Title: Simple Requests
Author: S J Smith
Rating: PGish
Disclaimer: Arakawa owns this sandbox. I'm just playing in it.
Summary: Winry overhears something in the hall.
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"He's going to be a handful," Winry overheard someone say while walking back from her telephone call to Granny.
"What clued you in to that?"
She identified them as doctors from their uniforms. The pair huddled together over a chart at the nurse's counter down the hall from the Elric brothers' room. Perhaps she would've walked on, but she caught the word 'shrapnel' and hesitated, remembering how bloodied Ed had been when she'd first seen him.
"From the x-rays, it almost looks like he had automail, then somehow regrew his arm." The first doctor shook her head.
"People aren't lizards," the second doctor scoffed.
"I'm not so sure about that." The woman doctor leaned close and Winry lost their conversation as she hurried back to the Elrics' room.
If Ed had automail shrapnel in his body, it needed to be removed. And who better to remove it than the surgeon who installed it in the first place? Pushing past the guards and into the room, she grabbed the footboard of Ed's hospital bed. "I need to know how you got your arm back, Ed. And I need to examine you."
He stammered, his face flushing bright red, as Al's laughter turned into a coughing fit. Winry moved around the bed to absently pat Al's back, though she didn't take her eyes off of Ed. When Al was settled and comfortable again, with only a vague comment about leaving the room that Ed snarled at him for, she repeated, "Now."
Sighing, Ed dumped his head forward, his bangs shielding his eyes. Winry climbed onto the corner of Al's bed, rubbing his leg through the blanket. Al purred in response.
"Please, Ed," she said quietly, prepared to wait him out.
Al shook his head. "Winry always gets what she wants, Brother. Tell her."
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