A/N: New chapter for all of you - Thankyou to all who reviewed the last chapter. You people rock.

Almost two weeks had passed since he had been back to Ruby's after running out of there like a scared dog after he realised what he'd done. He felt ill all the time, guilt gnawing at him, chewing a hole in him. For that short time he was with Ruby it all went away – the hurt, the fear, the pain – then afterwards it had all rushed back. He had betrayed Letty by sleeping with his friend – the only friend he had left. He hung his head sadly at his next thought. He had used Ruby. Despite her continual assurances that he'd done nothing wrong, Leon still felt as though he'd used her. He'd felt like the scum of the earth even before he saw the blood. Ruby had been a virgin and he took that from her just to make himself feel better for a little while. The one thing that was hers to give to the man she loved and he took it just because he could. She hadn't said anything to him – hadn't really gotten the chance before he'd started rambling and apologising profusely before taking off, leaving her holding the sheet over her and no doubt, humiliated.

He could hear footsteps coming up behind him and he glanced back. He swore aloud when his hand slipped and jammed itself against the blades of the fan, the wrench he'd been using clattering down to the ground beneath the car. It landed with a heavy thump against the driveway.

Leon shook his hand then turned to his visitor, albeit nervously.

Ruby stood in front of him, her vibrant red hair hanging in twin pig tails either side of her head. A flower chain rested on the crown of her head and she wore a black peasant skirt with a white tank and a dark green velvet bolero jacket. Leon looked at his feet ashamed when she glared at him.

"You've been avoiding me." She stated simply, her head cocked to the side.

Leon's fingers twitched, eager to be doing something. "I didn't think you'd want to see me." He replied lamely, picking at the scraped skin on the back of his hand. He looked up – shocked, when he heard her laughter.

She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Of course I wanted to see you – you're my friend, Le. I've missed you."

He swallowed. "I'm so sorry." He apologised once more.

Ruby's hand connected with the side of his head, knocking him off balance.

"If you apologise for something I wanted to do for you one more time, I'm not giving you the cake I brought for you that's in my bag."

Warily, Leon looked at her. "You wanted to do for me?" he picked up a rag and wiped his hands, focusing on getting the grease out from underneath his nails.

Ruby's ringed fingers plucked the rag off him and she went to work getting the grease off.

"Yep – I wanted to do that for you. Sure as hell beat sleeping." She quipped, giggling at Leon's blush. "Look, sweetie.. You were in a lot of pain and it was frustrating to see you like that – I just wanted to help you."

He looked at their hands, hers pale and elegant, his dirty and rough from work. "You're not mad at me for…" he cleared his throat, "For-"

Ruby quirked a brow at him. "The only thing I'm mad at you for is not coming to visit. We're still friends, Leon. You didn't have to stay away just because we had sex."

Leon blew out a deep sigh. "You're sure you're alright? You're not mad at me?"

"If I was mad at you would I have bought you mud cake?" she grinned at his interested look. "Is Cade here?"

He nodded, eyes trained on her hands reaching into her bag and producing two white paper bags. Without even looking away from them;

"CADE! RUBY'S HERE!"

Ruby smothered her laughter as he snatched the larger one of them off her and peeked inside, instantly reaching in and producing a hefty slab of the decadent cake. He took a huge bite, then, only then did he lean forward to kiss her cheek. He said something that vaguely resembled thankyou and kept stuffing his face.

Shaking her head at him, Ruby turned when she heard the excited yelling of Cade getting closer. She lifted her bag over her head and dumped it on the ground, carefully placing the white paper bag on top of it only seconds before Cade launched himself at her.

Leon watched as Ruby fell to the grass beside the driveway, her skirt riding up to rest just above her knees and her feet kicking in the air, Cade sitting on her belly. She squealed with laughter as the little boy enthusiastically dotted kisses all over her face.

"Missed you, Miss Ruby." He kept saying between the kisses and enthused hugs. He stopped and beamed down at her. "Daddy helpeded me paint picture."

She gasped, sitting up and cradling him in her lap. "He did! I bet it's really pretty." She commented as she bounced the giggling little boy, tickling him.

Leon swallowed the mouth full of chocolate cake he had, "He forgets to mention it's for you."

Ruby looked from Leon to Cade. "You painted me a picture?" her eyes sparkled. "Well then – I suppose I should give you this." Reaching across she snagged the paper bag sitting on top of her messenger bag and handed it to the curious little boy.

Leon strolled over and dropped down onto the grass near them. "Life lesson, Cade," the little boy looked at him with big wide eyes, "- when presented with a little paper bag that has a little picture on it," he pointed, "-kiss whoever gave it to you. It's usually cake."

Cade's eyes got wider. "Cake?" he looked at Ruby, "Cake?"

She nodded. "Now I knew you're not supposed to have chocolate, so I got you caramel mud cake instead." She looked at Leon. "Is that alright, precious?"

Leon looked touched that she'd considered his son's allergy. If Cade ate anything chocolate he would be up the rest of the night vomiting and become fevered. There would be lots of tears and a lot less sleep.

"Yeah – yeah that's fine." He watched in comfortable silence as Ruby helped Cade rip the bag open and broke up the chunk of caramel cake for him. After sitting him on the grass so he was free to make a mess, she looked up and saw him watching.

"You ok, Le?"

He nodded. "Are we ok?"

Ruby rolled her eyes and waved him off. "Course we are – stress less." She glanced at the car still sitting with the hood up, "Go and work so Cade and I can heckle."

He tore a chunk of grass from the lawn and threw it at her, standing up to move back to the car when someone pulled up in the drive. He squinted in the sunlight, his head rolling back slightly when he realised who it was.

"Fucking car load of them.." he muttered, brushing his hands on the dirty thighs of his navy, grease stained old coveralls. He suddenly wished he was wearing his shirt instead of using it as a rag to wipe his hands on.

Ruby looked from him to the car load of teenagers that just arrived. "Do I need to guess?"

He looked down at her, shaking his head. "You remember the rant – you don't need to guess."

Cade sat on the grass eating, oblivious to his father's sudden turning mood.

Ruby tugged off her sandals and rose to her feet, walking over to stand by Leon. She looked under the hood of the car with her hands behind her back.

"Just as I suspected," she murmured ruefully, "-very dirty under there."

Leon snorted, leaning back over the engine. "Since when have you cared about dirty?"

"Dirty is good." She retorted with a sly grin, bumping his hip with hers.

Leon flushed and shook his head, trying his best to ignore her. "Stop that."

Ruby rocked on her heels, grinning. "So which one is the one who tried to grab the mighty sword of justice?"

Leon's profanity was accompanied by a metal clanging as he dropped the wrench yet again and he turned to look at her wide eyed. "You don't want me to finish this do you?"

Taking the hint she spun on her heel and on the balls of her toes so she didn't burn her poor feet any more, ran back over to sit by Cade on the lawn. He looked up at her, his mouth smeared with the frosting from his treat.

"Picture now?"

Ruby grinned, excited at the prospect of getting the painting. "For sure! Let's go clean you up."

Leon watched them go out of the corner of his eye and slumped, leaning over beneath the hood of the car. Relief that he hadn't destroyed the only friendship he had to his name at the moment filled him. The guilt remained. He'd still betrayed Letty and he'd still used Ruby. Even if it was alright for a little while – it was far from ok.