Note: The main part of the story will take place in present day, but until then, I'll be moving through the past as it concerns my fic. Also, chapters will be longer after we return to present day.

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December 14, 1904

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Sergeant Major Roy Mustang: 19 years old
Sergeant Elizabeth Hawkeye: 18 years old
Private Maro Otori: 17 years old
Corporal Edwin Hawkeye: Died 18 years old, 1904

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Shaking, Riza set down the note in her hands. It had been long and tiresome to read through, but now that she was done with it, it seemed to have taken only a few moments… yet that was all it took for her whole world to fall apart. He was dead. Dead… Her husband of two months and the father of her unborn child.

Edwin Hawkeye.

The letter had only briefly outlined the cause of death- a bullet wound to the neck- before going on to talk about compensation and the posthumous double promotion her husband would be receiving… as though any of that mattered now. Feeling more and more like a helpless child, the usually strong and stalwart military woman sank into the nearest chair and stared at the phone across from her on the counter. Who to call first?

Riza leaned over, one hand on her slightly bulging stomach, and picked up the phone, though it was a few minutes before her hand had stopped shaking enough to dial the familiar number.

"Private Maro?" she said, in a small voice, to her subordinate on the other end.

"Sergeant?" came the sharp reply, "I thought you were on pregnancy leave? Is something wrong?"

"Could you please come over? I-I need to talk to you…"

The young woman questioned her no further, hanging up the phone and moving straight to her car. Still, no matter how fast she drove, there were still fifteen minutes between the Eastern Headquarters and Riza's home. Fifteen torturous minutes in which the truth finally began to sink in for her. Edwin Hawkeye was dead and her child, fatherless… "How am I supposed to get through this without you…?" she found herself whispering to the empty kitchen.

"Sergeant!" The cry was followed by a bang as Private Maro Otori shot the hinges off the door and barged in.

"There was a key under the mat," Riza informed her with little conviction.

"I apologise, Sergeant-" said Maro with a quick but clean salute. The moment she saw the state her superior was in, however, she dropped the formalities, "Rize? Are you okay? What's happened? The baby…?!"

"The baby is fine," said Riza, shaking her head. "But Corporal Hawkeye… Edwin died just recently."

"Riza…" said Maro, sitting down and shaking her head wordlessly as she rested a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Riza… I'm so sorry."

"That's what I get for falling in love with a military man, I guess," she said eventually, rifling in her pockets in search of a handkerchief, even though she knew that she never carried one.

"Hey, that's not true, Rize!" said Maro, producing a tissue from her own pocket and pressing it into Riza's hands gently, "nobody could have seen this coming- it could have happened to anyone."

"Stupid idiot…" Riza muttered miserably, "…stupid, stupid idiot…"

"Is there anyone else I can call for you?" asked Maro, noticing the phone on the counter beside them both.

"My brother, Erich, please- his number should be in the address book. And Sergeant Major Mustang… no… not him. Never mind him…"

"Are you sure?" asked Maro.

"Yes, I'm sure… he… he's in the past too now."

"Okay then."