Winter was fighting a losing battle in the Western provinces, where farmers had turned sod and prairie into viable farming land. Ed's train stopped at a little town called Goehner, where his assignment was. He pulled out his orders from his coat pocket and eyed them. Fix a dried up well for one 'R. Grumman'. Ed had no idea how he was going to recognize this person, but he supposed someone would step up to say something eventually.

His train had arrived, miraculously, an hour early, so he had time to kill, and a hungry stomach begging for attention, so he adjusted his grip on his suitcase, then headed into town proper, checking the time on his watch to note the time so he knew when to get back to the platform to meet this 'R. Grumman.'

He wandered along the main road of Goehner's dusty streets. Nothing was even paved here, except the occasional sidewalk and storefront. There was a bank, a post office, a general store where he supposed he could get a sandwich and a bottle of water, but he was hungry for a real meal, and he didn't feel he could impose on Miss-or-Mister Grumman for food. So he kept looking.

He passed a sleepy bookstore, and a second-hand clothing store, then finally a restaurant. He wondered about any place that called itself 'Chez Bubba', but as long as the food wasn't as bad as train food, which Ed had gotten used to over the years, he was happy.

They turned out to sell very good barbecue, with sweet potato fries that were the best Ed had tasted since Teacher's cooking. And cheap prices, too, which had worried him.

"Excuse me," he stopped his waitress as she grabbed his empty plate to take back. She stopped and looked at him. "Do you know someone with the last name Grumman around here?"

She smiled. "Oh, Miss Grumman? Yeah, she lives about a mile and a half down the road. She's supposed to be in town today, picking up an alchemist to fix her well. Poor thing, she can't get around too well. She says it's an old injury that's getting better, but she doesn't seem to be getting better. Why?"

"I'm the alchemist sent out to fix her well," Ed answered. "I didn't even get told if I was helping a man or a woman, so I'm pretty clueless here."

"Oh good, that poor woman needs help. You'll be watching for a blond woman in her late twenties when you meet her," the waitress said. "If that helps any."

"It does, thank you. And the food was good, give my compliments to the chef."

The waitress laughed. "That'll be the owner. I'll let him know. Thank you, you have a good day."

After leaving a sizable tip for the waitress, Ed grabbed his suitcase and headed out, checking his watch again. He had a little time to kill, maybe fifteen minutes, but he thought it better to just wait at the train platform and read a book, rather than risk losing track of time and being late and making this Miss Grumman wait.

Of course, Ed forgot that reading a book would make him lose track of time, more than wandering a podunk little town would. He was pulled from his book by a familiar voice saying his name. He blinked, his mind fogged over by the text, then looked around for who said his name.

"Edward?" the voice came again, a familiar one, and Ed finally spotted Lieutenant Hawkeye, out of her familiar uniform in a red cotton dress, on a tired old cart pulled by an equally tired-looking mule.

"Lieutenant? What're you doing here?" Ed put away his book.

"I live here," she said. "And it's just Riza now. What're you doing here? Don't you live in East City?"

Ed sighed. "I'm on assignment," he answered. "I'm supposed to help fix a dried-up well for someone named R. Grumman."

Riza stared, getting a frozen look on her face, then she introduced the palm of her hand to her face. "Oh, Edward, I'm so sorry. I'm R. Grumman. That's my mother's maiden name. I told Roy not to use one of the State Alchemists. I'm so sorry, Edward, you should be home with your family."

Ed blinked. "You're R. Grumman?" He decided, for the moment, anyway, to not ask about the injury, although now that he looked, he noticed a cane propped against the seat next to her. "Well, he wanted the best for you, so here I am." He grabbed his suitcase and walked over to the cart.

She slid over a bit, clearly fighting back a wince as she did. He frowned as he stowed his suitcase in the back of the cart. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," she said. "Come on up. Hopefully we'll have you on the evening train home to your brother."

Ed climbed up and shrugged. "Eh, he and Winry are fine on their own. If the job takes longer, I'm not in any hurry."

She frowned as she urged the mule to turn and start taking them up the road. "Maybe, but I feel bad for taking you from your family."

Ed shook his head. "Naw, like I said, don't worry about it. They're still playing newlyweds, I doubt they even notice I'm gone." He tried his best to leech the bitterness out of his voice when he said that. He didn't begrudge his brother his happiness, nor Winry's, who'd always been like a sister to him anyway.

Riza pursed her lips together. "I'm sorry, Edward. I didn't realize things were like that at home."

"What? No, we're fine, I'm just peripheral concern right now to them. It's fine."

They both fell silent, conversation feeling too awkward to continue. Riza clearly didn't want Ed to stick around longer than absolutely necessary; maybe he could find an inn there in town he could stay at, let her have her privacy that he knew she always had jealously guarded. And even though Ed had not been joking that his brother and Winry probably barely noticed his absence, he was still eager to get home. He wasn't particular towards farmland, and it was chilly there, spring still settling in.

Not that East City wasn't still a bit chilly, but he could stay indoors to work there. Except when Russell pulled him away to help him with something.

They rode in silence until they reached her house, a nice old farmhouse with a wrap-around porch and a swing that didn't look like it'd been used in awhile, with rusted chains and chipped paint. Actually, as nice as the house looked, it also looked in a sad state of disrepair. A shutter hung loose over one upstairs window, the paint peeled in some places, and the roof looked ready to call it quits for want of repairs and reshingling.

"Nice place," he commented idly, following polite protocol.

"Thank you," Riza said, directing the mule and cart behind the house to the barn. "I got it cheap. It needs some repairs I haven't gotten to yet, but I'll get to them."

Ed glanced at the cane. Yeah, I'll just bet. "Maybe I'll help you with them while I'm here," he said. "Couldn't hurt to have a few extra hands working."

She looked at him. "No, that's okay. It's nothing I can't handle. Although I suppose a little help with the roof wouldn't be out of place. Ladders can be dangerous to climb, after all, and while I do like the people in this town, they're a bit nosy." She stopped the cart in the barn and climbed down slowly, grabbing her cane.

Ed grabbed his suitcase and hopped down. He'd offer help unhitching the mule, but she knew better how to do that than him, so he left that offer unsaid. When she limped around the back of the cart after releasing the mule, he stuck a hand in his jeans pocket. "Speaking of nosy, mind if I ask what happened? You didn't have a cane last time I saw you."

She froze, her cheeks coloring slightly. "I- ... well, I suppose there was no way to keep it secret. I broke my hip three years ago, in a skirmish along the Southern border. I was in sniper position to protect the general and the building collapsed. The doctors said I got lucky that's all that happened."

She started walking towards the house, Ed walking slowly to let her keep up. "They said I'd never be serviceable for the military again. Which I suppose is why I'm out here. I have no intention of letting this keep me down. I'm a Grumman, we don't let injuries stop us from being where we're needed."

"You sound like an Elric," Ed said with a bit of a rueful tone. "What about a hip replacement?"

She shook her head. "It wasn't just the joint area that broke, Ed. It was my entire side of my hip. They said I was lucky they could piece anything back together."

Ed stared at her. "God, are you sure about this, Riza? That's not something you can just stubborn away."

"You stubborned away two lost limbs and your brother's missing body," Riza said, opening the back door. "If you can do that, I can do this."

"Riza?" Ed stepped back out of the way of an excited Hayate greeting his owner. "There's no automail for a broken hip, and you saw what it cost us to fix Al's body, so don't even try to use that argument." If she thought she was more stubborn than an Elric, she was dead wrong.

She whirled to face him as the back door slammed shut behind him. "I didn't ask you. If I can't do it, I'll stay out here until I can. This is none of your business, Ed."

Hayate whimpered, squirming back as Ed held up his free hand defensively. "I'm speaking as a friend, and you were a friend to my family," he said. "You're going to kill yourself out here. I think that's my business."

Riza's grip on her cane visibly tightened. "You are as bad as the general. I see why he sent you out here. You can put your suitcase in the second bedroom on the right upstairs, then we can get to work on that well." Her tone was the tone he always remembered as being Lieutenant Hawkeye, hard and no-nonsense. It was dramatically different from the softer tone he'd heard when she first caught his attention that day.

