An Alchemist's Ransom

-Epilogue-

Hawkeye put her long black coat over one arm as she walked down the hallway. Black Hayete walked beside her, looking ahead with almost the same focused look she had. She nodded to a few officers she past in the hall and eventually made it to the offices of Colonel Roy Mustang. She hesitated slightly as her hand wrapped around the door knob, 'I told you not to touch her!' those words hadn't stopped repeated themselves since the day before in the warehouse. Even her dreams that night had been nothing but a replay of those events.

She pushed open the door and as usual the men around the table turned to look at her. The only thing that was different was that she noticed Havok turn and snicker to himself. "What?" she asked giving the men an odd look, moving over to her desk and placing her coat on the back of the chair.

"The Colonel would like to talk to debrief you about yesterday." Fury said looking over his shoulder. Hawkeye watched as Black Hayete moved over to sit next to the main table, she then nodded and turned towards the Colonel's office. Knocking on the door a couple of time, she then turned the knob and stepped in.

Hawkeye felt her heart skip a beat when she turned to face Colonel Mustang's desk only to find it empty. She hurried over to it and as she moved she once again saw the window was opened. When she looked outside to the grounds below she scanned below to see if she could even see him. "Colonel Mustang!" she shouted, but got no response. She then took a step back and turned around to see another note on his desk.

She almost instinctively glared at it, but as she moved closer to the large wooden desk, she saw that the writing on the paper was no longer the messy scribbles, but was neat and almost elegant. Hawkeye then moved to sit in Roy's large leather chair as she began to read this new letter:

"Riza Hawkeye,

You've been extremely patient these last few days and now it's time someone showed you just how important you truly are. If you look up you'll see the 'proper attire' for this occasion. There will be clues along the way to help you figure out where to go. I know you aren't a fan of guessing games, but I promise, you won't be disappointed.

Please show up for this,

C. R. Mustang"

Riza couldn't help but give a slight smile as she slowly lowered the note, but kept it held loosely in one hand. She looked up to see across the office to the coat rack, where hanging on it was a light green dress. Slowly she stood up and walked over to it, the closer she got she noticed that it was sleeveless with a pair of long gloves to go with it. When she touched the material she was shocked to discover that it was satin, and pulling back the skirt of it she saw it was going to almost flow as she moved. On the hanger she found a sheer silk shawl that could cover her shoulders along with a dragonfly hair clip.

She glanced out the door to make sure none of the guys were paying any attention to her, then lifted the hanger off the rack and put the dress up to her front. Even from this angle she could tell it was going to fit like a dream, "Thank you Colonel Mustang..." she whispered to herself as she closed her eyes.

Roy paced back and forth inside the upper room of Gracia's house. Edward, Al, and even Elicia watched him walk from one side to the other. He stopped and moved his hand through his black hair, looked up at the ceiling, then sighed.

"Calm down Roy." Edward said bringing both his arms behind his head and leaning against the wall.

"It's not as easy as you might think," Roy said, then smirked slightly, the same one he gave when he knew he would put Edward into a tight spot, "You'll understand once you realize there's someone in your life you'd die for, and you just want to do something nice for them." Roy said, Al looked over to his brother and gave a slight laugh as Edward turned red, then glared at Roy.

"You just wait, when that happens, I'll be so calm you'll want to take lessons." Edward said crossing his arms in front of his chest. After a few moment Roy went back to pacing, this time with Elicia following his footsteps, trying to make every step she took as big as his.

Everyone froze as a knock came from the door and Gracia let herself in. She gave a smile and watched as Elicia ran over and hugged her leg. "Colonel Mustang, would you mind coming with me?" She said looking to him. He nodded and proceeded to follow her down the stairs.

She lead him into her room and asked him to have a seat at the edge of her bed. Roy took a look around the room and noted the pictures of Maes she still had up. He looked over and watched Gracia open and closet and begin to move some hangers to the side; the open door that faced him was still holding up a blue military uniform that at one time belonged to Brigadier General Maes Hughes. Roy smiled slightly to himself, he could almost feel Maes' hand patting him on the back, "Guess you would be proud..." he mumbled to himself.

