Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist/Brotherhood or their characters! The belong to Hiromu Arakawa!

Summary: What if Ed and Al's mom never died? Have you ever wondered about that? Would they still live a life in Resembool, perfectly content with their lives, or would they find a new adventure? There's only one way to find out!

Far From Home

A/N: Okay, so I just thought I'd explain the title...I couldn't think of one! So I picked the title of my favorite Vic Mignogna song. You should check it out. Unless hearing christian songs isn't your thing...then don't. For anyone who doesn't know who Vic Mignogna is though, he's Ed's voice actor. So if you're curious about what Ed would sound like, give it a listen...or you could pick a different song of Vic's. Umm...Nothing I won't Give, is an awesome one, written specifically about Ed and Al...it's sort of sung in Ed's point of view I guess...maybe I should rename my story Nothing I Won't Give...if you think I should, review and let me know. =]

Now, onward to the story! Enjoy. =]

It had been four years since their father had left. Edward was now seven and Alphonse was six. (this is a guess, I don't actually know how old Ed and Al were when Hoenheim left...so I guessed 3 and 2 judging by the line "Al said he had to go potty."~ Ed~ 3 and 2 is about the right age for that.) Ed and Al were just entering the kitchen for lunch and Ed notices that their mom was staring out the window again with a far away look in her eyes. She had been quiet that day, and Ed was a little worried about her, so he and Al had made her a present.

"Mom, we made you a present!" announces Ed, proudly, as he holds the gift behind his back. Trisha visibly jolts out of her state of spacing out before turning to look at her sons with a warm smile.

"You boys know you don't have to do anything like that for me," says Trisha, cheerfully, but Ed could detect the false note in her tone.

"We wanted to," says Al, happily, as he snatches the gift out of Ed's hands and runs over to Trisha.

"Hey! I was going to give it to her!" argues Ed, as he chases Al, but Al was already holding out the wreath of flowers they had made from wild flowers growing in the meadow. Trisha's smile widens and her eyes brighten up, and Ed could tell that she was genuinely happy about the gift.

"It's gorgeous! You know, your father used to make these for me all of the time when we were younger! But this is the most beautiful ring of flowers I've ever gotten! If Hoenheim were here he'd be just as proud of you boys as I am," says Trisha, as she holds the wreath in front of her to look at. Al seemed extremely proud of the praise, but to Ed it was bittersweet. He was happy to see his mom so happy about their gift, but he didn't make it so that he could be like Hoenheim. He had made it in the hopes that they could brighten their mom's day. It had worked, but now she was brought back to thoughts of Hoenheim, and Ed could see the smile fading just a little.

Suddenly he was angry at Hoenheim again. Why did he have to walk out on them? Why wasn't he back yet? Did he know what he was putting their mom through? Ed growls and turns around before running out of the room. "I'm going for a walk!" shouts Ed, angrily.

"Wait! Edward, what about your lunch?" calls Trisha, worried about Ed's sudden mood change.

"I'm not hungry!" shouts Ed, angrily.

"I wanna –" but Al is cut off.

"Don't follow me, Al!" shouts Ed, followed by the sound of the door slamming. Al frowns and Trisha pulls him into a hug.

"He just needs a little air," says Trisha, reassuringly.

"Why does he always get so mad when you mention daddy?" asks Al. Trisha looks at the doorway that Ed had just left through.

"He's probably mad at him. He thinks that your father left us and is never coming back, but that isn't true. He'll be back," says Trisha, with so much conviction in her voice, that Al had to believe her.

"So, what's for lunch?" asks Al.

"I thought that we could just have sandwiches. Does that sound okay?" asks Trisha.

"Yeah," says Al, cheerfully, before walking to his spot at the table and getting in his chair. Trisha makes him a ham sandwich and lays it in front of him with a glass of milk.

"Thank you," says Al.

"When you're done, why don't you see if you can find Edward? Okay? Tell him, that I'd like to talk to him," says Trisha, looking out the window again.

"Okay," says Al, wondering if Ed was in trouble or not. After lunch, Al leaves and begins searching for Ed. He starts at the Rockbell home. When he knocks, Winry answers the door.

"Hi, Al!" says Winry, cheerfully. She thought that Al had come to play with her.

"Have you seen Ed anywhere? He got mad and left again," explains Al. Winry sighs and puts on her shoes.