He heard the dismissal. "Fine by me," he grumbled, stalking up the stairs she directed him to. She wanted to be dumb and stubborn, that was fine by him. Frustrating woman. Now he could see why Mustang never had any patience to spare on a fifteen year old boy. He spent it all on his lieutenant.

Ed's frustration had already simmered down to something no stronger than rolling his eyes by the time he found the bedroom Riza had picked out for him on the off chance he had to stay longer. It was a decent little room, with a bed, a nightstand, and a dresser. The curtains fluttered in the spring breeze. Ed went over and shut the window. Must've been opened to air out the room. Well, either way, the room was aired out, and now it was making the room chilly.

He set his suitcase on the bed and walked back downstairs. "Hey, Riza? How've you been getting water since this well dried up?"

"Hm?" She looked up at him as he hopped off the last step. "Oh, the well's not a hundred percent dry yet, it's spitting out dirty water, though, so I've been boiling water for Hayate and myself. The other animals are used to drinking out of creeks, I figured they could live with a little dirt in their water. Mister Martin said that the dirty water was the first sign that a well was drying up."

Ed nodded. "Okay. Think you can get by a few more days that way?"

"I can last a few more days, yes." She grabbed the back screen door and held it open for him. "Edward, you're doing me a favor, I can accommodate you for a few days without you paying for it."

He frowned, stepping outside, then turning to wait for her. "If you're sure."

She limped down the three steps to the ground. "I'm certain. If it ends up being a prolonged stay, we may have to find something else to do, but for a few days, it's fine."

He walked slowly beside her, although she was clearly struggling to walk faster than she was capable of. "Riza, slow down, you'll hurt yourself."

"I'm merely trying to walk at a normal pace, Ed. I'll be fine." She had that tight tone again, and Ed had already decided he hated it compared to the tone he'd heard her use on his brother whenever Ed had to go report in to Mustang.

He wished he could keep that tone from her voice, but at the same time, he wished he could smack the stupid out of her and make her take it easy on herself. As long as he was concerned for her health, she'd get that awful tone. Rock and a fucking hard place.

Oh well, he supposed. He was only going to be here a few days before shipping back home to do his work out there. The best he could do is report to Mustang and hope the older man could get through to her.

"Well, slow down anyway," he snapped. "I'm in no damn hurry."

Riza stopped in her tracks, causing him to stumble a step as he pulled himself to an abrupt stop. "Aren't you anxious to get out of here?"

He shrugged. "I told you, I got nothing exciting wait for me back home. Just time alone in the lab while Al and Winry get romantic at each other. I'm out here helping a friend, can't I stop and enjoy that?"

She flushed, then glanced away. "Yes, I suppose you can." She started walking again, this time at what had to be a more comfortable pace. After a few steps, she spoke up again. "I didn't know you considered me a friend, Ed."

He smiled. "Well, now you know. You were nice to my brother, and all of you took care of us. Hard to not consider someone like that a friend."

Her cheeks turned pink again. "Well, I. Thank you, I suppose. I only did what anyone with sense would do. It was more the general taking care of you than me, though."

Ed shrugged. "You made my brother smile. I consider that part of taking care of us. You're one of the few people who treated him like a normal kid."

"That's because he was normal," Riza said simply. "Just like any other boy in his early teens that looks odd for whatever reason. And believe me, while you escaped that, most boys in their early teens do look slightly odd."

He laughed. "I guess. I never really noticed. Anyway," he interrupted the conversation, crouching down next to the well, "is this the well?"

The well amounted to nothing more than a small pipe sticking up from the ground with a cap on it. The rest was underground. There'd be a pipe leading from the well to an indoor reservoir, probably in the basement, along with a control box for the submerged pump down in the well bottom.

"This is it," Riza confirmed. "The rest is in the house. Mister Martin came up and checked some of the internal components, but he was far from an expert."

"I'll check those, first," Ed said, rocking back on his heels. "Before I go digging down to the water table, let's make sure those are working. Where are they?"

"They're in the storm cellar," Riza said, stepping back a little as Ed got to his feet. "I can show you."

Ed shook his head. "Wait here," he said. "I can check it on my own. It's over here, right?"

