Hello readers! Thanks for all of your reviews last chapter; they were greatly appreciated.

Due to the wait from last chapter, I give you chapter 29 early! So I hope you enjoy it. :)

"…it all begins with a man by the name of Zolf J. Kimblee."

Edward stared at his father, confused. Did he really just say what he thought he had just said? How could his father, that had basically been unheard of for the past four years, know about Kimblee? More importantly, how and why would he know about Kimblee almost 20 years before hand?

"What?" Ed asked.

"Who?" Al asked, wearing an expression of obvious confusion; Ed had momentarily forgotten that Al did not really know who Kimblee was, for Ed had only mentioned him once.

"He's my foster parent," Ed reminded his brother.

"What?" Al asked before turning to their father, looking for answers.

"Yes, that is who I am referring to. So, without much more interruptions, I would like to continue. About twenty years ago I began working at this part-time job in between classes and that was where I not only met Kimblee…but your mother as well."

Edward felt something catch in his throat at these words. His own mother? That must have meant that Kimblee knew his mother if he knew his father. Suddenly, a memory of a conversation from not too long ago resurfaced in his mind.

"… Because this is what you get! This is what you and that whore get for running away together!"

"Don't you ever dare call my wife a whore!"

Realization clicked in Edward's mind at this small memory and suddenly, he knew who had been yelling at Kimblee from the other telephone line.

"You where the other person," Ed muttered quietly, staring blankly at Hohenheim.

"What did you say?" Hohenheim asked.

"You, you called Kimblee the day before I left to come and find Al," Ed said, causing a small smile to break out on Hohenheim's face.

"I had a feeling that someone might have been listening on the other line. I was hoping that it might have been you."

"Yeah, it was. But wait, then that means that…" Ed began while his mind drifted off to the same conversation.

"…You're the one that sent that agent over here weren't you? You almost sent all these kids lose!"

"Yes and then they'd finally be able to put their problems behind them and live a good life! Something, because of you, Edwards been denied!"

His father hadknown where he had been then. And he had tried to save him from Kimblee's fury. But then why wouldn't he simply go to Kimblee personally and take Ed away himself instead of having cops get involved? Hohenheim nodded at Ed's open mouth, as if he knew what part of the conversation Ed was presently thinking about.

"Yes, but let's talk about that later," he added when he saw that Al was about to question what was going on. "So I met Kimblee first, and he seemed normal enough. Clearly a bit on the crazier side of normal but normal enough to go through life undetected. We were co-workers and we got along; both were brilliant young men stuck in a job they were both clearly overqualified for. So we confided in each other and slowly, after a few months, we became something you could call friends, and we stayed that way for some time afterwards. That is, until we got another co-worker; your mother."

Ed could see Hohenheim's story unfolding in his mind like a movie strip with astonishing clarity. There was Kimblee, looking younger but still with the same manic gleam in his eyes, and Hohenheim, who Ed had substituted with himself with a bit of facial hair. He pictured them wearing some sort of store smock while leaning behind counters, clearly board at the monotony of it all. And then, there was the appearance of a pretty young brunette who seemed gentle and pleasant to everyone there. But Ed still couldn't quite piece what had happened next. Had Trisha done something to Kimblee? But Ed could never picture his mother doing anything remotely bad. So what had happened?

"The three of us had gotten along astonishingly well at first. Your mother was kind but smart and sometimes surprisingly witty. I had instantly fallen head over heels for her," Hohenheim said with a small reminiscing smile lingering on his face. "But then, Kimblee beat me to it."

"You mean she went out with him?" Ed asked in extreme disgust; he could almost feel the bile rising in his throat at the thought of his own mother and…Kimblee.

"Unfortunately yes; and for quite a while actually. Everyone in town was shocked. Sweet and innocent Trisha with nasty criminal record Kimblee, no one could really believe it even if they saw it with their own two eyes. But then again, Kimblee was always such a smooth talker; he could get away with anything and get anything he wanted."

Ed could not believe this either. What had his mother ever seen in Kimblee? Ever since Ed had begun to remember his past, he had always pictured his mother as if she had simply come out of the womb as world's best mother. Never had he ever even begun to think that maybe his mother had been, even for one instance, a normal teenager who did things that were clearly stupid.

"…This is what you and that whore get for running away together!"

