A.N.: Thank you so much for all the reviews guys and thank you for continuing to follow this story. It will finish one day, I just have to figure out how, lol.
Enjoy the read.
ROY
Roy walked up the stairs to Central HQ, pulling his coat tighter around him. It was mid-December and the morning air was getting a little too cold for him. He walked briskly, puffing out white smoke with each breath. The soldiers he passed saluted sharply, which earned them a quick nod of the head from their dear Fuhrer. Roy sighed with relief as the warm air from inside hit his face and enveloped his body. He relaxed his muscles and continued with his fast walk toward his office.
Roy started his days early and at that time in the morning, only a quarter of the military personnel were present. He heard his footsteps echo in the large hallway, accompanied by his assistants' as well. Brandt and Sakel were faithfully following behind him in silence. They knew their limits and were more than aware that Roy did not like to be disturbed for unnecessary reasons, especially in the morning.
Ever since he had come back from the East, he had become an insomniac. Every time he tried to sleep, memories of her tormented him. Whenever he did get some sleep, he would only get a few hours of fitful rest. She was in his thoughts constantly. He was weary, restless and extremely stressed out. However, because of his long military career and his experience with handling stress, he knew how to properly hide it or make up excuses.
In order to keep up his image, he took great care in having a clean and tidy uniform, shaved face and combed hair. The majority of people around him might not have noticed, but his long time subordinates noted his weight loss. His face looked slimmer, but not in an unhealthy way. His method of keeping himself busy and to keep his mind distracted was to submerge himself into his work. If no one reminded him, he would work right through every meal time. His assistants would always bring him something to eat and if they were out on some errands, one of the men would make sure he didn't starve himself.
"What's the schedule for today?" Roy asked either one of them.
"At 10:00 you have a meeting with General Sarzoft and then at 13:00, you have a meeting with the generals about Ishbal," Sakel said in a clear voice.
Ever since she had come to replace Royce, he had made it clear that he was not interested in her in any possibly romantic way. He had always kept a fair distance away from her and he had ignored all the subtle advances she had attempted during the first few days. Because of his cold demeanor, she had never attempted to approach him inappropriately, much to his relief since he would have fired her, which would only create another hassle to try and find another replacement. Nevertheless, he was aware of the looks she gave him whenever their eyes did meet, which he ignored without so much of a second thought.
"Good, I'll be in my office. I don't want to be disturbed until the first meeting." Upon arriving at the office, Fuery and Breda greeted him.
"Good morning sir," they said, raising their heads from their paperwork.
"Good morning Fuery, Breda." Roy nodded his head lazily and continued walking toward his doors. He eyed the empty desk in the corner briefly, something he did everyday to remind himself of his failures, and entered his personal office.
Although everyone had noticed, no one had uttered a sound about it. The atmosphere in the office had changed since they had come back from the East. It wasn't as lively, laughter had become a rare sound and everyone seemed more serious and into their work than ever. It would knock her socks off if she ever saw us like this, Roy thought with a sad smile.
Every morning, Roy focused on reading some reports, reading the newspaper and getting updated on the things going on in his country. Just because he only received some paperwork about the biggest important issues, doesn't mean that he shouldn't be aware of the things going on everywhere else. He read the newspaper for feedback, for the citizens' views about different issues and subjects. If he wanted to change the country, he needed to know where the problems laid and what the people wanted. I won't disappoint you.
When he thought that way, he felt guilty toward his people. He knew he needed to make the country better for them, but in his heart, he truly wanted to prove himself to one person. His dream had been her dream, their dream, and they had sacrificed a lot for it. He couldn't afford to disappoint her, not when he had finally reached the top after many long and hard years.
He became a workaholic, he knew, because he didn't want to think too much about her, about his failure and about his conflicting emotions. What's the point of being up here if you're not beside me. He had never thought about it before, not until she had disappeared. When he came to realize that he might never see her again, that she might actually be dead, he was consumed by fear, grief and a void that could not be filled.
His exploits and path to become Fuhrer had been exceptionally eventful and exciting if he had to globally describe them. So many things had happened that he never thought would've happen to him if he had been anything else but a state alchemist. He never had the time to stop and think about it, but the one thing that each and every event had in common was the fact that Hawkeye had always been a few steps behind him. She was not only his aide, but his partner, his friend, his confidant. She was the only one he trusted his back to unconditionally.
All of that had come crashing down on him when he was being plagued by every memory of her. Everything she did, everything she said had become precious to him. His fear of losing her forever was gnawing at him every chance it got and he kept those memories of her as close as possible, afraid they would eventually fade away.
