A/N: Thankyou to the lovely Ms Fi and Dani for their reviews - you ladies are the best. Ok - now for the update!

".. It's me again. Look Rubes – you're right not to want to talk to me. I've been a bastard and I probably always will be." There was a silence. "You've got a beautiful smile, Ruby. Please don't stop showing it because of me. I'm truly sorry… I hope one day you'll find it in your heart to forgive me." Click.

Ruby stood with her arms wrapped around herself, staring at the answering machine. That was the fourth message on the tape – and the tape was full. She had replaced it that morning before she'd gone to work and so far each message had been from Leon. As the next one started she found herself picking up the machine and sitting it on the floor, then went to get a cushion to sit on so she could listen.

Throwing down the large euro pillow, she ran into the kitchen and retrieved the litre tub of ice cream and a spoon then went back into the living room and sat on the cushion. She tugged the blanket down off the back of the couch and draped it over her lap. It still smelled of Leon from three days earlier when she took him to the hospital.

Since then she hadn't spoken to him. It was different this time from the last – they hadn't spoken for almost two weeks then because Leon thought she wouldn't want to see him. This time though she really didn't and he'd been calling off and on all day, every day. His messages ranged from pleading and apologetic to pathetic and even sometimes inane. He was trying – desperately so – to get her to speak to him.

Ruby looked at the bunch of gerberas that lay on the table by the telephone. They'd come for her today at work and all the girls at the Spa had 'ooh'-ed and 'ah'-ed at the colourful flowers. The note with them had been simple. 'I'm sorry' was all it had said. The pink, orange, red and yellow flowers glared back at her brightly.

"You're a jerk, Leon Orello." She said to herself, looking at the flowers and tearing up. To say that she had been shocked was an understatement – more like extremely close to falling down. She'd told him a couple of weeks earlier that she loved those particular flowers – that she'd never been sent flowers before – but he hadn't been listening. At least she thought he hadn't been. When they had arrived she had been with a customer and much to her horror, she had been unable to stop the tears from coming.

She dug out another spoon full of the boysenberry swirl ice cream and stuck it in her mouth just as the next message started. The line was quiet for a moment then she heard a sigh.

"I'm starting to think you're avoiding my calls," Leon said softly, "-just a feeling I'm getting. It's overcast out and Cade's throwing paint all over Bethany. I taught him how to finger paint this morning." She could hear the soft quality in his voice when he spoke of Cade. "It's his birthday on Sunday. I just thought you should know."

The line went dead and Ruby felt her chest tightening. He sounded so resigned to the fact that he knew he would get her machine instead of her directly. He had come around the day before and left an envelope under the door filled with pictures. In pencil on the back of each was a brief explanation of who was in each.

She reached up and grabbed the envelope in her hands, her ice cream forgotten on the floor and took the bundle of pictures out. The first was a man – a big scruffy man – snarling at the camera at the same time as someone was tattooing his left arm. He was big, dirty, mean looking and his face was oh so familiar. Turning the picture over she was shocked to read 'Vince – aged 20. Three years older than me. Pre domesticated.' She turned it back over and smirked at the picture. She thought he'd sounded big.

The next had Vince in it too, along with a small blonde woman and a beautiful little girl with dark ringlets and dimples. The little girl clung to Vince's neck like only daddy's little girl could. 'Vince – 29, Tala – 28, and Rory – 2. 10mths . Taken just before I left LA.' She read. They were a beautiful family. She could see just how much they adored each other from the way Vince held Tala to his side and Rory to his chest like he'd never let them go – like they were his lifeline.

Ruby sniffled, setting the picture aside to look at the next. It was a lanky blonde covered in grease wearing a sweat stained shirt with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, wiping his hands on a dirty rag. He was squinting at the camera, as if confused by it and she could see Leon leaning over a car in the background, a wide smile on his face. He looked so young, so free. Turning the picture over Ruby's suspicions about the blonde's identity were confirmed. 'Jesse – aged 19. Aka "The Mad Scientist" or "Einstein".' She looked at the black and white print and ran her fingers over it.

"Miss you, Jess." She whispered to the room before putting the picture down. She would have to get a copy of that one.

Ruby jumped as the phone rang just beside her head and she looked down at the machine as it clicked and whirred to life. She heard her own voice first telling whoever it was to leave a message then the beep. Silence. She could hear breathing and the finally a quiet murmur caught her ear.

"I miss you."