"What was that Colonel?" Gracia asked looking over at him.

"Nothing really, just thinking about how proud Maes would be for me doing all this." He explained, Gracia got a solemn look on her face and moved to sit next to him.

"He was very proud of you...he always has been, and always will be." Gracia said, she then put her arms around Roy's shoulders and pulled him into a hug.

"Gracia?" Roy said someone confused as he watched her out of the corner of his eye.

"I miss him so much." Gracia said, Roy could feel a slight wetness gathering on his shoulder.

"I miss him too.' he said and moved his arms to hug her back, they sat there for several minutes, Roy simply letting Gracia mourn for her fallen husband once again.

Riza walked out of Roy's officer after about 5 minutes to meet the expecting eyes of the male officers. She quirked her eyebrow slightly and moved to sit at her desk. Once she did she quickly pulled out a book and buried her nose within its pages.

"Well?" came Havok's voice from the far corner of the long table, Hawkeye glanced over the top of her book to look at him, and saw that every man at the table was still watching her.

"What are you implying Lieutenant Havok?" Hawkeye said closing her eyes and the book.

"What the rest of us are wondering." Havok said smirking, "The Colonel wasn't in there was he."

"We all heard you call for him out the window." Farman said pointing to window in the back of the main office. Hawkeye looked behind her to see the large, and slightly open window. Still looking at it she glared slightly; it wasn't everyday that someone managed to pull something over on Hawkeye, but never did all of the officers she worked with do it at once.

"I was merely concerned, then I saw the note he left on his desk." she said turning around to face the others, "I was only taking that time to calm myself down, reassuring myself that it wasn't a repeat of yesterday." she explained. She then bent to the side to scratch Black Hayete behind the ears. Her fingers then felt something odd in the dog's collar and when she looked over she saw a piece of paper folded under the leather. She then pulled it out and opened it, almost getting a confused look on her fast as she read it then looked to the men.

"Lieutenant?" Breda asked leaning back in his chair.

"There's water, but no fountain, and there's food, but it's not fish?" she read, her brown eyes landed squarely on Havok who tensed up seeing that he'd been found out.

"You're always so quick Lieutenant!" Havok said scratching the back of his head. She rolled her eyes and went back to reading her book, it was one thing to sneak around Hawkeye, it was always another to play bad guessing games with her.

When Hawkeye picked up her coat at the end of the day, another piece of paper fell and landed on the floor. Black Hayete sniffed it and started to wag his tail as Riza knelt down to pick it up, 'Fury...' she though unfolding the paper. "Meet where the lights make night look like day." she read to herself. Though it was still vague, it helped her figure out that Roy had intended on meeting her at a large restaurant or theater, but she still couldn't figure out which to be exact. She then went back into Roy's officer to grab the dress and actually stopped and took a better look at it before she left. Very carefully she draped it over one arm so that it wouldn't drag and turned off the office lights.

When she locked Roy's office and turned around to exit the main room, she was stopped seeing Edward leaned against the door wearing his black shirt and pants. He looked up and smirked at her holding up his right index finger. "Yes?" she asked looking at him.

"Sorry Lieutenant, but, I can't let you go home." Edward said.

"I beg your pardon?" Riza asked giving him a very confused look.

"Don't worry, I've taken it upon myself to make all the proper arrangements, you won't be late." Edward explained, Riza only sighed and looked at the clock, it was almost 6:00 and she really didn't want to be late.

Roy stepped back into the upstairs room wearing a black suit with a light blue tie. Al clapped for him when he saw the Colonel and stood up, "You look great Colonel Mustang!" Al said, at the sound of commotion Elicia blinked her eyes open and sat up as well.

"You look pretty Mr. Mustang!" she said, her cheeks turning a little red.

