February 10th 1999...
As Jaune and Mina pulled up to their home after a couple hours of shopping, Jaune found his eyes fixed on the porch.
"So, this shit again?" Jaune thought as he looked at the porch and saw the once familiar sight of Pyrrha's apparition waiting for him on the porch. It was all he could do to watch the hallucination sitting on the porch with her arms wrapped around her knees.
From Mina's perspective it just looked like Jaune was sitting there staring at the porch with his eyes slightly glassed over. She quickly reached out and nudged him with her hand "Jaune, you still with me over there?"
Jaune blinked and looked at his mother signing [Yeah?]
"You going to get out and let her in?" Mina said nodding at the porch as she spoke
[What?] Jaune signed with a shocked and surprised look on his face as he looked at the porch.
Pyrrha has been replaced on the porch with Ruby sitting in the exact same position...
"Yeah, I know we both have seen that before..." Mina said with a sigh, "Go let Ruby in and I'll call up Tai and let him know his kid is at our place."
Jaune hopped out of the car still shaking off the mental cobwebs from the what he just saw and walked over to the front door stopping in front of Ruby and kneeling down in front of her. He waited there for a few moments until she looked up and saw him.
[You good?] Jaune asked her followed shortly by him rubbing his hands together.
Ruby shook her head "no" before she signed [I got in it pretty bad with my mom tonight... I was researching the idea of getting cochlear implants when she started talking to me... fucking bitch.]
Jaune helped her to her feet and unlocked the door to let her in. Ruby quietly went inside and went towards Jaune's bed room. As he walked past the living room he had just happened to glance over at it and saw Pyrrha sitting there again.
"Your making a mistake." The hallucination said to him before he shook it of. and followed Ruby towards his room.
By the time he got there she was already sitting on his bed. Jaune went and sat down next to her on the bed and looked at her waiting to see what she did. Ruby just looked at her knees with a look of defeat before she finally worked up the nerve to speak up [I really told her off. just let it all out. Every bottled up emotion, every single thing she does that pisses me off] Ruby turned to look at him with tears in her eyes. she took the conscious effort to wipe the tears out of her eyes [She didn't understand a single word of it. She just kept screaming for me to use the note pad.]
Jaune blew out a silent "oof" before he started to sign [Jesus Christ, Sign language lessons are not that damn expensive. Your dad found the fucking time for them, and he works full time.]
[Well that would require to do something for someone else.] Ruby signed in a quiet fury. Before she rested her head on his shoulder. [What the hell am I going to do about her.]
[You'll figure something out.] Jaune signed back with one hand as he quietly rubbed her back.
Ruby softly purred at his touch. [Sometimes I just wonder if it would have been better if I was never born.] She signed out as she sighed out.
Jaune went from a gentle back rub to a light dope slap in the back of her head in about half a second before he went back to rubbing her back. When she looked up at him with a dirty look he signed out [Don't talk like that, all you not being here would change is that your dad might not have married your mom after the divorce that would have still happened.]
Ruby looked hurt for a second but signed out loudly and signed [I guess you're not wrong.] she wrapped her arms around Jaune pulling him into a cuddle [I'm glad you're here you know.. I'm not sure what i'd do if I never met you sometimes.]
Jaune was about to say something when he heard a giggle off to the side, while Ruby rested comfortably against his chest he looked up and saw Pyrrha's hallucination in front of him again bathed in a white glow
"That's a wonderful question. Did I used to ask that question as well Jaune?" Pyrrha asked with a sarcastic tone as she walked around his room stopping in front of a shelf that had a single medication bottle on it. "Fluoxetine, also known as Prozac" the hallucination giggled "Oh but come now that's treating the wrong symptom, happy pills won't make me go away."
Jaune's breathing must of become more intense because he felt Ruby's arms tighten around him. "Oh yes, I'm sure my replacement is going to help you forget me is that it?" Pyrrha got close to his face. "But what are you going to do when you fuck this up and kill her too!" Pyrrha backed up for a second and the light that surrounded faded leaving a broken and bloody covered mess that raced into his terrified face.
"MaYbE ThAt LiTtLe BiTch wIlL lEaVe a CoRpsE As PrEtTy aS MinE!" The hallucination of Pyrrha screamed into his face. Jaune's entire body froze in pace as he stared at it in horror.
