The fear

When he heard the child's scream, a blood curling yell, he felt like his world just stopped.

He ran through the house, jumping over the steps three at a time and opened the door with a quick yank.

His wife was whimpering, the child repeating her name over and over in a begging tone.

"Mommy..." he kept saying, stroking her face with his small hands.

Roy cursed out loud, making the boy look up.

"Mommy is hurt! She fell and she is in pain!" the four years old said in a sniffing voice, trying his hardest to stop the tears from spilling.

Roy jumped into a hurricane of action: grabbing his wife against his chest and yelling for his son to follow him, the family ran towards the exit. When they crossed the lawn two burky men appeared and assessing the situation, quickly opened the car's door and let Roy lay his wife down. She kept a quick breathing pattern, while Roy stroked her hand and their son looked at them with fearful eyes. When one of the men was closing the door a big black being jumped inside the luxurious car, sitting over the boy's feet in complete stillness.

Riza touched the soft fur and smiled at her loyal dog.

"Is mommy going to be okay?" a small voice asked, when the car started moving.

Roy looked at the boy with a little smile.

"Of course, she is your mommy after all! And besides, really soon you will have a little sibling to play with!" Roy replied with confidence.

"I won't play with the baby!" the youngster replied, with an offended tone and his parents traded worried looks.

"Why not?" asked Riza between her heavy panting.

"The baby is too small! I can't play with a baby! I have to protect her!" he said in solemn tone that made the parents incredibly proud. However, that resting moment didn't last long, since Riza's pain increased and she squeezed her husband's hand. When the car stopped Roy jumped from inside and took her to the hospital in his arms. The nurses that were gossiping with each others jumped into action at seeing their Fuhrer running through the doors with a woman in his arms and a boy and a dog right behind.

One of them quickly found a bed in the corridor and rushed Riza to a room, however a sour looking one stopped the boy and the dog from following the adults.

"Nicholas, you have to stay here!" Roy said in a rush, without looking to the nurse. And then, turning to the woman he said in a no-nonsense tone. "This dog is to stay here with my son, if anyone tries to take him out it will be your neck..." and without anymore words he ran into his wife's room.

The boy nodded and grabbing Hayate's fur, both of them sat, Nicholas in a chair and the dog right beside his legs, so still they looked like statues. The nurse could only look.

Roy couldn't believe how lucky he was that Riza was his wife. The first time she was pregnant it was such a traumatic experience he couldn't recall much of his thoughts of the moment, the fear of losing her and their baby was too crippling to let any of the words his ministers would advise him with. But now, he could recall perfectly how they used to say how their wifes would curse them, how they could threaten with such ferocious rage and how they could crush the men's fingers. Well, the fingers part they got right, but nothing else and when Roy, trying to distract his distressed wife, made that remark she looked at him with an angry glare.

"Do you really believe after all those years I spent protecting you I would be the one hurting you? That is one of the dumbest... " and she would keep her tirade if another contraction didn't hit her hard.

Yes, Roy thought while rocking his daughter in his arms, he was a lucky man indeed.

Well, why Nicholas?

First, he was a real french alchemist, one of the greatest of all times, that was rumoured as being able to create a philosopher stone.

Second, the surname of that alchemist was Flamel, which, if we take the last letter becames Flame, in honour to our Roy.

Third, the symbol in Edward's jacket and Alphonse's armor was Flamel's symbol. What name would be more appropriate, right?