#and then winry found out the man who helped her reunite with Ed had something in common with a certain someone else…

[wingsofescape]

And your appreciation warms my cold little Lord Huron-fuelled heart! Some fun facts about Fritz Lang down below as thanks, including one I conveniently left out of itcol for not-ruining-the-mood purposes:

1. He may or may not have murdered his first wife after she found out he was cheating on her. She was found with a gun wound to her chest (gun belonged to Fritz) but it was deemed a suicide.

2. His second wife, Thea Harbou, was fervently pro-Nazi but at the same time, a staunchly pro-choice advocate who gave a speech against paragraph 218, which criminalised abortion under Nazi rule. Something something the worst person you know having a good point for once, even a broken clock is right twice a day…

3. April 1933 was a busy month for Fritz! IIRC on April 18th his divorce from Thea was finalised and on April 20th he was invited for a talk with Joseph Goebbels who offered him the position of head of UFA if he made propaganda films for the Nazis. He apparently said he’d think on it and fled Germany for Paris that same night (although records appear to show he peddled a lot between Germany, London and Paris before he left for the US sometime in 1934.

I love it when people take fic writing seriously. I love when it's not 'Here's this dumb thing I wrote' and instead it's 'Here's this thing I put blood, sweat and tears into. Here's this thing I slaved away at, trying new writing techniques and editing over and over. Here's this dialogue that kept me awake at night. Here's this beautiful turn of phrase I thought up. Here's this thing that I wrote with vulnerability and heart, and I am proud to share it with you.'

[scarsbrother]

Birds of a Feather (T)

They've both had some experience with parallel universes. (edwin, tenrose)

ao3

They meet by chance.

Winry happens to be in Central, she’s started to visit the city more frequently as the years have gone by.  Officially, it’s because of her job; she needs parts for her automail that one can only buy at the illustrious, exclusive shops found in Central. But she knows herself well enough to recognize a front; she knows the real reason she visits Central is because of the memories saturated in the cobblestone streets. She goes to Central and she can almost see Edward’s flashy, red coat disappear into an alleyway, she can almost hear the metallic clang of Alphonse’s old armor over the clangor of the crowded avenues. During all the brothers’ travelling, they frequented this city more than any other, and (regardless of how pathetic it makes her feel, chasing after their ghosts) she relishes the bittersweet memories of their presence.

So, it really is a coincidence that she was in Central on the same day that he visited.

(Well, visited implies that he had any intention of arriving there.)

(He didn’t).

In reality, it’s a coincidence that she was in Central on the same day that he crash landed there.

He, honestly, chose the worst place to crash land. Captain Riza Hawkeye was among the worst people to surprise, and an enormous wooden box suddenly materializing in her sitting room really surprised her quite badly. By persuasion of the Captain’s gun, he was escorted straight to Central Headquarters, with him hollering about mistaken destinations and the fabric of space and time the entire way. His box remained in the Captain’s sitting room (no matter how it was maneuvered, there was no way it would fit through the door of her apartment).

He told Captain Hawkeye that his name was The Doctor. Captain Hawkeye introduced him to Winry as, “a probably psychotic magician,” anyway. He took more offense to being called a “magician” than being called “psychotic” and annoyed everyone with (what Winry could only discern as) technobabble in the highest degree.

But somewhere among his babbling about space travel and unfortunate miscalculations he mentioned parallel universes.

And that’s when Winry really started listening.

…

Captain Hawkeye had only introduced Winry to the Doctor because Winry was the only person she knew (and knew was a fairly strong word given their relationship as occasionally friendly acquaintances) who had any significant experience with machinery. The man, who was currently being held in an interrogation room, would not stop blathering on about the importance that he get back to his machine and repair any damage that had been inflicted upon it.

Hawkeye doubted the machinery contained by the blue box in her sitting room was as advanced as the Doctor claimed it was (and, after working for Roy Mustang for a substantial number of years, she was used to Male Posturing), so she brought Winry in to speak to him, in spite of his insistence that she would never be able to grasp the intricacies of his machine.

