I do not own RWBY or the characters

Ruby didn't want to go in she was worried. Biting her bottom lip she hesitated to open the door. What if they hated her for what Cardin did. She didn't think she could take that. If she could survive being hated by her own team.

"Everything will be okay," Blake said a gentle smile on her face. She knew her team and she knew her leader. The girl would stress about this until she fainted if left by herself. Ruby nodded finding courage in the fanus's word. She opened the door slowly and entered keeping her head down until Pyrrha called her name and drew her into a hug.

When she looked up a small part of her was amused to see the secrets nest covering the middle of the room. Seeing Jaune chased the feeling away quickly. It was her fault he was hurt.

"It's not," Jaune said and she flushed when she realized she'd spoken out loud, "Cardin is a jerk and that is in no way your fault."

"But I-," she was cut off by him pulling her down onto the nest. She stared at him for a second before curling up. Taking a few moments to steady herself she told them everything. From meeting Cardin on the bullhead to their conversation a few minutes ago. When she felt Jaune tense she got worried. Looking up she watched the emotions fly across his face before he settled on anger.

"I'm going to kill him," he said and the dark certainty in his voice made her blink. This was not the reaction she pictured from her teammate. Seeing Pyrrha's nod and the malice in Blake's eyes she suddenly felt pity for Cardin. while she didn't actually think they would murder the boy she did know that they would make his life miserable. When the three actually began discussing plans to murder him and feed his body to the grimm she decided to cut in.

"Cardin's my problem to deal with not yours," she said only to get annoyed looks from the others.

"You can't deal with all of our problems and your own. It'll be too much for you," Pyrrha said her voice making her sound like a scolding mother. Blinking Ruby wilted under the combined force of their glares. She fell silent as they resumed plotting. She watched them and was delighted to see Blake had taken off her bow. It meant the girl trusted them and that made her heart feel a thousand times better.

Then she began to think what could she do to ruin Cardin's plan. He'd threatened her team and hurt Jaune. Suddenly she realized something. Cardin hadn't told her not to warn Weiss of their deal.

"I have to go talk to Weiss," she told them before standing. They nodded absently and she heard Blake mention something about making a murder look like an accident. Even Pyrrha was abandoning her honorable attitude and it made Ruby smile. They were crazy but she wouldn't change her team for anything in the world.

When Yang saw her sister enter their dorm, she went over the last few weeks in her head to make sure none of them were on Ruby's maim and possibly murder list. Once she concluded that her team was safe she bear-hugged her sister. Ruby smiled when she felt her sister's arms wrap around her.

"Hey Rubes did you need anything," Yang asked as she pulled away and got a good look at her sister. She did not like the guilty look in her sister's silver eyes it was almost like the other girl was trying not to look at her.

"Yeah I need to talk to Weiss for a few moments," Ruby said forcing a smile onto her face. Yang frowned she didn't know if letting her sister talk to Weiss would be a good idea. The white haired heiress had been in a bad mood all day. She sighed before deciding to lie to her sister. She hated herself for it but right now she didn't trust her partner not to say something stupid and get on her sisters bad side.

"She's not here right now, she had to call home," Yang said hoping she made the right choice. In actuality, her partner was taking a shower. Ruby frowned but nodded. When her sister left Yang ignored the Questioning looks from Ren and Nora.

"Why did you lie," Ren asked and the blonde simply fell down onto her bed. It wasn't like she wanted to lie to her sister but Ruby had already threatened Weiss once she wouldn't let her partner get hurt. Even if it costed her relationship with her little sister. Burying her face into her pillow she tried to put her the lost look of her sister out of her mind.

Ruby walked without knowing where she was going. Taking her scroll from her pocket she opened it and found her father's name. She didn't know if he was already on his mission from Ozpin but she did know she needed him. As he answered her breath hitched at his voice.

"Hey kid," he said and she almost broke apart, "anything you need because i'm about to get very very drunk."

She laughed and on the other end, Qrow grinned. From the slight tremble in her breathing, he could tell she'd been upset.

"Have you ever been forced to do something you didn't want to," she asked and almost slapped herself. Of course, he did. He'd been forced to stop being her father after all.

"Ruby are you in trouble," he asked interrupting her thoughts. When she didn't answer he took that as a yes, "fight."

The simple one word command caused her to stop moving. She stared at the stars above her whole world coming into focus. He was right. She'd been fighting since she got her memories back and that wouldn't change now. The only thing different about this time was that she had a physical enemy. Closing the door to the roof she smiled. All her doubts washed away as she thought about what he said.

"Right," she said simply it was both a response and a promise. She wouldn't let Cardin or anyone else win. She had a team to protect after all. Sitting in front of the door she began to talk. She told him about her time at Beacon and about how much fun she was having, and in return, he told her about his latest mission. She missed him so much that it her it didn't' matter if he smelled like whiskey and stumbled like a drunk he was her father. She just wished they could be a family again, but if this was all she could have then she wouldn't let it go.

She loved him even if she could only call him uncle instead of getting to call him father. She would just have to get stronger so that he could call her his daughter.

They stayed up long into the night chatting until he had to hang up. Standing and shaking the sleep form her legs. She headed back to her team. It was well past midnight after all and she had to sleep. When she returned to the dorm her team was sleeping in a dogpile on the floor. She tiptoed through the room and into the bathroom to shower or at least that was the plan until Blake dragged her down into the center of the nest and hugged her tightly.

Ruby smiled and gently ran her fingers over the girls ears and was rewarded with a purr. Remembering Cardin's threat to expose the fanus she frowned. If he took any action against her team then Jaune wouldn't have to worry about killing him. She'd do it herself.