Disclaimer: Yay! Ai gets to write the Disclaimer this time! Okay, so, as previously stated in the previous chapters, we don't own Hagane no Renkinjutsushi in any way, shape or form. n.n For those who don't know, Hagane no Renkinjutsushi is the Japanese name for Fullmetal Alchemist, but you didn't need me to tell you that, did you?

Ai: We're sorry for the extended wait, ya'll! Lots of things have been going on since our last update. Most of them were pretty damn bad, too. xD; Onwards! -pose, sparkle-

Daughter

By Nyago and Fullmetal Ai (Cherry Studios)

Chapter Eight: Tell Her

Edward groaned, his eyes slowly opening, then closing again at the bright light that entered them. He heard the soft murmuring of voices throughout the area; his entire body ached. He began to attempt opening his eyes once more, and this time succeeded, thanks to a sudden shade blocking the light from entering his eyes.

"Mr. Elric?" A male voice asked quietly. Edward's swimming vision began to focus finally, and he saw the face of a man he was not familiar with.

"Where .. Where am I?" Edward groaned, not even bothering to ask who this man was.

"You're in the hospital, Mr. Elric. You're going to be all right." Edward's eyes widened. The memories of what happened earlier were all coming back to him in a flash, and he no longer cared about the aching of his body. He sat up quickly, only to be pushed down again by the man, who he guessed was a doctor.

"W-Winry! Where is Winry? Is she all right? Where is she? I need to see her, let me go!" Edward gasped out as he struggled against the doctor's hold.

"Mr. Elric, you need to rest! She's going to be all right, please-"

"I NEED TO SEE HER!" Edward yelled, struggling a bit more before his body reluctantly gave up and as he lay back down onto the uncomfortable mattress. Looking around, Ed began to notice the room around him. "…Where is she?" He asked again.

The doctor look back at him a bit uncomfortably. "She is just down the corner, Mr. Elric. I assure you, she is fine. A few nasty scratches on her arms and a bit of a big bump on her head, but other than that she is just fine."

Ed took a deep breath. At least she wasn't hurt as bad as me! his mind yelled. "By the way, your family is in the wing, would you like me to get them for you?" Ed stared at the man for a minute.

"…My daughter is among them, isn't she?" He asked.

"I assume you mean the small child I saw earlier crying. Yes, she is here... would you like me to bring her in?"

"…In a little while…" He answered.

"Very well Mr. Elric." With that said and done, the doctor walked out of the room, leaving Ed some time alone to think.

Down the hall where Ed and Winry were currently hospitalized, Alphonse Elric sat, holding onto a sleeping Trisha in his arms. The poor child had fallen asleep after crying herself all the way here. Al couldn't help but feel sorry for her more than himself; she was just a small child…to lose her mom and almost her dad was enough to give shivers down even his spine. Taking a deep breath, Alphonse looked up as he saw a young woman coming towards them.

"Sorry!" She said, coming to stop in front of Al.

"It's ok…" He said softly, "Trisha fell asleep and .. well, I should be going soon. The doctor said he would be out any minute…" He looked back down the hallway.

The brunette woman sighed and sat down next to Alphonse, looking to him worriedly.

"You look so tired ... do you want me to take Trisha for a bit?" Alphonse shook his head.

"No, I'm afraid of moving her," He explained, a small smile appearing on his face. "I don't want to wake her. Thanks for the offer, though, Rebecka .." Rebecka smiled back, taking his hand in her own and squeezing it gently.

"Do you need anything? I could go get you something to eat .." Again, Al shook his head.

"Lost my appetite a while back," He admitted, grasping his fingers around her hand. There was a moment of silence between the three, before Al and Rebecka heard an exasperated sigh coming from the hallway. They looked to see Mary practically stomping down the hallway towards them, crossing her arms as she did so.

"Stupid, Stupid Shrimp ..." She muttered under her breath, looking to Al before taking a seat next to him.

"You'd think that with a brother like you, Ed would know better than to do things like this. ESPECIALLY to women ..." She looked over to Rebecka, and confusion clouded her features. Al noticed, and responded... Or at least, he tried to respond.

"Uhh ... Mary, this is Rebecka... she's Uhh .. " He felt his face growing warm, and he looked over to Rebecka to see a slight red tint to her face as well. Mary suddenly grinned.

"Oooohhh ... I see how it is," She joked, punching Al lightly in the arm. "Take care of her, 'kay? Don't be an idiot, like a certain shrimp ..." She frowned and crossed her arms again, leaning back into the chair.

"Bloody Hell," She muttered under her breath. "If the girl dies, he is going to die too, I'll make sure of it .." Al sighed.

"The doctor has already told us that both of them will be fine, Mary."

"That doesn't satisfy my curiosity, here!" She responded.

