This is my first official FMA fic! Please review, I'm eager for feedback:D
Standing by Their Convictions
"I have an eight-year-old daughter. I'm pressed for time; my child needs me most at this age…"
"Mr. Rockbell, please, it's urgent. There is a significant shortage of doctors in this war, and you and your wife's experience and expertise are needed desperately."
He heaves a sigh. "Alright, I'll talk it over with my wife. As a doctor, it is our responsibility to help the injured, but as parents it is our responsibility to be here for our little girl. I'm divided on this issue, but I will give you a call."
"Oh, thank you, sir. Please call back in a day or two," says the other end, and hangs up.
He drums his fingers on the desk, almost forgetting to place the phone back on the receiver.
"Dear, what's wrong? You're spacing out. Winry's getting impatient; I've never seen anything more eccentric than a child anticipating the carnival-"
"Sarah, they called again. I'm thinking we should go."
The tiny blonde looks up, caressing a teddy bear in her arms. "Mommy, daddy, please don't go."
Daddy seems torn at her gentle face and kneels down to her level. "I promise we will be home soon. Be a good girl and wait for us, okay?" He affectionately pats the top of her head.
Winry watches in concern and admiration as her parents walk out the door, the sight of their backs becoming smaller and smaller. With the feel of her house becoming much larger and emptier, a few tears leak from blue eyes.
Granny Pinako mimics her son's comforting gestures and rubs Winry's back. "Come on, Winry. I'm sure Ed and Alphonse will make excellent company for you now."
"So… they left?" asks Al.
"Yes," she says sternly. She does not avert her gaze from the coloring book, scribbling in an apple with a red-clad crayon. "I want them to come home soon. I have Granny and Den, but it gets so lonely."
Edward wrinkles his forehead, a little appalled by her comment. "What about us! You have me and Al, don't you?!"
Winry giggles; her voice is soft but low. "Yes, you're right! Now hand me the green crayon!"
A few months later.
Why did it happen? Why were they called to go? Why couldn't other doctors have been asked? Mommy and Daddy always stood firmly by their convictions, but they never hurt anyone or did anything wrong. Did God ignore her feverish prayers?
It seems as if suddenly Winry's mind is enveloped in a swarm of memories; mornings of cooking in the kitchen lavished with the scent of Mommy's apple pie, summer afternoons of sitting under the large oak tree while listening to Daddy's stories… they were all nothing but empty fragments in her memory now.
Pinako looks on the shelf, carefully examining each tender photograph in a wooden frame. Faces of so many beings who she has known in her long life are sorted here; Hohenheim and Trisha, Edward and Alphonse, and of course, her son, her daughter-in-law, and her granddaughter.
A picture of the latter is missing, she observes. An endearing picture where Winry wore a straw hat and stood merrily between her parents.
"What a shame. It was my favorite, too. He must have taken it with him."
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed