I have heard your cries! And thus, I have brought forth, as requested, the next chapter!


The Miracle of Rush Valley


Rush Valley was a barren, dusty land with only the most sparse of vegetation. The plateaus surrounding the town cast large shadows over the majority of the town. However, despite the seeming emptiness of the biome around it, the town itself was full of life. It was as if a festival were going on, with brightly painted buildings and strings of flags hanging between them to create an air of celebration. Large crowds pushed lazily through the wide streets, and vendors called out their merchandise with gusto.

It was enough to make Kaela feel a little claustrophobic.

While the jostling of people around her made Kaela start to sweat, her sister jumped up and down with joy, chanting the town's name unabashed. Winry scurried from one person to the next, gushing over each person's unique automail.

Kaela reached out weakly. "Hey, Win, maybe you shouldn't —"

"Automail!"

Kaela could only groan. Next to her, Ed glared at the jumping girl with irritation, and Al's eyes were glowing faintly behind him. "Winry, you're causing a scene."

Winry finally whipped around to look at her sister, a blue fire lit in her eyes. "I don't care! This is a once in a lifetime chance, and I may never come back here!" Something else caught her eye, and she took off running. "It's the Gods '11 model!"

Kaela could only watch as her sister bounced further and further away, with the boys barely keeping up with her boundless energy.

"That's the holy land for automail, for you," Al said with only a tinge of exasperation. The four walked through the streets, allowing Winry to stop occasionally and babble about a specific piece of metal or wirework. "This place is bustling!"

"You could say that again. It's practically a carnival for gearheads." Kaela groaned as she noticed her sister run off again.

"I just don't know why we're here in the heat and look at automail," Ed spit. "We should have left Winry behind and went straight to Dublith."

Kaela elbowed him in the ribs. "It's not nice to talk about someone who isn't properly able to listen," she sniffed when Ed gave her a bewildered look. True enough, Winry, who had returned to their side, had appeared to not hear anything Ed had said.

"You there, do you have a second?" A voice from the crowd called out. Suddenly, there was a crowd forming around Ed, mostly old men, which was examining Ed's arm thoroughly. "What an unusual model of automail."

"Really … Everyone, come here!"

And then there was a swarm. Kaela earlier dizziness evolved into full-on nausea. There were too many people, with practically no way out. Her mind went fuzzy, and the only thing she could do was to go against the grain of people and find a hole through the crowd. Ed's cries for help fell on her deaf ears as she finally found an opening, along with the blurry forms of Winry and Al.

"Kaela!" Al rushed toward her, arms thrust in front of him to catch her before her knees gave out. With his firm, cold hands under her arms, Kaela took the moment to breathe, gasping for the air she couldn't find in the mass of people "I'm sorry. I forgot; you aren't good with crowds."

"It's … fine."

"Kae!" Winry jogged over to Kaela, who had finally stopped dry heaving. "Al, what do you mean she's not good with crowds? I've never heard of this!"

"Well, that's because it's fairly open range at home, and there isn't a lot of people around either. Central isn't bad either, because we usually pick a street that isn't crowded, or we'll go at a time when no one it around. It seems though that Rush Valley is crowded everywhere we go."

Winry's face fell, and Kaela knew immediately what she was thinking. She patted Al's arm, and he helped her onto her feet. "It's not your fault, Win … I wanted to see the automail … just as much as you."

It was a lie, and all three of them knew it. Winry opened her mouth to say something, but the crowds had come to sweep both her and Al away. This left Kaela to fall to her knees and catch her breath.

"Woah, you look pretty out of it," Ed said, towering over her for once. "Our stoic Michaela Rockbell, on her ass and looking sicker than a dog."

Kaela shot him a look, still breathing a little heavy. "Har … har …"

Ed crouched down, and for some reason, Kaela's mind pointed out to her that he didn't have a shirt on. Weird. "Seriously, are you good? You weren't looking too good when we got here, either."

She looked away, focusing on Winry's laugh instead of Ed's concerned stare. "I'll be fine, once we get out of this damned town."

He stayed crouched for a few moments longer, trying to read her, before huffing and standing up. He began adjusting his belt. "This is why I hate automail engineers," he muttered. His hands roamed his pockets out of habit. His hands roamed some more. He frantically patted his pants. "Huh?"

"What's wrong?" Kaela asked, standing and dusting herself off. Winry and Al were looking over from their respective crowds, too.

