Hello everyone. Sorry about the long wait for this chapter. I hate writers block, it's so hard to shake. Hopefully this chapter will be worth the wait.

As for those of you who guessed who Noodle and Jed were inspired by, congratulations, someone got it. Attention2Detaille was right for Noodle, being from the band Gorrilaz, and Guardian Ruunai was correct with Jed being Jet from Avatar.

Also, people have been wondering exactly when this is all taking place, and I have to say Attention2Detaille said it best in that it is after Ed and Al have met Pride in episode 32, but before anybody really knows who he is in episode 37. So yes, GreedLing is in existence, and yes, he may make an appearance, as for when, we'll just have to wait and find out.

Chapter 11

Selim was nearly frozen until Derik stood up suddenly and motioned for him to follow, staying clear from the windows. Going through the dark, jumbled hallways the black haired boy tried not to panic. At least no one was opening the door yet, maybe the police would just go away. I mean, surely if they knew someone was living here, especially a bunch of kids, they would of taken care of them and sent them off to safe homes by now, right? He could hear Pride scoff in his head, but decided to just ignore it.

As they headed to what Selim assumed to be the basement, the two ran into Jed, and Derik began explaining the situation to him immediately.

"Police are at the door, Pride here's gotta hide for some reason or another, so I was takin him to the basement," Derik said quickly, and Jed nodded. Selim was surprised at how no one seemed to question him, but figured they were most likely going to wait until after the police had left and the immediate danger (Selim never thought he'd be thinking of the police as danger) had passed.

"Right, you take him and hide him, I'll go make sure everybody else's okay," Jed said before disappearing down the corridor. Without wasting another second Derik led him into the basement.

It was extremely dark, Selim could barely see a foot in front of him, and littered with all sorts of useless junk. He knew he was already covered in cuts and soon bruises by the time they managed to work their way to the far corner of the room. Derik pushed a few objects, Selim couldn't see what, out of the way, before motioning for him to sit.

Selim could see him grab something off the top of a pile (was it an old curtain?) and turn back towards him. "I'm gonna put this and a few pieces of cardboard or something on you so that the police'll see nothing if they do end up comin down here, so just hand tight until one o' us come and get ya," Selim managed to nod before the fabric was draped on top of him, followed by a few random, and thankfully light, objects.

Waiting until the sound of Derik stumbling out of the darkness finally stopped, Selim sighed. Stuck in another dark, enclosed place, worrying about getting caught. It was getting old pretty fast.

"You could just turn yourself in," Pride's voice ran though him head. Selim started shaking him head, but had to stop when he felt the things on top of him begin to move.

"I already told you I can't do that, you might be fine with having me exercised by those strange mole people, but I'm not going to die again," Selim whispered. Pride didn't answer, and Selim sighed again. No, he wasn't going home. It wasn't his home anyway. His home was on fire somewhere far away. Well, he supposed it wasn't on fire anymore, seeing at it'd been several days since he left, but that didn't really matter to him all that much right now. He did feel bad about keeping Pride away from his home though.

"I'm not a simple minded child like you, I can stand being away for a few days," Selim didn't say anything. He knew Pride would deny anything he said anyway, although he couldn't help but wonder what his mother was doing, or well, Pride's mother, to be exact.

-A few days earlier-

Mrs. Bradley wondered around her mansion of a house. It was almost eleven now and she couldn't find her son anywhere. She hadn't seen him since dinner, actually, and with his recent behavior, she was beginning to get extremely worried. Her husband would be home soon, and hopefully he could help some. She had actually just reached his study, one of the last places she had left to search.

Standing in the middle of the room, she saw nothing seemed to be out of place. Sighing, the woman crossed her arms. Not here either. True, Selim tended to disappear quite a bit, but she had a bad feeling this time. Call it a mother's intuition.

When she turned to leave the room she saw her husband standing in the doorway, and apparently her worry was obvious, or something else had happened to Mr. Bradley at work. His usually care free expression was replaced with one of concern.

"Dear, I can't find Selim anywhere, I haven't seen him since dinner," the worried mother explained. His frown deepened, but he didn't look overly concerned.

