Summary: While at Pinako and Winry's house in Resembool, the Elric brothers meet a twin boy and girl looking for an auto-mail technician. The boy seems mostly unfazed by the loss of his leg and arm, but it's obvious the girl is filled with nothing by grief and guilt. Ed comes to find he has much in common with this guilt-stricken girl. Will he be able to help mend her wounds, and maybe heal a few of his own along the way? Or will the trail of pain and loss in both their pasts continue?

Timeline: This takes place during the anime episode House of the Waiting Family.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or any of its characters. I only own the Dresdens and any other OC's you might see.

Losses Never Great Enough

By Triple 'Eh'

Prologue: Of Auto-Mail and Mistakes

A knock sounded at the door. The Elric brothers glanced up at the wooden door as Pinako and Winry entered the room. Pinako gripped the door handle and tugged it open.

"Yes?" she asked of the people on the other side. Looking over the small old lady's head, Ed could see the girl and boy standing on the doorstep. They looked about his age. The girl had long brown hair pulled into loose bun; her deep brown eyes had black rings under them, as though she hadn't slept in days, and they were filled with emotions he easily recognized: guilt and pain. Standing beside her was a boy who looked just like her and he deduced that they were twins. His brown hair was long and strands flopped into his eyes, which were weary and troubled. The thing that was most noticeable about the boy were his left arm and right leg, or lack there of, as the case might be. He was standing on his left leg with his right arm wrapped around his sister's shoulder to support himself.

"Hello, ma'am," the boy said politely. "I'm Andrew Dresden, this is my sister Amneris. We're looking for Pinako and Winry Rockbell. We heard you were the best auto-mail technicians in Amestris."

Pinako looked long and hard at the two teens, before stepping back from the door and saying, "Please come in."

Amneris, arm around Andrew's waist, helped him hop inside.

"Here, sit down," Winry said, moving a seat back from the table. Amneris helped her brother to sit down in the chair before sitting down beside him. Pinako took a seat across from Andrew while Winry sat beside her.

"Young man," Pinako began, "What exactly happened to you?"

"Um…" Andrew looked to his sister, but she was staring down at her lap, her hands resting on the tabletop far away from each other, as though she was afraid for them to touch. "Nothing," Andrew finally said. "It was an accident," he added, firmly, staring at the side of his sister's head. She made a funny noise, half way between a scoff and a gasp that petered off into a squeak at the end.

"Amneris," he sighed.

She shook her head, but said nothing. Winry stared at the girl in concern.

"What do you think happened to them?" Al whispered to Ed, who was sitting beside him on the sofa.

"I don't know," Ed said. "But it was something bad and something she feels guilty about."

"How do you know?" Al asked.

Ed's face darkened. "I saw it in her eyes. You can't mask that kind of pain and guilt from someone who's experience it themselves."

"Ed…"

"Don't, Al."

"Well," Pinako said, evidently sensing the tension in the room. "We're going to need to take your measurements. We won't be able to make your auto-mail until we're finished with Edward's, but that shouldn't take long. Do you have somewhere you can stay?"

Again, Amneris made that strange noise and this time, Ed realized that it was a sob.

"No, ma'am," Andrew said. "We lived a few miles away in Exodem, but our house burned down. We don't know anyone here in Resembool."

"Well, you're more than welcome to stay with us. We have enough room. Winry, go fetch some blankets for the spare room."

"Yes, Auntie," Winry said. She stood and made her way around the table. As she passed by Amneris, she placed a consoling hand on the girl's shoulder and smiled at her as she look up, but the comfort just seemed to upset her more and she turned her head violently away, letting out another choking sob. Winry sighed and dropped her hand, shrugging at Ed as she passed him.

"Amneris?" Andrew asked, gently grasping her chin in his hand and raising her face to meet her eyes. "Are you alright?" His voice was laced with brotherly concern and affection.

Amneris's eyes filled with tears as she looked at her brother and Ed saw, once again, the overwhelming pain and guilt in her eyes before she wrenched her head out of Andrew's grasp and hurriedly pushed the chair back from the table, jumping up and gazing down at her brother.

"No," she sobbed. "No, I'm not." And she bolted for the door, knocking the chair over, and ran outside, where it had begun to rain.

"Amneris!" Andrew called, looking and sounding pained that he couldn't go after her.

Ed made a decision. "I'll get her," he said to the brown-haired boy. "Al, stay here," he ordered his brother as he rushed out the door after the crying teenage girl.

She had already made it pretty far and knew he wouldn't catch her. So he just followed her to wherever it was she was going. They ran for miles, Amneris never seeming to tire, for she never slowed down. She kept running. Soon they were out of Resembool and headed toward the neighboring town of Exodem. And Ed realized where she was going as her saw the blacked remains of a small cottage appear on the hillside.