Captain Hawkeye was a little annoyed, truth be told, that Winry did seem quite lost when listening to his instructions.

…

“Unless you know how to reverse a neutron flow – which you can’t possibly – than I really, honestly - and I'm not trying to be rude, well I say not trying - don’t see what help you think you can be to me. Parallel universe or not, no civilization on Earth – and I really am just assuming this is Earth, because you all look and smell quite human, despite the fact that I have never once heard of Amestris – in the 1920s will have any engineers –”

“I’m sorry, did you just say parallel universe?”

The man (who Winry really thought could benefit from a bit of Granny’s stew – he was shockingly, abnormally skinny) looked quite put out at being interrupted.

“You’re really not going to understand the science behind that concept either, and I don’t quite see the relevance – “

“You know what, I think I’ve had just about enough of your ego, Mister – “

“It’s Doctor , actually – “

“I don’t give a rat’s ass – “

“Language!”

“ – About your professional titles – “

“It’s my name, not a title!”

“Your parents named you Doctor? Really, you want me to believe that?”

“Well, really, my parentage is a little bit murky so I can’t actually address – “

“Actually, can you please address my question?”

“Do you like interrupting people? Is that your thing? Because that’s the second time you’ve interrupted me within this five minute conversation. Rude, that.”

“You’ve insulted my intelligence at least twice in this five minute conversation and you’re calling me rude?”

“I never claimed to not be rude – “

“Then it’s a tad hypocritical to go around calling other people rude, don’t you think?”

“It’s only hypocritical if I claim not to be rude, myself, and I’ve just freely admitted – “

“I think you need a lesson on hypocrisy if you think that’s true, because –“

“I don’t need a lesson on anything, genius me – “

“Oh, you’re conceited and rude. I know your type – “

“Type? I don’t have a type, I’m not a type, I’m a multi-faceted alien from a parallel universe, there is no type that could possibly – “

“There you go again! Parallel universe. What’s that about? Let’s talk about that.”

The man blinked, his eyebrows furrowed. Winry thought he looked remarkably like a disgruntled rooster, with that spiky hair.

“Why are you so intrigued in parallel universes? You said you’re an engineer; why is an engineer so interested in quantum physics?”

“Maybe an engineer has personal reasons to be so invested and would appreciate it if you would just answer her question.”

The man’s eyebrows un-furrowed and his eyes softened and god damn , Winry thought, he has an expressive face , because now he looked open and sad and –

"I’m from a parallel universe.”

"A parallel universe.”

"That’s what I just said, yeah?”

"Then why do you sound like you’re from Central?”

“I have a London accent, actually – “

“London?”

“Does this world have a London?”

“No,” and Winry could feel her voice getting softer.

“Then how did you know– “

“My childhood best friend lived in London.”

“You just said – “

“He lives in a parallel universe and he’s trapped there.”

And, she could be wrong, but in that moment, the Doctor looked at her like he understood.

…        

Winry ended up getting the Doctor (which she resigned herself to calling him, because she liked him well enough, and why not?) out of Central Headquarters, though Captain Hawkeye had been reluctant to release him.

Mustang had been quick to listen to her, however, and, though he had no real military power (having retired shortly after Ed’s reappearance, all those years ago), he was still quite influential where Captain Hawkeye was concerned.

“Thank you, Mr. Mustang,” Winry said, quietly, as she followed the Doctor out of the interrogation room that had served as his holding cell.

“You can just call me Roy.”

“I don’t think I can, actually.” She turned away before she could see the hurt on his face.

(She thought she saw Captain Hawkeye reach for his hand, out of the corner of her eye. Distantly, she was glad he had comfort. Less distantly, she was glad his pain was great enough that he needed it.)

(She felt petty, but not ashamed, about her refusal to forgive him. She wasn’t sure it was something she should forgive.)

“Bad blood?” The Doctor was looking at her now, with no attempt to hide his curiosity.

“He murdered my parents.”

His eyes widened. “Oh.”

“Oh?”

“I’m sorry, so sorry – “

“There’s really not much else to say.”

