Author's Note: Gah! The injustice of it all! Cliffhanger on the last chapter! At any rate, hope you enjoy this. And The Sherlockian Paradox will likely be the next update, so stay tuned.

Hawkeye had enough on her mind already. She did no need two missing agents added to the pile entitled 'Things to Worry About.' this was just too much. 'Honestly,' she thought to herself, 'If you're going to kidnap someone from their own dimension, at least have the common courtesy to let them now where you're going.'

Her thoughts then had the pleasurable experience of smoothly transitioning to the thought of being stuck forever in a strange place far from home. Which, though mind-blowingly true, did not do much for her hopes of staying calm.

So, she focused on the situation at hand, studying it from an outsider's point-of-view. Mustang was entertaining the guests of the party, Madam Red seemed to be floating on what appeared to be a bubble of happiness. The odd foreign man, Lin, or Lau or something, was evidently advertising products, and the butler...

Where was the butler? The nervous one, Sutcliff?

Then another thought hit our beloved Lieutenant like the sack of bricks from boot camp. It went a little something like this:

'In Amestris, we have homunculi, like that Sebastian fellow, but we have other oddities as well. Might not these people have creatures other than demons, or whatever Michaelis was called...what if...?'

Hawkeye sensed she had something, but the thought only saw the exit and was just out of her grasp. She thought carefully...

Doctor...knowledge of anatomy...no alibi on the day before...secret society...

Only one person fit that criteria.

Only one human.

But what if they were wrong?

Thinking about it now, Hawkeye was slightly embarrassed that this hadn't occurred to her before. That it hadn't occurred to any of th- wait. Sebastian...he knew, didn't he? He knew and had sent his master into this mess.

But what did he know?

Something no human could do. So the killer wasn't human. Wasn't something she'd encountered before. Wasn't something any of them had encountered before.

Except for the homunculus butler!

Hawkeye glanced quickly around the room, checking on everyone. Mustang was looking at her worriedly, but she'd just have to deal with him later. Suddenly, the gargantuan ballroom seemed to shrink and collapse around her. She couldn't breathe. She had to get out.

Horses hooves pounded on the pavement outside. Hawkeye was jerked out of her reverie. In a moment, her mind cleared. And in that moment, she acted.

The lieutenant grabbed Mustang and muttered "We're leaving, grab Lau." in his ear. He nodded and went to fetch the Xingese-looking man. Hawkeye herself fought her way through the sea of admirers Madam Red had surrounded herself with.

Having elbowed at least three people in the face and stepped on twice as many toes, Hawkeye finally made it through the group to the front, where she got a firm grip of the Madam's arm and promptly dragged her away, apologizing profusely to those who had received what looked to be blossoming black eyes.

She found Mustang, calmly standing near the door. She headed in his direction but-

"Hi there, Elizabeth! Where are you off to now?" a voice like wind-chimes piped up from behind the sniper. She whirled around, and, for the second time, found herself face to face with Ciel Phantomhive's fiancee.

The girl was waiting expectantly for an answer. Hawkeye searched desperately for one, and while she was thinking, Mustang saved the day.

"Elizabeth hasn't been feeling very well, and all of the excitement has worn her out terribly, so the Madam is being so kind as to take us home early." he told Lizzy smartly. Hawkeye blinked and then nodded weakly.

"How did you know to come?" she whispered, "Well, number one, you were taking to long, and number two, you had the 'Get over here or I will flay your hide' look about you." he muttered back. Hawkeye, startled, had no response to that. Mostly because she had most certainly had her back to him, so how did her know she needed help? Odd.

"Anyway, your sickly, so make it more realistic, here I'll help you." he said quickly. He looped his arm around her waist and took most of her weight. Her first reaction was, obviously, to chop of the hand that held her, and the second to relax. Since neither was an option, she merely responded as she thought natural. Hawkeye weakly pretended to follow his lead until they were out the door.

Snapping to attention, Hawkeye said:

"Thank you for covering for me, sir!" Mustang covered his ears, "Not so loud!"

Lau and Madam Red watched bemusedly, until Ciel and his butler rounded the corner in the carriage. "It would appear we have overstayed our welcome, would you call be so kind as to enter?" she homunculus-thing asked politely. Police were arriving on the scene very quickly, and that was the hooves Hawkeye had heard earlier.

Her thoughts returned to their earlier theme. What did the butler know? What was he hiding?

Was she ever getting home?

She helped herself into the carriage and stared straight ahead, her mind taking a bit of a detour. Despite her promise to think about her situation with her superior, things seemed to be heading directly away from that area, and fast. Looking sideways at him, she saw that he again had that worried look on his face, the one she didn't understand.

But she was rather tired. So tired in fact, that she fell asleep before they even got back, her head resting on the Colonel's shoulder.

Her last thought before sleep closed it's foggy grasp around her mind was that she was going to find out the facts tomorrow, even if it killed her. Or, more likely, if it killed that smug-looking butler.

And so Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye fell asleep, unaware how close she was to finding the killer known as Jack the Ripper. Or how close the Ripper was to finding them.

Author's Note: I know that was a very long moment of clarity for Hawkeye, but bear with me. Hope you enjoyed it!