I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist!! It belongs to Arakawa-sensei!!

Welcome to the second part!! WOOHOO!! Thankyou for the reviews!! I hope you'll continue to follow this fic for the last two parts!! Here's chapter 2!! Please read and review!!

The Middle Chapter

Chapter 2

It was the middle of the night.

Alphonse never could sleep during these dark and sad moments. All he could ever do was sit there and ponder sometimes painful thoughts and memories. But this night, something interrupted his sad thoughts.

Alphonse jerked at the strange sounds coming from down the hallway. He wondered what on earth they were. He strained his ears (if he had any), and decided that the noises sounded like Winry.

He got to his feet and crept down towards her room.

The sounds were most definitely coming from Winry's room. It sounded as though she was in pain, coughing and crying and wailing from pain. Al picked up the pace and rushed inside her room.

"Winry!!" he cried.

Winry had been sitting up in her bed, her face completely flushed and sweaty. Her blonde hair was messed up and falling all over her shoulders and her face. Her eyes were full of tears and her great pain was displayed in the look in her eyes. Her hands were clenched in fists beside her face and she let out strangled painful sobs.

"Winry!" Al cried out again, running to her side. He was afraid at how miserable she looked and how much she was suffering. He put out a armored hand and placed it on her shoulder, trying his best to comfort her, "It's all right, Winry. You'll be fine!"

Winry coughed so hard and haggardly, her entire body shook violently. Her hair hanging limply over her face, she bit her lip and tried to bear the suffering.

"A-Al…" she managed to whisper.

"I'll get Granny right away!!" Al said urgently. He turned towards the door. "And I'll wake Edward up!!"

Alphonse started towards the door, but Winry stopped him. She was weak but reaching out towards his armor anyway. "No!"

"What?" Al turned back towards her.

"Don't… wake Edward." Winry said slowly.

"What??" Alphonse's voice sounded furious. "Why not??"

Winry breathed heavily, clenching her fists very tight. "I… I don't want him to worry. And he… he needs to rest and sleep, I know that. So, please, Al, don't wake him or tell him till tomorrow."

She stared at him, so worried and hopeful.

Al stared at Winry, his mind full or worried thoughts. Finally, he sighed and slowly headed out her bedroom door. "Okay."

Winry watched him leave and sighed wearily, sinking back down into her bed. She was sweating, ill and felt like crap; but a little bit a relief rushed through her and calmed her.

"WWHHHAAAAAAAAAATT??" Ed yelled.

He jumped to his feet. He had been halfway through eating his breakfast and whatever food he had just shoved in his mouth started falling out. Ed was furious as well as seriously pissed. He had only just woken up too, and he hadn't even braided his hair yet.

He looked quite a sight.

"AL!!" He shouted angrily. "Why the heck didn't you tell me?? You should've woken me up!!" Ed tightened his fists. "Aargh!!" He let out a growl in annoyance.

Alphonse sat across from him. He remained calm and replied simply, "Calm down, Big Brother,"

"It's all your fault!!" Ed cried. He sent a death glare at his younger brother.

"Al's right, Edward. Calm down." Pinako said.

Ed shut up. He looked towards Pinako. She could tell by the emotions strewn across Ed's face, he was worried and irritated.

Pinako said, "I know you're worried and annoyed, but that's not going to help." She rose slowly from her chair. "If you are so concerned, then get ready and let's go see her."

Winry lay in a bed in a hospital. She was deathly still and hardly any movement or sound came from her, except for maybe the slightest faint breathing. She hadn't stirred since last night when Al and Pinako rushed her to the hospital.

Her breathing was shallow and very faint and it seemed to take so much effort for her to keep breathing. And her heartbeat was also very faint. She seemed to drift in and out of consciousness all the time, and it was worrying the crap out of Ed.

"Winry!" Ed ran into her hospital room and collapsed beside her into a chair. He was sweating and panting hard. Edward stared at Winry's unmoving form and felt his shoulders sink as he tried to gain composure.

For some unknown reason, Edward couldn't help feeling so awkward. After all, he was sitting here beside Winry, and she was asleep.

