So Winry finally goes to meet Father and we all know that that is going to go so well :D anyway hope you enjoy
Winry felt sick. Her clothes felt too tight, she was already beginning to sweat under her hair and she was seriously considering asking Hoenheim if he would put her under hypnosis for a minute or two. She couldn't work out if she shouldn't have drunk that whiskey at all or whether she should have downed the whole bottle. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves and thought that she should have downed the whole thing – at least if she was drunk she wouldn't keep worrying that she was going to die.
"So you know what you're doing?" Riza asked, her voice coming through on the ear-piece Winry had been fitted with.
"Yes," Winry replied quietly trying to make it look as if she wasn't talking to herself. She thought about glancing at the car she had come in – Kian in the front dressed as a chauffeur and Riza in the back, unseen by the tinted windows – but she thought better of it. It was just nerves and she didn't want to arouse any more suspicion than she probably already was.
"What's your safety signal if you want me to call for back up?" Riza asked.
"Snapdragon," Winry replied. "Please don't talk in my ear while I'm inside."
"I won't," Riza said. "I'm just making sure you know what you're doing."
"I'll be fine," Winry said although she felt anything but. With the wire Kian had fitted her with, so that he and Riza could hear and record her whole conversation with Father, she felt so far from fine. She was convinced that he was going to know just by looking at her; she might as well have a flashing neon sigh over her head.
"Okay, we're here if you need us," Riza said. "Good luck."
"Thanks," Winry said as she reached the huge front doors of 'The Dwarf In The Flask' Theatre. The place looked pretty dead and Winry wondered for a minute if she should just go inside and go from there when she saw a plaque behind a rope hanging down from the ceiling.
'If no show please ring for service' the plaque read. Well there's nothing else for it, she thought and gave the rope a tug, From inside she heard a shrill ringing and then slow, lumbering footsteps coming towards the door.
It opened and the huge giant of a man she had seen in the photographs stood in front of her. Winry's breath caught in her throat as she stared up at a man who bore an eerie resemblance to Lurch from 'The Addams Family', Frankensteins monster attributes and all, and who could probably kill her with one swipe of his dustbin-lid sized hands. She smiled up at him but she was sure it came out as more of a grimace.
"You rang?" Lurch-a-like asked.
"Miss Winry Rockbell," she said introducing herself, "here to see Father."
"Follow me," cane the reply and the huge man turned and lumbered inside. Winry darted in after him. He was so much larger than she was that one step for him was about four her and she found herself having to jog to keep up. She hardly had time to look around at the corridors he was leading her down she was too busy focusing on matching his pace and not getting lost in this maze of corridors.
Finally they reached an office door. There was nothing on the door to say who might be inside but Winry guessed that it was Father's. The man raised a huge fist that was probably the size of Winry's head and knocked.
"Enter," a deep voice said from inside. The man opened the door and lumbered in, Winry following.
"Miss Winry Rockbell here to see Father," he announced repeating word for word what Winry had just said to him.
"Thank you Patrick," the deep voice said again, "that will be all."
"Yes Father," the man – Patrick – said and moved aside. Winry had to stifle her shock as she saw Father himself sitting behind the desk. He really was uncannily like Hoenheim but now that she had met the both of them it was clear just how different from each other they were. She suddenly had the most overwhelming urge to run but she held her ground; she was here now so she might as well try and get something out of him. Patrick left the room, closing the door behind him.
"Miss Rockbell," Father said turning to smile at her. "I am Iesama Williams but you may call me Father. Please have a seat." He indicated the chair in front of his desk that was a little too close for comfort for Winry's liking but she sat down in it all the same.
"Thank you for seeing me today Mr Williams," she said. Father put up his hand and Winry felt her heart stop.
"Please," he said, "call me Father. I feel it gives a more family atmosphere to my work and makes me more approachable." If there was one thing this man was not it was approachable Winry thought but said nothing.
"Okay Father," she said.
"Now Miss Rockbell," Father said linking his fingers together on the desk in front of him. "I have been given to understand that you have been able to assemble 'The Brotherhood Of Travelling Alchemists' and are looking to put on a show in my humble little theatre." Another ironic statement that Winry let slide.
