Winry's POV

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Call your family

The phone rung.

Of course they had to get a phone call just when she was up to her elbows in minced meat, egg and spices for the dinner.

"Granny, can you take that!" Winry called but then remembered that Pinako was in the workshop using the grinder and wasn't able to just drop everything. Winry looked at the mess on her hands and cursed with great creativity. Growing up under Pinako's care had given her the correct vocabulary for a hardened automail mechanic, but then she quickly washed her hands and dried them on her work pants.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," she muttered, "This better be important," added she and made her way over to the phone.

"Rockbell Automail," she said with well practised cheerfulness.

"Hi, Winry it's me, Al," a familiar voice said in the other end.

Thirty minutes later she carefully put the receiver back in the cradle and stared empty at the phone. She took an unsteady step towards the kitchen but then leaned with her back against the wall. Slowly she slid down to the floor. Pieces of the conversation swirled trough her mind.

-.-.-

"Yes Winry, I got my body back," Al said and Winry opened her mouth to squeal with joy, but the sound died in her throat. Something was wrong with the way Al sad it. There was dread not happiness in his voice.

"Al is..." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, "Something went wrong, didn't it?"

There was a long pause before Al finally answered.

"Yes," he whimpered quietly, like a wounded animal, and then the words were pouring out of him.

-.-.-

Winry banged her head lightly against the wall, as if she could beat some sort of order to her thoughts. Al had told her everything. Or maybe not everything, but at least the important points, and that was bad enough.

-.-.-

"Brother will need new automail"

"WATH! Did that idiot destroy them again! I will..."

"No!" Al interrupted, "His automail are fine. He..." a shaky breath, almost a sob.

"But... what's wrong then?" Winry asked in confusion, confusion tinted with fear.

"His other arm and leg. The Gate took them as payment!"

"... No..."

"Yes, and it took his eyes too Winry," Al managed to say in a tightly controlled voice.

-.-.-

The news has stunned her in to silence for at least a minute, and Al had given her that time, but still. His eyes too... It was so unfair, so cruel. Winry wasn't sure that she really believed it. Some part of her heart was screaming it's denial and the rest of her was numb. It couldn't be true, it just couldn't. But of course it was true. Al would never lie about something like that. Haven't they suffered enough? She thought, Hadn't they already paid more than what was equivalent? Damn that freaking Alchemy. Science my ass, it's a devil's bargain all the time, Winry fumed in her mind. She wanted to cry, or scream. Wanted to drown in tears, or rant and rave at the world, but somehow she could do neither. And I can't even go to Central and help them. Damn it! Why did I promise Al to stay here? I will go mad before they get here! Winry cursed helplessly and felt the tears burn in her eyes.

-.-.-

"No, please Winry, you can't come here. The military are still looking for Brother. If anyone recognises you they could follow you here, or force you to tell them were we are. Please Winry," Al pleaded and Winry cursed.

-.-.-

He was right of course. Wasn't that exactly what had happened when Mustang and his team came to Rezembool looking for Ed? Winry wouldn't do the same mistake again.

-.-.-

"I have called Sensei, she will come to Central and then help us get home," Al explained, "She will bring her husband, and you know that Sig easily can carry Brother. And he won't dare to make a fuss of it if Sensei is there," Al added and Winry had to smile. If there were one person in the world that could make Ed behave it was Izumi Curtis.

"Okey then Al, I will stay here," Winry sighted shakily, "But don't you dare get in any more trouble on the way!" she added in an attempt to return some sort of normality in her tone. It didn't work.

"Yes Winry, I will try," was Al's toneless reply.

-.-.-

Forcing back her tears Winry concentrated her thoughts on the part of what Al told her that didn't make sense. The part that maybe could give her some hope.

-.-.-

"Winry, if anyone asks for Brother then you have to tell them that you know nothing."

"Of course I won't tell anyone that I have heard from you, the military are looking for you after all," Winry said and rolled her eyes. Did they think that she was stupid?

"Winry," Al sighted, "I didn't mean it like that. I'm trying to tell you that if anyone asks for us you can't tell anything, and that includes Colonel Mustang and his men."

Winry frowned, "But can't you trust Mustang? He did help you when he was sent out here. I don't like the man, but I think he was honest when he said that he would try and keep the military away from you, and Miss Hawkeye won't let him back stab you."

"No, it's nothing like that. I think we can trust the Colonel. It's just that Brother don't want anyone to know how badly wounded he is. He especially don't want them to know that he is blind. If the military learns that he has lost his eyes they will discharge him as a cripple and take away his state license."

