October 14th, 1961

There, that was the last box! Tore wiped sweat from his face as he piled the last box of canned goods in the store room of the small grocery he'd been working at the last couple of weeks as a temp job. He'd been lucky. Their usual guy had come down ill with something nasty and the owner had been willing to hire a strong back for some grunt labor. Stranger or no, Tore was willing to work for the low pay and long hours because it was the only job he'd managed to find. He was bunking out on the store room floor at night – working night security the owner called it – but it was better than sleeping out in the rainstorms that racked northern Amestris in the fall. They were cold ones too; and frost was already on the ground most mornings.

Tore had heard winter came early in the north, and he was learning that for himself. He wouldn't be surprised to see snow before November. At least the work kept him warm! But he would be out of a job again in a few days, and he'd need to find something else or move on.

He was of two minds about that. He wasn't sure staying was anything more than a dead end, but he wasn't sure which way to go. North took him further into the winter, which he did not particularly enjoy. South maybe? Towards West City could be interesting. He had never been there.

He pondered his options as he dropped down on an empty crate outside the back of the store, popped open a soda can, and drank it down in a couple of long gulps, quenching his thirst. He just didn't know what he wanted to do. There was nothing really to tie him here. Weeks of effort had found him only a temporary job, and a couple of really hot girls who didn't mind making out with the new guy in town. Not that he could afford much in the way of dates.

"Help me!" A scream, definitely female, carried sharply through the crisp air. "Somebody help!"

Tore was on his feet in an instant. Not that he had any idea what he was doing, or even if it was a serious call for help. He still needed to look into it. He hurried out of the back alley and around the corner. He heard shrieking, and then what sounded like male laughter. Another turn brought him into sight of about what he had expected; a group of guys, a gang judging by the generally matching look, and the fact each one had a green bandana on their head, or arm, or tied to their leg. He counted about eight or ten of them, all surrounding a pretty teenage girl in a yellow checkered dress and a white sweater. Her school books were down in the mud at the side of the city road, and one of the guys had her by the back of the dress and the other had his hand on her breast.

"Oh c'mon, Missy," the guy was grinning. "You can't get away with turning me down like that you know. You'll be my girlfriend now, won't you? I'll protect you. You never need to worry about anything."

"Get away from me!" Missy squirmed and tried to get away, but the guy grabbed her tighter, his arm around her and pulled her hard against him. "Help me!" she screamed again. "Narkos get off me!"

The group around them laughed and moved in tighter.

Tore felt his blood boiling. He reached into his pocket, feeling for the chalk he always kept there, and pulled it out, drawing on the pavement beneath his feet while they were distracted. He could end this. As soon as he had a circle drawn, he stood up straight. "Hey you!" He shouted. "Leave the lady alone!"

He got the attention of the entire group at once. They looked his way sharply, saw one man standing alone, and started laughing. A couple of them moved toward him.

"Nice rescue party, Missy," Narkos laughed. "This loser's the only guy who'd come to your pathetic calls. Everyone knows you really want me."

"No I don't!" She shrieked, struggling harder.

"Better let her go," Tore replied calmly. "Or you're going to regret it later." He wouldn't kill anyone, but he was definitely going to make them wish they'd never picked on the girl!

"Guys, show this Southie what it means to get involved in our business," Narkos snickered meanly.

The punks spread out and moved toward Tore. Not that he had any intention of letting them anywhere near him. He dropped to the ground, bringing one hand down on the transmutation circle.

A ring of visible electricity, dancing and crackling in the air appeared around him, several feet in diameter. Two guys, caught in it, leapt backwards yelping in pain. The rest stopped dead. "I said let her go."

Narkos' dark eyes looked startled, then angry. He shoved the girl down on the ground and cracked his knuckles. "You're proving to be a real pain." He strode forward towards Tore's loop like it was nothing, and before Tore realized what he had in mind, the guy had done a diving roll under the ring of electricity and slammed into Tore, knocking him off the transmutation circle and sending them both slamming onto the pavement.

