Healing the Heart

Winry awoke that morning to the sound of the alarm clock buzzing in her ear. Reaching over she hit the snooze button and closed her eyes again. Her eyes flew open realizing she'd hit the snooze button twice before. Turning quickly to look at the clock sheer panic gripped her body 'CRAP! I'VE ONLY GOT TWENTY MINUITES TO GET READY!' She yelled in her head as she flung the covers back and jumped out of bed tripping over her clothes from last night. She knew she shouldn't have gone out but her good friend Sally had talked her into it "What's a few drinks going to hurt?" Was what Sally asked her and now she knew she was late for her shift at the hospital. She wasn't going to let one bad night ruin everything she had worked for. She had been a nursing student for two years now and she was almost to the point of getting her nurses license and her occasional obsession with automail that ran through her blood thanks to her grandma. Her granny was the best automail mechanic around and she had studied under her since her parents died. But wanting to give more to the patients she decided to go in to nursing to help with rehabilitation of patients after automail is attached.

Jumping into a quick shower just to wake up some she jumped out, dried off, got dressed and put some eyeliner on her eyes then ran out the door not even noticing if she shut it all the way.

The hospital was swarming that day with a lot of sick people everywhere and walking into the break room she clocked in and put her stuff in her locker. Just then Sally came running in "Oh my gosh! They brought this guy in yesterday who had his automail arm almost torn off and he's a real jerk. I had to give him meds last night and he nearly chewed my head off."

Winry smiled one of her heartwarming smiles "Oh he can't be that bad." She said following Sally out the door "Then you give him his meds today. I want nothing to do with him." She wondered before she asked but her curiosity got the better of her and she turned to Sally "What happened to his arm?" Sally shrugged her shoulders as they walked "I don't know there were a lot of military personal here with him. I think he's military because he's getting first class treatment." Curiosity crossed Winry's face as she shook her head "Ooo."

Getting into her normal routine of patients she did her rounds and then noticed the new name on her roaster Edward Elric. 'Could this be him?' she wondered taking care of her regular patients first. If he was anything like Sally said she would have to put on her best bedside manner to deal with him. Saving him for last she gave all her patients their meds and took their vitals before walking to the nurse's station to fill his med cup and as she did she heard a commotion going on in his room. There was screaming and yelling then the doctor ran out of the room followed by a flying chair. "HOLY CRAP!" she said aloud before realizing she'd said it and her hand shot over her mouth as the doctor stood up and stared at her rubbing his head "If you're going in there…..Good luck" he brushed himself off and turned and walked away leaving her standing there with her mouth hanging open. All right now she was worried. She had troublesome patients before but never hostile.

This was going to be taking her life in her hands she thought she should get hazard pay if he was that hostile. Picking the cup of meds up she walked to the door and opened it to see a suit of armor yelling at the golden haired boy in the bed "WHY ED? WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO BE SUCH A DICK?" she couldn't see his face but she heard his answer loud and clear "Because I can Al."

She cleared her throat and both of them looked at her as she walked in smiling. Edward's brows narrowed as he looked at the cup "Don't tell me you're going to try to get me to take those? Well I tell you like I told the doctor FAT CHANCE!"

Feeling a little uneasy she still proceeded into the room and sat them on the table then gathering her strength she looked up at him with a sturdy look on her face "Well Mr. Elric is it? That's your purgative to take them or not. If you don't want pain you'll take them but if you like pain then don't it's not up to me weather you do or not." She huffed at him as she looked at his nearly tore off arm and examined it with her eyes. He noticed her staring "What! Haven't you ever seen someone with an automail arm before?" He huffed back at her.

"On the contrary my granny was the best automail mechanic around and I've seen plenty of automail before thank you." A slight smile crossed his lips as he had to admit she was cocky, more cocky than anyone else in this stuffy place as she checked his I.V. "You'll need this changed in a couple of hours so I'll be back then." Al stood up "Thank you miss." She slightly smiled at him "Your welcome." As she turned and walked out Edward had this strange feeling he wasn't going to like her very much.

Al noticed the look on his face "What's wrong now brother? I think she was nice." Edward feeling the urge to smack the crap out of his brother at that moment shot his head to the side "No one's that nice Al and besides she smiles way too much."

