~*~Jean~*~

I watch Fuery gnaw on a bone I had given him to keep him quiet at Breda slept. I hadn't really expected to do things this way but I guess it's better to do it where I can keep Heymans in check than another way. I drink my coffee when I feel something against my arm. I look down and Fuery has the bone in his mouth, nudging my arm.

"What is it?"

"Havoc." He says in a muffle. "Play."

"Aw, come on, Fuery…"

He sits down and looks at me expectantly. I sigh and hold out my hand and he places the bone in my hand, immediately lowering his front half to the ground, his butt in the air, tail wagging.

"Throw!" he says, panting.

I throw the bone and he yips, running after it and bringing it back again, doing the same pose. I have to laugh at his nature and throw the bone again. We do this for a few moments when the bone hits something and Fuery skids to a stop. He walks backwards with his ears down as Breda comes down the stairs and stares at him with wide eyes.

"Jean…"

"Don't worry, Breda, it's Fuery."

"Th- this is Kain?"

"Calm down a little and have a seat. You'll see him in a minute."

He walks backwards in caution and fumbles to grab the seat and pull it out. He finally sits as Fuery looks at me in question and I nod to him. He walks slowly to Breda and sits a little ways from him when he sees him flinch.

"Breda scared." He says matter-of-factly.

"Y-you're Kain Fuery, r-right?"

Fuery nods once. "I'm a dog now."

Breda gulps but drops to his knees from the chair and actually crawls over to Fuery, leaning back on his legs.

"I'm so sorry, Kain… I'm so sorry."

Fuery leans forward and licks Breda's cheek. He looks at him as Fuery gets closer to him and puts his head on Breda's chest.

"Breda sad… Kain… understand… Not your fault."

Breda suddenly bursts into tears, actually wrapping his arms around Fuery and crying. I smile, happy that the reunion went better than expected and lit a cigarette.

~*~Riza~*~

I watch over Roy as he sleeps and look at his stomach. It's grotesque and it takes all I can do not to try and find Tucker myself and kill him. I want to shoot the whole cartridge of my gun into his face for what he has done. I didn't care what he did to me but turning Fuery and doing whatever he's done to the Colonel is too much…

"If you frown anymore, Lieutenant, you'll be in a permanent scowl."

I turn as Roy looks at me with sleepy eyes.

"How was your nap, sir?"

"Riddled with memories I'd rather forget… How have you been?"

I look away, remember what Maes had said about not coming to see him. I feel horrible about not doing my duty but trying to keep Fuery in check and our department intact, I honestly forgot that he was sick. He's been gone on missions for longer…

"I'm sorry, Colonel, for not visiting. I guess I'm not as great of a subordinate as we thought."

"As the first rank under me, you had a job to do. I know you were keeping the Fuhrer off of my case and trying to keep things in order. There's no need to-"

"I couldn't save you, Colonel." I hear myself blurt out.

Roy's eyes widen a moment but then narrow.

"Hawkeye, you were not exactly able to help."

"It shouldn't have deterred me. I should have used whatever strength I had to get to you. Hell, I should have just rolled!"

"I don't blame you, Riza." I look at him and he smiles. "If I blamed you, you know I wouldn't even be in the same room with you."

I sigh, hating that Roy was so lenient sometimes.

The door opens and the doctor walks in.

"Hello, Mr. Mustang-"

"Colonel." We both say at the same time.

"My apologies-"

"I didn't go through a war to be called 'mister', Doctor." Roy growls.

I keep a snicker from coming through as the doctor adjusts his glasses and looks at Roy with a more stern look.

"Alright then, Colonel Mustang. You should be glad I'm even here because I'm the only doctor who would take your case. You've been in here a couple of times since you were initially brought in and at least three different doctors have been assigned to your case and all three of them refused to come back." Roy's face goes stoic. "Now then, we have to operate to get the unidentified object from your abdomen. Unfortunately, for us to do that, we need for your blood count to be risen as well as you gaining a little bit of weight. We can do that by giving you blood volumizers in your IV but the weight will need to be from you. We will be feeding you a little more than the usual patient to get your weight at the lowest weight we have."

"And… what am now?"

"You're about fifteen pounds below the lowest weight we can operate on for a man of your size and age."

"Ah… Well then, I'll try to eat as much as I can."

The doctor nods and leaves the room. Roy turns over with some difficulty and I get up to help him. My put my hand on his stomach to help him hold it to move when I feel a flutter underneath my hand. I gasp and pull away.

"I'm sorry, Colonel."

"Don't worry about it…"

I stare at him for a moment and then cautiously stick my hand out and touch his stomach again. It is warm and smooth, with a couple of bruises but the creature flutters again and I feel it nudge my hand. I look at Roy as he stares at me with no expression and I pull my hand away.