"Grandma, I'm going with Al to find Ed!" shouts Winry.

"Just be careful!" calls Pinako.

"We will!" they both yell, before Winry shuts the door. Al and Winry decide to start in town. Sometimes Ed liked to walk down the railroad tracks and transmute pieces of fallen coal and other rocks and things that had fallen from the trailers, into small figurines. When Al and Winry reach the town there was a large crowd in front of the train station, but no trains waiting to load passengers. Just then a man, named Ray, exits the crowd, he had blood all over the front of his shirt, and he looked to be panicking. When he sees Al and Winry, he immediately approaches them.

"Alphonse, you need to go get your mother, and Winry, could you get your grandmother?" asks Ray.

"What's going on? Was somebody hurt?" asks Winry.

"Yeah. Ed's been hit by the train that just left. It's bad kids, please, hurry," says Ray. Al and Winry gasp, and look at each other with wide eyes before turning and running back towards their homes. When Al gets home, he couldn't catch his breath properly to tell Trisha what was wrong. All he could do was point towards the door and wheeze out Ed's name.

"What about Ed, Al?" asks Trisha, as she rubs Al's back, trying to calm him down. Tears begin streaming down his face. "Al?" asks Trisha.

"Ed!" he gasps. "Train!" he gasps.

"What about them?" asks Trisha. Al was finally able to catch his breath a little.

"Ed...was hit...by the...train!" Al finally manages to get out between gasps for air.

"What? Are you sure?" demands Trisha. Al nods, and suddenly Trisha was out the door and running towards the train station. Al decided that he could sit down and catch his breath for a moment. He loved Ed, and he was worried about him, but their mom would know what to do, Al knew he would just be in the way. Just as he was thinking this, Winry runs in.

"What are you doing, Al? Come on, we have to go see Ed!" demands Winry, as she grabs his wrist and pulls him to his feet before dragging him out the door.

"Wait! Winry, I can't run anymore!" gasps Al, as they take off towards town again.

"Come on! You can stop when we get there!" shouts Winry, angrily. By the time they get to town they could see that the crowd had grown, but they had also backed up to give Pinako and Trisha room to help Ed. From where Winry and Al stood, they could see a lot of blood. Pinako and Trisha were working frantically to stop the bleeding. Edward was whimpering, but mostly seemed to be out of it.

"Shh, it's going to be okay, baby," croons Trisha.

"Mom?" whimpers Ed.

"I'm here, son," says Trisha. Winry and Al inch closer.

"Winry, run to the pharmacy and get me some more bandages!" orders Pinako.

"Yes!" says Winry, before running off to get the bandages. One of the people in the group follow Winry. She was the manager at the pharmacy. Al walks over to Trisha and grabs her sleeve and buries his face in her neck. He was afraid to look at Ed. By this point Ed had fallen unconscious.

"He's going to live, Al," says Trisha, reassuringly. Al nods his acknowledgment and peeks at Ed. He immediately wishes he hadn't, because it was far worse than he could have imagined. His left leg was gone! Pinako was trying to stop the bleeding while she waited for Winry.

"H-his –"

"Yes, I know. He's in bad shape, but he'll survive, that's what's important now," says Trisha, taking Al's hand in her free hand, her other hand had a hold of Ed's hand.

"I've got them!" shouts Winry, as she runs over and drops a first aid kit in front of Pinako, as well as several boxes of bandages. "Mrs. Miller said not to worry about paying for this stuff."

"Thank you, Winry. Go tell Mrs. Miller that I said thanks," says Pinako, immediately going to work on Ed's leg. Al looks at Trisha's face, she looked determined, as well as worried, but she wasn't crying. Al wondered if she was just putting on a brave face for them.

"What happened?" asks Al, in a small voice.

"No one knows for sure. Ray said that he heard screaming and found Edward laying next to the tracks, his leg had been severed. He thinks that Ed might have rolled off of the tracks, but hadn't been able to get all of the way off of them in time," explains Pinako. Trisha had opened her mouth to answer Al's question, but had been unable to answer before Pinako cut in.

"What about his leg? Can't you put it back on, aunt Pinako?" asks Al.

"No, even if the limb had survived, it probably would have had to have been amputated anyway. The only option for Edward, would be auto mail," says Pinako.

"So, will he get auto mail then?" asks Al, looking at Trisha.