He had achieved his dream, but at a grave price. All those years, he had been busy looking forward, looking far ahead of him at the top. He had been focused, planning every step of the way, trying to score the ultimate prize. He had, in a way, but it had cost him something else. He realized it now, that he had chosen to sacrifice something in order to protect himself in a way. He had never looked back and in a sense, he had never looked back at her. She had always watched his back, following whatever he wanted to do without a question. How could she had trusted me so much? He had wondered.
He hadn't paid her the attention she had deserved, hadn't asked for her opinions enough times. He had been selfish and spoiled, knowing she would basically follow him every step of the way. He had taken advantage of that and had neglected the feeling that had always been there deep inside of him. In order to stay focused, he had ignored his feelings for her, had pushed them down somewhere where he didn't need to deal with them. Later, he had always told himself, later, when I'll be Fuhrer. How could he have been so naive and foolish to believe that their time together was infinite and permanent? How could he have been so selfish as to decide when it would be most convenient for him to become fully happy and satisfied his his life's achievements? He had never thought about it from her point of view. Had she suffered during their time working together? Had he hurt her by ignoring his owns feelings? He couldn't say for sure that she liked him more than a friend, but he had always known somehow that she cared for him more than a subordinate should, or a simple platonic friend should. Unconsciously, he had always felt safe because of her. He had never fretted over his real love life because he knew, in the end, that they would end up together, that they would always stay together. Did I hurt her? Was she waiting for me?
He was filled with regret. Why didn't I tell her the moment I became Fuhrer? He knew, guiltily, that the reason was because of his blind ego and indulgence in his new fame, power and recognition. The glamour and excitement around him had shamefully made him forget about her and made him focus on his self-importance and his own radiance. The attention on him was like a drug. She had smiled at him, had supported him in every way she could even though he had been too busy being infatuated with himself that he had barely had time for her. Why didn't I tell her in the office after the inauguration? When he thought about it, he couldn't understand why he hadn't confessed his feelings for her. She had opened up to him that day, something he had never truly seen before ever since he had met her again in Ishbal. Why didn't I tell her at the ball? There were too many times that could have been good opportunities, but he had decided to wait. His cowardice had made him lose his chance on multiple occasions.
I might've lost my chance forever. That single thought frightened him and consumed him in the darkness of his house. Alone at home, he had silently cried about it. Why? He asked himself that constantly. He didn't like to think about the things he regretted, because it would mean that he believed she would never come back, but sometimes thinking otherwise was impossible. Denying the fact that she might be dead was becoming harder and harder as the days and weeks passed.
It's all my fault. Her life would've been so much more different if she had never followed him to begin with. If he hadn't told her about his dream, if he hadn't showed up at her father's house to become an apprentice, her life would've been completely different. She wouldn't have suffered, wouldn't have gotten hurt and wouldn't have gotten kidnapped and tortured. How could that had happened?
If she really did die, her life would've been nothing but hardship and suffering. Her childhood had been poor and loveless. She had never had any parents to look after her and to love her, so she had inevitably matured at a young age. Because of that, she had always been a closed person, quietly observing from the side. She had never let anyone near her, except for him, he thought, to a certain extent. The short peaceful life had then been terminated by her enlistment in the army after her father's death. Hell would be the best word to describe the Ishbal war. She had survived, but had also been mentally scarred for life, like many other people. Then came the many years of working under him until he made it to the top, putting her life at risk at multiple times.
He was annoyed and distressed by their inability to find any more leads on Marcus or on Hawkeye. Marcus' portrait had been revealed to the public in hopes of finding him, but it would seem that he had already predicted such a course of action and had been prepared for it since they still had received no news of him. On the other hand, the news of Hawkeye's disappearance had remained undisclosed to the general public. Even within the military, Roy had given strict orders to only tell a certain number of people. Since he knew that Marcus most likely had someone within the military, he didn't want any news of her getting into the ears of the wrong person. Everyone who knew was strictly being supervised by people that Roy trusted and every little detail came straight to him. Thereby, searching for her was excruciatingly slow and unsuccessful, but if she was alive somewhere, it would at least keep her safer from Marcus and his people.
Another thing he did, which took a lot of effort on his part, was to declare Riza as Missing In Action two weeks ago. MIA. He had not kept that fact a secret. People around him knew about it and he knew that it would spread around like a virus. In a couple of days, almost all of the military HQs in Amestris were aware of that fact. After all, it was rather strange to think about the Fuhrer without his most trusted aide. They had been regarded as a duo for the past ten years and it came as a shock to the military that such a great soldier had disappeared. It killed Roy to know that he had basically pronounced her dead, but he wanted to protect her at all cost, even if the chances of her being alive was infinitely small. The mole in the military would know that he had given up. That was why only a few select people were still actively searching for her discreetly.
