NEW BEGINNINGS

Her cries reverberated around the room. The sounds of her pain was enough for him to want to reach into his own insides and rip them out. Gritting his teeth, Edward could only embrace the familiar feeling of hopelessness like an old, unwelcomed friend. For a moment, he was back in Rush Valley feeling like his younger self—a powerless fifteen year-old who could do nothing but wait. He now understood what it really meant of Satella's bloodcurdling screams back then and wondered how Ridel ever had the willpower not to rip his hair out from the suspense of it all. It felt like a lifetime ago from that stormy day, yet it remained a fresh memory as if it was solely for this moment of crisis and reflection.

Another of Winry's stifled scream was followed by a jolt of pain from his fingers. Edward winced. If she keeps this up, she's going to break all my fingers.

"You sure you don't want to switch to my other hand?" Edward said with a nervous chuckle. He knew better than to make quips during these kinds of situations. As a confirmation to his regrettable remark, he instantly received a murderous look from his wife.

"Ed, you have no right to com-," her scowl was quickly replaced by another grimace of pain which, of course, came with another steel-death squeeze of his hand.

Winry's breaths increased in short pants as the delivery was near an end. Her eyes were shut closed as she dealt with the pain that was racking upon her body. Instinctively, Edward reached up to wipe away her blonde strands that stuck against her temples and forehead.

Edward's thoughts were wandering off again—perhaps it was his mind's defensive mechanism against the strong urge to go crazy from not being able to help Winry with her pain—and he couldn't help but think how beautiful his wife was. It didn't matter that her cheeks were blotched from efforts of the labor, or that her eyes were shadowed with exhaustion. It was, above all, the graceful strength she always carried around her that fueled Edward's own strength and courage every single day. It had been so easy to love her, like breathing in the summery air of their childhood days. He almost never said it out loud but, after all, their words were stronger in silence. As much as he loved her, he knew she loved him back. For Edward, that was more than enough or anything else he wanted in this world.

"Hey Winry," he said gently.

"What, Ed?"

Despite the sharp and impatient tone he noted in her voice, he felt a tug at the corners of his lips. "I love you, Winry." His eyes were upon hers, and he didn't care that there were others in the room.

As he had expected, it took her off-guard and the room fell only a bit quieter. Winry looked at her husband, tears gathering as she managed to give him a smile. Edward was hardly the sentimental type and everyone knew he was the kind of person to speak his affections through his actions. Heck, the last time he had said those exact words was probably on their wedding night. She could probably argue that this was another example of his terrible timing. Instead, she replied, "You idiot. I love you, too."

"Here it comes!" the doctor exclaimed. Soon, Winry's scream was joined by another kind of crying from a smaller set of lungs. "Congratulations, it's a girl!"

Pinako must have recognized and understood the expression upon Edward's face as she assisted with having the baby cleaned and bundled up. And before Edward could even register what was happening, the doctor called out, "Here comes the other one!"

Time seemed to have both sped up and slowed down as the doctor held up another baby for Pinako to attend to. Finally, Winry fell back upon the bed in relief and began to cry from exhaustion and happiness as the doctor announced the second baby was a boy.

"Edward," her voice brought her husband back to present and she motioned with a small, weak gesture of her hand. "I want to see them."

He hadn't realized that Pinako had placed them both into his arms. Of all the training and fighting he had ever done, nothing prepared him for this. Edward brought his gaze upon the two new faces and suddenly felt a swell in his chest made his entire body shake slightly. His limbs felt like jelly and, so suddenly, a wave of unexplainable emotions threatened to knock him off his feet.

He carefully joined Winry's side at the bed, his eyes glued upon their rosy faces. "They're so small," Edward said, though the last word came out more like a choke as a painful lump formed in his throat. He held them close to him, and as crazy as it probably sounded, he felt like the world was too big for them and the only thing to protect them was himself. And that it exactly what I will do—I will protect you both, he thought as he made the silent promise.

Winry smiled, bringing her eyes up from their babies to her husband. "It's okay to cry just this once, Edward. I won't tell anyone."

"Who says I need to cry?" he said after he let out a small cough in attempt to clear his throat. Though, when Edward met his wife's gaze, he didn't mind that she saw tears gathered at the corners of his eyes.

"Twins," Winry said, marveled. "Can you believe it?"

Edward shook his head, smiling; he didn't trust himself to speak as he felt another lump formed at the back of his throat. He had never thought that he could love a person so deeply and quickly as he did now—let alone for two. The memory of his mother came to him as he thought, Al, I think this is what mom felt when she had us.

"They are so beautiful," Winry murmured, as she reached out to touch their daughter's hair. Both babies already had soft tufts of hair that shined like gold as the light from the window spilled into the room. "Now for their names," she said as she looked to Edward.

"Oh right," he said with blink. "We didn't really decide on it, did we?" Winry had gotten into labor earlier than they had expected and they had barely considered a handful of names only a week before.

"Hm," she paused to think, though her expression seemed to be saying that she already had it figured out. "I think I have the perfect ones for them," her lips pulled into her usual confident smile.

"Do you now?" Edward said with a quirk of a brow in curiosity. "Let's hear it."

"Welcome to the world," Winry said softly as she glanced down upon their baby daughter and son; leaning in to press her lips gently upon their brows, she whispered, "Erika Trisha Elric and Williem Urey Elric."

A/N: Hello all! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it! I am roughly new to writing fanfiction and it has been a while since I have gotten back to writing in general so I may be a bit rusty... My brother and I have recently decided to re-watch the Brotherhood series and, as many of you can imagine, I can't stop thinking about it! I am absolutely in love with the plot development, the characters and all of their relationships, so I had to write about it. :-) What do you think so far? Ratings & reviews are greatly appreciated!