Part 17

                                    

                                          


                          
The door opened with a faint clicking noise, and a voice sounded inside the waiting room, "Edward?" The doctor asked, searching the small waiting area until she met with the distraught eyes she was looking for.
                          
"Ah, there you all are..." she rubbed her hands together and stepped inside, shutting the door quietly behind her.
                          
Ed straightened in his seat, and Alphonse mirrored him, giving his brother one last concerning glance before he turned to the doctor.
                          
"How are they?" his strained voice was like a knife in her throat. Honestly, she still had no idea what to say. Despite the long walk she had traveled to get to the room, her mind had come up with nothing. Only worry was present.
                          
She sighed and rubbed her forehead, deciding to act like an adult and tell it to him straight, "I honestly can't say that I know.  Winry is in critical condition, and the baby is being taken care of in the NICU." She paused and took in a breath, not daring to look him in the eyes, "Winry lost a dangerous amount of blood during the operation and that combined with her sickness doesn't make for a fast recovery rate. The baby is alive and breathing,  his heart rate is low, but that's to be expected since he was born so early on in the pregna-"
                          
"He....?"
                          
The doctor's head snapped up at the realization that she had revealed the baby's gender, and was met with gold, tear stricken eyes.
                          
She swallowed back the lump in her throat and looked back down at her hands, "Yes. You both have a little boy on your hands now."
                          
"haa...." Ed let out a breathy sigh and brought his hands up to his forehead, taking this information in. A son. He had a son. They had a son.
                          
Alphonse set a hand on his brothers back, tears also threatening to overflow in his eyes. He'd had a hunch that the baby was going to be a boy.
                          
Their wait was finally over, though it had only begun hours ago. The mind numbing, nail chewing, foot tapping silence had died down for now. He had his answers, but more questions had come out of them, starting yet another waiting period.
                          
"What do we do now?"  Ed voiced his question to the doctor, and she looked up at him with a guilty expression on her features.
                          
"I truly am sorry, but you'll have to wait this out again." She answered in a sorrowful tone.
                          
"We can do that." Alphonse spoke this time; arousing glances form both his brother and the doctor. "Winry will be fine." He stopped and turned to Ed, "Like I was telling you before brother, Winry's strong. She can pull through. And if you're son is anything like his parents," he paused and smiled, his brother's perseverance through the years running through his head, "he's going to be just as tough."
                          
The doctor took a step back, and observed the pair, not quite knowing how to react to their optimism. It was almost as if there was an unspoken conversation happening behind the words that were actually spoken.  Years of history, trauma, and experience were being exchanged with a single look, she could tell, the scene in front of her bringing back a wave of memories from when they had returned.
                          
The news of what the brothers had done over in Central had spread throughout the country like wildfire, Resembool of course being one of the first places to hear anything thanks to Pinako Rockbell. The whole town was soon in an uproar over the turn of events. They were ecstatic that the children they had labeled as "unfortunate" and "broken" in the past had saved each and every one of their lives. They had made a name for themselves, intentional or not, and climbed out of the worst of situations.
                          
The town was proud, and welcomed them back home with open arms instead of side-glances full of sympathy. They weren't the "poor boys who had lost their mother" or "the children whose father abandoned them" or "the foolish children who had committed a taboo" anymore. In their eyes, they had become a hero's of sorts.