Chapter five

Roy had just closed the front door behind him after working late, when the phone started ringing. He went over to it and picked it up. "Roy Mustang speaking."

"Sir? This is DS Riza Hawkeye. I'm sorry to call you, but I don't really know anyone else in East yet."

Roy was surprised to hear from the sergeant, he'd only given her his number as a precaution, but he answered calmly as ever all the same. "Is something wrong, Sergeant?"

"Well, yes, sir. Edward has locked himself inside his room and hasn't come out since ten o'clock yesterday evening. He's blocked the door and I don't think he's planning to come out anytime soon."

Roy certainly hadn't seen that one coming. "How would you like me to help?"

"You wouldn't happen to have a ladder, sir? None of the neighbours do."

"Yes, of course, but hasn't he even come out to use the toilet?"

"He's been peeing out the window, sir. I don't want to wait until I could be considered to starve him."

"I'll be there in thirty minutes, Sergeant."

"Thank you, sir." Roy could hear the relief in her voice.

He grabbed his car keys again and went out into the garage to find the ladder. Picking it off the wall, he had to say that he was worried about those kids. Roy had seen quite a few gruesome murders, but the way Trisha Elric had been parted, and right in front of her sons, was amongst the worst. And the fact that the stepfather had then gone on to cut off his eleven-year-old stepson's arm was truly horrible.

Roy remembered having sat there in the hallway together with Edward and Alphonse Elric; the fright of losing the boy who had still been screaming in pain; Alphonse just having looked at his brother without having known what to have said or done as they had waited for the ambulance to arrive. The smell of fresh blood, his own blood-soaked fingers and the arm that had just lain on the floor next to them.

And the laughter. Barry Anderson's laughter. The man had kept laughing at having killed his wife and having slashed off his stepson's arm. He had kept talking about how he would have liked to have finished the job. To have seen Edward's blood. To have felt the knife as it had cut through flesh.

And although Ed had been too out of it, Roy had a feeling that Alphonse had heard every single word.

And Roy also knew that the boy had never been the one to talk first ever since.

He remembered having been sitting together next to Alphonse, both of them having been covered in blood as they had waited outside the surgery room. Roy had given Alphonse his suit jacket to have kept the boy warm.

But Al hadn't say a single word to anyone. He had only nodded and shaken his head. He had only opened his mouth once Ed had woken up. Then the young boy had thrown himself at his brother and had ended up having sat next to him on his bed for the entire hospital stay according to the nurses. And the two boys had kept together.

Roy just hadn't known that after having personally recommended a foster family that he had thought would have given them a good home, that they had been moved after just three weeks. He had thought that the boys would have been helped. And he had sworn inwardly and had been thoroughly saddened to hear what had become of the boys since he had last seen them.

He was genuinely curious to see exactly what Sergeant Hawkeye had planned. The ladder would suggest that she intended to climb up and use the window to get inside the bedroom.

Well, he would just have to wait and see what happened.

Roy pulled up outside the building and walked up to the main door and entered the code that would let him in. The DS had told him as they had carried her belongings inside. And so he headed up the stairs for the door that was marked with 'B', finding Hawkeye to already be standing outside the door in baggy trousers, a singlet and a long knitted cardigan, her hair tied into a ponytail. She had a worried expression on her face and she was hugging herself as she stood there. "Thank you for coming, sir."

Roy nodded. "How can I help?"

"I'll climb up the ladder while you stand guard in the hallway outside the room in case he makes a run for it, if that's okay with you, sir. He doesn't know that I rang you, so you should probably tell him your name immediately. I've locked the bathroom door from the outside so that he can't run inside it instead."

"Sounds like a plan." Roy fished his car keys out of his coat pocket and handed them to her.

She took them from him with a grateful look. "Thank you so much for this, sir."

"Don't worry about it."

