Chapter 8
Sacrifices
Winry knew she was in trouble when Leeson fired her, but she hadn't expected a scathing reference from him would make her virtually unemployable. She and Eddie were running out of money, and Winry had already been forced to pawn several of their belongings just to get enough to eat.
But somehow, Winry couldn't bring herself to pawn her toolbox or the journal. It was mainly sentimentality, but, in a brief moment of despair, she forced herself to be rational and consider it. And swiftly come to the conclusion she probably wouldn't get much for them – not enough to make a difference, anyway.
She considered asking Roy and Liza for help, but always found herself thinking better of it. The couple had been unable to find an apartment, so they'd set up shop in some of the rooms above The Songbird. In other words, they were dependent on Leeson's goodwill. Goodwill that Winry knew would disappear in an instant if she went to stay with them.
Still, she was running out of options.
oooooooo
Winry had known this was coming. To be completely honest, she'd been surprised the landlord had tolerated her and Eddie as long as he had – without her job, there was no way to pay the weekly rent.
"What's going to happen to us?" Eddie sniffled, shivering in the cold night.
Winry noticed the tremble and pulled the scarf from her neck, wrapping it around his, trying to suppress her own shudder as the wind bit into her. But at least Eddie wasn't shivering anymore.
"Where are we going to go?"
"We'll see," was all Winry could say. "We'll see."
If it was just herself she had to worry about,she wouldn't even consider souring Liza and Roy's relationship with Leeson...
But that was the point, wasn't it? It wasn't just herself she had to worry about.
oooooooo
Winry tapped on the back door, praying that Liza and Roy were in. It had taken a while to walk here carrying their suitcases. It didn't help that Eddie had fallen asleep in her arms along the way.
The older woman answered the door, her eyes lighting up when she saw Winry.
"Winry, it's good to see you...how did that clerk job pan out?"
"Wash out," Winry mumbled. "And Liza...you might not think it's good to see me when you hear what I have to say."
Liza's face softened in sympathy. "Kicked out?"
"Got it in one. And I know what you're going to say about Leeson, but don't worry about that. I'm just asking you to let Eddie sleep here, not me."
Liza's brow furrowed. "Why would we turn you away?"
"Well, you guys need to stay on Leeson's good side, and offering me room and board is going to put you in his bad books real fast."
"That may be so, but where are you going to sleep?"
"I'll sleep in a park somewhere." 'And hopefully, not catch hypothermia while I'm at it.'
"The hell you will," Liza growled, and before Winry could react, the older woman had yanked her inside.
The whole thing happened so fast Winry had no time to protest. "Look, Liza, you don't have to do this-"
"Of course I don't have to. I want to. Here," she said, throwing Winry a blanket. "We'll probably be able to set you guys up on the floor somewhere. Won't be the best, but it's all we can do at the moment."
"Don't worry about that," Winry snorted. "Just...thanks for putting us up in the first place."
Liza gave a warm smile. "My pleasure."
"Guests, Liza?" Roy asked, wandering into the room.
"Winry and Eddie are sleeping here tonight," his wife told him, already beginning to arrange a makeshift bed in the middle of the floor.
Roy chuckled as he spotted Eddie. Winry held the four year old on her hip, and he was dozing peacefully against her shoulder.
"Looks to me like someone decided to fall asleep on the way here." He went to assist Liza.
In spite of the situation, Winry smiled. She didn't know what she would have done if she didn't have friends like these two.
oooooooo
Winry sighed as another door was shut in her face. What was with these people? Deciding that one reference from a powerful man made an unmarried female unemployable...
"Ever heard of equal rights, jerks?" she muttered under her breath.
It was dark when she managed to return to The Songbird, using the back door to sneak into Roy and Liza's rooms. So far, Leeson seemed ignorant of her presence, and for the sake of her friends, Winry wanted to keep it that way.
She managed to slip in unseen, and began to prepare dinner. Since Roy and Liza wouldn't hear of her paying rent or anything of the sort, Winry tried to contribute to the household by cooking, cleaning, washing...in essence, performing basic chores.
oooooooo
"Tell me a story, Auntie Win," Eddie murmured after dinner.
Winry smiled as she tucked him into bed. "Any particular story? Or do you want to hear a new one?"