“Yeah.” He took her hand, squeezed it.

His hand was cold, but she found that the gesture made her feel warm.

…

Captain Hawkeye seemed uneasy about letting the Doctor back into her apartment, but, at the Doctor’s insistence, Winry vouched for him and the importance of reuniting him with his box.

“You trusted me alarmingly fast.” He tells her, when Hawkeye has left, leaving them alone in her sitting room with his “machine”.

“It’s a flaw of mine, I’ve always been pretty naïve.”

“I think you might just be a good judge of character.”

“Well, it’s on you to prove that to me.”

He grins, and she feels lightheaded. He has a mega-watt smile and all she can see in the flash of his pearly-whites is a young, blonde alchemist grinning up at her in exactly the same fashion.

She shakes off the memory before it can overwhelm her, she has gotten quite good at that.

“There is one thing you said that I don’t quite trust.”

“What’s that then?”

“You said you’re an alien.”

“Did I?”

“Yes, you did, I heard you.”

“Thought you missed that bit, honestly.”

“So, are you?”

“An alien?”

“No, a homunculus – of course an alien!”

“I don’t understand that reference.”

“Parallel universe, I guess.”

“Ta.”

“Ta?”

“I’m an alien.”

“Prove it.”

He pulls a key out of his jacket pocket and opens the blue box.

…

“Is everything in your universe bigger on the inside?”

“No, that’s an alien thing, not an alternate thing.”

“Does Germany exist in your universe?”

“’Course it does, do you not have Germany?”

“Nope.”

“What do you have?”

“Amestris.”

“What’s that good for?”

Winry bristles. “Good for a lot of things. It’s the automail capital of the world!”

“Automail?”

“ – And alchemical capital, but – “

“Alchemy? Turning coal into gold?”

“Well, there’s a great deal more to it than that, I gather.”

“Well, theoretically – “

“Not theoretically – “

“How would you know? I thought you were an engineer, now you’re telling me – “

“I am an engineer – “

“Then why – “

“My friend. He was an alchemist, a state certified alchemist.”

“An alchemist?”

“The Fullmetal Alchemist.”

“Heavy name.”

“He was a heavy guy.”

…

The box is a space ship. And a time machine. And apparently his home.

(It is also smashed to bits.)

“It was a risky move, crossing universes. I shouldn’t have even attempted it – shouldn’t have even thought  about attempting it. But I saw a gap and thought, ‘what the hell,’ and I really, honestly, should not have attempted it and – “

“Why did you, then?”

“Sorry?”

“Why attempt it, travelling to a parallel universe, if it’s so risky? Doesn’t seem like something to do for cheap tricks.”

He looks at her from underneath the console. His eyes are tired.

“My friend lives in a parallel universe. And she’s trapped there.”

He dives back into a cluster of wires before she can respond.

…

“I can help, you know.”

The wiring of his machine is spilling out of the underside of the console and the Doctor looks greasier by the second.

“I hate to be rude – “

“I’ve only just met you and I can already tell that’s a lie.“

He harrumphs at that. “The technology of the TARDIS – “

“TARDIS?”

“Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.”

“Ah.”

“The technology of the TARDIS is from the 51st century, it’s far more advanced than whatever you’re used to.”

“Doctor, I’m good with machines, I can at least – “

“I can already tell that you’re just itching to dig you’re hands into her – “

“Her?”

“I know it’s a bit archaic, and more than a little cliché, to assign a gender to a machine, but she’s alive so I think – “

“She’s alive?”

“Can’t you feel her?”

Winry closes her eyes and places a hand on console. There’s a pulsing thrum running through the machinery, it feels like a heartbeat. She opens her eyes, mystified.

“You’ve got to let me take her apart.”

“I’m sorry?!”

She feels a grins splitting her face in two, “You’ve got to let me put her back together again!”

“Are you an engineer or a machine groupie?”

Her smile sobers, “Ed used to call me a gearhead.”

“Ed?”

“My friend. The one who’s trapped. Well, really it’s him and his brother, Alphonse. They’re both gone.” Her eyes are watering, suddenly and – “I miss them.”