"And you were jealous," Ed realized aloud, causing Hohenheim to shift uncomfortably in his seat. "Because you liked her too but your friend got to her first."

"Yes."

"So you stole her away from Kimblee? And that's why he was so mad at you?" Ed asked, almost hoping there was more for it seemed impossible that Kimblee could stay so hung up over something as trivial as his girlfriend getting stolen.

"Well, there's more," Hohenheim added. "You see, when you put two brilliant young minds together your end result will almost always be competition. We always fought to be…Employee of the Month or who could get the most customers or…silly things like that."

"And then you two competed for…my mom?" Ed asked, now feeling thoroughly confused.

"No," Hohenheim answered firmly. "Kimblee mentioned it one time and I said that I was against using someone else's feelings for our silly games. But I'm sure that that idea stayed in the back of both our minds for some time afterwards.

"And then, one day out of the blue, Trisha had actually asked him to drinks after work and we both felt as if the un-said game was finished. Trisha had picked him and I was left in second place leaving Kimblee to enjoy his spoils. But unfortunately, Trisha did not seem read into the game as much as we did. While Trisha saw her and Kimblee as two friends going out for drinks, Kimblee saw Trisha as 'his women' and made that clear to everyone in town who might have wanted her; me included. They fought a bit over that subject but in the end, Trisha decided to give him a chance."

He tried to let it sink into his brain. Kimblee had wanted his mother and so did his father. And then…Kimblee and his mother…dated.Ed's mind instantly went into picturing steamy dates between the two that made Ed want to puke take-out and beer onto Izumi's clean table top.

"But then," Hohenheim continued with a sigh, "Trisha found out how I felt about her and she was instantly relieved; she had always had a crush on me but didn't think I liked her. Unfortunately, Kimblee's hold on Trisha had tightened in the months or so they had been together. He was now basically monitoring everything she did and grew almost violent during arguments but somehow, he had managed to keep Trisha from not only going to the police but to continue being with him. Again, Kimblee was the smoothest talker in town and I'm sure he would have gotten away even if the police had been called.

"But then, one night…about a year after me and Kimblee had begun working together, our boss had decided to throw a party for whatever reason. But then at the party, Trisha managed to get away long enough from Kimblee to come and talk to me. And when Kimblee didn't come tracking her down…well, one thing led to another and…" Hohenheim began to trail off while his face grew steadily redder. "Well, Kimblee…caught us."

Caught them?

It took about a minute for what Hohenheim was suggesting to sink into Ed's brain. And when it finally did register in Ed's brain…

…oh. UGH!

Ed instantly felt as if the air conditioning had broken and the sun was revolving around his face. He then screwed up his eyes and, for some reason, covered his ears with his hands and stared at his father with a pleading look.

"Okay! I get it! Can we move along then?" Ed shouted in a weak voice.

Izumi and Hohenheim had a small knowing smile on their faces while Al continued to look adorably clueless. Ed was sure that his brother wasn't thatnaïve and only hadn't stooped to the same conclusion Ed had simply because he hadn't been friends with Jean Havoc for years. Al turned to look at Ed, confused and looking for answers. Ed, not wanting to verbally convey what their father was suggesting, tried his best to scream it though his eyes. After a few moments of this, Al's eyes widened into two giant O's and his cheeks reddened.

"Oh," Al squeaked before pointing looking anywhere away from the adults.

"Yes, um," Hohenheim coughed and tried to regain his composure. "So, Kimblee was obviously enraged and well…let's just say that Trisha and I fled the party as fast as humanly possible. But we were worried when Kimblee didn't show up for work the next week and even more worried when I had learned that he had quit. It didn't seem like Kimblee, not at all."

And as Edward thought about it more and more, he agreed with his father. He could hardly imagine what he would feel if he found Roy or Jean fooling around with Winry but Kimble…Kimblee was different than most people. The Kimblee he knew sure as Hell wouldn't have been that affected if someone had stolen his girl. He had seen Kimblee go through a different girl a week first hand.

"And after a while, we stopped worrying about him. We got on with our lives and, well, that is to say, we got on with our lives for only a little bit," Hohenheim added, giving Edward an odd side-long glance. "We soon found out that Trisha was going to be expecting a baby."

Seriously, Ed found himself asking, what the Hell is going on here? My dad knocked my mom up, his best friend's girl? Jean's right- this is like the Twilight Zone.

