Two weeks of normal (ish) days later and I noticed something was off. I had been contacted by Hughes the night before, telling me he was alive, and setting up another code word to verify his identity, should he call again. Mine was 'Periwinkle', his was 'Banana'. Not something anyone is bound to guess. I was still riding my high of victory, when I opened the door to the office and the voices that had been coming from within fell deadly silent. Everyone was gathered in front of Mustang, who had obviously just been handing out orders. I wasn't trusted enough to be involved in this apparently. Well, that hurt a little. I rolled my eyes, dumping my bag on my desk,

"Alright, alright, I know when I'm not wanted, who wants coffee?"

All hands went up, some looking slightly guilty. I swept off my coat hanging it up as I went out the door, closing it behind me. What they weren't aware of is the special Alchemic circle inscribed on the inside of my coat tag. Maybe they shouldn't trust me, I'm turning into a sneaky bitch.

I ducked into the women's restroom, locking the door from the inside, and touched the inside of my military jacket collar, flaring a discreet circle into life. The corresponding circle flared, hidden by the folds of my coat in the office. Voices filtered through, quiet but clear. I buried the excitement to pay attention. Fuery was speaking.

"-you sure that Stephanie shouldn't be trusted? Havoc did well enough with Barry, she didn't even mention it to us. I didn't know until you told me about it, Jean."

There was grumbling that I couldn't hear very well, I resolved to edit the circle a bit when I had the time. All I caught were the words cheating, owl, money, and alcohol. He was cut off by Roy.

"I know that you would like to trust her, I wouldn't mind either, she does good, and she's hiding more intelligence than we could ever guess, most likely. But she's young. I had forgotten that."

"Edward's young too, but you still send him out."

"Edward chose this. He could walk away at any time. Arcaro didn't, which is mostly on me. It was either this or jail."

"I thought foreigners could pay a tax? On that note, I didn't even know she was foreign!"

"She tries to avoid mentioning it most of the time, I think she misses home. But the tax, that's mostly for entire families who have multiple people to pitch in. It wasn't meant for single individuals, it was actually designed so that if someone ventured here alone they would end up in the military. She wouldn't have been able to make payments. They would have been easy at first, but then interest would randomly be added on, and then it would have built until there was no choice but to have the military bail her out or go to debtors prison. It's one of the things I plan to change when I'm Fuhrer."

That was news to me. I hadn't realized that things could have gone so badly if I had decided not to go the military route. Or hadn't been so effectively railroaded into it. Eep much.

"And...I may have pushed for her to be accepted, despite her own self-proclaimed health issues. Maes and I both."

What the fuck?

My thought was mirrored by Jean, and Mustang was quick to explain.

"You didn't see her when she first got here. She probably wasn't even aware of what country she had wandered into until she ran into us. She was so thin, pale, covered in blood and bruises...there was no way Maes was going to let her get sucked into that mess of legal nonsense...and I agreed."

After several seconds of silence they moved on and I listened, recording their plans for later into my memory so that I could go back later and plan around them, trying to ignore what I had learned until I could deal with it later. Really things would be so much easier if they would just tell me. But then again, it is my own fault for reminding Roy of my age, and the fact that I didn't really even belong here. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It only showed my age. I had intelligence, but apparently I needed practice on how to use it.

Once they began to repeat things and key points to make sure that people got them I ended the transmutation. I rushed to get coffee, grabbing my soda as well, stopping to say hello to Armstrong, who had seemingly learned that I didn't take kindly to overly enthusiastic hugs while I was holding coffee. He was downright gentle this time. I managed to keep it short, and strolled through the door. I was handing Fallman his coffee when he asked,

"What took so long?"

I grimaced, "Saw Armstrong in the hallway, managed to keep it mostly short, though." He nodded in understanding before going back to what he was doing. Armstrong made a convenient excuse, actually, he could even corroborate, if it wasn't Envy this time. Though from the hug, I doubted it. Didn't feel all slimy that close up. With direct contact I was skilled enough with the dragon's pulse to tell it wasn't an imposter, more or less (hopefully). I was hoping with enough practice I could increase that range.

Fuery was working on what looked like a portable telephone, splayed out over his desk. He was staring at it intently, so I decided not to interrupt, setting his coffee on the corner of his desk where I knew he'd find it. I got to work on the many requisition forms everyone had dumped on me, what with me being the newbie. It wasn't nearly as much of a hassle for me, I didn't have to go through and search for documents the long way, I had it organized perfectly in my head. I needed to figure out if I could trick my brain into adding a computer in there so that I could simply use a search bar. Having basically Google in my brain would be awesome as hell. I was ruminating on the possibilities of that when I heard a solid thump from Fuery's direction. I looked over and his face had met his desk, posture screaming defeat.