Eddie seemed to consider it for several moments. "Tell me about the time Ed saved the Crystal Princess from the evil Blood Prince."
Winry had to hold in a chuckle. The first time she'd been designated story-telling duties, Eddie had demanded a very specific story.
"It's got to have a good guy with superpowers in it...who helps people...and a princess gets kidnapped and he has to rescue her-"
Desperate to come up with a half-way plausible storyline, Winry had panicked and told him about her capture by Barry the Chopper when she was twelve. Spruced up to sound like a fairytale, of course.
"Sure thing, Eddie. Once upon a time, there lived a boy called Edward-"
"Like me," Eddie murmured sleepily, and Winry kissed his forehead.
"Like you," she agreed. "This boy was part of the royal guard, even though he was very young. But he was just as powerful as any of the adults, because he had a special power..."
She was barely halfway into the story when she realised her audience was asleep. With a fond smile, she tucked the blankets around him, and made her way to her own bed.
oooooooo
Winry never knew how it happened. One moment, she could hear Roy's raised voice in the hallway, the next...
Leeson had burst into the room, catching Winry and Eddie on the floor, in the middle of reading a storybook.
In any other situation, the frozen expression of disbelief and shock on his face might have been funny. The room was deathly still – even Eddie made no move to break the tableau.
'Not good!' Winry's brain yelled. 'Not good! Think, Winry, think...how are you going to get out of this one?'
Roy charged in behind Leeson, and that seemed to restore the man to himself.
"Roy Chenang," he began, his voice low and intent. "Would you like to explain what these two miscreants are doing in your quarters?" He was speaking to Roy, but his eyes never left Winry.
Roy started to speak, but Leeson held up a hand for silence. "No, don't answer that, just let me speak to them alone for a few moments."
A protective spark lit an inferno in Roy's eyes. But Winry shook her head at him, her gaze urging him to obey. His job was in jeopardy as it was – he didn't need to add fuel to the fire simply for the sake of defending her.
She saw his teeth grit, saw his fists clench. But he listened to her silent request, and left the room.
"Eddie, follow Roy," she whispered, giving the boy a slight push in the direction of the door.
"He can stay," Leeson said. It wasn't a suggestion.
"Okay, you can stay," Winry told Eddie, trying to summon a smile.
Eddie just nodded, and came to stand beside her, clutching at her legs for comfort. The blatant tension in the room made him quiet and subdued. Almost unconsciously, one of Winry's arms encircled his shoulders, gently pulling him to her.
"You know," Leeson began, "I can fire both of them for this."
"It's not their fault."
"Of course not...it's yours."
"Excuse me?"
"Your...shall we say, less than cooperative attitude...was the reason I had to fire you-"
'Really? It's not because you were pissed I wouldn't sleep with you?' Winry thought acidly.
"-and now...here you are." He looked down at Eddie. "Here you both are."
Winry's arm tightened around Eddie. "Is there some point to this?"
"Simply that I am in charge here, and what I say goes. If I say you go...you go right back on the streets."
Winry's stomach was churning. Not for herself – but she didn't like having Eddie in the room for this conversation, and she was worried about the consequences for Liza and Roy.
"You need to think carefully about your position," Leeson continued. "After all, you're responsible for this child's welfare and safety. How long do you think he'd last on the streets before he succumbed to pneumonia or hypothermia or any of the other ailments that hundreds of homeless people are dying from?"
Winry found herself starting to tremble, and did her best to hide it from Leeson. She silently prayed this wasn't going where she thought it was going...
But her prayers went unanswered, as Leeson continued speaking. "However, if you were to be more...cooperative...in your behaviour towards me, I'm sure you'd find me more...amenable...in my behaviour towards you."
Winry simply stared at him, unable to form a coherent response.
Leeson smirked triumphantly, nodding at Eddie. "You might want to remember that you are holding his health, his future...his very life in your hands. I suggest you play your cards right. You have three days."
And then he was gone.
oooooooo
Winry remained rooted to the spot, staring after him for several moments before she realised Eddie was calling her name.
"Auntie Win! Auntie Win!"
Winry managed to shake herself out of her reverie. "Yeah?"
"I don't like that man."
"Neither do I."
Winry eased herself down to the floor, shaking. Leeson had essentially given her a choice between her body and Eddie's life. Sure, they could try their luck on the streets, but for a kid his age, that was practically a death sentence.