"So, we quickly decided to settle down, find a place together, getting ready for you. It was hard. We were both so young but…we wanted you."

Hohenheim looked Ed in his eyes for a moment and allowed for those words to sink in. It was as if his father was trying to tell Ed that he had always been wanted but this only made Ed wonder more why he had not seen his father in years if he had been wanted so badly.

"And then, before you knew it, we had Edward and Alphonse, three years had passed by us already and we were in need of a more stable and higher paying job. And that's when I deiced to apply for this laboratory job D.C. I didn't think I would get it, so I applied, not realizing that that kind of job was sought after by so many and given out to so few."

"What kind of job was it Dad?" Al asked, speaking up for one of the first times during this conversation.

"It was a highly classified job that required all of your spare time but I can tell you we did things that may not always have been…agreed on. Sometimes we would be trying to cure obscure diseases, risking lives as we did it, and then some days we may have been trying to come up with the next biological weapon of war. But that job precisely is why I wasn't in your lives as much as I would have liked to be. And it is also why our lives are the way they are today."

Hohenheim stared at his hands that lay folded on the table top for a moment. Edward wanted to know what had happened but he was now beginning to get worried about what had happened next that he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to know.

"And then, about five years after I started working the job, Kimblee arrived there as well. It turns out that he had been accepted into the same job in the same laboratory anddepartment as me. It's probably understandable to say that I felt unnerved," Hohenheim added to Edward, who nodded. "Pictures of the four of us on my desk, letters, and the fact that he had chosen a desk right by mine…I have to say it made me feel rather guilty.

"And then one day, he began talking to me as if not a single day had passed since we had started working at the store and the incident with Trisha had never happened. In fact, he acted as if he had never even meta Trisha Elric, let alone date her for almost half a year. But I grew suspicious; especially when I begun to catch him staring at all of the pictures I had on my desk."

Edward felt as if someone had begun to snake a skeletal finger up his spin, sending shivers through his body. He felt a mild form of disgust forming in the pit of his stomach at the thought of Kimblee staring at his baby pictures. Kimblee hadknown him before he had been sent into his care. And was this the reason why Kimblee always had treated him the harshest out of all the children there? Because he was the physical clone of the man who had stolen his women years before? It all seemed too weird to be actually happening.

"So what happened next Dad?" Al asked innocently. Ed realized that during all of his thinking, Hohenheim had stopped speaking. Maybe so that he could gather his own thoughts too?

Hohenheim returned to staring at his hands, frustrating Ed slightly; he had to know what happened next. But then Ed caught sight of something in his father's eyes. It was a flash of several emotions in one moment: sadness, pain, grief, regret, and…something else that Ed couldn't quite decipher. Finally, Hohenheim looked up at the digital clock on the microwave and opened his mouth. But what came out only annoyed Ed more than the sight of Kimblee himself.

"Look at the time. It's getting awfully late, why don't you boys go and get some rest?"

"No way!" Ed exclaimed, feeling mutinous. "You started this story and I damn well want to hear the rest!"

But it was not Hohenheim who spoke up to stop him, it was Izumi. She sent Ed a quick glare that told him to shut his mouth before she stood up from her place at the table and looked at the two brothers.

"I think it's best that you listen to your father and get some rest," Izumi said in a quite voice, but Ed heard an undertone in her voice that said she was not one to be fucked with right now. "So go wash up and get to sleep. I promise-we bothpromise," she added, looking at Hohenheim who nodded slightly, "that we will finish this tomorrow. But for now, it's time to sleep."

"Goodnight," Al sighed quietly before getting up from his spot.

When Ed didn't reciprocate his actions, Al gave him a look that could only come from years of knowledge of what happens when one defies Izumi Curtis. Finally, after looking from his father to Izumi to Al, Ed got up from his spot, said a quite 'good night' to all three of them before disappearing with Al up to their room.

"Are you seriously going to tell him what truly happened?" Izumi asked once she heard the soft noises of doors closing upstairs.

"How can't I? You saw how Edward looked when I told him to wait until tomorrow for the rest. I can't lieto him or Alphonse. Besides, I'm sure Kimblee would just tell Ed when he got back if he asked just to piss me off and hurt Edward."

