This is a manga based story. Thought I would tell you that to help you understand a little bit more.

No real timeline.

Winry Rockbell waited at the train station in Central for someone to pick her up and take her to the Grand Master Hotel. Ed and Al had yet again found themselves in trouble and she had received a call from Ed, saying that his auto mail was broken again.

It always annoyed the blue eyed girl that Ed and his younger brother would put themselves in so much danger and then call her about it, acting as if it was something that was a normal everyday thing. But then again, maybe it was normal to them.

That thought scared Winry in more than one way. Mainly because everyone told her either too little or nothing at all. She was always in the dark, expecting to wait for whatever news they felt like telling her. And then she would had to accept it and do her job. Then leave without asking any questions.

And to be honest, she really didn't like it.

But what could she could do about it? She had once tried demanding Ed to tell her what he was hiding, but he kept quiet about it and then left with Al. Winry remembered crying about it on that same night, refusing to let her grandmother who was knocking on her bedroom door in.

So now she was waiting for someone probably from the military to take her to the hotel to meet up with her childhood friends, who had no intention of telling her what had happened to them. Her guess was that the brothers thought keeping her in the dark would mean she would be safe from something.

But why be safe when she cried about it everyday.

A female voice snapped her out of her thoughts and Winry blamed the hot sun for her deep thoughts. She turned around quickly to see a woman in military uniform, Winry could remember the woman from a couple of years ago. It was the woman who arrived with the man, who offered Ed the chance to become a State Alchemist.

"Winry Rockbell?" The woman asked. Winry noticed that her hair had grown more so it had to be placed in a clip.

"Yes." She answered.

"I'm First Lieutenant Hawkeye, I am here to take you to Edward and Alphonse."

"Yes. Thank you."

The two females walked together, Winry following Hawkeye until they reached the car. They both got into the car and drove off to the hotel where Ed and Al would be waiting for Winry.

As Hawkeye drove, Winry looked out of the window. The grey buildings passed quickly and soon became too dull to watch anymore, so the young girl looked to the woman next to her. Her mind asked the question, is she like me?

There was no harm in asking.

"Lieutenant?"

"Call me Riza." She said in a clam voice, smiling a little as her eyes never left the road.

"Miss Riza," Winry continued. "Do people you know and care about try to keep secrets from you?"

At first Riza didn't say anything, and Winry wondered for a moment if she had insulted the military woman. Luckily, Riza spoke to answer her question. "For me...it's the other way around."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm the one keeping secrets from people I know and care about."

This gave Winry the chance to ask Riza something she wanted to ask Ed for a very long time.

"Why?" She asked rather angrily, "why do you? What must be so important that it has be kept away from others? Are you trying to protect someone from the truth? Could it be so dangerous that what ever it is has be hidden? Well?"

Winry had to admit, she was being unfair to the woman she was asking. All of her anger was meant to be for Ed, because he was the one keeping things hidden from her. And because Riza was doing the same thing in a sort of way, her anger was going to her. But the older woman didn't look hurt by it, she was still calm and her eyes never left the road. Until she turned the steering wheel and stopped in a safe parking space. She turned her head to Winry so they were looking eye to eye, but her hands still stayed on the steering wheel.

"The only person I'm protecting is myself." Winry's eyes widened in surprised, she heard the woman laugh bitterly. "It's quite selfish really. If anyone found out, it would only be my life in danger. From men in white coats, staring at me as if I was some lab rat in a maze. It's not something I wouldn't like at all. Right from the day it started it has been my fear." She stopped herself, discovering that she had said a little too much then she wanted to. Winry who was before looking at her now had her head down, staring at her feet.

"I'm so sorry." Winry whispered, sounding ashamed. "I shouldn't be angry with you. I shouldn't be angry with Edward."

"But I think you should have a right to know."

The blue eyed girl looked up sharply to Riza, clearly shocked by what she had said. "But what about your..." She was stopped when Riza talked over her.

"The people I know are not effected. They don't know and that's it. But you, it seems like because Edward and his brother don't tell you much. It hurts because you are afraid for them, but would you feel differently if they told you everything?"

The question hit Winry like a brick wall.

Would she be better off if she was told everything? Would all the pain leave her, or would it only be worse?

For the rest of the trip, nether females said anything else of the subject. The car was filled with a painful silence, pleading for something to break it. Finally when they could see the hotel from the distance, Winry asked Riza one last question.

"Does it still scare you?"

Riza didn't need to know what Winry was referring to, she already knew. "Not anymore, in fact I am rather thankful for it now."

"Why?"

"Because without it, there wouldn't be someone to change the world for the better."

The car slowly stopped and Winry could see Edward waiting outside the building. His metal arm had disappeared and she suddenly felt like hitting him over the head with the nearest heavy thing she could hold in her hand.

It made her smile.

"Thank you Miss Riza." She said, and she could guess that the woman knew she was thinking about the car ride and the talk. Riza didn't say anything, she just nodded her head and left when Winry had got out of the car.

"I need a new arm quick." Ed said as he turned to head back to the hotel.

"And are you going to tell me about how you lost it?" Winry asked, raising a eyebrow. Ed didn't answer and just entered the building.

Winry didn't complain like she would of done before. She just followed the boy she loved into the Grand Master Hotel and got ready to do thing she knew best.