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Aug 6, 2017

AlMei Week 2017 - Security/Ulterior Motives

Greetings! I'm here for AlMei Week 2017! Instead of writing individual oneshots per prompt, I decided to make it seven chapters with each chapter at least somewhat aligning with the topic for the day. This is a Modern!AU where Mei is chief medical examiner and Alphonse a police officer. I guess we'll see how this turns out, won't we? (This chapter probably fits the prompt 'Security' best.)

Day 1: Security/Ulterior Motives

Read this chapter on fanfiction.net here.

Disclaimer: I hold no ownership over Fullmetal Alchemist.

xXxXxXx

"Do you notice anything unusual about her organs?"

"Nothing. Excluding the damage caused by the killer, of course. Up until her death she seemed to be in perfect health."

Mei Chang – chief medical examiner of Xing – had recently had her hands full. Normally her city was one of the quieter ones when it came to homicides, but a serial murderer had suddenly struck and did not seem inclined to leave. Needless to say, the bodies of dead men and women were showing up at her office almost by the day for her to autopsy. The females were strangled and then stabbed six times, and the men died from a gunshot before being stabbed in the same manner. In fact, it was the six stab wounds that linked the murders of the men and women to one person. "Is there anything unusual about the wounds?"

"Nah. Just the usual we've seen with the female victims. Strangling is premortem and the stab wounds postmortem."

"Death by asphyxiation, in other words." The Xingese doctor sighed. "I know they're a sociopath. I know it! Living out some sick, twisted fantasy by brutally murdering innocent people." She took off her plastic gloves and tossed them in the trash before running her hands through her dark hair. "Winry, can you finish up in here? I've got some autopsy reports to enter into the system, including this one."

"Yeah, I got it." The blonde looked up from the bruises she was examining on the victim's neck. "And you don't have to worry about this one. I'll do the report since I'm almost done. I want you to go home and get some rest once you've finished. I know your sleep schedule has been completely screwed over because of this killer."

Mei chuckled. "My sleep schedule has always been that way, but thank you. I appreciate your concern." She was already constantly on-call to the scenes of the murders, most of which were either discovered or committed early in the morning. But it was part of her job, so she couldn't complain, no matter how much she sometimes wanted to. "I'll be in my office if you need me."

"Roger that."

Mei left the morgue in Winry's hands and headed up the stairs, briefly wondering why her office wasn't closer to the place where she did most of her work. Upon entering the mildly cluttered room the woman hung her lab coat on a hook before walking over to one of the several sets of drawers lining the walls. "Which to complete first..." she muttered, thinking back to the three cases that were yet to be put into the computer. She rolled her eyes before deciding to just get the three files out and work from there.

"Let's see," she said aloud, flipping through the folder she knew contained reports that were only on paper. She frowned.

There were only two sets.

That wasn't right. It couldn't be. A quick glance told her that one was just the report of a man's suicide and not relevant to the serial murders and the other was that of Maria Ross – an officer who had been killed in suspected arson.

But the missing one was that of a victim in the serial murders – Maes Hughes.

Mei herself had not performed the autopsy in his case, but she could not recall handing the report over to anyone. In fact, she didn't think anyone had seen it but herself.

She checked other drawers under the labels 'H' and even 'M', wondering if somehow it had simply been filed incorrectly, but no such luck.

"Is this some sort of joke?" she muttered under her breath, trying not to panic. There had to be a logical explanation as to why the report was nowhere to be found. "Think, think!"

Nothing came to mind. Mei bit back a scream of frustration as she pulled her lab coat off the hook and onto her shoulders before running out of her office and down into the morgue. "Winry!"

The blonde jumped, almost dropping the pen she was holding as she made notes on the autopsy she had just finished performing. "Mei! You scared me." Then she noticed the panicked look in the Xingese woman's eyes. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"I'm missing an autopsy report," she explained, tucking a strand of her long dark hair behind her ear. "Maes Hughes. Do you have any idea where it might be, or who it might have been handed off to?"

Winry shook her head, worry forming in her blue eyes. "No. I haven't even seen that report. All I know about it is what you've told me."

Mei cursed under her breath. Maes Hughes had been an investigator with the FBI and so she'd been instructed to keep the details of his death as quiet as possible. "Right. Sorry." Could she herself had misplaced it somewhere?

No. It was impossible. She'd looked the report over only once before putting in the correct drawer. She remembered it distinctly.

