Well hello again! I see I've had some reviews (thanks to Fullmetal Ai, urbanfae, TiNyLoVeBuBBLes, and snwbnny!), which I've enjoyed reading. I do agree with you, snwbnny, at first when I came up with this idea. But then I got to thinking…Yeah she can do a lot of the same stuff Ed does, but hell…Look at her temper! It could make for some pretty interesting spats they are known for having!

Thank you again! And please, please, PLEASE, if anyone has any questions if you could post them. I'll get back to them, and try to explain as much as I can without spoiling the story.

One more thing... I have tried so hard to keep these characters (cough who I don't own cough) true to how you would see them in the series and the manga. I have also followed a lot of the manga for certain plot points, though they really don't make a huge difference in the overall story. So, if you see something that doesn't quite fit plotwise from the anime, most likely it came from the manga.

Enjoy!

Chapter Three

Winry believed that if the pain and amount of blood she lost from the stab wound didn't kill her, Edward would. She remembered being exhausted while lowering herself to the ground after the exam, and looked towards the crowd. Since people were already starting to leave the arena she was able to see Alphonse and Edward clearly. It seemed he was staring directly at her, as though he was trying to figure out who she was. She had just lowered her head more on her descent, when all of a sudden her body gave out and a terrible pain shot through her arm into her spine. She knew she had lost a lot of blood. She hurried to get down to the ground, but remembered falling and then blacking out when someone caught her. She awoke soon after, realizing she was in Colonel Mustang's arms. He was running with her towards the infirmary. He got her into a room and a nurse hooked up an IV to put some more blood in the teenager's pale body. He stood by the door with his arms crossed, with her blood still over his uniform.

"I'm sorry Colonel. I didn't mean to get hurt like that. I shouldn't have let my barrier down. I bet I just screwed up my chances of making it…" Winry apologized weakly.

"Save your apologies. You did what you thought was best in the current situation. You cannot fault yourself for something that you cannot change," he replied sternly.

The nurse began to take Winry's coat off and laid it on a chair. Underneath the girl wore a tank top, so the nurse sighed in relief that she could get started stitching up her wound. It was deep and went completely through the girl's arm, but it looked to have barely cut an artery, which was causing all the blood loss. With the assistance of other medical personnel they were able to get the artery closed and then begin the stitching of the skin. Tears flowed down Winry's face from the amount of pain she was experiencing, but deep down she knew she deserved it. Next time she wouldn't let her guard down so willingly. A few minutes of silence passed before anyone spoke.

"I gave permission for the Elric brothers to come straight back here. It seems like something they would do," Mustang said blatantly. Winry sighed and then cringed as the nurse finished stitching both sides of the wound.

"Do you want me to cover your arm so they do not see it? I guessed you haven't told them yet of your…attachments yet."

Winry waved slightly with her left arm. "No, Colonel Mustang. Thank you for the offer though. I figure if they were there for the whole exam then they saw what I had to do to get my lightning attack to work."

A small knock was heard coming from the door, and Winry quickly turned over on her right side, which caused a painful hiss and a few explicative words to escape her mouth. She didn't want to see the brothers at that exact moment. The longer she could put it off, the better. The Colonel opened the door to find a small soldier who delivered a message to the superior. He took it and again closed the door. Sighing, Winry slowly turned back over slightly to face the officer. He read the document for a few moments and a small smile showed on his features. Folding the note up and putting it in one of his pockets he walked over to the girl and shook her left hand.

"I'd like to be the first to congratulate you on your acceptance into the military as a State Alchemist. This message is from the Fuhrer, who was in attendance at the exam today. From now on you will be known as the Thunder-Blade Alchemist, and also as the first woman alchemist to be accepted into the military with the title of State Alchemist. You will also be put under my direct supervision, much like the Edward."

Winry slowly and painfully lifted her right arm and saluted the Colonel. "Thank you. I have noticed you seem to be running a day-care more and more recently."

