July 2nd, 1965

"You think what?"

Lia sighed as she looked at Ethan's slightly stunned expression as she sat in the examination room at his and Ren's clinic. She felt slightly silly now, in the middle of her four month appointment, to voice the idea that had been niggling in her mind for a couple of weeks now. "I…think I might be carrying twins."

Ethan swallowed. "Not that… that wouldn't be okay I just… why do you think it's twins?"

Ren, standing off to one side, just looked amused. Lia was glad she was getting the chance to speak.

"It's a… feeling," she admitted, feeling a little foolish. "But I mean, look at me, I'm huge! And didn't… didn't you say last time the baby seemed a bit different? Not bad but not the same right? Well we never checked to make sure it was just one right?"

"Is there a history of twins in your family?" Ren asked calmly.

The look on Ethan's face spoke clearly that he'd never even thought of that possibility.

Lia shrugged. "Not recently but…I think my great-grandfather had a twin." She felt like she was grasping at straws but somehow…she just felt like she knew. "I just… I don't feel like there's just one."

"Is that possible?" Ethan looked at Ren.

"Well of course it's possible," Ren replied with a shrug. "Anything is, and she's got a good point. The way your body's reacting, the thing with the baby. I never even thought to check and make sure I'd found the same one, or looked for more than one. It could be twins, or even triplets."

"Triplets!" Ethan went ghost white.

Ren laughed. "I'm kidding!"

Lia couldn't help a giggle at her husband's expression. "So, can we please find out? Is it possible?"

"If I know I need to look for more than one," Ren laughed. "And at this stage of development, it should definitely be easier to distinguish if that's the case. Lie down all right?"

Lia nodded and did as instructed as her shirt was pulled up and her belly exposed to the cool air. She shuddered slightly.

Ethan moved around to the side, taking her hand in one, and laying the other on her side. "You're really serious."

"I wouldn't say it just to freak you out," Lia pointed out. "Though I admit, your face is funny."

"If it is…how are you going to feel?" Ethan asked, clearly concerned for her.

Lia smiled. "Well, we'll need more stuff."

Ethan chuckled. "That's not what I meant."

How did she feel? They wanted more than one child, she just hadn't given any thought to having more than one at once. Right now, would she be more disappointed to be wrong? She just…it felt right. She smiled. "I'll be excited," she replied honestly. "Besides," she teased him. "I'd feel better knowing I'm eating for three, instead of getting fat for no good reason."

That got him smiling as he shook his head. "Twins or not, you're fine."

Then why had she stopped going near the scale except for appointments? Lia glanced down at where Ren was listening to her belly, and then laying her hands down. "Well?"

"I think…you may be right," Ren chuckled. "I'm pretty sure I heard three heartbeats. Let's just take a gentle look and see."

Her whole belly felt strange as Ren's energy began to circulate ever so carefully in Lia's body. She knew what Ren was doing, locating the sources of those heartbeats. One Lia's, at least one baby… and possibly another little hidden family member?

Ethan looked no less nervous, but a little more excited as they waited.

"There you are," Ren chuckled after a minute. "My goodness, you've been hiding behind your sibling haven't you?"

"You mean…there really are two?"

Lia squeezed his hand, and felt a thrill of excitement. Twins!

"Get over here," Ren tugged at Ethan. "I'm going to show you how to do this."

Lia watched Ethan prepare, and then tap in to the same alchemical energy Ren was using, following along almost to see what she was doing. Ren stuck the stethoscope on his head at the same time, and placed it to her stomach.

"Okay, the first little one is the one we knew about," Ren said. "The one here in the front." Her hand rested right on top of the furthest protrusion.

Ethan's eyes were wide, but with pleasure. "I can sense… and hear it."

"The other one is here." Ren slid the stethoscope to the far top of the curve, closer to Lia's breasts and ribs. "Almost in the middle, but tucked in under the ribs. That's the one that confused us. He or she is playing hide and seek."

The amazement turning to joy in Ethan's eyes was reassuring. Lia relaxed, aside from the inability not to giggle or twitch when their hands tickled. "Okay, I am not a toy here!" she finally gasped.

"Sorry," Ethan replied sheepishly. He moved his hands away. "Gee… there's really two babies in there." He sat back.

Lia was grateful when Ren offered her a hand to sit up. She had been right! Her odd feeling had been right. She had two little ones growing in her womb. She smiled at Ethan. "You all right?"

"All right?" he laughed, then leaned over and kissed her cheek. "It's…amazing! I mean, I didn't think about it much, and it's a little overwhelming maybe…. We'll have to make sure we have enough of everything for two instead of one but… we have most of what we need and… well, wow!"

Lia chuckled, and kissed him back. "I know exactly what you mean."

July 12th, 1965

"Twins, huh," Edward looked up at Winry who had just hung up the hotel phone from a call to Central. Travel made them difficult to track down, and their time on the island had made them nearly impossible to get a hold of apparently.

Winry smiled, feeling slightly giddy and still a bit awed by the idea. "Yep! Fortunately Ethan and Lia are both excited." Her son seemed a bit dazed but happy with the idea of having two kids right off like that.

A sudden snicker made her look over sharply at Ed, who had started laughing! He was sitting on the hotel bed, leaning back on his arms, chuckling.

"What's so funny?"

"What?" Ed looked up at her, snickering. "It's good news! And it is funny isn't it? Ethan spent half the war moping about being apart from his wife and how much they wanted to have kids. He's certainly gotten what he deserves right?"

What the…. Winry sighed. "Are you saying this is still all some part of equivalent exchange, Edward?" Alchemists.

"It makes up for lost time," Ed grinned. "They wanted kids, and they got them!"

Sometimes Ed laughed at the strangest times, but at least Winry felt she could understand this time what he found amusing. It wasn't that it was funny so much as it was worth celebrating, and enjoying the irony. "They did," she agreed. "Now are you ready to go? This whole afternoon was your idea."

"Sure," Ed stood. "I was just waiting for you to finish chatting. Let's go!"

Winry followed him out of the hotel and out into the streets. It was a warm afternoon, and Winry was glad she had bought light dresses for the southern Cretan weather. "I have to admit, it feels a little weird going to visit our daughter's ex-boyfriend."

Ed laughed. "Well if we're building a house, who better than a world-known architect who's also an old family friend?"

Sara had given them Mars Leighton's address when they called before to get Al's permission to build on the old Elric hill. Winry had been very happy that Al had agreed that it was time to rebuild, and he was perfectly happy with whatever Ed and Winry decided was appropriate, mostly because he trusted to Winry's good taste. "I look forward to meeting the family."

"From what I hear they might manage to outdo Aldon eventually," Ed chuckled.

It wasn't far to the apartment home Mars and his wife, Silvia, kept in the city. An architect and a photographer, they lived where they could work and still travel easily when necessary, but with three little kids, Winry wasn't surprised that Mars had stayed in Creta and stayed out the war at home. "None of their kids are over five,"

Winry nodded. "Though I'm sure he's got a lot of work now that Amestris is rebuilding."

"Sara said he's made a few business trips already," Ed nodded, taking her hand as they walked in the sunshine. "Here we are."

Winry looked up at the pretty sand colored stone apartment building and checked the number. "Yep, let's go in."

The Leightons lived on the fourth floor – the top – of the small apartment building, and Winry was happy when Mars opened the door and greeted them with a warm smile, hands full of a smiling dark-haired toddler in a purple dress. "Mr. and Mrs. Elric, please come in! We've been looking forward to your visit since you called."

"First names, please," Ed chuckled as they went inside.

"Oh, sure," Mars chuckled as they entered a spacious living room with dark hardwood floors and cream painted walls. The windows were open, and the fresh air coming in off the beach that could be seen out the back windows was delightful.

"What a lovely apartment," Winry smiled.

"Thanks," Silvia smiled as she joined them, stepping out of the kitchen and taking off an apron over her slacks and blouse. "We're lucky the building is full of families though, or our neighbors would probably hate us."

Winry chuckled and looked at the large playpen in the otherwise fashionable living room. Inside of which were the other two children; a girl and a younger boy. Mars set down the youngest girl in his arms. "They're certainly well behaved." She watched them playing with soft blocks.

"Usually," Mars chuckled. "I hope you're hungry. Silvia's an amazing cook."

Silvia smiled, but shook her head. "You would say that. You eat anything I put in front of you."

"That's because it's all amazing," Mars chuckled.

"Sound familiar?" Winry asked Ed quietly.

Her husband grinned.

"We'll discuss this later," Silvia smiled at Mars. "You should get business done first."

"Right." Mars kissed her nose then turned to them. "If you want to come into my study and show me your ideas?"

"Sounds great," Winry said.