Roy had to bear the looks of pity and condolence each time he met up with someone. The elaborate speeches of fake empathy he had to listen to over and over again was driving him insane. Don't speak about her like you know her. Some generals had paid him a visit to offer him their condolences, to talk about her great contributions to the military, how great of a soldier and person she had been even though none of them had ever truly spoken to her. It aggravated him to listen to these hypocrites, but the worst was that they reminded him of her possible impending death over and over again. He was absolutely fed up with them rubbing salt in his wound, so he had ended up giving Brandt and Sakel direct orders to tell every single person who would come meet him not to talk about that subject.
Roy sighed as he finished his last report for the morning. It was only nine thirty, but he liked to finish his work early so he could have time to do other things. Nowadays, he was also busy with his move. His new house had just been finished and he was currently moving into his new home. King Bradley's old mansion had been partly demolished and remodelled. Many things had been renovated and he had refurnished the inside to fit his taste. A lot of money had been spent, but the end result was perfect. It had become smaller, but could still easily house fifteen people. The land was enormous and decorated with nice gardens. He didn't like having maids or butlers in his home, but he agreed to have some housekeepers clean the place and restock his fridge twice a week. He doubted there would be much work to get done since he would rarely be home anyway.
He came out of his reveries with the knocks on his door.
"Come in," he called out.
Brandt peered inside and said, "Sir, General Sarzoft is here for your meeting."
"Right, send him in please." Brandt slipped back out and a second later, he opened the door to let Sarzoft in. He stood in front of Roy's desk before giving him a salute.
"At ease General." It would always seem a little bizarre for him to be saluted by people older than him, but he had somewhat gotten used to it. "It's good to see you again Sarzoft. How are you doing?"
"It's a pleasure to see you too Fuhrer. I'm doing great as always," he beamed. Roy signalled for him to take a seat.
"I've heard great things about your accomplishments with the railways and Ishbal," Roy started.
"Yes, the railways were completed a week ago and now the train can go directly to the Center of Ishbal, which helps a lot with the reconstruction. Building materials and qualified workers can access the area much more easily now. The pace of the constructions are picking up fast," Sarzoft explained enthusiastically, proud of these achievements.
"I've also heard about Amestris HydroCorps. Is it true that they're participating?"
"Yes! That's the best part. Amestris HydroCorps are donating their time, expert personnel and material to help bring power and electricity back to Ishbal. Most of the system had been damaged over repair during the war, which was one of our biggest concerns, so everything had to be rebuilt from scratch. Their help is invaluable and we are grateful for their act of charity."
"That's great news. I'll see if I can pay them a visit, if not make a phone call to thank them for their contributions." Roy was sincerely glad to hear that such a big corporation was helping out.
"Sir, it would be wonderful if you could be there on the day we officially open a military branch there."
"Yes, I'll make sure to attend it." Of course I'll be there. I've worked so hard to rebuild the place. A military branch would open in Ishbal only for formality's sake. In truth, Ishbal would be run by a small council made up of some military officers and elected Ishbalian representatives. Roy wanted them to be in control of their land as much as they could. "When you know the date, send me a reminder."
"Yes sir."
They talked some more about little things, but Roy could tell he wanted to board the subject of his missing aide. He knew Sarzoft wanted his favor, almost desperately, and he was sure he wanted him to know just how sorry and sad he was that she was gone. But his single, almost discreet, attempt to bring it up had been quick to end when Roy gave him a piercing look with narrowed eyes. From then on, the mood had soured and their meeting had come to a premature closure.
The rest of the day went passively well. He ate a quick lunch after his meeting with Sarzoft, which he would see again in the afternoon at his other meeting on Ishbal. He had summoned the generals who had played roles in the reconstruction of Ishbal to discuss the subject of the council he wanted to create. He already knew the ones he wanted to nominate for the post and how it would be run. It wasn't surprising to hear that Roy got what he wanted. He had made sure that the people he nominated were honest and good officers who would not be easily corrupted and who were sincere in helping Ishbal. None of the generals had opposed him, not when he stated his opinions with such authority and conviction.
When the meeting was finished, he walked back to the office with Brandt. Upon entering the office, Havoc asked to speak to him in private. They went into his office and closed the door.
"What is it Havoc?"
"We've narrowed down our search to men between 27 and 40. It's still a pretty large interval, but we'll slowly narrow it even more when we try to match the facial features. It'll take some time though because there are so many people named Marcus and we don't know for sure if it's his real name, so we might not even find him." In the end, because they didn't have any more lead, they had decided to take the hard and long road of looking for every person named Marcus in Amestris. They had stacks and stacks of profiles to look through and it would take them a long time to really narrow it down to the correct suspect. It's taking too long. He might've escaped already. Although he had given a strict order for the officials at the borders to look out for him, it was possible that Marcus had already left before he had given out that order.
