Two –

After he'd stopped crying—he was glad that Gracia didn't push or prod to make sure he was ok like she did back when he was still living by Edward Elric—they'd managed to make it back to Central in a little under an hour. He would never ask how Gracia had managed to make a two day trip in that little time staying ten miles below the speed limit since he knew he had secrets he couldn't tell his partner either, but sometimes he really wished he knew how she worked.

Maes and Elysia hadn't stirred once since they first pulled away from Izumi's yard. That reminded him of waking up in her back room, but he couldn't remember passing out or being knocked out or anything, so it was weird how he ended up there. And what was Al doing there, anyway? With his wife and son? He knew for a fact that Pinako and Den were both still alive, but just barely so. Then again, he knew a lot of things. Most of it was nothing he hadn't already known before, but nowadays it was getting deeper into something he was being kept so far out of the light that it was ridiculous how little Christmas trusted him.

But when he looked around and saw the other confused looks from his coworkers, he was ok with not knowing since he wasn't the only one and he wasn't being discriminated against because he had unwillingly disappeared for two years. Christmas knew everything about Germany—he had had to tell her. She was his only link to his life as Edward Elric, and he couldn't seem to let it go, no matter how much he tried. He'd even taught a few of his closer coworkers German so that they could speak without code and not have to worry about anyone figuring out what they were saying. Gracia was one of them.

He shook his head and asked her to pull over and let him out. "Are you sure, Echo?"

It was almost disturbing how quickly she switched from 'Edward' to 'Echo' after he come back and they were "reintroduced". She had cried then, too, holding her hands in front of her face for a moment as he shifted his head and offered her a small smile, telling her his name was Echo Thompson, he already knew who she was and that he hated to see it when a beautiful woman cried so please don't cry. "Yeah," he smiled at her. "Samantha's house is up the way a bit and I need to get Kathryn."

"Of course. Tell them both I say hi and I send my love."

"I would have done that even if you hadn't asked," he grinned, weakly, and thanked her again as he climbed out, making sure not to forget his briefcase, which he tucked at his right side gently. She smiled back and wished him a good night, telling him she'd see him tomorrow before he nodded, closing the door. Through the glass, he could hear Maes mumble something that sounded close to 'Ely'. Gracia glanced in the back and smiled warmly before driving off as he waved.

He turned around and walked up the stairs into Samantha's and his apartment complex. They didn't live together, heavens no, but this was the closest housing district to both their jobs and it really helped that Kathryn and Sam both got along since Kathy loved (and he meant l-o-v-e-din bold letters) to listen to stories more than Sam loved (l-o-v-e-din bold) to read and reiterate them.

Pretty soon he'd made it up to the third story and looked at the numbers on the doors without needing to. He knew exactly where he was going; his mind just did it for lack of anything better to do as he walked. 326 came up quickly and he stood in front of the door, knocking quietly with his left hand since he wasn't sure if Kathy was asleep. If Sam was, too, then he would just go to his apartment and not bother waking either of them.

A moment later Scheizka opened the door and smiled warmly, gesturing him in. "How was your trip, Echo?" She asked as he gently placed his case down to the right of the doorway.

"Ah… interesting," he shrugged, smiling warmly at her. "I met these odd people. I believe they called themselves Alphonse and Winry Elric? They had a son named Owen."

"Oh," her eyes dimmed slightly and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him close even though he was a few inches taller than she. "I'm so sorry."

"It's ok," he muttered quietly into her brown hair, relishing the hug. "Gracia sends her love. How was Kathryn? I hope she wasn't too much of a hastle…."

"Oh, no, never." She giggled, pulling away. "We just finished listening to a story about the Full Metal Alchemist and how he so bravely rushed into the field and stopped the bloodshed of the second Ishbal Rebellion before it even started."

Despite leaving that life behind, he still blushed gently at the smile she gave him. Nowadays, she wore her brown hair around the bottom of her shoulders, though that small flick of hair on her forehead from her still-short bangs that remained. Her brilliant green eyes were hiding behind her large glasses instead of behind contacts like she normally wore. Since it was so late at night she had on a pair of pale yellow pants and a thin spaghetti strap white shirt which did nothing to hide her shoulders. Yes… shoulders…. That's what they call them now, right?"

He laughed gently and rubbed the back of his head. "Don't put too many ideas into my little girl's head, y'hear?"

"There's nothing there she didn't already want to know."