The home office was a small room with floor to ceiling shelves that were only half covered in books, the other half was blueprint storage. There was a large table for drawing and an area for his supplies. "It's not much," Mars chuckled as they sat down around the table, a little snug with three chairs.

"I'm sure all your clients think you have a much more spacious office," Ed chuckled.

"Not if I want to put all three of those little ones out there through college someday," Mars laughed. "So, what have you got."

"Well I did some draw-" Ed stopped, looked at Winry, and self-corrected. "I had a few ideas, and we talked and Winry sketched these out."

Winry smiled. Neither of them were artists, but at least with her experience in auto-mail schematics she could draw straight lines!

Ed pulled out the small stack of papers they had worked on over the past couple of weeks, hashing out ideas for their dream home. It really was like a farmhouse version of a mansion all told. It would be large, elegant, but functional and comfortable. Neither of them wanted it to be pretentious, though it would definitely be the largest house Resembool had ever seen. We can invite the whole town over for holiday parties, had been Ed's excuse.

Mars went over every sheet, the huge open living room with the fireplace, the kitchen, the small auto-mail shop area, the bedrooms, bathrooms, and asked them literally hundreds of questions about the stairs, the feel they wanted, the ground it would be on, the wrap-around porch, foundations, ideas for the interior, dimensions, everything they had come up with and tons of things they hadn't even decided on. "I think that's everything for now," he grinned when they were done. "You realize this is going to cost a small fortune right?"

"Yeah, we know," Ed grinned. "We got back from the war and took a look at everything we've got, and we can manage it."

"In what kind of payments?" Mars asked.

Winry watched his eyes open wide as Ed shrugged casually and said. "Is cash all right?"

Mars' mouth dropped open. "You're serious."

"Auto-mail and the Military both pay amazingly well," Ed replied. "This is something worth spending some of our savings on. It's something that can stay in the family and not burden anyone."

It would be entirely paid off. Even Winry had been a little surprised to sit down and really look at their finances after the war. It was probably less than the Armstrong's had, but they could have built a small mansion in that neighborhood if they wanted to use up most of what they had saved. At their age, they deserved to use some of it!

Mars smiled. "Well I can't disagree with that kind of payment." Of course, he wouldn't get all of it, most of it was building costs, but the design contract would still be lucrative. "The one thing I do have for you," he stood up and pulled a large thick envelope off the shelf, "Is the sample images and names of all of the contractors and interior designers I've worked with who will do work in Resembool. See what you like, and let me know which ones you want me to hand these plans to."

Winry took the envelope, and smiled. "Thank you, Mars. You've gone to quite a bit of effort on this already."

"I've seen your house, Winry," Mars smiled. "I have a pretty good idea of your tastes, so I hope you don't mind the presumption, and frankly I'm honored that I'm the first person you came to. There's a lot of really good architects in Amestris."

"But as you just pointed out, you know us," Ed replied. "Besides, we trust you and we're rather put a chunk of what we're spending in the pocket of a friend who could use it."

Mars looked pleased and slightly embarrassed. "Thanks, Ed. I've just finished a couple of projects, so I'll get on it immediately. It shouldn't take more than a couple of months."

"That's all?" Ed asked.

"Sounds like they'll be done by the time we get home," Winry said. Their vacation wasn't anywhere close to over yet.

Mars nodded. "Great! I'll make sure to have a copy of the blueprints sent to Central as soon as they're done for your approval." He paused, and sniffed. Then he grinned. "And now, let's eat!"

Ed laughed as they headed back into the other room. "I like how you think."

July 24th, 1965

"Alphonse, tell me you're not going to give him a hard time."

Al looked at Elicia's stern expression, her arms crossed under her breasts, and smiled. "Hey, he's the one who called wanting to come over and talk to me."

"If you make Alyse unhappy you're sleeping on the couch with the cats until you're ninety."

Al chuckled and turned around, kissing her on the forehead. "Relax, Elicia. I'm going to hear Whitewater out."

"And you're going to tell him it's okay."

"How do you even know what he wants to talk about?" Al asked. Not that he had any doubts either. Cal Fischer calling wanting to have a talk with him could only mean one thing. Al had been more surprised that Cal had actually planned to ask his opinion on the matter. He was curious to see exactly how Fischer planned to handle the situation.

Elicia just gave him a you know the answer to that look and turned for the stairs. "I'm going to read a book, but I'll be listening."

Al smiled. "Yes dear." What did she think he was going to do to Fischer?