"Mei..." Winry said slowly, resting a hand on her hip as a thoughtful expression fell upon her features. "Do you think someone could have stolen it?"

The doctor raised a brow at her words. "Stolen? I don't think..." She trailed off as her eyes widened in horror. "Oh no."

"What?"

The dark-haired girl cursed. "A few days ago. You weren't here. I don't think anyone was, because it was after hours. I was called by Ling to report to a scene immediately, and I left without a second thought. I left the doors unlocked. I remember because I felt like a complete idiot afterwards." She groaned, holding her head in her hands. "I checked to see if anything had been taken, but there weren't any signs of breaking and entering – not that there needed to be, since I practically left the doors wide open."

"It's not your fault," Winry said in her matter-of-fact tone. "It could have happened to anyone, understand? You've just had a ton on your plate lately and no one blames you for it."

Mei sighed. "Thanks. I appreciate your support – I really do. I have no idea what I'd do without you."

The blonde chuckled, smirking. "I know. You're lucky I've got your back."

The medical examiner rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah." She sighed a second time. "I guess I'll go page Ling and report the theft." She hesitated, then corrected herself, "Actually, I have to call in. I think Ling just managed to get the rest of the week off so he can spend time with Lan Fan. I don't want to bother them."

"I wonder why someone would take those papers," Winry mused. "I mean, they only took that one report. Nothing else. All the others relating to the murders are still there, so they didn't need everything, clearly."

"I've already got a hypothesis," Mei said as she dialed 911. "I think there was something in that report that the killer didn't want us to know about, so they came in to take it back before we could notice."

"In other words," her assistant added, "they screwed up badly enough to the point they were worried we could track them, huh?"

Mei nodded before moving her phone to her ear.

"911, what is your emergency?"

The Xingese woman explained what had happened and where she was located. The operator promised to have a few officers sent over immediately. Until then she was asked to stay put and to look over her office a second time just in case she'd missed it.

"Now we wait," Mei said with a sigh as she hung up and tucked her cell phone away. "I was really hoping to go home early today." Then she laughed bitterly. "As if."

xXxXxXx

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the glass double doors.

"I'll get it," Mei called to Winry from her office, putting down the reports she did have that she was entering into the computer.

"Roger that!"

The dark-haired woman brushed herself off and prayed she looked somewhat presentable before heading down the hall to the lobby where the entrance was. Standing outside were two officers she'd never seen before.

Both were blonde, though one had much longer hair than the other. Both also had golden eyes, but the attitudes radiating from the two couldn't have been more different.

Mei found herself drawn to the taller officer. She wasn't sure why, per se – but his eyes glimmered with a certain mixture of intelligence, kindness, and strength. A blush painted her cheeks as she realized her thoughts were exactly that of a young schoolgirl.

She hastily pushed her feelings aside and opened the door for the two men. "Afternoon, officers," she greeted politely. "I'm so glad –"

"I'm afraid there's no time for talk," the man with longer hair interrupted, staring down at her with a look that seemed less than impressed. "We need to speak to the chief medical examiner immediately. Are you his secretary?"

Mei felt her cheeks get hot from a mixture of both embarrassment and anger. She managed to calm herself and say, "Pardon me, Officer...?"

"Elric. Edward Elric"

"Officer Elric." She reached into her pocket and removed the silver badge of the chief medical examiner. "You're speaking to me right now. And while I appreciate you coming here to assist me, I do not appreciate your rudeness. If we're going to be working together I expect a certain level of respect. Understand?"

He turned a brilliant shade of crimson at her words. He tried to reply, but all that came out was incoherent sputtering.

Mei sniffed and put her badge away.

The other officer laughed. "I apologize for my older brother's behavior, Doctor Chang. He never knows when to keep his mouth shut."

"So I noticed," she said wryly. "But it's fine. Even though I've been here for nearly five years now, there's still skeptics."

"My name is Alphonse. Ed and I are transfers from Amestris." He gestured towards his sibling. "And while he may not look it, he's a retired FBI officer."

Mei raised a brow. "Really? I'm doubly sorry for my abruptness, then. I meant no disrespect, Edward."

Alphonse laughed again when her brother didn't reply and instead choose to cross his arms and nod. "Sorry. He's completely incorrigible, Doctor Chang."

"Call me Mei," she replied. "Anyways. You know why you're here. Do you need to see my office? Or the morgue? Is there someone you need to talk to in particular?"

