AN: It's funny how despite my own lack of confidence in the last chapter, people still seemed to enjoy it.

My friend, Amanda is like that too with her art. No matter how many times we tell her how fantastic her drawings are she's convinced they look like shit. Anyway let's hope this chapter goes better for us both.

I'd like you all to keep in mind that this story takes place in the early 20th century and at this point the term "lesbian" was not widely known or used. That is why the notion of a female being Riza's stalker sounds absolutely ludicrous in the minds of the other characters. That being said homosexuality involving men has been more commonly recognized, hence why more people even in the early 1900s would be aware of its existence.

I really hope Riza doesn't come off as being OOC in this chapter. Please tell me if she is. I will go back over it and fix the spelling mistakes as soon as I can but I'm going out pretty soon.

Thank You: AndAPartridgeInAGrapeTree, InsecureLemon, Eli White, YesMyLord666, XxXPeaceReaperXxX (No, your review didn't blow ^_^), DisillusionedNight, Mcrtrix (Yes, RIP Roy's car), cassual reader, Sniper Riza Hawkeye, maristhesealatin

In the early morning hours of the next day, Roy came out of his apartment building. His crisp, clean uniform suggested that he was ready to head off to work while the dark circles that were growing under his eyes suggested that he was ready to hit the sack at any given moment.

Parked right out front was Hughes, he honked his car horn once to be sure to get Roy's fading attention and gave him a friendly shout "Morning' Roy!"

At this point Roy might as well of been hung over for lack of sleep coupled with Hughes' cheeriness was producing the same effect on him as it would with someone who'd been out drinking all the night prior.

Roy gave his friend a slight wave of his hand, as though shooing a pesky bug away.

"Good morning, Hughes." Roy opened the car door and crawled into the passengers' seat.

Hughes turned to him and held up a small basket, which apparently had been resting between the two seats the whole time. "Look what Gracia made!"

Out of mild curiosity, Roy uncovered what lay beneath the cloth top and the smell of blueberries hit him. They were blueberry muffins.

"Gracia figured that you wouldn't be eating anything this morning, so she made these just for you."

Roy smiled slightly, he wasn't hungry but he didn't want to be rude so he took one from the basket. Gracia truly was a sweet woman, who always seemed to be thinking about anyone other than herself.

Roy buckled himself in as Hughes turned on the ignition. "So what happened to your car?" he was still smiling.

"It burnt to a crisp. What's got you so happy?"

"I get to carpool with my best friend, why wouldn't I be happy? Although correct me if I'm wrong but couldn't you just have used some sort of Alchemy to fix it or to put the fire out?"

Roy grumbled slightly "If I had known that the damn thing was on fire, I would have rushed out and done something about it but no one bothered to tell me until after one of the waiters had run outside to try and put it out. If it wasn't for him I would have been able to make the car good as new but apparently no one told him that alcohol is extremely flammable. The whole thing just…" Roy made an explosion motion with his hands.

As tempted as Hughes was to laugh, he simply shook his head.

"I told you to be careful."

"Are you saying that it's my fault that some psycho burnt my car?" snapped Roy, he was not in a good mood at all.

"It was, if it really was Riza's anonymous sender. It means that you did something that they saw and it sent them over the edge and straight into phase two."

Roy cocked his head slightly "Phase two?"

"After working in the investigations department for all these years…" stated Hughes, attempting to make it seem like he had worked there far longer then he actually had. A dumb and pointless idea on his part as it was Roy who had made sure that Hughes got the position all of two and ½ years ago.

"…and of course, dealing with Gracia's stalker, I've found that stalkers don't start out as violent people. The first phase it's simple things like sending anonymous letters or presents, I like to call this the "Secret Admirer Stage."

Roy chuckled "What are you doing, writing a book?"

"Do you think I should?" beamed Hughes, as he took his eyes off the road for a split second. The look on Roy's face made it very apparent that he was just being his usual snarky self.

"Anyway, phase two is extremely dangerous and the trigger for this is almost always caused by the victim's boyfriend…"
"Riza isn't a victim."