"Yes," Winry said, "and I can tell you that they are all very excited to perform here for you." That was a blatant lie, one Winry hoped wasn't noticeable. Luckily for her, her poker face seemed to be better than she thought it was.
"Wonderful," Father smiled. "I'm very fond of stage magic, as I'm sure you know, and I have heard a great many things about the talents of 'The Brotherhood'."
"If you don't mind me asking, how is it that you have kept a theatre like this afloat in a place like Central?" Winry asked. Maybe it was her nerves, maybe it was sheer adrenaline but she suddenly thought that she might be able to speed the whole process up by wrangling a confession out of him while she was there. If she could get him talking then she might be able to get him to admit something concrete, then they could pull the show and she wouldn't have to worry about convincing Ed to go along with it.
"I beg your pardon?" Father asked, the smile on his face faltering ever so slightly. Oh god! Have I just fucked up? Have I just implied too much on an opening gambit?
"What I meant to say is a theatre of this size, and in this location, is prime for the arts but I didn't think that Central had much of an arts market, what with it being mostly a garrison city," Winry said. Good save.
"Oh I wouldn't worry about that Miss Rockbell," Father said chuckling, seeming happy enough with that explanation. "Often enough we have something on our bill, like an appearance of 'The Brotherhood', that will pull a crowd large enough to keep our sales up for the next half a year at least."
"Of course," Winry nodded. What had she been thinking; trying to get a confession out of him when she was supposed to have only just met him? This was asking for trouble and hinting that she knew too much would certainly land her in hot water. Regroup! "And I can assure you that they will put on a show that the people of Central will never forget."
"They had better Miss Rockbell or, should I say, Agent Rockbell," Father said, his smile becoming slightly more sinister. Winry felt as if the entire world had suddenly come to a juddering halt.
"Come again?" she asked when she finally found her voice.
"Winry get the hell out of there, he knows who you are," Riza hissed in her ear, jumping to the conclusion that Winry was much too slowly coming to herself.
"I know who you are Agent Rockbell and I know all about what you are trying to do and, believe me when I say you will not succeed," Father stated.
"How..." Winry had no idea how to finish that sentence. Was it the ear-piece that had given her away? The wire? Of the fact that she was so hideously unprepared to be face to face with a mastermind like Father. Only Kian and Riza knew that she was there so unless he already knew when he invited her then no one could have tipped him off.
"I know everything there is to know about you Agent Rockbell and how you plan to 'prove me to the world as the criminal that I am'," Father stated, his smile shifting and becoming more sinister by the second, "but I can assure you that will not succeed no matter how hard you try. You have nothing on me."
"How can you be so sure?" Winry asked with more confidence than she felt.
"I have eyes everywhere Agent Rockbell," Father stated as he pushed a button on his desk and a shrill ringing could be heard in the corridor outside.
"Meaning?" Winry asked.
"Meaning I know what you are planning before you can even begin to execute it," he replied.
"And you really think you can get away with it?" Winry asked. She was so thankful that her voice was steady. If she cracked now there would be no coming back from it.
"Because I always do Agent Rockbell," Father sneered, leaning forward menacingly. "No, the only thing that will be revealed at this show is the tricks of 'The Brotherhood' otherwise your job and your life will be mine to destroy. Understand?"
"Yes," Winry replied too shocked to make any kind of comeback.
"Good," Father said, all smiles again. Silence fell over the room before Patrick's distinctive knock sounded at the door and he opened it without waiting for a response.
"You rang?" he asked.
"Patrick please escort Miss Rockbell out," Father said, "we're done here."
"Yes Father," Patrick said. He turned and began to walk away. Winry got up and made to follow him. At the last second she turned back to stare defiantly at Father.
"You won't get away with this you know," she said although she sounded more like a child than a Federal Agent.
"I already have," Father smirked and turned his attention to some papers on his desk, showing that the conversation was over.
Winry darted after Patrick, hardly paying any attention to where he was taking her until they had reached the front door. He opened the door without saying anything and Winry walked back out into the sunshine. She just about managed to hold it together until she heard the door slam behind her. She walked towards the car, still parked in the same spot it had been, in a daze, completely ignoring Riza talking in her ear until the shock finally set in and she was violently sick in the nearest bin.