Riza gave him a tired look. "Yes, which is why I was going to go with, to show you where the cellar was."

He flashed her a grin. "I can find a cellar if you point me in the right direction. I got it. Just find a seat and wait, I'll be back." He wandered off, quickly finding the door to the cellar. It lay at an incline to the side of the house, a white set of doors. He pulled on the handles, opening them into a dark basement. He looked around for a light knob, finding none. Probably a pull chain further down.

Taking the stairs carefully, Ed kept feeling along the wall for a switch as his natural sunlight overhead began to dim the farther down he got. Finally, at the bottom of the stairs, was a pull-chain light on the ceiling. He pulled the chain, flooding the basement with light. In the far corner was a giant tank, the reservoir tank, and a box on the wall, both with a pipe and cord disappearing into the wall respectively.

"Here we go," he muttered to himself, walking over and immediately zeroing in on the control box. A cursory inspection showed nothing wrong, and once he got at the guts of the device, he couldn't find anything wrong there, either. He reassembled the control box and snapped the casing back on, frowning.

There had to be something going on, and he was really not wanting to dig down the sixty feet that well probably went down to find that the water table was dry. If the water table was dry, he'd have to get his hands on a local mapping of the area's aquifers and hope there was a contained one further down, though god only knew how deep it'd be. If there wasn't more water to be found lower down, Riza would be stuck trying to sell the utterly worthless property and house and move somewhere else.

Well, he'd stick around and help with that, no matter what she said. Moving was stressful enough without having to sell a useless property on top of it.

He headed out of the cellar, only barely remembering to turn off the light on his way up the stairs. "Okay," he said to Riza as he got within hearing range. "The control box and reservoir are fine. If it's the pipe or the cord leading into them, I won't know without tearing up your yard. I can check them before we go digging down to the water table."

Riza sighed. "How long is this going to take? It's very troublesome, going without water here."

Ed shrugged. "Truthfully? I don't know."

That got a frown out of her. "I thought you could use alchemy for this? That's why Roy sent you."

"I could," Ed admitted. "But I don't know what I'm looking for. I'll use alchemy to speed up the dig, but some of it's gotta be done by hand. Probably why he sent me instead of someone else. He knows I'm up for this."

She continued to frown for about ten seconds longer, then sighed again. "All right. Take as long as you need, Edward." She hesitated. "You can fix this, right?"

Ed looked at her. "Probably. Depends on the water, honestly. If it's a problem in construction, it'll be a simple fix. If the water table's gone dry, I'll have to get a mapping of the aquifers around here and see if there's something deeper down. If there's nothing to be had, I hate to say this, but the property's useless without water."

Riza groaned. "Well, here's to hoping there's water down there, hm?"

Ed rubbed his nose. Itchy. Must be all the dust out here. "Yeah. Don't worry too much, if it comes to it, I'll buy the property and you can move somewhere else."

His statement got a lot of confused blinking from Riza. "Oh, Edward, I couldn't ask you to do that. You wouldn't be able to do anything with this place."

He grinned. "Sure I could. there's bound to be bedrock down there, and all sorts of interesting minerals to play with. Aquifers are ancient lakes and waters, they tend to be treasure troves for scientists once the water's gone and the other people vacate. Don't worry, it wouldn't be a totally wasted investment for me. But the land would be useless to you if the well's dry and there's nothing down there we can tap."

"Thank you," Riza said with an exceedingly grateful look on her face. She looked like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "Is there anything you need to get started?"

He looked around. "A shovel?"

Her lips quirked upwards. "I suppose that should've been obvious. There's one in the barn. I'll go get it."

"No, you go in and sit down. I can get it," Ed said.

She gripped her cane tightly again. "Don't baby me, Ed."

"I'm not," he said. "I don't want you babying me out of some misplaced sense of pride. It's insulting."

She was taken aback, and she looked down at the ground. "I'm sorry, I didn't think of it that way. Very well, I'll leave you to your work. Tell me if you need anything."

He nodded. "I will, don't worry." While she went inside, he wandered off to the barn to get the shovel.

