Bridge to Reality: A Romantic Drama
Summary: This is a fic that takes place 10 years from the setting of 7th Heaven now. Ruthie is 26 and she is getting married. To whom? Well, let's just say, her and T-bone didn't make it through the rest of high school together. They didn't break-up; something terrible happened to T-bone. After that tragedy, it took Ruthie 5 years to seriously start considering to date again. At the beginning of her Senior year at Princeton University, she met her future husband. Ruthie has told him everything about her past, and he knows exactly what will make her happy, and what will make her angry, upset, or unhappy. This isn't totally about her and her life, though. She isn't my only favorite character. I like almost every single one of them. So there will be a little of everyone in here, too. Just not as much as Ruthie and Corbin. This first chapter will be flashbacks to the T-Bone tragedy, meeting Corbin, discussing him with her family, and his proposal 2 years after they start dating. Then, it'll be what she's thinking as she's getting ready to walk down the aisle. Enjoy!
Chapter 1: Flashbacks
---Ruthie at 17 years old--
--Ring-- --Ring-- "Hello, Camden residence." Ruthie said into the telephone. "May I ask who is calling?" There was a noise at the other end of the phone, such as a clearing throat kind of noise. "Hello, my name is Deputy Nemur. Is this Ruthie Camden?" The Deputy asked politely. "Yes. May I help you?" Ruthie was starting to worry. T-Bone had left two hours ago for his new apartment here in Glen Oak, and then he was supposed to come back and see her, before going to this concert he had won tickets for with Mac and Martin. "Miss Camden, your family friend, and as I assume, your boyfriend, Theodore Bonelate has been in a car hijacking. He stopped at a stoplight downtown Glen oak, and the criminal who had recently robbed the local bank and three of the Promenade shops came up to his car in a hurry, and shot him in the side of the head. He is serving time in jail, and will be on trial for the Bonelate murder. As you might have guessed, Theodore is deceased. I just thought you would like to know." The deputy finished in a hurry, thinking that this was the hardest thing he has had to do as a Rookie cop. "Ok. Well, thanks for letting me know. Goodbye now." Ruthie said as she was choking back a gallon of tears. She hung up the telephone and ran upstairs to her bedroom as fast as she could. Lucy had seen her as she was walking down the hallway. "Ruthie, are you okay?!" Lucy asked. She ran upstairs to the attic and found Ruthie lying on her bed, sobbing like the world was about to end. Or more like it had already ended. "Ruth, what happened?" Lucy knew Ruthie wasn't okay, and knew that it would bother her little sister if she had asked if she were, when the answer was quite clear. "No, Luce. Just leave me alone!" Ruthie screamed through her tears. "No. I wont leave until you tell me what the matter is. " Lucy wasn't going to leave her sister up here by herself with such misery as she was seeing on Ruthie's face. "Fine! T-Bone is dead! That's what the matter is! Now leave me ALONE!!!!!!!!!" Ruthie screamed at the top of her lungs. Lucy gasped, and tried to think when the last time she had seen T-Bone was. "Ruthie Lynn Elizabeth Camden! You don't speak to your older sister like that. She is just trying to help." Annie Camden marched into the room, as she had also seen Ruthie flee upstairs.--Ruthie was standing in front of a long row of mirrors in her empty dressing room. She had just finished remembering that dreadful call she had gotten when she was 17. Tears were flowing one by one down her cheeks. She didn't want to think about that anymore. She decided to, instead, think of when she had finally started to date again, and the night she had met her future husband. The man she was going to marry in less than an hour.--"Ruthie Lynn Elizabeth Camden! (Man, was she called that every time someone got frustrated, angry, unhappy, or upset with her? That's the way it seems. LOL!) You have to come out with me tonight. We're going to that club, and you ARE going to mingle! You will start dating again, if it's the last thing I do!" Ruthie's room mate, Shelby Lynn, or just plain Shel, or Lynn, demanded. "FINE. But I'm wearing what I want. I don't feel like getting dressy just to start dating again." Ruthie said. Shel went into Ruthie's walk-in closet and found some black dress pants, and a cute sky blue-belly baring-tank top, and she laid all that in front of Ruthie. Next, she went over to the face and hair section of the room. She grabbed some baby blue eye shadow, powder pink blush, and melon berry lip gloss. Lastly, she grabbed some bobby pins, and a hairbrush, and set that wear she had set the clothes. "Get dressed, curl your hair, do your makeup, brush your teeth, and don't argue. I'm doing this for YOU, and YOU are going to appreciate it one day. Hopefully tonight, when you meet your future husband, because of me." Shel told her.
