A/N: And here we are with our monthly updates! :)

Piper: Sorry that it's only monthly, by the way. It sucks for us as well.

Mati: Right now, we're honestly just trying to hold on until summer arrives...Although, we are going to Singapore, so that might not be much of a change. :/

Lilli: *groans* Gods, it's going to be so hot...

Piper: Oh, stop complaining. It'll be nice.

Lilli: But hot...

Mati: Anyways. That's us. Again, back to the story! We actually have a one-shot that we haven't published yet. With luck, we'll remember and post it soon! There are about...four or five chapters left, hopefully, including the epilogue. We'll have to see.

Lilli: Until then, enjoy this chapter! We'll be back with a new chapter next month! Hopefully!

Disclaimer: Nope. We don't own FMA. It's probably for the best, to be honest.

Chapter Thirty-Five

I woke up a lot later than I expected; the sun was shining brightly in the sky when I groggily opened my eyes. I gave a small groan and turned onto my side, not wanting to get up. It was too damn cold to get up yet. Nevertheless, I had to get my ass out of bed if I was going to make sure my plan could work. After all, I only had a few days left at most. That, of course, was the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario was that I had until tonight.

I slowly got up and got dressed as quietly as I could, grabbing my coat off of a nearby chair. On the way out the door, I paused to grab a bagel, biting into it with a small grimace. Ugh, onions. With my free hand, I opened the front door and walked out. The door closed with a small snick behind me.

I finished off my bagel and dusted off my hands as I began to walk towards the nearest phone booth. If it wasn't the right one, I'd have to go...to the one on Marble Street, that was the closest. Then...the one on Ludwig Street, right? Ugh. This task would take a while.

Time to get started.

Nope.

...Close, but nope.

That's not even the right colour!

Is this it…? No, there aren't any trees. There were trees, right?

After many, many, hours, I finally found what I was looking for. Or at least I hoped I did. It looked like how I remembered it; some woods behind it, a streetlamp nearby. It was close to the military offices, too, so that was a plus. A part of me protested that I barely remembered the location, so I could be totally wrong. I ignored it.

I stared at it for a few seconds, feeling slightly sad. So. This is where, if I had found the right place, I was to succeed or fail. I hoped to God that it was the former. With a small sigh, I turned and began to head towards the hotel where I had stayed with the Elric brothers and Nina. I would pick up Nina and ask the boys when we planned to leave, then tell them that I was staying for a bit longer. Hopefully, they wouldn't ask any questions.

I didn't turn around to look at the phonebooth once.

Nina jumped at me and nearly knocked me over the moment I opened the door. Luckily, I managed to right myself. My arms instinctively wrapped around the small dog-girl and I gave a surprised laugh. "Hello to you, too."

"Welcome h...home!" Nina stumbled slightly on the words, but I could definitely tell that her speech was improving. For some reason, that thought made me feel a bit sad again.

"Aw, thank you, Nina! How was your night?"

"Big Br...other Al...talked to Big Brother Ed on the phone.." Nina gave a small shrug. "I...think we're...leaving tom...orrow. They didn't s...say where."

Tomorrow? Dear god, that's far too soon… I gave a sigh and forced a smile on my face. "Oh? Thank you for telling me. Where are they right now?"

Nina said nothing, just looked at me with a cocked head. I could tell that she knew that I was keeping something from her. Well...if she thought so, then there was no point in me not telling her at least a bit.

"Hey, baby girl?" The endearment slipped out of my mouth before I could think of it, and I gave a small wince. Nina didn't look like she minded, though. "Can you keep a secret?"

"Mmhm…"

"I'll tell Big Brother Ed and Al later, but...I'm not going to be on the train with you. Not immediately. I need to do something before I join you, okay?"

She gave a small nod. "Okay…" Without warning, she nuzzled her face in my neck. "Stay...safe, okay?"

I grinned down at her. "Of course. Don't worry won't get in trouble."

"Doubt it."

