"What the hell'd you do to get decked like that boss?" Breda asked before shoving the remainder of his hoagie into his mouth. "And by Havoc too?"

Roy accepted the towel filled with ice from Falman and glared at Breda across the cafeteria table. He didn't blink as he pressed the chilled fabric to his swollen face. There would be a bruise for the next few days, but he could keep some of the swelling down. Hopefully.

He didn't answer the question. Not that Breda noticed; he continued to talk.

"I can't even recall the last time I saw Havoc mad, let alone furious enough to deck someone. You must'a done some something really shitty to piss him off like that."

Roy's teeth ground together at the back of his mouth. It was more painful that it would have been if half his face wasn't bruised, but his mouth had already gotten himself in trouble today, and he wasn't looking to dig himself another hole.

"The last time I saw Havoc mad was when the military council attempted to discharge H—" Falman began before Breda's elbow swung and connected with his ribs, ending his sentence with a wheezing cough. The gray-haired man looked at Breda with a confused crease across his forehead before he understood. He didn't pick up the sentence he left hanging.

Roy didn't bother to ask for elaboration. He wasn't even looking at them. His eyes were scanning the rest of the room and hadn't noticed the breakoff in Falman's speech.

The cafeteria was packed more than usual. Not only were there soldiers in there getting their well-deserved breaks from the cleanup and excavation happening all around Central, but also some of the wounded were being carried in and set on the tables and benches as the infirmary was filled past capacity with other soldiers and civilians needing medical attention. The combination of the smell of sterile medical supplies and revolting mystery meat being served from the kitchen almost triggered Roy's gag reflex.

Roy had run into Breda and Falman by luck. He was making his way to the kitchen to raid the freezer for some ice when the two men dragged him down to sit by them.

They were looking well enough for a couple men having just been through one of the most intense conflicts in the past few years. Both were relatively clean of grime, although Breda had lost his military jacket somewhere. Roy thought he heard that Breda had given it up to a soldier that had been bleeding badly from a leg wound.

The three men fell into silence for a length of time, not really sure what they should be talking about. Roy didn't bother to write much when he was stationed up north, and Breda had only visited the one time with Havoc. Falman and Fuery hadn't made the trip up at all.

Breda seemed to lose interest in the remaining food on his plate as he simply pushed the mashed potatoes and peas in a spiral. Falman stared at the table.

In an effort to break the silence that was swelling, Roy attempted to bring the conversation back.

"How have you been since I've gone? A lot seems to have changed around here." It was an understatement considering the mess outside, but they all knew he wasn't talking about the battle.

Falman shrugged. "Nothing much."

Breda snorted at his friend's dismissal.

"Don't let the old man fool you. He found a girlfriend and somehow convinced her to marry him. Can you believe that? And, that's not even the best part, the best part is that she's like twenty years younger than him."

"She is not!" Falman protested rounding on his friend. "She is six years, seven months, and four days younger than me."

Breda waved the correction aside.

"She looks twenty years younger than you in any case."

The conversation from there devolved into a back and forth between Breda and Falman about how Falman only looked older because he had prematurely grayed in his late teens, and he how he wasn't even that much older than the rest of the squad. Roy tuned them out quickly. His brain was occupied with other things. He just needed to keep them from noticing.

He was continually scanning the cafeteria for a specific tuft of hair. And Havoc. But he still hadn't seen either of them.

Why was Havoc so determined to keep him from Hawkeye? And Fuery too, now that his words came back in mind. What secret were they hiding that was so damn important? They were fine with his presence around Hawkeye before he went up in the hot air balloon. Surely it couldn't all be because he had left her on the ground where she would have been safer? Although he was sure Hawkeye never saw things that way. She belonged by his side and despite what he tried to smother inside, that's where he knew she belonged as well.

So why was he here, moping, instead of being his own man and doing something about it?

"Ah, fuck it," he muttered and stood from his seat. He was going to find Hawkeye, orders from Havoc or not, because if she had a beef with him, he needed to hear it directly from her mouth, not someone claiming to speak for her.

Roy spun around and immediately knocked someone off their feet.

"Sorry, I didn't see you—" Roy began before noticing who it was he knocked down.

It was Fuery.

"Kain! Where've ya been? I haven't seen you for hours," Breda said finally noticing anything other than the petty argument he was having with Falman. "You look like hell man."

It was the truth. Since Roy last saw Fuery, the young man had gained a fresh layer of debris on his person, he had lost the waist cape and jacket of his uniform, and his hands were bandaged tightly, but blood was already seeping through the white material. Fuery also seemed to cradle his right arm to his chest. His stare was halfway between the traumatized vacancy of the young soldiers around them and resigned tiredness of someone who had seen it all.

Fuery gave a one sided-shrug, and sat in the seat Roy vacated. He grunted as his rear connected with the hard wooden bench.

"How is the cleanup going out there Kain? Any word from the others?" Falman asked.

