Smoking Gun (Jean Havoc x reader)

Part 12

I flopped onto the couch, having spent almost 12 hours in the lab with Dr. Lowry and Taylor. We'd been working on a particularly mind boggling experiment and had stayed late today to finalize it.

"I can't believe we did that, this is the beginning of Dana's entire project," Taylor sat down next to me, breathless from excitement.

The big IT was a small metabolic manipulation. If this part of the experiment had failed, the entire project would have been shut down and the government had only given us until the 2 month mark to complete it. What we had finally managed to accomplish today required drawing a small, intricate transmutation circle somewhere on the human body and when an alchemist performed the actual transmutation, metabolic function was adjusted. The man we had been working on the past few days, a volunteer prone to dehydration headaches, was absolutely thrilled when he realized we could temporarily change his body makeup to require less water. As we moved further into our experiments, we would no longer be using human volunteers, as the consequences could be dangerous.

I looked up into Taylor's big, brown eyes. He had the appearance of a puppy with those eyes and curly brown hair. He was a few years older than me and this was the second project he'd been involved with with Dr. Lowry. Throughout the past few weeks he and I had developed a big brother-little sister type relationship intertwined with the extra bickering that come when two strangers start living together.

He jumped off the couch suddenly, "I have to call Hallie and tell her what we did, the classified version of course," Taylor rushed into the kitchen to call his girlfriend.

I just sighed and sunk further into the couch. Due to the deadline we'd been pulling 12-16 hour shifts in the lab and they weren't going to stop anything soon. Tomorrow Taylor and I were meeting the test subject early in the morning to check his metabolism and reverse the transmutation if it had lasted that long. We also needed to be there with lots of carbohydrates as a result of his body reverting to normal.

"How long are those slippers and shirt going to sit by the front door?" Taylor came back into the room.

"That was a short conversation with Hallie," I said, ignoring the question.

"She's at work, I'll call back before bed, anyway, the clothes by the door?"

"I'll call tomorrow to see when's a good time to drop them off," I sighed, "don't want to accidentally drop in on him and his new girlfriend."

Taylor rolled his eyes at me. He was well aware of the situation between Jean and I. In fact, he had told me right after I got home from my night at Jean's that I should just tell him how I felt and get it off my chest.

Let him know my feelings? I'd rather lick asphalt. I believe was my exact response.

"Goodnight, Taylor," I called as I left the living room and headed into my bedroom to wallow in exhaustion and self pity.

Time skip

"Careful, we just need a little blood to make sure the consequences of the transmutation didn't permanently damage his body," Dr. Lowry hovered over me as I tried to draw blood from the subject.

"Shh, I can't concentrate with you right there," I finished the procedure and handed her the syringe.

Taylor and I watched eagerly as she analyzed the blood sample that we'd drawn under her microscope.

"Nothing looks out of place outside from what we've already accounted for. We just need to make sure next time we provide him with adequate carbohydrates during the time his body is changed," Nothing overly bad had happened to our subject because of this, he just got very woozy.

"This has to be the coolest thing I've ever been a part of," Taylor whispered under his breath.

Suddenly there was a loud crash in the hall outside where we were working. The crash was followed by the sounds of running and...clanking?

Our subject looked at us, clearly worried, but the three of us told him to stay put while we checked out what was going on.

As Taylor, Dana, and I poked it into the hallway we caught sight of a man in a large suit of armor with a skeleton mask breaking down the doors to the lab's off-lints basement. He was followed closely by a few guards from out front when an even more shocking event occurred.

Turning the hallway was yet another man in a suit of armor followed by none other than Riza Hawkeye and Roy Mustang. Behind them trailed a third armed man, dressed head to toe in black and armed. The four of them followed the first man down the stairs and the Colonel yelled at everyone in the lab to let him handle the situation.

Right as the last man, the one in all black, went to go down the stairs he turned to me and our eyes locked. I saw a small lock of blonde hair peeking out from under his mask. The moment his eyes met mine they widened in an emotion that I could only describe as a combination of worry, fear, and surprise. But just as quickly as we'd locked eyes, he ran down the stairs, following the rest of the odd party.

I felt a tug on my shirt as Dana pulled me back inside. "Let's just stay in here and keep the door locked until we know it's safe to leave."

I nodded at her and leaned up against the wall next to the door. As I slowly slid down to the floor I couldn't get those eyes out of my head and was wondering why I was so afraid for this man who I didn't even know who he was.