Al sighed again. "I am sure Winry is fine. From what I heard from the truck driver, Ed pretty much got the nastier part of the collision." He tried to look at it the positive way, or at least let Mary see the bright side to it. But to him, Luck was not part of his life. Mary stared at him with curious eyes.

"…I will still hurt him," She grumbled as Al laughed a bit.

"Should you…show such a temper to Trisha?" Rebecka asked nervously.

"She seen worse. Besides, it's not like I beat him up in front of her. That would be VERY wrong, coming from her aunt who, if that idiotic shrimp can't take care of her, will take her in. Of course…I probably will have to fight Al for her as well," She said as she eyed him.

"Brother may be a bit of an…idiot for lack of better words, but he would never EVER surrender Trisha, even if he has to let himself starve to death to feed her." Al knew his brother loved his daughter dearly; She was the only living thing that was close enough to him. Even though Al and Ed were related, the relationship Ed had developed for his daughter, well, to Al it was a much stronger bond than Ed had with him. After all, he did take part in creating her…

"Sweet, but not touchy enough, Al." Mary commented. "By the way, do you want me to pay for the bills?" She asked.

"What? No! Of course not!" Al started.

"Why not? It's not like I don't have money to spend. I could easily just burn it…" She replied.

"Neither of those two!"

"Someone needs to pay!"

"Brother and I will find a way!"

"Oh no, don't pull that drama crap on me now, boy! You guys are already pointed to getting a bit more money now that Ed was promoted, but I am NOT letting you guys pay now that Trisha might be getting better things. Which, I still insist you should let me buy her clothes!" Mary shot back.

"No!"

"Ahh, c'mon, Al! You know how much you're going to need to pay for everything here .. the bills, because of Ed's stupidity, will be pret-ty high, and I'll bet-"

"Brother and I will find a way to pay for all of it," Al answered calmly. Mary frowned.

"Al, I never expected you to be stubborn about something like this. Ed, yeah, sure, I know he's the stubborn type... but you? Nah," Mary smirked. "Trisha needs some new clothes ... what kind of Aunt would I be if I didn't spoil my little niece from time to time?"

"Mary .." Al sighed, but never got to finish his sentence; at that moment, the doctor walked out into the waiting area, looking around for the family that was waiting for his two newest patients. Finally spotting the group, he walked over to them, a small smile on his face.

"I'm about to go check on Miss Rockbell, however ... I thought you would like to know that Mr. Elric will be all right for sure - he woke up." Al and Rebecka breathed sighs of relief simultaneously, while Mary crossed her arms again, cursing under her breath about idiot shrimps. The doctor looked over to Mary.

"You were just in Miss Rockbell's room, weren't you?" Mary nodded.

"How was her condition?" Mary made a sound of frustration.

"That girl was sleeping like a log. I doubt much of anything could wake her up at the moment." The doctor nodded.

"I'll go check on her now." With this statement, he left the room. Rebecka lowered her gaze to the ground, Al grasped Rebecka's hand a little tighter, and Mary sighed in frustration once again. The tension in the room was building once again, and it was getting to the point where everyone was literally on edge.

"I'm paying for the bills…" Mary stated as she walked towards the nurse's desk.

"Mary, I told-"

"No bloody hell buts! I am sick of all of this 'I can do it myself' crap. Sure, I know you guys WOULD pay for it, but that would take too many years. Besides, do you even have your wallet here Al?" She questioned.

Al suddenly began to remember…the only things he DID take were his cloak, Trisha, his ID and…"Oh…OH! I left it!" He finally noticed. Mary sighed, swinging her arms around in the air.

"Just let me take care of it! Stay there!" She replied, moving down the hall.

"Great….of all things to forget, I leave behind the most important thing." Al sighed as Rebecka smoothed his hand with hers.

"Don't worry… besides, if that's supposed to be Trisha's aunt, why not let her help out a bit? I don't want you to force yourself to work so hard Al…I get worried," She replied, kissing his right cheek.

Al smiled nervously at Rebecka, his cheeks turning red from the kiss that was received.

"There's no need to worry .. I'll be fine, honest .." Al said to her, the smile becoming that of reassurance. Rebecka offered a tiny smile of her own in return.

"You're sure?" She whispered, and Al nodded.

"I still don't like the idea of having her pay for this, though .." Al said with a sigh. Rebecka laughed softly.

"I know .. just this once won't hurt, though."

"She knows what she's talking about, Al. You should listen to her!" Mary huffed, sitting down in her normal spot.

"Anyway, all bills have been paid .. and if any tests need to be run, they know who to go to for money." Al opened his mouth to protest, but felt his hand being gently squeezed again and looked over to Rebecka, sighing gently and looking to Mary again.

"Thank you for the help, Mary," Al said with a bit of reluctance. Mary grinned.