It was hours later before his work was interrupted. He'd transmuted open a ditch between the well and the house where the cable and pipe would enter the cellar. Now he was clearing away the layers of dirt that remained between him and that cable and pipe with a shovel, not trusting his alchemy to zip right past it and possibly damage the pipe or cable. So it was the shovel.

"How's it going?" Riza asked, limping out, a glass of water in hand. The water looked rather unappetizing, but Ed knew it'd be the only water he was getting until he fixed this damn well. Ugh.

"It's going. I'm almost to the pipe. I've found the cord, and it looks fine. I was just about to use a transmutation to try to get the dirt between the two out of the way without damaging something. It's slow going."

Riza carefully crouched down, offering the glass of water, although she looked like she was in pain doing that. "Here. It's not that great, but it's what I've got, I'm afraid."

Ed frowned, taking the water. "Thanks, Riza. Stand up, you look like you're hurting."

She scowled, but pushed herself up with her cane. "I'm dealing with it, Edward. And I'll keep dealing with it until it stops hurting."

"Won't happen," Ed said idly, taking a drink before choking and spitting part of it out. "Holy shit, is this what you've been living with?"

Riza's expression had been frosty, then quickly melted into an apologetic smile. "Yes, it is. Awful, isn't it? That's why I was willing to call Roy to ask for help."

"Pushed even you over the edge, huh?" He grimaced as he took another drink. Nasty or not, it was water and he was quickly dehydrating himself out here. It wasn't warm yet, but this work was tough and physically demanding.

"Me, and a certain dog that's used to me spoiling him. After he obeys all my commands, that is." She had a small smile on her face at that.

"Oh, Hayate?" Ed looked around. "Where is he?"

"In the house," Riza said. "I only let him outside to do his business. We have poisonous snakes out here, I don't want him getting hurt."

Ed stepped back in his ditch, looking around. "Poisonous snakes? Great of someone to warn me."

Riza smiled. "They tend to stick towards areas with water. Which is not my well at the moment. So you're probably safe."

Ed shot her a sour look. "Thanks a lot." He stuck the shovel into the dirt piled around the well cap itself. He set the glass down on the ground and tilted his head to one side, cracking his neck.

Riza cringed. "Doesn't that hurt?"

He shook his head. "Not really. I take it you heard that?"

She frowned. "It'd be hard not to. That was loud. It sounded painful."

"Sorry," he said with a quiet laugh. "But no, it feels good, actually. My neck was feeling tight. If you want, you can stick around while I finish up here, then we'll know if we need to dig the well or not."

"What will you do if we have to dig down to the water table?" she asked, settling down on the ground with a wince.

"Well, first I'll run to city hall and take a look at the mappings of the aquifers and water tables," Ed said, clapping his hands and pressing them to the ground, slowly and gently moving aside dirt from beneath the cord to the control box.

"What then?" Her voice held a note of worry.

He paused the transmutation as the pipe began to become exposed. "Well, it depends on what I find. If there's no water down there, I'll buy the property from you and help you move to a new place where there's water."

Riza gave him a frown. "I won't accept your charity, Ed," she said a bit hotly. "I know as well as you do that this property would be totally worthless without water."

"For living or farming, sure," he said. "But for a scientist, this place could potentially be a gold mine. There's all sorts of neat minerals to be had, especially down where the aquifer was. You forget, aquifers are prehistoric lakes and rivers, basically. Imagine what sort of information about ancient times we can find just from the rocks and minerals left by that water. I can find some archaeologists interested in digging around here to sell the property to."

"Hm, maybe I should just do that now and forget the well," she said with a teasing smile on her face."

He razzed her. "After the work I've already put in? You can just be patient and find out if it's necessary or not."

She grinned, and Ed shook his head, crouching down in the ditch and clapping his hands, resuming the transmutation that carefully whittled away dirt and some sod until the entire pipe leading to the reservoir from the well was exposed. "There we go." He carefully walked on either side of the pipe, feeling along it for weaknesses in the metal or cracks or any sign of damage that might explain the water quality she was getting.

Finally, he straightened, looking at the pipe in puzzlement. "Must be the well itself," he finally declared, looking back over at Riza. "Why don't you get settled here, I'll head back to town, take a look at those maps, if there are any."

