"Sir, I need to request a leave of absence."

Everyone in the office looked up, and Havoc's eyes met Breda's from across the room. Captain Hawkeye never took vacations, unless for a special event of some kind, and as far as he knew there was nothing coming up she'd need to leave town for. It seemed like she and the boss had just returned from a month in Xing. Business, they'd claimed, but Havoc had seen the expense reports. General Mustang looked up from a pile of paperwork, pen tapping idly against the wood of his desk.

"Really, Captain? That's not like you. When?"

"Not until mid-spring," she said, naming a point in time at least six months away. Now that was like Hawkeye, always planning in advance. "I'll need to be gone quite a while, however."

The men were now busily pretending to work or, in Fuery's case, actually working. Havoc pretended to be going over a report but was actually examining what he could see of Hawkeye's face. She looked kind of green around the gills; if he didn't know better he'd say she was nervous. But nervous wasn't a word one used to describe Riza Hawkeye. She didn't get nervous, she just got snappy and somehow more uptight than usual. She didn't get the scared, vulnerable look in her eyes she had right now.

"Oh?" The pen had stopped tapping and while Mustang's face and voice remained casual as ever, there was a tension in his shoulders that didn't quite make sense to Havoc. Hawkeye and Mustang always seemed to know what the other was going to say before they said it. But Roy didn't look like he knew this time."What's the occasion?"

"Well sir, it would be a maternity leave."

Havoc thought he knew what true silence was: training to be a sniper in the academy, or those long quiet hours in the hospital after losing the use of his legs. But he had never known silence like this, so deep and heavy it was like a gravitational void, and any moment now the room would collapse in on itself and take all of them with it. He realized he wasn't breathing; a glance at his coworkers told him they weren't either. No one was breathing and the tension in the space between the Caption and General was about to implode, killing them all instantly.

The pen hit the floor, and time started again.

"What?" Mustang said softly, no part of him moving except his mouth. Somewhere to his right Havoc heard Fuery draw in a shuddering breath. Breda was still motionless, though he seemed to be sinking steadily lower into his chair.

"I apologize for my poor timing sir; I know this summer we were all slated to return to Ishval to check on progress since last summer." Hawkeye must have nerves of absolute steel, Havoc decided. Her voice never wavered and her chin stayed upright. He always knew she was tough but between facing down enemy soldiers and giving unfortunate news to the general, he'd personally pick the soldiers every time.

Riza Hawkeye was pregnant. Havoc was trying to let it sink in but no matter which way he turned it over in his head, the pieces weren't fitting together. There was going to be a baby. A baby with deadly brown eyes and Riza's little upturned nose, and -

"Wait so who's the father?" he blurted before he could stop himself. Mustang seemed to be utterly frozen solid anyhow, and Riza barely moved her head towards the sound of Havoc's voice.

"Do we get to meet him? Are you getting married?" Fuery chimed in, curiosity overriding any self-preservation, and the Captain heaved a long-suffering sigh, as though she'd been hoping to avoid questions along this particular line.

"No," she said, somewhat stiffly. "No he's not going to be involved, actually."

"Are you serious?" Havoc said, beginning to process this whole thing for the first time. "No way, we'll – we'll go talk to him won't we?" this question was aimed at the room at large, and to his surprise Breda and Fuery both nodded.

"This guy doesn't get to just walk out on you, he has a responsibility," Breda said firmly. "We know you can handle yourself, of course," he amended quickly. "But we're here to support you."

"With force, if necessary," Havoc reiterated. "Right, General?" Roy was unmoving as stone, staring at his subordinates as though they'd grown three heads. Jean wasn't entirely sure that he was even hearing anything around him.

"It's not-" Hawkeye began.

"Wait you do know who the father is, right?" Havoc asked, and then immediately wished he hadn't. The glare from the Captain could have peeled paint off the walls.

"There's only one person it could possibly be, thank you," she said tightly. "And he isn't from around here, and it's going to stay that way. I have, of course, let him know and have told him I will happily accept any financial support he feels is appropriate but well," she took a deep breath, looking straight ahead once more. "It's my decision to keep and raise this child and no one else's. And I refuse to make it anyone else's responsibility. I can and will do this alone."

"Of course you can." They all turned back to the General, who was leaning casually back in his chair, for all the world as though he hadn't spent the last few minutes doing an impression of a goldfish. "Congratulations, Captain. Let me know and I'll help out in any way I can."

"Thank you, sir," she said, and went to sit at her desk. And that, apparently, was that.

