Author's notes-Well, I've really done it. I was putting off posting the next chapter and last Sunday I broke my wrist and now type like a retard. Twenty two years old and I've never broken a bone, this sucks like nothing else. Luckily enough it was my left arm and not my right. (I think I would be loosing my mind if it was my right-) So enjoy the chapter knowing it was painstakingly typed.

Chapter Three

Almost an hour went by before they heard the door upstairs open. The three of them all turned as they heard Sig's heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. He walked into the kitchen, not saying anything. Pinako came in shortly after him, letting out a tired sigh.

"I don't get why you boys can't just stay out of trouble. One of these days I'm gonna die from worry because of you," She told Al. He looked back at her anxiously. "He's resting. Although he was banged up a lot more then I thought. I don't know when he'll wake up though."

"I'm not sure he's going to," Izumi finally said. Everyone turned towards her. "It's hard to explain but that's just Ed's body. I think his soul is still in the gate."

"So what does that mean? Can we get him back," Winry asked, getting up from her seat.

"I don't know. So for right now we'll just have to be patient. If we rush into things then we'll end up making the same mistakes from before." Before Winry had a chance to respond, Pinako cleared her throat.

"Well we won't figure anything else out tonight. It's late and we all need to try to get some rest." They all knew she was right, although they probably wouldn't get much sleep anyway. They had put Ed in one of the other guest rooms. For the time being it was best to keep him separate from Alphonse. They turned out the lights and headed back upstairs for the night. Winry closed her door behind her and let out a yawn. She took her bathrobe off and placed it in the closet where she had grabbed it earlier. She didn't have much hanging in her closet but one thing stood out even more now then before. It was the red jacket that was way too small for her. She remembered that he had left it here the last time she saw him. Even then something had told her that she wouldn't see him again. And at the time she had accepted it but looking back wished she had done things differently. Reaching in, she pulled it out and placed it at the end of her bed. When Ed wakes up she could give it back to him. He probably didn't even realize he had left it here. She sat on the bed, so many thoughts going through her mind. This night had just been so crazy. Laying back, she let out a sigh. As she stared at the ceiling, she tried to figure out her thoughts. Before she realized it about forty five minutes had gone by. She still wasn't tired and tried turning on her side. Another twenty minutes went by. Staring at the clock wasn't helping her either. She stood up angrily.

"I'll never get any sleep at this rate," She exclaimed then realized by now the others were asleep. Glancing back down at the bed, her gaze wondered back to the jacket. "Guess I should return it, maybe?" Quietly, she opened her door and peaked out to see if anyone else was in the hall. The house was dark again and silent. The only sound was the rain still beating against the house. She walked down the hallway to the last bedroom. For some reason her grandma left the light on next to the bed. Maybe she thought that if Ed woke up at some point in the night, he would know where he was. All that talk earlier from Izumi about the gate, she had a hard time believing. She made her way over to the bed. To her he just looked like he was sleeping. Placing the jacket down at the foot of the bed, she pulled a chair over. She hadn't gotten a good look at him earlier so this was the first chance she had to see how injured he was. At most he just seemed to have several scrapes and cuts but nothing fatal. Another thing she noticed was his feet reached all the way to the end of the bed. Standing up now, he would probably be taller then her. The thought brought a small smile to her face. When he wakes up, they would never hear the end of it. She could picture him bragging about it to them all. Served her right that all the teasing would come back to haunt her. She would definitely hear about it when he woke up. When would he wake up? The small smile faded from her face. Dropping her gaze to her lap, she clenched her fists around the fabric of her pants. For some reason, she wanted to cry but the tears wouldn 't come.

"So you still don't know how to take care of yourself even now. You don't even have auto-mail anymore so I can't fix the problem." That thought made her feel even worse. But for some reason talking to him like this made her feel better. Even though it would have been better if he was arguing back at her. She let out an exhausted sigh. "This is where you say something like: 'Oh Winry, your being ridiculous', or 'Quit nagging me'," She informed him but there was still no response. "Well I'd better go to bed, I just wanted to give you back your jacket." Quietly she rose from her seat. Before leaving, she found herself leaning over him to pull the blankets up to his shoulders. Then she bent down and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "You'd better not stay like this, otherwise we'll start charging you rent." With that she turned and snuck back to her room.

Outside is was still raining and thundering hard. It was not a good night to be outside. The place where they had found him remained the same. Everything was as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. "So I was too late then." The dark figured looked over the remains of the Elric house. "I wanted to get here first, now I need to find another way of getting into that house." Turning towards the house on the next hill, the individual paused before walking back to the car. "Tomorrow morning, that's when I'll go."

oOoOo

It was hard to see anything around this place. It had always been that way. Occassionally you would get a glimps of something but nothing really made much sense. He stayed crouched down where he was, trying to stay quiet. There was so much knowledge here, more then he ever wanted to know. All he wanted now was to rest. But rest was not going to come any time soon. An angry voice called out to him. One he recognized all too well.

"You told me I could get to the other side from here. I want to get to Hohenhiem! You're gonna tell me the truth about where he is!" The two had been fighting on and off ever since he had been there. He wasn't even sure how long that was. The time seemed to loop together to the point that you couldn't tell if it was day or night. He had managed to hide somewhere that he couldn't be seen. He was getting tired of all the fighting. "So what's the problem? Don't tell me the little pipsqueak's hidding now. How pathetic." The statement made him grit his teeth. He wanted to jump out and yell something back but didn't.

"This whole situation's pathetic, since neither one of us can get out of this place," Edward said, under his breath. "And I'm not short anymore, sheesh. Some things, people won't let you live down." Envy moved past him and he caught his breath before he was noticed. He was tired, and no matter how much of a break he got, he was still tired. But then there didn't seem to be anything physical about this place to him. If he wasn't careful he would fall through other objects. Of course if he could control when he did it, then that would work to his advantage but he hadn't figured it out yet. Ed couldn't help but wonder if he would ever manage to find a way out of this place. Maybe he would be stuck here forever. Or maybe he would get so weak that eventually he would just vanish like so many others.

"No...," He promised himself. "I'm gonna get back to Al. I have to. I need to know he's alright."