"Have you checked his room?" he asked, and Larissa had to resist rolling her eyes. Of course she had checked his room, that was the first place she looked. She had to quickly remind herself though, that this was her husband she was dealing with, and knowing him he would forget to check his son's room.

"Yes, he's not there, or anywhere else in the house," She explained again, and could feel her husbands concern growing, although he didn't say anything. "It's getting late, where could he have gone? He's been acting so strange lately, I'm worried,"

"I'm sure he's fine dear, he's probably just holed himself up somewhere and fallen asleep," King Bradley said confidently. Larissa nodded absentmindedly, a frown on her face. She supposed that was possible, but she couldn't help but feel it was something much more serious. "You go get some sleep, I'm positive he'll turn up in the morning."

"Alright King, but if he doesn't turn up in the morning I want something done," She said decisively, and King nodded.

"Of course, I wouldn't want him wondering around by himself anymore then you would," He said as he followed her off to bed.

He didn't show up in the morning, or the rest of that day for that matter. They'd questioned all the guard but no one had seen anyone suspicious entering or leaving the building, or even more simply Selim himself leaving. King kept saying he would be alright, but that didn't help her nerves much at all. Especially since he seemed just as worried as she was.

Her husband had a special squad of people looking for him, but they hadn't sent anything public just yet. If it was a kidnapper, then the ransom would most likely come soon, and that's when they would get the police involved. If it wasn't a kidnapper, then their was no need to get the public in a panic. At least, not yet anyway.

She couldn't sleep that night. They had people searching everywhere, but so far their was no leads on her son what so ever. She wanted to be out there looking, and she wanted to be the one to find him, not some stranger. What if he was scared, or alone, or hurt. No, she definitely couldn't sleep with all the thoughts running through her head. She didn't very well want to either, she had a feeling that her dreams wouldn't be the most pleasant ones she'd ever had, if she did.

When she received a call the next day saying the Elric brothers had found her son as far away as Resembool, she nearly fainted. When she asked how he'd gotten all the way out there, if he was alright, had he been kidnapped, and many, many other things the only answer she got was that her son had run away, sneaked onto a train, and wouldn't tell anybody why.

Of course, she was extremely relieved to find out he was all right and in the custody of someone she felt she could trust, but she was still unspeakably bothered. Selim was a good boy, he wouldn't of ran off like this just to get attention. There was a reason as to why he had left, and that was reinforced for her by the fact that he wouldn't tell anyone why. Something had been wrong with him since he had gotten sick in class, and as soon as he came home she was going to find out what.

"They what!" Mrs. Bradley yelled at the messenger in front of her. Not many people had the privilege of seeing it, but she had quite a temper. Her husband had said that was actually one of the things that had drawn him to her. Apparently he had overheard her telling off an incompetent worker at her old job at a clothing store, and he'd been infatuated ever since.

The poor man cowering before her didn't seem to enjoy her temper nearly as much, as he nodded feebly and began to explain again. "T-the Elric brothers l-lost master Selim in the G-gradford T-train station, ma'am," Taking a deep breath, Mrs. Bradley nodded, and waved the poor, scared man away.

Now, she wasn't mad at the Elrics, she knew they wouldn't of lost her son on purpose. No, no, she doubt he was kidnapped either. They hadn't let out that Selim had been missing to the public yet, so no one would of known it was him in that train station.

Her son had run away again. She had no doubt he was smart enough to do so. Chances are the brother's guards would of been down when only watching after a small child, and he would of used that to his advantage.

No, she wasn't mad at the Elrics, but at herself. As his mother, she should of known what was bothering him before it came to this. Sitting down on the closest chair she could find, she just collapsed. Sighing, she tried to look on the bright side. They knew where he was now, it was only a matter of time before the police found him and brought her son home. Or at least, that's what she hoped.

Well, there you have it. I feel bad for the short chapter after such a long wait, but I do hope you like it. We got to see what Mrs. Bradley was doing all this time. I have to say I've always felt bad for this woman. I mean, her ending in the manga has a bit of happiness in it, but if you think about what she had to go through at end of the 2003 anime, then damn. I never really thought about it until I saw then end of the manga, but it's really bad for the poor lady in that one. I mean, really bad. Well, please review.