Fists hit Tore's face almost immediately. Shit! He fought back, gaining purchase and managing to get in a decent hit or two as he tried to get the guy off! But then he felt himself being dragged half-upright only to find the rest of the gang had moved in.

It turned into a free-for-all in moments. Tore knew how to fight, but he'd never dealt with a group-on-one scenario like this. He found himself blocking to defend as much as anything else as he was shoved around, blows raining from every angle. He was being lifted, tossed, dragged…

He felt something hard and wet slam against him, and it took Tore several seconds to realize it was the ground. Grass and mud…they must be on the edge of town. Something hurt somewhere inside, but he couldn't tell quite what. Ribs maybe? His nose was throbbing, his face felt swollen. His arms, back, legs; everything screamed. So this is what tenderized steak feels like.

Tore refused to groan as he forced himself to his hands and knees and opened his eyes. He was looking at a pair of black leather boots. Blood dripped slowly from a cut on Tore's forehead, and his mouth. He could taste the hot tangy saltiness.

"Get the hell out of town, freak," Narkos' voice came from above. "I see you again and we won't let you live. Stay out of my business. Now get up."

Tore struggled to comply, his side bursting in fresh pain as he stood up. Yeah, cracked ribs definitely; maybe broken. "I'm going," he growled, looking Narkos in the eye as he moved past him and hobbled out onto the road.

He knew better than to look back immediately. He just kept going, one hand over his left ribs, which hurt worse with each passing moment. Only after a hundred yards did he glance back. The gang was still standing there, watching and jeering. He couldn't see Missy though. If she was smart, she'd run off when they attacked him.

Tore didn't want to bet that there would have been any help coming if he'd held out any longer. No one cared what happened to a chump who got in the way of a gang on their turf. He turned around and kept walking. He'd have to get out of sight. He wasn't sure they wouldn't follow him, nor that he could get back to his own stuff. All he had on him was his wallet, and it was a miracle he still had that.

The steel gray clouds above him rumbled ominously, the rain that had been threatening all day finally let loose as it began to patter around him in a steady downpour. Soaked in seconds, Tore did the only thing he could. He kept walking.

"Mommy I can't lift the blanket up the stairs!" Urey Elric called out plaintively.

"I've got it," Coran interjected, leaving the kitchen where he was helping Aldon make dinner and picking up the blanket his little brother was trying manful to haul upstairs to his room.

"Thank you, sweetie," Cassie smiled from the couch, where she had been immediately guided by Aldon when she got home; he insisted she put her feet up and relax.

Aldon smiled as he watched her shift a little, find a comfortable position, and settle again, watching them all at work. Coran and Art were helping with dinner, Urey was trying to clean, and Ian was mostly doing his duty as youngest by staying out of the way! Though he was at least trying to sweep the floor with the broom, however ineffective it might be. Aldon wasn't about to discourage the behavior!

Urey, freed from the blanket, scrambled back over to the pile of blocks and started putting them in their basket. Aldon watched him as he stirred the stew pot, noting that he was going to have to pull out another size up in clothing out of the pile of clothes they always had waiting for the next boy to grow into them. Urey, unlike his brothers, tended to pudge more before a growth spurt. The others were always leaner. Right now he was definitely between spurts but nearing the next, looking decidedly chubby.

Convinced that dinner would be ready in a few minutes, Aldon left the stew alone to help the boys with some more of the pick-up. It was nice now that they were all old enough to help. It meant less work for Cassie, and more time herding for him than trying to herd and do all the chores when she was tired! At least she'd had more of a break between Ian and this one than Urey and Ian. "Enjoying yourself?" He smiled at Cassie.

"Immensely," she replied with a relaxed sigh. "It feels good to get off my feet and have a swarm of cute boys do my bidding."

"If they weren't our sons I'd be jealous," Aldon assured her as he folded the blankets Urey and Ian had used earlier to build a blanket-and-pillow fort.

