Ed watched out the window as the train station faded into the distance; they had just barely made it to the train and Ed was still panting. How can I be this tired, I slept almost a day! Ed yelled at himself as he tried to hide the shaking of his hands and calm his breathing down.
"Ed are you sure you'll be alright?" Winry asked bringing Ed out of his thoughts and back to the real world.
"I'll be fine; I rest when we get to Resembool." Ed answered not looking away from the window.
"Why don't you rest now." Al spoke not meaning it to be a question.
"I promised to tell you guys what was going on," Ed spoke this time turning to them and meeting Winry's gaze evenly.
"OK fine, if your determined to make your condition, whatever it is, worse go ahead," Winry snapped throwing her hands into the air. "What's going on?"
Ed sighed looking at his friend, "Well, I don't know where to begin fully." Ed stopped thinking over what he was going to say. "When we were out in the field, it wasn't just a standard mission like I told you; we were searching for Scar, because there were rumors that he was sighted in the area."
"You did what!" Winey and Al both yelled disturbing the passenger beside them.
"Sorry ma'am," Al spoke and turned back to Ed, "You didn't think it was important to tell us this, that man almost killed you the last time you saw him."
"You should have told us!" Winry stood up towering over the still seated Ed.
"So you could do what, put yourselves into the path of danger!" Ed snapped standing so that he was now taller than her, his eyes flaring with anger that startled Winry, "Had I have told you, you would have tried to come with, neither of you have any training and you would have been a liability." Ed stopped with a small yelp of pain when train car bumped upward, he quickly sat down and take a deep breathe. "You could have been hurt, it is my job to not let you guys get hurt."
"Ed, you don't have to be so mean, I can fight and you know it." Al said pain in his voice.
"You can, but you can still get hurt, either way nothing happened with him, he wasn't there." Ed continued with his story ignoring the fact that his brother was now both mad at him and hurt. "I was ordered to go with Kimblee and his men during the search, my combat skill fit well with his team, I didn't like it, but I had no choice, either way, I was going to act as bait to get Scar out into the open and they were going to take him out from the neighboring buildings." Ed paused for a second luckily neither of them was trying to interrupt him. "Well kimblee's plan worked I was on my own, like I should be to act as bait, but he didn't know Scar well enough, he was long gone by then and I was a sitting duck to the ambush they were planning."
"Ambush?" Al asked looking closely at his brother.
"I think that Kimblee tried to have me killed." Ed stopped holding up his hand in a jester to stop them from interrupting at the time being, "I was attacked by a chimera, a lion and a gorilla. I think they were working for Kimblee because he is at the moment missing."
"You were attacked, is that why you are in so much pain?" Winry asked. "Where were you when General said you were in a meeting?"
"Unconscious in the hospital wing from blood lose, from the lion chimeras claws." Ed spoke his voice soft as he watched both his brother and his friend's eye widen considerably.
"And you yell at us about getting hurt, do you ever think that maybe, just maybe we want to protect you?" Winry nearly cried moving so she could lean her head on his shoulder.
"Winry, it's not your job to protect me, your my friend and I protect my friends, and Al your my baby brother, I have to protect you, you two are all I have." Ed raised his hand to put it on Winry's head, "and I am ok, or I will be, once I get you two out of harm's way and back to Resembool where you are safe. With Kimblee out there I want you as far from that place as possible."
Winry sighed, shaking her head slightly, "Ed why are you shaking so bad, I'm not hurting you am I?"
"No, I'm just going through withdrawals, I have had a few to many cigarettes and my body is reacting. Oh and by the way, here Al, when I was in the hospital General got me these," Ed shifted to hand the extra pack to his brother, "She thought that I would need them after being out for a day."
"She's thoughtful," Al said with a laugh, though he didn't think being thoughtful meant enabling a bad habit like smoke, but she was trying to help his brother. "How many have you had today?"
"Umm…. Two and a half," Ed answered truthfully laughing at himself, yeah, Winry would find out, he would just tell her.
"Oh, that's more then you should have by now," Winry spoke up, sitting up strait again.
