Thank you so much for the reply sewing life, you don't know how much I appreciate it. I enjoy what readers have to say, it let's me know what's liked and what's not working.

Aches and Pains in the Ass

"Forget about it," Jean Havoc said as he stumbled over his chair desperate to escape. "No way!" A thud echoed through the staff room as he hit the wall, his hands held up defensively as he stared wide eyed at Master Sergeant Fury standing on the opposite side of the desk grouping in the center of the office.

The young man still held the greenish-grey folder out toward Havoc. "At least you know what you're doing. You could have this filled out so much faster." When Havoc only shook his head, Fury added, "I'll trade you something then."

"I believe the Lieutenant has a date tonight," Falman said from his place at the desk next to Fury.

Grabbing the folder from Fury, Breda then stuffed a stack of papers in the younger man's hands. "I'll trade you."

"Thanks, I think," Fury said looking at the stack.

Opening the folder and looking over the forms, Breda then paused and looked to Havoc who was still leaning against the wall. He suspiciously raised a red eyebrow. "You mean you've gone a whole week without the Colonel swiping her?"

"Oh, really funny," Havoc said as he picked up his chair and then found his place at the desk again. Brushing his hand over the pale polished wooden surface, he scooped up the cigarette he had dropped during his escape and casually stuck it back in his mouth. "Eugenie really likes me."

A few stifled coughs circled the room.

"What? I'm likeable," Havoc said, feeling slightly offended. "Really."

Just then the door swung open to reveal First Lieutenant Hawkeye. She gave the four men a cursory inspection as she entered the office.

Havoc offered her a wide grin. "Hey, Hawkeye, can I borrow Black Hayate for a few hours this evening?"

"It's a dog, not a book," Falman said.

Breda laughed. "If it was a book, Havoc wouldn't want anything to do with it."

Not waiting for the next attack on his character, Havoc planted his elbows on the desk. "What is this? Beat up on Havoc day?" He offered Hawkeye another grin. "I promise, no more stir fry jokes. Can I please borrow Black Hayate?"

Riza Hawkeye turned and stared at him even as she pulled the door open to the Colonel Mustang's office.

Leaning to the side so he could look past Hawkeye's gently curved hip into the larger office, Havoc saw what had the Lieutenant's attention. "Well, that explains why it's been so quiet this morning."

The other three men strained to see as well. Hawkeye stood there frozen, her knuckles white as she gripped the knob of the open door staring into the Colonel's office.

Inside the quiet office was a desk situated before the two tall windows that was as always sparsely occupied by the phone and a simple paper tray. The only addition to the dark wooden surface was the very tall stack of papers sitting in the center in front of a very asleep Colonel. He was in his usual position, pen clasped in his right hand and his left holding his head up.

"You shouldn't have left him alone all morning," Havoc said with a smirk.

"I was at the shooting range," Hawkeye said in a low tone. "Where were you all morning?"

The smirk melted into a grimace. "I was here," Havoc said evenly. "Doing paperwork. I have a date and I want to get out of here early."

"You should have been checking in on him."

"I didn't want to be roasted first thing this morning."

"Coward."

"Yes, I am," Havoc said proudly. "So what about it?" he persisted. "I'll take him for a walk and feed him."

"You fed him a pot of beans last time."

Breda leaned over to Falman and whispered, "Are they talking about the Colonel or the dog?"

"I'm not sure," was the simple reply.

"But Eugenie loves dogs," Havoc said.

"You're bribing the poor girl with a dog?" Fury squeaked.

"That's just sad," Breda laughed.

"Hey, it was worth a try." When Havoc noticed Hawkeye was not about to consent to his request, he lazily leaned back in the chair and rubbed his right shoulder. The familiar dull ache seemed to thread its way through muscle and bone and nothing he did could ease it. "Forget about it. It's going to rain tonight anyway. I'll just take her to one of those fancy far eastern cuisine places where they eat with sticks. She'll like that."

Fury shifted to look out the late morning window. Bright sunlight poured in, as it did from every unobstructed window on that side of the building. Beams of yellow sunlight even splashed across the sleeping Colonel's desk. "It doesn't look like rain," the young man said as he adjusted his glasses.

