Post Birth

Ed and Winry took Charlie to the hospital the next morning. They left Ethan and Anthony in the care of Pinako until they could return and called Alphonse down in case they needed the extra help with Charlie's return home.

Charlie was immediately placed in a hospital's version of Pinako's incubator. His oxygen had been replaced with the hospital's oxygen, and the young parents could only sit and wait.

"Doctor..." Winry trailed off when she was able to track down the doctor looking over Charlie's care. "Is it something I did? Could I have avoided this by not doing a home delivery?"

"No," the doctor replied. "You didn't do anything wrong. Sometimes these things just happen, but there are sometimes higher risks. If you've previously had a pre-term birth, or if you've even previously been pregnant could increase the risks. But you still would have gone into labor too soon and it would have been here instead of at your home."

"I told you," Ed commented. "Granny did a great job at handling everything, too. You should have seen how calm she was, Win."

"I'm sure she was calm," Winry added. "I just want my baby to be okay."

It felt like hours as the two watched their child through a glass window, being poked and prodded at by nurses and doctors.

Ed and Winry were hoping something would happen.

And finally, something did.

Charlie flat-lined.

Nurses and doctors rushed to the incubator to make sure he was breathing again. It was difficult to revive such a small body, but they managed to do it. After the incident, the doctor called Edward and Winry to Charlie's bedside.

"Charlie flat-lined," the doctor spoke, though he already knew the parents had been watching. "He's incredibly small. It's difficult to revive him, but judging from his monitoring thus far, it seems like his lungs are actually decreasing in function."

"What does that mean?" Ed asked.

"It's getting harder for your son to breathe," the doctor clarified. "Now, he's been trying to breathe on his own, and we've been watching that. But eventually, these machines are going to be the only thing keeping him alive."

"What do we do?" Winry asked.

"You either prepare to leave your son on machines for the rest of his life, or you let him go," the doctor explained. "We have a chapel down the hall. Please let us know what you decide." He then walked away.

"God dammit!" Ed exclaimed, taking his arm to the hospital wall. He couldn't just let his son die! What had he done to deserve that? Where was the equivalent exchange? Charlie hadn't done anything wrong...

Ed then turned to see Winry. She was hunched over the incubator with her eyes shut, saying nothing. She did nothing. She just waited.

"Winry?" Ed asked.

"We have to let him go."

"What?"

"We have to let him go," Winry repeated. "He can't live his entire life on machines. It isn't right. He'd be in pain for the rest of his life."

"We can't just let him go; he's a human being!" Ed shouted.

"We don't have a choice!" Winry brought a hand up to her eyes and wiped at tears. "Ed, if I were living off of machines in immense pain, I would want to go. We should let him go."

Ed paused.

"I don't think I can do it," Ed spoke. "I can't let him go, Winry."

"I know," Winry replied. "I know, I know, I know." She moved from the incubator and wrapped her arms around her husband. "Believe me, Ed. I know." She let the tears flow. "He's my baby boy, and I have to watch him go."

"How can we just watch it happen?" Ed asked. "How can we just watch him die and not do anything to stop it?"

"We're going to comfort him through it," Winry answered. "We're going to hold that baby and we're going to wait for him to fall asleep. And when he does, he'll be gone."

"Okay."

Winry and Ed each took turns holding Charlie while he was still hooked up to the machines. Upon request, the doctors turned off the oxygen, allowing Charlie to try and breathe on his own.

"I love you so much, Charlie," Ed spoke to his son. "I love you more than the world." Ed hadn't felt such an overwhelming urge to commit human transmutation since his mother had died. Now he knew how Izumi felt.

Winry felt her heart being crushed as she watched her son's tiny chest rise and fall so heavily with no oxygen reaching his lungs.

And as Charlie's eyes slipped shut, Winry whispered to him.

"Goodnight, baby boy."

Shit I did it again. I was only two hours late.