" … It's gone," Ed muttered, sweat visibly trickling down his face.

"What is?" The other three simultaneously asked. Ed pulled out his pockets, revealing the bareness of them.

"The thing that proves I'm a State Alchemist. My silver watch is gone!"

Winry and Al began screaming, but Kaela could only groan even more. Could this day get any worse?

"That must be the work of Paninya," one of the men, the one with a monocle, said nonchalantly.

The three stopped their fretting for a moment. "Paninya?"

"A pickpocket that targets tourists as her marks." Another older man with a bald head and a towel around his neck informed them.

"Do you know where she might be?" Ed asked, still a little panicked.

"We'll tell you …" — "But in return …"

What could they want? Money? Kaela knew they didn't have a lot of money on them right now. She almost reached out to grab Ed's shoulder and pull him away when the old men beat her to the punch.

"Show us your automail again!"

Ed did as requested, but threatened them with a murderous gaze and an alchemized blade on his forearm. The two began sweating, instantly regretting their request and rotated about-face, pointing toward a trail of plateaus.

"The shop of an automail engineer named Dominic!"


A while later, the group of friends found themselves traipsing the supposed path to the engineer's home. The sun blazed down on them, smiling all the more while it practically squeezed all of the moisture out from their bodies. Ed had stuck to keeping off his outer layer of clothing, and Kaela had unbuttoned the dress shirt she had donned the morning before all the way down to the third button (which Ed had commented earlier to be, once again, "highly unprofessional" for Michaela). All except Al slumped over as they walked, unable to wipe the grin from the sun's face.

"They said he lives deep in the mountains," Winry mumbled, "because he can get high-quality ore out here. Is this really the right way? They didn't trick us, did they?"

"This is all because you wanted to go see that town, you know?" Ed uttered loud enough Winry just barely heard him.

The two quarreled a little bit more as they rounded a bend of the plateau. From here, the view was far more splendid and far more extended. Another plateau hid it well, but there was a bridge over the canal about half a mile away. On the bridge, Kaela could just make out a jogging figure …

"Will you two shut up for a single moment?" Kaela snapped, whacking them both on the head. After both of them complained at her being too forceful, Kaela point toward the running figure. "Look over there. Isn't that her?"

The woman stopped, as if she had heard them from that distance, and turned to face them. The sun's beams refracted off of something silver in her hand.

Ed's face turned into one of a murderous demon. "Found you!" His blue alchemy crackled as he slammed his hands on the ground and made a path of earth to the bridge. As his chase ensued, Kaela and Al could only look at each other and sigh. Ed jumped into things all too often, and there wasn't anything either of them could do to stop him

"I guess we gotta go after them," Kaela huffed.

"If only he'd learn to slow down," Al added with a groan.

As they ran along Ed's fabricated path, with Winry tagging along behind, they watched him create a wall from rock and hands from the sand to try and catch Paninya, only for him to fail to her litheness. She didn't seem to feel too threatened, even with Ed's scary face showing. The girl just kept laughing and laughing, much to Ed's annoyance and frustration.

Al and Kaela finally made their way around the battle and stood in Paninya's blind spot behind her. They quickly went to work. She didn't notice the two, and instead taunted Ed from higher ground. "Come on, come on! You're starting to breathe hard!"

Kaela patted Al's back, noticing a familiar blonde striding near them. "You handle this. I'll get Win out of here." He nodded after a moment's hesitation.

While Al's blue alchemy sizzled behind her, Kaela dashed forward and grabbed Winry's arm. Winry yelped in surprise, but let herself be dragged along behind a rock. Kaela jabbed a finger in her sister's chest, but, before she could chastise Winry about walking into the heat of battle, a bellowing shot echoed behind her. Kaela whirled around to see Paninya's knee smoking, the obvious traces of metal inside the hole of her pant leg.

"I have a 1.5 culver in my left leg." With that, Paninya seized the chance to run around the makeshift cage Al had created earlier.

"Wait!"

"Heehee! Just try and catch me!" Paninya barely had time to wink before her neck connected with soft skin and fell backward onto her rear. Her ocean blue eyes screwed up in pain before looking up to see a petite girl with dusty gray hair reaching her shoulders and eyes the color of the finest automail standing above her with a disapproving expression.

"Nice clothesline, Kaela!" Ed called. "Don't let her get away!"

