me to drink it."
He was actually a bit relieved. She hadn't drank it. They'd found the container of blood in the fridge and two empty glasses on the floor in the mess of woodwork and he couldn't imagine the trauma involved in being force fed children's blood.
He wiped a few tears from her face.
"He's dead?" she whispered.
"Yes, the police chief went to the basement and found out one of the children was his nephew. When he came back up he shot Jacobs in the head several times. He told me to thank you for catching the demented asshole and that he's sorry he tried to arrest you." The General reached into his jacket and pulled out her pocket watch, he considered it for a moment before setting it on the side table. "He didn't say where he got the bruise on his forehead though."
She noticed his change of subject again and was grateful for it. "Tried is right."
"He also told me that you called them for backup like a responsible grown-up."
"I'M NOT SHO-"
"So now I just have to apologise for leaving that assignment on my desk. It wasn't the one you were supposed to take."
"I know."
"You know?" Mustang was incredulous. "And you still went ahead and tried to get yourself killed?!"
"Yeah, my name wasn't on it like the one that I'd seen on your desk. Plus, your assignments for me since Al got his body back have just been to repair things. I was only going to look into this case until you arrived with backup but then I learned that some kids had already been taken from their original day-care and moved. There wasn't time. That's why I called for police backup... even though they were late."
The speech made her feel weaker and she closed her eyes for a few moments.
Mustang's voice was soft, "Dammit Ed." He couldn't get mad at her for that. He would have done the same thing in that situation. "How do you always manage to find trouble so quickly?"
The question seemed rhetorical so she didn't answer. Silence fell and Mustang took the opportunity to check her over. Just to make sure she was ok.
"I'm not sleeping pervert, I can feel you staring."
He rolled his eyes. "Well Ed, I'm not turned on by women in hospital beds, you're welcome to try again later though. With a different kind of bed."
Her face went red and she cursed at him but couldn't open her eyes. Maybe she should rest again for a while.
"When can I get out of here?"
"Tomorrow if you let me carry you. One more week if not. Doctors said you can't walk for the next eight days, it'll pull the stitches in your side. Congratulations on your week off."
She blushed a bit and grumbled the answer he was expecting. No one ever wanted to stay in a hospital if they didn't have to and they both knew Al wasn't strong enough yet to carry much more than a few pounds.
Mustang grabbed the compress from where it had fallen and filled it with cold water. She was actually dozing off and he'd need to be ready for the inevitable nightmares. Pushing the table out of the way he pulled his chair closer and settled in. There was still plenty of time before tomorrow's train for him to rest and keep an eye on Fullmetal, and he knew he'd need it. Transporting a cranky and injured alchemist was definitely going to test his patience.