lost moonchild: Okay, I decided that I'd better get back on the ball for updating stories so I'm picking this one back up. It's been a real shitty three years since we've had three or four people die. Two of them were kids that I knew in school. One was a freshman and the other was a junior so once again I've been hesitant about working on this story.

Disclaimer: I don't own Full Metal Alchemist or any of its characters. Any character that doesn't take part in FMA is mine. Oh, right, I don't own Humpty Dumpty.

Chapter Four

Arson.

The word echoed in Rosss mind as he stared up at the ceiling, his gray eyes unfocused as that damnable word echoed repeatedly. His brothers and sisters were all lying in the cold, unforgiving earth while he was lying on a soft, warm bed. Where was the justice in that?

His heart clenched painfully as he thought about his eleven deceased siblings. Rose, his favorite sister despite her attitude problems, murdered by somebody who had decided to test a virus that had slowly killed her. His ten younger brothers and sisters, each holding so much promise, murdered by somebody who had decided to make them suffer as the searing flames burned away their flesh.

He covered his eyes with his arm as tears threatened to spill from his eyes, a lump forming in his throat as he fought back a sob. "Don't pull any of your macho bullshit and just let yourself grieve." Ross heard Rose's voice snap at him. "Fuck, Ross, you barely even cried when I died just because you were afraid of the kids thinking that you couldn't handle my death."

But I couldn't, he thought as the pain he felt grew. I couldn't handle your death. You were me as a girl and now I've failed you. I couldn't help them.

He supposed it was a sign that he wasn't exactly mentally stable if he was arguing with a voice that didn't truly exist. Sure it was his sister's voice, but his mind wanted it to sound like her. In a short time, he'd be hearing his other siblings' voices. "They're connected you know. My death with the virus and our siblings' deaths with the fire." Roses voice told him with the same tone that she would use when he hadn't realized something obvious. "Guess what. You're next."

No, he couldn't be next. This couldn't be connected but it wasn't exactly a coincidence. A needle had been found among the ruins and its owner was unknown. None of the kids or even Ross had any use for a needle and Karoline's medical report didn't state that she had any disease that would require her to carry a needle. "Go on." Rose's voice urged.

The fire was a cover-up for something that had happened. There wasn't exactly enough for an autopsy and Sam had been covered from head to toe in bandages before he died. They had just assumed that he died from the burns. What if he had died from something else? "Bingo." Rose congratulated him. "Now, what are you going to do about it? Colonel Bastard won't believe you. As far as he's concerned at the moment, you gone loco from the grief."

Maybe he had gone crazy from the grief. After all, he hadn't allowed himself to grieve properly after Rose's death and losing nine siblings on the same day only to have the tenth die the next day while he slept was actually a good reason for somebody to believe that he had snapped. Yeah, he had gone crazy and made up Rose's voice to keep him from realizing that he had snapped.

Ross reached over and grabbed his gun, staring at it for a moment. It would be so easy to take the safety off and to put the gun to his head before he pulled the trigger. He could do that and he'd be with his family. "No, you idiot, find the ones that have been gunning for our family! Use that gun to end their lives, not yours!" Roses voice held anger as she spoke to him so she clearly didn't want him to kill himself.

She was right, he knew. He couldn't take his own life when he had so much that needed to be done already. The ones that murdered his family were still out there and he needed to hunt them down and make them pay dearly.

A knock on the door pulled the man from his thoughts and he set his gun back on the nightstand before getting up. Opening the door a little and peeking out, he was relieved to see that it was only Ed. "Hey, what's up?" Ross questioned as he allowed the blonde into the room.

"I wanted to see how you were holding up." Ed answered with a concerned look on his face. "How are you holding up?"

Hearing voices, temporarily contemplating suicide... "Just fine," answered Ross with a forced smile.

Ed didn't look convinced as he took a seat. "Look, Winry's worried about you and I am too. Hell, even Al's worried." Ed told the man before glancing at the gun. Turning his attention back to Ross, Ed frowned. "Ross, I want you to tell me the truth. Were you thinking about killing yourself?"

"Even if I was, do you think that I'd admit to it?" Ross questioned as he put the gun away.

"Ross, you know that taking your own life isn't the answer."

"I know that, Ed!" Ross shouted at the blonde. "Damn it! My entire family is dead and all anybody can think about is if I'm going to fucking kill myself!"

Edward didnt flinch as the other man began yelling angrily, cursing everybody he could think of for whatever reason. The blonde understood why his friend was so angry and just let him vent until his sobs took away his ability to speak. "I don't know why God had to take them away from me." Ross sobbed finally. "Why not just leave my family alone? What did we do to piss him off?"

Ed moved so he was sitting next to the other man and began rubbing his back in a soothing manner. "Shit just happens." Ed told him gently. "Even I got to admit that your family got dumped on quite a bit and that sucks, but you have to pick yourself up and keep going. You can't allow your grief to consume you and make you do something stupid."

Even after Ed left, Ross allowed himself to keep crying until he had no more tears to cry. Exhausted but unable to sleep, Ross just lay quietly on the bed and stared absentmindedly at the wall. "Listen to the bastard, brother." Rose's voice told him softly. "When you're ready, pick yourself back up. It's okay. They'll get caught and your chance will come."

But he couldn't pick himself up. He was broken into thousands of pieces and didn't know which piece went where anymore. He had started to crack when he discovered what had happened to Rose and when she died, he just started to fall apart. The fire that had just shattered him.

It didn't matter if he didn't know where the pieces went now. Time would pass and he'd slowly figure out where each piece went. Maybe someday he'd be put together again but for right now he felt like Humpty Dumpty. All the King's horses and all the King's men hadn't been able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again and he knew that they wouldn't be able to put him together again as well.

Closing his gray eyes, Ross allowed himself to fall into a dreamless sleep.

lostmoonchild: Okay, that chapters done so I'll get to work on the other chapter. Um.. I plan on updating once or twice a week depending on how much I get done since I've got other stories to work on and a bunch of crazy shit going on around here but I will try. Honestly, trying is really all I can say that I'll do so read and review, flames will be accepted.