Winry knew it was him. The hunk of scrap that had been a ship was too far out for her plain eyes to see, but she knew that was Ed and she knew that it meant he was going back. Back to the world he'd disappeared to two years ago.

"I guess this is goodbye for good," she whispered. All those years she'd spent waiting. All the time that she had stayed there in Resembool, waiting for Ed to either accomplish his goal or give up. Waiting for him to come back. To her. This was it; this was the product of her patience. He was leaving again and this time she knew he would never be able return to their world. Just a few brief minutes to be with him, just the time it took to attach the new arm and leg she'd made for him. Not even enough time to remind him to take care of it, something she knew he would never do. He'd probably have found someway to break her gorgeous new design to pieces by the time a month had passed. She'd started out just wanting to fix his arm and leg, but in time she found she desired to rebuild his heart as well, and now... now her chance was gone. There'd be no more waiting, only an unfinished goodbye. Damn him, he hadn't even given her the chance to say goodbye. Not this time and not the time two years ago.

Maybe that was her mistake. Waiting. Maybe…

"Skeizka!" Winry shouted, as she sprinted back the way the two women had come. She was closer than he was, maybe she had time. "Tell Granny what happened. Tell her that I love her."

The passage to the underground city was a mess, but Winry barely notice as she raced down the passageway. The obstacles were just that, obstacles. Things she had to overcome before Ed got too far ahead of her. Things that cost her precious time. Luckily for her, the damage had was mostly contained to the above ground and the path was still mostly intact.

Ed was already descending through the gate when she got there. The woman paused for a moment, debating what to do for the briefest instant. This was her last chance to stop herself. But Winry had already made up her mind, she knew this was right. With a deep breath, Winry plunged into the unknown. Her eyes fixed on the hunk of metal rapidly disappearing before her and the golden-eyed boy that she knew was vanishing with it.

She missed.

Her feet fell just short of the ship, if that's what you could call it. Now Winry was really falling. She grasped at the metal as she felt the forces inside the gate pulling at her. Jagged metal bit into her skin as she managed to catch the edge of what had been the deck. She cried out in pain as her flesh surrended to the sharper substance. Blood trickled down her arm as she tried to get her other hand onto the deck, but she was slipping. Her own weight and the pull of the forces around her were trying to draw her out into space. She looked down into nothing and suddenly, she wasn't so sure she'd made a smart choice. She was afraid.

And then she heard it. The sound she had learned to pick out in a crowd, the familiarly odd-sounding gait of someone who only had one leg made of flesh. The whir of artificial muscles. The comforting smoothness of an automail hand as it grabbed hers. Her gaze traveled up the arm, to meet the eyes, hidden by disheveled wheaten hair.

"Idiot," he said, helping her scramble onto the deck. "What were you thinking jumping like that? You would've been killed if I hadn't seen you." He sighed, looking at her hand. He ripped off a sleeve and began to bandage the mangled mess. She winced as he pulled a little to roughly. "Sorry," he murmured, his touch gentling. Winry just watched him, she wanted to reach out and touch him to see if it was true, to make sure that she wasn't floating in that nothingness out there. But the way that he was avoiding her gaze, told her this was the truth...She was really with him. Still not looking at her, he continued. "I left like that so you and Al couldn't follow me. I have to do this, I didn't want you to follow me. I didn't want you to be stuck here too."

Winry smacked him with her good hand.

"Ow! What do you think you're doing, you crazy girl. Is that the thanks I get for saving your life?" Angry, his eyes met hers, finding there all the years of exasperation and bottled rage all directed at him. And something more.

"Just be glad I don't have my wrench!" she yelled back, her seething eyes filling with tears. "Does it always have to be about what you want, Edward? You want to learn alchemy. You want to join the military. You want to restore your and Al's bodies back to their original form. You want to go off and save the world. Did you ever once ask what I wanted? Did you ever once realize that I was waiting for you to come back to me? Years of waiting for you, of trying to help you achieve your goals and what do I get? Not an explanation, that's for sure. You just sail off into the sunset without so much as a goodbye. Twice!" Winry stopped to catch her breath. "Well, I've decided—no more! I'm not waiting anymore, Ed. This time I'm going with you. And it's too late for you to do anything about it, so you'd better get used to having me around," she paused. "And besides, who's going to fix your automail when you break it again? And you know you will." Looking down she began to fiddle with the scrap of cloth around her hand as she realized all that she'd just said. Well--it was too late to be dancing around the issue anyways.

"Winry." When she looked back up, there were tears in Ed's eyes. He grabbed her, pulling her close.

" I wanted to bring you with me so badly," he said, his face buried in her hair. "Both of you. But I didn't want to ask you to give up the only home you'd known."

"Stupid boy," she muttered. "Guess it's a good thing you didn't have to ask."

And then, he kissed her.

Teehee...my first submission here. Fun little one shot I wrote to correct what I felt was a grave mistake made by the people who put together the script for the movie. They had to have been drunker than drunk to come up with some of the plot twists they had in the anime/movie. At least they know what their doing with the manga is all I can say. I really enjoyed writing this.
Yes, I know the ending is abrupt. There are two reasons for this, a. this is supposed to fit into the storyline of Conqueror of Shamballa and b. I liked it that way (yes, I'm weird). I briefly thought of rewriting that last scene with Ed and Al and inserting Winry into, but that would require watching that ending again and that had me depressed for days, so not happening.
Thanks for all the love...

Please read and review...It's how I get better! ;-D

P.S. I'm still looking for an appropriate Ed or Win quote to put as the chapter title...If you can think of anything before I do, go onto my profile and send me a message.