"How many profiles do you still have?" Roy asked.
"I don't know for sure, but more than 600, that's for sure," Havoc said grimly. Roy blew out the air from his nose in frustration.
"It's taking too long. He might already have left." Roy said out loud. It wasn't directed at Havoc, but his face still fell when he heard it.
"Well, we're having experts analyze the video. Maybe they'll be able to identify something soon that could help us with the search," Havoc said hopefully.
"Alright. Try to make them go as fast as they can. We can't afford to wait any longer."
"Don't worry, we're rushing them as much as we can. We're not letting them rest more than what's necessary." Havoc chuckled lightly, earning a smirk from Roy.
Around 16:00, Roy was about to leave early to go home and unpack some of his personal things. The others were still there finishing some leftover paperworks or filing things. Brandt and Sakel stood up when they saw him emerge, but Roy waved his hand to tell them to sit back down.
"I'm going to retire for today. I have a lot of things to do at home."
"Do you need me to accompany you sir?" Brandt asked. The phone rang and Sakel picked it up.
"No it's fine Brandt. I'll just head straight home." Roy had a chauffeur so none of them had to drive him around anymore, even though he ultimately preferred driving on his own.
As Roy was walking toward the doors to leave the common office and saying goodbye to the other men, he heard Sakel speaking on the phone and abruptly stopped in his tracks.
"Uh, um, I'm sorry sir, but Lieutenant Colonel Hawkeye isn't here at the moment. May I take a message?" Sakel said, unsure of herself. The moment Hawkeye's name was uttered, all heads in the room whipped toward her. Roy was intensely staring at her, completely frozen on the spot. She looked around in alarm at all of them and landed her eyes on the Fuhrer's.
Roy crossed the room in a second and took the phone from her, which she gladly relinquished.
"This is her superior officer speaking. Who am I speaking to?" Roy asked urgently. He didn't want to say his name because he had realized that it would usually make people more nervous, thus reserved, and forget the main subject.
"Uh, yes, hi, this is Mr Cooper, her landlord. She's been away for a few months now and she did send some money for the first two months, but the third month still hasn't been paid. It's now well over a month and I still haven't been paid. Do you know when she'll be returning because I can't guarantee that she'll have a place to come back to if this continues."
"I don't think she'll be back for a while. I'm going to take care of her things Mr Cooper. Do you have some time today? I can drop by in a few minutes."
"Yes, okay," he grunted in the phone. "I'm at home right now, so you can drop by anytime."
"Thank you. I'll be there soon." Roy put down the receiver and stayed quiet for a while, then turned toward the others. They were all watching him expectantly.
"It was her landlord," Roy started. He had a confused and blank look on his face. "We forgot about that." He looked down and seemed to be deep in thoughts.
"Damn... Yeah, we haven't thought about that. Those people stopped paying her rent, now she's getting kicked out?" Breda asked. All of them had the same expression. The past events have been so hectic that they hadn't thought about the more mundane things, even though they were still fairly important. None of them knew what to do.
"What do we do? Are we going to pay her rent until..." Fuery started asking but never finished his sentence. They all knew what he was hesitant about and none of them wanted to talk about it. After all, none of them knew until when they would have to pay that rent if they ever decided to do that.
All eyes were on Roy and he felt them, even though he was staring at the ground. What are we going to do? I can't believe we forgot about that.
"We'll move her things out. We'll put her things in one of my spare rooms in the meantime," he finally said.
Roy didn't want her to come back only to find out that all of her things had disappeared or been thrown away. He would keep them safe for her until her return.
Havoc gave him a worried look, but he ignored it. "I'm going over right now," he announced.
"Sir, are you going to move her things out now?" Falman asked quickly.
"Yes. The quicker the better, and I don't think I'll have the time to do it another day. Since it's still fairly early, I'll do it right now." He was about to walk to the door when the others spoke.
"I'll come too," Havoc said while getting up and gathering his things. The others followed suite. "We have to get some boxes too. We don't know how much stuff she has, so we'll need quite a few."
"I can go get them," Fuery volunteered. "The supply room has thousands of them. I'm sure they won't mind us taking some."
"If they do, then you can tell them to come and complain directly to me," Roy added. The mood had lifted a little bit. It had been a while since they had all done something together and the fact that it concerned Hawkeye comforted them a bit.
Before heading out, Roy turned to Sakel and said, "actually, would you be able to come with us too?" Sakel looked up in surprised. Before she could get the wrong idea, he continued, "you see, we're all men, so we don't really want to go through her more personal things. It would be better if another woman could help us pack those things." He didn't need to say anything more, because she nodded her head vigorously and immediately prepared to leave.