"Thanks Elicia..." Roy said smiling for her, it was interesting being referred to as 'pretty' by a 2 year old, but he was going to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"They're right Colonel, it does look very good on you. I'm glad it fit right." Gracia said smiling behind him. Roy took a quick look around the room, then back to Al.

"Al, where's Edward?" he asked.

"Making the final preparations, sir." Al said sounding excited, "You're ride is waiting." Roy looked a little taken back, and then moved over to the window and saw a car with Havok sitting in the driver's seat stopped outside Gracia's house.

"Who's idea was this?" Roy asked turning around.

"Mine and my brother's, we figured it would help the evening if you were both escorted to dinner." Al explained, Roy actually blinked a couple times, then walked up to the younger brother and placed a hand on Al's shoulder.

"Thank you both..." Roy said, and with that, he turned and headed down the stairs.

Riza felt odd changing in Roy's office, even if it was empty. Edward had used alchemy to make her a mirror, and when she looked into it, Hawkeye was almost shocked to see just how well the dress fit. After thinking about it for a couple minutes, she came to the conclusion that the dress was what they had needed her measurements for. After a few more minutes, Hawkeye walked out and looked at Edward; this was the first time he had ever seen Hawkeye with her hair down, and with the new dragonfly clip, she seemed to stand out even more in the dress.

"Wow Lieutenant, you look completely different!" Edward said standing straight up, pushing back from the wall.

"Thank you Edward...I have to admit, I'm a little nervous, I'm not used to being the one surprised." Hawkeye said giving a weak smile.

"Don't worry about a thing, come on, your ride's here." he said and with that, Edward turned around and opened the door and began to lead Hawkeye down the hall.

"I have to admit, it was quite a shock to see those letters yesterday." She said as they walked.

"Sorry about that..." Edward said rubbing the back of his head, "But we were told it had to be unique and special." he said opening the entrance door for her. After Hawkeye walked through she saw a car waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs with Fury at the wheel. They walked down in silence and Edward even moved to open the back door for her.

"Thank you very much Edward Elric..." Hawkeye said moving to sit down, "but be warned...if you ever do that again...I'll kill you." she quickly flashed a threatening glare the alchemist's way as she shut the door. Edward's eyes widened after she said that and watched as the car drove off.

"Better not happen again..." was all he mumbled to himself as he ran off the military's property and made his way to the final destination.

Roy waited outside the large restaurant, once again pacing a little. He couldn't believe how nervous he was, and it was almost like no one else was even around him, he couldn't even hear anything either. He hadn't seen the other car pull up at all, and because of his nervousness he didn't notice the blonde haired, brown eyed woman watching him with a strangely calm look on her face.

"Roy." was what finally broke him out of his trance and he froze in place to lay his eyes on Hawkeye. He thought his heart had actually stopped when he looked at her, but when she gave him a small smile he knew he was alive. Now all he needed to wonder was if he was dreaming or not.

"Lieutenant, you came." he said straightening his stance looking down at her. It helped relax him more when she laughed slightly.

"Looks like you're move nervous than I am..." she said looking down slightly. Simply hearing that she was nervous too was what told Roy it was real, everything he had planned was actually happening, and nothing could screw it up.

"Well then...shall we?" He asked turning slightly, holding out his arm for her. She nodded and moved her left arm under his so that her hand was gently resting just below his elbow. As they moved in to the restaurant, they were met by the other officers, each of which held a glass of champagne in one hand. Looking down Hawkeye even noticed that Black Hayete was there, wearing a custom suit. Roy kept looking forward and saw the Elric brothers standing at either side of a table in the middle of the room, candles were lit in the center and there were two glasses set at the seats.

Roy looked down at Riza and gave a calming smile, he was careful as he moved his left hand over her fingers to place a silver ring with an emerald set in the center of it. It was at that moment he was glad he had spent his last paycheck on the ring, he was just hoping the Fuehrer would let him use his next paycheck to put money back into the military for the dress. Seeing her head starting to move, he continued to look forward towards the table. Riza looked at the ring and smiled, now things would be exactly the way they should be, and she'd always know exactly where Roy Mustang always was.