"Do you really think it's a child, sir?"

"I hope it is… Riza, if anything happens-"

"Don't talk like that."

"I have to. This isn't normal and I trust you and Ed the most. If anything happens, promise me that if it's a child, you'll be kind to it. This isn't its fault. All it did was grow… Can you promise me that?"

I sigh but nod and touch Roy's face. I try not to display such affections for my superior but the fact that he was talking about dying… I can't handle him talking like that. Colonel Mustang doesn't die.

~*~Edward~*~

Al and I go to the lab again and ask to find a more complicated chimaera, which ironically is found and I have to study the charts hard to figure out what it was mixed with. The scientists here didn't seem to know what it was made of either so Al went to go ask around for more information on it. I thumb through the records and scratch my head at what it could be that is mixed with this other animal. The only feature on it that was recognizable was the cat whiskers and ears that it possessed.

"Gah! Damn it! I have to know what the other one was so I can fix this!"

"Would you like some help?"

"Yeah, sure that would be-" I turn around and see a man staring at me. "Oh… um… no thanks, I think I got it."

"Nonsense… Let me help." He says, walking to me.

I get up and slowly back away from him as he comes closer.

"There's not need to be afraid."

"I don't trust you. I don't know who you are but if you don't get away from me I'm going to slice you open." I growl, transmuting my arm into my blade.

The man laughs and then takes the mask off of his face. I gasp as he grins at me.

"Edward, you can't defeat me at my own game. I have so many things that I want to do for you. I fear that I've done the worst to your colonel and his little subordinate but damn, they were not being cooperative. I have plenty of things to do to you…"

I was blocked by the wall and everything went black.

~*~Roy~*~

As I eat my fourth meal for the day, I sigh, not really hungry but I know I need to get this thing out of me. Once it's out, I can get healthy again and go back to doing what I had planned to do ever since I got into the military. I know it will be more difficult with a child –if that's what it really is- but Maes seems to do pretty well with it and I know I can do it. I feel the baby tumble and breathe in a little. It will be nice when I don't have to get demeaning looks from people or pitied looks from my comrades. I breathe in deeply again to try and get the rest of this hospital food down when the door bursts open and I jump, the tray flying to the floor.

I glare at the person in the doorway but find it to be Alphonse.

"Al-"

"Brother… Ed's been kidnapped!" he says, fear in his voice.

I stare at him for a moment and it finally sinks in.

"What do you mean?"

"He was doing some research in the lab where the chimaeras are and he was trying to make sure one of the chimaeras was advanced enough. I told him I would ask around and see if anyone knew more about it but when I got back, I didn't find Brother anywhere but I did find a note."

He walks in and hands it to me.

Alphonse,

I have surely missed both of you being in my company. So much so, that I took Edward and am going to do some experiments with him. Don't worry, he will be fine. Then again, I am quite angry that he caused my work to be confiscated to the police and that damned Ishvalan to come and kill it. I need a new experiment… If you come to rescue him I will kill him.

Your friend,

Shou Tucker

I crumble the note in my hand and look at my stomach. I clench my hand and look up at Al, who I can tell is afraid and confused.

"Can you drive, Al?"

"Um… I can try but I can't really fit in the cars."

"Never mind, I'll do it myself. Get my clothes and my gloves."

"But sir, they don't fit you anymore."

"Does it look like I care, Alphonse? Your brother has been captured by a madman and you worry about my clothes?"

"Wait, are you trying to escape?"

"Yes." I growl, ripping the tubes out of my hands as the machines show I have died. I swing my legs over the side of the bed and grab the clothes Al is holding out. "There is no one else who can defeat him."

"Colonel, you're with child! You can't do much of anything."

I glare at Al and he withdraws. I put my gloves on and stretch my white T-shirt over my distended stomach. I pull on my military jacket and go to the door. A nurse rushes in and I sneak out of the room with Al behind me.

"Stand behind me so that people can't see me." I whisper to him.

"Colonel, this is aiding and abetting…" he says, doing what I say anyway.

"I don't care. What is your problem?"

"I thought you were just going to tell Lieutenant Hawkeye to send in the troops or something."

"Tucker will expect that. He won't expect me to come myself since I'm supposedly in a 'condition'. I will burn that son of a bitch to ashes before I let him do anything to another one of my subordinates. Edward is my alchemist and I don't like it when people take my things. Are you with me or not, Al?"

"Mm. I'm with you. What do I need to do?"

the race is on. finally, tucker has revealed himself and roy and al are to the rescue. but will they get there in time? will tucker try to do something to ed? you'll have to wait to find out!