What did I say? No predictons! Dammit...oh well...you were going to find out what's going on in this chapter anyway. ;-;

Just so you guys know, I actually have up to chapter 6 written, edited and polished. I'm really into this story, so it's going to go far! I'm glad you all like it. And don't forget, I like reviews:)

Chapter 3 - When Distance is Dispaire

"Aaaah...dammit. I'll get on the next train heading out." Ed got up from his bed and stretched right after hanging up the phone.

"Who was that?" Winry asked, still rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"Roy; big surprise huh?" Ed rolled his eyes and allowed his feet to hang freely off the side of the bed.

"Oh? What did he want?" She asked as if she didn't know. She knew for a fact that, given the lovely expression on Edwards face, he wanted them to go to Central.

Ed sighed and took the elastic from around his wrist and tied his hair back in a quick braid. He had gotten surprisingly good at making it form behind. "It's time for my yearly evaluation."

Winry sat up, the covers still covering her chest. "What? I thought yours was in the winter."

He shrugged. "He said something about generalizing the testing schedule to make it more convenient for the higher ups. They're testing everyone in the summer now. Right at the end though, so any vacations we would have taken would have been over by now."

Winry sighed. "But my blood test results are coming in tomorrow...you won't be here to see what they say."

He smiled and turned to face her. "Aside from the fact you can't eat any greasy foods, you've been fine these last two weeks. I say that you're in the clear." He kissed her cheek and stood up. "I'll be staying with Gracia anyway, so if something did come up in the blood work, you can just give me a call."

She smiled. "I guess you're right. No point in getting all worked up about it."

Ed sat across from Al on the train. It had been over a day and the train ride was beginning to bore him. "Not that I mind." Ed began. "But why exactly did you want to come along?" He questioned the sanity of his younger sibling. "You just got your alchemist certification, you don't need to go till next year."

He shrugged in response. "I just wanted to keep you company. I know how bored you get."

They sat there in silence. "Cards?" Ed suggested.

Al pulled a deck out of his pocket. "I thought you'd never ask."

Winry sat there, completely horrified as to what she had just been told. One of the tests that Dr. Heston sent out came back positive. "What made you want to check for that in paticullar?"

Dr. Heston took the file with the results back from Winry. "You said it hurt after ate greasy foods. That means your gall bladder was acting up. A girl your age shouldn't have that problem, especially coupled with nausea and sever dehydration. It was a shot in the dark, but it's best you know as soon as possible."

Winry bit back tears. "I don't know what to say..."

Kelly took out her prescription notepad and scribbled something down. "There's a support group here at the hospital if you want someone to talk about it with. There's a few girls the program, but it does really well, especially among the younger generation."

Winry shook her head. "I think I'll be ok...I hope."

"Here." She ripped off the paper and handed it to Winry. "This'll clear up your bacterial infection too and stop that spotting. Take it right to the end. Amoxicillin tastes pretty good in liquid form, banana I think, so it'll be no hasel taking it. As for a doctor, if you don't mind that is, I have an opening. I can take you on as my patient. I can see you though right to the end."

She thought about it for a moment. Her doctor she had at the moment was older, not into the newer forms of medicine. Figuring her best bet to stay as healthy as possible would be to stay with Kelly Heston. "Alright...that would be fine." She stood up, her prescription in hand.

"Winry..." The doctor began. "Are you going to be able to get home ok?" She sounded a little worried. It was no wonder, Winry looked quite distraught.

She nodded in reassurance. "Yeah...I'll be ok."

"I'll call you with an appointment time for next week, just so I can check on that infection." She straightened up Winry's file, tapping all the papers down to the bottom so they would fit neatly together back into the file cabnit.

"Thank you..." With that, Winry exited the room and closed the door behind her. Quickly making her way through the clnic corridor, she made a bee line for the car in which Hohenheim was waiting. She got up to the car and sat in the front seat, trying her best not to cry. "I need to get this filled out." She said right away, showing him the prescription.

He looked at the paper and saw in incoherent scribble in the center. "What for?"

Winry gulped. Should she tell him the whole truth or just equivocate for the time being. "It's for a bacterial infection...that's all." She said as Hohenheim pulled away from the hospital parking lot. She couldn't take it anymore, the tears which she had been holding back escaped her eyes and migrated all the way down her cheeks. She tried to stifle a cry, but it was no use, she had been found out.

Hohenheim looked at her with a quick glance, a slight look of terror in his eyes. He saw that she was crying. 'Dammit.' He was never good when girls started crying, it was especially awkward considering she was so young, and his son's girlfriend no less. Normally girls didn't cry in front of people unless they were looking for attention, really trusted them or there was something really wrong. Or so his reasoning went. "What's wrong?" He asked her in a shaky voice. She continued to cry. This was not looking good for him. "Is the prescription too expensive? If you don't think you can cover it, I'll get it no problem." It was apparent that Ed got his 'girl crying' handleing skills handed down from his father.

She tried to stop crying but the tears just kept coming. "I'll be ok..." She sniffled and wiped her cheeks. "But can you go in and get it for me?" She held out the small paper.

"Sure." He took it from her and stuck it in his pocket on the inner lining of his coat.

Upon arriving home, Winry quickly scampered up to her room and crashed on her bed. Head buried deep into her pillow, she didn't want to look at anyone or talk to anyone for the rest of the day. She sobbed into the fluffy mass that was her pillow, soaking a circle of tears right into the center of it. She wanted to tell Edward, but she didn't want to upset him before his evaluation. If he lost his certification, there would be no way for her to pay the long line of doctor appointments and hospital trips that were to follow. They were a couple and she would like to think that he would pay for something like this for her.

