A/N: This is a chapter I’ve been wanting to write for a long while. Also, I’m sad to say that this fic is getting pretty close to the end now, there are maybe 2-3 chapters and the epilogue left. This chapter is (again) for the awesome @kilmartin85 who deserves it for all the hard work he’s done! Please enjoy and review. I really really want to hear your opinions!

Previous chapters:  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5.5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Companion pieces (note: these are all post Olympics happenings so reading the main fic first is recommended): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Next chapter: [x]

Words: 2600+ 

Genre: Some angst, slight fluff in this chapter

Warnings: mention of minor character death(s), some swearing

---

”Captain
Bastard, what brings you here?” Ed asked immediately when Roy showed up in his
hospital room. It was two days since his
surgery, and since everything had gone fine, Doctor Marcoh was ready to let Ed
go back to the hotel. That’s why Ed hadn’t been expecting any more visitors
that day, he had let his teammates and Winry know that he’d be moved soon.

“What,
can’t I visit my teammate on his birthday?”

“On my…
oh.” With everything that had been going on, Ed had entirely forgotten it
indeed was his 18^th birthday. He hadn’t even bothered to check his
phone, but he was certain at least Al – and maybe his good-for-nothing dad, not
that he cared – had left him a message.

“You
forgot, didn’t you?”

“It’s been quite
eventful few days. I really have no idea what day it is anymore,” Ed grunted. “Anyway,
thanks, I guess.”

Roy
dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “So, the pipsqueak isn’t quite as pipsqueak-y
anymore. How does that feel?”

Ed, who had
always been insecure about his height even though he was now nearly as tall as
Roy, fumed with anger, but that was exactly the reaction Roy had wished for. He
had noticed Ed had lost the spark in his eyes after the accident, and that’s
why seeing that he still had some spunk in him made him feel relieved.

“Oh, it
feels amazing, Mustang,” Ed answered.
“Can’t wait to drink you under the table once I can walk again.”

“Is that a promise?”
Roy smirked.

“Only if
you win gold here. Otherwise I will not go into a bar with you even if you
forced me.”

“We’ll see
about that. By the way, I heard Ms. Rockbell was here again yesterday. Any
progress on that front?”

“It still
isn’t any of your business, and we are
friends, still getting to know each other.” Bitterly he added in his mind:
“besides, after what happened yesterday, I wouldn’t be surprised if I drove her
off for good.”

“Right, and
you like milk.”

“What’s
that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. Listen,
I’d like to talk seriously with you for one moment. Do you think you can do
that?”

“It
depends,” Ed answered. “Can you?”

“Believe it
or not, Fullmetal, I can. I want to know how you are really doing. I’ve noticed
that you took the accident hard, but I know you well enough to know that
something else has been weighting you down as well. Am I right?”

“You’re…
not wrong,” Ed finally admitted. “Winry makes me so confused. I li…like her,
but she also reminds me of the reason… you know, the bigger reason… why I’ve been…”
“Pushing people away?” Roy guessed correctly.

“… For the
past 3 years.” Ed finished.

“I wish there
was something I could say to make you understand that you are not gonna hurt
her, but you need to realize it yourself. But I know one thing and it’s that
Nina would have wanted you to be happy.

Ed only stared
at his feet with a blank expression, until suddenly there was a knock on his
door.

“Oh, look
at the time,” Roy exclaimed, taking a look at his watch. “We have a team
meeting in 10 minutes, and you know Bradley, he would quite literally kill me
for being late. So gotta go.”

“Will you
tell the team hi from me?” Ed asked before he was out of the room.

“Will do.
See you. Hi there, Winry!” Roy greeted when he opened the door only to find the
blonde-haired young woman behind it.

“Hello, Mr.
Mustang. You’re leaving already?”

“Team
meetings, team meetings. Have fun, you two. And Ed, for fuck’s sake, please
just do it.”

“Do what?”

Ed didn’t
get an answer. He didn’t miss that Roy slipped something into Winry’s hand
before leaving and narrowed his eyes suspiciously but said nothing. Winry simply
put the piece of paper into her pocket and turned his attention to Ed.

“I… I
didn’t expect you to come back so soon. What’s up?” he asked.

“I’m gonna
go out with the girls tonight but I wanted to see how you are doing… since it’s
your birthday and all.”

“How did
you know that?” Ed asked, fairly sure he had never said anything about his
birthday.

Winry
mumbled something about little birds and Ed got a pretty good idea about who
those birds might be, although Winry didn’t mention their names.

“So, how
are you?” she asked finally.