"I know it's early but are you considering names yet?" Mustang asked calmly, shuffling his papers around.

"Hmm not really seriously yet, but I'm always open to suggestions."

"Well I've always liked Michael," he said, retrieving his pen and tapping it once more on the desk. Riza looked up at this briefly before turning back to her work. " Or Ivan is a good, strong name. Nicholas, or Evan are good too, what do you think?"

"Not bad," she said quietly. "I've been looking at more uncommon names, like Yoric, or maybe Everett or Sergei. But those are all boys names and it may be a girl. I think I'll know once I meet him or her."

"Yes," the General said softly, looking down at his work so they couldn't see his face. "I think you will."

-x-

By spring the Lieutenant had become largely, indisputably pregnant. Jean logically knew it hadn't happened all at once, but it seemed like she was in the "possibly just had a big lunch" phase for a long time and then suddenly it ceased to be a question. Rumors had flown for a month or so but now the entirety of Central Command knew two things for certain: Captain Riza Hawkeye was pregnant, and no one, not even her superior officer, knew who the father was. With these two facts firmly in place the rumor mill seemed to quiet down, at least for the present.

"Damn," Hawkeye muttered, looking at the pen she'd dropped on the ground. Havoc looked up, and scrambled from his chair to retrieve it for her. "Thanks," she said. "Bending down has been getting harder and harder these days."

"I bet; look at you," he said, holding her chair out for her. "Uh, no offense meant, Lieutenant, you're glowing, really."

"I know what you mean," she said, leaning back and stretching slightly. "I hear so much about this being a magical experience but I'll be glad when it's over; I don't quite feel like myself in this state." He knew what she meant; a slightly ungainly, immobile Hawkeye was odd to say the least. She winced slightly for a moment and he looked at her curiously.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" She replied, picking up her pen and pulling a file towards herself.

"You winced, you're in pain," he supplied, leaning to try and get a good look at her face.

"I'm fine. Go back to work, Lieutenant."

While Havoc had never experienced it firsthand, he'd determined that pregnancy involved various aches and pains. Hawkeye was still a couple of months out from what Jean privately thought of as The Big Event, so there were any number of reasons she might be uncomfortable, he reasoned, most of which were none of his business.

"Ok, if you're sure I can't get you a tea or anything?" While Riza refused many offers of help she rarely turned down a cup of tea made by someone else. She looked up at him and just as quickly looked away, hiding another slight wince.

"Tea would be lovely," she ground out, and Havoc sighed.

"Look I know I don't get to tell you what to do,"

"I'm glad we cleared that up," she retorted, hands gripping the side of her desk.

"I'm your subordinate but I like to think we're, you know, friendly," he continued breezily. "And so not as your coworker, as your friend, can I pretty please call Lieutenant Catalina to come take you to the doctor?"

"No you can't," Hawkeye said, sitting back and looking more relaxed, if still pale. "She's out of town. The Fuhrer left for East City and took Rebecca with him. She didn't want to leave town but I told her it would be fine, I'm not due for another six weeks. And I'm not, so whatever this is, well, it's going to pass." Havoc felt a pang of sadness suddenly; Hawkeye didn't have a family, he knew that, and she didn't have many close friends either. As far as he knew, the team and Rebecca were pretty much it. This was something he'd always accepted without question; she was a private person who didn't need a big community. Not his thing exactly but he respected it. But maybe this meant that the very few people she allowed into her life needed to step up right about now. He leaned down and she looked up curiously.

"Hawkeye, lemme take you to the doctor. I have tons of nieces and nephews okay, I'm not squeamish like the other guys are. Not that you have to tell me any details if you don't want to!" he added, seeing her sideways glance. Private person indeed.

"I don't want to worry anyone," she said carefully. Havoc followed her gaze to the front of the room where a head of tousled black hair was bent over a stack of paperwork and almost snorted. Like hell, he thought.

"Nah, come on, there's no reason to," he said instead. "Two coworkers can step out of the office for an hour to go to the shooting range, right?"

"Right," she said finally, accepting the hand he offered and getting to her feet.

To Jean's immense lack of surprise, she was pronounced completely fine apart from being overworked for someone this far along in her pregnancy, and ordered on bed rest. Havoc drove her home after, and then had to face the unexpected trial of returning to the office two hours later without the Captain. It was possible that he hadn't exactly thought this through, he considered as he stood at attention before a very irate Flame Alchemist.

