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Chapter 11

Click, clack.

Drip.

Drip.

Clack, click, click.

The sound of rain hitting the ceiling was almost musical and he wondered how long the same tune had been playing. The wind was whispering and tapping at a glass window. It was part of the world outside his eyelids. Somewhere along the line the sound of pacing footsteps had joined in the chorus and it was greatly interfering with his ability to sleep.

He had been dreaming and wanted to keep dreaming of Amestris, specifically Rezembul. How green it must have been now in the summertime, the sky would be a shock of bright blue that he had never seen in Europe. The air was warm and dry and it was the light breezes of cool air that made the day a lot more bearable. The smell of melissa would float in with the breeze and if one squinted they could see the petals dancing. These in particular danced to the melody of falling rain and footsteps, and it was ruining his dream.

Edward Elric turned over attempting to bury his head in his pillow to block out the sounds. "Shut up…" he told the rain.

Click, click, clack, and clack. It disobeyed.

"Brother?"

"I said shut up."

"You're awake."

"Yeh…" he responded moodily still refusing to open his eyes. "Whaddya want?"

The crushing feeling in his ribs told him he was being hugged. The dull pain in his muscles suddenly sharpened "Owww…"

He opened his eyes to see his little brother's face, his light grey brown eyes wide and glittering. "Sorry."

Images of the last few hours of their encounter with Hess, filled his head. Then images of a cell, of being locked up and not knowing what would have happened to Al that whole time. "Al!"

He sat up bolt upright to see he was in his apartment, his little brother was sitting in a chair next to his bed. Ed didn't even think as he pulled Al downward and wrapped him in a hug.

"Um Brother, what?"

He let him go. "Al…what happened? How did I get here? The Thules…they wanted to open the portal…and then?" It hurt to think any further.

"You've been out three days Brother."

"What?"

The expression on Al's face grew somber. "Yeah. We were worried you might not wake up."

Despite the fact of being told of the passage of time he still couldn't wrap his brain around it. "Three days…Tell me, Al. Did they open the portal?"

Al's eyes widened and then went to the floor.

"Al…"

"A lot of stuff has happened Brother."

"Tell me."

Al didn't raise his eyes. "I got away and found Alec and Lydia and Patrick. We went after you to Central…" he trailed off.

Ed nodded. He remembered finding Jadeh in the cell and escaping and then…what?

"I don't know what happened in there. Lydia told Patrick and I to wait outside. Alejandro is dead and so is Doctor Weinberg."

Edward couldn't help but gasp in shock. "What?"

"Lydia says Alec tried to face Lucas, because Jadeh and you were being used as sacrifices to open the gate. Lucas shot him. Then his blood opened the gate…and…it devoured everything. Central isn't even standing anymore. Lydia ran out and warned us to run. I've never seen her so scared."

Before Ed could ask the question burning in his mind Al burst into tears. "We thought you were dead! She said the place was ripped apart. I saw it from outside, everything was white, and their was a voice…It was horrible!"

Ed remembered the voice vaguely but not enough to recall words. He could only remember white and the sound of roaring wind.

"That Cerezo guy's daughter Jana," Al said. "According to Lydia, she was used to open the gate but it was more like she was commanding it. Can a Homunculus really command the gate?" Al thought aloud.

So they were on the same train of thought. "I don't know." Ed pulled the covers off him. "But I'm not sure I'd call her a homunculus either."

Al stepped forward to help him up from the bed. "Either way, she's long gone. You and Lydia seemed to be the only people to get out of the building alive."

Ed stared outside the window to see the rain had let up a little bit. "That poor girl," he sighed. Lydia was probably beyond traumatized. "We owe her an explanation," he said.

"I already explained about who we are, and what the Thules were trying to do. She came by earlier to see how you were doing. Today is her father's funeral."

The familiar guilt that lingered over him every time he had looked at Al in armor now burned in him. "I shouldn't have let her get involved."

"Funny, she said the same thing about you."

The room was silent for a moment and he noticed even the rain had stopped. "So what now, Brother?"

He turned to look at Al who had that serious and determined look that made him look ten years older. "I mean, the uranium bomb is gone, it exploded in 1923 and took Central with it. What was left of Central is gone, Weinberg is gone, Thule is gone, and if anyone survived I'm sure they're not going to try anything ever again. Lydia is going back to London, her whole family is. The only thing left is us and this apartment."