"Brandt, will you be able to close the office when you leave?" Roy asked.
"Of course, sir. Have a good evening."
They took two cars. Roy had dismissed his driver and rode with Havoc, while the others rode in another car. The drive was short and silent. Before Roy got out of the car, he removed his military jacket and the others followed his example. He didn't want to attract any unnecessary attention, but he doubted people wouldn't recognize him just because he was only wearing a white buttoned up shirt. He walked with his head sightly ducked, surrounded by his subordinates. They made it into the building without any incident, much to his relief. Roy rang the landlord's doorbell and a few seconds later, the buzzer sounded.
Roy knocked on the door and heard shuffling behind it before the man opened it. Mr Cooper looked up in surprise at all the people who had come, scanning all of their faces before landing on Roy's. He seemed to recognize him because his eyes widened.
"Mr Fuhrer!" he said with bewilderment, "wh- what-"
"I'm Riza Hawkeye's superior officer. I just spoke to you on the phone a few minutes ago." Roy interrupted his stuttering, too impatient to wait for him.
Recognition sparked in his eyes. "Yes, yes, so that was you. I didn't know Riza worked for you. I knew she was in the military but..." he was too amazed to finish his sentence and too busy staring at Roy.
It was a bit strange for Roy to hear other people call her by her first name. In fact, he had never known anyone who called her by her name. He couldn't even imagine how Hawkeye would react to it.
"I brought some people with me to help clear out her place. Since we don't know when she'll be back, we've decided to keep her things for her somewhere else."
"I see. Alright." Mr Cooper nodded absentmindedly.
"We we're wondering if you could open her door for us." After Roy had said that, Mr Cooper seemed to have come out of his reveries ans immediately fumbled inside to look for the keys.
He came out with the right key and asked them to follow him. They took the elevator to the third floor and arrived at the door 316. As the landlord was unlocking the door, Roy's chest was feeling stuffy and he was trying to ignore the lump in his throat. He had never been inside Riza's apartment before and it felt wrong to go in when she wasn't there.
Mr Cooper opened it and ushered them in. One by one they entered the small but cozy apartment. None of them spoke as they looked around, hesitant to go any further.
"The stove, fridge, kitchen table, chairs and sofa stay here, but the rest is her's" Mr Cooper broke the silence.
"Thank you. We'll take it over from here." Roy said. It seemed like the ice was broken and they slowly started to pack some things into the boxes.
Riza hadn't unpacked some of her old boxes, which had been placed in a corner of the living room. Seeing that the bed and some other furnitures were her's, Falman decided to take care of finding a moving truck and left the others to continue packing. Fuery was doing the kitchen, Havoc and Breda were in the living room, while Roy and Sakel took care of the bedroom and the bathroom.
Riza's home was exactly like how he had imagined it to be. It was simple and clean. She didn't own very much, but everything she did represented her in every way. As Roy passed in front of her dresser, he saw two picture frames. One of them was of them while they had still been in the East a long time ago and the other one was of them right after he had become Fuhrer. Roy held them up slowly. We were her only family. It saddened him to think that Riza had no one else in her life except for them. She didn't have any parents or siblings like the others.
He placed them carefully in a box and moved on. As he stared around her room, he noticed that everything was kept to the bare minimum. I guess I'll start with the bed. He proceeded to fold her bed sheets and strip the mattress, but as the held them in his arms, he got a whiff of her scent and stiffened. Slowly, he lowered his head a bit until his nose touched the fabric. He breathed in and paused. He hadn't realized it, but he knew her scent and missed it terribly. It soothed him to smell it again, to remind himself of her presence. He had been so used to it around him that he had never paid attention to it.
Roy stuffed it quickly in a box with all the other things before he thought too much about it and started to tear up. He moved on to her closet and started folding her clothes and uniforms.
"Oh!" Sakel exclaimed suddenly with a gasp. Roy whipped his head toward her and saw that she was in front of the dresser with a gun in her hand. Sakel looked back at him with her eyes and mouth wide open. "I- I found a gun with her socks."
"I found one in her knife drawer too!" Fuery said out loud from the kitchen.
"Yeah, one in the drawer in the furniture beside the door too!" Havoc chipped in.
"I found one too, hidden under the coffee table," Breda said from the living room.
Sakel stared in their direction with disbelief, still holding the gun with a confused look. Roy chuckled.
"There was one under her mattress too. Don't worry about it. She keeps many guns on her and around her. She likes to have them close."
