April 14th, 1985
Ed was grateful for one of the first warm mornings of spring. It was still cool, but not the chill that had plagued his morning workouts all winter. Several days Ed had actually wimped out and kept his exercise regimen indoors, choosing to work out in his small home gym rather than go for his preferred runs. There were just some things auto-mail ports would never adjust to, and cold and damp were two of them.
A sunny Sunday morning, just after dawn, where the weather felt like spring was perfect for getting outside and enjoying stretching his legs. He had just about finished his warm up stretches when he heard the front door open and footsteps on the porch.
Turning, Ed saw Urey coming down the steps. "Up early even for the cows aren't you?" Ed teased, though Urey was definitely not dressed for work.
Urey shrugged. "If you don't mind, I thought I'd join you this morning."
Ed was pretty sure his eyebrows were lost somewhere in his hair. "I don't mind at all," he replied, deciding it was wiser to say nothing about the fact that Urey hadn't worked out with him in years. Not since before Cayla died, when she had still been with them, but all of Urey's time had been given to her, as it should have been. "I'm doing five miles this morning, try and keep up."
For a moment, Urey looked like he regretted his decision. Then he shrugged and started stretching. "Sure, but if I pass out, you get to carry me home."
"Nope." Ed disagreed, chuckling. "I'll just leave you in the street. You probably won't get eaten by wolves."
Breakfast made. Lunches made. Two kids out the door to school. Trisha was almost relieved to settle back in the reclining easy-chair in her living room. "Now, it's your turn," she told Sara, as the hungry baby tucked in to her own breakfast, suckling away at her mother's breast.
She wasn't sure how five weeks could fly by so fast, and still seem like forever. Trisha had been given permission to go back to work six weeks after delivery, and now that Sara was almost that old, she found herself doubting how much she wanted to go back. Not that she didn't love her job, and not forever, but— "Roy, what if I didn't go back to work next week?"
Her husband looked up from his breakfast and the morning newspaper. "What?"
"I don't mean forever." How to explain it?
"Are you feeling all right?" he asked, immediately concerned. He stood up and came into the living room.
"It's not something wrong," Trisha assured him. "I just… I don't feel ready." She looked down at baby Sara. "I don't want someone else to watch her all day. I don't want to miss what's going on here, with the kids." While the older two were in school a good part of the day, she hadn't been bored to tears, as she had expected to be. Quiet time with Sara was highly enjoyable. The third time through, she didn't feel unprepared or unsure about so many things that had concerned her as a new parent. "She's our last, and I guess…"
"You don't want to miss out?" Roy asked, a gentle smile coming to his face. "It's okay, Trish, I get it. My Mom was the same way with Mireia, remember? She'd already established a career, and she took time off. I'm pretty sure if you ask for a little extended leave, you'll get it. Besides, if they want you to be working with the teaching program, like they've been talking about, you're going to need to be up to sparring with those kids they've got in training. You're not cleared for that yet."
Which was true. Trisha might be able to drive again, and go to work if she wanted and sit at her desk, she had months of exercise before she would be combat ready. Most of the basics she could do right here at home. "So you would be okay with that."
"I'm a little jealous actually," Roy chuckled. "If I thought we could both do it, I'd be thrilled. If you want to wait a few more weeks, I'm fine with it. I can't imagine they'll say no. What are they going to do, argue with your father?"
He had a point, much as Trisha didn't want to think she could get extra leave just because her father had taken the position of President of the Military. She didn't want it to look like she was getting any favors for it. "All right. I'll put in my extended leave request."
"I'll make sure the paperwork gets delivered," Roy promised. He leaned in and kissed her gently. "Now I've got to run, or I'll be late."
Trisha nodded. It didn't take long for Roy to wolf down his last few bites of breakfast and head out. When he was gone, the house was quiet.
Years ago, if anyone had told Trisha she would want to stay home with her baby instead of running back to work as soon as she had the chance, she would have said they were crazy. Even with their first two, she had never had qualms about leaving them in the capable care of one or another of their extended family's grandparents or at-home mothers. Yet right now, those options weren't really as available as they had been. Roy's sisters were grown with lives of their own. Her father had his career. Even Roy's grandmother, Riza, wasn't at home as much. She had plenty of things she did to keep busy, and Trisha just wasn't ready to put her baby in a daycare center. There were options if she looked hard enough, but part of her wanted to be home, at least a little longer, and relish the moments of her daughter's infancy.
Trisha wondered if her own mother would have understood. Sara Heimler had been a great Mom. Trisha loved her mother, but she had always been very focused on her career and her work as an alchemist. Still, she thought she would have understood. There was room in life for everything, if you kept your priorities in order. "I wish you could have met her, baby," she cooed softly. Little Sara was slowing down, and her eyes were drooping drowsily. "Your Grandma would have loved you."
