Every time Ed and Al came home, it was a blessing to me. My heart would practically jump out of my throat I was so happy! But the blessing started to wane. Instead of jumping, my heart started breaking every time they walked out that door, walked out on me. On that last visit, the last time that I saw Ed and saw Al without a body, my heart was nothing more than a pile of rubble in my chest.

But it was their last night here that this mechanic attempted to fix it.

"Winry?" Ed stood in the doorway of my room, that painful look on his face.

I stood up from my desk, stretching my back. "Yeah, Ed?"

"Um…" He frowned.

I slipped off my bandana and used it to wipe my hands. "You're leaving."

"Yeah," he sighed, leaning against the doorframe.

"You wanted to say goodbye." I walked closer to him, dropping the bandana.

"Yeah, I guess. Goodbye, Winry." Ed focused on his feet instead of me.

I thought about beating him with my wrench until he admitted what he really came for, but for once, I swallowed the urge down. "Then come in, let me check your automail."

He finally entered the room, closing the door behind him. "It should be fine." Ed dropped his pants so he was standing there in nothing but his boxers and a t-shirt.

"With the way you treat it, I'd rather be safe than sorry." I knelt down and ran my fingers over his leg, checking every nut and bolt. "Okay…" I stood and began inspecting his arm, but stopped, staring into his eyes.

A blush rose on Ed's cheeks. "What are you looking at?"

"There's one last thing I wanted to check." I leaned in, closing my eyes. To my surprise, Ed met me halfway, wrapping an arm around my waist to pull me closer. The rest was a haze. My mind awoke from the hormones and I found Ed on top of me, spent.

"Winry?"

"Yes, Ed?"

He was silent, but I could feel the unsteady rise and fall of his chest and then the soft drops of liquid rolling down my shoulder. "Winry, I'm so sorry," he choked, more tears sliding along my skin.

I was scared to death. I had never seen Ed cry… I had always thought it was impossible. "Sh…" I wrapped my arms around him tightly, smoothing his hair.

"No." He broke from my arms and rolled over, sitting up. He wiped his eyes but could not seem to stop himself from crying. "I never… I never should have…"

"You had to." I sat up and placed my head on his shoulder. "You wanted to give me something… one moment… before you die." I knew all along that he foresaw death for himself at the end of this journey. "But you won't, Edward." I kissed his shoulder and ran my hand down his arm.

"Winry, I-"

"Don't, Edward." I could feel my own tears trespassing on my cheeks. "Tell me when you come back."

--

By the time Al came home, I already knew I was pregnant.

Luckily, Al did not stay for much longer than two months, leaving me ample time to hide the bump that was growing in my stomach. He ran off with his teacher and I was left with Rose, her baby, Eli, and Pinako. In the end, all I could think of was when was Ed coming home.

I didn't even have to tell Pinako or Rose… they just seemed to know. I guess the worried look in my eyes and the utterly depressing exhaustion (not to mention the throwing up every morning) was enough to clue anyone in on my condition. I dreaded the day that Al would come home and I would have to explain, and since I'm the luckiest girl in the world, that day wasn't far off.

A month after Al departed, he returned, his training having been postponed due to Izumi's failing health. As he walked down the road to our house, I froze, my heart practically stopping in my chest. "Hi, Alphonse," I waved slowly, quite unsure of myself.

"Winry!" He ran up to me and hugged me, as if not even noticing the belly that pushed between us.

"Did you have a good time?" At this point, I was sure I was shaking.

"I couldn't train much. Izumi's pretty sick. I said I'd come back home for a while, maybe go to Central and study some more."

"Why don't you stay for a little while, Alphonse? We could use the help." Pinako wasn't as feisty anymore and Rose had a young baby to take care of and me… well, you know.

"Okay." We started walking towards the house together, me with my arm around his shoulders. "How's the baby, Winry?"

"Eh?" I choked. "Al, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you!"

"Actually, I meant Rose's baby, but it's okay." He laughed and I completely deflated, wanting to just lie down and die right there.

"Al, we have to talk, though." We reached the porch and I sat down, him sitting next to me.

"About what?"

"The baby… my baby… it's very important that you know…" Ah! I imagined telling Pinako would be hard, but Al was killing me. How do I break it to him that I'm carrying the baby of his brother who is most probably lost forever?

"It's Ed's, right?"

