The next few days were hard for Winry, but she hadn't exactly expected it to be easy. The Nurses had given her a rollaway to sleep on, but it was never used, as Edward only seemed to sleep at all with her nearby. Alphonse had always been around, and before that, Winry and her grandmother through his automail recovery, so he had never really been alone, and he wasn't used to it. When she had tried to pull away from him to get some rest the first night, his grip on her shoulder had tightened and he had refused to let her go until she climbed over him and settled herself next to him. He had fallen asleep almost instantly after that, though he still had a loose grip on her shoulder all night.
She fixed his automail for him the next day, replacing the wires in his arm that had been severed from the shot to his shoulder. The holes in the plating would have to wait until she could get him to Rush Valley or Risembool, but at least it was functional. His leg was in remarkably good shape, but he'd apparently grown an inch, and she had to give it a bit of an adjustment. He'd brightened slightly for a second when she told him this, but it hadn't lasted long.
Aside from talking to him and fixing him and just being there, Winry hadn't been able to do much else for him. He was still too depressed to even let her. When she nagged him about his milk just to try to get a word out of him, he just glanced up at the bottle for a moment then morosely shook his head no before he went back to eating. She didn't like that he didn't speak a word to her, and according to Mustang and the nurses, hadn't really said a word since the accident, but the fact that Ed was still there enough to refuse to drink his milk gave her hope.
She hadn't expected this to be easy for either of them, especially for him, and when Riza took Winry out for lunch at the end of the first week just to let her have a conversation with someone who would actually talk back, she hadn't exactly jumped at the chance, but while Ed still hadn't said a word, he had been improving. He was a little more expressive and responsive than the first day she came, and nodded for her to go when Riza extended the offer.
They talked about a lot of things, how Winry's automail job was, what kind of people she had met in Rush Valley, how Mustang still had to occasionally be coerced at gunpoint to do his paperwork, and other gossip and everyday things, but the conversation did eventually drift back to the brothers.
"He's definitely showing more life than he was, but I'm still amazed at your patience. I probably would have pulled a gun on him by now and ordered him to cheer up."
Winry chuckled. "As fun as that would be, it probably wouldn't do any good. When their mother died, Al was able to pull himself together and move on after a while, but it took Ed a good month or so to come back out of his shell. He's much stronger now, but Al was all he really had left," she sighed and stared into her water glass. "I was kind of expecting him to close himself off from everything the way he has. It's just how he deals with things like this. He just needs time."
They spoke for a long time, and by the time Winry got back to Ed's hospital room, the sun was on its way down. Roy was talking to him when she came in, and while Ed was usually one to be sulking against the pillows when the man was there, he listened to Roy with a passive look on his face. She was a little surprised; he normally had a scowl firmly planted on his face whenever his superior officer was nearby. Ed looked up when she came in, and smiled. It was very small and weak, but genuine, and she couldn't help but smile back. He was coming along.
She woke up that night to a frustrated sigh from Ed, and rolled over to see that he was awake, and hadn't looked like he'd slept at all. "Ed?"
He glanced over at her, then back up at the ceiling, lifting his automail hand and flexing it a couple times, a pensive look on his face, before he let it drop to his side. "I'm pathetic." He croaked, his voice rough from not being used in so long. He coughed and cleared his throat a bit before going on. "I'm always telling people that shit happens and to get up and move on, and here I am." He sighed and shifted his gaze to look at Winry beside him. "Al would kick my ass if he knew I was acting like this."
Winry sighed and slid an arm around him. "He's your brother. You have a right to be as upset as you are," She replied gently.
He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then opened them and looked back at her with a rueful smile on his face before giving in to her comfort and burying his face in her shoulder. "He'd still kick my ass." He mumbled against her.
She chuckled and rubbed his back for while before responding, "Yeah. He probably would, but the both of you were always idiots."
Ed grumbled a little, but didn't deny the accusation before falling asleep.
Short, I know, but I had to cut it off here before I started rambling and making it worse.