Amneris ran around the back of the burned house and only slowed when she dropped to her knees in front of what looked like five white blocks. Only as he drew nearer did Ed recognize them as tomestones. Five white, marble tombstones, in the pattern of an upside-down V, rested on the green hillside behind the ruins.

As he stood, unnoticed, a hundred feet or so behind Amneris, Ed looked at the engravings on the headstones. He could just make them out from this distance. The one in the very front on the right read:

Christine Dresden

Born January 14, 1871

Died August 8, 1909

Loving Mother and Wife

And the one beside it:

Daniel Dresden

Born February 17, 1869

Died September 7, 1909

Beloved Father, Devoted Husband

Ed noticed that the two, husband and wife most likely, had died within a month of each other. He had a sickening realization about who they must be and his sympathy for the girl in front of him grew tenfold. It would only increase more as he read the three others behind them. In the middle row on the right, the gravestone read:

Adam Dresden

Born March 30, 1890

Died December 23, 1914

Devoted Husband and Loving Father

Beside Adam lay:

Marseille Porter-Dresden

Born October 24, 1891

Died December 20, 1914

Loving Wife and New Mother Taken Before Her Time

And in the very back, lay the gravestone that caused his stomach to knot and churn even more than the other four. For in the very back, at the point of the triangle, lay:

Shelly Dresden

Born December 20, 1914

Died December 23, 1914

Beloved Daughter

Three days old; she had been three days old.

A scraping noise broke Ed out of his thoughts, and he looked down at Amneris. She clutched a stick in her hand and was drawing something on the ground. With a start, he realized it was a transmutation circle. She threw the stick to the side and knelt in front of the circle, still sobbing audibly, tears coursing down her cheeks.

"No!" he called, but the storm, worse now he noticed, drowned him out. He broke into a run, trying to get to her before she did something she'd regret. Even as he ran, he knew he wouldn't make it in time. His eyes widened as she raised her hands above her head to slam them down on the transmutation circle, but she hesitated. Her hands, held high above her head, shook as her body was wracked with sobs. Screaming in frustration, she violently swiped her hand across the dirt, destroying the circle. Ed stopped a few feet behind her and watched as she buried her head in her knees, drawing her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

Slowly, Ed approached the weeping girl and placed his hand gently upon her shoulder. Stopping her rocking, she looked up at him with teary eyes. She took in his prosthetic leg and missing arm and the kindness in his eyes, and must have recognized that he had something in common with her, suffering or guilt perhaps, for she did not throw him off. Slowly and unobtrusively, Ed sat down beside her, mimicking her posture, drawing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arm around them.

They sat like that, in silence, for what seemed an eternity. Gradually, Amneris's sobs stopped, as did the rain, and she sat there, sopping wet, staring mutely at the ivory-colored stones in front of them.

"Those your parents?" Ed asked quietly when he felt it was safe to do so, nodding toward the first two tombstones.

"Yeah," she responded, voice emotionless. "Yeah, they're my mom and dad."

"I'm sorry," he said.

"Yeah…yeah, so am I," she whispered.

"I know what it's like," he said, a few moments later, "To lose a parent. But human transmutation, isn't the answer." He gestured with his arm to the half erased circle.

"I know," she said, then whispered, in a voice so low he wasn't sure he heard her, "Believe me, I know."

He wasn't certain she did know. So, taking a deep breath, he proceeded to try and explain. "My mother died when I was eleven," he said quietly, staring at the graves in front of him, unable to look at her. She turned her head to look at him; surprised he was telling her this. "Al, my younger brother, and I…we were devastated. Our father had left long before and our mother was all we had. But she got sick and she died. I…I didn't think we could live without her. I was certain we couldn't. So Al and I, we researched. Our father had been a great alchemist and he had a workroom full of books. Some of them were about human transmutation. We gathered the ingredients to make a human body and we thought a drop of each of our blood would suffice as Equivalent Exchange for the soul."

He paused, allowing his shaking voice to smooth over and regained his composure. Then he continued, "It didn't work. The transmutation went wrong. I lost my leg, but Al, he lost his entire body. I sacrificed my arm to bind his soul to a suit of armor. Now, Al is a suit of armor and my leg and arm are auto-mail. We made a mistake, and we're paying for it," Ed said quietly, barely a trace of emotion in his monotonous voice.

"Your mother…?" Amneris whispered.

"The thing we brought back wasn't even human. Just flesh and bone and blood," Ed whispered, turning his head to the side, his eyes tightly shut, remembering, the pain still unbearable even after all this time.

They were silent for a while, Amneris contemplating Ed's words, Ed still remembering all the pain he and Al had been through. Finally, after what seemed hours, Ed said, "We should go back. You're brother is probably worried."

Amneris nodded and the two stood. With one last glance over her should at the tombstones, Amneris followed Ed back down the road toward the Rockbells'. "Goodbye," she whispered, touching her hand to the tree that stood beside what was left of the wooden gate as she passed.

A/N: Please R&R. Reviews are always welcome!!