I did a double update to make up for my absence. I got a new job so...yeah :)

Chapter 18

Edward shivered in the red coat Roy had bought her. She had assumed the train went to Fort Briggs, but of course life couldn't be that easy. Instead it dropped them off in a town several miles away and they had to make it the rest of the way there on their own.

None of the others had come with them. Falman and Breda had been sent to do reconnaissance work on the Fuhrer which left Hawkeye and Furey back at headquarters to keep the office functioning. Roy had taken a 'long overdo vacation with his new girlfriend' and wasn't scheduled to be back in the office for a week. With any luck, no one would miss them or be the wiser to their absence.

Ed tapped her foot impatiently as she waited by the bags. She'd slept uncomfortably on the train ride and still had circles under her eyes. She figured she'd sleep when Alphonse was safe. Ed perked up some when Roy reappear from the rental shop carrying keys.

"The snowmobile is ours for the next couple days," Roy said and swung his pack over his shoulder. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah," Edward said and grabbed her pack as well. They trudged through the snow to the corral where the vehicles were kept. They were basic orange snowmobiles with white numbers painted on the sides. Ed opened the compartment under the seat and they threw their gear in before jumping on.

Ed held out her hand for the keys and Roy hesitated. "Maybe I should drive," he said.

"You ever driven one of these before?" Ed wondered.

"No, but neither have you," Roy countered with a small smile.

"Then stop wasting time and get on." Ed made a grab for the keys and Roy held them out of reach. "C'mon Roy. Gimme."

"It's just…if I was to ride behind you…" Roy faltered and looked embarrassed. Ed raised an eyebrow and the image of her driving the snowmobile with Roy's arms around her popped into her head. He would be hunched over her due to his height (not that she liked to admit that) and his whole torso would be pressed into her back. "I'd just feel more comfortable driving. It has nothing to do with you being a girl...you just haven't driven before...not to mention if we're seen it would seem weird if the guy wasn't driving," Roy finished awkwardly and took a step back like Ed might punch him.

"You're kidding," Ed said in exasperation and rolled her eyes. "Okay first of all 'the guy drives' is the stupidest thing ever heard. Secondly, I used to be a guy so that statement is invalid. And Thirdly, we don't have time for this." She pat the seat behind her. "Get on or I'm leaving you here."

"Ed."

She gave him a pointed look that he'd seen far too often from Hawkeye. Ed was getting better at the whole 'being a woman' thing. She had the female 'stop being a dumbass' glare down pat. "Get on Colonel Bastard." Roy sighed and finally got on the vehicle.

Ed started it up and it gave a lurch that almost threw them off. Ed fiddled with the controls a bit and the snowmobile nearly careened into the side of the corral. "You need to…" Roy said and pointed to one of the buttons on the handle.

"I got it just give me a minute," Ed growled and the snowmobile suddenly twisted out of the corral, finally unseating them both. They landed with a poof in the snow as the vehicle tipped over and died. "Okay fine," Ed grumbled as she brushed snow out of her jacket. "You can drive."

An hour later they finally cleared the town limits with Roy maneuvering the vehicle north towards Briggs and an unhappy Edward hugging him around the middle.

Despite all her earlier bellyaching she was relieved he was here with her. She wouldn't have trusted this mission to anyone else. Roy was strong and handsome and perfect, and she felt almost blessed that she'd been turned into a girl if only because it gave her the ability to have this relationship with him. She wished she could sleep with her face buried in Roy's coat, but the cold stinging air was just harsh enough to prevent her from getting comfortable.

"How far to Briggs?" she asked as they slowed to maneuver around another clump of snow laden pine trees. They had been driving for maybe an hour and a half.

"The man at the snowmobile rental said it's around a day on foot and five hours with a vehicle. There are rest stops along the way so if we have to we can stop," he assured her.

Ed picked up her head and looked around, spotting a huge shelf of clouds coming over the mountains. "Was there a storm in the forecast?" Ed pointed to the clouds which were picking up speed now that they'd covered the rocky peaks.

"Shit," Roy said and picked up speed. "Get the map out. We might need to find one of those rest stops."

As Ed rummaged to open the map, the blanket of clouds covered the sun. She squinted at the paper, but couldn't make heads or tails of where they were. "I can't read this," he shouted up to Roy. They stopped the snowmobile momentarily and Roy turned to take a look. After some deciphering, Roy declared they had to be somewhere northeast of the town. "That's the trees we just passed which means the shelter is there." He restarted the vehicle as big flakes began falling and the wind picked up. Ed shoved the map down the front of her snow jacket to keep it from blowing away. The visibility was decreasing by the moment and the temperature had plummeting to the point where Ed could no longer feel her face. If they didn't find shelter soon, they were dead.