"Um….are you okay?"

He groaned, "Nooo. These pieces are too corroded to be put back in, I may have to scrap the entire thing."

He looked at them sadly, and I sighed, standing. I stepped near him and gently tugged the 'ruined' pieces out of his hands.

"What are you doing?"

"Just sit back and watch, Kain."

It wasn't often that I bothered to use first names with people, so it caught his attention and he kept silent. I brought out some chalk from my pocket, drawing the circle I would need straight onto my desk. boring-as-hell-but-not-every-circle-can-be-awesome and then I placed one of the pieces in the center. I made sure not to clap my hands together, I was sure that was just an Edward thing, but couldn't be completely certain. I brushed my fingers against the edge of the outermost lines and the ringing and blue lighting filled the air. I got the same adrenaline rush as always, I was smiling as I handed him back the repaired pieces.

"There, knock yourself out."

I took out the spare rag from the top drawer of my desk that I kept for this specific purpose and wiped away any trace of the circle. Fuery was still staring at the whole pieces in his hands, as were Havoc, Breda, and Fallman.

Mustang and Riza emerged from the colonel's office, Roy looking around curiously, "No wanton destruction, I don't hear creative cursing, but I could have sworn that I heard Fullmetal." Fuery ratted me out, the dick.

He pointed at me, "She can do Alchemy!"

He brandished the pieces he had been so upset about.

"She got rid of the corrosion almost instantly!"

All eyes turned to me and I narrowed mine at Fuery,

"Fine, rat me out, why dontcha?"

Mustang shook his head, bemused,

"I already knew that you studied alchemy, I got my hands on your journal once, remember? I have a feeling that if it wasn't coded to hell and back it would make for an interesting read."

I looked at him innocently.

"I don't know what you're talking about, sir, I only write personal memos in the language of my home."

He snorted, "Yeah, I'm sure. And some of the sticky notes by the coffee machine. Everyone now knows how to write 'we're out of coffee' in Drachman, which I should point out isn't your language, you didn't even know the name of it for crying out loud."

I shrugged, "I could always resort back to 'coding' my unofficial reports, if that's how you feel about it."

He paled, hands waving in front of him, backtracking in the way only an anime character could.

"No, no, that isn't necessary…"

"I thought not."

I always simplified everything down, written on one piece of paper, that I would leave conveniently on my desk but was always found disappearing to Mustang's office. He would slip it back into my stuff afterward, but it was basically a cheat sheet for the more ridiculous paperwork, everything lined out neatly so he didn't have to read oodles of reports if they weren't actually important enough to deserve his attention. I was fairly certain he read through them anyway, but the cheat sheet no doubt saved him some brain power in the end.

Mustang moved on to hold a whispered conversation with Breda, and I pulled a bottle of soda out of my bottom desk drawer. One transmutation later and it was chilled to the perfect temperature. I was starting to abuse Alchemy, but it was just so cool...I popped the lid off the glass bottle using the key to my apartment, Havoc watching the entire time. Finally, something seemed to hit him and he jumped up, his chair falling back behind him. He pointed at me dramatically, anime expression nearly setting me off in a laughing fit before his words filtered through.

"You aren't old enough to drink!"

I eyed him as if he'd lost his mind,

"Well, no, but this isn't alcohol."

He shook his head rapidly,

"That's not what I meant! Every Time I go to your place I grab a beer out of the fridge! Where does it come from?!"

Fuery gave him a strange look,

"You just randomly show up at her house?"

I nodded sagely to my fellow Sergeant,

"I think he's under orders to make sure I eat, he usually eats, gets his ass kicked at a card game, and then leaves."

Fuery sweatdropped, "I think he's just freeloading."

Havoc shook his head rapidly,

"What! No, of course not! Why would I do that?!"

By now Breda was staring at Havoc too.

"Bro, you've been telling me you had a date every night! Are you dating Arcaro or something?"

A mouthful of soda was promptly sacrificed to the god of anime spit takes. I started choking, laughing hysterically at the same time.

Havoc looked at me, sweat dropping, "You don't have to laugh so hard, there's nothing wrong with me!"

Fallman shrugged, "No offense, but she is a bit too intelligent for you."

Fuery shook his head, "She's barely legal!"

I sobered, that was one of the main things holding me back in this dimension. My age. Most of the men, and several of the women, I was surrounded with were damn fine, but I was too young to even be considered. Like Mustang, who was the finest of all, most likely saw me as a child. It was hellishly frustrating, so I shoved all thoughts of my depressingly non-existent dating life out of my head. It wasn't like it was something I actually wanted to do, but I still didn't like not having the option to do a thing.