"Pfft, as if." Kaela rolled her eyes, rubbing her elbow. "Besides, I don't think she can, anyway, what with Winry practically salivating over her legs."

Winry had sprinted over upon seeing Paninya gun pop out of her leg, eyes sparkling in an oddly familiar way. She grabbed a hold of Paninya's hand, a creepy smile overtaking her features. "We won't let you go … not until you let me have a closer look at your automail!"

Al and Ed nearly tripped. Kaela blew a raspberry.

Paninya stared at Winry for a minute, making Kaela wary as to what her next move would be. However, the tanned girl grinned. "Sure, why not? Come on over to Dominic's. He's the one who made my legs."

"Really?" As the two began a friendly conversation along the path whence Paninya had been traveling in the first place, the other three exchanged dumbfounded looks.

"I'm not really sure what just happened, but we should probably go after them," Al said before the two disappeared from sight.

"Probably …" Ed mumbled as they jogged to catch up with the girls.

It wasn't that far from there to reach Dominic's place. Paninya led them through the plateaus along a winding path to a small house atop one of the flats. It had a different feeling from the rest of Rush Valley, but it was welcoming nonetheless.

Before Paninya could knock on the door, it was instead opened from the other side by a young, heavier woman. Upon a second glance, Kaela could tell right away that the woman wasn't overweight but rather very, very pregnant. Her dark eyes widened with surprise and smile crept up her face. "Paninya!"

Behind the woman, a young bespectacled man dressed in an apron, who seemed to be her husband, peeked over her shoulder. "Are these your friends?"

"Not exactly …" Paninya grinned, though her brows knit together with unease. The young couple exchanged a look before the pregnant woman smiled again.

"Well, come in!" She waved the strange group in, to which they hesitated until Paninya finally walked through the doorway.

Winry wasted no time sitting Paninya down on a random crate lying in the middle of the room, hastily pulling up both pant legs while Paninya barely had time to sit. The brothers and Kaela looked on with drained expression. As Winry babbled on about mechanical jargon that Kaela understood less than anyone else there, Ed attempted to cut in about more important matters. "Uh, about my watch …"

Unfortunately, Paninya was a little busy looking extremely uncomfortable while Winry began rubbing her face against the metal of Paninya's shin. Al patted his brother's slumped shoulder. "It's no use, Brother.'

"I really respect you for being able to make automail like this," Winry said as she danced over to the pregnant woman's husband.

But the man put his hands up in rejection. "I'm not the one who made this," he said politely. Then who did? Kaela squinted at the finely-tuned automail that were Paninya's legs. There was no doubt that whoever did was a master engineer. And sure, the man looked a little young to have made something so high-quality

"I am." Kaela's head turned at the sound of the gruff voice. A large man, probably in his fifties by looks of his wrinkles and graying hair, leaned on the doorway to the workshop. He glanced down at Ed without another word and lifted up his arm. "Can I have a look?"

"Sure."

After tinkering around with the arm, the older man asked, "Isn't this a little bit heavy?" Winry replied with a sheepish affirmation. "It's no good to place a strain on your outfitee. That's why this guy is so small!"

Kaela nearly gasped, surprised at the man's frankness and preparing for an outburst from Ed. Sure enough, Ed yelled shrilly about the comment but paused after the innate response. He leaned forward "So if these were made lighter, I would grow taller?"

"It's possible."

"Oh! So it's actually Winry who is at fault. What a turn of events," Kaela whispered to Al with a grin. Al snorted, whilst Ed was somewhere in dreamland fantasizing about … well, Kaela didn't really want to know.

It really made her think, though. Out of their group, Kaela and Ed were the shortest, with Ed standing at barely an inch taller at the moment. Winry had hit her growth spurt early, so she had grown taller than Kaela once they both hit puberty. Al had always been the giant; he was called beanpole for while at school because he was taller than most of his classmates. It was hard to imagine Ed getting any taller, but if he did, Kaela wasn't sure she'd entirely be happy about it.

She had always been pretty small, especially when they were younger and she was easily pushed down. Winry was always ready to beat the people who thought it was funny up, but it was no use. With skinny limbs and nearly a head shorter than everyone else, it was easy to push her down by accident. Ed being as short as Kaela made her feel better about her petite frame, but he was still considerably larger than her in bulk.

"Mr. Dominic!" Winry called, interrupting Kaela's thoughts. Her sister bowed with a determined look on her face. "Please, take me as your apprentice!"

