Ruby watched the heartfelt reunion between the aliens and their two friends while the third one hung back with a guilty expression on her face. She must have been the one who abandoned them. Ruby thought darkly as the two aliens moved away from the beds and walked over to her. She blinked at them and a second later was enveloped in a tight embrace from the dark haired male. "Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you-" He said over and over again, his voice thick with emotion.
Under normal circumstances Ruby might have laughed and shrugged things off. But she didn't know how to react to the alien's hug, or his words so she just stayed quiet. He said a few more things to her, all of them in a different language, then finally let her go.
Leaving her open to be caught up in a bear hug by the taller, younger looking alien who spun her around once, then proceeded to try and crush the life out of her in an effort to express his happiness and joy and didn't let go of her until one of the wounded aliens snapped something at him in that strange other language, causing the one holding her to promptly let her go and set her on her feet and quickly apologized for squeezing her so hard.
She gave him a pained smile and patted him on the shoulder (frankly she was shocked that she couldn't just reach his head. He was so frigging tall!) and started for the door when the sound of Modo, Vinny's, and Throttle's voices reached her ears, but she didn't think that they were talking to her so she just kept walking.
Leaving the three in their friends hands while she went looking for her brother. The events of the past two weeks were finally catching up to her. Leaving her feeling more exhausted and tired than she had felt in years. She walked down the hall to the cargo bay and found her brother in the middle of hog tying Jean who had been gagged and was on the grate floor wiggling around like mad. Ruby leaned her shoulder against the door frame and snickered.
God but Jean is going to give Gabriel hell once he got loose. She thought in amusement as her brother finished tying the knot and lifted his head and saw her. His expression flickering from maniacal glee to curiosity. "Something wrong Commander?" He asked as he got up off of Jean and walked across the way to her and stopped right in front of her. Ruby gave him a small smile and pushed away from the door and nearly knocked him over when the ship lurched to the side causing her to slam into him much harder than she intended too.
He grabbed her with one arm then grabbed the door frame with his other hand just to keep his balance while the ship leveled itself. Once it looked like the ship wasn't going to lurch side ways again Gabriel let go of the door frame and looked down at his little sister. "You okay Ruby?"
"I'm peachy. Just wondering which fur ball is responsible for the ship doing that."
"Probably the female..."
Ruby scowled at him for a second. "What makes you say that?" She asked curiously. Gabriel grinned at her. If she thought that he was going to fall for that old trap, she was sadly mistaken. He wasn't going to give her a reason to smack him.
"Nothing in particular-" Except that he had seen the alien female arguing with Mark at gun point earlier. "By the way, we may need to check on Mark and make sure that he's still alive." Ruby made an irritated sound and hung her head as she leaned into him.
"Do you think whoever is in the cockpit with him, did him bodily harm?"
"Possibly."
"Well, life is for the living. Its so sad that he died so young-" Ruby said softly and Gabriel had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Oh man that was so cold. "Now lets go take a nap." Ruby said suddenly as she grasped his hand and tried to pull him out of the room, but he refused to move causing her to tip her head back and look at him with a curious expression on her face.
He stared at her for a second, noting the slightly darker circles under her eyes, wondering why he hadn't really noticed them earlier when he had passed her in the hall and tried to recall the last time she had slept more than two hours. It must have been a while since he couldn't remember.
And he knew that she wouldn't sleep if he wasn't at least in the same room with her. It was a habit that she had developed after what had happened to her. The nightmares coupled with the lack of sleep had damn near driven her insane for the first eight months or so. And even though the incident itself had occurred well over two years ago, she still had trouble some times. So it was a normal reaction now for her to seek him out before she went to sleep.
Being around him was probably the only time she felt safe.
"First we check on Mark. Then we'll take a nap." He said as he turned her and gently pushed her out the door and stepped out behind her and called out to Jean over his shoulder and promised to send Jenna to untie him.