Fuery shifted uncomfortably in his seat and shot a glance back to Roy. Roy's determined walk to find where Hawkeye halted and he turned partially to catch what Fuery was about to say. Fuery's eyes connected with his for a second before something shifted in Fuery and he turned back to the other officers.

"Havoc ran into me while I was getting my hands bandaged." Fuery lifted the hand he was holding to his chest slightly. Roy saw him wince before he returned it to where he had cradled it before. "He told me the water district is in complete ruins. There's hardly a building that hasn't had any sort of structural damage inflicted upon it. It's going to take months, if not years for it to get back to what it was."

Breda and Falman's faces grew whiter the more Fuery talked. They knew something Roy didn't, and Roy gathered if he stuck around to listen he would find out why everyone was acting so strangely. He didn't care if he stood in anyone's way. This was something he needed to find out.

"And?" Breda's question hung in the air for the moment. Roy felt everyone's eyes shift to him for a millisecond before they focused back on Fuery.

"Libbie's alive." Roy saw Breda and Falman release the tension Roy hadn't even realized they were carrying. "She's been injured, but Havoc couldn't tell me how seriously before he had to run out again."

The tension Falman and Breda had released return the moment the word injured came out of Fuery's mouth.

"Libs is gonna be alright. Hawkeye will do everything she can to make sure that kid gets the best medical attention she can." Breda's words were spoken to help ease their minds. Roy could see that it did not work.

Roy turned around completely and leaned over Fuery. Fuery tilted away from Roy and stared up at the eyepatch that covered half his face. Roy levelled his gaze to the other two men on the other side of the table.

"Now, I'm going to ask once, and I know that no one wants to give me the answer, not with the way you've been running around me all day, but consider answering me for old times sake. What happened to Riza Hawkeye? And who is Libbie?"

In Roy's head, he was halfway sure of the answer he was going to receive. He was a smart man, able to connect the dots. It didn't take a genius to take everything he had seen that day fit the pieces of the puzzle together. Hell, even Fullmetal with his legendary oblivious tendencies in regards to people could have put together the signs.

His heart didn't want to believe it.

Fuery, Falman, and Breda all exchanged a look with one another, deciding who would be the one to break the news to Roy. Fuery was the first to break away, staring down at his bandaged hands. Breda then turned to Falman. Falman sighed and looked Roy square in the face. His gray eyes were more tired than Roy had ever seen.

"The answer to your first question is the second, sir. Libbie is Hawkeye's daughter."

Riza couldn't stop herself from pacing. Her normally steady hands were beginning to shake, and she clenched them and tucked them under her arms. With her hands restrained, her feet wearing a trench into the ground beneath her feet, and an expression that was as hard as when she was behind the scope, most of the nurses made very conscious efforts to avoid the blonde woman as they went about their duty. Riza didn't care. Her daughter had been separated from her the moment she walked into Knox's tent, and there was nowhere she wanted to be right then than at the side of her baby girl.

What was happening behind the dividing curtain? She couldn't hear anything behind it, not even the small whimpers Libbie had been making since she regained consciousness after Riza pulled her from the rubble. Although with the commotion of the nurses behind her, Riza was sure that she wouldn't hear the quiet sounds escaping her daughter's mouth.

She'd always been a quiet one.

"Hawkeye?" Knox's voice broke through her mental fog and she spun to face the graying man.

There was blood on his apron, and Riza's first instinct was grip his collar and demand answers about the status of her daughter. She hadn't been bleeding terribly when Libbie was passed from her arms to the older doctor. And the logical portion of her was fairly certain that the blood had already been on the apron before they even got there.

"How is she?" She attempted to keep her desperation out of her voice, but she feared she couldn't maintain the composure she had been known for.

Knox looked over Riza's shoulder to a few of the nurses moving about other patients and frowned before dropping a hand to her shoulder and steering her away from the other individuals in the tent. Together they walked through the partition Knox had come from. Riza's eyes immediately were searching for Libbie.

She couldn't find her.

"Hawkeye, I want you to know that you're extremely lucky. Both of you. Had those teachers not had the insight to cluster those children underneath the more solid bits of furniture, we would be having funerals for everyone in that day care."

Despite that attempt to spin things positively, Riza knew there was the exception coming. There was always an exception coming when they started out this way. It had when her father asked for her to protect his alchemical notes, when she was sent to be a sniper in the Ishval Civil War, when Roy left her when he went north.

"What happened Knox? Where's Libbie?"

Knox held his hands up to attempt to placate he woman. With one, he gestured to a small cot Riza had not seen tucked behind a table filled with medical equipment. There she saw the feet of the flower onesie that she dressed her daughter in that morning. They were moving as Libbie squirmed on the cot.

Riza tore her eyes from her daughter to briefly look back at Knox before she rushed to gather Libbie back into her arms. Once she got there, she hovered over the cot, hands outreached, but didn't lift her daughter from the soft surface.

Libbie was in process of shoving her fist in her mouth as she stared at some of Knox's shinier equipment. Her other hand reached out for the silver scalpel far out of her range. A smile twitched at the corner of Riza's mouth, and a relieved noise escaped from the back of her throat.