Another knock now sounded from the door. Winry laid down on her right side once more, causing a shooting pain to go down her arm and back. Hearing the Colonel exiting the room to the waiting brothers took her mind off the pain, which surprisingly didn't bother her at the moment. She was too happy. She finally was able to do something people had told her these last few years she couldn't do. But what was Edward going to think? She still had a lingering fear in the back of her mind that he would hate her for doing something such as this.

She heard him arguing with Mustang outside her room and couldn't believe he would forget that he was in a hospital. Getting an evil idea, she beckoned for the nurse to come over. She asked her to deliver a message for the Colonel to tell the visitors. Then she laid back down and waited for the explosion. "I guess it's now or never," she whispered to herself.

Sure enough she heard Edward fly off the handle and barge into her room. "Just who the hell do you think you are?"

This was it. There was no backing out now.

"Hey, Ed…" She said as she painfully turned towards her friend, her left arm fully exposed. "Did'ja miss me?" she said slowly. Pain was slowly starting to take her over again. She was too stressed at the moment. She saw her best friend stop in his tracks; the confused and hurt expression etched permanently into her brain till the end of time. He couldn't move from the spot he was in.

"Win…Winry?"

She slowly nodded. She saw and heard the gasp coming from Alphonse from in the hallway. Mustang nodded to her and walked off towards his office. She looked back to Ed, just to see him still standing there confused and hurt. She couldn't even describe the pain she felt as she saw his expression. She wanted him to yell at her, comfort her, anything but just stand there and stare at her like he was. She attempted to prop herself with her left arm so she could sit up. The nurse came over and advised her that she should be resting and not trying to get up. She resisted the nurse's words and asked if she could be left alone for a few minutes with her friends. The nurse nodded and said she would be outside the door if any assistance were needed.

Alphonse came into the room as the nurse left and closed the door behind him. Edward finally stopped staring and faced one of the walls, seemingly interested in the medical devices. Winry knew he didn't want to her to see him upset. Silence filled the small space. No one wanted to say anything. Winry slowly lay on her back and stared at the ceiling. Great, she thought, he really does hate me now. Why did I do this?

"Um, Winry," began Al, "you were really great out there today. I think you surprised a lot of people."

"Yeah," Ed absently agreed, "a lot…"

"I didn't know you could do alchemy!" continued Al, "When did you begin to study it?"

"I, uh…Al…I'd rather not talk about it at this moment. I swear…" the pain was becoming a little worse now that the shock of the situation had worn off, "I swear I'll fill you in later on what's happened…"

"And about how you have that auto-mail arm? When were you planning on telling us that?" Ed spat from his corner. He still wasn't looking at his childhood friend.

"Brother! She said she'd tell us soon! I'm sure she has a good reason for not telling us before-"

"It doesn't matter!" Edward turned around and went up to the girl's bedside and grasped her left shoulder. "You did alchemy without having to draw a transmutation circle first! When did you see the gate? HOW did you see the gate?" Noticing she was not looking nor speaking to him, he lightly shook her shoulder, "Tell me dammit, WHEN?"

"While you were gone!" she turned sharply onto her right side, ripping a few of her stitches open. She hissed at the pain, but kept yelling, "Is that what you wanted to hear? It was while you were gone! Pinako wasn't at the house when I came home one day, there was something there, and now I have to have this thing for an arm!"

"What do you mean? Who was at the house?" Edward demanded.

"I don't know who he was. I was happy because I thought you had come home, but then you changed into a dark-haired guy, and he…" She stopped momentarily at the painful memory. " He was able to take different forms. I don't remember much now, but when I woke up I didn't have my left arm!"

Edward took a step back at this new information. Homunculus? How could that be? How did they know where she was? Did they think he was there? Is that why this happened? Is this all his fault?

Slowly, Winry began to roll back towards her left side. She propped herself up again, and held her right arm towards her body. Blood was now flowing freely down the cut again and would need to be re-stitched.

"Winry! You're bleeding!" exclaimed Al, who moved towards the door to get the nurse.

"Alphonse, don't you touch that door! I'm okay…I swear," Winry looked from the younger brother to Edward to see his face covered with his bangs, covering his eyes. "Edward…Please forgive me for not…" The girl's head began to pound with an extreme pain, which made her left hand slide off the bed trying to grab at her head. Slowly she felt herself begin to fall off the bed, but never felt the coldness of the floor.

Edward looked up in time to see Winry get pale and start to slide off the bed. He quickly closed the short distance and caught the girl before she was able to hit the floor. "Al!" he yelled. The younger brother nodded in understanding and opened the door looking for the nurse. She rushed in and helped Edward situate the girl back onto the bed. Immediately the nurse began stitching the wound up and putting more blood into the girl's IV. Edward held onto her left hand, her auto-mail hand, a feeling he never expected to get from his best friend. He watched as her eyes fluttered open and closed again for a few seconds. He wished he could see her blue eyes shining to him, now more than ever, just to let him know she would be all right. He saw the nurse inject something else into Winry's IV and asked what it was.

"Oh this? It's just a little sedative so she can rest tonight. Tomorrow we'll see how she is and, if everything goes well we'll most likely release her then."

He nodded, and reached up to move some of the hair that clung to her brow as the nurse left the room once again. The motion caused her eyes to open very slowly, and she seemed groggy.

"Edward, I'm sorry…I didn't…want to tell you…because I thought you'd…be mad at me for not…being able to… protect myself…" she slowly said as her eyes closed in slumber.

Tears threatened to spill from his eyes as he still held onto her automail hand, the one thing he wished never to happen to anyone else, let alone his best friend. "Al, I think I may have gotten some of that dirt in my eyes from the arena…" he said as he wiped his eyes, trying his best to face away from his brother.

"Brother, I know this is a bad time, but do you want me to go get some food for you? You were going to get some dinner after the exam, and you haven't had anything all day…" Al said, trying to lighten the situation a little. He knew how upset his brother was, and knew he hated showing a lot of emotion, but this was a different case. He knew how close the two were, as he was very close to Winry as well. Were it not for him being a suit of armor, he may have cried a whole lake by this point.

"No, Al. Thank you, though," replied Ed, not turning to look at him. "I'm going to stay here for a little while, so you can do whatever you want…"

"Okay." With that Al walked out of the room to leave the two friends alone. He sat down on the floor outside the door, just to be near to Winry's room if anything happened.

Edward left the girl's side briefly to grab a stool from the other side of the room. Sitting next to her left side, he held her hand and prepared himself for the long night he would have by her side.

Winry woke up hours later to see the lights dimmed. She looked to her right to see a new bandage on her right arm where she was stabbed. She attempted to lift her left arm but felt that it was heavier than normal. Looking back to her left, she was surprised to see Edward sitting on a stool next to her bed with his head lying on his left arm, fast asleep. He had her auto-mail hand clasped within his right hand. Not wanting to disturb her friend, she looked back to her injured arm and tried to lift it. It felt like a fire was going down her arm, but she continued to try anyway. After what seemed like an eternity, she was able to lay her arm on her stomach, so her hand pointed towards Edward. She studied his sleeping features for a few minutes; he seemed so peaceful.

I'm surprised he's still here. I thought he would have hated me for what I did and not want to ever see me again, Winry thought sadly to herself, but then again, he could just be waiting for me to wake up so he could yell at me for my stupidity and weakness. I mean, I couldn't even defend myself against an intruder…

Pinako and sensei both said he would overreact to the situation once he found out. Maybe they were wrong? But then again, he might just leave like he always does. Yeah, I know I'm also a 'dog-of-the-military' like he is now, but that doesn't mean he still can't leave me in the dust. I just wanted to prove to everyone that I could do something that I've been told I couldn't do. What is so wrong with that? Why is it so wrong for women to join the military as an alchemist? There are women in the regular military, hell, look at Hawkeye. She's a girl and she can wield guns better than anyone I've ever seen!

"Win…ry…" came a soft voice to her left. The girl tried not to jerk her hand away, fearing the boy was awake. But when she looked over, she could see that he was still fast asleep. I wonder what he's dreaming about that includes me. Maybe he's trying to strangle me, or something, for being so stupid.

Looking to see if anything in her area had changed, and seeing it hadn't, the girl decided to close her eyes and try to get some more sleep. She would need it for the argument that she was afraid would happen in the following days.