Edward never really trusted anyone his brother Al was more the trusting type. Edward had always thought people that smiled a lot had something to hide or they were just fake. He let his stubbornness kick in as he stared at the pills in the cup 'I'm not taking any crappy pills that'll make me groggy.' After a few hours his arm really started hurting so he looked at Al then scoffed "Uggggh" as he picked up the cup and downed the pills with a shot of water "This does not mean anything it just means I feel some discomfort." Al chuckled "Whatever you say brother."

Winry was feeling happy that she had escaped the hostile lunatic's room unscathed but as she glanced at her watch she thought the day was still young and she did after all have to go back and change his I.V.

An hour later she was back outside his room wondering what he was going to let cross his lips this time. He was quite an overbearing patient from just the little they spoke to each other earlier but she thought she made herself quite clear. As she opened the door to her surprise he was sleeping and she noticed the pills were gone out of the cup. Al noticed her looking at the cup "He said he felt some discomfort so that's why he took them." She turned and walked over to the drawer and took out an I.V. and changed the bag on the stand "I can't imagine not being in a lot of pain with his arm like this." She looked closer at it "What happened to it?" Al stood up and walked over "We were fighting a guy and he destroyed Ed's arm with one swipe of his hand."

She lifted up as her eyes widened "Really? That sounds horrible." Just then he spoke with sarcasm in his voice "You know I can hear everything you two are saying." As he opened his eyes with a stone cold look on his face "I don't think it's any of your business how I lost my arm. Aren't you just a nurse one who gives out meds and empties bed pans?" His cold amber eyes stared through her and she began to feel her knees shake from the sheer arrogance he had. So she finished changing his I.V. and turned and stormed out. 'Ugh, He's such an arrogant little ass. Why he's nothing but a hateful person.' She thought almost in tears that he would refer to her like that as she stopped at the nurse's station when she heard some speak behind her "I'm sorry about that he's usually not that much of a dick." Alphonse said shyly then he shook his helmet "Ah who am I kidding yes he is. But he wasn't always like this it's just been hard on him the past couple of years."

Winry smiled at Al "You seem like a good friend to put up with him like that for so long." Al waved his hands out in front of him "Uh no he's my brother."

'Brother?' she thought "But your-"Al cut her off before her next word "Yeah it was something we did when we were younger. We tried to bring our mother back and I lost my body and Ed lost his leg. Then he gave his right arm up to bond my soul to this armor." Feeling he couldn't be that bad after doing something like that she smiled "I see."

"If you just hang in there and can put up with his attitude Ed's not that bad once you get to know him. I'm just sorry he hurt your feelings like that but he does that often to keep people at arm's length. He doesn't like it when people get close to him." Feeling he got his point across Al turned to her "Would you like to talk more later? I don't get to talk to very many people." He seemed like a nice boy and she couldn't imagine how he ended up with such an asshole for a brother "Oh by the way my name is Alphonse." He said stretching his hand out for her to shake so she smiled and took it "Nice to meet you Alphonse my name is Winry and I get a break in an hour. Want to meet me outside in the garden and we can talk?" He seemed like he genuinely got excited "YES!" as he let go of her hand and bolted back into Edward's room.

Meeting the younger Elric for her lunch break she walked outside and found him sitting in the garden. As she walked up she noticed he seemed somewhat distant "Hello Al. Can I call you Al?" He looked up and if a suit of armor could wear a frown he would have one "Hello Winry" He said sadly and she knew instantly his brother had said something "Alright what the hell did he say to you to depress you?" She asked angrily.

"Uh. Oh nothing he was just his normal self when I told him where I was going." Al said shyly as she sat down "So he yelled at you then." Al turned his helmet towards her "You have to understand it's always just been Ed and I but sometimes I like to talk to other people and he doesn't understand why."

Getting a disgruntled look on her face, "Maybe it's because he's an asshole." Realizing she just called his brother an asshole she squeaked "Ahhhh, I didn't mean that the way it sounded."

Al laughed "It's alright I understand completely." He was beginning to forget Edward's outburst on why he shouldn't trust people and that they should stick together. As he sat there and he and Winry talked about other things besides his annoying brother she asked him if he wanted something to eat? But he explained to her he didn't eat and when her lunch break was finished she got up and thanked him for a great lunch. As he walked her back into the hospital he told her he had a great time too and not to let Ed scare her because underneath his annoying and asshole attitude he was actually a very caring person. She couldn't see that but she said she'd remember it for next time when she wanted to kick his teeth in. They had a laugh and went their separate ways promising to do lunch again soon.