"I don't know." The question hurt more than he had expected it would. He had never imagined that total completion could make him feel so empty.

What now?

The world was still turning after all. Despite the fact that theirs had all but stopped. He needed to apologize to Lydia, he needed to make sure something like this never happened again. He needed to give his brother a reason to smile again, despite everything.

"We should say goodbye to Lydia, and pay respects to Doctor Weinberg and Alejandro."

"As for afterwards, that portal is not going to open again." he reminded Al. "I'm not so keen on staying here in Gottingen after all that's happened.

There was only one place he could think of that he could actually return to. "I wonder how everyone in Munich is doing?" Ed smiled slightly. "You think Hughes would be happy to see us?"

He threw on a button shirt and a pair of trousers. Al was already dress having woken up hours ago.

Al walked over the bed, and started obsessively fluffing pillows and folding sheets like the neat freak he was. "I didn't think you'd want to go back there."

"Why not? It's the closest to home we're gonna get."

"You really believe that Brother?"

He didn't get an answer when he asked Al what he meant.

OoOoOoOoOo

"I know what you're going to say. You don't have to."

She really didn't and that was because even he didn't know. Two days and two funerals later and he still didn't have a clue what he was supposed to say to her.

They were sitting out on the porch, a crystal table between them. Lydia's hands were folded over black skirt. Up to this point they hadn't said much of anything of real importance.

They had talked about her plans to continue studying medicine in London. About visiting her cousin Rachel's house, about his return to Munich, and yet all of it was just that, talk.

Throwing words.

Suddenly she stood up from the table. "Let's go for a walk," she said.

He didn't say anything as he followed her out to the green area behind her house, and they started on the cobbled path that led to a small pond.

Ed opened his mouth again, but she shook her head.

"You don't have to say anything," she repeated. "It really is a nice day isn't it?"

No it wasn't. Not with all that had been going on.

"I can't just pretend nothing happened," he said.

"We're not pretending it didn't." She picked at the black fabric flowers sewn to her skirt and kicked at the gravel path. "I just don't want you to blame yourself, for it happening."

She looked up and locked her blue eyes with his. He wasn't surprised to see there were sparkling with unshed tears.

Ed averted his eyes, he couldn't deal with tears right now.

A squirrel ran by it's shadow a quick gray flash across the path.

"I shouldn't have let you get involved. Especially when I realized that you're father was working on something dangerous."

A few butterflies fluttered over a green fuzzy bush. Two of them were blue, the third was yellow.

"I was involved from the get-go Edward. I was the one that asked you to stop him remember. Only now I realize I was labeling him a villain without the full details.

Now he could hear the tears in her voice. "I still don't know how I'm supposed to feel about all this."

Ed mentally nodded. She had taken the words out of his mouth.

"I wish I could explain to you what happened in that hall. Why it happened that way…but for once…for once I don't know anything."

"Al explained it to me. It must be really painful for you."

He looked up at her, regretting it when he saw the waterworks. It was worse to think she was crying over his problems.

"To be so far from home. Stuck in a world where you're manipulated, where all you see is familiar faces…You've been through a lot haven't you? Al didn't need to tell me anything I could see it in your eyes, when I met you."

He remained silent, how on earth was he supposed to answer that? They kept on walking getting nearer to the blue water a few yards away now.

"I feel so inexperienced. I don't know what happens from this point onward," Lydia whispered. "No one close to me has died before. It's like the plans I had been in a date book are all erased and I can't think of anything important. But you've suffered so much more, and here I am feeling sorry for myself."

Now that was dumb. She had every right to cry, and ask for comfort. His life and what he'd been through hadn't been her fault. "Stupid."

Lydia stopped walking momentarily shocked by his insult.

"You and I have different circumstances. You shouldn't worry about that. You have every right to cry, to feel sorry for yourself. You shouldn't feel bad about what I've been through Lydia, especially when you just suffered a terrible loss."

Ed kept walking and he heard her start following him again.

"You and Al are too good for this world. I don't think you realize it."

He turned, and was surprised to see she was smiling. "Maybe Al is…"

The smile faded. Another tear slid down her cheek. "Is there no way for you to go home?"

"Not without repeating what happened, and that's something I never want to do."

She looked even sadder at that. "Don't worry about it. Al and I already accepted the fact we can't go back. What happened this week, well it was a rude reminder."