In fact, they had found many gun cleaning kits around her apartment. It seemed like she kept one in every room. As Roy finished folding the clothes that were hanging in the closet, he proceeded to take down everything that were on the shelf on top in the closet. There were extra blankets, pillow cases and sheets. Then there were two small black cases which he carefully brought down. He put them on the floor, opened them and couldn't help but smile at what he saw. How many guns do you need Hawkeye? They were nice looking handguns, which she rarely used because he'd only seen her use them a few times. He found many cases of bullets and an older rifle. As he went to check the last thing in the closet, which was a big plastic container on the floor in the corner, he hesitated. Don't tell me... Inside were more gun cases, carefully and orderly placed and stacked, with more bullets. Jackpot. These guns were older and more like collection guns. All of them were shining and in perfect condition.
Roy brought all of them out to the living room to avoid the clutter in the smaller bedroom.
"Holy cow! She could start her own firearm store in here!" Havoc eyes the pile incredulously.
"Yep. She has quite the collection," Breda nodded in a daze.
"Yes, well, you know her with her guns. We better be careful with them or she'll use them on us when she comes back," Roy said jokingly. The others laughed and snickered at the thought, while Sakel looked traumatized.
Falman had come back with a moving truck and was helping the others finish packing and slowly moving things into the vehicle. In the end, they had been able to clear out her belongings in one trip, completely filling up the truck. They left after finishing things up with the landlord and getting the apartment checked by him to ensure that everything was alright before they all drove off toward Roy's house.
Even though his house wasn't as big as King Bradley's, the amount of land had remained the same. His property was delimited by high fences and the driveway had a large front gate with security officers 24-hours. Arriving at his home, they all helped unloading the boxes and storing them in a large spare room. The bed had been properly set up, but the rest of her things remained in the boxes, which were neatly stacked against a wall.
"We'll leave things like this. At least when she comes back, all her things will be here," Roy said as he wiped his forehead. The others nodded in agreement.
Roy knew that Havoc was always giving him concerned looks whenever he talked about Riza that way. He had refused to acknowledge out loud the possibility of her death. It was even hard for him to fathom the idea in his head. He was clearly in denial, hoping against all the odds of ever finding her again, but he wasn't a man to give up so easily. I'll believe in your return even if everybody has given up already.
The men were suggesting to go out for some drinks, but Roy declined, saying that he had a lot of things to do at home, which was true. Sakel and the men left not too long after they had finished, with Falman still assigned with the task of returning the truck.
Alone in his home, he went to the study room to unpack his books, which took a great part of the evening considering the amount he had. The other things he owned, like his kitchen supplies, his clothes and other articles had been unpacked by his housekeepers, but he had always been finicky about the way his books were arranged so kept them for himself to unpack. When he finished, he went into his kitchen and looked in the fridge for something to eat. He was pleased to see a prepared meal they had left him and proceeded to reheat it before eating it.
When he finished, he decided to walk around his big house and familiarize himself in this new environment. It was very grandiose and modern. He liked things to be simple and elegant. Very nice. He had been very content about the end result. He especially liked his three-doored garage, even though he only had one car, which he rarely had the time to drive anyway.
Satisfied with his inspection, he climbed up the spiral stairs and made his way to the master bedroom. Everything had been brought out of the boxes, washed and place exactly where they belonged. He took a quick shower before crawling into bed. He never had enough sleep, mostly because of his nightmares and distracted mind. Every time he tried to fall asleep, he ended up thinking for many hours, depriving him of the much needed rest. Hawkeye.
Going to her apartment had been comforting. Every single thing had reminded him of her and never in his entire life had he been so happy to see so many guns. The faint smell of gunpowder that accompanied them were a trademark of her's and it ached him to be reminded of it. Even though it had been hard, he had genuinely felt at ease.
Roy didn't want anything to change. Even though she was still missing and they had no idea if she was alive or not, he was desperate to convince himself that she would be back some day. Thus, her desk and all of her things hadn't been touched, and now he had moved all of her belongings to his house for safekeeping. He knew he could have put everything in a storage room, but inwardly, he wanted to keep her things close so he could be reassured that they were safe.
Roy Mustang was guilty, terribly guilty he hadn't made it in time for her. So he was very careful to make sure her return would be as easy and natural as possible. He didn't want her to come back and see that her things had been removed, to see that they had given up on her and had moved on. No, that'll never happen.
Roy opened his eyes and frowned in the darkness of his room. What about her finances? He didn't know how that was working out. Had anything happened to her assets during the whole procedure? He knew they had had access to her bank account during the investigation, but ever since then they hadn't touched it. The last thing he wanted to do was to pry into that area. It was a very private matter after all. Usually, they wouldn't be allowed to have access to her assets, but under extraordinary circumstances they had the authority to look into certain things. I'll have to ask Havoc to look into it.