Riza grabbed her cane and pushed herself up to her feet. She did it slowly, although it was obvious to Ed she was trying to do it faster than she really could and he sighed. "Riza, take it easy, please."

She flatly ignored him. "I'll come into town with you. I know where to look for the maps, and Hayate would like a chance to go to town. I didn't take him with me when I picked you up because I wasn't sure who to expect and I didn't want to make a stranger nervous with an overprotective dog."

Ed laughed. "All right." He pulled himself up out of the ditch he'd made and brushed himself off. "Man, I already want a bath."

Riza shook her head with a faint smile. "I'm afraid you're out of luck on that until this well's fixed. I may or may not have been going crazy without being able to clean myself."

Ed looked at her, walking with her to the house. "Is there an inn in town? We could always rent out a room so we can clean up, or at least you. I can last a few days before I start to smell."

She climbed the stairs into the kitchen, whistling for Hayate. "Oh, I'll be fine a little longer. We've made it this long, a few more days won't bother me."

Hayate came bounding downstairs from one of the upstairs rooms and barked, circling the two of them once and then sitting down obediently in front of Riza. "Good boy," she said, grabbing his leash off the wall by the door and bent down, again too fast for what she could probably reasonably handle with that hip, and snapped it on his collar.

She handed the leash to Ed. "Can you keep an eye on him? I have to hook Rosie up to the cart."

He took the leash and eyed Hayate. "You going to be a good dog for me?" he asked the dog playfully. Hayate looked at him with a cocked head, then barked once, slipping between them and over to the door, putting a paw on the door. Ed looked at Riza. "I'd say he's eager to get going."

She laughed. "He always is. The only thing he's ever more excited for is food."

"Typical animal," Ed said, opening the door and holding it for Riza. A protest formed in her expression and she started to open her mouth, but before she could get a word out, he rolled his eyes. "Get off it, Riza," he said. "I'm holding the door because my mother taught me to be a gentleman, not because I think you can't do it."

She flushed, pursing her lips. "I'm sorry, Edward, it was wrong of me to assume. Thank you, I appreciate the gesture." She carefully navigated her way down the steps and started towards the barn. Hayate walked obediently beside Ed, tongue lolled out happily.

"Anything I can do to help hook up the mule?" he asked. "And once again, I plead manners, not babying you. You'll have to get used to it while I'm out here."

She paused, looking at him, then down at the cart. "No, Edward, thank you. I've done this enough times, and I imagine it'd be easier to do it myself than instruct you. I'm not much of a teacher, I tend to just do it myself."

"Fair enough," Ed said, holding onto Hayate's leash. He glanced down at the dog. "You have a stubborn human," he told the dog.

Hayate barked once, wagging his tail but otherwise holding still.

Riza gave him a tired scowl. "I am not," she said, finishing tying off the straps that held the mule to the cart.

"Riza? You've been stubborn from the second you came out here," he said. "And from what I remember of you as Lieutenant Hawkeye, you were already stubborn before that injury." He got up into the cart next to her, Hayate bouncing up in after him.

Riza sighed. "I suppose I was. I had to be to keep up with the general."

Ed shook his head. "I still can't think of him as a general. He's the colonel forever to me."

That got an amused smile out of Riza. "You and me both, Edward. I'm sure this would cause him annoyance. He's rather proud of his promotion."

Ed laughed. "Yeah, well, he can a general all he wants, he's the colonel to me and that's final."

"I understand that you're still his subordinate, correct?" Riza glanced at Ed as Rosie slowly took them into town.

"Yeah, kinda. The State Alchemists aren't strictly military anymore, so they can't force me into a uniform, but I can still be sent on military missions. Mustang wanted me to come out here to fix your well, so here I am."

She sighed. "And I'm truly sorry he's wasting your talents for a personal favor."

"No, don't be sorry," he said. "Like I said earlier, didn't have much going on anyway, and it's nice to get some company that isn't too busy being moonstruck for me. You and I are probably going to argue about your capabilities while I'm here, but at least you won't be going 'uh-huh, Brother, that's nice, Brother, hey Winry, kiss kiss.'" Ed rolled his eyes. "So seriously, don't be sorry."