She looks at the Doctor, “What was your friend’s name?”

Something in his face flashes and it’s like a shutter fluttering over a window, hiding whatever emotion he’s feeling. “Get down here. I can teach you the very basics.”

She’s so excited that she pretends not to notice the deflection.

…

They talk a lot about their respective universes, about the differences. The Doctor reminds her of Ed, but only in the sense that they both seem unquenchably thirsty for knowledge. She wonders if it as much a flaw for the Doctor as it was for Ed.

She has a feeling it is.

They don’t talk about Ed and Al or his friend, but she desperately wants to bring it up. She lets him distract her, but only because the mechanics of the TARDIS mystify her the way only automail has before.

He also lets her rant about automail and he seems genuinely interested.

“It’s a little like working with your TARDIS, in a way. But instead of the machine being alive in the first place, you have to plan for the life that’ll flow into the machine.”

“It’s a bit steampunk,” he says, with a smile on his face.

She smiles back, “You’re TARDIS is a bit, too.”

“I’m pretty hardcore, that’s the way I go,” he replies with a put-on accent that she doesn’t recognize.

“Ed had automail. I made it for him when I was 12, his right arm and his left leg.”

The Doctor looks disturbed, “How does a 12 year old lose an arm and a leg?”

“He made a mistake.”

“Must have been some mistake.”

“It really was.”

She doesn’t elaborate. She doesn’t tell him about Alphonse. She thinks he might be the judgmental sort and the thought of him judging Ed, judging the actions that cost Alphonse his body. She doesn’t like the thought.

…    

With her help, the Doctor finishes his repairs in seven hours, by then its late night. Captain Hawkeye had come home, but she hadn’t knocked on the door of the TARDIS or seemed to question where the Doctor and Winry might be. Winry’s grateful for that, she thinks the Captain would be a little less lenient about the Doctor’s freedom if she knew he possessed such advanced technology.

Winry and the Doctor sneak out of the TARDIS once Hawkeye is asleep.

“Are you leaving?” Winry whispers.

“’Course, there’s no need for me to be sticking around this universe for too long.”

“Would you get trapped?”

“No, there’s – there’s a rift, a kind of hole. In the fabric of space. It’s not a bad one – “

“Are there bad ones?”

“Oh, yes – “

“Why isn’t this one – “

“This one – this universe, it has – it has a special properties. I’m willing to bet the properties are the reason why alchemy works in your world and doesn’t in mine, there’s a flow between them. With a stopper – “

“A gate.”

“Maybe.”

“So you could come back to this universe, potentially.”

“Potentially. If there was a reason for me to.”

“Doctor.”

“Yes?”

“Why did you come to this universe?” She knows the answer already, but she wants to hear him say it.

“I – “

“Because, you didn’t know that this universe was my universe – “

“Well,”

“Did you think it was your friends? The universe your friend’s trapped in?”

He’s silent for a while, Winry thinks he might change the subject again.

“Yeah, I thought it might be. I thought it might be Rose’s universe.”

“Rose?”

“My friend – “

“Was she just – “

He interrupts her so fast and speaks so fast, she misses what he says, “Weweretogether.”

“Sorry?”

“Together. We were together. For a bit.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Oh?”

“With my friend. We weren’t together. But I wanted to be. We were really young when he – when he got trapped. I never told him. I think he may have known, though.”

“How young?”

She laughs, “I was – I was 16 when he first got trapped. He came back, actually. Crossed over to our universe five years ago. His brother was still here, with me. Then I lost him too. Lost them both, they both became trapped, then. I was 18.”

“Did you love him?” The Doctor asks softly, like he’s afraid he’ll spook her.

“Not romantically, not yet. There was potential for that kind of love, I think. But I – I just. He was family, both he and his brother were my family. And I don’t – I don’t have a lot of family left.”

The Doctor looks away, “Yeah.” There’s empathy in his voice, empathy that she can only guess comes from mutual experience.

“Did you love her? Rose?”

“Do you want to come with me?” The conversation change is so abrupt she almost reels backwards from the shock of it.

“Come with – “

“Come with me. I have friends, people I like, they travel with me. See the stars. I had one recently, after Rose – Martha, her name was. I ruined her life,” he finishes with a self-incriminating smile.

“That’s a pretty bad sell.”

“I want you to know what you’d be signing up for.”

“My life is pretty ruined already, honestly. My Gran died, last year. She was my last… I don’t have anyone anymore, not really.” The loneliness she usually tries to tap down weighs heavy on her heart now.

He takes her hand. “I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.”

“I don’t ask more than once.” There’s longing in his eyes, now. He’s lonely too.

“I’d want to come back. I just – I would also like to get away for a while.”

“Like I said, there’s a gateway between these two universes, I could bring you back. It would take a little effort, but it’s more than possible.”

“And your ship – It travels in time too?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think – “ She swallows, thickly. “Your universe has a Germany. Ed and Al’s universe has a Germany too. Do you think - ?”

“It’s unlikely.”

“Why?”

“R –“ He really seems to have trouble saying her name. “Rose’s universe has a Germany, too. But it’s still parallel.”

“I’d like to check – “

“I – “

“I’ll come with you if you let me check.”

“My companions usually don’t have conditions.”

“Make an exception for me.”

“Well – “

“Doctor.” She says, “Please.” She's pleading.

“I’ll make an exception."

…

They leave ten minutes after that. The TARDIS is loud when it flies (dematerializes, the Doctor corrects) and she offhandedly hopes that they didn’t wake Captain Hawkeye.

…

They visit Germany, circa 1928.

(It’s different from her world, the technology is farther along. The Doctor tells her that this is probably due to the focus on alchemy in her world, it derails the technological innovation. Her world would catch up, it would just take time and it would probably occur on another plane of innovation.)

It’s a big country and she doesn’t know where to begin looking.

Until she does.

She knows there’s an alternate Alphonse. An Alphonse Heidrich. And she knows, with the Doctor’s help and her description, that he builds rockets.

If this is Ed and Al’s universe, he knew them, or at least knew Ed. She remembers from Alphonse’s dreams.

As they track him, she feels hope build up inside of her throat and hopes that it won’t choke her.

…

It chokes her.

They find Alphonse Heidrich. He’s alive, but he’s dying. He’s fighting tuberculosis and he’s losing.

They can’t talk to him, he’s not allowed visitors that aren’t blood related. But she talks to the woman who owns a flower shop next to his apartment. (The woman is Gracia, but not. She doesn’t have a daughter.)

She tells them she has never heard of anyone named Edward Elric. She tells them she’s never seen anyone who looks like Alphonse, but isn’t.

When Winry leaves the flower shop, she feels the grief, the disappointment, curling in her stomach like a sickness. The Doctor draws circles on the back of her hand but they only make her dizzy.

On their way back to the TARDIS, Maes Hughes walks past them.

She falls over in shock.

Roy Mustang pulls her back onto her feet. Asks her if she’s alright.

She’s sick on his shoes.

…

When the Doctor has lead her back onto the TARDIS, she loses it. She sobs so hard, she’s gasping and hiccuping for breath.

The Doctor pats her consolingly on her back.

She hears him say, “Parallel world, ginger bread house,” under his breathe.

…

She stays with the Doctor.

…    

They travel together.

…

She mostly asks to see technological advancements of the future.

He takes her to the 1970s and they watch color-TV in a theater.

He takes her to 2016 and he buys her a smart phone.

(She takes it apart).

(She puts it back together).

He takes her to 2120, on a different planet. They get thrown in jail.

(It’s because she tried to take something apart.)

(She’d never seen a police radio as advanced as the one in 2120.)

When they escaped, she drives them, in a stolen Leisure Rocket, back to the TARDIS.

The Doctor tells her she’s a bad driver.

She tells him he’s worse.

…

He goes on some trips alone. She likes staying on the TARDIS, which surprises him. Unlike most of his Companions, apparently, she doesn’t have wanderlust. (She thinks that Ed, who could never sit still in one place for very long, would probably love this life.)