She gave him a very slight smile before she moved past him. Roy couldn't help but notice that she had a very pleasant scent. Something mature mixed with flowers of some kind. Her perfume seemed to fit her very well. He was suddenly a bit curious about what her hair must smell like.

Roy, stop.

Roy felt like kicking himself. He really was hopeless. But fact was, Riza Hawkeye was clearly a beautiful woman. And she was certainly in his age group.

Roy.

Roy sighed, opening the flat door and putting the thought away. He really shouldn't be noticing things like that. She was newly separated, had two children, and she was his subordinate.

But he also couldn't help but feel very much at ease around her already. He had a feeling that she'd be a very good partner at work.

The thought disappeared from his mind as he saw Alphonse peeking around the kitchen wall, looking at him shyly.

Roy smiled at him and put his finger in front of his lips while pointing towards the bedroom door.

Al's one visible eye grew wide with understanding and then he disappeared from view.

And so Roy stood there, feeling a bit odd. He had never done anything like this before. He'd had a few sergeants by now, but they hadn't lasted long. They had usually asked to have been transferred after a month or two, one of them three, mostly because of Roy's age. They found it annoying that he was an inspector, and now detective chief inspector at twenty-five, which meant that he was actually younger than most of them.

Then there were those who thought he'd cheated his way through the ranks. That wasn't it at all. It was just that he'd had the pleasure of working under the previous DCI Grumman, now Superintendent. The man had seen Roy's potential and had urged him to have taken the sergeant's exam after just half a year, and after another two years of hard work, he had been promoted to inspector. When the spot as DCI had opened up, Grumman had put in a recommendation for him so that he had actually been considered for the position and had got the chance to have been on equal terms with the other contenders. And somehow they had chosen him.

And so Roy had been DCI for four months now.

Still, he had never had a sergeant before ask him to bring a ladder so that they could force a kid out of their bedroom in order to feed them.

Well, he guessed that this new partnership would be interesting.

Riza sighed with relief when she walked back into the flat. The DCI was standing there with his hand upon Edward's left shoulder. The kid didn't look scared, most likely because he already knew him and the man had helped save his life.

So instead he was staring daggers at Riza.

"That was a dirty trick," he told her with a scowl as she walked up to them. Alphonse had hidden himself in the kitchen it seemed.

"Edward, I only have one thing to say to you."

In reaction, Edward assumed a near fighting stance, pointing accusatory at her. "HAH! I knew you'd throw us out! Everything you said yesterday was just bullshit!"

"What would you like for dinner?" Riza asked kindly.

Ed froze.

"What?"

"You have got to be hungry after not eating for twenty-four hours, so I thought I'd make your favourite. So what would you like?"

Edward eyed her, trying to see if she was being serious. After a long time of staring into her eyes, he looked down and mumbled, "stew, but the way Mom makes it. Every other way tastes like crap."

"Then stew it is. Would you and Alphonse help me to make it?"

"Guess we have to, otherwise you're just gonna mess it up."

"Then please make a shopping list with Alphonse while I talk with DCI Mustang."

Riza could have sworn she saw Mustang squeeze Ed's shoulder slightly before letting him go. It was a simple gesture of care and approval, but it seemed to make Ed's eyes widen ever so slightly before he walked off with a, "hey, Al, where did you put the blank shopping lists and the pens yesterday?"

"Thank you for all your help, sir. I owe you one," Riza said once they were alone.

"That's all right. I've been worried about them, so it's my pleasure. You handled that well."

"Thank you, sir. If you're up for a bit of a wait, I'll treat you to some dinner as a thank you."

Mustang smiled lightly. "That's not necessary, but thank you. I'll leave the ladder with you in case you need it again."

"Thank you." Riza really hoped that it wouldn't be necessary though. "I hope you'll have a pleasant evening, sir."

"You too, Sergeant, see you in a few days."

"Thank you, sir."

Riza followed him to the door and closed it. She turned around to have Edward glaring at her as he handed her a shopping list. "Al needs to decide something too, so we added chocolate pudding at the end."