April 16th, 1985
"I'm going to miss you," Ren said as she hugged her brother tightly goodbye at the train station.
"And I will miss you," Mao smiled as he squeezed her back just as tightly.
Ren let go of him reluctantly and let Will shake his hand as she hugged Jiu. "You're welcome to visit again any time."
Jiu chuckled. "I think our next visit will be shorter, but I anticipate it just the same. Thank you for hosting us this year."
"It was a pleasure," Will assured them.
Ren stepped back as the train whistle blew, announcing the train would be pulling out in a few minutes. It was hard to believe that her brother and his wife had lived with them for a full year already. The time had gone far too quickly for her. Now, they were going back to Xing. They had been fully in touch with the family, and Tao was well established as being capable of leading the country without his father's assistance. Which meant, that Mao and Jiu could return home without much concern that the country would keep looking to them instead of their new Emperor. In Xing, Emperor's rarely lived long enough, or choose, to retire. Mao was a rare case and unusual exception.
Ren felt that a lot of their family was that way. She loved them for it.
Kamika hugged her aunt and uncle last. Soon, Ren knew, her youngest would be leaving the house as well. College was just a little over a year away, and their house would be empty, and so quiet. At least until children came home for holidays.
"We'll come visit you," Ren promised her brother. "Hopefully under much better circumstances than our last visit!"
"I certainly hope so," Mao laughed as he put his arm around his wife and picked his suitcase up in the other hand. Their trunks were already stowed aboard. "I will call when we get home."
"Good. Travel safely."
Then her brother and his wife were gone into the crowd, and on the train. Ren, Will, and Kamika stood, watching until it pulled out of the station.
"The house is going to be so quiet," Kamika commented as they walked back to the car.
Will smiled. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
"I liked having Uncle Mao and Aunt Jiu here," she replied. "It's okay when Mich comes home too."
"You could always go to college in Xing, like Michio is," Ren pointed out. The school had reopened, and her son had insisted on not missing a single course of his schooling. "Then you could see family all the time." Not like she didn't see her extended family in Central on a regular basis, but Ren knew what her daughter really wanted was a change of pace, someplace new to explore. They all did at one time or another. That was part of why she had come to Amestris for her own last two years of college.
"I'm thinking about it," Kamika admitted, "But there are a couple of places I'd like to apply. Pylos has some great programs, and so does ECU."
"Not planning to stay home?" Will asked, though he didn't sound serious.
"Sorry, Daddy," Kamika smiled. "I know you're the best teacher in the world, but I can learn from you for free anytime I come to visit. If you haven't already taught me everything you know."
"Oh, I haven't," Will smiled, "But you do have a point."
"Let's eat out tonight," Ren suggested as they reached the car. "What's everyone in the mood for?"
"Aerugean!"
"Cretan!"
Ren shook her head. "How about we split that down the middle and go to that Islander place that just opened downtown?" Their food was from the islands off the southern part of Creta, which was right near the Aerugean border. It tended towards a lot of seafood, grilled vegetables, and zesty spices.
"Oh, yes!" Kamika exclaimed. "I've been wanted to eat there." She eyed them, hopefully for a moment. "Can I drive?"
Ren looked at Will, who shrugged and handed her the keys. "Sure," he replied. "But I'm riding shotgun."
"Yes, Daddy." Kamika took the keys and got into the driver's seat.
Ren got in the back, grateful that there wouldn't be too much traffic in that part of town on a weekday evening. Her baby may be almost grown, but that didn't mean Ren was used to the fact her daughter was driving.
April 19th, 1985
Bonnie loved it when she could just get lost in her work. For once, she had an entire afternoon to devote to making final alterations for the costumes that would be needed the next week for a costumed-ball episode of the weekly drama Passion in Camdine Park. The wide selection of men's and women's fashion from different historical periods in Amestris, Creta, Aerugo, and even Xing had been a project she had been delighted to get assigned months before. It was the big season finale, and they really wanted to boost the ratings by going all out. It was the end of the third season, and they would be re-introducing a character who was a lost love of the male lead's… right as he was going to ask his current lover to marry him. It would be a dramatic cliffhanger of epic proportions.
It was not at all the kind of thing Bonnie enjoyed watching. The costumes, however, were going to be gorgeous.
"Excuse me… Barbara?"
Bonnie twitched, but put a smile on her face before she turned around to face the actress who had just come into the costume shop. "Bonnie," she corrected simply. The woman knew her name. "Can I help you, Angie?"