"She's where?" Roy was speaking calmly and carefully which meant he was undeniably, absolutely furious. Havoc tried to stand his ground but he wondered if the General could hear his knees shaking.

"At home sir, resting comfortably."

"And why was I not informed about the Captain's illness?"

"It was sudden, sir, we left right from the shooting range." A white lie, but hey, Hawkeye wasn't here to face the music with him so whatever got him less heat, so to speak. "But the doctor said she's fine, she just needs to stay off her feet." At this Mustang turned and muttered something that sounded quite a bit like 'I told her' but the office was suddenly busy with shuffling papers and no one afterwards could deny or confirm the statement, had they been asked.

"Well... thank you, then, Havoc. For looking after my Captain."

"No problem, boss," Jean said, sliding into his seat with a sigh of relief. "You know – Rebecca's out of town with the Fuhrer right now. So Hawkeye might need someone to, I dunno, bring her groceries or let Hayate out. I didn't get a chance earlier." Roy's back was to him, so Havoc didn't see his his face.

"Noted."

Nothing more was said about Riza's leaving, but it didn't go unnoticed that the General had a long phone conversation with his old friend Elizabeth that afternoon. It seemed that her cat was expecting kittens, and if he wouldn't mind, she could use a few things from the store if he felt like dropping by later.

-x-

It was a warm day in June when Havoc met Breda and Fuery outside of the central hospital, jogging slightly, arms full of flowers. There had been a line at the shop, and then it had taken forever to get a cab here. It wasn't like he was going to miss visiting hours, but the excitement of finally meeting this little person who had been growing inside of Hawkeye for the better part of the last year had been gnawing away at him all day. He'd gotten a call from Rebecca in the middle of the night that was mostly just yelling but he'd caught the gist: it was time to meet their newest team member.

"What the hell took you so long? We almost went in without you but we didn't want to show up empty handed," Breda complained, eyeing the enormous bouquet they'd all pitched in for.

"I hope the baby doesn't have hay fever," Fuery commented. "Can babies have hay fever? Oh man I don't know if I've ever met a baby before."

"They're boring conversationalists, you haven't missed much," Breda deadpanned as Havoc rolled his eyes and checked the time.

"Come on, let's go," They walked through the entrance and to the room the receptionist directed them to. Even without the room number Havoc would know which door it was by the sight of an exhausted-looking Rebecca Catalina dozing in a chair right outside. She jolted awake as they approached, and gave a small smile that was quickly eclipsed by a massive yawn.

"About time," she said, stretching in the chair. "Mustang's still in the room, go tell him it's your turn."

"Will do. Sleep deprivation looks good on you, by the way." Havoc pulled a white rose from the flower arrangement and handed it to her with a flourish. She rolled her eyes, but took it, and reached over to knock on the door. It was a few moments before Riza's voice announced that they could enter, and after looking around at each other with wide eyes, it was finally Breda who pulled the door open.

Riza was propped up in bed, looking tired but radiant, her shoulder-length hair down and freshly combed. Roy was sitting in a chair next to the bed, and in Riza's lap was someone Havoc did not yet know.

"Good afternoon, Captain," Havoc said, with a salute, for lack of anything else to do. The other men followed suit, after a beat, and Mustang rolled his eyes while Hawkeye laughed.

"Thank you, the flowers are beautiful. You can just set them on the counter and I'll see if Rebecca can find a vase later. I keep telling her to go home and go to sleep but she refuses."

"I'm glad you haven't been here by yourself," Fuery said, inching closer to peek at the bundle of blankets she was holding.

"You know it's not to late for us to talk to the guy who got you into this," Havoc offered as the other men approached the bed. "I don't care if he lives in another country, say the word and we can drag him right back here."

"That won't be necessary, Havoc, I'm being very well looked after," she said, and all of them avoided looking in the General's direction. Judging by the amount of stubble he was sporting, Havoc hadn't been the only one to get a late night phone call. "Anyway, do you want to hold her?"

Havoc had held babies before on several occasions; sometimes it seemed as though his sisters would never stop popping kids out, and so while the other two hemmed and hawed he walked over and put out his arms and was rewarded with an armful of fresh baby, bundled up equal parts linen to child.

"Her?" he said, adjusting his grip so he could pull the blankets away and get a good look at her face.

"Mae," Hawkeye supplied. "I told you I would know the name when I met her."