The first thing Roy did as he entered the office on the Monday was to call Havoc into his office.
"Havoc, have you or the investigation team looked into Hawkeye's financial situation?"
"Not that I know of. Why?" Havoc asked.
"I just want to make sure that nothing's been touched. If she comes back and find out that we've meddled with it then she'll kill me," Roy said with a hint of panic.
"I'll check it out then, but I don't think anybody's touched it since the first time. I'll still make sure though."
"Thanks Havoc." Knowing that someone trustworthy was going to look into it had reassured him and he was able to complete his morning with less distractions.
As lunch time came around, Roy ate silently in his office, while reading a report. Suddenly, there was a quick knock on his door, but before he could even say anything, Havoc burst inside holding a paper, clearly looking disturbed. Roy paused and looked at him with apprehension.
"What is it Havoc?" he asked slowly with a grave tone. Havoc was breathing hard and still trying to catch his breath. When he recuperated enough, we placed the paper on Roy's desk.
"There's been two withdrawals this past month." Havoc said with the same serious tone. Roy snatched the paper up and carefully scrutinized it. It showed her bank account with two single lines showing the two transactions that had been made. What is this? What are these crazy amounts? They were huge numbers, nothing that could have been spent in one time. He felt a fire slowly welling up inside of him. He looked at the description beside each number and saw 'Central General Hospital'. His eyes widened and he looked up at Havoc, seeing his dark expression.
"Central Hospital?" Roy asked out loud in disbelief. "Do you- Do you think it could be her?" he paused, then added in a low voice, "or someone else using her money."
"I don't know sir. We'll have to go there to check their records and to see who payed them," Havoc said.
The thought of someone else freely helping themselves to such amounts of her money infuriated him. If this is you Marcus... he didn't even want to think that far ahead since it made him uncontrollably angry.
"What's the status of her account now? Did you freeze it?" Roy asked sharply.
"It's already been frozen for the past two weeks. I think when she was declared MIA, it was automatically done."
Roy stood up, paper in hand and walked toward his door.
"Where are you going sir?"
"Where else?" he looked at Havoc with a resolved look. "I have to find out who's been using this money."
Without another word, Havoc followed him out. Roy told Brandt and Sakel to clear out the rest of his day, much to their dismay, and headed out without another word.
"Who else knows of this?" he asked as they stalked to the car.
"No one sir. I looked into it myself and didn't tell anybody."
Roy nodded and got into the car, Havoc taking the driver's seat. The drive to the hospital had been silent, since Roy and Havoc were both busy thinking about the possibilities. When they arrived, Havoc found a parking spot near the main entrance. The car had tinted glass so people couldn't see who was inside.
"There are too many people sir," Havoc stated. It wasn't necessarily crowded, but still enough people around to create a scene. It would be bad if Roy was to arrive unannounced and to have journalists take pictures of him. It would create a scandal, which he didn't need at the moment. They all knew how paparazzi loved to invent new stories and rumours to create national news.
"I know," Roy said discouragingly. He was desperate, but still rational. He knew what the consequences were to be photographed at the wrong place and the wrong time. He definitely didn't need any more burden on his shoulders. He looked around the car and found his old long trench coat in the back and his low hat in the small compartment. "I could put this on."
Havoc frowned, unsure of the credibility of the disguise, but seeing Roy's determination, he decided not to oppose it. "I guess that could work, but let me do the talking then."
Roy nodded and proceeded to fasten his big coat, which did a marvellous job at hiding his uniform, and placed his hat as low as he could. Havoc had his own coat, which also hid the blue of his uniform, so they didn't attract any attention. Roy kept his gaze low and walked beside Havoc. When they reached the main counter, Havoc went first with Roy hovering behind him.
"Hi, how can I help you?" the man behind the counter asked.
"Yes, I'd like to inquire about a patient who was here a few weeks ago," Havoc started. Roy had hoped that there actually was a patient who had stayed here and not just some random sums of money that had been paid out. Havoc placed the statement on the counter and pointed to the dates. The man looked at it for a while and his expression changed.
"Ah yes, miss Riza Hawkeye." Roy's attention immediately sharpened and he was about to come up to the counter, but Havoc gave him a nudge and he restrained himself and went back to stand behind him. What is going on? Was Hawkeye here? That's impossible?
The man looked through some folders in a cabinet and retrieved one. "Yes, she has been discharged two weeks ago." He looked up at them curiously.
"We- We'd like to meet the doctor that was in charge of her. Would that be possible?" Havoc said after he recovered from a moment of shock.
"I'm sorry sir, but unless you are her immediate family member and have her permission, all information will remain confidential," the man said, a little more wary of them.