"To answer your question, Havoc, I buy them. Or sometimes brew them myself, but you usually watch those like its magic."

He stared, "How do you buy them though?"

I stared right back, eyebrows raised. "I walk in, pick a case up, pay for it, walk out. That's usually how shopping works."

"But you're so YOUNG!"

I sighed, "Fine, you wanna know the secret? I wear the old t-shirt from boot camp on grocery day, and you can see the dog tags because of the slightly lower neckline. They assume I'm older because they can tell I'm military, are you happy? It's not like I can even consume the alcohol anyway."

He rolled his eyes and scoffed,

"You could, you're just too much of a goody-two-shoes to try it."

I looked at him, amused, "Me? Goody two shoes? Have we met?"

He waved it off, "Obviously you're a goody goody if you keep alcohol in the fridge and won't even drink it!"

I stared down at my soda, rolling it in between my hands, speaking without looking up. "When I say I can't drink it, I mean shouldn't. It wouldn't go over well."

"Ah, so you're a lightweight!"

I shook my head, "That isn't the point, I can't drink it, it'd react with my medication. Knowing my luck, probably violently."
I drained the last of the soda in the bottle,

"I'm headed home, it's getting late."

It was 8 in the evening, but everyone knew that I meant Hawkeye would get surly if I stayed any longer. I tried to ignore the thought of alcohol, and the real reason I shouldn't indulge. For someone whose mind is always clear, having it fogged ends in disaster when it's hospital drugs, I don't even want to know what havoc alcohol could wreak. I really wished I could forget sometimes...but I would persevere. I could make it. I was reaching for the handle to the door when it opened, revealing Edward, looking at me in surprise. I skirted to the side, out the door.

"Sorry 'bout that. Evening Ed, Al."

As I made to walk away, Alphonse caught my shoulder.

"Wait, aren't you going to stay and hear about the plans?"

I looked up into his face, well, helmet, and smiled.

"I'm not really allowed in the loop of whatever this is. Foreigner, remember?"

I left it at that, turning and heading down the hall.

I walked across town, making it seem like I wasn't in much of a hurry, but the moment I was inside my apartment I began to rush. I stripped out of my uniform, throwing it on the couch, and changing into my usual incognito outfit, dark colors, easy to move in. I remembered my brother's accidental tip-off that something had happened to Havoc in some lab, and what do you know, they were planning to storm a lab. There was little that I could do without revealing I had been spying on them, not a good way to earn trust. I had studied medical alchemy, and what Amestris knew of medicine, it was no wonder whatever happened to Havoc had been permanently debilitating or deadly if that was all that was available to him. With my knowledge from the other dimension and my brother's horrifying spoiler tendencies, I had a chance. If it weren't for listening into their plans I'd have no idea where Havoc's accident fell in the timeline, but after hearing it Taylor's spoilers fell into place for me. With the proper minerals, etc, I could reattach nerves using the right circle, hell with the right circle I could create whole-ass new organs. I had been researching said circles, a couple squirrels may or may not have been sacrificed to the gods of experimental alchemy. I weep for their poor souls. Now I just had to hope the damage was in the realm of what I had prepared for it to be.

I had materials in my bag, which I quickly slung across my body. I activated the circles on my shoes, and the inside of my coat, bending light, shadow, and sound. It wouldn't stand up to direct scrutiny, but I could slip around the edges of everyone's vision unless they were specifically expecting to see me exactly where I actually was. The human brain is too complex to fool completely like that. Not to mention even the lower-powered ones took a heck of a lot out of me to activate all at once, I was sweating before I even left my building.

I waited in the hospital. I stood guard, waiting for my team, my friends, to be brought in. They came, with a rush and the smell of blood clinging to them. I sat outside the operating theater, waiting. Finally, they were both moved to a private room. I don't know how much time passed. I didn't bother to count. When they were finally left alone and unguarded I entered their shared room, carefully. I didn't know where everyone else was or when they would be arriving, I needed to hurry. I placed my equipment to the side, lighting a scentless candle for light, because turning on the electric ones would call attention to the room, but any smell of smoke would be lost in Havoc's own ashtray aroma, not to mention Mustang's own faint wildfire scent. I locked the door carefully, pulling the curtains so that the transmutation light wouldn't be so easily noticed.

I turned to Jean, trying my best not to cry. I didn't want to think of the possibility of not succeeding, he was one of my friends. I enjoyed the time he spent at my place, curbing the loneliness of someone who was used to having an older brother hanging around constantly. With a deep breath, the diagnostic circle was placed gently on his stomach. He didn't even stir, too drugged out to notice. I clapped my hands and began.

~TimeLordOfPie