Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist.

One Year Later

Sometimes she wondered if she deserved this happy ending.

The scattered rays of sunlight gleamed through the curtains, rousing her from her sleep. As she tried to sit up she was stopped by two strong arms keeping her latched to the warm body next to her. The sunlight hadn't caused him to stir; he was sleeping like a log.

She glanced over and studied his sleeping face. Still as perfect as ever, she thought to herself. It was a miracle that he was even alive right now. After all the stories she had heard about what happened when she disappeared she knew that staying by his side was the most important thing she could do for him. Unfortunately she had succumbed to the role of motherhood over the past year and as a result she had to temporarily leave her post as Roy's aide until Aidan was old enough to be enrolled in daycare. She could hire some sort of nanny but even her strong urge to get back to work couldn't take her away from spending time with her baby.

She and Roy had tied the knot one month earlier. They had hoped for something small but when you had Roy Mustang attending, who was a well known name in the military for obvious reasons, and the Fuhrer himself as guests it was hard to have a quiet get together with only close family and friends. Now they all lived together under the same roof of a moderately sized house. Roy had accumulated a small fortune over the past years but still didn't see the need to buy anything as frivolous as a mansion just for the four of them. Their family had been functioning quite nicely so far. Amerie had gotten used to Roy and now they were practically inseparable. She should have noticed how similar they were in the first place, maybe that why she loved the both of them so much. The Ishval reconstruction was still going on but it was now in its final stages and the project was handed over to Miles to oversee it to completion. When Roy took Amerie as his own daughter it seemed to be the final step in patching up the relations between Ishval and the rest of Amestris, she acted like a symbol of peace between the two cultures and there hadn't been any sort of act of rebellion for a year.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of crying and Roy shooting up from his sleeping position to a sitting position automatically. "Riza no, go back to sleep, I'll..." He yawned loudly. "I'll take care of Aidan, you just get some sleep."

Another reason Roy was such a perfect husband, he almost felt bad that he was off working all day and wasn't able to help out with Aidan at all so whenever the crying started in the middle of the night he would insist on taking care of him so that Riza could get a full night's rest. "Relax; take a look out the window. It's already morning; you need to start getting ready yourself. Today's the big day."

Today was the day they had waiting for, Roy's inauguration.

"Mom, when can we go inside? It's too crowded here." Amerie nagged as she tucked on the sleeve of Riza's shirt.

"Amerie just wait, we'll get to go inside as soon as the ceremony is over." Even though they had specially reserved seats in the front it was hard to ignore the chatter coming from all directions.

"When is this thing going to start?" Amerie asked.

"It should start at any moment." In fact, the ceremony was running almost 45 minutes late and there had been no explanation. She certainly hoped everything was going fine, she felt incredibly useless not being able to be behind the scenes. Even though she was not on duty she found herself surveying the security and making sure there were no holes in the defense. The last thing she wanted was some sort of breech during the presentation.

"Da!" Aiden spoke along with some other babbled words as he squirmed around in her arms.

"That's right Aidan, your dad is going to be up there on stage soon and he's going to become Fuhrer. That means your dad's going to be in charge of the entire country!" She was a little bitter that the only word her son could say was 'Da' and not 'Ma' but from the amount of time Roy spent just talking to his baby she couldn't be surprised.

"That's great and all but the least they could do is hurry up and get on with it." Amerie said with a pout.

Finally the audience roared behind them as Grumman took the stage and addressed the crowd. Before they knew it Grumman was done talking and Roy finally took to the stage with him. He had his hair slicked back in the sway he didn't quite like, he would have to get used to that style at some point. He wore a military jacket in the style of the one the Fuhrer was usually assigned except it was missing some of the stars that would be added onto the jacket as part of the ceremony.

Everything was going smoothly until she heard someone discreetly calling out to her. "Psst, Riza! Over here!" She spotted Havoc running towards her and waving a piece of paper.

"Havoc, what's going on?"

He shoved the paper into her hands. "We spent hours working on this speech, we practiced it, it addresses everything it needs to, and it's perfect. Why didn't Roy bother to take it up on stage with him?"

"Relax Jean; he probably already has the whole thing memorized. Don't underestimate him."

"I seriously doubt that, we've been trying to get him to memorize it all week but yesterday he just gave up and told us he'd just try and get the paper up on stage with him. Obviously, that didn't happen."

The microphone sounded from the stage. "And now, the newly appointed Fuhrer Roy Mustang will give his inaugural address!"

"It's okay, He probably has something planned, who knows maybe he did memorize it and didn't bother to tell you." She was a bit worried but she believed whatever Roy was doing he had it all figured out.

Roy approached the podium, no papers in sight. Brimming with confidence he stared at the crowd until everyone had stopped applauding and they were giving him their full attention. "My fellow people of Amestris, I'm up here to ask you one simple question. Is this really what you want?"

The hum of confused whispers could be heard from the crowd. Jean looked over at Riza with a pained expression, making it clear that this was not part of the original speech.

"Let me rephrase that. I have been appointed by my predecessor Fuhrer Grumman to run this country under a military rule. If it were up to the people of Amestris, would you choose me to run this country? Most of you know me as the Flame Alchemist, a hero of Ishval, and as the one who orchestrated an upheaval to bring down the corrupt Bradley regime. I'm not up here to lie to you, and there is more to my story than what you have read in the papers."

"Riza I need to get someone up there to stop him. I'm afraid if he continues he might lose the support of an entire nation in the next five minutes." Havoc pleaded with her.