"No." The older man said it quite easily, which caused Winry's shoulders to sag and her face to grow pale.

"If you would take some time to consider …,"

"Shut up. I don't take apprentices."

Ed brought his hands together as if to plead and presented his best smile (which Kaela found terrifying with how different it was from his usual demeanor). "Could you at least teach her how to make automail so that I can grow taller?"

"Shut up, water flea." Dominic turned his head away from both of them. He stood up and walked out of the room with a 'harumph', leaving Ed to collapse on the ground from shock.

"Sorry about that," the young man said from his place at the tool bench. "My old man can be pretty stubborn. Winry's head still drooped. The man gave her a wry smile before turning his attention to the window. "It looks like it's about to rain."

"No way." Kaela glanced to the same window, only to notice the gray clouds threatening to spill their contents. "It was sunny when arrived here just less than an hour ago."

The man, Ridel, grinned. "Funny how the weather does that." He glanced over at Winry before continuing. "Tell you what. Why don't you four stay the night? Maybe you can change my old man's mind in the meantime."

"Are you sure?" Kaela quirked a brow. "We wouldn't want to intrude."

"It's fine! Besides, I doubt my wife would allow you to even step foot out in the rain."

"Thank you very much!" Kaela and Al bowed, with Winry bending her back a second later. Ed stayed on the floor, mumbling something strange.

"No problem. If you want, there is a guest room down the hall that you can rest in. I have a feeling it will rain through the night."

"Thank you again." Al picked up Ed off the floor by his collar, giving the man a semblance of a smile through his eyes.

"You guys go on ahead," Winry said, with only a hint of dejection in her voice. "I want to talk to Mr. Ridel some more about his and Mr. Dominic's work."

Kaela and Winry made eye contact for a moment. For once, Kaela couldn't quite get a read on her sister, which usually only happened the other way around. But, perhaps, Winry herself wasn't sure what she was feeling. Kaela just hoped it would pass soon and Winry would be her usual smiling self.

"Alright, we'll leave you to it."

Kaela walked side-by-side with Al as they walked down the hall that Ridel directed them to. Ed was mumbling again, apparently about being a water flea, while he let Al drag him across the hardwood floor.

Instead of arriving at a guest room, they first happened upon a dining room, where Satella, the pregnant woman, sat in a wooden chair looking lovingly down at her swollen belly. Al let Ed drop as he approached her. "You're having a baby, right?"

Satella looked up without any surprise that Al was there. Then again, you could hear Al moving from across the house. "That's right."

"Would it be alright if I touched your tummy?" Al seemed a little nervous, but Satella smiled up at him, no traces of hesitation found on her face. Ed stood up with an expression of interest and passed Kaela to crouch down in front of the woman.

"Go ahead."

Al placed a careful hand on her stomach, his eyes glowing brighter as he made a sound of awe. Satella reached out toward Ed, who hesitantly put his hand in hers, and placed his hand on her stomach. Al and Ed looked up blankly for a few moments, eyes wide and jaws slightly slack. Then they removed their hands, with hand opening his mouth to finally speak coherently.

"It feels miraculous somehow."

"Yeah. To think we were once in Mom's tummy like this, too." Kaela smiled. It was nice to see the boys letting their guards down for once.

Al didn't stop staring at Satella's stomach, but Ed scanned the room until he found Kaela a few feet behind him. He motioned her over, saying, "Come here."

Unsure of what was to happen, she reluctantly moved forward, but before she even crouched next to him, Ed grabbed her hand and placed it on Satella's stomach. Kaela unknowingly flushed at the sudden movement but forgot all about Ed's hand in seconds when she thought she felt something shift under her fingers. She sucked a breath in through her nose, unaware of Ed's hand still on top of hers.

There was a baby in there. Sure, Kaela was a medical genius and understood pregnancy from conception to birth, but it had never really sunk in that life could be formed from a simple act. There was a living, breathing child encased under a few layers of skin and fat.

It dawned on Kaela that she was at one point like this. She was at one point inside a woman's stomach, moving around and causing all sorts of trouble. She was an important life to someone. Her eyes flicked up at Satella for a split second before returning down to her own hand with a frown. Satella seemed to love and cherish her baby. Was Kaela's mother like too? Was she looked upon like she was the full moon on a summer night? Was she carried around a like a prized possession, never to be stolen? Did her mother love her? Why did she abandon her?