"I'll leave that up to Edward. Pinako and I will explain everything to him, and let him decide if he wants to go through with it," says Trisha. Al knew that Ed would go through with it. He wasn't one for being helped, and he certainly wouldn't want to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, which was exactly where he would spend it if he didn't get the auto mail.

"I've done all that I can, for now. We need to get him back to my house so that I can fix him properly," says Pinako. Ray walks over to them holding a blanket.

"I could carry him for you," offers Ray. "I brought a blanket, I didn't know if he would need it."

"Thank you, Ray," says Trisha.

"Okay, wrap him up, and let's go," says Pinako, getting up and walking back towards her house.

"Yes, ma'am," says Ray. Once he had Ed wrapped up, he follows, with Trisha, Al, and Winry not far behind.

"Um, Aunt Trisha?" asks Winry, uncertainly.

"Yes, Winry?" asks Trisha.

"Can I design Ed's auto mail? I've been studying real hard, and granny said that I would be able to start helping out with the attachments," says Winry.

"Of course you can, Winry, but we don't know if Ed will get auto mail or not," says Trisha.

"He will," says Winry, confidently.

"Why do you say that?" asks Trisha.

"Because Ed doesn't like being helped, and without a leg, he's going to need a lot of help," says Winry. "I think he'll get tired of it pretty quickly."

"You have a point. He's always tried to be the grown up. I think he's trying to fill his father's shoes, but they're just too big for him," says Trisha. "Ever since Hoenheim left, Ed's tried to take care of everyone, he never does anything for himself."

"And he doesn't let anyone help him, either," says Winry.

"Well, now he doesn't have a choice," says Trisha, sadly.

"Everything will be okay. He's strong," says Winry, with a small smile on her face.

"He's Hoenheim's son, of course he's strong," says Trisha, fondly. When they reached Pinako's house, Ed is put in an empty patient's cot and Pinako gets to work treating his wounds properly.

"Mom, what can I do?" asks Al, standing next to Trisha and tugging on the skirt of her dress. Trisha looks down at Al, there were tears in her eyes, she could no longer hold back the tears of fear and worry she held for her oldest son. "Mom?" asks Al, panicked by the tears. Trisha kneels down and wraps her arms around Al. Al hugs her back as she begins shaking, her body wracked by sobs.

"There's nothing we can do right now, except wait for Pinako to treat his injuries and pray that he gets better," says Trisha.

"But maybe alchemy – " But Trisha cuts him off with a pained look.

"Alchemy can't fix Ed. You can never, ever use alchemy to fix a person," says Trisha.

"Why?" asks Al. He and Ed had read it in books that human transmutation was forbidden, but the books had never explained why.

"Your father said that bad things happened to alchemists who attempted to fix a person with alchemy," says Trisha. She didn't seem to know anymore about it than Ed and Al had.

"I want to do something for him though. I can't just sit here and wait for granny to fix him! There has to be something!" says Al, before running out of the room. Trisha sighs heavily when she hears the front door open.

"Hey, Al, where are you going?" could be heard coming from Winry, followed by a second set of foot steps and the front door closing. Trisha walks over to a chair and sits down, just then Ray comes out carrying the blanket Ed had been in.

"You're son's a fighter, Trisha. He'll be just fine," says Ray, reassuringly.

"Thank you, Ray," says Trisha, with a small smile. "Thank you for finding Edward, and for bringing him back here. Thank you for everything." Ray blushes and rubs the back of his neck, embarrassed.

"It was nothing, ma'am. I would have done it for anyone here in Resembool," says Ray.

"How is he?" asks Trisha. Pinako didn't like anyone in the room when she was working on a patient, so Trisha had been told to wait outside.

"He opened his eyes and looked around a little, but then he was right back out. I think Mrs. Rockbell is almost finished," says Ray.

"Okay," says Trisha.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" asks Ray.

"No, but thank you anyway," says Trisha. All Trisha wanted at this point was to see Edward. She wanted to hold his hand and see that he was okay. She wanted to speak to him. Most of all, she just wanted to hug him, and tell him how much she loved him, how scared she was, and assure him that everything was going to be okay.

Ray could see that Trisha had a lot on her mind and didn't seem to want to be bothered by him anymore, so he said good-bye and left the house. He wanted to get back home and let his family know what was going on. The Elric family was well known in Resembool, and just as with any other family in such a small town, if someone was hurt or in need of assistance, the other members of town would do what they could to help. It was the right thing to do after all.