Roy could feel Ed shaking behind him as he tried to spot the rest stop. He almost passed right by it before Ed noticed a dark shadow protruding from the ground fifty meters to their right. Upon closer inspection, Roy found it was little more than a shack. They parked the snowmobile under the overhang and hurried inside.

Although the shack kept out the wind and snow, it had no insolation which meant it was as cold inside as it was outside. Ed immediately went to the tiny cast iron wood stove and piled some wood inside. "Ro..Roy," she called and he snapped, causing the wood to ignite and fill the tiny space with light and a small amount of heat. He then lit an oil lamp that hung from the ceiling for additional light. The shack was one small room with a single door and a window. Along one wall was a hard metal cot with a thin mattress, and next to it was a chest filled with blankets. On the opposite wall was some shelving where Roy found a week's worth of dried rations.

He looked over to find Ed had exposed her automail leg and had it as close to the fire as possible. Roy came over and touched the metal. He flinched. It was so cold it burned his hands. "Ed we need to take this off." She shook her head, her teeth chattering too much for her to speak. "Ed you'll freeze to death if we don't get it off." She shook her head more violently. "Hu..rt," she said. Her nerves wouldn't like it being removed or reattached. He didn't want to hurt her but it had to come off.

"Just walk me through it okay. It'll be over in a moment and then we can get you something hot to eat," Roy assured. Ed still looked apprehensive. She wasn't a stranger to pain and it wasn't that she couldn't take it. But she didn't like having her leg off. It left her feeling vulnerable and weak. However, what Roy said was true. If this kept up, her automail would leech the heat from her body and they couldn't afford her getting frostbite or hypothermia. She nodded consent and reached down to point to the screws that kept her leg attached.

Roy used his jackknife to unscrew them and then grabbed the leg. "One…two…THREE." He yanked it off and Ed gave an involuntary yelp as all the nerves around her port severed contact with the automail. The hot pain lasted for a moment before it turned to a dull sufferable ache that worked its way into her knee. Before she had time to process anything else Roy was wrapping her in a blanket and hoisting her up on the bed. He helped her shed her wet outer clothes and then piled the remaining blankets on top of her.

She shivered as Roy fetch snow in a pot and used alchemy to instantly heat it. He deposited several packets of instant soup from their packs in the water and started shedding his own wet clothes. He hung the clothes around the shack on every surface he could find, and then busied himself filling two mugs from their packs.

Feeling a tad warmer, Ed reached off the bed and rummaged in the trunk for a pillow. She felt something hard at the bottom and pulled out a very old half empty bottle of rum.

"Well this will warm us up," Ed said and took a swig. The liquid burned her throat but almost instantly her belly grew hot and the ache in her leg seemed to recede.

"What's that?" Roy wondered as he got under the blankets and handed her a mug of soup.

"Natural aspirin," Ed joked and took another swig before handing him the bottle. She sipped her soup and sighed in relief. "Thank you."

Roy inspected the bottle and whistled. "This has been here awhile. It's thirty years old." Well there couldn't be much harm in drinking it. Rum didn't go bad and this blizzard was definitely going to delay them for the next day.

They took turns drinking the rum as they finished off the soup. Ed cheeks started to glow pink and she giggled, a sound Roy hadn't heard from her since Alphonse had gone missing. It was a nice sound.

"What's so funny?" Roy wondered.

"Our luck," Ed said. "We go to save Alphonse and I can't drive the snowmobile, then we almost die in a blizzard, and my automail gets cold enough to kill me." She sighed and shook her head. "If there is a god then he's an asshole."

Roy put down his mug and nuzzled into her neck. "It's not all that bad," he said. "I'm here." He kissed down her neck and was rewarded with another giggle.

"That tickles," Ed said and reached up to run her fingers through his hair. Her voice seemed to grow heavier as Roy's kisses got more needy. "Roy," she groaned. "Stop…it's the rum going to your head."

"You drank some too," Roy said and kissed her on the lips. As often happens with alcohol, his lips had gone a little numb which meant he had to kiss deeper in order to truly feel it. "I've missed this. I know you've been worried about Alphonse. I have too. But can we just be together. For tonight."

Ed hesitated a moment. "I feel guilty doing this when he's in danger," she admitted.

"You know he'd be mad at you for thinking like that," Roy reminded her. "We are stuck here for the night. We're both stressed. Please?" He kissed her again and ran his hands up her sides, pushing up her shirt.

If felt good. She wanted it. She wanted him. Maybe it was the rum. Maybe it was the fact she was still in pain from the automail. Maybe it was just that his warmth felt so good next to her. "Okay."

Roy smiled and kissed her again deeply. "I love you," he told her.

"I love you too."