"In a case like this, she is." He stated seriously. "In this phase it is very common for the stalker to set something that the boyfriend cares about on fire, in this case your car."

"What did Gracia's stalker burn?"

"…It doesn't matter." Hughes said slowly "The point is that now is the time to find this guy before he get's to phase three."

"What happens during phase three?"

"That's when, if they have any sort of conscience left, they begin to wonder whether or not they should kill you."

"What if they don't have a conscience?" questioned Roy, already sensing the answer.

"Then they go right to the last phase, "The Decision"." He stated solemnly "So like I said before, you and Riza need to be carful."

Roy sighed heavily, this was serious. Normally Roy would not be this worried but if they could light his car up without him noticing or tail him on what was supposed to be a secret date with Riza, it meant that this guy would also be capable of attacking him directly before Roy could so much as flinch. If he didn't act soon then this stalker could end up killing him…or someone else. He had to find out who the sick bastard was.

Upon arrival at Headquarters Hughes parked the car and turned to Roy "Remember be careful or you won't be able to have the honor of having the most beautiful flower girl at your wedding!" He took out his wallet and shoved it at Roy's face. When Roy was able to back away far enough from the image, he saw that it was yet another photo of Elicia. She was all dressed up and tossing flower petals around the apartment.

"Uh, Hughes? I'm not an expert of toddler fashion but isn't that dress just a bit small?" he said pointing to the picture.

"Gracia sewed it a year ago. It would have fit perfectly then but somebody had to wait another whole year before finally asking out the love of their lives!"

Being that it was still early in the morning the Phone Room was almost completely vacant save for a lone secretary, whose job was to monitor how much personal time those using the phones were taking up.

Riza Hawkeye reluctantly walked into the room. She had been told that Rebecca was on the line, waiting for her. It wasn't that Riza didn't want to talk to Rebecca, after all they were best friends and yet they hardly ever spoke. These rare chances to speak to one another were always looked forward to but Riza's mind was on high alert and even a casual conversation would be difficult for Riza to focus on.

She kept thinking about the car, not because she personally cared about something so trivial but because someone was able to get that close to Roy and destroy something that he cared about. Someone had been following them, stalking them from the shadows and Riza hadn't noticed.

No, she had noticed it; that was the true problem. She had been feeling a strange pair of eyes following her for a long while now and yet she never could catch them. Riza's job since Ishval had been to watch over and to protect Roy's back the same way he had protected hers and yet she couldn't even lock eyes with her own stalker.

She had to find them. She had to find them soon.

Riza picked up one of the phones, "Hello?"

"Hey Riza!" came the boisterous voice of Rebecca.

Rebecca went on for a while about her latest boyfriend troubles, which were really just the same problems that she was always facing. She was setting her bar far too high for any man to meet. The only one who came anywhere close to the sort of guy she was looking for was Havoc.

While Rebecca held her almost entirely one sided conversation, Riza's mind went back to those anonymous letters. She had lied to Roy when she said that she had thrown them out, in fact she had kept every one of them. She was not entirely sure of the reason herself; she had never been very analytical. Perhaps she had kept them because of how unnerving they were…how eerily similar, especially the first few.

In them they described the disconnection that they felt from other and of how people in their lives just had a way of disappearing on them. It reminded Riza of her school days…of the days spent with her father…

"Hello? Riza? Are you listening to me?"

"I'm sorry. I'd like to talk to you but the Colonel…" She was cut off

"What's happened?"

Given that they were talking on a military line and their calls were undoubtedly being listened to she could not say much. She told Rebecca that Roy's car had gone up in flames and that someone had been sending her anonymous letters. She left it up to Rebecca to connect the dots.

"Oh, so you've got secret admirer, huh? Be careful if a guy doesn't have the guts to go up to you and ask you out, then he's no good and probably ugly."

Riza smiled lightly

"Hey maybe it isn't even a guy. Maybe it's a woman."

"What do you mean?" questioned Riza

"Well I know this guy, I'm not going to say who but he's "living" with another man so maybe the real reason why this person hasn't said anything to you directly is because they're a woman. After all if two guys can fall in love then why not two women?"

Riza had never considered this possibility but as she thought it over, the more sense it made. Could her anonymous be a woman?

After saying goodbye to Rebecca, Riza hung up the phone and made her way back into the office. The letters that she had received suggested that the sender's motivation was loneliness and not lust, so perhaps it was a woman. Could someone who wrote kind words and held such intense thoughts of sorrow truly be capable of violence? It was clear that if left alone they would be sure to strike again but how far would they go?

Upon entering the office she found Havoc, Breda, and Fuery munching away at the muffins that Mrs. Hughes had baked. Roy was sitting at his desk with Hughes leaning over him, they were examining several files.

"What are you doing, sir?"

Roy looked up at his Lieutenant, Havoc approached Hawkeye and asked if she wanted a muffin, she declined.

"I'm trying to figure out who destroyed my car. These files contain every arson report within the last month as well as a list of all possible suspects."

That was why Hughes was still standing around. He had brought the files over from the investigations department and was now helping Roy weed through the possible suspects.

Then something caught Riza's attention. She approached Roy's desk and held up one of the files. "Sir, isn't this Sergeant Brosh's personal file?"

"Yes, I still haven't ruled out the possibility that whoever it was that burnt my car may very well be the same person who has been sending you anonymous letters."

"And you suspect Sergeant Brosh?"

"Yes."

It was more then clear that Roy knew that this wasn't some random arsonist and that his real focus would be on any man in the military who had so much as glanced at Riza.

"Sir, the person you are looking for may very well be just an arsonist or perhaps it is someone that you've never considered before."

"What do you mean?"

"I was just on the phone with Second Lieutenant Catalina, I mentioned the anonymous letters and she seems to think that the sender may in fact be a woman."

The room became quite for a time as the thought ran through their minds. Fuery turned to Havoc and whispered "How would that work?"

"I don't know." Confessed Havoc

Havoc, Breda, and Fuery turned to Mustang with quizzical looks.

"Don't look at me. I grew up above a hostess bar and even I don't know how it works." Stated Mustang sternly.

It seemed that the only one who wasn't trying to figure out how sex between two women would work was Hughes, who said "Actually that does make sense. I'm surprised I didn't think of it before. Where does Lieutenant Catalina live?"

"She is stationed at the Eastern Command Center."

"Well that rules her out. Are there any other females that you are close to?"

Riza hated discussing anything personal within in the office. At Headquarters she was Lieutenant Hawkeye, a practically robotic arsenal and automatic bodyguard who would kill anyone who threatened Roy and his goal of becoming Fuhrer. Outside she was simply Riza, a quiet woman who lived with her dog, went grocery shopping on the weekends, and was deeply in love with her childhood friend. Riza needed that division to remind herself that she was an individual. Her decisions were her own and not the military's, Roy's, or her father's.

"Not that it is any of your business but no."

Riza detested the look that Hughes was giving her; it was one of sheer pity.

"Gracia has trouble meeting people too; maybe you two should get together and go shopping or something."

"With all do respect, Lieutenant Colonel, I can find my own friends."

Later that day Riza had gone down to the shooting range for practice. She was still on edge with thoughts circling around her mind as to who her stalker might be. Now that Rebecca and Hughes had suggested that it may be a woman the list of possible suspects were endless.

She took aim with her rifle and pointed it at the target board. She pulled the trigger. She was off.

Riza hadn't completely missed but the difference between were she had been aiming and where the bullet had hit was noticeable to her and anyone else with a trained eye. She wasn't the type to get frustrated and throw a hissy fit over a bad shot but she was disappointed in herself. If she let her emotions get the better of her then she would never be able to protect Roy and if she wasn't watching over him then all sorts of bad things could happen.

When they were reunited in Ishval, he had almost gotten stabbed to death simply because he wasn't watching his back for signs of the enemy. It was as though he had been expecting her to watch over him from the very beginning.

Riza felt someone behind her. She lowered her weapon and turned around. It was Sergeant Colt.

She was not standing directly behind her or in a way that would pose a problem to someone who was firing a loaded weapon onto the range. She saluted her like it was a reflex or something and then she spoke, "Are you alright, Lieutenant?"