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Chapter 7

Winry woke up slowly and looked around the room for anyone who might be watching her. She strained her ears to hear outside of her door, but couldn't hear anyone. She smiled; she had been hoping no one would be around to keep her in bed.

She got dressed as quickly as she could with only one arm, and cursed it for probably the fifth time since she had been home.

She was just about to open her door when she heard Den snoring outside. She chewed on her lip wondering if he would keep quiet if she came out. She slowly turned around to see the door Ed had made the other day, he hadn't gotten the chance to get rid of it, and she got a dark glint in her eyes when she realized it was the perfect escape rout.

She tiptoed down the makeshift steps, and wondered if anyone would see her sneaking to her work area if she walked around the house? She felt awake and fine; there was really no reason why she shouldn't be able to see what kind of work she could get done with only one arm. Pinako would probably say something about testing the luck of her other arm… but if push came to shove, she would just have to mention that it would even things out.

She was just making her way to her toolbox when she heard a snort behind her. She went stiff.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Winry turned around to face Ed, and rubbed the back of her head with innocence, "I was just going to… get something…. to fix… something…"

"Uh-huh. Get inside and eat before auntie takes out her pipe." Ed turned to go back into the house with an amused smile on his face. And Winry followed reluctantly

Breakfast could have gone better. With Winry growling at Pinako about how she was already ready for auto-mail because her arm had stopped bleeding the first day, while Pinako argued back, that the wound wasn't nearly healed enough for such surgery, and Ed and Al prodding their food trying to act as if they weren't listening, they badly needed an interruption.

Just as Winry was mumbling something about how you can't wait too long to attach auto-mail because the nerves won't work properly anymore, and Pinako arguing back that that wasn't true, the phone rang.

Both Ed and Al nearly upturned the dinner table trying to get to the phone first. When Al picked it up, he sighed before handing it to Ed.

"What now?" It was nearly a whine.

"You better be on a train right now…"

"If I was on a train you wouldn't be talking to me right now."

"Exactly"

Ed could almost see the superior smile on Roy's face, followed shortly by a displeased frown as Ed hung up on him. He slumped his way back to the table and grumbled.

"Al and I have to go back to HQ, the Colonel wants us for something"

That seemed to stop dead any conversation that had been going on between Pinako and Winry.

"What? When?" Winry looked caught off guard with surprise.

"Today would probably be best…"

She cast her eyes down, "oh…"

Ed tried to flash her an encouraging smile, "It's okay, we'll go and see what he wants, but we'll be back before you have your auto-mail"

She managed a weak smile, knowing that that probably wasn't true

Ed swayed one of his crossed legs; counting the minutes he sat impatiently waiting on Roy's office couch, until the door finally opened.

When Roy walked in smoothly to sit down on his desk, there was a moment of silence in the room.

Ed thrummed his fingers on his crossed arms and decided to be the first one to speak, "I've been waiting here for 10 and a half minutes, what do you want?"

Roy gave one of his deadpan stares; "I received a call the other day informing me that a Mr. Frederic Leaning had died. The report came from someone who heard it from his wife, who, coincidently, places someone who bare a striking resemblance to you, at the scene of death, but claims that you weren't the one who killed him."

Ed tried to keep his face from showing any emotion.

"This came as a shock to me, for Mr. Leaning had actually worked for the military some years ago. The shock wasn't that he died; the shock was because he was already supposed to be dead. I figure that you, Ed, would be able to explain this… seeing that you were so close to the man."

Ed frowned, of course there was more going on than he had thought. He stood up, "All I knew was that he had preformed a human transmutation, and probably killed a few of his siblings. I came to his house to find out more, but someone else managed to kill him before me."

Roy chewed on the words for a minute, "Faking his own death would make murder a lot easier. He was a rich man though, why would he want to kill anyone?"

Ed shrugged, "I think when I got to him he was actually living off the last of his money."

"Hmm. Someone else was found dead in your hometown, a Miss Lin Diluce. Mrs. Leaning mentioned that for a few days the girl had been working as a nurse in the house. I thought you might want to know."

Ed sighed, wondering how close Winry had been to that fate, "So what does this have to do with me?"

Roy lifted his brow, "That's what I was going to ask you. You aren't allowed to go off on your own missions anymore Ed, especially without informing me before hand."

"It was a spur of the moment thing. So what's Leaning's story?"

Roy sighed, "He had a quiet life in the military, he even managed to die before the eastern war. It had been some accident with his gun, I believe. He was hardly important, and didn't have many comrades, when he died he was mostly forgotten. Seems he was a little more crazy than we gave him credit for." (a/d goddamn it! Now I have to finish up this whole little plot…)

Didn't seem like this man could be much of an obstacle for the Homunculus. For the first time he hardly felt curious about it, whatever it was, it couldn't possibly be that important.

Ed stood up and stretched, "Well, if that's it Colonel, I have some other business to attend to."

"I know you're not telling me everything, Ed. And frankly, I don't care. But you're still required to give a full report. You can write whatever you want, but you still have to write it. If you're also planning on going back to Rizenbul, then you have to file the necessary papers for another trip if it has nothing to do with your auto-mail or your orders." With a hint of knowing, a smidgen of sarcasm, and pinch of disappointment, Roy managed the perfect authoritative smirk.

Ed slumped. Great. He would probably have to stay another day.

A pile of crisp papers landed in front of Roy, making him have to look up lazily, with just enough confusion to make it not matter.

"Just for you I added a funds report as well, and a whole page that should explain why I hate you so much…"

Ed turned on his heel and walked out the door just as Roy looked at the top page to see a doodled picture of dog lifting his leg to what was probably the representation of the Colonel on fire. Which by all means wasn't really an explanation of why Ed hated him, as it was a metaphorical threat of what he'd like to do to him.

A/n BLAST! that's the shortest one yet. Sorry folks! Last chapter will be longest!