Disclaimer: Don't own Fullmetal Alchemist series.

Chapter one.

It was a cold damp night in the middle of August. The wind was howling and the branches were hitting the upstairs window. Inside the small farm house the atmosphere wasn't that much better. The people who gathered were as depressed as the weather which was odd for whenever they would visit the laughter and music would bounce off the walls. The last time this Resembool was enveloped by despair was 20 years ago when Trisha Elric was on her death bed.

"Is there anything you need gran?" Winry asked of her ailing grandmother as she held her hand and sat by her beside.

Pinako Rockbell thought for a moment and decided that although her throat was a little scratchy she didn't want her granddaughter to leave. "No my dear. I am fine. Don't worry." She said as he tried her best attempt of a smile but for obvious reasons it did little to put the young girl turned young woman at ease.

"Alright." She sighed. Even though she knew this day was coming it did very little to prepare Winry for actually saying goodbye.

"Where is Ed? I swear I saw him and Maes before I drifted off." The old woman questioned, wondering where her surrogate grandson and great grandson were.

"Oh, they went to pick up Al and May at the station in the car. He didn't want them to have to walk all the way in the rain." She smiled. Alphonse and his fiancé Mei have just arrived by train from their home in Xing. After his travels Al decided to take up residence in the country to the east after he was offered the title of head alchemist by good friend and ruler Ling. Al didn't want to miss the chance of saying goodbye to the woman who helped raised him and May wanted to be there for emotional support.

"Ah. It'll be good to see him again. It feels like it has been ages." Pinako said smiling a little more at the idea of seeing her other boy. She missed him.

Before Winry could agree they heard the subtle roar of the engine as it came up the hill.

"Looks like they are here gran."

"Looks like it."

A knocking sound was soon heard at the sick woman's door.

"Come in." Winry called out in place of her tired grandmother. The door swung open and in popped a goofy grin.

"Hey gran." The youngest Elric greeted as he stepped into the room.

"Alphonse." She nodded her weary head in greeting.

"How are you?" He asked as he gave her a more of a solemn smile. It hit the younger man hard when he got the telegram from his other half that their surrogate grandmother had not much time left in this world. At first Al didn't know if he could get away from the middle of his work and that was heartbreaking for him. He didn't know how he could live with himself if he couldn't say goodbye to someone so important but when Ling heard from Mei what news Alphonse got from back home he demanded that he go give his well wishes and say goodbye. For that Al and even Ed will forever be grateful for.

"A little tired but that's to be expected when you are on your death bed." She smiled. Even through the whole ordeal of her illness Pinako had kept her wits about her and even in her last few hours she still as spunky.

"Ha. I guess so." He smiled.

Another knock on the door interrupted the quiet conversation.

"Come in."

"Hey gran. I brought you some water." Winry smiled as she crept into the room and handed the woman a glass of water.

"When did you slip out?" Al asked surprised that he hadn't realized she left before.

"When you sat down next to gran stupid."

"Ah. Thank you, sweetheart." The woman said interrupting the two of them. After all these years Winry and Al still continue bicker if not more so since he got his body back. It was good seeing them interact like this even amidst all the sadness. It reassures the old woman her 'kids' will be alright when she's gone.

"Your welcome." The blonde said as she bent down as far as he five-month belly allowed her and kissed her on the forehead.

"Now where is my great grandson." Pinako asked.

"Oh, Ed went to put Maes down. I'm sorry did you want to see him before?"

"No, I don't want the last memory of the little tyke to be of when he is having a tantrum." She answered.

"Gran."

"It's alright. I am fine I've long accepted this and I just want to go on my own terms surrounded by my family and only the best memories." She said to her granddaughter.

After a while of just catching up and reliving some fond memories Ed came into the room and sat down next to his brother.

"How are you?" He asked kindly.

"I'd be better if everyone would let me get my beauty sleep. I don't want to hear your grandfather or Hohenheim telling me I look like a shriveled-up prune when I see them in the afterlife." She joked.