Roy was getting pissed off and this time he was determined to get what he wanted, but before he could move past Havoc, he put his arm out to block him. He showed his military badge to the man, who looked startled.
"Look mister. The military is doing an investigation right now. We must gather as much information as we can. Riza Hawkeye might be in serious danger and if we can't find her soon enough, then her life will be threatened. She's a high ranking officer and if anything happens to her, I'll make sure that you meet the repercussions. Now will you please let us meet the doctor who was in charge of her, so we can all get going on our way without any problems?" Havoc said in a low voice, laced with anger and impatience.
Roy was taken aback by the sudden turn of the situation and looked with surprise at the back of Havoc's head. Wow, he thought with a was usually him that would do the threatening. The man behind the counter looked like he was going to pee in his pants. He swallowed the lump in his throat and picked up the phone. Havoc looked back sideways at him and the corner of his lips twitched up. You sly dog.
Before the man spoke to anyone in the phone, he looked behind them and called someone out. "Kate!" A young petite lady looked up in surprise and came up to the counter beside Havoc.
"Yes?" she asked.
"These men would like to meet with Dr Wilson regarding Riza Hawkeye," the man said nervously.
"Oh! Really?" her eyes lit up and she stared with a wide smile at them. "Are you acquaintances of hers?"
"Yes, we are. We'd like to meet her doctor if that would be possible," Havoc said before the other man could said anything.
"Yes of course, but I can't guarantee that he'll be free at the moment, but I can go check."
"We'd like to meet him in private," Havoc added.
"Alright, I can see if he can meet with you in his office. If you'd follow me, I'll lead you to his office." They walked behind her, leaving the other man, much to his obvious relief.
"I'm so glad to know that miss Hawkeye has some friends. She's always been alone in here without any visitors, so I was afraid she had no one to go to when she got out." Kate said to them as she lead them.
Roy's heart was slamming in his chest. Here was a lady who presumed to be talking about the Hawkeye he knew and he couldn't say anything about it. Havoc had given him an alarmed look, knowing full well that Roy would have blurted out something. Damn, this is frustrating! He wasn't even sure if the Riza Hawkeye she was referring to was the same person. It could've been any other woman who stole Hawkeye's identity. His mind was swarmed with all the possibilities, but his hope of finding her had soared to a new level and he was anxious to get to the doctor's office.
"Do you know where she went when she got out?" Havoc asked with too much intensity, but Kate didn't seem to mind it.
"She told me she would go back to her hometown to see if she could meet with some people who knew her."
"What? What do you mean by people who knew her?"
Kate shot him a look of surprise and seemed to realize the mistake she had committed. She looked back to the front and said, "It's not really my place to say. I'll let you speak with her doctor."
Something was wrong and Roy was getting even more anxious. They arrived in front of a door with the nameplate 'Dr Carl Wilson'. Kate knocked on it twice and waited.
"Come in," a muffled voice said. Kate opened the door to reveal a small office. There was a simple desk, a folder cabinet behind it, a coat hanger and two chairs in front of the desk for guests. Dr Wilson stood up when he saw them.
"Dr Wilson, these two men are requesting to meet with you regarding miss Riza Hawkeye." Hearing the name of the patient, Dr Wilson's eyes showed surprise and curiosity. "Do you have some time to talk with them right now?"
"Yes actually, I do. You came at the right time." He gestured to the two chairs in front of his desk and thanked Kate.
After the door had closed, Havoc went to shake Dr Wilson's hand and moved to the side for Roy. He stepped up and removed his hat. Dr Wilson's head shot back with surprise and he gasped lightly. It wasn't every day that someone could speak to the Fuhrer in such close quarters. Roy extended his hand to him and he took it after he had recovered from his initial shock.
"Nice to meet you Dr Wilson, I'm Roy Mustang." He gave a polite smile.
"Yes, yes of course. It's a pleasure meeting you Fuhrer Mustang. Please take a seat. Can I get you two anything to drink?" Dr Wilson was more alert and he fumbled around trying to see what he could offer them in his small office.
"No thank you doctor. We're fine," Roy said. Dr Wilson went to take a seat behind his desk.
"What can I help you with Fuhrer?"
"It's about Riza Hawkeye."
A.N.: Ohhhh... cliffhanger? Hahaha I'm still evil. The rest of the conversation will come later. Riza and Roy are nearing their reunion, but it still won't happen so fast. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter. I love writing Roy's POV, but when I think about Riza's POV, I can't decided which one I like more? Which one do you guys prefer?
Btw, if any of you have some proposals for the storyline or diehard wishes, then you can always tell me. Doesn't mean I'll follow them though. I'm that cruel.
D