"What!" Winry fumed, "Doesn't your brother ever stop being an idiot! Why the hell would he worry over his damn state licence, and besides, isn't that a bit too late? He has already deserted!"

"No, he won't count as a deserter if the Colonel can prove that the Führer was a homunculus and that Dante was the puppet master behind all of it," Al interrupted, "and he will be able to prove it. As soon as we have got a better picture of what has happened with Mustang Brother and I will send him a report that gives him everything he needs. Someone in the military has to know the truth, and even Brother thinks that we can trust the Colonel's judgement about what to do with that knowledge."

"Oh... Well, that's true," Winry admitted, "But still. Why does Ed want to keep his state licence? It doesn't make sense, you should just come home and forget about that damn silver watch!"

"Well, first of all, we will need to have access to the libraries to find a way to get back what Brother lost," Al said in a voice that didn't allow any objections, "but then there is something more. I..." Al hesitated, "The Gate, it can give as well as take and Brother... I think he knows something. He says that there is something he has to do, and to do it he will need the authority of a State Alchemist. He hasn't explained exactly what he means," Al admitted and then got thoughtful, "Actually, I don't think he knows exactly what he means yet, but still... If the knowledge comes from the Gate then it will take some time to make sense out of it, but it will be true" he explained and Winry had to mull that over for a while.

Knowledge from the Gate, what are you up to this time Ed? Winry thought. Can't you just come home? She sighted and then frowned when the next thought hit her.

"But that doesn't change anything!" she said, "He is still blind even if no one knows about it! He won't get his eyes back just because he needs them! ...Right? Or can he do something about it with that Gate?" She added with a slight hint of hopefulness. Winry hadn't learned about the Gate until she had followed the brothers to Dublith where Ed had been forced to explain the details about Izumi's illness. In Winry's mind the Gate appeared as some sort of evil entity that was beyond any normal rules and laws, but maybe Ed could manipulate it somehow?

"No, I'm sorry Winry but it won't be that easy," Al said tiredly and Winry deflated. Of course, it's never that easy.

"But then, why?"

"Like I said, the Gate can give you things too," Al tried to explain even though he obviously wasn't sure he understood it himself, "Usually it gives you knowledge, true knowledge. I think that it may be some sort of side effect of passing trough the Gate," Al continued but then shook himself when he realised that he had slipped in to 'science mode'. "Anyway, Brother did learn something from the Gate and now he somehow is able to sort of... see, without eyes. It's some kind of blindsight"

Silence. There was a long surprised silence from Winry's end of the line.

"You are serious? But that's..."

"Impossible?" Al filled in, "Yes, I know. But then again, I did see, hear and speak while I was living inside the armour, which had neither eyes, ears or mouth."

"Oh... If you put it that way," Winry admitted. Why had she never thought about how impossible Alphonse's existence in the armour had been? Maybe because I was too focused on trying to keep Ed alive, and then I had sort of gotten used to it, she answered her own question. "But Ed is able to see by using this 'blindsight' you said?"

"Yes, sort of. He says that it's nothing like normal vision, but it's better than nothing and he is learning really quick"

-.-.-

Al had tried to explain it more thorough to her, something about chi, but she hadn't been able to concentrate. The only thing of importance she learned was that Ed was doing the impossible. Again.

Winry sighted and dried her tears, she felt drained and somewhat numb. With a groan she got back on her feet and frowned, what was she doing? She didn't have time to sit down and cry. She had to start picking together the pieces for Ed's new automail, buy the ingredients to the apple pie she owed Alphonse and...

"Winry, who was on the phone?" Pinako came out from the workshop, cleaning her hands on an oily rag.

...and she had to tell grandma everything...

After a long explanation and some speculations about when they could expect the brothers to arrive they soon started on the safe and familiar subject of automail and automail surgery. Ed's new automail and surgery to be precise.

"So bean boy want a rush job again u-hu," Pinako huffed, "He's going to kill himself if he tries to do it like last time"

"Yes, Ed's an idiot, but he is strong"

"Never said that he wasn't, but no matter how strong and stubborn he is, this will be hard. We are talking four automail limbs here. If it was anyone else but Ed then I wouldn't even think about doing it," Pinako concluded and puffed on her pipe, "What's the rush for anyway? Didn't you say that Alphonse was fine?"

"I'm not sure. Apparently he has something he has to do. Al hadn't been able to get more than that out of him," Winry shrugged in annoyance.