"Are you sure gran. I mean I can stay with you." Winry said holding on to her grandmother's hand tightly.

"No. That babe of yours needs you to rest. Besides I've got Alphonse to keep me company." She said looking at the younger blonde on her right-hand side.

"Yeah Win, I'll take care of her don't you worry." He smiled.

"Let's go Winry. Al's got it from here." Ed said as he tried to pull his wife into a standing position.

"But…" She did not want to leave her grandmother's bedside for she felt in her heart that this would be her last time seeing her in this life time.

"Winry." Her grandmother called out, raising her hand out to her granddaughter. "Don't worry. No matter what happens I'll always be here looking after you four."

"I love you so much gran." She cried as she went to hug her grandmother for the last time. No matter how hard it was to leave her she knew it wasn't good for the baby. With all the stress of the past while she hadn't had much sleep and she knew the stress was affecting her daughter. She had to think of her first.

"And I love you more angel." Pinako said as she kissed her granddaughter's crown.

"Take care of my babies Elric." She said glancing up at Edward who just nodded.

"With my life." He said.

After Ed managed to pull Winry off of her grandmother he half dragged her exhausted body to the guest bedroom.

After their son Maes was born they decided that they wanted a place to themselves, to make new memories and built a little home down the road from the main house and have been living there ever since. But when they heard of Pinako's diagnosis they decided to move in temporarily to take care of her.

Once settling Winry down and making sure she was asleep Ed quietly left the bedroom and checked on his son and made his way back to the master bedroom where his younger brother and Pinako were.

"Hey Al. Both Winry and Maes are fast asleep." He said as he entered the room and quietly closed the door. "Is she finally asleep?" He asked when he noticed that Pinako's eyes were closed.

After seeing Al shake his head, he realized that it was more than just exhaustion that lead to the old woman closing her eyes but the fact that her time came.

Quietly sitting down in the spot where Winry once sat he closed his eyes and placed his hand on her hands, the ones that were slowly losing their warmth.

The boys just sat there in silence neither saying anything. Regardless of how many people they lost throughout the years neither knew what to say in the end, so they just decided to stick with the silence. It was comforting in a way and when you have faced death so many times in your life you try to hold onto any comfort you may find.

By the time the sun came up the next morning the boys were still in the same spots staring at nothing.

"I should go wake up Winry…" Ed said as he raised from his seat. "Al?" He asked, nudging his younger brother when he didn't get a response.

"Hn? Yeah sorry, I should probably give May a call as well." He answered after shaking the cobwebs from his mind.

"You know the home number?" Ed asked. May decided to stay the night at the Elric home, not wanting to intrude in such personal matters. She didn't know the old woman very well.

"Yes." Al answered.

"Okay." Ed said, and with one last look at the woman who was now an empty shell he left the room to go give his pregnant wife the sad news.

After some time, Al could hear from down the hallway the anguish crying of his sister-in-law and for the first time since he saw his 'grandmother' close her eyes for the last time he gave in and let the tears fall.

A few weeks later.

It's been a few weeks since the matriarch of the Rockbell family passed away after a year's battle with liver disease and things were still going slowly.

Ed and Winry were left everything that the woman had seeing as how they were her last remaining relatives. That meant that the family house was now theirs. After deciding that they didn't want to move back in they agreed they would expand the automail business to the rest of the house so that they can take in more patients. They felt that this would be the best way to honor her memory.

A week after the funeral Al and Mei had to head back to Xing and to their lives with the promise of visiting in the winter when the baby is due.

After moving any personal items from the residence into either storage or their own home Ed and Winry started tackling the job of demolishing walls and building a reception area and a work area along with some patient rooms.

It was a Tuesday when Ed was sent on an errand by Winry to pick up some painting supplies that the woman decided that now was the time to tackle her grandmother's room. They decided to leave it till the last moment. After packing up her grandmother's closet Winry came across a hollow slat in the back wall of her closet. Finding it odd Winry decided to investigate and when she managed to open the compartment all she found was an old shoe box. Not wanting to disrespect her grandmother's privacy she didn't do anything else with it and put it aside for later.

