Riza had been uncharacteristically quiet. Not that the woman was exactly a motormouth, Rebecca had always trumped her where being chatty was concerned, but she'd barely said a word the whole time they'd been out. They were shopping, trying to fill Riza's wardrobe with useful items that hadn't been sitting in Mustang's spare room for the last two years. No one deserved to wear musty undies. It was the second shopping trip they'd taken for clothes, and Rebecca was desperate to slip some frivolous clothes into Riza's wardrobe, maybe a mini skirt to wind Mustang up. Not that Riza would ever wear it, but the idea had amused Rebecca, at least it had before her amusement at Mustang torturing had turned into concern for her friend.

They shopped, and Rebecca turned the problem over in her mind. She'd been fine a couple of days ago, worried about Mustang not talking to her much, but fine. Then Rebecca had a mountain of work to catch up on, because the excuse that General Mustang needed her for an operation didn't actually make her day job go away, unfortunately, so she'd been unable to catch up with Riza since she'd read Mustang the riot act.

If he'd done something stupid, she was actually going to slap him this time. Senior officer or not, Rebecca didn't give a damn.

Why was it always that man, with Riza? In Rebecca's humble opinion, Riza could've done so much better than unresolved sexual tension with her boss. It wasn't that Mustang was a bad person, no one would've believed it, but she had a lot of respect for him as an Officer. He'd given Jean back the use of his legs, and then insisted that he rejoin his team, even if at the time he still needed to use a cane and was stuck at the office more often than not. Jean had gotten better, and Mustang had promoted him. As far as Rebecca was concerned, for that alone, for the care and attention he paid to his people, she'd follow him and help him reach the top.

When it came to her best friend, however, Riza deserved more than him. More than a romance that could never reach fruition because of regs. More than some kind of weird co-dependent working relationship, which only seemed to hold her back from meeting someone that would be able to worship the ground she walked on.

Rebecca kept her mouth shut until they'd finished shopping, and took a break at a café, surrounded by shopping bags filled mostly with practical clothes.

"Okay. What did he do?" Rebecca asked, bluntly getting to the point as soon as they had hot, delicious coffee in front of them.

"Sorry - what?"

"Mustang. He must've done something. You're being way too quiet for nothing to have happened." Rebecca pointed out.

"Oh. No. Well. It's not his fault."

Oh, here we go.

"What did he do?" Rebecca asked, a little too sternly, perhaps. Considering the way Riza's shoulders sagged, and she stared into her coffee cup.

"It's more what I did." Riza said quietly.

"Oh, fuck, you didn't kiss him did you?" Rebecca asked. She knew this would happen. Leave the two of them alone in his house, and of course they'd end up doing something. She never should've allowed it, she should've put her foot down and insisted that Riza should stay with her, instead of going to Mustang's.

Also, she was going to kill Mustang. Regardless of what he did. If he turned her down then what on earth was he thinking? And if he didn't then Riza doesn't have any memories and is incredibly vulnerable so stop thinking with your dick, you prick.

"No, I didn't kiss him!" Riza sounded annoyed, but blushed at the idea.

Upside. She didn't need to kill Mustang. That would save a lot of trouble.

"So what are you talking about? You didn't do anything else with him, right?"

"No, Becca, honestly, it's like you have a one track mind." Riza sighed.

"I do not!" Rebecca insisted. "You two were always just stupid intense and I wanted to make sure he hadn't taken advantage of you."

"You just wanted all the juicy details, didn't you?" Riza asked.

"Well. That would've been my next question." Rebecca admitted. "But if it's nothing juicy then what is it? You've been quiet, like you're a million miles away."

Riza was silent. She stirred her coffee. She sipped her coffee. She looked around the room at the other patrons. She did anything other than look at Rebecca, or answer her question. Rebecca was desperate for her to say something, but she kept her mouth firmly shut and waited.

Then, after a while, Riza spoke; "I remembered things I'd done," She said, carefully. "In Ishval."

"Fuck." Rebecca whispered. "Oh Riza, I'm so sorry, I wish-"

"-That I didn't remember it? You and Roy both."

"No, I just wish it wasn't as painful as it obviously is," Rebecca said. "Ishval - I don't know, I wasn't there. But you came back a wreck, and it changed you. I wish I'd been there when you remembered, to help."

"Roy was there."

"Mustang's a moron with the emotional intelligence of limp spaghetti," Rebecca complained. "I would've been better."

"He's not that bad." Riza insisted.

Oh great, she was defending him again. It turned out, that years later, some things never changed. Before, it would've annoyed Rebecca and she would've rolled her eyes and complained even more. Now it felt like Riza was really here, that her memories might be fractured, but it was her best friend that sat opposite her. Rebecca couldn't help the smile that crept onto her face.

