Inextricable
Chapter Four: Intersections

Winry didn't know how Ed and Al had spent so much time on trains. They were terribly uncomfortable, and it took so long to get anywhere. The trains never seemed to run through any of the pretty parts of any of the towns they passed through, either.

She folded up Al's last letter and tucked it back into her bag, wishing all the while that Hoyle were on the way to Central from Rizembool rather than beyond it. I'll have to a make the trip once I'm settled. She'd written ahead to Gracia, explaining her plans. She wanted to tell Ed in person.

I wonder if he'll be mad. He might be mad, she knew. It was hard to tell how he'd react. He might not want her to be where he was or he might be glad to have someone there from his past, now that Al was away.

Al's letters always made her smile. He would go on and on about the way things tasted or smelled or felt or really looked. It broke her heart at the same time. She'd known that his armor shell cut him off from the world, but when he talked about how differently he experienced the world, the years he'd spent trapped seemed all the more cruel. No wonder Ed was so driven. If anyone but Al could understand what a narrow life he'd led for all of those years, it would be Ed — the one who'd made the devil's bargain to capture his brother's soul.

She'd made the trip often enough to recognize the signs that they were almost to Central Station, and Winry found herself feeling nervous. Silly. Even if he is mad, he'll still be glad to see you. In his own way.

Gracia-san's smiling face greeted her first thing. She didn't even have to look around to find that welcome. Beside her, nearly jumping up and down in her excitement, stood Elysia.

Where's Ed? Winry hadn't realized how worried she was of her welcome until she didn't see him standing beside Gracia-san.

She stepped down from the train onto the platform, paying too much attention to her bag to distract herself from her worries. A strangely off-kilter galloping noise caught her attention, however, and she looked up to see Ed dashing across the platform toward her. She inhaled sharply at the sight of him, golden hair and red coat flying wildly, and she found herself moving toward him.

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Ed knew he was late and ran from the car with a yelled, "Thanks! Be back in a minute!" at Falman. With a throat-clearing understatedness, the man had suggested that Ed could hand out assignments and take a break to meet the train — and, then perhaps, get into uniform — before returning to the investigation.

Oh, Ed had thought. Is that how it works when you're in charge? But he knew, now that he considered it, that it did. Or, at least that's how Mustang had always done things. Give everyone else stuff to do and then head out the door at five o'clock with a gorgeous woman on his arm.

It wasn't five o'clock, but it was late, and there were gorgeous women involved — Ed didn't want any of the three of them to be mad at him. He flashed his watch at the security guards, vaulted over the turnstiles, and ran for the platform.

Something twisted oddly in his chest when he saw Winry standing by the train, looking down at her bag with an uncharacteristic, unhappy expression on her face. God, I missed her.

She looked up and saw him, and her face transformed into a smile as stunning as a slap. It seemed to Ed the most natural thing in the world to open his arms to her as she ran to meet him.

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Ed caught Winry in an embrace that wiped away any worries she had about her welcome. His whispered, "Missed you," in her ear brought tears to her eyes.

"Me, too," she breathed. They pulled back from the hug, grinning at each other like they were little kids again. Gracia-san stood by, watching, beaming and Elysia had started to bounce in earnest.

"Me, too! Me, too!" she exclaimed, and Winry hugged the girl tight.

Ed saw to her bags, and they all wandered out to the cars, talking about nothing important. Gracia-san had driven and offered to take Winry back to the house.

"I have a case," Ed said, looking down at the sidewalk and scuffing a foot self-consciously as he said this. "Hawkeye put me in charge. I have to go back to the office and see how things are going. I tried, but I didn't have any time off left after getting Al ready for—"

"Ed, it's fine," Winry interrupted. "I dropped out of the sky on you, practically, and I have things to do now that I'm here. I don't need you — or you, Gracia-san — to entertain me the whole time."

"You can come for supper, can't you, Ed-niisan?" Elysia asked, looking plaintive.

"Wouldn't miss it!" he replied, grinning at the girl. He turned to Winry and, for a fleeting moment, she thought he was going to hug her again. Instead, after a split-second's awkward pause, he gave her a firm nod and a rasped, "It's great you're here, Winry," before he climbed into his car and was driven away.

"Are you going to tell him tonight?" Gracia-san asked as they drove through town.

"If it doesn't seem weird. I don't want him to feel like he has to look out for me. I can do this myself; I just want him to know and to be okay with it."

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Scieszka loved coffee-shop coffee which had the nice side-effect for Ed that she never felt taken advantage-of about getting coffee for him, too. She'd been on her way out for a cup when he'd made it back to the office after a brief stop-off at his dorm to clean up and change into his uniform, so he'd asked for his favorite.

The uniform didn't feel right to him — and maybe it didn't fit right. He'd check with Gracia-san to see what she thought. But Falman wasn't wrong. If he was going to be officially in charge, he ought to present himself accordingly.

He looked up from the preliminary reports that had already come back from the police detectives from the scene when Scieszka returned, announcing her presence by setting down his cup of coffee with a flourish.

Her manner had calmed down considerably from when he'd first met her — but then, so has mine — and she did a much better job of staying focused on the job at hand. Of course, Ed always appreciated the odd connections she was able to make thanks to her vast and catholic reading habits, so her fear of getting in trouble for being caught reading had receded fairly quickly as they'd worked together, too.

But now she was standing on the other side of his desk, looking about as ready to bounce with excitement as Elysia.

Smiling, Ed tore a page from Mustang's notebook, picked up his coffee and took a sip as he leaned back and regarded her. "Anything to report?" he asked.

"That circle, sir," she said. "I know where it's from." She slapped the book down in front of him, her finger marking the page. "Right here."

Ed stared at the page and felt the blood drain from his face as his eyes widened in shock. Oh, shit.