Chapter 22: Comfort

He found her huddled on the couch hugging her legs to her chest, staring into her knees with a distant look in her eyes. Roy didn't know of anything he could say that would help, so he just sat down and pulled her into his arms. Riza broke into sobs within seconds, he wasn't exactly sure what had happened but he knew it had to be awful to make such a strong woman break down like that. The only information he had was that she had been sent with a team to breach a building and a young member had been killed. When her sobbing ceased he gently asked her if she wanted to talk about it.

"It was a hostage situation." She said softly "I told him he could sit it out, he was supposed to get married next week, I told him that he didn't need to risk getting hurt."

Roy nodded, he knew there was a corporal in her infantry unit; he couldn't be any older than twenty-two.

"When we entered the building we quickly learned that we were outnumbered" she continued with the same haunted look in her eyes. "I heard a shot and then he screamed."

She paused and took a deep breath.

"When I found him I could tell it was really bad, but he was calm as could be"

She stopped again and he held her tighter.

"You don't have to tell me" Roy whispered gently "I don't want to hear it if it hurts you"

She just shook her head and finished the tragic tale she had started.

"He spent his last few breaths saying 'It's all right Lieutenant the pain is going away'" Riza turned to bury her face in his neck as silent tears rolled down her cheeks. "He spent his last moments comforting me"

Roy now understood why the hardened war veteran had been hit to hard by the young man's death; enemies don't comfort you as they die. On the battlefield comfort is a rare thing, which is why they needed each other at home.

This one kind of turns to a drabble at the end; sorry about that. I've finished my finals and I'm now on Christmas break so I should be able to get some more updates soon! Sorry about all the long waits and thank you to those who have stuck with this!

Sparky