"If they weren't our sons I'd expect you to be jealous," Cassie giggled. "Is dinner ready? It smells wonderful."

"Hungry?" Aldon asked unnecessarily.

"Famished," Cassie confirmed. "On my way home I was imagining how tasty the cows down the road would be if grilled up with garlic and onions."

"Then it's a good thing it's a beef stew," Aldon laughed.

After dinner, Aldon saw to getting the boys to bed while Cassie took a shower and got dressed for bed. When Aldon came back downstairs though, she was one more on the couch, a cup of hot tea on the table next to an unopened book. The look on her face said more clearly than words that what she really wanted was some alone time with him. Aldon was quite happy to comply!

Aldon curled up on the couch, with Cassie leaning back between his legs and using Aldon as a backrest. "So what's the first thing you want to do when this one's born?" Aldon asked, wrapping his arms around her from behind, his hands resting lightly on top of her belly. Five months of developing child was a soft, yet firm and pleasant feeling beneath his hands.

"Go on a diet," Cassie quipped, turning her head enough he could see her smirk.

"What for?" Aldon asked, kissing her cheek. "You look fantastic."

"I look like a farmwife," Cassie argued.

"I hate to break it to you," Aldon smiled, "But you live on a farm, and you're my wife."

"And before I was pregnant five times I looked like a dancer," Cassie retorted, "Because I was. It's not the structural changes I mind, it's the fact that I never get to lose all the weight before we have another one."

"I like you curvy," Aldon disagreed. A few extra pounds on his wife was, in his opinion, a good thing given how slender built she was and how easily she got cold!

"Then get used to disappointment," Cassie replied. "I've got some jeans in the closet just screaming to be worn again."

"From when, Briggs?" Aldon teased.

"Hardly," Cassie laughed. "You think I could get back into those now? My hips would never manage it." They had been wider by structure, Aldon knew, ever since Coran, though more Art. After the four boys, her hip bones had always been further apart. "No, these are from before Urey."

Aldon tried to think back to pictures of Cassie after Art but before Urey. Yeah, that was a nice image too. "All right then," he smiled. "I can live with that."

"I'm glad I have your approval," Cassie snickered. "What can I say, I miss my flexibility and the energy I had then."

"Did I say I was going to stop you?" Aldon asked when she kept going. "You do what you want to. You're beautiful however you are. Sexy too," he added as one hand absently stroked her stomach. His wife was hot when she was pregnant! Maybe that was part of their problem, he thought to himself. Or rather, his problem! He had about as much self-control when it came to Cassie now as he'd had when they first moved up to Briggs. Of course, she had to be just as willing, he rationalized.

"Glad you think so, handsome" Cassie replied, relaxing further into his embrace. "So, we have a very important decision to make."

"Oh, what's that?" Aldon asked.

"We have no idea what to name this baby," Cassie pointed out, one hand resting on his. "At least, not if it's another boy." They had run out of their original list of possible boy names with Urey! They hadn't had the chance to touch their girl names list, which kept changing anyway as their tastes and ideas did.

"Guess we ought to be prepared," Aldon agreed. "Though I'm sure whatever you like is fine."

"How do you feel about Ethelred?"

"Umm… can I amend my previous statement?" Aldon laughed. Ethelred Elric?! What would the poor kid get called, Red? Certainly not Ethel!

"Can I amend my decision where I agreed to sleep with you five months ago?" Cassie teased.

"You're not serious about that name are you?" Aldon asked cautiously. The last thing he wanted to do was really make her upset.

Cassie turned her head again and seemed to be giving him a long, contemplative look. "No," she finally admitted. "I think I like your idea from last week better. At least on a boy's name."
"What, you didn't like Castillia for a girl?" Aldon asked, though the name had been a teasing choice to begin with.

"Frankly, no," Cassie said.

"So we nix Ethelred and Castillia," Aldon laughed. "Where does that leave us?"