Ed watched her with a concerned stare.

Suddenly, Satella gasped and contorted her face. Kaela swiftly moved her hand away, as if she had touched a hot iron, and consequently threw Ed's hand back, too. Kaela stood up immediately. "Oh, no … Did I hurt you?" Kaela frantically darted her eyes around the woman's body, habitually checking for symptoms. "Are you okay?"

"No, you didn't do anything," Satella managed out, wincing slightly. "I'm fine. I just think that … my water just broke."

Nobody moved for a few seconds. Then Al and Ed began screaming, running around the room like chickens with their heads' cut off. Kaela exhaled heavily through her nose. "Are you sure?"

"Yes." Sure enough, a stain was beginning to form on the front of her dress, and there was some liquid dripping to the floor. Kaela nodded before standing up.

"Okay. Where is your nearest bedroom?"

"Just over to the left … Hrk!"

"Al!" Kaela whirled around in a slight panic. "I need your help!" Al stopped running around, staring pensively at Satella. He cautiously made his way back over, finally looking at Kaela. "I need you to help me get Satella to the bedroom over there."

"O-okay!"

"Satella," Kaela turned back to the woman, "can you stand?" Only a nod in response. "Alright. We'll be moving you to the room now." Kaela did her best to keep herself calm as she talked both Satella and Al through getting to the bedroom.

"What can I do?" Ed asked, looking a little more than lost.

"Go let everyone know what is happening. Especially Winry." Ed took off quickly, running through the house.

Eventually, everyone had gathered in the bedroom, including Paninya. Al and Kaela had helped Satella onto the bed and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. Dominic entered the room, took one look, and left to fetch a doctor. Ridel had dragged a chair to sit next to his wife, constantly whispering reassurances and questioning her wellbeing.

Kaela paced the room, unsure of what exactly to do. Dominic had gone to town on horseback, but she knew that it had taken the four of them hours to reach Dominic's house from Rush Valley. It wasn't exactly impossible that the doctor wouldn't get there on time for the baby.

As if Satella had heard her thought, she said to her husband with frustration, "Hang on? The baby will come whenever it comes —" Her expression became pained. She began to mumble.

"Hmm? What was that?" Ridel scooted closer. Satella grunted something indecipherable again. Everyone scooted closer.

"It's coming!" She yelped. Suddenly, the room was in chaos. The guys were wigging out, yelling and running around.

Only Winry and Kaela were still. Kaela watched her sister's determined face. "We'll just have to do it!" Winry said above the clamor.

"Do what?"

"Deliver it."

Again, more screams. Ridel piped up. "Have you ever been there when a baby was born?"

"No, but we don't have time to dink around." Winry glanced to the floor, thoughts rolling around her mind. "Everyone, help me out here. We're going to deliver this baby!"

Kaela immediately was at Satella side. Now that the decision was made, she could do what needed to be done. "Okay, Satella," she said pulling up a chair. In the background, Winry began ordering everyone around. "Do you happen to have any painkillers in the house?"

Satella shook her head. "No … we ran out yesterday when Ridel got a sinus headache." Her eyes widened. "Oh, no. Am I going to have to go through all of this pain?"

Kaela shook her head. "Don't worry, you won't. My alchemy is just about as good as medicine itself."

Satella gave her a questioning look. "Alchemy? Isn't that for creation and destruction?"

"Right. However, medical alchemy is a little different. It definitely has destruction and reconstructive process to it, but it's more delicate and time-consuming." Slowly, she placed a hand on Satella's stomach. "I'm going to kill off some of your peripheral nerves to make the pain a little more bearable, and then I will reconstruct them once the baby is out. I can't destroy all of them, because that would make it hard to feel any pain at all. In this situation, you need to be able to tell us when your feeling pain."

Kaela clapped her hand softly and placed them down on Satella's belly, never stopping her explanation to Satella. A light green glow erupted from her hands. As she worked, Kaela noticed Satella's face shine with a thick layer of sweat, which was beginning to mirror Kaela's own. After everyone had dropped everything off, Ridel was the only one to stay in the room.

He looked up while he clasped his wife's hand, watching the energy crackle from Kaela's fingers. "Edward told me about you."

"Did he?" Kaela let out a huff from both exhaustion and humor. "Good things, I hope?"