They had finally reached the pond. It was covered with floating lilipads, and a few ducks and frogs here and there made it look more picturesque than it should have. The water was a murky grey brown. It smelled like the summer heat that was weighing down on his skin.

Lydia bent down and took an old crumpet out of the fold of her skirt breaking it into little pieces and chucked the pieces into the pond.

"Can you do me a favor Ed?"

One of the ducks noticed the free meal. Ed watched it dive face first into water.

"What?"

A bird in a tree nearby, chirped twice before she moved or said anything, and he was a bit taken off guard "I want you to promise me something."

Okay…

"What are you going on about?"

"Promise me. You'll hope a little longer. If you find a way to get home, take it without worrying so much about everything else. "

He turned with half a mind to yell at her.

Since when was this about him? Her father had died. Her boyfriend had died in the last few days. It didn't seem right. "I think there is a way," Lydia was saying. "Sort of like the Odyssey."

"Odyssey?"

She nodded, her eyes now on the excited ducks, who were having a free for all, in order to get their share of soggy dough.

"Al told me about Winry. And I am a bit of a romantic fool for this, but it sounds like she is your Penelope."

His face heat up and he almost cursed Al. "What did he tell you? My what?!"

He could hear the smile in her voice.

"It's a Greek play about a warrior separated from home for many years. Now matter what he does he can't get home. Penelope the wife of Odysseus, she waited 40 years for him, and she had this tapestry…anyway. Odysseus does make it home, and he finds she was loyal to him even when the house was full of suitors wanting to marry her."

Now he was sure his face was tomato red. Al was going to get a huge talking to. "Winry isn't... she's just a friend."

"I'm sorry I pushed Winifred on you, I didn't realize how cruel that was. It must be hard seeing the faces of people from your other world."

He stared at the back of her head for a few seconds. What exactly had Al told her?

"Don't worry about it."

"So do you promise? You won't give up on getting home."

"Uh sure." He said looking back at the pond. Now the frogs seemed to want to get in on the duck's fun.

"Do you mean it?"

"Yes…why are you so intent on this anyway?"

He immediately felt like a jerk when she sobbed loudly.

"Because…everything I've known has crumbled. My world feels like it's been turned upside down and if it hurts so much for me then for you…and Al…" her voice went squeaky and she pause to compose herself.

"Because hearing you accept fate so easily is too much. Because there has to be a silver lining somewhere. Because if there's hope for you, there's hope for me also. Because I want to keep believing that there is such thing as a second chance in this chaotic world."

She looked up and smiled her eyes red from crying. "There are so many reasons Edward."

The was a curious flash of light dancing along the top of the pond. Lydia kept on sobbing.

He sighed. Al was so much better than this. "I promise."

Lydia sniffled and he handed her a handkerchief which she accepted. "England is going to feel so dreary after this summer."

"I hear it rains everyday. Is it true?"

"Just about. You are going to Munich, right?"

"Yeah, figured I'd go somewhere familiar. I don't want to say I'll miss this place, but--"

"You'll miss it."

"Maybe a little."

Her voice was dryer now. "You should say goodbye to Patrick, I'm sure he'll miss you though he's too much of a stubborn mule to admit it."

"I was thinking of passing by that place anyway, I'm sure Al wants to say goodbye to his co-workers and all."

"I do hope you'll say goodbye to your co-workers also. Especially that nice secretary."

He mentally agreed. Briget had actually been one person in Central labs he didn't have the urge to kick.

"We should be getting back," she said turning from the pond. The ducks were back to swimming slow lazy circles, their feast done. "I want to thank you, for coming here. It is the last time I get to see this place after all."

"It's no problem."

They walked back in silence. Though he spent the time wondering if he should say something. Something that would make yet another goodbye easier for her.

He was used to this. Tomorrow she would go to London, he would go to Munich. A part of him, knew he would never see her again, but for some reason that was okay. She had been a good friend, not too close, but still more than an acquaintance.

They got back to her porch and said a goodbye, he tried not to pull away in shock when she gave him a goodbye hug. "Take care of herself," he told her. Al was definitely better at this kind of thing.

He took the long way around her house when he exited and made his way home.

He didn't see the bird, but he heard it was sure it was the one that had been chirping in the distance all afternoon. It started singing a song he felt like he recognized. Like a bird would sound like in Amestris.