Give Guidance or Counsel

Family

Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist

Chapter 14 - Unlikely Family

02:01 Drachman Time

"So miss…?"

"Winry."

"Miss Winry." The nurse smiled politely. "I've taken some blood test and I've analysed that urine sample you insisted on giving me. I've taken a look at your blood pressure and fever, and we've done an eye test, and we've even checked for split ends. Do you want my results?"

Winry checked her watch, then nodded.

"Your blood tests and temperature are all perfectly normal. You're eyes are fine. You do have one of two split ends." She stopped and smirked at her own joke. "Your blood pressure is slightly high, but you know, you're urine sample. I believe you already know."

Winry nodded.

"How many weeks dear?"

A shrug.

"About five. I'm showing a little bit." She pursed her lips. "I don't really know what to do. Like, how to tell him. We're both so young so…"

The nurse nodded understandingly.

"Have you been together long?" She asked softly. Winry gave a wiry smile.

"As long as he can remember." She joked slightly, though the nurse wouldn't understand it. "I just… It's complicated. He and his brother want to get something back that he lost a long time ago. They're so obsessed with it. I just… I don't want to stop him from achieving that, and a baby… it would get in the way wouldn't it? Heck, he's only 18... Neither of us have a steady job. How - how are we going to look after it?"

The nurse smiled.

"You have a good supportive family waiting for you outside. Your father and brother. Your brother especially. That boy cares for you, and neither of those men would allow you to enter into this on your own." She shrugged. "It is up to you to keep this or not. It is not too late to abort… But perhaps it is best to tell the father first?"

Winry looked shocked.

"I would… I'd never get rid of it. Even if Al didn't want it. I mean… it's still my child right?" She bit her lip. "I just worry, because I have Al here and now, and I don't want to lose him. I have no idea how he'll react."

The nurse knelt in front of her.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about. I realise sometimes these things come as a shock. But you have been with this man a very long time and you care for both him and the unborn child. He will see that. I am sure."

Winry smiled and nodded at the nurse.

"M- Maybe you're right."

- X -

02:20 Drachman Time

All eyes, minus Roy's (who were far to intent on staring at Edward to notice anything strange or out of the ordinary) turned to Al. That was six eyes. Three sets. Ed's; large, disbelieving and gold. Hohenheim's; a mirror of his sons, just older and wiser, and the paler tones of a boy that made Al feel like he was looking in a mirror. He blinked, twice.

"What?" he finally asked, closing the door and hoping the guards didn't think to look in every room. Ed allowed Roy to fuss over him, but didn't take his eyes off his brother. He opened his mouth, then shut it again like a fish out of water. His eyes were still impossibly wide. "Ed? Why didn't you tell me Dad was here?"

"You didn't even tell him?" Asked Hohenheim.

"He hasn't been telling us a lot of things." stated Roy, disappointment heavy in his tone as his hands found Ed's and his fingers felt the blank space where the boys rings should have been. He couldn't believe Archer had been right. "Where's your rings Fullmetal?" He asked quietly, but Ed was still not paying him any attention. Hohenheim took a protective step towards his son.

"I'm sorry, who are you?" He asked bluntly, making no attempt to hide his suspicions. Roy seemed to snap out of a trance, turning to look at an older, more rugged version of his young husband.

"Roy Mustang." He replied, sticking out a hand. Hohenheim didn't take it.

"You're fucking my son?"

Roy didn't think it was possible to go from white to red in one second flat, but his cheeks proved him wrong.

"Um, well… no… I mean, that is to say…"

"You're not fucking my son?"

Why did he sound angrier?

"Yes. I mean, no. I mean… Edward and I haven't… as of yet… um… communicated."

There was silence in the room and Roy thought that could quite possibly be the most embarrassing thing he had ever had to admit. Thank God Hughes hadn't been there to witness it. A small giggle erupted from the doorway and Roy turned to see Winry smirking at him. A quick glance at Al confirmed suspicions that both lover's found him hilarious. Or worse; cute.

"You guys have been together how long now? Is it even possible to be celibate for that long?" Winry smirked from the doorway.

"Fuck off." Roy muttered childishly, blushing. "Weren't you supposed to be terminally ill?"

Winry winked.

"The nurse left for some equipment, so I snuck out and followed the sound of commotion. After knocking out the guard that you guys didn't." She twirled a wrench in her hand in a way that would have been innocent if this wasn't Winry. Al gasped.

"You mean we knocked someone out?"

Winry smiled mischievously.

"Technically a combination of some marbles and a well placed wall knocked him out. He'll be fine." Then, as an after-thought. "Good job we're in a hospital though."

Roy and Al winced simultaneously. Then;

"I think the real issue here is how you recognised Hohenheim."