She gave him a sympathetic look. "Is that really what's going on?"

"Basically," Ed said. "Oh, he's made some time for me, but most of the time, he's distracted with Winry. So I don't mind being around you, even if, like I said, we end up arguing about your hip. At least you're paying attention to me when we do it."

"That's a terrible reason for an argument, Edward," she said with a laugh. "All right, I'll try to be less stubborn while you're here. But I am going to make myself overcome this."

He sighed. "Riza, you can overcome the handicap without ever returning to the military. And there's nothing wrong with asking for help. I'll help with the roof when I'm done with the well. That roof looked ready to collapse in. Maybe with the painting, too."

"Oh, Edward, even if I weren't set on doing that myself, I couldn't ask you to stay out here that long for personal favors to me."

"What if I want to?" he asked, looking over at her. "I mean it, I want to help. I consider you a friend, and you need help to do that, even if you weren't injured."

Riza was silent, blinking occasionally as her eyes started looking wet. "I guess I never thought anyone but the general thought of me as that good of a friend."

Ed put a hand on her shoulder. "Well, now you know. So prepare for fussing, woman."

That acutally got her to laugh. "Great, just what I need, another worry wart in my life."

"This? From you?" he demanded.

Riza lifted her head. "I am nowhere near as bad as you or the general."

"My ass you aren't," he said. "face it, you're just as bad as we are."

"I most certainly am not," she grumbled.

Ed patted her shoulder. "The fact that you're here and why you're here is proof enough, Riza."

"Think as you will," she replied.

Ed suddenly got the impression that there was far more than simple stubbornness keeping Riza out here by herself working through an injury that would never give her back her old mobility. But as they were near town and she would likely not open up to him anyway, he let it drop for the moment. Maybe someday while he was here he could ask, but for right now, he kept his questions to himself.

They rode through the streets, or rather, dusty gravel roads, of Goehner to the city hall. Ed hopped down, handing the leash over to Riza. "Walk him, I'll get the maps, it won't take but a few minutes."

She carefully got down out of her cart, letting Hayate off his leash to go run around for a few minutes while Ed headed inside. After getting the run around for a bit, he finally located the office with the maps he needed.

Since he couldn't take off with them, he sat down and studied, marking off distances in his mind. He swore. The water table was sixty feet down, and if that was dry, the main aquifer, the Ogallala, was about another sixty feet down past that. Fuck. That'd be a lot of digging. But, on the other hand, the Ogallala was reliably full still, so once hooked in there, Riza shouldn't have to worry about her well going dry again.

He returned the maps to where they belonged and headed back outside. Riza was playing with Hayate, telling him to stay, while she traveled a distance away, then okaying him to come chase her. She didn't move very fast, but Hayate acted like she did, bounding after her in slow leaps and barking happily the whole time.

Ed smiled, watching this, seeing the woman behind the stubborn pride of the lieutenant. She was a wonderful woman; anyone who was so sweet with animals was a good person in Ed's book.

She noticed him after she tired and had to lean heavily on her cane to get to the cart. "Oh, Edward. How long have you been standing there?"

"Just a couple minutes. You two looked like you were having fun, so I didn't say anything." He walked over to the cart and moved to help her up. She started to protest, not a glare but a look of frustrated dismay on her face as she struggled to get into the cart by herself. "Riza," he said gently. "Accept the help. If only for Hayate's sake. What is he going to do if you injure yourself again?"

She struggled to breathe evenly, tears clearly threatening. "I can do this," she insisted.

"Riza, don't hurt yourself," he said quietly. "Come on, let me help you."

She reluctantly gave in, letting him lift her up into the cart. She blinked, grabbing the seat. "I. I didn't expect you to just lift me up like that. I didn't think anyone was that strong."

He grinned, picking up Hayate and handing the dog over to his owner. "You're not heavy," he said. "And I haul around heavier things on a regular basis."

She blushed, something he nearly didn't see as he moved around to the other side of the cart to get in. "I- I see. Well I suppose I should be glad that I haven't gained any weight since coming out here."