"That's the part that scares me." He pointed out with a slight grin as a tired yawn came from the hallway. He turned to watch as a young five year old girl came out. Her vibrant red hair hung around her shoulders and her right green eye was open as she rubbed the other with the back of her hand. Her face was mottled with red freckles and the moment her tawny skinned face turned towards him, she broke into a large smile and exclaimed "Daddy!" running towards him.

He kneeled down and caught her in his arms. She giggled as he shifted his human arm under her legs pressing her green night dress to the bottom of her small thighs. Instinctively, Kathryn wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled him. "Daddy, did you have fun while you were out?"

"It would have been so much more fun if you had been with me, Kathy," he cooed and kissed her cheek, smiling at her giggle.

"Me and Aunty Sammy had so much fun!" She cheered. "We read lots of books 'bout Alchemy an' she told me about the Full Metal Alchemist an' the Flame Alchemist an' the Strong Arm Alchemist an' lots more!"

He smiled, more so at the names than her excite about them. She let out a long yawn right after it and he laughed at how excited she was to get tired. "Sounds like you two had lots of fun. You tuckered yourself out."

She smiled sleepily and rubbed at her eye again, hooking her arm around his neck again. He turned to Scheizka again and gave her his best grateful smile. "Thanks so much for taking care of her as often as you do."

She waved her hands at him, shaking her head. "It's really no problem, Echo, honestly. I love spending time with her."

"Yeah but the more time you spend with her, the less you have to be alone with your boyfriend." Even though he hadn't yet met the man, he knew that whoever he was would be ok around Kathryn because this was Scheizka (Samantha now) that he was dealing with. Over these past few years, she'd gained a great deal of self-confidence and would throw someone out of her house if they did something she didn't like or if she felt threatened. She could also yell and curse at the man in six or seven languages now (including German).

So, in other words, he was fine with her boyfriend no matter who it was.

"It's alright," she smiled. "He really likes kids." Her face heated up bright red and she shifted uncomfortably. He didn't need her to say what he knew it was and instead reached out, resting his right hand on her shoulder.

"So when should I expect the wedding invite?"

She stuck her tongue out at him and scrunched up her nose. "Well, he's moving in tomorrow, so you'll have to decide when you come down and meet him."

There was something in her eyes. Something that told him she meant "remeet" instead of "meet" and he couldn't help the shoulder slump. "We'll see. My schedule's kind of full for the next few weeks between midterms and the munchkin."

"Munchkin!" Kathryn giggled, throwing her hands into the air for a moment before putting them back around his neck. "You should really meet Mr. Kain, daddy! He's really nice. He plays games with me all the time. He's almost as fun as you are, daddy."

"Sounds like I'll like him," he muttered, turning towards Scheizka. She smiled guiltily and shrugged her shoulders, pulling him into a hug, which he returned one-armed.

"Have a nice night you two."

"You too, Sam." She grinned and her eyes twinkled while she nodded. He suddenly realized the real reason behind the shirt and nodded his head. "Tell him I say thank you for looking after Kathryn, too. I really do owe you both."

"Just don't get hurt on this mission," she waved her hand at him. "Kathryn would never forgive you."

"Now why would I get hurt?" He asked, cocking his head. "A sprain compared to what those other guys get is not an injury."

She blanched and started walking towards the hallway. "I don't want to know!"

"Thanks again!" He called and grabbed up his briefcase, smiling at the wave she sent over her. He flicked off the lights and stepped out, closing the door gently. Just as it was starting to click shut, he heard Scheizka call out "You're not one, you know!"

He paused and reopened the door, facing her. She was leaning against the front of the hallway with a gentle smile on her face, looking at him like he was a puzzle she'd long ago figured out and was proud of herself for doing so. "I'm not one what?"

"A monster," she explained.

He felt his face fall in on itself as he stared at her, wide eyed for a moment then shamefully and finally, unable to bear the gentleness in her eyes, he looked at the carpet. "How did you…?"

"You had that self-doubt look on your face when you came in." She answered. "You're not a monster, no matter what you think. You're a young man raising his daughter and doing what he hopes and knows to be the best for her. You're a loving man worth everything he gets, no matter how much he doesn't believe so."

He looked up with a small smile on his face. Although the words touched him in a way that he was glad that she believed in him, he didn't believe them for a single moment. He'd done too much; seen too much; knows too much. He just… he was a monster. It was never how other people saw him but how he saw himself and he saw himself as a monster.

He still forced himself to thank her, closing the door as Kathryn shifted in her near-sleep state, hugging onto his neck as he dropped the briefcase, reached up and got the spare key off the door fringe, locking the door for her and returning the key to its hiding place.