"Well what if he chooses to stay here?" Izumi asked after a pause.

"You would do that?" Hohenheim asked quietly, trying his best not o get his hopes up.

"If he asked. But I'm not going to force him to stay here if he doesn't want to Hohenheim and you have to remember that this isn't his home-."

"Well that place isn't a home either!"

"Yes but you have to remember that Edward's friends will still continue to live there if he doesn't and I'll make a bet that his friends have been the only family he's had in years. Would he really abandon them all? I may take in one brat but I'm not taking in the rest of them."

"But do you promise me that if Edward asked you, you would take him in?" Hohenheim asked; Izumi could almost hear the pleading in his voice, causing her to smile slightly at his worries.

"Didn't I already promise you years ago that I would take in both of them?" Izumi reminded him with a smirk. "And seeing as I only ever took in one of them, I feel as if I'm still in your dept."

"Izumi…"

"Don't worry about it. Even if I weren't in your dept, I would still do it. For an old friend."

Izumi got up from the table and left the kitchen with that. Hohenheim gave Sig a small smile and for once, Sig smiled back before standing up, slapping Hohenheim 'lightly' on the shoulders, and departing the kitchen after his wife. After sitting in the semi-dark kitchen for a few more minutes alone, he too got up, rubbed the shoulder Sig had just badly bruised, and left, feeling much more tired than he had in some time.

The entire house was quiet and calm for everyone was in a deep and peaceful sleep, or so it appeared.

Edward lay in his bed, asleep but trapped in a nightmare of sorts with no way of getting out of it. It was understandable, after hearing all that he had heard that evening but it had nothing to do with this newly acquired knowledge. No. It had everything to do with a memory that had been lodged in the back of his brain for years, waiting, just waiting for the right moment to break out.

Edward was laying quite peacefully on his bed, seemingly asleep when actually wide awake. He could not sleep, for he was filled with excitement. A letter had arrived that very morning from his father telling him that he was going to be ale to come home earlier than expected; much earlier than usual. He had been gone two months now but was not expected leave time for another month or two. But somehow, he had managed to finish something alarmingly early and this allowed him to come home for a few more days starting next week. His mother had nearly cried, his brother had cheered with excitement while he quietly hid his happiness, for he knew not to get his hopes up when it came to his father. He loved him and his father loved him but due to his job, his reliability wasn't his strongest point. And so, consumed with pent-up excitement, Ed stayed awake.

CRACK!

Edward shot up from bed and quickly looked around his dark room. He had heard something…he knew he did. After slipping on his tennis shoes that lay next to his bed, Ed grabbed onto the first blunt object he could in the dark (a baseball bat), and began to creep slowly towards where he thought he heard the noise.

Snip…crunch…

"Shit…" someone cursed quietly from the living room.

Edward froze.

A burglar, Ed thought instantly.

He tightened his grip on the bat and took a hesitant step towards living room. But no one was there…Ed let out a sigh before he froze again. In the window, Ed swore he saw a person cross it in a flash. Even though it was dark, both outside and inside the house, Ed could make out a few distinguishing details due to a small spark of light coming from a flickering streetlamp outside: long dark hair pulled back into a pony tail, pale skin, dark eyes, and a wicked grin.

And that was the last thing Edward saw before a small explosion went off in the next room, causing much of the neighboring wall to catch on fire.

There were screams and shouts of names and questions as to what had happened, panicked scuffles and foot steps along with the shrieking of the fire alarm but Edward barley heard or recognized any of these noises, due to the spreading pain and heat that seared through his right arm and left leg. Before his eyes fluttered close, Ed's mind went back to the dark-haired person he caught creeping outside moments ago.

Oh snap. Who was outside that night? What does Hohenheim not want to tell Ed and Al? And when were Hohenheim and Izumi friends? Hmm... Review plenty and some, if not all, of these questions will be answered in chapter 30.

*Announcement*I have put up a new story. It's just about the pictures at the end of chapter 108. I only have the first chapter up so far but I plan to do all of the pictures, if not the important ones. So check it out and send me a review!

*Double Announcement* I'm also planning on putting up another FMA story soon. It's basically a war story set in a slight alternate universe. It will have eventual EdWin and has some Rose bashing in the first few chapters before the actual war stuff happens. So, please also check that out once I have it up.

Thanks!

-FSK