"Bring us to your office first," Edward instructed. "When we're in there we'd like you to tell us everything you know about the report that was stolen."

"Understood." Mei led the two officers down the hall and held open the door for them. "I searched through the files where the report should have been as well as where it might have accidentally ended up, but I found nothing."

"What was in the missing report?" Alphonse asked as Edward began going through each and every drawer.

"Try not to get those out of order," Mei said to the older brother before returning her attention to the younger. "It was the autopsy report of Maes Hughes."

"Was that all it contained?"

"No. It also contained photos of the crime scene where his body was discovered."

"Anything else?"

She hesitated. "I'm not certain. I only briefly looked at the papers relevant to my job, which were the two I've already stated. It's possible there was something else inside that I may not have noticed or simply paid no attention to."

Alphonse wrote something down on the notepad she had not noticed he was holding until that point. "That's understandable. I would have done the same. When did you receive the report?"

Mei frowned. "Four days ago, I believe. I did not perform the autopsy – the FBI did. They sent the report to me because they know my office has received every other body from the serial killings. I found it slightly odd I was not allowed to perform the autopsy, but Hughes worked with the FBI, so I assumed that was why."

"When do you suspect the report was stolen?"

"Two days ago. I was called out of my office to report to a scene and left the doors unlocked."

Edward snorted. "Wow."

Mei glared at him. "It was eleven o' clock at night and I had performed nine autopsies that day, Officer. I won't tell you the details because I doubt you could stomach it. I'm well aware I was being stupid, but it was not intentional in any manner."

"Anyways," Alphonse said pointedly, "was anyone else here at the time? And did anyone else know about the autopsy report prior to its disappearance?"

The Xingese doctor bit her lip as she tried to remember. "As I said, it was after hours, so I was here alone..." She paused, and her eyes widened. "No, I wasn't alone. There was a security guard."

Alphonse raised a brow, and Edward paused his search in order to listen.

She cursed. "But I don't know who. It is possible to find it in the system, however. I can take a look –"

"Mei," a voice interrupted. Winry walked into the office, looking down at the papers in her hand. "I just finished writing this down, and I was wondering if –" Her jaw dropped when she noticed the two officers in the room. "Ed?! Al?! What are you doing here?!"

"Winry?" Alphonse said in disbelief, echoed by his brother.

"I thought you two were working in Amestris," Winry said, putting a hand on her hip. "Did you two lie to me?!"

"We transferred," Edward replied, rolling his eyes. "Why would we lie about something so insignificant, huh?"

"Edward Elric, I'll have you know –"

"Oh, Winry knew about the report on Maes Hughes before it was stolen," Mei interrupted, snapping her fingers as the memory came to mind. "I remember telling her because I thought it'd be best if my assistant knew."

"You're her assistant?" Edward repeated. "I thought you wanted to go into the prosthetics business."

"I do," Winry retorted. "This job is how I'm paying through college and physical therapy instruction classes."

"Winry," Mei said, paying no attention to what the two were talking about, "do you remember what security guard was on duty two days ago? On the night shift?"

The blonde woman frowned. "Two days ago? Let me think..." She bit her lip. "Two days ago... That was Wednesday... Oh! It must have been Yoki. You dismissed me early and I said goodbye to him on the way out."

"Yoki," Alphonse murmured, making a note. "Is he here now?"

"Yes," Winry said, blinking in surprise. "Why? Do you think he was somehow involved in the disappearance of the report?"

"It's possible –"

"Yoki would never do such a thing!" Mei protested. Or she hoped he hadn't, if nothing else.

"We're not accusing him of anything," Alphonse reassured her. "I promise that he won't be convicted unless we have absolute proof."

She frowned, and probably would have argued further had it not been Alphonse talking to her. She'd known him for all of ten minutes and he'd already managed to get under her skin. "Fine. But if you don't uphold the status quo of 'innocent until proven guilty,' I'll sue. Follow me. Also, Winry – it'd be great if you could put the report from today into the system."

"Of course."

The Xingese doctor left her office, the Elric brothers behind her. She could detect the confusion from the two men. She'd even go so far as to admit she had been oddly adamant about holding no prejudice towards Yoki. But once they saw him she was sure they'd understand.

Several hallways later they found Yoki himself.

"You're the Yoki who works here?" Edward said in disbelief, staring at the short, dark-haired man.