Cal tried to keep calm as he approached the Elrics' door. The True Soul Alchemist had been curt but not angry sounding on the phone. That was good he supposed. He couldn't imagine the man didn't know why he was coming over. How often did guys asked to talk to their girlfriends' fathers alone?

The point of this, of course, was not to suck up to Alyse's father. He wasn't really worried about her mother. Elicia Elric seemed to genuinely like him. She already treated him like nearly family as far as he could tell. It wasn't like he'd ever had extended relatives to tell with, but she was nice.

Still, he couldn't help dressing up just a little, to show he was serious. Not that he wanted to show up in uniform or anything, just clean khaki's and a dark green polo shirt. He paused, took a moment to still his pounding heart, and knocked on the door.

It was several long seconds before he heard solid footsteps, and Alphonse Elric opened the door and looked him in the eye with a perfect poker face expression. "Fischer."

Cal swallowed. He would not look nervous! "Good afternoon, True Soul."

"I don't go by that name anymore."

Well this was off to a rocking start. "I'm sorry," Cal apologized. "Would you prefer General or Sir?" He should have known Alyse's father wouldn't want to be called by his State Alchemist title. Even he had heard about the man turning over his watch to Breda on the front after Tamirov was killed. Alyse had told him her father had been upset. He had just managed not to have to address him formally in his few visits over since Alyse's parents got back into town.

"Sir is fine. Come in."

Cal followed Alphonse into the living room, and was mildly relieved when Alphonse gestured for him to sit on the couch.

Alphonse went around to the other side of the coffee table and seated himself in a high-backed cushioned chair. "So, you're here to ask for my blessing to marry Alyse."

Yep, he knew. Cal nodded, trying to remember everything he had planned to say the way he had practiced the wording. He didn't want to ruin this. Not that he had any intention of letting Alyse go. Not now. "Yes, Sir."

Alphonse looked considering. "Will you still ask her if I say no?"

"Yes, I will."

"So why are you asking me?"

This wasn't a conversation. It was an interrogation. Cal wet his lips, and pushed forward. "Because family means a lot to Alyse, and I don't want to hurt her if I don't have to, but I love her and I'd rather not have her choose. That doesn't mean I'm going to give her up." He met Alphonse's gaze with the same evenness, and clear determination. He wouldn't be pushed around, but he was doing this because he knew Alyse would want it.

The silence was worse than an argument. Cal was used to arguing, shouting; he was good at that. He had never really thought of Alphonse Elric as a father figure much until he'd gotten interested in the man's pretty daughter, but now he wondered why his own father had never behaved like this.

Alphonse gazed at him calmly for over a minute and a half. Cal couldn't help counting the seconds in his head as they just looked at each other. "Do you think you're good enough for her?"

"No one's good enough for her," Cal responded reflexively. "Sometimes I'm not even sure why she fell in love with me, but I'm grateful. She loves me. I never thought that would happen, and the best I can do for her is to return her feelings and support her." Take care of was the wrong phrase to use when referring to Alyse; she had spent more time taking care of him so far. "I'd rather die than lose Alyse."

The last seemed to surprise Alphonse. At least, he looked slightly…. Approving? Maybe? "I could arrange that you know."

"Alphonse!"

Cal flinched and Alphonse broke out in a sudden smirk as Elicia stormed into the room with a paperback in hand.

"That's enough!" She put her hands on her hips and glared, then she turned and smiled at Cal. "Good afternoon, Cal. How are you today?"

"Very well, Mrs. Elric," Cal replied, managing not to stumble over the words as he recovered. "Thank you."

"Wonderful. I'll put on some tea for everyone, or would you prefer coffee?"

"Tea is fine." Right now, sour milk would have been fine after that nice little interruption!

Alphonse sighed, then leaned over and held out his hand. It took Cal a moment to understand, but he immediately stuck his hand out to shake. Alphonse nodded. "If Alyse wants you, I'm not going to stand in the way of my daughter's happiness. Go ahead and ask her, just make sure you let me know what she says." Now he looked amused.

Cal returned the shake firmly, and couldn't help grinning. "Yes, Sir!" You old scoundrel, I bet you were planning to say yes the whole time. But just to be safe, he didn't say that out loud.


Author's Note: Despite my posting history to the contrary, update day is still technically Tuesday. Lately the editing has just gotten done early and so I have been nice and posted the stories early. Enjoy while it lasts. ;)