"Auntie Win?" Eddie whispered, and she realised she was probably frightening him with her uncharacteristic behaviour.
The door slammed open as Roy tore into the room. "What did he say?"
"Nothing," Winry lied. "That is, nothing important. Just some things that shook me a little. Nothing important."
Roy's eyes clearly showed his disbelief, but Winry was already up and moving towards the door.
"Anyway, I heard they're offering a job at the local grocer's, and now's about the time I have to have my interview...so I'll see you later."
oooooooo
There wasn't really any job interview – Winry had exhausted all her options several days ago. But she'd been desperate for time alone, to walk, to think. She walked all the way to the Thames and leaned over the river, staring into the murky waters.
She hadn't stopped shaking.
Winry breathed deeply, trying to calm herself down enough to think logically about this. She turned it over and over in her mind, but every time, the choice was the same. She could either sleep with Leeson...or risk her and Eddie being tossed out on the streets.
Every time, it was the same choice. Her body or Eddie's future.
oooooooo
On her way back to The Songbird, Winry spotted Eddie and Liza in the park, and went to join them.
"Auntie Win!" Eddie cried, throwing himself into her arms.
Winry lifted him up, hugging him tightly to her, burying her face in his brass-coloured hair.
'He's turning five this year. He depends on you to feed him, protect him, take care of him...you're Auntie Win, and you're the one who makes him dinner, who tells him stories, who tucks him in at night...'
A rush of maternal love swelled Winry's heart, but then grim reality intruded on her bubble of happiness and her chest tightened.
'Do you want to be the one who's responsible for him living on the streets?'
Winry sighed. Softly, gently, a sigh of resignation and despair. She loved Eddie like a son.
And she would do anything for him.
oooooooo
It would happen tonight. Winry mentally reviewed what Leeson had told her – the room to go to, the time to be there by...
She felt numb, and a strange chill wracked her body. The icy breath from the grave of the part of her that would die tonight. Die so that Eddie might have a future.
Winry wasn't the type of girl who fantasized about her wedding day or her first kiss or her first time. But, for some reason, she'd always imagined Ed as her first, and the thought of giving something as precious as her virginity to Leeson...
She told herself not to think about – she'd only make herself sick.
"Where are you going?" Eddie asked, his head cocked to one side in exaggerated curiosity.
"Nowhere important," Winry murmured, blinking away the sudden threat of tears.
'I can do this,' she told herself, 'I can do this. I have to do this, there's no way he'll let me stay if I don't, and I don't want Eddie thrown out on the streets-'
Her thoughts ground to a sudden halt as a flash of insight hit her. 'Wait a minute...when I first came, I just wanted Roy and Liza to look after Eddie...that's the answer! They'll look after Eddie, and I'll go somewhere else!'
Latching onto the desperate hope that she might not have to...do this...after all, Winry practically bolted into the living room.
"Roy! Liza!"
Husband and wife were curled on the couch, but both looked up when Winry entered.
"Winry? What's wrong?" Liza asked.
Without even giving herself a chance to catch her breath, Winry blurted out the story. Both Liza and Roy were gaping by the end, as Winry ended with her plea for them to look after Eddie while she struggled to find another job.
"I knew he was bad, but I never thought..." Roy began, trailing off into silence.
"Yeah, well we all know he's a son of a bitch," Winry spat, then mollified her tone somewhat. "So, will you guys look after Eddie?"
"Of course we will!" Liza said.
The relief was so great Winry actually sagged against the doorframe. A soft rushing filled her ears and heat began to suffuse her body once more, banishing the unnatural chill.
She didn't have to do it.
oooooooo
It was painful to leave Eddie behind, painful for both of them. Winry broke the news as gently as possible, explaining why he could stay and she couldn't, but that hadn't stopped his tears coming. She'd held him tightly, telling him she loved him and she'd visit as often as she could.
It didn't make it hurt any less, though.
She waved to the three figures in the doorway one last time before she disappeared around the corner, the street lamps throwing distorted shadows on the dark buildings. Her small suitcase was thrown over her shoulder, containing only a spare set of clothes, a blanket, her toolbox, and Ed's journal.
As she had so many times before, Winry walked into the darkness of the unknown. But for the first time in a long while, there was no one by her side.