All eyes on Ed, who had gone from shocked, to the usual glare.

"He was gone before the incident, and when we burnt the house all pictures of him went with it. I don't think you've ever seen one." Roy started to interrupt that not all pictures of Hohenheim had been destroyed - after all, he'd seen one when they'd visited Risembool a few years ago, but was hushed by a palm in his face. "I know you haven't seen a single one. So… so you had to remember him… right?"

Was Roy seeing things, or was Ed shaking? Was it from excitement, or fear? Al looked between his brother and his father, then made his way over and hugged the elder sibling close.

"It's been lonely here, hasn't it?" he soothed, when Ed instinctively scrunched up his brothers t-shirt material in his hands. The boy shook his head, but Al tutted. "Don't lie bro. I know it has, otherwise you'd realise how flawed and unstable that logic was."

Roy rose an eyebrow. It took a brave man to call Edward flawed or unstable, and Al had just called him both. The older sibling broke free from his brother's hold and backed into Roy.

"It's not." He whispered stubbornly. Al sighed.

"It was just a guess bro. You and he look exactly the same, give or take twenty years. What other conclusions am I supposed to come to?" He shrugged. "I know you want to believe you can regain my memories, but maybe I can't be cured or something, you don't know… I just… I wish you'd just give up."

The whole room gasped. Even Hei, who didn't really know the situation, but could gather the atmosphere well.

"But Al-"

The boy held up his hand for silence.

"I may not be the boy I was back before the incident, but I am still your brother, and I have so many new memories with you that I don't need my old ones." He looked around the room. And unlikely family if ever there was one. "Can't you see this is just hurting everyone? We all missed you so much. This… this hopeless stubbornness is breaking us apart. You're… You're so hooked up on what we had, have you even realised eight years have passed? Why can't you be happy with what we have now? Cuz I am. I always have been. I may not know mum and dad, but I have a brother who loves me enough to give up his life for me, and the most amazing girl in the world. And maybe I don't know what she sees in me, but I love her and I am so damn lucky that she… believes in me. This me."

Winry flushed happily, a hand coming to rest on her stomach, and Roy had to steady Ed as his legs started to shake too badly.

"Al-"

"I'm not done yet! Idiot brother…" Al hugged himself and looked around again. "Mum's dead Ed, and yeah, that's sad. But she's not coming back. Dad's right here so… So fuck the past! What matters is the present, and the future. You, me and dad - we can be a family again. Now. Not then. Now. And Winry is my family, and Roy is your family. So that means that Winry is your family and Roy is my family. And our family is always going to keep growing. So, so maybe we're dysfunctional, so maybe I'm delusional… but heck! I don't even know that guy but I'm betting he's important to you and Dad and so he's family too. Like Russell and Fletcher, and Granny Pinako and… Coco."

And then there was laughter again.

- X -

Roy had left the room with Ed, Al had left the room with Winry. They sat on opposite ends of the corridor, hoping the guards didn't wake up. Hohenheim was left alone in the room with Hei.

"He's right. You are part of the family - though maybe that's not really a good thing." Hohenheim tried to lighten the atmosphere. Hei stared at his box window.

"I wish I could be close to the sky."

Hohenheim followed his gaze.

"You can rarely even see the sky here."

Hei nodded.

"That's why I want to be back in Munich… when I die."

Hohenheim swallowed.

"Don't talk of dying."

Hei stuck out his tongue at the hospital wall, and for a moment Hohenheim was transported back 14 years - to a five year old Ed having a hissy fit.

"Just 'cause no one ever talks about it doesn't mean it doesn't happen." Hei stubbornly refused to look at the older man. "When my parents died it was so sudden… they didn't even get a chance to talk about it. Even if they wanted to. They… they were taken away from me so suddenly, so easily. I never wanted to die like that."

"You wont."

Hei shook his head.

"I want to be strong. I wish I was stronger. But… Dammit!" His fist hit his leg from where he sat on the hospital bed. "I'm scared. I'm scared to die." A tear ran down his face, leaving sorrow in its wake.

Hohenheim stood from the wooden chair he was residing it, then sat on the edge of the boys bed. He patted the boys knee slightly awkwardly, but determinedly. The way a father determinedly buys tissues and chocolate when his only daughter breaks up with her first boyfriend.

"Everyone's afraid of death." Hohenheim soothed. "People who say they aren't are liars."

Hei kept crying.

"I… I still have so much to do."

Hohenheim swallowed again. He held out a hand and Hei clutched at it. Hohenheim glared sadly at the floor - Hei's clutch was so weak.

"I'll take you." Another swallow. "To Munich."

Please don't kill me… D: