Disclaimer: well since everyone else seems to be doing these in every chapter I might as well too. I'mpretty sure Idon't own any of the nouns mentioned in this story, unless of course I've accidentaly made something, in which case... HA!

Chapter 2

Pinako starred at Winry with that tight lipped, razed brow, pipe in the mouth look.

"Don't look at me like that, it's not like I did anything wrong."

"I'm surprised you two could make it through the door with everything you bought…"

Winry narrowed her eyes; she could hear the unvoiced words of Pinako's voice. It was clear what she was thinking; she could even hear them in her head, "You know Ed shouldn't be worn out that much after such hard times, you should be more careful with him, you shouldn't spend all of his money… even if it is really the military's. And you shouldn't buy so many things that we don't even need." With a deep sigh she rested her head on her folded arms, and looked up at Pinako from the table (not something she found herself doing often)

"Do you know where he is? I should start working on his arm… it's getting late."

Pinako looked out the screen door and puffed out a circle of smoke, "I think he's outside with Al… he was sleeping earlier."

Winry rolled her eyes at the subtlety of Pinako's remark. Once again she was hinting on how much she really shouldn't have taken Ed out all day. My god! You would think she had put him through mortal peril or something.

She slowly slid herself off of the seat and slunk out into the back yard; anything to get away from that glare.

"So brother how was it today with Winry?"

Ed snorted, Al wasn't much for sarcasm, but Ed could hear the chuckle in his brother's voice as he asked the nearly rhetorical question.

"It's not horrible… I like to see when she's happy," morbid expression readied, Ed decided to finish with a more dignified and less obvious sentence, "It makes up for how often we make her sad."

All looked down in thought, they were doing that more often these days. It seemed like Winry was in a constant state of worry… Pinako seemed indifferent to the whole thing; she seemed to know that the brothers needed to do what they were doing.

"Ed?"

Ed twisted around in the grass to look up at Winry, the nearly set sun cast shadows over her face, and made her expression hard to place, but Ed knew what she was there for, "Yeah…" He stood up and followed Winry into the living room.

Ed bit his lip against the searing pain that shot through his shoulders and down his spine as Winry attached his arm. Leaning over, he grabbed his auto-mail shoulder with his good hand and braced himself through the pain. With a strained smirk he looked up to Winry, "Smooth as…" He noticed her tensed features and watering eyes, "…always."

"I'll…" She whispered and swallowed, "I'll stay here till you fall asleep. We haven't had to reattach your arm in a while, I… I have to make sure everything is working properly."

Ed's face eased with her words, even though he was the one going through the pain, it was hurting her so much more "I'll be fine; you should go to bed." He shifted on the couch till he was lying down, and closed his eyes.

"No!"

Surprised by her outburst, he opened one of his eyes to look at her.

"You're here now, and I'm going to take care of you whether you like it or not!"

He snorted amusedly, how could he say no to that? His thoughts wandered around that feeling for a moment. He did like her taking care of him… and he couldn't quite figure out at what point that had started to happen.

Ok… so falling off the couch and nearly crushing Winry wasn't his first choice for starting his morning, but what can you do? Lucky for his reflexes that he had managed to get his hands on either side of her head and hold himself above her before he made a complete landing. Well… I guess the Auto-mail is working. What was she doing sleeping on the floor anyways? And when had he ever fallen off the couch before? His thoughts were quickly wiped clear when he noticed her stirring in her sleep. He propped himself up and managed to get to his feet before she fully woke up.

With a soft murmur Winry rolled over and onto her side, falling back into deep sleep.

Ed played with the idea of picking her up and putting her on the couch, but decided against it, you never really know what mood she's going to wake up in, and it was better that she didn't wake up with the shock of being held bridal style in his arms. His smile was short lived, as the image of all that flushed his cheeks.

Ugg… How could fighting the Homunculi, arguing with the military, and creating the philosophers stone not be enough to distract him from this? He shook his head. He needed to eat something.

In an unconscious sense she actually enjoyed the warm and sloppy kisses, but after her flustered giggling woke her up, and she found Den smiling over her face, she was happy that she couldn't remember what she had been dreaming about. Besides the colossal crink in her neck, she actually felt well rested though, and ready for breakfast.

By the time she sat down at the table with her plate of jellied toast, she just noticed the note tapped to the door. When she got up to read it, she was surprised that it was in Pinako's writing… she usually didn't take the time to write her notes.