"With an entire alphabet of possibilities to sort through in just over four months," Cassie replied. "Why did you have to have a last name that's so hard to come up with good names for?"

"Ask Mom that question," Aldon snickered. "She's the one who married Dad."

"More hot chocolate?" Winry asked as she picked up her cup and stood up from the couch.

"You bet," Edward grinned, holding up his own mug.

"Yes please," Lia replied

She was immediately followed by Ethan's reply of "Yeah!"

"I'm glad it's so popular," Winry chuckled as she put the cups on a tray and took them all with her.

"After a long day, there's nothing better than your chocolate, Mom," Ethan assured her.

"Long day," Lia teased, poking him in the shoulder playfully with one finger. "I spend all day convincing teenagers they're supposed to be learning the information I put in front of them, then half my evenings grading it. In the meantime I'm taking care of you."

"See," Ethan snickered. "That's definitely a long day."

Edward watched the banter with amused pleasure. It was kind of like looking back in time, to moments he remembered fondly when he and Winry were younger. Of course, neither Ethan nor Lia had nearly the fiery tempers he and Winry had. That was definitely a good thing. Tonight the two of them were snuggled up on the rest of the couch. Ethan had made the walk from his room to the dinner table, then the couch, with Lia's tender assistance and seemingly endless patience.

"Here you go," Winry grinned when she came back, setting the cup down in front of him.

"Just in time to enjoy the show," Ed grinned, speaking softly.

"You know I heard that," Ethan snickered, cutting off his banter with Lia to look over at them.

"You'll forgive us the indulgence," Winry giggled. "The only rule about flirting in this house is if you do it in front of other people you invite commentary and an audience."

"Well then maybe we should get a room," Ethan countered.

"Ethan!" Lia smacked him lightly on the arm with one hand, her face flushing.

Ed couldn't help smirking. "Maybe you should."

October 15th, 1961

His skin felt blistering hot, inside and out, but the cold damp surrounding him was no consolation. Hot, yet shivering, Tore stumbled through the rainy mountain wilderness, the world blurring around him. A haze of pain and agony felt like his only companion, which it was.

Tore had staggered out into the woods until he had collapsed the night before, fortunate enough to find the leaky remains of half an old farmhouse. The other half had collapsed, but it was a floor to sleep on instead of mud, and drips instead of a downpour.

He had woken with chills, shakes, sweats, and dragged himself back out into the rain. He had to find better shelter. Unfortunately, by then he had no sense of which direction he had come in front the night before. Finding it hard to focus, he had followed a path towards what he hoped would be a road.

Tore lucked out; there was a road that paralleled his path, though he saw no one as he stumbled, fell, crawled, and tottered his way painfully onward. The tears running down his face felt neither hot, nor cold; merely sticky compared to the rain.

In a way, it was cleansing; the rain cool for moments as it hit his face; washing the blood from his head, his mouth, and a few scrapes elsewhere. While he could not see them, Tore was sure he was covered in dark bruises; he could feel them forming already.

Tore was convinced he had at least two broken ribs. They hurt worse than anything he'd ever dealt with before. Breathing hurt; walking hurt; even lying down in the dirt hurt.

The road in front of him seemed long, closed in by the surrounding trees, and hopelessly desolate. Tore stumbled and tripped repeatedly until, finally, he did not have the strength or the will to crawl up out of the muddy grass on the verge of the empty dirt road.

Cold, muddy water blew against his face in small gusts, but at least he wasn't resting directly in standing water. Tore wasn't sure he had the energy to get up, sick and injured as he was, even if it meant drowning in a half-inch puddle.

Was this how the world was going to end for him? No glorious finish? No triumphant return? No beautiful girl welcoming him home or anyone saying they were glad to see him, now wipe his feet and stay for dinner. No; he would die out here, alone and forgotten. Maybe someone would find his corpse and be kind enough to bury it instead of letting it get eaten by wildlife.

It really did all end in a whimper, didn't it?