And I'm back to taking forever.

I want to thank everyone, for all the favorites and all the reviews. You all rock and I couldn't be happier. Thank you so much everyone.

I truly am sorry for taking forever and a half but I couldn't keep up with updating the story and the insane amounts of homework that I had. I was taking a writing course in school that required me to pump out a short story every week so that didn't help either. Combine that with more emotional problems than anything and you have one procrastinated story!

I really am sorry, and now since school is out, I will definitely update more often.

I do not own FMA…now on with chapter seven!

Out With the Old

"I don't believe this."

It was the next afternoon and Winry had currently received a not-so-nice order to clean the attic in their house. So there she was, balancing a broom, dust pan, more dusting rags then she ever thought they owned, and garbage bags while she tried to jimmy the lock on the ceiling open.

"Go make yourself useful and clean the attic bitch." She mimicked in her best "Cain" voice. "Aha!" she exclaimed as she triggered the lock to open and the hatch in the ceiling swung down to reveal steep stairs leading up.

With a sigh, she readjusted the load in her arms and slowly made her way up the stairs to the dark and dusty attic. Setting everything on the floor by the top of the stairs, she flipped the light switch on so that the entire attic was bathed in the warm light from the lamp over head.

And she was completely shocked at what she saw.

"You have got to be kidding me!"

Boxes upon boxes stacked as high as the roof top lined the entire attic with papers overflowing out of them. Old furniture with layers and layers of white dust sat in random places along the edges off the walls. Dust mingled with the stale air to create a more chocking atmosphere and Winry had no clue where to even start.

With a sigh, she picked up a rag and some dusting spray and began to meticulously wipe down each flat surface of furniture. With nothing but the sound of the rain hitting the roof top above her, Winry let her mind wander to the day's previous events.

It had started out as a nice enough day, minus her completely raw and aching throat and terrible bruises on her neck. However it had been very warm the day before and now the land was covered in a beautiful, cool rain.

Winry loved seeing all the trees with pure green moss on them, flowers moving gently with the rain that poured on them, and puddles accumulating on the side walk she traveled on.

In all honesty, she didn't want to get out of bed that morning as she was feeling more depressed than anything. It was one thing when Cain would hurt her when he was drunk, she felt like he almost couldn't control himself. But when he did it that night when he was sober, she felt like he absolutely hated her…and him being almost the only family she had, that hurt a lot to realize.

So instead of getting in the shower, Winry called her schools attendance office and told the lady on the phone that she was feeling sick and wouldn't be in. Since her voice was nothing more than a rasp, convincing the woman proved to be very easy. Hanging up, Winry wandered into the kitchen for a glass of water and on the way back, noticed a piece of paper tapped to the banister.

"Make yourself useful and clean the attic bitch." Winry read to herself. After showering, getting dressed in a black tank top and blue jeans and grabbing many cleaning supplies, she headed to the attic.

This brings us to the current time of a half past two where Winry had just finished wiping down every flat surface, sweeping and mopping the floor, and getting rid of every cobweb in the room. Grabbing a large garbage bag, Winry made her way to one of the boxes and started to go through it, setting aside old books to give away and throwing out random papers as she saw fit.

She had finished going through two and a half boxes before something caught her eye.

It was a large almost rectangular shaped book that had a royal blue cover on it with a golden border. It was unmarked with no title nor author, so Winry chose to open it and see just what it was.

"Wow", Winry whispered to herself.

It was a photo album. Its contents were full of pictures of her mother and Cain as children, from birthdays to school photos. She was shocked, not only did her mother look almost exactly like she did, but Cain actually looked happy.

Or at least he was until she looked farther into the book. She soon came across a wedding photo and immediately identified the two people as her mother and father. Her mother looked like beauty incarnate in the beautiful white dress that hugged a figure women would kill for. Her face, made up of smooth ivory skin and pink lips, held the same eyes of her daughter that shone with absolute happiness and love. Winry's eyes traveled from the bouquet of blood, red roses in her mothers small hands, to the larger one around her waist. Traveling upwards, she was met with the smile of a man with the same, sunflower hair as Winry. Her father looked nothing short of handsome in a pitch black tuxedo and sported a similar look of joy and love in his light blue eyes.

"They look so happy…" Winry gently said, her voice taking on a soft edge and she was surprised when she felt something cool and wet slide down her cheek to land in a small pool on her hand.

Wiping the tear stain away and cursing silently to herself, she continued to look into the album to find another interesting photo. Her mother looked exhausted and was in a hospital bed, her father, grinning like a mad man and holding his wife, and Cain, looking uncomfortable and a little unhappy as he held a little bundle in a pink blanket.

"Well don't I just look adorable," Winry laughed sarcastically.

Continuing through the book, there were more random pictures of birthdays and miscellaneous events until she got to the last page in the book. It was a newspaper clipping of her mother's obituary. Her fathers was no where to be seen. Winry read it and reread it twice before turning the page only to find the rest of the pages blank.

"Why wouldn't he have dads?" She asked herself. Granted they were only related through marriage, but they were family…weren't they? She let out a sigh as she felt strangely hallow inside after seeing all those photos.

Shutting the book, Winry placed it back into the bottom of the box, not sure if she ever wanted to look at it again. With a sigh, she closed the box tightly and was about to move onto another when the doorbell ringing had her scrambling to her feet in haste.

Not expecting anyone, and worried it would be someone important for Cain, Winry didn't think a second thought of her state of dress.

A mistake that would prove to be anything but in her favor.

Jogging down two flights of stairs and to the front hall, she opened the door and would never in a million years have expected the person on the other side she was met with.

"What are you doing here?" Winry asked the grinning and soaking, wet boy on her doorstep.

"Hello to you too." Ed said laughing as walked past a shocked Winry and into her front hall.

"Feel free to answer the question, you know." Winry said as she closed the door behind him.

Ed was in the process of taking his shoes off at the time and after doing so, righted himself to stare at Winry.

"You weren't in school, thought I would stop…by… and..." the words died quietly from Edwards lips as his golden eyes widened in both confusion and fear. "What the hell happened to you Winry?"

The question came out as nothing more than a whisper, but Winry heard it loud and clear. Momentarily confused, Winry wasn't quite sure what he was referring to until the realization that she was wearing a tank top slammed into her like a freight train. The evidence from the previous nights beating in the form of bruises around her thin neck were on display for the man in front of her. In her haste to get the door, combined with the emotional stress of finding that photo album, Winry had completely forgotten about her state of dress.

Wiry felt her mind completely blank out. Her breathing starting to heighten to levels of hysteria and her heart beat take on a fast-paced rhythm that drummed relentlessly in her ears. The frigid hands of fear gripped her body in a vice that froze her very bones and in her panicked state; she barely registered the man in front of her.

"Winry?" Edward asked gently. Seeing the look in her eyes, the shacking in her body, and finally, the way her legs gave out from beneath her, Edward had known she was about to pass out and lunged from where he was to be able to catch the small woman from landing on the hard wood floor beneath their feet.

Confused and now holding an unconscious Winry in his arms, Edward immediately locked the front door behind him, and made his way upstairs to her bedroom.

Yeah…. It's short, I know, don't kill me! Haha, I didn't want to give too much away and end up making the chapter like twenty pages so I made it a bit of a filler.

Chapter eight has already been started and is in progress so I promise it won't be like four months for another update!

Sorry again! Read and Review please!