That night when Ed came back from town they made dinner and talked about their day.

"So, find any skeleton's in Pinako's closet?" Ed asked jokingly as he fed his young son.

"No. Don't think so." She laughed. "Oh, but I did find a shoe box."

"What's so interesting about a shoe box. I bet there were hundreds of them in there." He said looking at her.

"In a secret compartment in the wall?" She said pointedly.

"Oh well that's different."

"Yeah I know. It was just there in the back of her closet in the wall. I have no idea what to do with it…"

"Hm. Why not open it?" He said.

"Open it really. Isn't that a bit intrusive?" She asked.

"I don't know maybe it's important documents that we should know about. Oh, maybe they are secret love letters." He joked.

"Har-har very funny." She said mockingly as she got up and brought the finished dishes into the kitchen to be washed.

In all honestly Ed thought it would be a good idea to take a look at what the box kept safe.

"Seriously Win, maybe we should take a look and see." He said as he lifted his son out of his high chair.

"I guess. After you put him to bed." She said pointing at their bouncing boy.

"Fine-fine." He groaned.

After Maes was bathed and changed and in bed Ed and Winry brought the mysterious shoe box out into the living room to sit down and open it.

"What if it's something disturbing…" Winry asked as she started shaking her legs up and down underneath the table.

"Relax." Ed said as he held on to her shaking limbs. "It's probably nothing."

"Why would she hide nothing in a shoe box in a secret compartment in her closet wall you idiot."

"Hn. I don't know…"

"Anyways let's just open it and find out. It's just going to drive us crazy until we do."

"You're right. You first though."

"Fine, fine. Scaredy-cat."

"I'm not a scaredy-cat!" She yelled as she kicked him underneath the table.

"Ouch Winry." He yelped, trying to soothe the ache in his shin. "Do you want me to open this box or not." He groaned.

"Right. Sorry." She said smirking.

"Women." He muttered under his breathe.

When he opened the lid to the box he was a little disappointed to find nothing but old letters. "What is it Ed?" Winry asked trying to get a look at what was inside but couldn't from her angle.

"Just letters." He said as he took the bundle of old letters out of its resting place and fanned through them. "Probably going back fourteen years."

"Are they letters you and Al wrote to her?" She asked.

"No. Absolutely not. Neither one of us have such girly hand writing." He said handing the pile to his wife.

"Hm... It seems like the last one was written just after she got the diagnosis." She said as the took the pile of letters. There was quite a few of them, maybe twenty or so.

"Lets see what it says." Ed suggested.

"Is that really okay?" She asked.

"Well they are not sealed and as the last member of her family there is nothing stopping you."

"Well…Alright." She said as she untied the twine holding the stack together and opened the last letter.

'Dear Pinako,

It's been a while since I've heard from you and I suppose part of the blame lies on me. I am sorry that I wasn't able to tell you where I have been, confidential and all that. When I received word from Dom' of your illness I couldn't believe what he I was hearing, no never mind I didn't want to. I hope this letter gets to you when you still are there. I have to apologize. I can't come out there. I can't come personally say goodbye and it breaks my heart. You are the only person I have left to connect to the past and if there was a way, you know I'd come in a heartbeat. I can't risk coming into contact with either of them. You know that. I guess that's why the letter you sent to the old man said that you didn't want me to come. So, I am writing this letter to you knowing it will probably be the last.

Pinako, there aren't enough words to say how much I am indebted to you. You are the reason we all made it. You were the one remaining link I had to who I really am. I wish there was a way we could see each other one last time. But alas it was not meant to be.

I love you with all of my heart 'gran'. Thank you for always being there.

Say hello to my parents for me when you see them. Tell father I am no longer angry.

Yours truly,

Alexandria Hohenheim.'

.

.

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After reading the lengthy letter there were no words. Only confusion. Alexandria Hohenheim? Who the hell is she…

Hi, I hope you enjoyed this little angsty chapter. I know things might be confusing but hopefully it will all make sense later.

Let me know what you think.

Chao,