"That's only because you fancy him." It wasn't going to stop her from teasing Riza relentlessly, in fact, knowing it was her, feeling sure of it in her bones and in her heart, it only made it worse.

"I don't 'fancy' him." Riza said, but the red that blossomed over her cheeks told Rebecca a different story entirely.

"Liar."

"Shut. Up."

The corridors of Eastern HQ were familiar in the sense that a dream was familiar. Or maybe how a place from childhood might feel to an adult, hazy and yet familiar. She knew silly things, like where the toilets were, but she still needed Rebecca to lead her up to Roy's office. Riza tried to ignore the strange looks that seemed to follow her through the corridors. No doubt there would be whispers and rumours about her return from the dead circulating within seconds, but if that was the price she had to pay for coming back, then she would pay it without complaint.

Roy's office was large, befitting of his station as Brigadier General. He was young, at only 32, but someone higher up must trust him, and Riza had heard how he'd proven himself during the Promised Day, even if she couldn't remember it. The room had an excellent view, although it was a bit too exposed for her taste, and she closed the blinds as Roy finished up his section of the paperwork before she had to sign it.

"Here." He said, and offered her a pen. She tried not to think of Rebecca's teasing words as their fingers brushed and lingered for a few moments too long. Yes, he was attractive, but everything else was too complicated to contemplate. Even if she wanted romance, and she wasn't sure she did, the fact that most of their past was a mystery to her put an end to any thoughts of kissing him.

She was going to kill Rebecca for putting these thoughts into her head just before she had to spend time with him.

Riza tried not to look at Roy for too long, or too closely, and instead inspected the paperwork. Once she was satisfied that it was correct and that he hadn't forgotten to sign anywhere, or tick any important boxes, she proceeded to sign her own name half a dozen times.

"And that is how you resurrect the dead." Roy declared, a little too dramatically, after she signed the paperwork that would bring her back to life in a legal sense for the final time.

"A little dramatic, don't you think?" She asked.

"No, after all, that is what we're doing."

"Only without horrific side effects?" Riza asked.

"I would hope so." Roy placed the paperwork in a folder. "I'm going to get this filled, will you be alright here?"

"You mean in the room with my friends? I'm sure I'll survive." Riza said.

"Edward and Alphonse are working on your case, and the others are helping, I just didn't want you to feel uncomfortable."

"I'll be fine." Riza assured him. He searched her face, as if to check that she was telling the truth, and she nodded ever so slightly, which seemed to convince him that she really would be okay here without him, and he left to go and file the papers, and she followed him to the outer office to wait for him.

The shopping bags from the day out with Rebecca were piled next to Jean's desk, and he only seemed to be putting up with them because Rebecca had sat herself next to them. He kept stealing looks at her instead of doing his work, and Riza hid a smile at his obvious infatuation with her friend, and decided not to interrupt them.

Instead she walked over to Edward, Alphonse, and Kain, who were all sat around a table, pouring over documents that she knew had to pertain to her disappearance, and sudden reappearance. She looked over their shoulders at scattered pictures of what looked like a battleground. It wasn't in Ishval, which were the only battles she could currently remember, although looking at the pictures, she couldn't help but smell dust, blood and something burning. The scar on her neck, which had never bothered her before, ached as if it was linked to a memory that was just out of reach. She picked one of them up, there was nothing remarkable about it, a destroyed building, and people she didn't recognise, but it felt familiar. As if she had stood there, exhausted and drained, clinging onto the Colonel to direct him and also keep herself upright. Distant memories tried to bring themselves into focus, and she picked up another picture, but this time it wasn't a memory of then that sprung to mind, but of earlier today. In the café.

"Becca, do you recognise him?" Riza shoved the picture under her friend's nose and pointed at a man who looked fairly unremarkable. He was dressed in a military uniform, and it bugged Riza that she couldn't read the rank on his shoulders, and had light hair, he wasn't unattractive, but Riza was sure he wouldn't have noticed him if she hadn't spent so much time looking at anyone other than Rebecca earlier today. He had the sort of face that would normally have just faded into the background.

"Didn't he sit two tables over from us?" Rebecca asked.

Riza nodded, and now that she thought about it, she could've sworn that she'd seen him elsewhere. Browsing in the department store where she'd brought some clothes, and loitering on the street corner smoking a cigarette as they walked from one place to another. "Yeah, but I don't think that's all." Riza hesitantly shared what she swore she remembered. Maybe she was being paranoid, and all of it was a coincidence, but she'd bet it wasn't.