...Unfortunately, she had a point. Nina gave her small snuffle-laugh, not doubt amused by the slightly pained look on my face. "Yes, well…Where are the boys?"

"Out. Dunno where."

"Hm...okay. I suppose I'll talk to them later. For now, do you want to go out?"

"Mmkay. Can we...get ice cream?"

"Of course."

Surprisingly, Ed and Al were at the ice cream shop where Nina and I went. Their heads were fairly close together, and Ed looked serious, as if what they were discussing was extremely important. If that was so, I had no idea why they'd choose an ice cream shop to talk, but whatever. I just hoped that they weren't talking about things that were too secretive. It'd definitely suck and be more than a bit sad if somebody that could kill us learned crucial information while they ordered vanilla ice cream. Not that I have anything against vanilla ice cream, of course.

I plopped down in an empty chair next to them and slumped a bit, putting my arms behind my head. Nina went to sit near Ed. "I hope you're not talking of things of national importance."

The two of them started and turned to me, Ed's face clearly showing relief when he saw me. "Oh, it's just you."

I raised an eyebrow. "Just me." A waiter saw me and came over, asking what I wanted. "Oh, uh, just a chocolate milkshake, please. And a bowl of vanilla ice cream."

"No, we weren't talking about anything like that," Al told me, shaking his head slightly. "We were talking about...maybe…" Now his head began to actually shake. "Going to...see...Teacher…"

I knew that it was coming, but I couldn't stop the shiver of terror that went down my spine. Dear God. She's going to kill us all. With a shaky exhale, I laid my head down on the table. "Sig's going to sell us in the butcher's shop…"

"I'm too young to die…" Ed moaned.

Al's entire body just began to shake.

The waiter came with my milkshake and Nina's ice cream. I took them without paying much attention to what I was doing and passed the ice cream down to Nina.

Nina began happily eating, oblivious to our despair.

After a bit more of despairing and mentally writing our wills, we finally got around to actually discussing going to Dublith. It turned out that they indeed planned to go tomorrow and apparently Winry was going with them.

"But, of course, you probably already knew it all." Ed pointed out, eyebrow raised. I gave a small shrug and didn't say a word. He was right, of course, but it helped to have a confirmation.

"Something wrong?" Al asked. "You look like you're going to tell us something that we're not going to like."

I gave a small laugh. Of course, they could read me pretty well. "Yeah, I'm not going to be joining you guys."

Ed's eyes widened. "You're going to leave us alone with Teacher?!"

"As much as I'd love to do that...no, I need to talk to Teacher, too. I'm just not going to join you just yet. I have some stuff to do."

"Like? Is there anything we can help with?" Al asked.

I shook my head. "No, no, it's fine. It's nothing serious. I can handle it myself." A bit of guilt shot through me, but I ignored it. They don't need to know, I told myself. Ignorance is bliss.

The boys exchanged a look, but said nothing.

"So," I asked, swiftly changing the subject, "You guys are taking a detour to Rush Valley, right?"

"Don't remind me," Ed groaned. "Winry won't stop talking about it."

"Just don't let her convince you to get stuff."

"She's going to go bleed us dry of money..."

A soldier hurried past the shop, paused, then backtracked to look through the window. He looked at me and rushed inside.

"Ms. Morgan?"

"Yes, that's me."

"A message from Colonel Mustang." He passed me a folded piece of paper.

I cautiously opened it and read the message.

Morgan,

The materials for the operation are here. Please inform me when the operation is commencing.

Mustang

I sighed and nearly refolded the paper when a thought struck me. I quickly reopened the note then turned to the soldier. "Do you have a pen, by any chance?" He nodded and produced a pen, tossing it to me. I caught it and scribbled a quick Tomorrow on the note, then refolded it and handed it back to the soldier. "Make sure he gets this, please. Is there anything else?"

"No, ma'am." He saluted, then turned and left.

"What was that about?" Al asked me.

I forced myself to give a nonchalant shrug. "He just wanted to ask me about something."

"Oh?"

"It's...nothing special."