He nodded, unable to stop himself from laughing nervously. "Yes?"

"Yoki," Mei said, stepping forward, "these gentlemen have some questions for you about two days ago when we suspect an autopsy report was stolen. Okay?"

Yoki nodded. "O-Of course."

"If you don't mind, Chang," Edward began, "it'd be preferable if you would –"

"I will not be going anywhere, Officer," she interrupted. "And if you must address me by my last name, it's Doctor Chang."

"It's fine if you stay," Alphonse said, giving her a warm smile and causing her to blush more than she'd care to admit. "All we ask is you don't interrupt."

Mei rolled her eyes. "That goes without saying. I've participated in investigations before, you know."

It's the Amestrian's turn to flush a bright red. "R-Right." He cleared his throat and took out his notebook before turning to face Yoki. "What do you remember of the events from Wednesday, two days ago?"

"Specifically?"

"As specific as you can, yes."

"Well, I didn't come into work until late. That Rockbell girl said goodbye to me when she left around nine."

"Where did she leave the building?" Edward asked.

"The front doors. When she left I continued to make my rounds. No one showed up until close to midnight."

Mei's eyes widened at the guard's words. "Midnight?" She hadn't returned until almost one.

Yoki nodded, apparently indifferent to her reaction. "Yes. It was an FBI agent."

Edward and Alphonse exchanged suspicious looks.

"They showed me their badge and said that they'd been ordered to pick up a few documents relating to a case. There was a car waiting outside as well. I couldn't see the driver, but if I had to guess I'd say it was a woman."

"When did they leave? Can you recall?"

Yoki frowned. "Hmm... Maybe fifteen minutes later? They were carrying one of those manila folders. They just left. Pretty rude of them, now that I think about it."

"Was the agent who came in male or female?"

"Um..." The dark-haired man shrugged. "Again, I couldn't tell. It was dark and they didn't really say much to me. I'd guess they were a guy." He snapped his fingers. "Oh! They – he? – had oddly colored eyes. I'd have to say they were almost purple. I thought that was pretty strange."

"Can you remember anything else?" Alphonse asked. "Did the agent show you the papers, by any chance?"

"No. They just got them and left."

The blonde snapped his notebook shut. "You've been very helpful, Yoki. Thank you."

Yoki beamed. "You're welcome, Officer. I'm glad I was able to be of assistance."

The three left the man behind and headed back towards Mei's office.

"Do you understand why I was worried you might hold prejudice towards him?" Mei said, her arms crossed over her chest. "I know officers are not kind towards ex-convicts."

Edward snorted. "Please. We –"

"You worries were understandable," Alphonse interrupted. "And I'm sure you also understand how far-fetched his story seems. The implication of an FBI agent is a very serious accusation."

"Oh, I know," Mei replied. "So we'll go the FBI tomorrow and conduct and investigation. Simple."

Alphonse frowned. "I don't know..."

"That's what I was going to suggest," Edward said, staring the two down. "We can conduct an impromptu investigation under the facade that we need to talk to Hughes' closest friend – Mustang. There's also some officers there that were at the scene when Hughes' body was discovered. We'll get as much information as we can about Hughes' death and try to recreate the stolen report. Easy."

"It seems you've actually had a good idea," Mei smirked.

"And you won't be coming," the blonde added.

The Xingese woman's jaw dropped. "Excuse me?!"

"I said you won't be coming."

"And why can't I? I'm partially at fault for this, not to mention it was a crime within my own office. I have every right to be there."

"She's right, Ed," Alphonse said meaningfully.

Edward groaned. "I bet you just want to hang out with her again because she's your type. But whatever. Fine."

Alphonse shook his head, though he was smiling. And if Mei wasn't mistaken, a light blush was painted on his cheeks. "We'll pick you up here tomorrow around 8."

Mei beamed at him. "Excellent. I look forward to it." The officers said their goodbyes and left, leaving the girl all alone in the hallway. She glanced at the watch on her wrist, sighing when she saw it wasn't even four o' clock yet.

Then her thoughts drifted back to the Elric brothers. Specifically the younger one. Edward was far too rude for her taste.

But Alphonse...? She chuckled quietly to herself. She was certainly looking forward to seeing him again.

xXxXxXx

I'm a bit rusty, in case you couldn't tell. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you again tomorrow for Day 2: Growth/Tradition!

Read Day 2 here.

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