"Breda, let's see if we can track this guy down." Jean said, and handed the picture to him. "Hawkeye, you shouldn't be alone. At all."

Riza nodded, she wasn't even willing to think about being alone right now. She took a spare seat in the corner of the room, and smiled warmly at both Alphonse and Edward, who both stared at her with worried looks on their faces. If it was true, that the man had followed her and Rebecca around town, and that he was there the day she disappeared, then the lead was a good thing. Even if her stomach was tied up in knots and her heart felt like it was trying to beat itself out of her chest. If they could find him, and catch him, then this nightmare might come to a close. Or come closer.

Roy's arrival back into the office was met with action that disturbed Riza from her thoughts and worries. Jean pulled him into his office, and closed the door, only for moments later it to slam open again. Roy stood in the doorway and stared right at her, his face full of worry and anger. "Are you-"

"I'm fine. Go back to work, I'll wait here until it's time for you to go home."

Roy exchanged a look with Jean, who nodded. "We've got it, boss. Take care of her for us."

"Call me at home if you need anything, Fuery, bring over anything that needs my signature," Roy ordered, as he grabbed his coat. "Edward, carry Hawkeyes bags down to the car."

"I am not carrying her bags for you." Edward complained. "I'm busy trying to timeline the last two years of her life."

"This will take five minutes."

"Five minutes I'm not working on something important." Edward fired back.

"I'll do it. I want to stretch my legs." Alphonse said, as if he could sense the danger of that turning into an actual argument. He gathered up her bags, and along with Rebecca, who had her hand on her gun, followed her and Roy out of the building and to the car.

Roy drove them home in silence, his hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles had turned white, and he kept checking the rearview mirror, in case they were being followed from his office, to his home. Riza didn't have the words to comfort him, but she placed a cautious hand on his knee, which seemed to do the job, or at least he relaxed his hands from their death grip around the steering wheel.

It was only when they got into the house, and closed all the curtains, to block out prying eyes, that Riza felt safe enough to talk about it. "At least we have a lead now." She said. "That's something."

"I should've been with you today."

So that was what was eating away at him. Guilt over not being able to protect her from being followed. He really needed to stop doing this to himself, but Riza had the feeling that he never would. That along with everything good about Roy, this annoying and frustrating tendency to fill himself with guilt over her well being, was just something that would never disappear.

"You would've hated shopping with me and Becca, and you know it." Riza pointed out. "She was with me, and armed, if anything had happened-"

"-Something did happen, Riza. You were followed by someone who might've been responsible for taking you in the first place."

"Oh, is that what happened? Thank you for spelling it out for me." Riza snapped back at him. "He followed, but he didn't do anything. Let's just be thankful about that, shall we?"

"That's not the point."

"You're not my bodyguard, Roy. I'm yours." Riza said. "Stop feeling guilty over this."

"No, right now, your protection is my priority." Roy said. "And, fine, maybe I do feel guilty, but that's just because I can't lose you again."

Riza softened, still annoyed, but not so much that she couldn't push it to the sidelines of her mind to take his hand and squeeze it gently. She was still here, nothing had happened to her, she wasn't lost. "You won't." Riza promised.

"But-"

"No. I'm not going anywhere. Not again." Riza declared. "We'll find who did this, we'll make them pay for it, okay?"

"Pay how?" Roy asked.

"You're not setting them on fire." Riza said. "I want them to live their entire lives locked away from the world and forgotten by everyone."

"And you called me dramatic earlier."

"You were." Riza insisted.

"I wasn't that bad."

Riza put on a deep voice; "And this is how you perform a resurrection." She rolled her eyes and dropped the act. "Dramatic."

Roy snorted with laughter, and the mood that had overtaken him broke into something a little less angry and guilty. "Fine. It was a little dramatic."

"I'm glad you agree." Riza said. "So. What are we going to do?"

Roy shrugged, and sat down on his battered couch, and pulled her down so she was sitting next to him. He looked lost in thought, and she let him ponder whatever it was that was going through his mind. "How would you like a trip to the country?"

"The country?" Riza asked. "Why?"

"I thought we could visit your childhood home, see if you can remember anything from then." He said. "It won't be easy, your childhood wasn't exactly happy. But it would get you out of the city, and hopefully away from prying eyes."

Riza had thought about her childhood, the father that had inked his notes onto her back, and what she might've felt towards him. Now it was just sadness that she couldn't remember him, for good or ill. Answers were never easy, but the bad parts of her life were just as important to remember as everything else. Ishval had taught her that.

"Okay. Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." Roy agreed.