Chapter Nine
Winry wiped the sweat from her brow with a tired arm, leaving a dark streak of grease on her forehead. A satisfied smile crossed her face as she looked down at the finished piece of automail on the workbench before her. The strong steel gleamed in the light that came pouring in through the window, illuminating dust particles that danced in the beams.
A sigh escaped through her parted lips as she gazed out on the lawn. Her five-year-old son, Matthew, was out playing with his friends again. For the briefest of moments, his brown hair caught the light, rendering the heads of both him and his friend a sun-kissed golden shade. The sight of two young boys with hair like the son sent the blonde into a kind of reverie, her eyes stinging.
The light passed, and the image of her childhood companions faded, replaced once more by Matthew and Tristan; the red rubber ball between them in perpetual motion.
From behind her came a rustle of sound, and then warm arms encircled her in a loving embrace. "Why, Mrs. Cogar, I didn't know if you'd ever step away from your work. I'd begun to be worried." The voice whispered in her ear and she laughed, leaning back against her husband. "Don't. Automail is one of my two loves."
"And the other?"
Winry laughed again, her blue eyes dancing. "You of course!" She turned, hoping to sneak a kiss, but he stepped back just out of reach. "Why you..." she started. Without further ado, she made to chase him about the room--
--Only to be interupted by the frantic ringing of the phone. The smile left William's face, her own not far behind. For a moment they just stood there, listening to it ring. William made the vaguest of gestures with his hand, his brow furrowing ever so slightly. "Go on," he murmured. "It's probably important."
"William-" She started. The phone interupted once more. "I'm COMING!" she yelled irritably. "Geez, people these days."
The blonde stalked up the stairs, jerking the phone from the reciever. "Cogar automail."
"It used to be Rockbell."
Winry frowned. The voice seemed familiar, if only passingly so. "That was several years ago."
"Principle of the thing, though. Not the salutation I expected."
The mechanic shook her head. She should know this voice, she knew she should, but the identity of the speaker remained beyond her grasp. "What do you need?" She struggled to remain polite.
"We have a patient here who you worked with when you still went by Rockbell. He's going to need quite a bit of work."
Suspicion flared. Who would she have treated that knew her only by that name? Who wasn't informed of her marriage to William Cogar? For some reason, a sickening feeling of dread pooled in her stomache. "Who is this person?"
"Edward Elric."
The phone fell from her hand, her mind gone suddenly blank. Behind her, William rushed forward. "Winry? Winry, are you okay? Answer me!"
Still in shock, she could only stare at him.
William angrily grabbed the reciever.
"--Cogar? Mrs. Cogar, are you there?"
"What did you say to her?" William demanded. "Why--" a faint tap on his shoulder put a sudden end to his tirade before it had properly begun. He turned to face his wife. She was still pale, as if she had seen a ghost, but she reached with trembling hand for the phone. Hesitantly, he released the object to her grasp.
"Is this a joke?" Her voice was cold, but her eyes betrayed her turmoil.
"This is not a joke. My name is Colonel Jean Havoc. Ed was in an... accident recently. He's going to need new automail. I know that you're the only one who's really worked with him, so..."
There was a pause on the end of the line. "We need you to come to Central."
Winry took a deep breath, not trusting her voice. "When?"
"By the end of the month, if possible."
"Alright." Her voice was hardly a whisper. With shaking hands, she replaced the phone in the cradle. "Oh my god," she murmured. "Oh my god!" With each successive repitition of the phrase the words grew louder, until at last William took his wife in his arms. Her words dissolved into meaningless sobs, wracking her body with their intensity. He held his wife's shaking body in his arms, soothing her as best he could, though he did not know the source of her pain.
For Winry, all the pieces had just fallen into place, the full realization making its impact on her like a freight train. Ed was alive. He was in the hospital. He needed his automail fixed.
The scenario was so familiar as to send her into hysterics. She found laughter mixing in amongst her sobs as her tongue loosened, spilling out words uncontrolled.
"He's alive," she found herself saying, "After all that I did to put him behind me, to forget about him, the bastard comes back!" She found anger welling up, too, intensified by the maelstrom of other emotions she was experiencing. "Why? Why is this happening now? Why is it happening at all?!" She was screaming now, but she didn't care. This was too much.
Gradually she became aware of her face against William's chest as he held her close, running his fingers through her hair as he murmured sweet nothings to soothe her.
"Hush now, Winry. It's going to be alright. Whatever it is, I'll stand with you. I'll help you through this."
Tears streaming from her eyes, Winry could only snuggle closer. "Oh, Will..."
Colonol Havoc leaned back in his chair, rubbing his eyes. The call had been hard to make, but he'd given the girl the information. She had the right to know. Dimmly, he wondered if Ed knew that Winry was married. No, he wouldn't, the man realized, She got married after he left. He wasn't supposed to come back.
Thoughts of Edward Elric's departure invariably led to thoughts of Mustang's demise, and Havoc, tired as he was already, found himself in an exeedingly bad mood. Memories of Mustang's devotion to duty welled up in his mind. The same duty that had gotton him killed. How could he have possibly thought to destroy such power? Havoc wondered. What possessed him?
The Colonel knew that he might never discover the answer to that question.
A/N: So, longer than the last chapter, but still not up to my goal length. Still stretching out the old writing muscles, I suppose. I'll be the first to admit there's not much action here, but this scene's been stuck in my head recently and I just couldn't get rid of it! And I'm sure you all wanted to know more about how Winry's doing.
Thank you all for your wonderful feedback last chapter. If at all possible, please tell me what you think of this one. Let me know how I can improve, point out errors, etc.
As an apology for how long I've been gone before this, I give you a hint for the next chapter's plot. We finally learn more about Mustang's mysterious demise, and a few more hints about Raneth are revealed.