Ed gazed at her sleeping face for a while, and felt something hurt inside his chest. His face grew warm, and he immediately felt embarassed. He quickly looked around him to make sure no-one had seen. But of course no-one was there and no-one could've seen. It was just him and Winry.

He watched her and felt a smile appear on his lips. Winry… Almost at once, he was filled with thoughts and memories of her. She was this girl that occupied his mind a lot, and that he worried endlessly about.

"Winry…" he spoke out loud. He frowned as he continued speaking, "I don't get how the heck you managed to get yourself sick. You're such a pain, you know?"

He paused. And then Pinako's words on the phone came back to him. Ed bit his lip and punished himself for having let himself be so blind to everything.

"I know… that me and Al burned our house to the ground… and that we went away saying that we would no longer have a home to come back to…" Edward slipped his hand into his pocket and clutched the pocket watch he always carried tightly. "We did that… so that we couldn't run home if everything failed… but… even so… you and Granny Pinako were always there, thinking of us and worrying for our safety. The truth is, you wanted us to be able to return to your place and think of it as a home. But we never did that."

Ed's eyebrows wrinkled over his eyes, as he grumbled with annoyance at himself. "And now… I wish we had."

"I can't believe it took me this long. Why? Why did I have to be so frickin blind and ignorant??" Edward's voice and tone rose with the emotion he carried. "I was never thankful for you and Granny always waiting for us. I thought of you but never of coming back to see you. It was only… when my automail broke and I had no other choice but to return here that I came back to see you. And now I finally understand why you were so angry whenever that happened. I know now that you hated the fact that I only came back because of my automail… and that I would never come to see you, just because you wanted to know how I was and you worried endlessly over me."

"I was… selfish and ignorant. And all along… all along…" Ed found it painful to keep speaking, "All the time, you had been thinking of me. All along, you had been worried about me. From the start, you had been praying for my safety and hoping that I would come back to see you… and you…" Ed lowered his head and stared at the floor. He closed his eyes and whispered, "You… cried for me."

"It was my fault. I should've come back!! I shouldn't have avoided you like that! I shouldn't have left you to face all this pain and illness by yourself! I… I…" Ed gritted his teeth at hatred for what he had done. "And now… I might lose you too."

It pained Ed to no end how blind he had been. Think about it… He and Al had been off on this quest for the Philosopher's Stone for a while now. They had been meddling in all sorts of stuff. They thought they had seen the lot. Unmatched evil, thirst for blood, mass slaughtering of innocent people.

They thought they knew it all. They played around with their alchemy and got themselves involved in all sorts of dangerous stuff. They had been in and out of the faint line between life and death.

So many things they had been doing… they had been in so much danger and almost dying, yet they went on with their reckless life without a second thought.

How could he?? How could he have gone through all that and faced so many things and still not know, nor understand?? How could he have been so damn ignorant?

Edward's head was lowered towards the floor and he felt such a great weight falling over his shoulders it was unbearable.

"How…" he wondered in his almost inaudible whisper. "How… after so long… could I have ignored how precious this life really is?"

He knew now. After life… it was over. There was no coming back. He had tried before. He knew it all.

You couldn't bring back the dead. Their time was already over. Once it was gone, it was gone. There was no turning back. No time to regret what could've been done and try to make it up. You couldn't get any retribution, because it was already done and gone.

"Winry…" he murmured. He looked up from his sad position for a moment and gazed at her sleeping, unhearing figure. Edward couldn't help a few tears falling from his eyes.

"Please…" he muttered quietly, "Winry… please don't die…"

So… what do you think? Did you like it?? Yep, this is definitely a very short fanfic and next chapter is the last one already. I don't want to drag this story on for too long. I just want to get my point across and I'm done!!

Things I don't actually know are: what kind of random serious illness Winry has, and whether there is even a hospital in Resembool and close to it. But hey, this is my fanfic, so what I say goes.

Anyway, The One Eternal Thing ends next chapter. I hope you'll read the next one!! Thankyou for reading!! Reviews are very welcome!! emichii!