Her eyes started to blink open, a deep haze still blurring her vision. Slowly but surely she was coming back to her senses, not sure of where she was at, or even what was going on. She heard a very faint beeping coming from her side, but she couldn't tell what it was that was making the noise in the first place.
As her vision started to clear up, she saw that she was sitting in a room on a bed of some sorts. It jarred her that she was there without knowing what happened. The last thing she remembered she was fighting off a giant herd of Grimm that was coming to kill her and her partner, but it ended there. No slow progression of events, no getting details of what happened as it was going on, just there one moment, here the next with no explanation.
What was worse, was she realized that she was in a hospital room. Remembering all the damage that had been done to her in the fight, she wasn't surprised, but it was kind of frightening to know that the fight put her in here, and most likely her partner too. That scared her more than being in there herself, and so she tried to sit up, a sharp pain causing her to scream out when she tried to move.
The nurses outside of her room came rushing in when they heard the scream, telling her to lie back down and not move too much. Most of it she couldn't hear, her own mind blocking it out. It wasn't until a familiar man came into the room that she finally focused on what was going on around her. "It's good to see that you're awake. How do you feel Ruby?" The man asked her.
Ruby Rose lay still on her bed, her arm wrapped up in a giant sling and many other parts of her body constricted to keep her from moving too much. "What happened?" She said very weakly, her body still not fully recovered, and by the look of her, it wouldn't be for a long time.
The man, whom she recognized as Professor Ozpin, came to her bedside and sat down in a chair next to her. "You fell unconscious during your fight against the Grimm. Fortunately your sister, Miss Belladonna and one of the first year teams made it to you before you fell unconscious. They managed to get you out of there and here you are now, recovering in the infirmary." He stated, gesturing to the room around them.
It explained why they were where they were, but Ruby still was left with a lot of unanswered questions. "Where's Weiss?" She asked, her voice gaining strength when it came to learning of Weiss' condition.
Professor Ozpin looked down at the ground, something that Ruby took as a bad sign. "I won't lie to you Ruby, Miss Schnee clearly took a lot of punishment during your fight." Ruby felt a tear start to form in her eyes, she didn't want to hear that Weiss was gone, but at the same time, she felt that it was what was coming next. "We're fortunate that we arrived when we did, else Miss Schnee wouldn't have survived her injuries, however, despite being alive still, she is in critical condition still, and the doctors are still doing everything they can to help her."
Ruby was somewhat relieved, knowing that Weiss was alive still was a good thing. But there was a bigger part of her that was nervous and worried that Weiss was still within the reach of death, just a grab away from being pulled down to the grave for good. Ruby needed to know how bad it was, how much she would have to do in order to keep Weiss with her. A simple request, mostly for selfish reasons, but something that Ruby needed to do for her own sake, that being keeping Weiss by her side. "How bad is it?" Ruby asked Professor Ozpin.
"You got off pretty lucky for the most part. A separated right shoulder and fracture in your upper right arm, a few broken ribs, a fracture in your right hip, concussion and a small fracture in your skull. Weiss managed to do what she could for your leg, the gash that you experienced being treated to well enough so that it wasn't a major concern, but the odds are that it will never fully heal, and that you'll carry the scar with you for life." He stated.
She got an explanation for herself, but that wasn't what she was asking for. "I meant for Weiss."
Professor Ozpin sighed, he knew that there was a lot to speak of, and each detail would get harder and harder to explain. "It's bad." He said, not getting into the details just yet. He stood up and walked over to face the window. "Weiss' injuries were many, and each of them will take time to heal. But if you must know, she broke her right collarbone and her left shin experienced a compound fracture." He turned back to face Ruby. "She also had almost her entire ribcage shattered, and she cracked a couple of vertebrae in her spine." He sat back down, knowing that the next part would be the hardest to say.
"But the worst of it was when she got impaled by the Beowolf's claw. She was lucky that it missed her heart, else she would be in the morgue right now. Unfortunately the claw punctured her lung and blood spilled in as a result. It was close, but the doctors managed to seal her lung back up." He put a smile on his face for Ruby's sake. "I'm told that she got out of surgery not 2 hours ago." Ozpin said to her.
Ruby nodded to him, holding back the storm of tears that were trying to force their way out. Hearing how bad the damage was hurt more than the pain she felt from her own injuries. The words felt like someone was tearing her heart apart piece by piece until nothing was left of her. "Take me to see her." She said to him.
Ozpin stood up, and walked over to another bed that was in the room with her that Ruby failed to notice. "She's right here Ruby." He gestured to Weiss' unconscious body laying on the bed next to Ruby's. "Get some rest Ruby. When she wakes up, you will be one of the first people to know, I promise you." Ozpin said as he walked over to the door, leaving the room to give Ruby a chance to recover herself.
Ruby looked over at Weiss, her body covered with a blanket, but she could only imagine how bad it looked underneath. Perhaps it was for the best, since Ruby knew that if she saw what it looked like underneath, then she wouldn't be able to stop herself from crying. Even at the moment, she felt herself start to tear up because of what she saw. Weiss had pretty much laid down her life so that Ruby could live on, yet Ruby knew that if Weiss was gone that she couldn't live without having her around.