"That's a cute name," he said, turning it over in his head. "Mae Hawkeye." He finally got enough of the blankets out of the way and was rewarded by a sight he'd seen many times before, in different forms. Babies, in Havoc's opinion, never really got cute until they were a couple months old. Let them put on some weight, get a little more interactive, and he was all about babies. Newborns, however, always looked like angry wizened little barbarians, demanding and shrill. This one, in fact, looked a little bit like Fuhrer Grumman. It also looked a little bit like someone else he knew, he thought vaguely. The dusting of dark hair, and the chubby cheeks. She looked like someone he knew very well, and when he looked back up at the faces of his superior officers, tired and glowing, the gears clicked into place.

Ah, he thought. This could get messy.

-x-

"Hey, Catalina!"

Rebecca looked up from cleaning her gun, one ankle crossed over her knee, tendrils of curly brown hair escaping from her usually tight ponytail. She cocked an eyebrow and went back to what she was doing.

"Havoc," she said mildly. "Can I help you with something?"

He stood in front of her with his hands in his pockets, wondering how she managed to visit the shooting range when it was still so hot outside. Even though summer was over the weather this last week had been unbearable.

"Settle a bet," he said at last.

"Depends, a bet with who?"

"Answer a question, then."

"Maybe." This was all he was going to get, he knew.

"What all do you know about Mae's father?" she looked up; this clearly hadn't been what she was expecting, and she told him as much.

"I thought you were here to ask me out again, or something," she said, standing up and stretching, which was admittedly distracting, and he wondered if she wasn't doing it on purpose. He shrugged.

"Hey, a guy can multitask. Do you know anything about her father?"

"Well what is there to know?" she said, turning away from the shooting range. "I know he sends Riza money every month – a lot of money, actually – so he's all right in my book. He's just someone she met in Xing last summer when she and Mustang were there on business. I don't know his name or anything, and she hardly ever talks about him. Why?" She crossed her arms over her chest and he decided that they needed to play poker together sometime, if all her tells were going to be this obvious.

"And you think that's the truth?" at this Rebecca whirled on him and he suddenly found himself being jabbed in the ribs by her index finger.

"Look, Havoc, if my best friend tells me something is true, I don't question or interrogate her because that isn't what best friends do. I'm here to support Riza, and I trust her to let me know what form that takes, okay? Maybe if you care about her as much as you say you do you should try doing the same thing. I don't care if Mae's dad is a prince of Xing or an Amestrian dictionary salesman, she's my goddaughter and I'm going to protect her with everything I've got, understand?" Havoc held his hands up in mock surrender.

"Understood. Hey, Riza's my friend too, okay? And Mae has really grown on me." It was true; at almost a year and a half she would babble away to anyone who would listen and seeing her toddle around the office was one of Havoc's favorite sights. He might not say as much but he wanted to protect her too. But as she grew up he found that was getting to be more of a complex operation than simply watching her when Hawkeye left the room. "It's just that she's starting to get older, you know, and look like a person and all. And maybe the person she looks like the most isn't... well, isn't Hawkeye."

Rebecca froze, and he knew he'd hit a nerve.

"You've heard the rumors too, huh?" he asked, and she nodded, turning away to look towards the gun range, and he let her. "Look I'm just saying that maybe we do know the father. Maybe he's a friend of the Elrics or something; hell, Alphose's fiancee is from Xing, and her name is almost the same as Hawkeye's kid's. It wouldn't be too hard to start some rumors of our own." she said nothing still, but the back of her neck was turning red. He lowered his voice. "I want to protect them too – all three of them." She turned back around and he thought he caught a glimmer in her eyes, before she blinked and it disappeared.

"Yeah, all right," she said.

"To my plan or to dinner?" he joked, once again praying he wasn't about to get a rifle butt to the throat. She was quiet for a moment, uncharacteristically so.

"Both," she said finally. "Why don't you pick me up at eight, and we can discuss it."

-x-

Years of making himself unconditionally available to any woman who requested his attention propelled Havoc out of bed when he got Rebecca's phone call at nearly midnight – in bed before midnight, when did he get so old?- and it was only when he was halfway to his destination did it occur to him that she had given him Hawkeye's address. He knocked hesitantly on the door and after a few moments it was thrown open by the Lieutenant, hair and eyes wild, and she practically dragged him inside by the collar of his coat.

"Oh thank God, Mae's been sick all day with an ear infection and it's like I'm taking care of three toddlers, I swear." Havoc held his hands up.

"Hey, wait, I'm not a doctor, I don't-" she whacked him lightly with a parenting magazine and he fell silent.