Winry… the boys are off somewhere, and I wont be back till later. Do something useful and make dinner.

She shredded the letter and let the pieces fall to the ground through her fingers. "I'm sorry auntie! I had no idea you wanted me to make dinner… Den must have gotten to the note before I did!" Winry snickered and went back to her toast.

Sparks flew past her as Winry worked on a welding project outside. She figured since everyone was gone she would be able to finally work on it in peace, besides, she didn't want Ed to see it till she was finished.

She was surprised when she heard knocking from somewhere in the house. Who ever it was had fantastic timing; she had just been about to start hammering away again.

She wiped her forehead and walked into the house to answer the door. Her heart nearly stopped in her throat when she saw that it was the man she had met the other day. She felt that it was completely illogical that she would be frightened of this man, but something in her told her to be.

"I asked you politely before, but now I'm going to have to take more drastic measures this time." Without asking to be let in, the man stepped through the threshold and took hold of Winry's arm and pulled her towards him, "Grab any supplies you'll need to make a leg and I'll let you keep your arm."

Winry swallowed and tried to keep her jaw from shacking. She knew she wasn't strong enough to fight this man, and she knew resisting him would just end in pain. She also knew that the only reason this man would be acting so harshly would be because he had something to hide, which meant she would probably have to do what he told her until either Ed or Al came home… which she hoped would be any moment. This man probably thought she lived alone, which would be true any other time.

"I just n-need to get some of my tools and a base l-leg," She pointed a shacking hand towards the workroom.

The man glared at her for a moment, "Is there a backdoor?"

She nodded.

"Where?" He tightened his grip on her arm.

She pointed towards the other door, and the man seemed satisfied that he would be able to guard both without her being able to get away.

"Is it for a man or a… woman?"

"Why?"

"The leg is different…"

"Woman." He looked around nervously, "Don't waste time." He pushed her away and watched as she tripped her way to the workroom, trying to make her legs work properly.

When she emerged with a toolbox and a limp metal leg, the man seemed satisfied, and wasted no time in getting a hold of her arm again. He pulled her outside to his car, and before throwing her into the backseat; he tied a tight black scarf around her head to cover her eyes.

The man peered through the window of the backseat, "Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise of where we're going…" He smiled and quickly slid into the drivers seat.

Winry curled in on herself and let the blindfold dry her tears. What was happening? Everything was going by so quickly, how could everything go wrong so fast? She had been happy if not content only moments ago, and now she wasn't sure she was going to be alive tomorrow. She knew that she just had to finish what this man wanted her to do; maybe he would let her go.
The ride seemed to go on forever, as Winry drifted in and out of attention, one moment everything would seem sickeningly real and the next it all felt like a dream that shifted in and out of reality. The man driving the car never spoke, and she hardly felt inclined to question what was happening. She felt that the less she knew, the less she could be hurt.
Finally the car came to a gravelly stop, slowly easing its way into some sort of driveway. Winry could notice her black world become slightly darker, as they no doubt pulled into a carport.
She heard a door click open and slam closed, before one of the back seat doors was opened and she was pulled out awkwardly. She stumbled for footing as if she had never stood a day in her life, and could feel a slight tug on the back of her head as the man untied her blindfold.
She squinted in the dim light and tried to get her bearings. They seemed to be in a clean garage surrounded by bare white walls, and a dank floor.
The man shoved Winry's supplies into her arms, and grumbled that she follow him through a small wooden door.
As she stepped into the foyer she found herself in a house that showed wealth beyond what she figured this man had. Everything seemed white and inviting, and everything that wasn't white held a comforting brown tone that seemed to fill your being with a since of warmth.
Caught of guard by the comforting surroundings, Winry felt jolted when the man asked in a business like tone for her to follow him down into a lower floor of the house.
Once through the door and down a narrow flight of wooden stairs, Winry found herself in a much darker world. Cement walls were lit dimly with dirty candles and the hard wooden floor complained under their weight, as they made their way down the hall.
The man turned to his right and lifted his hand to a lonesome door. Once it was opened, he grabbed Winry's arm once again and shoved her in before him.
As she stumbled into the room, Winry came upon a sight that nearly made her faint on the spot.
"Miss Rockbell… this is my wife."

A/n whew... lot of little page breaks in that one... didn't realize that before. Well... hope you like it anyways