She sat up and faced the wall on the side of her bed, her back facing the door. She had a pain in her stomach again, this time it was only from worry. Winry wondered if she would be able to face something this big on her own if need be.

Just then, she heard a knock on the door, it was a light knock, most likely Aria. "Come in." Though she didn't want to see anyone, she knew she needed to tell someone, lest her pillow suffer and become soaked from her crying into it.

The door cracked open, and sure enough, Aria appeared. "I brought you some apple juice...are you feeling ok? You looked kind of sad when you came in." She caught a quick glimpse of her face. 'She was crying?' Aria's heart immediately sunk, Winry must have gotten bad news. Laying the glass of juice on her night table, she sat down next to Winry on the bed. Rather than saying words, Aria wrapped her arms around Winry and hugged from behind. Knowing full well that if the news was really that bad, Winry probably didn't want to talk.

Winry reacted to the friendly embrace and reached her hand up and touched Aria's arm. "Thank you." She began sobbing again.

Aria held back a few tears of her own. "We'll be here for you Winry..." She squeezed tightly.

"Edward Elric? Is that you?" A familiar voice sounded from behind him.

Ed turned to see none other than Russell Tringham behind him. "It's you." He smiled.

Russel waved. "Long time no see. How've you been?"

He nodded. "Pretty good. Bored as hell coming off that train. Two days from Resembool makes you want to do nothing but sleep."

The taller boy nodded. "I hear that. Fletcher and I just came from Rush Valley. It's so nice to have a cool breeze for a change." He looked over Edward's head for the towering suit of armor. "So, is Alphonse with you?"

Ed looked over his shoulder. "Yeah, he's right there. He lost too many card games, so he had to carry the luggage." Ed triumphantly placed his hands on his hips.

Russel squinted. "Where at? I don't see him."

"If you're going to cheat, next time you travel, leave the books at home brother." Al said, struggling with the heavy bag. Russell's mouth immedatly dropped open at the sight of Alphonse, not in a suit of armor.

The older brother shrugged. "They both got really good at the same time, I couldn't leave them behind. And who said I was cheating?" Ed pointed to Russel. "Do you remember this guy?"

He looked at the boy who Ed was referring to. Al was roughly the same height as him and looked to be the same age as well. He had a very shocked expression on his face as Al looked at him. "No, I'm afraid not." Al smiled just the same. He knew that there had been quite a few people he and his brother had met over the course of the four years that he was stuck in the armor, and most of them, due to the transmutation he did to revive his brother, he had forgotten about. Though slowly, he was regaining his memories.

"Is that really you Al?" Russel said, taking a step closer to examine his face. He looked strikingly like Ed, with a few differences of course, but still, you could easily tell they were brothers.

"You'll have to forgive him," Ed began. "After getting his body back, Al lost most of his memories of our travels." Ed turned to his taller, yet, younger sibling. "This is the guy we met in Xenotime, he was impersonating me so he could get funding for research on the red stones."

Russel rolled his eyes. "It's good to see you don't hold a grudge." He looked disamused.

Al thought for a few moments. "Wait a sec...yeah. I remember you now. Didn't you have a little brother?"

The tall, long blond haired boy looked over his shoulder. "Yeah, Fletcher forgot his bag in our seat, he should be right back." He faced them again. "But on a different note, how would you to like to come to a party?"

Ed raised his eyebrows. "When?"

Russell smiled. "Tomorrow night, after nine. I've brought something to drink, I'll split it with you if you want."

Al looked worried. "I don't know..."

Ed thought for a moment. "Hmm...maybe. Where's it at?"

Russell took out a note pad and scribbled down a street, an address and a phone number. "Here, it's the tall grey house with the green shutters. It belongs to a cousin of mine, he doesn't mind if we drink, so it's safe."

"The day after my certification examination we'll be heading home. I'm not really sure we'll have time. But if I get the chance, I'll definitely show. Hmm?" He looked behind him, he could see Fletcher catching up with him.

"Great. Hope to see you there. You're both welcome to go." He turned and headed towards his brother. "Later." He waved.

"Bye." Ed waved back and then turned to face his younger brother who had a worried look on.

"I'm not too sure about this party brother...it seems kind of...a bad idea...and illegal." Al folded his arms and allowed the two suitcases rest on his legs.

Ed waved a hand at him. "Don't worry, I'm probably not going to go. I was just being polite."

Aria sat in front of Winry on her bed, legs folded and her elbows resting on either knee, her head down. "So...when are you going to tell everyone?" She questioned, glancing up to Winry with her bright green eyes.

Winry sighed. She had long since stopped crying and was thinking a little more clearly now. "I'm going to tell Ed first...I really want him to know as soon as possible...but I'm going to wait till tomorrow night. I don't want him to be stressed out during his evaluation."

The shorter girl nodded. "That's a good idea...what about everyone else...? Aside from me that is."

She swallowed a lump in her throat. "When he comes back home...I'll tell everyone...they have a right to know we're getting a new family member." She said, a hand over her belly.

YEAH! Face your problems together and nothing can stand in your way!

Preview : Ed finishes his examination and goes home. Later on in the evening, he recieves a call from Winry that devestates him. Where's he off to now this late at night?