Need You Now - Emily + Hughes

"The number you have reached is currently not in service.  Please hang up and try again."

"Argh!"  The phone hit the opposite wall and bounced to the floor, still repeating its message.

Emily lay there on the floor, curled into the foetal position, as the mobile phone's screen blinked with a single word.

Hughes.

They still weren't back.  Him and Kit.  Ed looked more worn every day that went by.  Over and over, she'd thought that maybe, just maybe, one of them would have a mobile, and maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to reach them, to make sure he was safe, so she could sleep at night.

No luck.

She'd held off for so long.  They'd left at the end of March, and it was mid-August now.  So many days.  Hours.  Minutes.  Seconds.  Without him.

Now, when she'd finally lost control – she'd had half a bottle of wine, after all – she'd tried.  She'd tried both their phones, and hadn't been too fussed when Kit didn't pick up, but....

"...hang up and try again."

Growling, Emily levered herself up and crawled over to the phone, which she shut with a snap.

It was a quarter after one.  Everyone else was probably asleep.

One more try couldn't hurt, could it?

She ended up throwing it against the wall again, but this time ended the call before doing so.

As she laid her cheek against the cool stone floor, she sighed.  His phone was disconnected.  That meant he was still in Amestris, right?  It didn't connect unless he was here on Earth.

'Stupid,' she told herself.  'He probably left his phone at home.  He could be anywhere.'

Like dead.

Her fingers curled into a fist, nails scraping the stone.  No.  He couldn't be dead.  He was a skilled alchemist, for all she'd mocked him.  Almost as good as Kit was.

Cor, he'd loved lighting fires in the winter.  Anything to practice his flame alchemy.  He'd explained it once to her.  Something about the particles in the air, deconstructing the water to make oxygen and hydrogen?  "Then all you need is the spark, and I can get that with these," he'd said, and held up a pair of gloves.  They had transmutation circles on the backs, but otherwise seemed ordinary.

She'd laughed at him.  Told him she bet it fizzled out like his dad did when Riza gave him that certain look of hers.  Like a fuse in the rain.

Riza had laughed too, and told the story about Roy trying to battle a guy called Scar with his alchemy in the rain.  The sniper had had to literally kick his legs out from under him to save his life.

A smile made its way across her lips.  She could see Hughes laughing in her mind's eye, see him smiling at her, only for her.  

Everything would be all right, she mused, as long as he came back safe and smiled at her like he'd used to.