"My shoulder never lies," Havoc firmly replied in a tone often unfamiliar in the blond haired man.

"Maybe you should get it checked," Hawkeye offered as she glanced down at him from over her shoulder.

"Nah," he said, waving her off. "They'll just tell me it's in my head anyway."

"They have doctors for that too."

From within the Colonel's office a soft clatter was heard. It might as well have been a cannon blast for it drew silent, but terror filled attention from everyone.

At the desk, Mustang was still asleep, still propped on his left hand. The pen though had fallen from his fingers but not because they were lax from sleep. They twitched from dream, bare finger pads softly snapping together.

Havoc pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and checked it, relieved that it was not lit. "One of these days, he's going to blow us all up."

"Don't say that," Hawkeye snapped then frowned and sighed as she entered the office and marched up to the desk. "Colonel, you have paperwork to sign." Then she threatened, "You are not going home until it is done. I don't care if it is Friday and I don't care if you have a date." When Mustang did not respond, still only silently snapping his bare fingers together, she added, "The war is over."

Havoc barely heard the words spoken, but felt their weight like a bullet in the chest. "No, it's not." He rubbed his shoulder and knew that Hawkeye did not say those words lightly. If anything, she was like him, who only wished they could dispel the demons of memory. She'd seen action in the last years of the rebellion, same as he had. She had been at Medes as well. And though they rarely ever spoke of the past, he knew the things that haunted her for they haunted him as well, but he knew he could only imagine what the Colonel had seen during those bloody days.

Damn, he thought. Fine time for it to rain, it was going to get him all out of whack before his date. He hated it when his shoulder ached and yet, for some strange reason it was aching more than usual; had been for weeks. The pain took him back to places he did not like visiting.

"Hey, didn't you take a bullet to the shoulder during the rebellion?" Fury curiously asked.

"Yeah, I still have it."

"In a place of honor?"

God that kid's so naïve. "Nope, still in my shoulder. It got me out of the fighting for a few months and by the time I was fit to return to action, it was almost over and all was left was clean up."

"Well, you lucked out."

"I think I would have rather been on patrol all those months than go through what happened to get that way again. Being shot is no fun." Suffocating in a hell of smoke and ash, pinned down by heretic Ishbalans was no party either. He could see that other squad, standing there in the open, and no cover to speak of when the bullets started flying. They were all dead in a few blinks of the eye.

"Colonel," Hawkeye's irritated voice drifted into the staff room.

"She's going to shoot him one of these days," Falman said as he shuffled through some paperwork in front of him.

"Not like the first time she's tried." Havoc laughed but noted the others looked at him curiously. No, he was not going to tell them that story.

Again Hawkeye's tense voice was heard in the Colonel's office. "Sir. Colonel."

He remembered the fear that once lit her voice, that day in Medes. There were plenty of moments he remembered with great clarity, but the tremor in Hawkeye's always steady voice had stayed with him all these years.

BAM!

Havoc nearly hit the ceiling as the sharp noise reverberated through the offices. His heart was thundering wildly. He turned toward the source of the sound but at first could only see a flurry of papers where Hawkeye and the Colonel had been. He was on his feet the instant the papers had mostly fluttered to the floor.

Standing there with a handful of tattered papers still in her grip was Hawkeye. She was breathing heavily as she stared at the Colonel who was wide awake. His chair was shoved back against the wall and he was on his feet, his right hand outstretched, finger pressed together as if ready to respond to an immediate threat.

"Hawkeye?" he asked as if suddenly aware of his surroundings. Dropping his hand to his side. "Are you mad?"

"You are unarmed, sir," she said evenly.

Mustang looked down at his bare hand.

Setting the wrinkled stack of paper down on the desk, she picked up the pen and held it out toward him. "Get to work, sir."

Jumping out of the doorway as Hawkeye approached, he heard the Colonel snarl behind her and the squeak of his chair as he sat back down. Everyone in the staff room sat frozen and shocked as the First Lieutenant entered.

Fury was a paler shade of gray as he shook his head silently.

Havoc picked up the cigarette he had dropped and shakily put it back in its place hanging off his lower lip. "There has to be more subtle ways—"

"Sometimes, something stronger than subtle is needed," Hawkeye said as she walked passed and out the main door.

"Yeah."