"Yes. He talked about how Winry was raised by doctors and was probably the best person out there who isn't a qualified doctor to do this, but he said that you were the genius here, and if anything should go wrong, you'd be able to fix it."

Kaela snorted, looking up from her work. Ridel looked wary, but she saw a flash of trust in there. "That's high praise, coming from his mouth." She sighed, glancing over at Satella to make sure she was still conscious before returning her focus to her work. "I'm not a genius, but I can guarantee I will make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. Your baby will make it."

It was a long time before Ridel nodded and turned back to his wife.


Ed burst into the room, with Al close behind him. He crouched down to where Winry was collapsed on the ground, worry coloring his face. "What's going on?'

Winry was panting too hard to say anything. She pointed at the bed without saying anything. Ed followed her gaze, dread filling his stomach like acid. But when he saw the pink baby whimpering in his parents' arms, relief flooded through him like an ocean. Ridel and Satella noticed them, and the new father lifted his baby up with a mixture of excitement and exhaustion.

"We-We did it!" The brothers yipped and danced around. Winry looked up, a smile crossing her face. "Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!"

Kaela smirked at him while he bickered with her sister. At this point only, adrenaline was keeping her awake as she worked to repair the nerves. She'd only finished an hour before the baby was born, and she had been too anxious to take a nap.

The crackling under her fingers became soothing. Just a little more. Then she could nap. Her eyes drooped. Ed's hand was on her shoulder. It kind of hurt. Voices were getting muffled. Her skin felt tingly. Ed was shaking her shoulder, yelling something with fear in his golden eyes.

Her hands slid from Satella's stomach, and Kaela allowed her shoulders to slump and for her body sink into her chair. Slowly, she slipped in and out of consciousness. At some point, she thought she was being carried by, but only one of the arms was metal. She sank even deeper into the person's warmth, allowing herself to fall back asleep.


When Kaela finally woke up, her whole body ached. Groaning, she sat up and massaged her throbbing temples. "Urk. It's what I get for going past my limits."

After a few moments of getting her bearing, Kaela realized she was actually in Satella and Ridel's bedroom. A few pictures lined the shelves and dresser, along with a cradle at the foot of the bed. Kaela smiled, remembering the baby. Now that she was up, she might as well go and visit it.

Swinging her legs from the bed, she stood up, only to fall back down with a crash. "Argh …" Kaela rubbed her legs, kneading her spent muscles. The door opened to reveal Al, who was instantly by her side.

"What happened?" Al fussed. "Did you trip? Did you break anything?"

"No … No, I'm fine. I'm just really tired. I'm going to sleep well tonight." She grinned. "Speaking of which, how long was I out?"

"No long, actually. Maybe half an hour or so. The doctor came while you were out. He's in there now."

"Oh, good." Kaela sighed. "It's fantastic that the professional is here. He can make sure we didn't mess up."

"I can't tell if you're being serious or not."

Kaela snorted and placed a hand on one of the pauldron spikes. "Probably both. Now, can you help me up? I'm not sure if I can walk by myself."

"Are your legs okay? I didn't see you move from your chair or anything. Did you use to much alchemy?" Al helped her up, keeping a firm yet gentle hand on her upper arm in case her legs gave out again.

"Yeah.. I have to take from my own body sometimes, which is what I did when rebuilding her nerves. Usually, it isn't this intense, like when Ed was in the hospital last week, but we didn't have a lot of time. I wanted to have her nerves heal quickly."

"You need to stop doing that, Kaela," Al said, looking down at her with a dim glow.

"Stop what?" They paused in from of the guest bedroom's door. Al turned to face her.

"It's one thing if Brother gets hurt fighting somebody else. That's him being reckless and stupid. It's his own fault." Al gripped her other arm with his loose hand. "But when you go out of your way to sacrifice your wellbeing for someone else, it's different. We don't like watching you hurt yourself for something you think is more important than your own life. Including us."

Kaela's eyes widened.

"It doesn't exactly happen all that often, and it's been awhile since something like that has happened, but it happens enough that Brother and I have spoken about it. We'd rather you stay at home with Winry and Granny, but we know you'd refuse. We want you to be happy, to live your own life, and to grow up and start your own family, but we know you'd beat us up if we asked you to. So, please … just take care of yourself. I know Brother wanted to say this, too."

