Chapter 9: The Colonel's Scare
When Roy Mustang walked into his office, a little late as usual, he knew something was up when the first sound he hear was the mechanical creak of Havoc's lighter instead of the usual click of military issue boots and her voice saying "Good morning sir" as she gave him a crisp salute.
"Where's Hawkeye?"
"At the range" Havoc answered.
"Isn't it a bit early for her to be doing that?" Mustang questioned.
"Some guy came in saying that he was putting together a special sniper unit and that he wanted to see her skills."
"What does Central need one of those for?" the Colonel wondered aloud.
"He said he was form Northern sir," added his subordinate grimly.
It took that a minute to click in Roy's head but when it did his mind automatically began to panic. If the man was impressed with her skill, scratch that when he was impressed with her skills he would offer her a place in Northern. Perhaps even her own team and compared to having to baby-sit her superior the cold reaches of the north would look like heaven. If he didn't do something he was going to lose her for sure, and he wasn't sure that he could handle that. So Roy worried about it all morning till he came to a conclusion. If she was going to leave he was going to tell how he really felt about her and hope it was enough to make her stay. If it wasn't he would just have to let her go, no matter how much it hurt.
When he returned to the office after lunch Roy's jaw dropped in horror. While he had been gone the Lieutenant's desk had been emptied.
"Wow she must really be leaving" Fuery said sadly.
The rest of the day passed in a slow depressing blur. He didn't get any work done, how could he think about work? Since he'd lost Maes Riza had become his main reason for getting up every morning and he wasn't ready to lose that. He would never be ready. At one point he looked around and realized that everyone had gone home.
"Well I guess I'm done here" he sighed as he stood up.
"Did you get any work done today?"
At first he thought he was dreaming when he saw her standing in front of his desk glowing in the light from the setting sun.
"Lieutenant what are you doing here?" he blurted out in shock.
"I work here sir" she said slowly while looking at carefully as if making sure that he wasn't sick, or drunk.
"But the sniper unit, and your desk being empty, and Havoc saying that you were moving to Northern…"
She was leaning towards drunk.
"Yes I spent most of the they testing with Major Watts" she said answering part of his ramble.
"And?" he asked sounding a bit to eager.
"He wants me to command the unit"
"That's wonderful!" Roy exclaimed forcing a smile.
"But I turned them down" she finished.
He was so happy to hear this it was extremely hard to not let it show.
"And you desk?" he asked.
"Its so old that it's a health hazard to sit at so its being replaced tomorrow, you signed the form yourself."
"Oh yeah" he muttered, stunned by his own stupidity.
"If that's all of your questions sir I have a dog at home that needs to be feed" she said as she slipped on her jacket.
"I just have one more thing." he said "Why'd you turn them down?"
She paused for a moment and looked him in the eyes before answering "I still have some unfinished work here sir"
"Well I'm glad you're staying with us"
"Thank you"
Then she disappeared leaving him to wonder if she had blushed or the color on her
flawless skin was just from the setting sun.