Trisha sat, waiting outside the door, no more than ten feet away from Edward, for about an hour, until Pinako came out removing a bloody pair of gloves. "The boy's alseep. I did everything that I could for him, but now it's up to his body to finish the rest. You should go be with him, he'll want to see a familiar face when he wakes up. He might be disoriented at first. I'm going to start dinner, let me know if anything changes," says Pinako, and with that, she left the room.

Trisha wasted no time getting up and going into the room. Edward, her 'little man' as she affectionately referred to him sometimes, seemed extra small, laying in that large cot, missing a leg. She hesitantly walks over to the chair next to the bed and sits down. She didn't want to wake up Edward, she knew he needed his sleep if he was going to get any better. After she sits down, she looks at his face. His face, almost exactly like Hoenheim's, had some scraps on it, and there was a bump on his forehead, but he didn't look to worse for wear. His neck was okay, and what she could see of his chest was also okay. Everything else was covered by the sheet.

Trisha carefully uncovers his right arm and takes his hand in hers before fixing the blanket once more. His arm had a few scrapes and bruises on it, but was also fine. It made Trisha happy to see that what was left of her son was relatively unharmed. If you could ignore the missing leg, he'd come home looking worse after getting into fights with other kids at school, or after some of his adventures with Al and Winry out in the woods or at the river.

Trisha looks at Ed's sleeping face and chokes back a sob at the thought of how close she had come to losing her son. She didn't want to admit how much she depended on Ed and Al to get through each day without Hoenheim. Didn't want to think about the possibility that Hoenheim was gone for good. She often heard Edward telling Alphonse that their father wasn't coming back. He honestly believed that, she could tell, but Hoenheim had never lied to her, or broken a promise. He had told her that he would come back, and he would always send them letters, usually with money, and in the letters he would say lines such as 'when I get home' or 'when we're together again'. So he had to be planning to come home.

Trisha pulls herself out of her thoughts and looks back down at Ed. Ed always went out of his way to make her happy. He always did everything that he could for her and Al. He took over the role of man of the house, immediately after Hoenheim had left, and Trisha feared, no knew – though she didn't want to admit to this either – that she leaned on Edward too much sometimes. She let him be her 'little man' and take care of them, when he should be out being a kid, like Al and Winry. She knew he was under a lot of stress because of this. Him running out of the house just two hours ago had proved that. It was her fault that this had happened to him. If she hadn't begun to depend on him so much, if she hadn't tried to compare him to his father, she knew that he didn't like it, but sometimes she just couldn't help herself, she always meant it as a compliment to Edward and his character, it was never meant to be a bad thing, if none of that had happened, he wouldn't have run out, and he wouldn't have gone to the tracks, and he wouldn't have been hit by that train, and lost his limbs.

Trisha begins sobbing as the realization and guilt overwhelm her. She was to blame for this. Edward was going to be so upset when he woke up and realized that his leg was gone and that it was her fault. Just as she's thinking this Ed's eyebrows knit together and he begins whimpering and squirming around. "Ed?" asks Trisha, reaching out to touch his face. Just as she was about to touch him he turns his face to the side and his leg begins moving like he's trying to get away from something. Then he sits up with a jolt, his eyes wide open, and he yells.

"MOM!"

End Chapter

A/N: Thank you for reading chapter one. Hopefully this didn't go too fast. I tried to find a plausible explanation to give Ed auto mail, and this is the only thing that I could come up with. I know it's not very original. Next chapter will be what really happened to Ed...and...IDK what else...so yeah...as always, Reviews are welcome. Feel free to ask questions, give advice, or ideas, but I do not want any flames. Thank you. Sayonara! =]

A/N 2: Okay, so after a couple of reviews telling me that my story was being unrealistic and farfectched, I decided that I would fix it and make things more plausible. I promise that I am in no way angered by those reviews, they were fully justified and correct and I'm glad that they pointed it out. It also helped in a way, because now I can go on with my story the way it was meant to. So, I changed two things...originally Ed lost both limbs, but I changed it to just his leg. I also changed his age, he is now 7 instead of 11. I did this for a reason, but to find out the reason, you have to keep reading. So thank you for your patience with me while I write this. I apologize once again if I have confused anyone.

Sayonara! =]

~Vampiressbella2009~