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Disclaimer: I do not own FMA.

Chapter 3 Discoveries

Winry set to work on removing Ed's clothes that were soaked with water and blood. She removed his heavy looking single black boot first. Al had carried Ed's other boot when he came in. She then moved to his upper body and removed as carefully as she could his red coat without hurting his arm stump more. She didn't know that his left arm was popped from its socket, but when she slid the arm of the coat away from there she saw the damage that was done. Thinking she really should leave it the way it is but it needed to be popped back, she popped the arm back in its socket with a sickening crack. Ed didn't even flinch, which was good because that meant he wasn't in pain from it but bad because he was still lifeless.

At this point Al came back in with the towels and handed them to Aunt Pinako, who accepted them and set the work cleaning off the parts of Ed that Winry had uncovered so far. Winry took some scissors she spotted on a near by tame and set to work cutting open Ed's black tank top since they would hurt him worse if they tried moving him in order to take it off. 'After all,' she thought as she threw the ruined thank top away from Ed, 'he has plenty more where that came from.'

"Oh my…" Grandma Pinako gasped. Winry looked up at her and then to what she was looking at. There right on Ed's stomach was a huge gash that was bleeding freely. Pinako quickly applied pressure on it with a fresh towel and told Al to hold it in place. Al didn't hesitate to do what he was asked to do.

Winry went back to her task. She realized with a shock that she still had one more item of clothing to take off Ed and she blushed a brilliant shade of red. She still had the embarrassing task of taking off Ed's tight, black leather pants. She took a deep breath to calm herself and leaned in close to Ed's body to undo his belt. She then grasped the button on the pants, undid it, and pulled down the zipper. Taking off the pants was going to be hard because of the fact that Ed's right leg was bent as a sickening angle. Pinako saw this and told Winry to move out of the way. She took hold of his leg and pulled it back to how it was supposed to be. Ed gave his first sign of life since being brought to the house by gasping and wincing from the pain. He went back to unconsciousness.soon after and was having trouble breathing a little due to his broken ribs. Pinako went to finish cleaning him up and putting bandages over the wounds. Winry took off the pants as quickly as she could without causing him more pain. Pinako told her it wouldn't be necessary to take his boxers off and Winry was very grateful for that.

About an hour later they were done doing everything they could do for him and they carefully moved him over to the couch. Al set a chair next to the couch so he could watch over Ed as he slept. All Winry and Pinako could do was wait until morning to see if he wakes up. Winry's last thought before going to sleep was 'Oh please let Ed wake up. I don't know what I would do without him.'

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The next morning, Winry was up early so that she could see how Ed was doing. She threw on what clothes she grabbed first without seeing what they were because her mind was on only one thing at the moment.

When she made it down stairs and into the living room where Ed was lying on the couch, she saw that Al was still sitting in the chair next to Ed like he was last night. Al shifted a little to signal to Winry that he realized she was standing there in the entrance to the living room. Winry walked quickly over to Al's side.



"Has he shown any signs of waking up?" she asked Al in a whisper. Al answered with a soft "No."

"Well, why don't you go outside for a bit and I'll take over watching him." Al made no protest, but was a little hesitant before he made his way out of the room and to the front door. Winry took Al's place in the chair and turned to look at Ed. He looked as peaceful as one could be after experiencing something as horrible as he did yesterday. His breathing was steady and Winry sighed with relief.

A few minutes passed as Ed was being watched by Winry. To her surprise, Ed opened his eyes and just stared at her. She gasped. "Ed! Oh my god. I am so glad you are awake. I was so worried you might be…" she couldn't finish. Ed winced as he tried to sit up, but he collapsed back down onto the couch. "No, Ed. Don't get up. You've been through too much. You need to heal more and get your strength back before you try that again," she said with a worried tone of voice.

"Winry, where is Al?" Ed could barely get his words out because his mouth was dry.

"Oh. He went outside for a bit," she answered still awed that he was awake.

Ed relaxed visible and closed his eyes. Winry thought he was still tired from last night. As he slept, she thought about how grateful she was that Ed was alive and that he had returned to her. She didn't know what she would have done if he had died during the night. It was an unthinkable thought and she never wanted to think like that again. She had almost lost him and she wouldn't have been able to bear him not being able to know that she loved him.

Al came back in and saw that Winry was in deep thought while she had tears running down her face. He stepped toward her and she glanced toward the noise of the armor. She smiled at him and got up to give him a warm hug. Al was surprised by this, but put his arms around her anyway.

"Oh, Al. He woke up for a few moments but went back to sleep. He's going to be alright." Al was so happy that Ed was okay. Together they watched as Ed looked more peaceful than before. Aunt Pinako came in from the hall and smiled warmly at the sight before her.