"Anytime! As much as I detest shrimpy, I wouldn't want little Trisha to lose her father. Speaking of family, I think I'm going to go check on Winry again, see how she's holding up." With that said, Mary stood and headed over towards the room that held Winry once more. Al and Rebecka looked to each other and smiled. Apparently, Winry had made a friend here in Germany …

Mary walked quietly down the hallway, carefully looking around to avoid any person that might rush in and bump into her. Although she was in a rather testy mood earlier, she was glad now to be of some help to the boys who took care of her precious niece. It was the last piece of her best friend she had, and Trisha was looking more and more like her mother, much to Ed displeasure. The only thing that made her his child was probably her eyes and hair…but Trisha still held her mother's features in everyway.

Lightly knocking on the door, Mary stepped in. "Hey! I see you are awake."

Winry looked up from her sitting position to see who had entered, "Why am I here?"

Mary blinks in confusion, "Um….you were involved in an accident, in case you don't remember. What's the matter?" Mary noticed Winry was shaking. "You look shook up."

"I…haven't been in a hospital at all since I was born...or at least hospitalized IN one since then. I have visited others, though…"

The room went silent. Mary then began to chuckle a little bit as she grabbed a chair and sat down next to Winry's bedside.

"Well, it was bound to happen sometime." Winry looked to Mary confusedly.

"You DO want to have kids, don't you?" Winry would have glared if she were up to full health.

"Anyway, you and Shrimpy are both lucky to be alive," Mary sighed. "If the truck hadn't slammed on it's brakes .." she shuddered at the thought. Winry looked back down to her lap, wincing at the soreness of her body in general.

"... I feel like it's my fault," She confessed quietly. Mary looked to her.

"Hmm? What?"

"If I hadn't have run off like that, then .." Winry closed her eyes. Mary sat in silence for a minute before grinning.

"I don't blame you for running off, really." Winry opened her eyes again.

"I mean, I can hardly stand listening to Edward speak sometimes. Seriously, I don't know how poor Al puts up with the guy! Or Trisha's mother, for that matter .." Mary crossed her legs and arms in a huff.

"I was going to kill him if he wasn't already dead .. especially if you were fatally injured, or even dead yourself." Winry managed to smile at the comment.

"You wouldn't really, would you?" Mary smirked evilly.

"Oh, you don't know what I'm capable of .. "

Winry sweatdropped at the woman before her. How could she remain so calm and yet talk something as serious as this? Battling with herself, Winry decided to ask.

"….Is Ed ok?" She had to ask.

Mary nodded her head as Winry sighed in relief.

"That's good."

"Why do you care? You have every right to be angry." Winry put her head down.

"…I know you probably won't understand this, but Ed has lived a very difficult life. Since he was 12, he had to make very harsh decisions...because of the accident."

"Accident?"

Winry put a hand over her mouth. "I mean...!"

Mary looked puzzled but then began to realize.

"Oh! You mean those things he has as an arm and a leg? What did he call them…I know Winry told me once…" Thinking for a minute, she frowned. "AH Auto-auto…"

"Automail?"

"THAT! Wait…how did you know?"

"I made them…"

The room went silent again.

" .. You .. made them?" Winry nodded.

"So .. you've known Edward a lot longer than I thought .." Mary sighed, looking at Winry and finally putting two and two together. Her eyes went wide for a moment, and then she leaned back into her seat, a sad smile playing at her lips.

"I see. So that's why Ed took a special liking to her .. she was identical to you." Winry felt tears coming to her eyes.

"From what I hear, though .. Ed's wife was nothing like me at all .." Mary sighed.

"Nope. Not on the inside. The outside, though .. people could have mistaken you two as identical twins," Mary looked to Winry and stopped, seeing her tears.

"What's wrong?" Winry whispered her answer, and all hell broke loose.

"THAT BASTARD!" Mary yelled as she stormed out of the room, intent on finding her target. Alphonse looked up and quickly handed Trisha over to Rebecka, rushing over to keep Mary from doing any more damage.

"Mary, calm down! What did Brother do this time?" Alphonse said, trying to calm the girl down.

"I'm going to KILL him .." Mary said through her teeth. "Let me GO."

"What did he do?" Mary whipped around to face him.

"Did you know about Winry's feelings toward the shrimp! DID YOU KNOW!" Alphonse was taken aback, but soon calmed down and nodded.

"I was aware for a while. Brother, on the other hand .."

"You KNEW and yet you didn't do anything?"

"Brother and I had too much going on! And when we arrived in Germany, it was hard to get use to living here! Then we looked for a job and brother found Win-" Before he could even continue, Mary stormed out of the wing.

"Well that was… expected." Rebecka answered, looking back at Al with a still-sleeping Trisha in her arms. "At least she is still sleeping."

Al chuckled. "I need to talk to brother…this is going to get more and more serious. Can I..?"

"Of course, I will take care of her. Go on." Rebecka smiled.