He picked up his 'case and started walking back to the stairs, going up one more story. His steps were brisk and he passed by a man he didn't bother looking at to identify until he stood outside his own door. 420 stared at him as he shifted the briefcase into his left hand, careful to hold Kathryn more so than the luggage and ready to drop it if Kathryn started to slip so he could catch her.

"Hey, daddy," her voice was small in his ear, but he still turned his head to look at her. He felt her lift one of her arms from his neck and point to something behind him before she finished, "that man looks like the Flame Alchemist from the pictures that Aunty Sammy showed me."

He blinked and turned around slowly, finally finding his keys in his pocket. Obviously the other man had either realized they were talking about him or felt one of their stares on his back since he paused and stood up straighter, turning around and blinking in the dim, flickering hallway light.

Now that he was faced towards him, Ed could make out the four gleaming stars on his shoulder pads marking him as a General rank. The ribbons on his chest marked him a Brigadier and Ed couldn't help but smirk as he recognized the black hair tossed in every direction both neat and messy at the same time. Two onyx eyes stared back at him and blinked slowly and he almost looked as if he'd seen a ghost. "So he does," Ed smiled at her, taking 416 to mind as he glanced at his room number. "What else did Aunty Sammy tell you?"

Mustang blinked again and smiled gently, barely noticeable in the crappy hallway light, nodding his head a little as Kathryn told him, "she said that the Flame Alchemist is gunna be the best Fuhrer ever and that there are lots of pe'ple that wanna see him Fuhrer!"

Ed smiled down at her and shook his head at Mustang's red ears as he stepped inside his apartment. "Yes, Kathy… there are lots of people who want to see him there."

She grinned at him as he unlocked the door, pushing it open. "Do you want to see him there?"

"Yeah," he admitted quietly as he took the key ring from the door, walking in. "Yeah, I want to see his dream accomplished."

Ed stared at himself in the mirror.

His hair was short like he'd kept it when he was a child of barely 7 years except for his bangs, which he still kept to have something to hide behind when he was flirting (or gathering information, except he used it to flirt much more often) but he rid of the antennae long ago; people called him out on his appearance when he has it and it's too dangerous for that. On his chin was the markings of a small goatee and his side burns weren't all that impressive. On the bridge of his nose rested his glasses, which were half framed from the bottom rather than the top.

He wore a white button up shirt under a dark brown vest, paired with his light brown jacket and pleated brown slacks. He'd liked the outfit back in Germany and when he had found himself wound up back here six years ago, he couldn't help but find himself looking for the same outfit for his work in the stores. Of course, he had other clothes he could wear, but this was the most comfortable and being a Professor at Central University required you to be very well dressed. Unless you were a woman, at which point Dean Tringham (Russell if you must know) didn't much mind.

The door to the bathroom, which hadn't been closed in the first place, creaked open a little farther and Kathryn gave a shy smile as she opened the cupboard, using the shelves to climb up onto the granite countertop. She was wearing a pair of black pants and a thin black shirt. She reached up and handed him a ponytail holder asking "Can daddy braid my hair?"

"Sure." He smiled and took the hair band with his left hand. "How do you want it to look?"

"Like Full Metal Alchemist used to have his!" She giggled. "It's dress-up-like-your-hero day at school, so I'm gunna go as him! One day, I'll be as good at alchemy as he is!" Her eyes twinkled as she stared up at him and he knew right then and there that she knew he was living a lie.

"Did Aunty Sammy tell you?" He asked quietly.

She nodded her head, paused, and then shook it. "Mommy told me too," she muttered quietly. "But even if she hadn't, when Aunty shows me those pictures she has, I know it's you. I don't tell anyone that you're the Full Metal, because you don't tell anyone, but I still think that it's cool you're Full Metal."

He smiled gently and kissed her temple. "You are a very smart girl."

Her smile split her face, showing where she had lost her left canine tooth. "Aunty says I take after the Full Metal like that."

He laughed and turned her around, gently taking her hair in his hands and very carefully braiding it, watching her face closely for any signs of discomfort—especially when he used his right hand. He didn't want to hurt his little girl. "How come daddy's hair is yellow when my hair is red?" She asked as he was wrapping the hairband.

"Because you have your mommy's hair."