"We've been to the doctor, idiot!" she hissed. "All four of us have been to the doctor, and she has medicine, she's just uncomfortable, and she won't stop crying, and Riza won't stop crying, and I just want her to go to bed and let me rock her damn kid but she won't while the General is here-"

"The General is here?" Havoc said, and now that he had woken up completely, he could tell that amidst Mae's wailing he could in fact hear a male and female voice. He made a mental note to tell them that most common negotiation tactics didn't work on a crying toddler; he'd personally learned this the hard way.

"Why do you think I called you?" Rebecca asked, exasperated. "Get him out of here, I don't care if you take him to his house, or your house, or my house at this point, just make him leave! He's been hanging around all day and Riza isn't exactly the only military in this complex you know," she lowered her voice. "The baby is fine, I just need you to get General Sparky out of here before anyone sees that his stupid car has been parked here for fourteen hours."

"Yeah okay," he said, shrugging, and the look of relief on her face was worth any amount of lost sleep.

"Okay?"

"I can manage the boss, no problem," he said with more confidence than he felt, and followed the noise into what used to be Riza's guest bedroom.

If everyone hadn't been so clearly at the end of their tether it would have been funny, seeing his two superior officers sitting on the floor by the crib, pleading with a toddler, Riza in tears and Roy looking close to them. He cleared his throat loudly and they looked over in surprise.

"I'm here to collect the boss," he said by way of greeting, striding across the room to pull the man in question to his feet by his elbow. "We had plans, remember? I'm used to getting stood up but not by you; come on, I think Hawkeye can handle her own baby." Roy opened his mouth, closed it again, and allowed himself to be led from the room.

"When did we make plans?" he said quietly as Havoc tossed his coat at him.

"Last Wednesday, remember? You'd just finished all your paperwork and written your weekly greeting card to Fullmetal. Let's go; we can take your car." He opened the front door and practically shoved the General out. It was only because of Roy's shock that he was getting away with this so far but he'd better not push it.

"Wait, Jean!"

He turned around to find Rebecca standing very close. She grabbed him once more by his lapels, albeit more gently this time, and pulled him down so she could kiss him briefly, before releasing him and handing him the General's keys.

"Thank you, for answering your phone," she said, with a quick grin and shut the door quickly behind him. If Roy said anything to him on their way out to the car, Havoc was sure he didn't hear it. He was too busy thinking that there was nothing he wouldn't do, day or night, for that smile.

It was apparent neither of them had been to the bar in quite a while by the greeting they got from the bartender. Havoc knew that he, for one, had little desire to go out as often lately. Sure he got drinks with the team whenever Breda suggested it, but a handful of dates with First Lieutenant Catalina had cured him of any and all impulses to go out looking to meet women. This was fine in his case; no one cared what a Lieutenant got up to. But the fact that Mustang hadn't been seen in his local haunts for months was considerably more conspicuous.

"We really should go out more, chief," he said nonchalantly, sipping his beer as the General stared into his glass of whiskey. "You know that isn't going to drink itself."

"Havoc, there's something-"

"Nahhh there isn't."

"What?"

"I think you're about to tell me something I already know and don't need confirmed," Jean said calmly. "If it's all the same to you, sir, I'd rather not have to testify against you at the inevitable court-martial." This got Roy's attention.

"The what?"

"Like I said, we should go out more. You haven't been acting like yourself lately. People might talk," he said with a shrug as he picked up his beer again. Roy looked at his whiskey, picked it up, and took a generous swig.

"Thanks Havoc," he said. "I mean it, for everything."

"We all do whatever we can to help you reach your goals. We're your team for a reason. Hawkeye too, ah, which you know already." There was hard evidence that Hawkeye and the boss were more than just General and adjutant, but after years of witnessing their formal interactions, Jean was having a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that they had relaxed enough for, well, for Mae to happen. Roy gave a hollow laugh into his drink.

"If you think any of this was my idea, I have a bridge to sell you."

"I never said it was but I bet it's smarter than anything you came up with."

"Since my first brilliant idea was 'Flee to Xing' I think you're right."

"Seems a little dramatic, yeah."

Havoc was able to get two more rounds into Mustang before driving him home, promising him that he would return with his car before work tomorrow. He made himself sit in the car, waiting until the other man had made his way inside before he drove away, clutching the steering wheel pensively. It must be a special kind of hell, he thought, watching the woman you loved struggle through bringing up your daughter alone. He made a mental note to pick up coffee before he returned the next morning to drive the General to work. A cup of coffee was hardly a cup of raising-your-own-kid, but it was the best Jean could do for now.