Edward

"Ed!Al!" Ed turns away from Julia's unconscious form to see Winry running towards them.

"Winry!" he says in surprise. She stops at the foot of the slope and stares up at him, her blue eyes almost impossibly wide. "Are you okay?" he stands up.

"Yeah." lifting his right arm. "The arm made a lot of difference...I'll have to thank old man Gon, too." Her eyes are so wide and bright it looks as if they are about to spill tears. Ed feels his heartbeat quicken, then movement beyond her catches his eye just as Al and Mustang notice, too, and they all blink in shock at the gigantic crowd of Milosan people staring towards them. "Whoa...I guess we'd better get them out of here." Then suddenly, from above, there is a wave of cheers. They all look up to see a mass of people atop the cliff. "Milos is free!" someone shouts. The crowd at the edge of the water takes up the cheer. Ed tears his eyes away and looks back at Winry. Her eyes are fixed on something behind him now. He glances around and sees that she is staring at Julia's bloody form and the remains of her left leg. When he turns around again she looks sick. "Winry..." she sways, and he slides down the slope just in time to catch her under the arms. "Hey hey hey. Winry?" She straightens, clinging to his arms for support, face pale. His throat tightens. "Are you okay?"

"Fullmetal!" his head turns toward Mustang automatically. "We need to get the girl to a hospital." Ed nods, and Al gently picks up the unconscious Julia and makes his way down the slope with Mustang following. Winry is still holding onto him, so he takes her hands gently from his arms and turns around, resting them on his shoulders instead and then lifting her onto his back and starting after the others. After a moment, Winry says "What if your arm breaks and I can't get there to fix it? What if it's not strong enough to-" she takes a deep breath and rests her forehead against his shoulder. He waits for her to finish, feeling a bit sick himself. Finally she says "I'm okay now." He pauses to let her slip off his back and walk beside him, glancing sideways at her. Sections of her long, pale hair fall past her chin as she stares at the ground, and her cheeks are flushed now. She looks almost feverish. There's a hard knot in his gut. "Hey." he says "...don't be stupid. My arm gets wrecked all the time because I rely on it so much." She looks up at him, eyelids fluttering. Her lips curve into a small, grateful smile. Then her fac hardens a bit. "You do need to stop being so reckless, though. I can't drop everything and go running all over Amestris forever. I have other clients, you know." He rolls his eyes and rubs the back of his head.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

"You could...come home." His shoulders stiffen and he lifts his chin.

"You know I can't do that, Winry. Until we get our bodies back, Al and I don't have a home."

"Right." Crossing her arms and tilting her nose up she says airily "Well then I guess you can stop crashing at our house like you own the place and expecting Granny to make you stew and me to make you pie." Open-mouthed, Ed stares at her for a second, then snaps his jaw shut and clasps his hands behind his head, defiantly closing his eyes. "Geez. It's not like you're the only person in Amestris who can make apple pie. You learned it from Gracia-san in the first...place..." he trails off, opening his eyes. Winry's staring at the ground again. Ed drops his hands to his sides. He remembers rushing to the Hughes' house to find Winry huddled over a sleeping Elicia...and the tears streaming down Winry's face later that night as she told him about making apple pie. He hates it when Winry cries. Just thinking about it makes him feel a bit panicked. Most of all he hates that it's always his fault. Since they were young, it seems every tear she's shed has been because of him. "Winry, I..." She shakes her head. "It's fine, Ed. I'm okay. Just...ready for us to get out of here, I guess." He puts his hands in his pockets. They're almost to the lift that will take them out of the valley. "Yeah." Glancing ahead to where Al is cradling Julia's still-unconcious form, he adds "I hope Julia's going to be okay...Milos is finally free, just like she wanted." He jumps aboard the lift and turns to offer a hand to Winry. "Come on. Let's get out of this valley."

Edward strolls slowly off the bridge and toward the train station, hands in his pockets and head bent in thought. "Hey!" he looks up. Winry is standing a little ways from the edge of the ravine. He turns and makes his way over to her. "Where's Al?" she asks. Edward grins.

"Saying goodbye to Julia. I thought I'd give them some time to talk alone." Winry raises an eyebrow.

"Oh? That's interesting." She turns in the direction of the bridge and leans forward a bit, shading her eyes with one hand. "Hmm. Can't see much from here."
"You can interrogate him later if you must." He reaches out and grabs her by the arm, pulling her back from the edge a bit. "Got everything? The train will be here soon." She turns back to him and nods.

"I guess we can have lunch on the way. I packed some sandwiches and milk."

"Aw, give it up already. I'm not going to drink the milk." Her eyes flash suddenly.

"Would you quit being like that? It's not like the world revolves around you."

"Well I'm sorry! You're always trying to get me to do things that aren't going to happen, so what am I supposed to think?"

"I don't know. Do you think?" She leans forward threateningly and he hastily takes a step back. "That's the problem. You don't do much thinking!" she raises a fist and he takes another step back. "If you did, you'd..." Winry blinks, her expression changing suddenly. "Wait. Stop." she waves a hand at him and he backs up again, frustration boiling in his gut. "I'm not doing anything! Why do you have to-"

"Edward, stop." He shuffles warily, and she lunges forward just as he feels the heels of his boots tip back abruptly into nothingness. "Whoa!" he flails his arms for a split second, then he grabs Winry's hands, which are clutched tightly in the front of his shirt. They stare at each other, wide-eyed, not breathing. Edward swallows hard. Then, slowly, with Winry still hanging onto him, he maneuvers sideways until they're both well away from the edge. Winry puts a hand over her mouth. Gently, he pries the other one from the front of his shirt and holds it between them, still clutched in his right hand. She's shaking, and his chest feels gashed. Automatically, his other hand reaches out and rests on her head. "Winry-" Winry takes her hand away from her mouth and laughs. It feels like a bucket of cold water has just been dumped on him. She's laughing. Suddenly Al appears. "Nii-san!" He stops in his tracks, taking in the scene. "What are you-" Face flushing, Edward drops Winry's hand and stomps away. Her laughter echoes off the walls of the ravine and pounds insistently at his ear drums. Ed crosses his arms and makes a "Puh!" of disgust. "Come on, Al, we're going to miss the train!" He shouts without looking back. "The colonel and the lieutenant are waiting for us." As he approaches the station, Winry's giggling face and bright blue eyes flash in his mind and he frowns in annoyance. But the simmering pocket of guilt and helplessness that grows with each tear she sheds cools a bit at the sound of her laughter.

THE END