Ram stood pretending to gaze out to sea, his mind drifted, his face softening as he thought of her, Ruby.
Ruby who was as strong as she was beautiful. Ruby, the slip of a girl who ran a whole town, she represents everything good, just and beautiful.
Ruby who could strike fear into the hearts of the hardest of Liberties losers, rebels, waifs and strays when she wielded her baseball bat.
Ruby: Which one of you clowns wants there teeth knocked out first?
Ruby who took care of people, Slade, Me, Siva, Lottie and even Lex.
She saw through us all, when I deliberately lost a hand of cards she new I held four kings.
I remember her face as I took my first step without the crutches after beating Lex at arm wrestling.
I hated lying to her telling her Slade was dying but that was the way things had to be…
I remember how she leapt to my defence, how she bathed my wounds.
Ruby: Why do you think those three wasters jumped you? You want to know something Ram? They heard whispers about you, the kind of guy you are and the things you've done. They don't even know you and they hate you. Doesn't that tell you something?
It was then that I realised Paradise was a mistake, that maybe I could build myself a new life, a new life in the 'real' world.
But she only noticed Slade, his obsession with Ebony hurt her so badly, his thoughtlessness and his apparent blindness to the goddess before him crushed her heart as he turned to the devil that is Ebony.
Yet she and Lottie followed me to the city, my ready made family, to fight alongside the Mall Rats, to fight for what was just and right and good.
Watching her now slumped semi-conscious on the floor of the boat, I can feel my heartbreaking as surely as if I had been me driving the truck that had hit her….