"My friend has her mommy's hair." She smiled up at him. "She's my book buddy since she's seven! Her daddy has really dark hair like the Flame Alchemist, only a little bit lighter on the sides since there are streaks of gray and, um… oh yeah! And then she's really pretty she looks just like her mommy! I know 'cus' I've seen her picking her up sometimes. She's so pretty!"

"I bet. I think you rub off on anyone that comes near you," he joked, nuzzling her forehead with the tip of his nose. She giggled and he quickly kissed her head. She wrinkled her nose up at him for a moment before reaching out and grabbing a little of his hair gel and molding her bangs to look like his, only she took a small piece and flicked it up like he used to have his antennae before washing her hands of the goo and climbing down. She rushed out of the room and he followed slowly, turning off the light as he went.

When he got into the main room, he noticed that she had a long red duster on and was still fixing the shoulders slightly. On the ground in front of her was a small array that would easily take her thick red coat and make it into a thinner duster. "How often do you do that?"

She just gave him a cheeky grin and kneeled down patting the array away before holding her hands up. "Now I have gloves, too!"

He laughed and took her hands in his, pulling his gloves out of his pocket and slipping them on over her hands. They were oversized, but her eyes still glittered as she stared up at him before holding them to her chest, wiggling happily. Ed smiled again and reached out, taking her hands again, watching her blink as a bright blue flare passed between them and the gloves had shrunk down to her size.

With a new pair of gloves on his hand, he slowly shut the door, watching as his little girl bent her knees, looking around suspiciously even as she held the straps to her backpack close to her body. He watched her a moment before turning around and locking the door. She slowly began to creep away.

"What are you doing?"

She gave him her smile again, showing her missing tooth as she explained, "Playing Full Metal Alchemist! Shh"—she held her finger up to her lips looking around slowly—"there are tons of bad guys looking to capture us around!"

"Ok," he whispered and kneeled down. "So what's the plan?"

"What plan? Aunty Sammy always said that the Full Metal rushed into things 'head first and without thinking of the con-se-quences,' whatever that means. She said it means he didn't use a plan."

He laughed at himself as she grin and crept down the hallway, looking back and forth carefully as 416 opened and out stepped a Military clad man. He ignored him and shook his head, standing up and repositioning his hold on the briefcase. "Sheesh, Kathryn, with the way you're acting you'd guess I never play with you."

She gave him a bad look and shushed him again. "Alphonse! Stop making so much clacky noises! You're gunna tell the bad guys where we are!"

Ed laughed into his hand and shook his head. "Alright, Edward, where are we going?"

"Preschool!" She giggled.

"Preschool it is."

Brigadier General Roy Mustang sat in his desk at his office around eleven thirty without a single piece of paperwork to be seen for a few desks (meaning it was either to be inspected by Havoc or waiting to be turned in by Hawkeye) with a gentle smile on his face as he doodled small swirls on a piece of copy paper.

Kain Fury watched him for a while before he finally got the courage to ask "what's got you in such a good mood, sir?" They were the only two in the office at the moment, so the satin haired man jumped, completely unaware of the younger man's presence or not suspecting the silence to be broken.

"What do you mean, Fury?"

Kain smiled at him. He looked the same as he had years ago; they all did, really, except for Hawkeye who was on her second month of pregnancy with her and Jean's baby, though everyone had yet to learn mind him. "I mean… you have this air around you that you haven't had since the EAR* six years ago. I know you saw Edward there and that's what made you happy, but what is it now?"

Mustang smiled a little and looked down at the paper below him for a moment before looking back up. "I just overheard part of a conversation last night, that's all."

"What happened?"

"A young child recognized me as the Flame Alchemist and told her father that there were a lot of people who want to see me Fuhrer."

Kain smiled at him. "You're getting back on your dream, I take it?"

He nodded. "I'm going after being Fuhrer again, yes."

Havoc walked in and plopped down in his seat, tapping out a cigarette and holding it to his lips, leaving it unlit for the moment. There was a comfortable silence between the three of them as the other two got to work and Roy returned to drawing his swirls that were starting to look a lot like his explosions somehow….

"Yo, Chief," Havoc said after a good two or three minutes. He looked up from his swirls, but Havoc kept right on looking at his work. "We never gave up on your dream."

He let his mask slip and smiled to himself before looking back to his swirls. "Get back to your work, First Lieutenant."

"Yessir."

a/n – so I posted the first chapter of this story and tried to get back to my other writings/editings and found I just. Couldn't. Do. It. So I worked on this one. Shameful, I know, but I like the way this turned out. :) ~Love, JWhitney

* EAR - Eckhart Air Raid