If I wasn't so anchored by gravity thanks to the extra weight from the baby, I would have fallen out of the chair. "Alphonse!" I unsheathed my trusty wrench and shook it at him.

He cringed. "What?"

"That bastard blabbed to you, didn't he! He told you all about he was romantic and swept me off my feet and blah, blah, blah! Let me tell you that bastard's a liar!" Pregnancy hormones for the win!

"No, Winry, it's not like that!"

"Oh," wrench back into the abyss.

"It's just…" Al smiled softly. "Who else would you have a baby with?"

--

"Come on, Trisha, we have a special place to go today." I had waited for her to turn three to do this. I thought maybe now she would understand.

Trisha came bounding down the stairs, the braid that Rose had put in her hair swishing back and forth. "Hi, Momma!"

"Hi, sweetheart." I picked her up and balanced her on my hip. She was getting too big for this, but I could not bring myself to stop carrying her. Probably not until I break my back.

I handed her the flowers from the table and we began walking for the cemetery. I reached the grave and set her down.

"Momma, she has the same name as me!"

"This is the woman I named you after." I sat down and began pulling weeds from around the grave.

"Trisha El… Elric." She placed the flowers down and sat next to me. "Was she nice?"

"Very, and very beautiful, just like you!" I smoothed her hair as she giggled. "Trisha, you need to listen to Momma very carefully for a moment."

"Yes, Momma."

"Her son…" I touched Trisha's grave softly. "Her son, Edward… he is your daddy."

"Where is he?"

"He had something very important to do, so he couldn't be with me and you for a while."

"When will he be coming back?"

"I don't know, honey." I gathered her into my arms so she wouldn't see the tears starting in my eyes. "I just don't know."

--

"Momma, come tell me a story!"

"I'll be up in a minute!" I shouted from the sink, my hands immersed in dishes. A knock sounded softly on the door. "Alphonse, will you get that?"

"Sure." I listened to his footsteps and then the creak of the door, but no greeting.

"Al, who is it?" I dried my hands and turned, my heart leaping into my throat.

"Brother!" Alphonse flung his arms around Edward.

"Al… I'm sorry I took so long…" He was taller now, looking very much like his father, and his voice was deeper.

"Momma!" Trisha wailed from upstairs.

"Just a minute!" I called weakly. Both Al and Ed stared at me, Ed's eyes wide. I looked at the ground. "Al, would you please go up and tell her a story?"

"Okay." Al rushed out of the room and up the stairs.

"Momma?" Ed whispered.

I had been waiting for this moment, had practiced it over and over in my head, but my voice would not work.

"The father?" I could hear the rage building in his voice.

"He left us," I answered softly, my eyes still focused on the ground.

"You just couldn't wait for me, huh?" He yelled. "You had to go off and find another guy while I was gone! While I was trying the whole time to come back to you and Al!"

"Lower your voice," I hissed.

"You just couldn't wait," he said quieter, but firmly.

"She's five years old, Edward."

"And that's supposed to make me feel better?" He walked straight in front of me, lifting my head so that my eyes met his. "You just waited a month or two after I was gone and then moved on? What, did you get lonely? Did I not satisfy you?"

"You are the biggest jerk ever, Edward Elric!" I slapped him as hard as I could and then made a b-line for the stairs.

His footsteps echoed behind me. "Winry, don't you dare run away from me!"

I ran into Trisha's room, Al still sitting on her bed, telling her a story. "Momma? What's wrong?"

"Trisha…" I hadn't noticed the tears spilling from my eyes. "Come here, Momma just needs a hug, that's all."

Trisha slipped out of bed and Al looked at me, his eyes searching mine for an answer for my tears. "Edward?"

"Al, why don't you go make up a bed for Edward." I knelt down and engulfed Trisha in my arms, rocking her slightly.

"But, Winry-"

"I said go, Al."

He got up and walked for the door, pausing as he came face to face with his brother. "Edward, what-"

"Its okay, Al, go." Al walked slowly past his brother.

"Winry, don't-"

"Daddy?" Trisha jumped from my arms and stood up. "Daddy, you're home!"

I turned and watched as Trisha jumped into his arms, the look of horror stuck on Ed's face. "Yes, Trisha, Daddy's home, now." I turned my back to them, resting my head against the foot of Trisha's bed.

"Daddy, I'm so glad you came home! There's so much I want to show you!" She wriggled up and down in his arms.

"I'm… I'm glad to be home…" Ed clutched Trisha tightly to him, rocking her back and forth. "My little girl," he whispered.