“You’re the
second person to ask that within the past 10 minutes. Doing better, I guess,
although my leg is really itchy, and I can’t scratch it, damn it!”

“Ugh, what
a typical answer. You know that’s not what I meant.”

“It’s…
getting better like I said. Listen, about yesterday… There’s something you
should know. I owe you that much. Now, this is something only few people know
about… and I want it to stay that way, OK?”

“OK. You
have my word,” Winry reassured him.

“Three
years ago,” Ed started, avoiding looking at her, “I was having a very rough
phase. Believe it or not, it was way worse than this, although I admit I would
give at least a finger to be able to get up and play again right now. Yeah, to
be honest, I had been moody ever since my mum’s death, but losing my arm pushed
me even further down. Roy helping me to get an automail was a blessing because hockey
made me feel better, but then my asshole, always absent father stepped into the
picture. He, who had never cared about my wellbeing, said he wouldn’t continue
supporting my hobby because he had heard playing with a prothesis was dangerous.
I bet your ass he didn’t care about my health one bit, he only said that for
selfish reasons. We got into a big fight, which eventually led to my team coach
suggesting I would temporarily move to my assistant coach’s cabin until we
dealt with our issues. So that’s what I did.”

Ed took a
small break to gather his thoughts, and Winry asked: “What happened then?”

“The thing
is: my assistant coach was a piece of shit, and if I hadn’t been there… maybe
we still wouldn’t know about that. Even the thought of it makes me feel sick.
But I still wasn’t able to stop bad things from happening,” he said sadly.

“I’m… not
following.”

“Tucker was
a greedy man, not a single bit of empathy inside him. The problem was that he
was good at hiding it. He wanted to become a head coach to one of the biggest
and wealthiest hockey teams in our country. As a matter of fact, it looked like
he had a good chance of getting the job, although I wonder what he had done to
get so far, because from my point of view his coaching skills had always been
mediocre. There was just one tiny issue: he had a daughter, 4 years old. Until he could
figure out what to do with her, he wouldn’t be able to accept the job offer because
the job required a lot of traveling. The girl’s mother had died a couple of
years earlier and Tucker had no close relatives left so there was no one to
take care of her at home. Any decent person would of course put her own
daughter’s wellbeing before their career, but did my asshole of an ex assistant
coach do that? Hell no.”

“I’m almost
afraid to ask… what did he do?”

“This is
not gonna be easy…” Ed sighed and massaged his forehead with the palm of his
hand. “… But I hope it will explain at least some of my behavior. One day, right
before he was supposed to get news about the new job, he said he would take Nina
to ski with him, since apparently ‘they hadn’t been spending much time together
lately’. I didn’t really think anything of it then; it was entirely true that he
had been neglecting her pretty much the entire time I was living there, so I
was happy he seemed to be fixing his mistakes… But how damn wrong I was… If I
could go back in time and change one thing… I would never let her go with him.”

There were
tears in his eyes now, and Winry put her hand on his shoulder as a comforting
gesture.

“If you
don’t want to, you don’t need to tell…”
“No, I do. He’s right, Nina would
want you to know.”

“He who?”
Winry asked in confusion.

“Doesn’t
matter,” Ed tried to wave it off, not wanting to tell Winry he had been talking
about her with Roy. “Anyway, an hour later, I expected them to come back, but
instead I heard Alexander, the Tuckers’ dog, barking, and went to check what
was wrong… And I-I f-found Nina… d-dead in the la-lake…”

“NO. Oh my
God, Ed, I’m so sorry!” She was hugging him now, trying to give him all the support
she could.

“S-she was
such a sweet little girl, almost like a little sister to me, and that asshole…
that asshole… just let her fall…” Ed’s voice was bitter, almost dangerous, and
he wiped tears from his cheeks angrily.

“He had
planned the entire thing?” Winry asked, looking absolutely terrified.

“Yeah.
Apparently his solution to the job issue was to get rid of his own daughter.”

“But how
was he planning to get away with letting her die?”

“He… tried
to make it look like I was the one who had been with her on the lake. I was
studying in my room, so I hadn’t noticed he had taken my coat, hat and skis. He
wasn’t wearing them anymore when he came back, but I didn’t need to be a genius
to know what he had done. He threatened me, but I beat him to a pulp before the
police and the ambulance arrived.”

“But you
could have gotten into trouble!”

“I didn’t,
though. It turned out he had forgotten one tiny thing; he had a security camera
by his cabin, probably to warn him about unwanted guests, and one look at it
told the police that I was still inside when the accident happened.”

“I… I was
expecting to hear something bad but this… I can’t even imagine how you must
have felt.”

