Chapter One: The Aftermath

Riza sat up and took in her surroundings, all she could see was stark white walls with a speaker, an old style door, and a single window, outside the window was a field that stretched for miles.

"Hello?…is anyone there?" she called.

The door opened and Riza tried to turn, only to find that she couldn't.

"Oh don't try to turn please. You'll injure yourself. "A smiling nurse came into view." I'm glad to see you're awake. You gave us all quite a scare."

"Where am I?"

"You are in a hospital ma'am. You were very badly hurt."

Riza looked around and asked, "Where is Colonel Mustang? Is he alright?"

The nurse smiled even bigger "Oh there's no need to worry about that. You just work on healing your body. You can get acquainted with your new master later."

Riza just looked at her confused and said "What do you mean 'master'?"

The nurse left the room, and pressed a button on the outside of the door on the way out, sending bars down on the window.

"Hey! HEY! YOU GET BACK HERE AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" Riza yelled at the retreating woman, who stopped and turned.

She walked up to the now barred door and laughed, "I don't take orders from hostages…Riza Hawkeye." She saw Riza's widened eyes and said "oh yes. We know who you are. We also know that you will work very well as bait for the colonel." Then she left.

There was no way out of this that she could see. She didn't know where she was, or even who she had been captured by. She could be a prisoner of war or just a hostage of someone with a grudge against the colonel.

Riza thought of the colonel and was troubled. The colonel was a smart man, he wouldn't risk his life to save one soldier…but then she thought back to the days before they left for the east.

He had asked her to come with him and of course she had agreed as she always did but there was something different about the way he did it. She had always loved him, from the day she first showed him the tattoo he father had put on her back she had trusted him completely.

Riza knew in the back of her mind that Colonel Mustang would try to recover her and when that happened he would be ambushed.

She put her fist in her mouth and bit down to keep from screaming.

She had never been put into this kind of position before. She reached for her gun, after all, what kind of stupid man would try to rescue someone who was already dead? But when her hand reached the place where her gun should've been, it closed on empty air.

Then a voice came out of the speaker "Now lieutenant, do you really think we'd make it that easy? You underestimate us" Then Riza laid back and closed her eyes as a single teardrop fell.

In Central

Roy Mustang awoke in an empty room and spent a good moment confused. "What's going on?"

At that moment two officers, Havoc and Breda, came in. "Colonel Sir!" They saluted. "At ease." He directed his attention toward Havoc and said, "What happened out there?"

Havoc answered, "Sir! We won the battle. Thirty-three dead, fifty-six injured. Everyone was accounted for except…"

He looked uneasily around. Roy had a feeling he knew and said "tell me. Where is lieutenant Hawkeye? Where is my lieutenant?" Havoc looked down

"We don't know sir…after the explosion that nearly killed you everything went to hell. Lucky for us Armstrong and the Elrics showed up. They caused the easterns to retreat and enabled us to recover our wounded and account for our dead. Hawkeye wasn't among either of them. We have people searching the area for her as we speak."

Breda looked at Mustang in shock. "Colonel? Are you alright?"

Roy Mustang had a grimace on his face as he spoke "it's my fault. Riza…Lieutenant Hawkeye…she was there by my request…if anything happened to her..." He looked down for a second before snapping his head back up. "Bring me my uniform."

"But colonel you aren't ready yet! You'll get hur-"

"I said Bring. Me. My. Uniform. Are you disobeying a direct order?"

They saluted and said "No sir! Right away sir!" before leaving. While they were gone he put his head in his hands and remembered…

"Lieutenant! I need to ask you something!"

Lieutenant Hawkeye turned around, "Yes Colonel?"

"I've been assigned to lead the guard on the Eastern border. They seem to be preparing for attack, but we aren't sure. Will you join me? I could use your eyes."

"Colonel, you should know by now that you don't have to ask."

He smiled and said "that's what I hoped you'd say. You may go. I have preparations to make."

She turned and left, not noticing the way he watched her walk away. He gave her the orders and she followed them. That's the way it had always been…until recently.

He knew he wasn't supposed to, after all, inter-militarian relationships almost never worked out, and there was the Anti-Fraternization law to work with…but lately he had noticed more and more how her cinnamon colored eyes sparkled on the rare occasion of laughter, and the way one stray hair always found its way out of her perfectly combed bangs to hang over her right eye.

He would never admit with his reputation but he was slowly developing a crush on Ms. Hawkeye. He only hoped no one could tell.

"Colonel? Here are your things."

Roy Mustang snapped his head up and looked at Havoc, forgetting for a second where he was.

"Oh…right" He stood up dizzily and grabbed his uniform away from Havoc's hand and growled, "Now get out. I have to get dressed."

Havoc sighed inaudibly and saluted before turning on his heels and walking out.

Colonel Mustang was able to get his uniform on and get out into the hallway before he collapsed.

Havoc was standing in the doorway and caught him as he went down. "Sir! Are you alright?"

He supported the Colonel until he was steady on his feet and said "well, if you insist on leaving, let me help you."

He was shocked when Roy looked at him with a hint of tears in his eyes and said simply, "Thank you."

Please review, be gentle its my first. :)