"I know, believe me I know, but I am stressed and I don't know where to go from here." Ed started then shifted uncomfortably only to be greeted by a wave of pain, his hand absently coming up to put pressure on his chest trying to stop the pain.
"How did you get that?" Al questioned as Winry got up and walk toward the front the train.
"I don't really remember, the only think I can remember is that it was from the lion." Ed spoke, looking out the window again, "I'm sorry to have worried you."
"Brother, you need to learn that you don't have to always protect us, we can help ourselves, though it is clear that you are more skilled then I thought, is there any other skills I should know about?" Al joked trying to lighten the mood.
"Yes, I have to, it's my job, and you can't change my mind on that." Ed's voice was calm and held a tone that Al only heard when they were little, right after their mom died and Ed would try and sooth him while he cried. Ed looked at his baby brother and smiled, adding, "No there are no other skills I have, the only reason I didn't tell you I could shoot was because I didn't want to have you think I was willing to use a gun to do anything, I don't carry one with me, so I didn't think it would come up."
"Then why did you choose to learn how to shoot if you hoped you would never have to?" Winry interrupted stopping short as soon as she did, there was something about Ed that made her smile. He seemed to have opened up a little about something, and had the look on his face he commonly wore when he was happy about something. "Here, drink this." Winry handed Ed the container that she had gotten.
"Why is it milk?" Ed took the bottle from Winry wirily.
"No silly it's orange juice, it will help get some energy as well as help your body make blood," Winry smiled sitting down beside him as he took a small sip.
"Thanks," Ed smiled, "And to answer your question I wanted to know, call it curiosity but I wanted to know how to shoot. I thought that at least knowing would help if I was called into the front lines." Ed looked down, none of them liked to think about the fact that Ed was a military dog, that could be ordered to kill at any moment, but with him turning 18 it has been on his mind a lot more.
Ed smiled looking out the window and Winry went back to resting her head on his arm. The time lapsed in silence as the train moved toward the destination.
Two hour went by and Ed was already feeling better from the juice and rest, he could feel his breathing calm back into the rhythmic motions that he should have been breathing. Even as he did so he felt his hand tremor again lightly, and he knew Winry had noticed but she choice not to say it. she must be thinking that he would ask if he wanted another, and well she would probibliy kill him but he was ready to. Nah I can wait till we get there at least. "Hey Winry you think I could use your phone when we get there?"
"You should know the answer to that already Ed of cource you can." Winry smiled looking over at him, maybe he was already doing better with the quieting his arm had a tremor and he hadn't asked for a cigarette, "Why?"
"I am going to call Mustang, he should know about what happened in Briggs, and I guess I should tell him everything else." Ed added the last part under his breathe but he knew the others heard him. "He's going to kill me, but I think he should know, I guess." Ed shifted uncomfortably thinking about how Mustang will react to him, when he told him. Mustang would normally just blow anything he said off but something like this it will be different.
"You shouldn't have hidden it and even started Ed," Winry spoke sitting up in her seat as they neared the Resembool station.
"Winry do you have to start in on me again, I never planned on needing them as much as I do," Ed sighed looking out the window at a sheep farm.
Before Winry could object the engeneir called over the intercom, "We are now stopping in Resembool."
"Let's go, it will be nice to see Granny." Ed smiled standing up holding a hand out for Winry. "Come on, I don't want to fight, let's try to put this behind us and try to move forward."
"You can be quite the charmer you know that right Ed." Winry smiled grabbing his hand.
"I try," Ed smirked grabbing the bags and exiting the train. The moment he was outside of the train he felt better, he had almost forgotten how long a train ride could be. "Do you want to go straight to Granny's house?"
"Yeah, I think that would work," Al answered, Ed had not been suspecting to hear him speak up, he had been so quite the train ride. Al was moving around and when he had stopped he was holding the pack of cigarettes that Ed had given to him on the train, "Here, you have a three day limit so you could finish this one." Al handed it to Ed with a sad smile.
"Thanks."
Ed took his offering and lit the end, though just as he did a voice yelled from behind them. "Edward Elric, what on earth do you think you are doing?!"
AN: Sorry about taking so long to post this but I was just too busy with my school finals coming up. Either way here ya guys go and hope you enjoyed!