I erupted into sobs. How could he not have known? How could he not have trusted me? I never thought… never thought he would believe I'd do that. "You're such a jerk," I whispered.

"Daddy, please stop Momma from crying." She tugged on him gentle.

"Its okay, Trisha." He kissed her forehead gently. "Daddy will take care of it, so why don't we just put you to bed now."

I stood slowly, achingly, and walked over to Trisha. "Baby, give Daddy a kiss." She listened immediately and kissed him. "Now, come on, I'll tuck you in."

"Actually, could I, Winry?" Ed smiled softly.

"Fine." I kissed Trisha softly and smiled. "Goodnight, sweetheart."

"Goodnight, Momma!"

I walked out of the room swiftly, and back downstairs, thrusting myself to finish the dishes. I could hardly see them with all the tears floating in my eyes, but I managed to finish them before I heard his footsteps behind me.

"Winry, I'm-"

"Shut up, Edward." I dried my hands and began my trek back up the stairs to my bedroom. Unhappily for me, he followed. I walked into my room, slamming the door in his face.

"Winry!" He burst through the door, practically knocked it off its hinges.

"Just get out, Edward!" I sat down on my bed, burying my head in my hands. "Just get the hell out!"

"But, Winry-"

"Just shut up!"

"I'm sorry!"

"I told you to shut up." I lay down on the bed, hiding my face in the pillow.

He walked over to the bed, sitting in front of me. "Winry, please…"

I didn't have the strength to fight anymore, so I just lay there, sobbing.

"Winry, I'm so sorry…" I felt his hand run across my hair.

"Don't touch me." He shrank back. "I wish you'd go back. I wish you'd never come. I always thought… I always thought you'd come through that door and just know. You'd hold me and tell me how sorry you were, what a good job I've done. But you come here and accuse me without even thinking. You don't even trust me."

"I never thought… I never thought that you could be pregnant."

"Well, news flash, Edward Elric, when you have sex, you usually do get pregnant." I pushed myself up with my elbows, still not looking at him. "And I told you! I told you she was five! You really think that badly of me? That I would forget about you in a month and just get myself knocked up by any guy off the street?"

"I'm sorry, Winry, I really am."

"That's great." I laughed spitefully. "Just get out, Edward. Go see Al, or Rose, because they'll actually be glad to see you."

"Winry, please, don't be like this."

I turned over, my back to him, and curled up in a ball. "Just get out."

--

Sleeping was a hard thing to accomplish that night. Was I too hard on him? No! It was ridiculous to even think that. I slipped out of the bed and walked around the room for probably an hour. Ugh!

I walked down the hall slowly. If I just go and lay with Trisha for a while, maybe I can finally go to sleep. I opened the door to her room and froze, a smile softly spreading on my lips. Edward was in the bed, Trisha's head on his chest. My heart was fluttering.

I shut the door as quietly as possible and slinked across the room. I sat on the bed next to Trisha, leaning in and kissing her forehead softly.

"Momma?" she murmured, her eyes opening ever-so-slightly.

"Sh, honey." I smoothed her hair.

"Daddy's sad, Momma."

"Oh, baby," I sighed. "I know." But that was Daddy's fault. "Please don't worry about it."

"Okay…" she yawned and her eyes drifted back closed.

I stood and walked to the other side of the bed. I leaned down, kissing Edward softly.

"Winry?" He murmured, yawning.

"Come on, Daddy, let's go talk." I walked out of the room and down the hall to my room, leaving the door open.

He entered a few minutes later, still yawning. "You really want to talk to me now?"

"I can't sleep." I smiled softly. "It's been the first time since Trisha was conceived."

"Were you okay… with the baby?"

"It was hard, at first." I sat down on the bed, pushing myself back until my back met the wall. "When Pinako died a month after her birth, it seemed much harder. But Rose had already had a baby, so she taught me everything I really needed to know."

"Pinako's… dead?"

"Al didn't tell you?" I looked at my hands. "I'm sorry, Edward."

"It's… okay." He moved to the bed and sat next to me.

"It seems so easy, now, though." For the first time in a while I smiled fully, thinking of Trisha. "She's so big; she has her own ideas and usually just wants to do her own thing. She's so… like you, Edward."

"I wish… I could have been there."

"I wish you had, too." I moved my eyes to Edward and found him staring at me in a way that I had never seen before. It was like happy and sad all at the same time. "But now, she can know you, and that's all that matters to me."