She stays on the TARDIS and tinkers with machinery out of her time.

She knows the Doctor misses her company (or maybe just company in general), but he never complains when she sits out a trip.

…

They both know this arrangement is completely temporary.

…

Winry tries to make it last as long as she can.

She doesn’t want him to be lonely but she also knows she doesn’t want this life, she’s not made for it. They’re just two lonely people who are going through strangely similar periods of grief.

(Except one is a 23 year old automail engineer and the other is a 900 year old Time Lord.)

…

“Tell me about her.” Winry pivots on a hanging swing underneath the console. The Doctor was showing her the mechanics of a tran-dimensional brake pump.

“Her?” He’s playing dumb, but Winry has experience with the emotionally distant.

“Rose, tell me about Rose.”

He meets her eyes, he looks upset.

“Winry, I know you mean well, but I don’t need a therapist.”

“I told you about Ed and Al.”

“And?”

“And it helped, talking about it helped.”

“Winry, I hate to state the obvious, but you are 23. I am 900. I have seen and experienced and lost more than you ever have. I'm more than equipped to deal with this on my own.” His tone is smooth, but she can hear the warning in the undercurrent of his words. He looks away again.

“But – “

“I’m not interested in talking about it.” He deliberately turns his attention back to the wiring underneath the console.

“Doctor – “

“Winry!” His eyes are angry now and she almost falls out of the swing.

“I have loved others before Rose and I have managed to move on. I lost my entire people and I am still here. I don’t need to talk about any of it and I should think that I know more about my own emotional upkeep than you .” His nostrils flare in anger. He still isn’t looking at her.

She gets off of the swing and walks away, into the corridors of the TARDIS.

He doesn’t call after her.

She spent most of her adolescent life chasing after an emotionally fucked 15 year old and now she’s wasting time trying to get a 900 year old alien to open up. She doesn’t know why she keeps doing this to herself, connecting with people who will never let her in.

She wonders what about her screams, “Hey! Take advantage of me! Lure me in with a dependency I can fill, lead me on and then never let me become, in any way, emotionally fulfilled, myself! Then you can leave me behind as you please!”

She sits heavily by the door to her room.

She thinks about leaving him.

…

She does leave him.

A week and a half later.

The Doctor doesn’t seem surprised.

He drops her in an alley outside of Central Headquarters, 20 minutes after they first left. Within her own time stream, she must have travelled with him for 3 months, at least.

When she walks off the TARDIS she feels regret set into her bones.

“Thank you,” she says, facing away from him.

“I didn’t actually do anything, Winry.”

“You did. You took me with you, traveling. I needed that distraction, I think.”

He laughs, dryly.

“You don’t even like traveling.”

“I know. But Ed did. Al did too. I think… I think they would have loved this life, your life.”

“It’s a lonely life.” He says, quietly. It might be the most emotionally vulnerable thing he’s ever said to her.

“Better with two, I think.” She says, turning back to him. There’s heartbreak in his eyes, suddenly, but she doesn’t ask why. She knows better than to ask, now.

“Then why are you leaving?”

“I’m not what you need Doctor. You need someone who loves this life as much as you do. We both knew this life isn’t for me. My leaving was inevitable.”

His face is impassive. She has a feeling that, while he knew it was inevitable, he never really accepted it.

“Thank you,” he says. “For traveling with me.”

He walks back onto the TARDIS and closes the door behind him, not waiting for a response.

She was an abrupt, fleeting friend for him, she knows. An unsatisfying companionship made purely on the basis of their grief.

She watches the TARDIS dematerialize. She thinks she’ll miss him, a little. But it’s better this way. She needs to continue her life and staying in that box with him, she’d never be able to let go of her grief.

She walks away from the alleyway and back into her life.

…

She sees the Doctor again, 10 years later.

She’s married now, to an Ishvalan man named Wasef. She met him when he came to her shop with a stump of a right leg, a fist-full of cash and a demand for Rockbell Brand Automail.