“I was pretty messed up. After a lot of coaxing, Al managed to get me to talk
about it with professionals, but I still feel guilty because I could have
easily stopped it had I only been more observant…”

“But it’s
not your fault! You couldn’t have known!” Ed remained silent, so Winry tried to
change the subject. “Can I ask one question, though? What happened to Tucker?”

“The police
took him in, but he was found dead a little bit after. I couldn’t care less how
it happened. Karma is a bitch, though.” he said darkly.

“Anyway… I
wasn’t particularly good with other people even before, but after this incident,
I… I have been… just like Roy said… pushing people away from my life. I’m just
so fucking scared that something happens to someone I care about.”

A sudden
realization hit Winry. “And that’s why you’ve been pushing me away too. Wait, does
that mean… that you…” Winry’s cheeks started burning bright red and her mouth
formed a huge ‘o’.

She lifted
her gaze from her feet and only now realized how close they were.

“Yeah?” Ed
asked quietly, expectantly.

“Like me?”

He didn’t
answer. Instead he pushed the tresses that were hiding her face aside to get a
better view and lifted her jaw to make her eyes meet his. Even though he had
just talked about his most traumatizing memory, his eyes were surprisingly
clear… and intense in a way that made Winry’s heart beat faster. He closed his
eyes and leaned his forehead against hers briefly before his lips started
seeking for hers. They got closer and closer…

But Winry’s
phone started ringing right before they touched, and the couple snapped out of
their daze. Winry immediately jumped up from Ed’s bed to find her purse and
answered the phone.

“Winry
speaking. Oh hi!” she greeted, slightly out of breath even though she didn’t
understand why. “I’m so glad you called, I needed to talk to you about…” her eyes
met Ed’s briefly, and she added quickly: “something… Listen, can you hold on a
moment? I’m in a bit of a bad place right now…”

Ed raised
his eyebrow questioningly when Winry gestured him that she was gonna talk
outside his room. The person calling Winry said something and even though Ed
couldn’t hear the words, for some reason he had a feeling he knew this caller.

After a few
minutes, Winry returned into Ed’s room with a smile on her face.

“Um, it
turned out the girls wanted get out already and I’ve been kinda neglecting them
lately, so I promised I’d join them… I’m sorry to leave this quickly,
especially after what you just told me, but I’ll see you later, right?”

“Right.” Ed
nodded.

“One more
thing…”

She walked
to him and pressed her lips against his forehead briefly.

“Happy birthday.”

Ed felt all
his blood escaped into his head, his face red and ears humming as Winry exited
the room, apparently having no idea of the effect she had on him.

---

Doctor
Marcoh drove Ed back to his hotel a few hours later, but instead of leaving
after making sure Ed got into his room, he told him to change into better
clothes.

“What, why?”

“Because we
are going somewhere.”

Changing
pants was a struggle with a cast on his leg, but finally Ed managed to do it
and was ready to go.

“Where are
we going?” he asked when they were back in the car again. “Don’t you think I
should be resting instead?” If he was honest, he was still a bit out of it
after telling Winry his story, and because of what had happened afterwards, but
it was not like Marcoh was giving him a choice.

“You’ll see
soon. And you have your wheelchair, you are gonna be just fine.”

Ed rolled
his eyes in annoyance and didn’t ask anything more.

Finally,
they stopped in front of a restaurant. When they reached the door, Ed saw a
sign “reserved for a private event” on the door.

“I don’t
think we can go in,” Ed noted, trying to make Marcoh turn away, but he insisted
otherwise.

“Actually,
I think we can. This event is for you.”

He opened
the door and made space for Ed to wheel in.

Ed’s
expression turned from annoyed to surprised when he saw all the people who were
in the restaurant. His entire team and a few staff members, Riza, Gracia, Winry’s
two friends, one of whom he recognized from his past, Winry herself, and…

“Al! I didn’t
think you’d come here after my accident!” Ed yelled in excitement, trying to
get up from his chair to hug his brother.

“Brother, what
makes you think I’d miss your 18^th birthday?” Al wrapped his arms around Ed’s shoulders awkwardly. “When Winry here called
me and told me what was happening, I booked the first flight I could find here.”

“You called him?” Ed turned towards Winry
in surprise.

“Roy gave
me his number. I just thought… it would make you happy,” Winry smiled shyly.

“You’re
really something else, gearhead,” Ed said with badly hidden admiration. He
would have wanted to pat her on the head, but couldn’t reach there from his
chair, so he squeezed her hand instead.

“Seriously,
thanks, Winry.”