"No, wait. Roy knows what he's doing, just have a little faith. I'll tell you if we need to step in. I may not be on active duty right now but I still outrank you, no action will be taken unless I say so, understood?"

Havoc had no option but to nod and continue to listen to the speech.

"I joined the military with the intention of working to help the people of this country. When I was appointed as a state alchemist I was sent to a war ground and told to kill the people of this country instead. I did not resist, I chose to kill."

The silence across the crowd was almost eerie. She was sure most of them didn't know what to think.

"People have called me a hero for what I've done, but the only word I would choose to describe myself would be murderer. "

Havoc looked like he was about to pass out. Riza tried to calm him down by rubbing his shoulder with her free hand.

"There is no such thing as turning back time and erasing my wrongdoings. Instead I chose to continue my life with a single goal in mind, to become ruler of this country and make sure nothing like Ishval ever happens again. I'll do my best to protect everyone from my position at the top of this country, as long as every one of you does your part and protect the ones you love as well."

Riza could see that the crowd was confused.

"With all of you knowing my true nature I'll ask you this question again, is this really what you want? Do you want someone like me running this country? If the answer is yes then great, I'm happy to have you in my company. If the answer is no, then you are the person who needs to support me the most."

Riza swore she heard a scoff come from the back of the crowd. She hoped it was just her imagination.

"I care about the voice of each and every one of you and my goal is to work towards turning our government into a democracy. I will not step down until the one elected after me will be decided by the people of this country."

Less confused faces, the hum of people whispering once more. People were intrigued by his words.

"I may not be a saint but I have always had a dream to turn this country around. I'm sure the day will come when I have to face the reality of my sins and accept whatever punishment is waiting for me, but for now I have a job to do. Whether it is as a new father to two wonderful children or the new Fuhrer of the great nation of Amestris, I hope when the day comes where all of your voices will be heard, I'll still be the one you would choose."

Finally, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you all for listening and I hope that we can all help guide Amestris towards a brighter future." Roy moved away from the microphone and simply gazed into the crowd, signalling that he was finished.

At first it was silent. She was about to panic when Havoc stood up and started cheering and clapping with all his might. He looked silly at first glance but she saw what he was doing and decided to throw in a cheer of her own and told Amerie to start clapping as well.

Eventually more people started to join in until the whole crowd was booming with applause for her husband. She couldn't have been more proud of him. Stage one was finally completed and she couldn't wait to stand by his side as the first lady and his second in command while he turns this country around.

"Riza! Did you—ow! What was that for?" She had slapped him on the side of the head.

"That was for being an idiot and making up your entire speech on the spot. Do you even realize how badly that could've gone Roy?"

"Relax; it all turned out just fine in the end. Aidan, you liked my speech, didn't you?" He plucked him from Riza's grip and hugged him to his chest.

"Daaa!" Aidan yipped excitedly at the sight of his father.

"See! Aidan agrees with me." Roy declared proudly.

"Say all you want, you almost game poor Lieutenant Havoc a heart attack. Perhaps next time you could at least warn your close friends first."

"I'm pretty sure the whole inaugural address is only going to be a onetime thing, but I'll keep that in mind."

She couldn't stay mad at him for long, today was too important to spend it being upset over little things. Watching Roy hold their child in his arms, to see him genuinely smiling and laughing, it almost felt surreal.

"Are you okay Riza? You're looking at me funny." Roy asked.

"It's nothing really; it's just, is it okay for us to be here like this? Everything just feels so... right."

Roy smiled. "We've had this discussion before Riza, for once let's just try to embrace this feeling for all that it's worth. After everything we've been through, I think we've earned at least this moment to be completely at ease. Just stop fighting the feeling."

Roy's words calmed her down and let her forget her past for a moment, but she knew it wouldn't last long.

If she were given a chance to be reborn as a new woman she would take it. She would erase her past in a heartbeat, and she knew Roy would as well. They lived each day unsure that they deserved to be alive.

Then two extraordinary children somehow made their way into her life as if it were meant to be. She knew she never wanted any of this but looking at both of them with Roy was the first time in a very long time that she truly believed that she was still here for a reason other than to help the country and somehow atone for her sins. It was the first time in her life that she didn't wish things had gone differently. It was the first time in her life that she felt this feeling inside her chest that could only be described as overwhelming joy.

She didn't know how long it would be until they both stopped riding this high and stepped back down to face reality, because she knew it would come back at some point, but she knew that if it lasted for years, months, or even just days, at this singular moment in time she was genuinely happy.

Today, that was all that mattered.

A/N: The completion of this chapter came out of me procrastinating two assignments, studying for two midterms, and doing a lab. I can't believe it's finally over! I know this last chapter was a bit of a cheese-fest but I couldn't help it, you didn't want a sad ending did you? It feels really refreshing to be finally done with my very first multi-chapter fic and I hope you guys enjoyed the ride as much as I did. I really just have to give a huge thank you to everyone who has read, reviewed, favourited, and all in all supported this fic over the past months! You guys are all seriously amazing and I still can't believe there are people who actually like my writing. Since we've finally hit the end I know a lot of you guys don't have the time to leave a review for every chapter but I'd absolutely love for your feedback on the story as a whole just for reference sake, so go on. Leave a review. :3 As always feel free to point out any typos (god forbid there are any I have read this over so many times over the past month), and I hope you have/had a nice day! Until next time!