"Miss Simpson," Angie replied with almost identical inflection to Bonnie's earlier correction. "And yes, I wanted to see my costume for tomorrow's big scene." She was—unfortunately, in Bonnie's opinion—playing the woman being introduced in the show, who would be throwing seasons' of romantic tension and hope on the part of the audience into utter chaos.
"Of course," Bonnie replied accommodatingly. She turned and brought the gown down from the rack, hanging it on an empty rack where Angie could examine it from all angles. It was one of the more complex outfits, with many-layered flounced skirts, corseting in the bodice, and angled, layered sleeves.
As Angie looked the dress over, Bonnie turned back to the costume she was adding some final beading to.
"Why do you insist on hiding in here?"
"Excuse me?" Bonnie turned and looked over her shoulder.
"Oh please," Angie chuckled. "Don't pretend. I saw you on set the other day, when you subbed in for Maria. You know you could make it in modeling, or on the screen, and yet you wear frumpy clothes and hide away in the costume trailer." She turned the dress on its hanger. "Though I do have to say, your designs do flatter me."
Somehow, none of that sounded like a compliment. "I'm not hiding," Bonnie insisted, trying not to sound like she was blustering. "Design is my passion. It's what I studied for, and what I enjoy. I only did the scene because Tanner asked me to fill in."
"Don't you mean because Ian Elric asked?" Angie's eyes gleamed with wicked pleasure. "You can't tell me you haven't noticed him looking at you."
If only you knew. Bonnie shrugged. She was not about to discuss Ian with Angie. If she didn't know they were anything more than colleagues, she wasn't going to tell her.
"Does he?" she asked casually. "I thought he looked at all women that way."
"Only the pretty ones," Angie replied. "Though I suppose you have a point. It might look that way to anyone who doesn't know him well."
"And do you know him well?" Bonnie couldn't help asking, just to hear what the woman's response would be.
Angie's chuckle was just a little too friendly. "It's hard not to know someone you work with all day, particularly on a film like that one. You learn almost as much about a man from filming a romantic role with him as you do actually dating them."
An interesting proposition. "Fascinating," Bonnie replied, managing to sound sincere. "And, you said he noticed me?"
"Don't get your hopes up," Angie cautioned. "I just thought you should be aware. So many girls want Ian, but he's not one to be easily had."
"The press doesn't seem to think so."
"I just mean that he's pickier than he appears," Angie replied. "Not that it will do him much good."
Bonnie didn't like that tone. There was something… proprietary… in it. "Why is that?" She went back to pinning.
"You really don't know?" Angie asked, sounding surprised. "Surely you saw him on set. He couldn't keep his hands of me, even when we weren't filming."
"How do you know he wasn't acting?"
"A bit jealous are we?" Angie asked, her tone making it clear that she expected it, and that Bonnie should be. "Well, not that I blame you. He's got an amazing body. I could run my hands over those abdominals all day." She was eyeing the seam on a sleeve when Bonnie briefly glanced back at her. "When you've been in the business long enough, you can tell when someone's acting., and Ian's a particularly easy read. I'm still a little surprised he didn't ask me out to dinner after our love scene."
Bonnie didn't want to know. She hadn't come to work that day. She hadn't lied about having a head-cold, but she hadn't felt at all guilty missing watching Ian and Angie squirm around on a bed pretending to have sex. "Only a little?"
"He was a little under the weather that day. Not enough to affect performance of course, but he seemed tired compared to the day before. I'm sure he it's of no real consequence. When he gets back from his little vacation, we will be going out."
She sounded so sure of that. Bonnie refrained from turning and stabbing her with a pin. "Is the dress to your satisfaction?" She asked instead as she turned back to Angie.
"It will do," Angie replied as she stepped back and gave it one last look. "So, back to work with you. Can't spend all day gabbing can we?" She turned, but paused, shooting Bonnie a look that would slice chestnuts. "Just remember what I said. I don't want Ian distracted, so stay out of the way."
There was no diplomatic response. Bonnie stood there, stunned, until she heard the door close. "Bitch," she spat into the empty room. Part of her wanted to smack the woman, even though she had no right. Even furious with Ian, Bonnie didn't want that man-hunter to have him. Not that she thought Ian would ever date a girl like Angie. He'd said as much, and Bonnie didn't think he was lying—
-But she had turned him down, and now they were hardly on speaking terms… and it was her fault. Ian could, plausibly, decide to go out with someone like Angie. She was beautiful, and he'd already had his hands all over her. The question was... what was she going to do about it?
Bonnie rubbed her eyes before getting back to work. It wouldn't do to leave water spots on the silk.