He smiled. "Way to look at it like a woman," he said, climbing up in next to her. "The water table's about sixty feet down. If it's empty, there's the Ogallala aquifer about another sixty feet below that."

Riza sighed. "I could be without water for quite some time, couldn't I?"

"Well, clean water, anyway. Is there an inn in town? We can rent a room for you to at least wash up and enjoy some clean water before we go back?"

"No, it's fine," she said. "If this ends up taking too long, I may take you up on that offer, but I can survive a few more days."

"If you're sure," Ed said as Riza prodded Rosie into her slow pace back to Riza's homestead.

"I'm sure," she said. "I had worse conditions in Ishbal. We all had too much sand in places we didn't want anything, much less sand." She laughed. "The general was whiny the whole time. In private, of course, but I counted as 'in private'."

Edward snorted in amusement. "He whines about everything. I'm surprised he kept it in private back then."

"That was before he started cultivating the image of a procrastinator to make himself look like less of a threat to higher ups as he climbed the ranks," Riza explained.

"Oh, that was an image? I thought he was like that naturally."

She grinned. "Oh, some of it's natural, but he greatly exaggerated it."

"What about his short jokes?"

"Oh , that childishness was all natural," she said. "And you encouraged it by giving him wonderful comebacks."

"I did no such thing!" Ed protested.

Riza rolled her eyes, looking at him with a long-suffering look on her face. "Edward. 'Who're you calling a bean of the military'?"

He flushed. "I never said that, he did."

"It's not nice to lie."

"I'm not, he- ... oh fine. He never said those things. But he did constantly remark that it was little of me to not tell him everything, or how he couldn't see me over his desk."

"Yes, he did," Riza agreed. "And that childishness was all natural. He loved hearing how small you'd become. I believe the one that cracked him was your 'electron to a muon' comment. He had to explain it to me later, but his expression told me plenty without it."

Ed turned an even deeper shade of red, closely resembling the coat he'd become famous for. "I- okay, maybe that was a little ridiculous."

"Only a little."

He eyed her evilly. "Don't you start."

She gave him a placid look. "Start what?" He stared at her suspiciously until she cracked up into laughter. "Oh, Edward, I'm sorry, but you make it so easy sometimes. Don't worry, you've definitely grown since those days."

"Damn right I have," he said, crossing his arms in a sulk.

"Whether you've matured or not seems to be up for debate, though."

His jaw dropped as he stared at her incredulously. Mature? He'd show her mature. "You were the one picking on me first," he said.

"Yes, but friends do that," she said with a bratty smile. "You just sulked."

"And adults never sulk, I take it?"

"Well, I must admit to seeing Roy do it from time to time, so I suppose maturity is relative." She gave him a benign smile.

"Don't make me stick my tongue out at you," he threatened jokingly.

She grinned. "Ooh, the dreaded tongue. The true pinnacle of maturity. You know, Roy's done that to me a couple times. I'll tell you what I told him."

"What's that?"

"Keep it out and it may get shat on by an opportunistic bird."

Ed stared at her in disbelief for a second, then started laughing. "You have an odd sense of humor. I like it."

She smiled, flushing slightly. "Thank you. Most of the time, the others in the office didn't realize I was joking. I guess my sense of humor's a little deadpan."

Ed shrugged. "So? I like it. So don't worry about other people."

"Well, that does make me feel a little better, thank you."

They rode in a companionable silence the rest of the way back to the homestead. As Riza unhitched Rosie, Ed walked over to the giant ditch he'd been working in. He stared at it like a long-hated enemy, making a face as his nose crinkled up. "This damn well," he muttered, then hopped down into the ditch.

Riza limped over, Hayate in tow, a minute later. "Edward, it occurs to me. If the water table's drying up, how will we get down to the aquifer? I don't have enough metal around the house that you can steal to make piping, and ordering it would surely take too long with how horrible this water is."

"I'll figure something out," he promised her. "Why don't you go ahead and order that piping now? Put it on my account, I'll bill the general for it later, that way we have it just in case, and if we don't need it, eh, I'm sure it can be used or sold or something."

"I'll go do that now," she said, heading back inside.

Ed clapped his hands and got back to work.