It wasn't until he felt a tapping on his back did he snap-back to reality. It seemed the hallucination was gone for now. He looked down at Ruby with a slight shake. [Your shaking, are you okay?] Ruby signed out.
Jaune clinched and un-clinched his hands in a way that Ms Fall taught him a few times. Once Jaune was back in control again he shook his head and signed out [Yeah I'm good, don't worry okay?]
Ruby shook her head, remembering her mother's words "A broken mess" before she signed out [Don't lie to me, you took your medication today right?]
Jaune rubbed his neck and signed [My first dose yeah, but i'm a bit overdue for my second pill]
Ruby looked at him flabbergasted and signed [Holy crap, dude get up and take your second pill now!] Once she was done she practically pushed him off the bed towards the shelf where the pill bottle was.
Jaune quickly took a pill swallowing it dry and sitting back down next to Ruby signing [Happy?]
Ruby just smiled a bit [Well about you yes, the rest of my life can still go to hell and back.]
Jaune walked over and cupped Ruby's cheek with his hand with a smile signing out [We'll make it right, we'll find a way to make it better.]
Jaune then heard a shout from across the house he turned to face it. "Jaune, I had a pizza delivered, you both might as well come out and eat"
Ruby tilted her head as Jaune looked back at Jaune. Jaune signed out to Ruby [Mom got foot, let's go eat okay?]
Ruby smiled as her stomach growled [Yeah okay, I kinda didn't eat before I ran out of the house.]
Ruby went out first, but one she was out of the room he grabbed his shirt just over his heart and let out the pent of feelings of terror he felt just now out as he shook against the door frame for a moment.
Later on after Tai had collected Ruby, she found herself laying down in her room while Tai and Summer talked in the living room about Ruby's outburst that day.
"God dammit Tai... She didn't have any right lashing out like that!" Summer shouted knowing that she wouldn't exactly wake Ruby up.
"Well show my some of the hand signs she made to you so I can maybe tell you what some of them meant?" Tai asked trying to maintain a reasonable tone.
Tai honest to god tried not to crack up at his wife as she stumbled through several signs. "Okay, so that's not telling me a whole lot, but I can see that some of the words I could make out were clearly frustrated sounding."
"I'm pretty damn frustrated with her as well Tai, she shouldn't be lashing out at me like this, all I wanted her to do was use the notepad!" Summer said in reply.
Tai thought about it a few moments of silence later he spoke up. "You think it's that simple? that maybe she's pissed that you can't sign?"
Summer spoke up "You tell me, she's always been daddy's little girl."
Tai shrugged clearly way too tired to this shit saying"Only because 'Daddy' can actually carry a conversation with her." Tai leaned forward and got a serious looking tone "Look, I think it's well past due that we got you signing with her, she's only going to start resenting you."
"That's what the note pad was for..." Summer said
"The notepad was fine when she was seven and the idea of writing was new and exciting for her, now it's going to come as you being lazy and uncaring." Tai stated kinda bluntly.
"I do care about her Tai, she's my daughter!" Summer shouted out loud.
"Then we either do that, enroll your in sign language classes... Or we start having serious talks about getting implants in Ruby's ears..." Tai said.
"That's not realistic Tai..." Summer said leaning forward.
"It is if we cancel that vacation in New York we had planed in a couple years." Tai said. "Besides New York sucks most times of the year, let alone the fall."
Summer leaned forward "I'm not sure Tai..."
Tai smiled and rubbed his wives back "It would go a long way to mending that bridge between you and Ruby." Tai chucked "Besides it's not like the towers are going anywhere right?"
Summer laughed. "Yeah I guess so. so what if we have to wait a couple more years..."
"We'll sit her down this weekend and maybe we can put this down for the summer?" Tai smiled. Well if the hearing specialist thinks the'll work for her that is.
Summer smiled "Yeah sure, I mean it would make it easier for us to talk if she could... you know.. talk?"
Tai hugged his wife "Great, I'm going to hit the showers and then I think I'll make a McDonalds run for dinner." Tai said as he left the room..
Summer grimace and shook her head thinking "she's daddy's little princess alright..."
So this chapter is a bit shorter than most. I needed a chapter to tie off the lose ends of the last chapter and, as always set up future events. I didn't have a whole mess of stuff to say this chapter, So I'll see you all next time.