Catching sight of her mother, Libbie turned her head and reached for Riza with both hands. She began to babble as her fists opened and closed, an indication she wanted Riza to pick her up. Riza laughed through the sudden tears and gently slid her hands under her daughter's small body and lifted her from the cot. Libbie chortled in response.

Riza's eyes quickly took in Libbie from toe to head. She was still dressed in the flowered onesie, although there were drying patches of blood across the cloth now. There was a little bit of dust and small flecks of debris clinging to her. And there on her daughter's head was a large white bandage, wrapped around her entire head, leaving only her round face exposed.

"What happened?" Riza whispered to Knox, her eyes never leaving the bandage and who was wrapped inside it.

Knox sidled up beside Riza, something she felt more than saw.

"Libbie is extremely lucky. She had been hit by some debris in the head, and she should have been killed. She does have a concussion and you have to keep a close eye on her for the next few days to manage her symptoms. I suggest getting a friend to come and stay with the two of you; that way you can take alternating shifts. She may have difficulty maintaining balance and may be unfocused, but those are to be expected."

Riza finally tore her eyes from the infant in her arms and looked at Knox. Her eyes narrowed.

"What is it? What aren't you telling me?" Riza shifted her baby in her arms and held her closer to her heart.

Knox sighed. Riza noticed that his fist was clenched tightly.

"There appears to be a bit of damage to Libbie's inner ears. I don't know how deep the damage goes, or how long it may last, but your daughter does seem to be experiencing some hearing loss."

"How do you know?" Riza looked down at the little girl in her hands, who was still babbling happily for being in her mother's arms. She hadn't seen anything to indicate that.

Knox winced a moment. One of his hands scratched at the back of his head a moment.

"I knocked over a tray of instruments. Libbie didn't react to the sudden loud noise, except to follow my movements. I'm truly sorry, Hawkeye."

Riza stood in silence for a few moments. How had she not heard Knox knock over a tray of medical instruments? For someone who has always been aware of the surroundings around her, to have missed something like that was extremely sloppy.

A voice in the back of her head told her she had been extremely distraught, and things had a tendency to slip by unnoticed when the brain was preoccupied.

"Listen, Riza, I have to go help the other patients now. But you know that I'm always there to help with anything you may need. Now more than ever." Knox gave Riza a pat on the shoulder before he turned to leave through the partition. He lifted the sheet up before he stopped and turned back.

"I hear Roy's back in town. Please be careful around him. You know what happened last time, and it's not only yourself you need to worry about now."

With a drop of the sheet, Dr. Knox was gone.

Riza stared at the blank sheet where he left for a moment before gazing at her baby girl. Libbie smiled, showing the newly acquired baby teeth they had spent many sleepless nights over. Riza returned the smile and pressed a kiss to Libbie's forehead above the bandage.

She would worry about Roy later. Right now, this was enough.

Roy was fairly certain his heart stopped. He had known, he had seen the signs but didn't want to put them together. But there it was, laid out for him in plain terms.

Riza Hawkeye had a daughter. She had been able to set aside everything that had been holding her back and moved on with her life. She had always been stronger than him. And this simply proved it.

His ass landed on the bench beside Fuery and he stared down at his hands. Suddenly, he found it was too hot in the cafeteria and it was difficult to breath with the lump in his throat. He clasped his hands tightly together.

"I'm sorry, sir." Breda said finally, and Roy couldn't think of why he would be apologizing.

Roy opened his mouth and only a strangled noise came out before he could clear his throat to get the actual words out.

"H-How?" He turned around to look the men in their faces.

"You very well know how," Breda said.

Even through his shock, Roy managed to send the red-headed man a glare. Breda knew perfectly well that was not the answer the true question that he asked.

"Hawkeye has her own life to live. You made it very clear when you left her behind that she was on her own."

Roy wanted to flinch. But they were right. He had made no attempts to contact them while he was away and only now just dropped back into their lives with no forewarning. It was understandable that they were hesitant to divulge information to him. Especially because it wasn't about them to begin with.

"But who-?"

"Listen, sir," Fuery interrupted. Fuery never interrupted. "This really isn't our place to stay. If you want answers, you would have to get them from Hawkeye. She still has that apartment above the general store, if you wanted to talk with her. I only ask you give her a few days to get settled. It's…it's been a hard day for her."

Roy stared at the youngest member of what had been his team for a little while. Gone were the days where he needed to walk the young man home because a ghost story frightened him. The man in front of him had seen tragedy's fallout strike over and over again and was ready to deal with it.

Roy gripped Fuery's shoulder lightly, as to not exacerbate whatever wound he had on that arm and thanked him. He stood and straightened his military jacket. He didn't look down or back before he walked briskly out of the cafeteria and out into what had once been the common grounds of Central Headquarters. People were quick to jump out of his way as he passed by.

He didn't know where he was going, but he wasn't going to let anyone stop him.

A/N: And now I begin to pull characters from the manga/Brotherhood. And my chapters begin to get a little bit longer. As always, please leave a review.