There was a large lump of cotton in her throat. It had always been in the back of her mind; she was just as reckless as Ed. That wasn't the issue, though. Whereas Ed had a goal to live for to strive for, Kaela's wish to tag alongside him and Al was half-baked and formed from her own insecurities and guilt. If she died, she suspected it wouldn't be as big of a deal to her. After all, she was the one who let them do the ritual.

But what Al just said to her pierced her heart. They had noticed her reckless abandon, and had known that wasn't her style. Kaela was a collected person who calculated her actions thoroughly. So when she started jumping into dangerous and taxing situations without a second thought, they had known something was wrong.

"I-I'm sorry." Kaela swallowed the cotton and swallowed her feelings. Getting emotional now would shatter her facade of permanent composure. "I'll be more careful. I won't worry you anymore."

"Good. Now let's go see the baby!"

Al released her arms and opened the door. Everyone inside was circled around Satella and her baby. When Kaela stepped inside, both Winry and Ed glanced over. Kaela thought she saw some tension leave Ed's shoulders once they made eye contact, but she could have just as easily imagined it.

Just as Al had said, the doctor had arrived and was currently inspecting the baby. "Mother and baby are doing just fine. Postnatal treatment has also been appropriate." He turned to look at Ed and Winry who was standing a ways away. "Being present for labor is something even adults freak out over."

"Oh, well, we were desperate!" Winry flailed her arms around.

"We are in your debt. Especially the young lady." Everyone was really surprised at Dominic's comment. He bowed from his seating position. "Thank you."

"Please, no need to be formal!" Winry looked like she might pass out on the spot.

Ed snapped his fingers and circled around Dominic with a smug grin, who ignored him. "What do you say? Why don't you take on an apprentice, just this once?"

"This doesn't have anything to do with that." Dominic turned his head away from Ed, who was getting a little too close for his like. "I still don't take on apprentices. But …" He stood up, a slight flush reddening his cheeks. "If you insist, I can refer you to an accomplished engineer."

Satella and Ridel exchanged a look as Dominic began to walk out of the room. Winry stood shell shocked until he passed her by. "Um, would it be okay if I came by once in awhile to watch you work?"

" … If you came by once in a while to see my grandson, that would be okay." Dominic scratched his head without looking at anyone. "Same goes for the tomboy there, too."

Paninya's eyes rounded before a smile crept onto her face.


"Let's go!" Kaela called as she sprinted after the train that had already begun to leave without them.

"If we miss this one, the next train to Dublith won't be for three days!" Ed said behind her. As they ran behind Al, who was preparing to jump onto the train that was quickly picking up speed, Winry and Paninya jogged behind them.

"Be careful!" Winry called. Al jumped onto the train deck, and pulled Kaela on once she jumped after him. Ed threw Al his trunk, which Al deftly caught.

"You, too!" The three of them shouted back. At the last minute, Ed jumped from the edge of the platform, where Kaela and Al caught both of his arms and pulled him up. "Make sure you call Granny!"

"Your one to talk!" Winry yelled back with a tinge of frustration. Kaela snorted.

"Make sure you steal all that old man's techniques and make me something better the next time we meet, okay?!" The three of them waved to the two girls and waited until the train rounded th bend before entering the car and finding some seats.

Kaela sat down with a huff next to Ed. "Who would've thought she'd have stayed?"

"She's pretty passionate about automail," Ed said. "I would have been more surprised if she had left."

"Right, but I'm worried she'll get worried about Granny, or get homesick in general."

"Don't worry." Ed turned in his seat and placed his feet right next to Kaela's legs, leaning up against the window to watch her. "She's going into this with a strong will. She'll stay."

Al's words from earlier returned to her. Even Winry's resolve wasn't half-baked, unlike Kaela's. She closed her eyes. She needed to do some serious soul searching. Maybe going back to Dublith would help.

Something bothered her. "What changed her mind? Last I knew, she was pretty much resigned to going home without trying again."

"Ah …" Ed cleared his throat and looked at the ground. A blush was forming on his cheeks. "I'm not quite sure. Winry just all of the sudden wanted to try again. It has nothing to do with me."

Kaela gave him a dubious look. Yeah right. Something was up, and it made her stomach churn for some reason to think about Ed blushing over her sister, but she decided it was best to ignore that whole situation.

She closed her eyes again, waiting for sleep to drown out those unfamiliar and threatening thoughts. Tomorrow, they'd be in Dublith, and she'd have bigger things to worry about than the gnawing hole in her stomach that had been growing recently.