"So… you didn't mean what you said?"

"No, I did." I sighed softly. "I still wish you hadn't acted like that, had more trust in me. But now that you're here, I can't change it. All you… we can do now is start over again, from the beginning."

We sat there in silence for a while, just staring at each other. Ed looked forward, focusing on the distance. "Would you go back… to the beginning if you could?"

"Beginning of what?"

"Never mind."

"I'd go back to stop you, if I could, stop you from trying to bring your mother back." I sighed, "But I know I couldn't. If I had known anything about alchemy I probably would have tried the same thing for my parents. But go back to that night that we… made love and stop it? Stop Trisha and these five years? No. She was a blessing. If I hadn't had her for these years to remind me of you, I don't know what I would have done." I reached over and took his hand in mine, smiling as his body tensed from the touch. "Would you?"

"Yes." My heart sank, but he turned and looked at me, that sorrow in his eyes. "I would have waited… waited until I could be here with you, to see my… our child grow." He reached for my stomach and touched it softly. "I wanted to feel her kicking, to talk to her while she was in there, to kiss your stomach, to hold your hand while she was coming." He leaned over, hiding his face between my shoulder and neck. "I lied before when I said I didn't think about you becoming pregnant. I worried about it every night. I worried about missing our child completely."

"Well, you lying isn't a big surprise. After all, you are a jerk."

He chuckled, his breath against my neck sending a chill up my spine. "I am a jerk." He kissed my neck, another chill. "After a year, I started to think that you wouldn't be waiting for me when I came back. I imagined that someone would have come along and taken you… taken your hope that I would be coming back."

"Trisha stopped all that." I touched my cheek to his. "I knew that this child meant you were alive. You would come back for her."

"And you." He lifted his head from its hiding space and pressed his lips against mine ever-so-gently.

"Can you trust me now, Ed?" I begged at him with my eyes.

"Can you forgive me for not trusting you before?"

"Mostly. There's just one thing…"

"I love you, Winry."

"That's exactly it."

--

I woke up to the smell of his skin. His chest rose and fell, my head moving with it. I pushed myself up with my elbow, staring at his sleeping face. It was the first time in a long time that he seemed calm, almost happy.

"Good morning, beautiful," he whispered hoarsely.

"Good morning, yourself, Daddy."

"Could you not call me that when Trisha's not around?" he smiled widely. "It makes me feel kind of dirty to be in bed with you when you call me Daddy."

I giggled contently, resting myself back on his chest. "Maybe I should just call you it anyway!"

"Ugh," he laughed softly to himself. "Wasn't five years without you in my bed torture enough?"

"Oh, but this is just my payback!" I pushed myself up and started kissing his neck. He pulled me on top of him, his hand shimming up my nightgown.

"I missed you so much…" he murmured.

"You only missed this part," I whispered happily between kisses.

"It was one of many," he laughed. "Come here." He tilted my head up with his hand, allowing his lips to meet mine.

"I don't think I want to kiss here," I smiled, pulling away.

"But you're going to." He forced me down, swallowing my mouth.

The door bust open, Trisha standing there in her glory poise. "Momma!"

I immediately pulled away from Ed and just lay on his chest. "Good morning, baby. Come on in."

Trisha scampered into the room, hopping onto the bed. "Daddy, why didn't you stay with me last night?"

I looked at him, seeing the uncomfortable smile on his face. I rubbed my hips against his, him giving be a death glare.

"Well, you made me promise I'd stop Momma crying, right?"

"Uh huh."

"Well, I have to sleep with her a little, too, to make her happy."

"Okay!" She reached out and tugged on the shoulder of my nightgown. "Momma, I'm hungry."

"Okay, baby. Go wake up everyone and I'll be more than happy to make breakfast."

"Okay!" Trisha jumped out of the bed and started running for the door.

"But don't let Al start breakfast! He'll make a mess!"

"Okay!" She answered, her frame disappearing down the hall.

"Just when things were starting to get good," Ed sighed.

"That's what happens when you have a kid, no privacy."

"Well, I was trying to make another one."

"Maybe after breakfast," I smiled and kissed him softly.

"Aw, but I can't procreate on a full stomach."

"Oh, well!" I slipped out of bed, fixing my nightgown that Ed had moved out of place. "It's not like you last that long anyway, so we could technically get one in before breakfast."

"WINRY!"