"Thanks" Al blushed, running toward his brother's room. He needed to get this situation fixed; Whether Winry could or could not go back home, she would be remaining here for a while. That meant not only another mouth to feed but also other expenses. It was not like Winry to sit around home and do nothing…she would find something to do. Besides, he didn't mind taking care of her. After all, it was his punishment for not looking out for her all of those years; it was only fair he got even.

Equal exchange. Its been a while since he heard that…

Alphonse quietly knocked on the door to Edward's room, hearing a quiet voice tell him to come inside. Alphonse smiled a little; he was up, at least. That was good. Alphonse opened the door and stepped inside, looking to his brother and trying not to cringe. To put it plainly, Edward looked horrible. His skin was paler than normal, his golden eyes blank; he just layed in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Alphonse rushed over.

"Brother, you look terrible .." Ed looked over to his brother and offered a tiny smile.

"I probably feel worse than I look. Don't worry, It's nothing I haven't dealt with before." Alphonse wasn't too sure. His eyes wandered over to his arm, silently noting that Winry wasn't going to be too happy about it. With a sigh, Al pulled over a chair and sat beside his brother's bed.

"Brother. Until we can find a way for Winry to go home, we're going to have to find a way to take care of her." Alphonse could see the hurt within Ed's eyes as Winry was mentioned.

"They won't let me see her .. I don't know her condition right now .." Edward said quietly.

"She's fine, Brother .." Alphonse said.

"Al .. I really wouldn't like to talk about financial things right now .. can we just deal with one thing at a time?" Normally, Al would have given into this. However, this had to be discussed.

"I'm afraid not, brother." Edward's eyes closed.

"All right. What about it?"

Al took a deep breath before he spoke.

"Brother…first off, don't get mad at her, because she is already mad AT you. So let's not make this worse, ok?" Ed gave him a shaky look and encouraged him to continue.

"Mary paid our bills."

"She…WHAT!"

"Brother you promised!"

"How can she do that!"

"I told her the same thing but she insisted! You know she is right! We have Trisha to take care of and now Winry! We can't afford anything like this! Besides, it would take us years to pay it all off!"

"Doesn't matter!"

"Brother, listen!"

Ed stared at him, and Al continued.

"It's been taken care of. That, and…Winry. I think you should talk to her. Mary discovered that the reason you…married her best friend was because of our Winry. Brother, Winry is aware you care for her. Why are you trying so hard to …avoid it?"

A hint of pink arose in Edward's cheeks and he looked away from his brother, as though to hide it.

"I don't know what you're talking about," He said in a huff. Alphonse frowned.

"Yes you do. Don't even try to argue with me on that one, because you know I'll win the argument." Edward continued frowning.

"Angry is an understatement for Mary's feelings right now. Unless you talk with Winry about this, she's not going to be satisfied .." Edward made a 'pfft' sound.

"Since when is that woman EVER satisfied?" He responded.

"I won't be satisfied either, Ed." Edward's eyes widened and he looked to Al, who had a look on his face that suggested he was definitely not joking. After staring at each other for a while, Edward finally sighed and sat up painfully.

"Damn. You two will never let me see the end of this, will you?" Alphonse smiled a tiny smile.

"Not this time, Brother." Edward looked deep in thought for a bit.

"Brother?" Alphonse asked a bit worriedly.

"... I don't know what to think anymore, Al."

"Why don't you start by telling her how you feel?"

"..What?" Ed's face flushed. "I can't!"

"Oh yes you can!"

"But…Trisha!"

"I know Trisha wouldn't even begin to understand this, but…I am sure that in time she will let Winry become part of her life."

Ed sighed. "…Fine. But they won't let me see her."

"That can be easily arranged. If I can get Mary into this…"

At the sound of the woman's name, Ed shuddered. "Why her…?"

"She won't let you NEAR her if you don't get on her good side. Remember, you DID take her best friend away. That was something WE sort of did too…"

Ed sighed again; he needed to think things through carefully. If this is how it was going to be from now on, he needed to act now. He wouldn't want an angry Mary after him, but he wouldn't want Winry hurting again because of him. He simply just couldn't tell her that he really did love her…. maybe the care that he showed from time to time would satisfy her but then looking back at his past, he remembered his own wife. She died because he never told her. She was different from his own Winry; she may look like her but their personality totally opposite of each other. Maybe that's what ate Ed inside…maybe he did fall in love with this time's Winry. Maybe whatever he felt wasn't…

"Argh!" Ed groaned in frustration. Someone out there really hated him, and really hated him good.

To be continued.

Nyago: YAY FINISHED :D Now time for PLOT TWIST :D So review!

Ai: Plot Twist? OMG. WTF. BBQ.

... Oh, yeah. On a side note, I HAVE FINALLY SEEN THE MOVIE! -pose, sparkle- Yay.