Those three little words were all it took. She burst into tears and gathered the photos up, put them back in the envelope and set it beside the phone. She barely even remembered to put the ice cream back in the freezer before she made her way into her room and crawled into bed. It was only seven in the evening but she felt exhausted. Her entire life had been an emotional roller coaster lately. She never thought having friends could be so difficult, then again, this was Leon. He was quiet, somber, moody – then in the next breath he could be sarcastic, witty and warm. She trusted him with her life, her safety… but he was doing her head in. Despite it all – she missed him. She missed Cade and it had only been four days since she'd seen him, three since she'd left Leon screaming in the examination room of the local hospital.

Ruby felt horrible for doing that to him. He had been so scared and she'd merely ignored his cries and kept walking. She knew that he had been a wreck the next day – that he didn't remember any of the night before so he didn't remember her leaving him, but she knew. She still knew how she had left him all alone and in pain. She was so tempted to just pick up the phone every time he called and tell him how sorry she was for doing that to him, for leaving him there like that. He wouldn't remember though – Angie had run into her at the Spa when she took Bethany in for a treatment and had told her all about his reaction the next day.

He had been sick as a dog – from both the alcohol and the pain in his wrist. He was a beer drinker, never touched anything harder so the fact that he'd knocked back almost an entire bottle of Absinthe didn't sit well in his stomach. He'd been a miserable bastard the whole day – only added to by the fact that he was sporting a hot pink cast on his arm and would be for the next six to eight weeks. He'd not remembered anything of the night before – the call to Tala, the trip to the hospital, the argument whilst there – none of it. He'd simply woken up with a killer hangover, a sore wrist and a cast on his arm. An in your face hot pink cast. He only knew that Ruby refused to even speak to him because Angie had told him so.

She had cried almost the whole way home that night, nothing Angie could say or do comforting her in the least. Ruby adored Leon, she really did and she thought of him as one of her dearest friends, but again – he had so much baggage that it was a struggle to actually find him in all of it. He hid himself away in all of it just hoping nobody would get close enough to make him care again. He was never overly mean to her when he would snap, he would just say stupid things that cut deeper than expected. He honestly never meant to do it – but he kept doing so.

Ruby pushed the blankets off her legs and climbed out of bed, padding down the hall to turn on her stereo. She couldn't stand silence – mistrusted it. After growing up in a house full of children, some loud, some quiet, she had grown too used to there being noise of some sort around her at all times. That was why she loved having Cade over. He was always into something and making a racket. She had just put her hand on the dial to switch the radio on when the phone rung shrilly beside her. She stared at it for a moment then warily, she picked it up.

"Hello?"

There was a quiet silence. ".. Rubes?"

A lump started to form in her throat and she sat on the arm of the couch. "Hi, Leon." She said softly, not sounding like herself at all. She felt a right mess. They were both silent for a minute or two.

"Can I come and see you?"

She blinked back tears and bit her lip. "I don't think that's a very good idea. Now if that's all you wanted I was just off to bed." She forced herself to refuse him. She knew that if he showed up there would be more tears and they would quite possibly end up in bed, solving nothing.

Leon sighed. "I really fucked up, didn't I?"

"I was trying to help you Leon! I got a call from Vince and the poor bastard was frantic because you'd hurt yourself and you were drunk and alone on a beach somewhere! I came to help you and you yelled at me again, Leon! I don't care how you treated your family back in LA but I will not be treated like scum on the bottom of a shoe!"

She could feel her heart racing, her anger swelling to the surface again as she thought about his attitude.

Leon sounded confused. "How did Vince get your number?"

"You called Tala, Leon. You were drunk and upset, and you called her. She got my number from you and Vince called me while she kept you on the line to make sure you didn't do anything stupid before I got to you! You're a bastard, Leon! A bastard! You've scared all of us so much and all you can think about is yourself! I'm going to bed, Le – Goodnight." She slammed the phone down and shook her head, trying to calm herself. She'd just abused him yet again. She buried her face in her hands and just sat there for a moment.

"Screw this – I don't need this shit." She reached down and twisted the phone cord in her hand and tugged it loose from the wall, then dropped it on the floor. There… Now he can't call.

Crawling back into bed she tugged the blankets up over her shoulders and hugged her pillow. It smelled faintly of Leon's cologne. The tears started to drip from her eyes and soaked into the pillow and for a moment – just a moment – Ruby allowed herself to fall apart.