As much as Ruby wanted to be sitting next to Weiss, she knew that she couldn't. Her injuries wouldn't allow her to do the simplest of things, the only thing she could do was look at her, and hope that she could walk around soon. No gentle holding of her hand, no soft kiss to let Weiss know that she was there, even if Weiss couldn't feel it. Ruby felt worse than she had ever felt in her entire life, and there was nothing she could do about it except wait and hope that Weiss would wake up sooner rather than later.
"Hey Ruby..." Ruby turned once she heard a familiar voice call out to her. She saw Blake and Yang standing at the door, waiting for Ruby to notice they were there. "...how are you feeling?" Yang asked as she walked over to Ruby's bed once she noticed the black and yellow duo waiting by the door.
Once Yang was over by her bedside, she placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder, and it was then that the dam broke and Ruby burst into tears. She pushed her face into Yang's shoulder, her sorrows not lost on her teammates. Yang wrapped her arms gently around Ruby's shoulders, so that she didn't do any more harm to her. No one said anything, the only sounds coming from the machines hooked up to Ruby and Weiss, and the sobs of Ruby crying into Yang's shoulder.
After a few moments, Ruby finally said something to Blake and Yang. "It's all my fault." The two of them were surprised to hear that from Ruby, they were expecting something different. "I shouldn't have gotten hurt, I shouldn't have needed to be rescued like that. Weiss nearly gave up her life for me because I failed to protect myself." Ruby said, guilt ridden all over her face.
Yang held her sister's arms gently. "Ruby look at me." Yang said to her, drawing Ruby's attention. "You did not fail at protecting yourself. The mission was fucked from the start and the fact that the two of you are both still alive is a miracle in of itself." Ruby stopped crying, only because of the strong words that her sister was saying. "More importantly, you would do the same thing for Weiss, even if she didn't need the help, much like even if you didn't need the help she would have done the same thing that she already did. So don't blame yourself for this, because no one is blaming you, and I'm going to include Weiss because I know that she wouldn't. She cares about you more than anything else and that's why she did what she did. Not because you needed the help, but because she cares enough about you to do that. Because you're the most important piece of her life." Yang said to Ruby.
Blake placed her hand along Ruby's back. "If you don't believe us, believe her, because when she wakes up, she'll tell you what Yang just said." Blake stated, her voice soft and comforting.
Ruby nodded, she felt tired and wanted to get some rest. "I'm sorry for being like this, I shouldn't be-"
"Stop, do not say that, do not pass go, do not collect 200 Lien." Yang interrupted Ruby. "You have full rights to be all emotional and sappy, especially since the woman you love is in a hospital bed right now. But do not think that for a second that you need to bottle this up for our sakes." She said, Ruby's eyes wide as she heard Yang try her hardest to cheer Ruby up. "We don't like sad Ruby, and emotionless Ruby is much worse, years of experience taught me that one. So just be yourself and show how much you care, because if you tell yourself to not cry, then you're just hurting your love for Weiss." Yang let her voice become softer and kinder. "Love like what you have is a wonderful thing, and it needs the kind of heart that you and Weiss give to each other to dwell. Don't stop being you because of things like integrity. Just be you." Yang stated.
Ruby nodded, then she went to lay back down on her bed to get some rest. "Thanks Yang, I really needed that." Ruby said softly.
"Of course you did, I'm your sister, I know what you need." Yang said back. She then leaned down and gave her sister a gentle hug. "And I know you need rest right now so we'll let you get that." Yang let go and allowed Blake to give her a hug as well. "We'll be back tomorrow after classes are over, hopefully you should be feeling a bit better by then. Love ya Ruby, see ya tomorrow." Yang said as she and Blake waved by to Ruby.
"See you guys tomorrow." Ruby responded, watching her sister and teammate leave the room to return to their house. Ruby gave one last look at Weiss, giving a smile to her. "And I'll see you in the morning, hopefully you'll be able to see me soon." She rested her head against the pillow, and closed her eyes, letting sleep take over. "Goodnight Weiss, I love you."
AN: So this was obviously one of the few chapters where the focus wasn't on Weiss, instead it focusing on Ruby and how she is reacting to Weiss being in the condition she is. I wanted to make this really full of feels, and so I hope I did a good job with that.
Now the next chapter is going to be a really special chapter, since it'll be chapter 50, and that's what I call an impressive amount of work for this story. That being said, it may take longer for the chapter to come out, however I do that because I want to make this as perfect as possible, hence why it may take longer because I really want to make this my best work.
You guys have gotten me up to almost 200 favorites, 267 follows (making it the 16th, almost 15th most followed RWBY story on this website) and I want to thank every single one of you guys for getting me this far. If you were to ask me if I was going to have a story that would do this well when I first came up with this idea, I would have laughed at you and called you a busta. Now that I'm here, I still can't believe it, but I feel truly honored that I made it this far with this story. So thank you to everyone who read this story from the beginning. I know it's been a hectic road, but I'm glad that we've come this far. And I can promise, after this next chapter, despite me taking a break from the story...
...the best is yet to come, and the White Rose will keep on growing.
So thank you for reading this story through to now, and I hope that you continue to read this as more comes out.
Yours truly
-Noble