(She could never resist a man with such a fine appreciation for her work.)

The Doctor appears on the first anniversary of their wedding. They’re having a grand celebration in a barn two kilometers from the shop.

(It’s a barn that Ed, Al and she used to play in as children.)

She is dancing with a young girl with bright blonde hair and two plaits when a familiar voice asks, “Can I cut in?”

She turns her head so fast she almost gives herself whiplash.

He looks different. Exhausted. Older. His eyes are red and his skin is sallow. He looks like he’s ready to curl onto a hay barrel in the back of the barn and fall into a never ending, dreamless sleep.

She doesn’t ask him if he’s okay, since he’s clearly not. Instead, she takes his hands in hers and asks, “How long has it been, for you?”

“Around twenty years.”

“On your own?”

“No - No, I travelled with a woman after you. Donna, her name was. Donna.”

“Donna,” she repeats.

“Rose came back,” he says, abruptly.

“Oh my God - “

“I left her behind.”

“I - “

“In the parallel world. With a clone of myself.”

“Why - ?”

“It was better that way.”

“Was it?”

“I’m dying,” he says, and she thinks this conversation is running away from her, a bit.

Winry feels her eyebrows furrow, “You’re dying.”

“Well. I’m regenerating.”

“Well,” she says. She has no idea what “regenerating” means, but she can guess.

“I’ll change. Into a new man. A new body, a new face, a new attitude.”

“Change can be good, Doctor.” She thinks of Wasef, of his warm smile.

“I’ll die, though. I feel it. When I change this time, I’ll be completely different.”

She sways their hands, gently, to the rhythm of the music playing in the crowded barn.

“I met someone from my future, a woman. River.”

“Was she - ?”

“She all but told me I’ll love her. The next me will be a new man, with a new face, with a new attitude and with a new love.”

“That bothers you?”

He laughs bitterly, “I was born loving Rose and look how that turned out. I lost her to myself , by choice. I had to give her away . Could you have done it? Gotten your Ed back and given him away, bid him farewell and never seen him again?”

“No, but I’m not you.”

“True, but we’re birds of a feather, people brought together by similar angst.”

“Not that similar, Doctor.”

“Similar enough.”

“That’s why I left.”

“Is it?”

“Yes. I needed to move on,” she glanced at Wasef, happy and dancing obliviously with two local kids.

“I don’t think I’m ready to die,” he says, wincing.

“Aren’t you?”

“What makes you say that?”

“I think this is the most emotionally charged conversation we’ve had. It’s a farewell.”

“A farewell.”

Winry draws circles the skin of his hands with her thumbs.

“That’s making me dizzy,” he says, looking down at motion.

“Don’t be sick on my shoes, please.”

“It’s probably the radiation.”

“Radiation’ll do that, I figure.”

He smiles at her. A tight smile. Squeezes her hand.

“Thank you. For the companionship.”

“Thank you, Doctor, for the closure.”

He drops a kiss onto her forehead and walks out of the barn, into the night. She feels tears in her eyes.

Someone else takes her hand and she looks up. It’s Wasef.

“Win’, you okay?”

She feels tears gliding down her cheeks.

“Win’, why’re you crying?” The concern in his voice makes her sniff, loudly, and cry a little harder.

“I’m crying because they won’t.”

“Who’s they?”

“Himself. Ed. Al. All these people who walk in and out of my life and dump their never ending supply of grief on me.”

Wasef looks confused, but brings her close, into his chest. He smells like the earth and the sheep that usually populate the barn.

“Okay, Win’. Let it out.”

She smiles into his chest. Holds him tight.

“I love you.”

Wasef lets her go, and grins wildly into her face. “Love ya too, Win’.”

Her tears dry up. “God, I’m sick of crying, though. These tears are for people long gone and grief long settled.”

“Sounds deep.”

“It is, a little bit.”

Wasef walks away. She sits on a hay barrel and looks across the barn, towards the exit, the way the Doctor left a few moments ago.

She imagines three blonde children, hands clasped tightly together, running out into the darkness.