La8er Ruthie walked into the club, named The Smash Club, and went over to the bar. "Can I have a Sunset Martini, please?" She asked the bartender. "Yes, you may, as long as I get to see your ID, young woman," was the bartender, Corbin's reply. Ruthie got out her ID, while thinking of how cute, and polite the young bartender was. "Here it is." Ruthie informed him. Corbin took her ID and said, "So, today's the young Ruthie Camden's 21st birthday is it?" Ruthie flushed and said, "Please don't speak too loudly. I haven't mentioned that to my friend over there and I'm not in the mood for her to suddenly be reminded that it is my special day. She'll push me even more to have fun." Corbin winked and smiled in a knowing way. "I've heard of you in the papers. 5 years ago, a special friend of yours was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you attempted suicide on the one year anniversary of his death. I'm sorry about that. But I see that you look well, and very healthy indeed. Trying to make a comeback?" Ruthie sighed, and said," Kind of. My friend keeps worrying about me, my health, and my sociality." Corbin knew exactly how she must feel. He was suicidal as a young teenager when his twin brother died from a brain tumor, and then 3 weeks later, his mom of a stroke. It had taken him a long time to recover from that, also. A long time, indeed. 5 years, to be exact. "I've had the exact same experience. A month after my twin died of a brain tumor when we were 14, I committed suicide. It wasn't just his death I was grieving from, either. My mom had had a stroke 3 weeks after his death. I didn't start feeling better until my dad remarried my one and only pick for a stepmother, my best friends single mom, 5 years later. The best thing that ever happened to me. My best friend became like another twin to me, and my stepmother, a mother." Ruthie sat there shocked. She never dreamed that she would find another person who had suffered an ordeal like hers. Much less worse. "I'm so sorry. Here I am, trying to forget my tragedy, when yours was far more worse. Please forgive me." Ruthie begged. Corbin smiled and said, "No apology needed. It was my fault for bringing the subject up." He handed her her martini, and got ready for the ending of his shift. "Would you like to dance? I heard grievers are great dancers.That means, if it's true, we must each be one of the top ten dancers in the world. We would make a great team." Corbin said. Ruthie flushed, laughed, and then, willingly, took the nice gentleman's hand. Little did she know, she'd be spending the rest of her life with him.--"Ruth, the time is almost here. Only 30 minutes until my last daughter is to be married." Annie fussed with her daughters gown, flowers, hair, and veil. "I know mom. Please let me be until it's time. I'm thinking." Ruthie asked her mother. "Okay dear. I'll just be outside with the others." Her mother had replied, before leaving and closing the door behind her. --
To he's wonderful. He's helped me get past T-Bone and everything else, with dad passing away recently, and everything. His family is wonderful, and his sisters and I have become very close. I hope that we are together for a great while. He's had some of the exact same experiences as I, and we just… click. We click. Click. Yes, that's the exact word that I was looking for. He's the ONE. I'm very sure of that. I'm just worried that he'll be taken away from me, just like T-Bone, and then Dad. He probably is worried about the same thing. He's had many great losses, also. Anyway, give my love to my 17 nieces and nephews, and tell everyone that I hope to have them all in my dream wedding very, very soon.--
Ruthie sat down in her chair, and thought about the lovely way he had proposed. Flashback time, again.
--Ruthie at 25 years old-- Ruthie came into the apartment after a full days work at the song studio. She was also trying to write a teenage novel about 3 best friends growing apart, and then running into each other in Heaven, and remaking it into a place they could all love. She walked into the kitchen, and saw a note on the counter.
Good Evening, Hun,
Meet me after work at our special place. I have a surprise for you. Wear your sunset colored dress to match our martinis. That's all that I am asking you to do for me. -Love, C
Ruthie ran out to her red-orange Aztec after getting dress, doing her hair, and makeup, and grabbing her lucky charm bracelet. She was hoping that this was what she was waiting for for 4 years. Please, oh please be what I think it is. Ruthie parked at the parking lot of the beach and walked down a block and a half where it was always deserted. She saw the most amazing thing in the world. Corbin had set up a sunset picnic, and had blankets with strew rose pedals on them set out, with a picnic basket full of champagne, 2 pieces of dark chocolate chip cake, and a box with a gift inside. He told her to open the gift after she ate her cake, and drank some champagne. She opened the cake, and gasped at what she saw. There, sitting on top of the piece of cake, was the biggest diamond ring a lawyer like Corbin could afford, and he was the best in town! Then, she opened her gift, which was a card saying:
"My beautiful soul mate, with the prettiest soul, and pure Christianity, wont you marry me in holy matrimony?"
"Yes! Of course." That was all Ruthie had to say before Corbin leaned into her and gave her the most passionate kiss in the world.--
"Ruthie it's time. Simon is outside the door, waiting to walk you down the aisle." Shel informed Ruthie. "Okay. I think I'm finally ready." She took ahold of her brothers arm, and started toward her future.
Hope you enjoyed it. Have questions or concerns, or IDEAS email me at or or just give me them after you read, while you review. Thanx! Remember to R&R!