"Humf, Edward always has something he has to do," Pinako said and shook her head, "But I'm surprised that Al is allowing that madness. Usually he is the one of them that has bout feet on the ground."

"Yes he is..." Winry said and remembered a part of the phone call.

-.-.-

"Why are you allowing this?" Winry asked angrily, "Why are you encouraging him? He should rest, take his time and heal damn it!"

"Winry, it's just that... he has lost so much. It took bout his legs, bout his arms and his eyes Winry! Can you understand how much that is!" Al almost shouted the last but Winry could hear the pain under his anger, "and it took... Never mind," Al interrupted himself and took several deep breaths to calm himself.

"Al..." Winry carefully said.

"What I'm trying to say is that anyone who have lost that much would be devastated, depressed. You know this, you know how hard it is for many of your patients to accept that they have lost one limb, and Brother..." Al halted to rein in his wavering voice, "You remember how Brother was the last time. Before Mustang came and gave him a possible way to make things right, gave him a goal. I don't want to see him like that again. I don't know what it is Brother is trying to do. I don't know if it is as important as he says, although it may very well be, but Brother needs this goal. He needs something to do, to aim for."

"I... I can understand that, but is it really right to play along, to trick him if you don't really believes in what he is trying to do?"

"Damn it Winry! I'm not tricking him! I didn't say that I don't believe in him, I said that I'm not sure about what he is trying to do yet. I'm saying that normally I would have tried to make him slow down but right now I don't dare to do anything that would make him lose his drive, his fire." There was a moment of silence following this announcement.

"Alphonse Elric," Winry then said in a stern voice, "aren't you underestimating your brother now? You lived in that armour for years without any of us having to tiptoe around you to spare your feelings."

"Yes Winry, but that was different. I couldn't eat, sleep, taste, smell or feel anything, but I could see, hear and move around and try to do something about it," Al explained, "Right now Brother is helpless, he can't do anything without automail. And to get automail he will have to go trough the surgery and the rehabilitation, and you know how rough that is. He needs every ounce of stubbornness and drive that he has to get trough it all."

"Well, yes..." Winry faltered, she could see his point, and then she realised that she hadn't asked Al about how Ed was handling this, "Oh, Al... sorry that I didn't ask earlier, but how is Ed taking this?"

"That's the thing Winry. He is taking it really well, almost unnaturally so. First of all he is really happy for my sake, he smiles every time I tell him about what I have done during the day and he bickers with me just as usual. And about the limbs and eyes... Well it makes him sad, but most of all he is annoyed, angry and impatient to get his new automail and learn to use the chi-sight properly," Al reported, "But the strangest part is when we talk about the Gate," Al stopped, searching for the right words, "You know that Brother always has been afraid of that thing? Not that I blame him because it really scares me too. But the ting is that when he told me what he remembered from the Gate, about what it did to him, he wasn't scared. Instead he was... Well, 'severely pissed of' sort of covers it."

"Wait, you are telling me that Ed is angry at the Gate?"

"Yes."

"That's madness. You know that, right?"

"Yeah," Al sighted, "I'm not sure what to do about it either, but right now I very much prefer an impatient and angry Ed rather then a depressed or, even worse, a resigned one."

-.-.-

"Al has his reasons," Winry said slowly. Pinako watched her with scrutinising eyes and then she nodded with a smile.

"I'm sure he has," was all she said, "And shouldn't you make dinner? The meatloaf won't cook itself you know," Pinako added and chuckled at her granddaughter's stricken expression.

"Oh damn it! The flies," Winry shouted and hurried to the kitchen, already waving to scare away the buzzing insects that threatened to spoil the food.

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AN: I'm alive! Yeah, sorry for the long gap in the updates, I had some serious writer's block and a chaotic real life.

This chapter is almost nothing but dialogue, which I find kind of hard to write, and it doesn't move the plot forward that much. But hey, it's an update at least... And I tried to make it a little more interesting with the flash-back thing. Next chapter will be much more fun to write since there will be less talking and more action. (finally!)

And I'm still feeling guilty for making everybody act as if Ed loosing his eyes was the end of the world or something (and here I gives my regard to FantasyFanatic01 who is blind and is reading this fic) but I thought that it was in character. I figured that it wouldn't be that bad to lose a limb in the FMA-world, with their automail and everything, but they don't have computers and other nifty things to make life easier for blind people. So, yeah, people will keep freaking out about it.