June 16th 1999 at a hospital in a nearby city

Ruby laid in a hospital bed waiting as today was the big day. Today was her Cochlear implant operation. Her family's insurance approved the bill and would cover 90% of it, She had sat through a couple sessions with the surgeon to make sure she understood what was going to happen during the operation.

Ruby understood that she wasn't going to wake up and have her ears suddenly work. This operation was going to implant the receivers for the hearing aids into her ears and run an electrode array through her head behind each ear that would bypass her ear canals entirely. She also knew it would take six weeks before she would be to try out an implant to see if any of this actually works..

But right now she knew that she was damn cold, and wearing only a paper thin hospital gown in a room full of grown men who was going to in an less than an hour knock her out to get working on her.

Her only company was her mother Summer who was writing on a notepad to talk with her. "Are you nervous?'

Ruby took the notepad and wrote in it as well "I won't lie, I kinda am."

"I had to have my knee operated on in high school, did I ever tell you I used to run track?" Summer wrote back.

Ruby wrote back "I don't think it came up."

Summer wrote "I wasn't really great at it to be honest, I never took a trophy home or won a race, but I enjoyed running." Summer paused as she tried to get the conversation back on track. "Well my running career ended early when I took a fall one day and tore the ligaments in my left knee."

Ruby thought about it for a second before she wrote out. "Were you nervous about the operation?"

Summer wrote out "Kinda, I mean I guess I just spent the entire time more worried I let the rest of the team down."

"That seems like a weird thing to worry about right before surgery." Ruby wrote out quickly in reply.

"I guess it kinda was, and honestly it's not like I didn't spent most of the time on the track team feeling like I was holding the team back in a way." Summer wrote down on the notepad.

"What did you end up doing after you were forced off the Track team?" Ruby asked actually now invested in this rare bonding moment with her mother.

"Well, I felt like shit for a few months, I was depressed that a part of my identity was taken from me. I imagine it's not too different than how Weiss was when she first put in that damnable chair of hers." Summer wrote out as she wore a look of contemplation on her face. "But I guess that was around the time I learned that I was pretty good at Chess, so I joined the Chess Club."

Ruby never could beat her mother at chess, it was a damnable experience she didn't care to relive. "I mean you said you felt like you were holding your team back, did they do better after you left the team?"

Ruby saw her mom shake in a way she could recognize as her chuckling and wondered what it sounded like. 'In a few weeks I guess I'll know for myself' she found herself thinking.

Once Summer stopped chuckling she wrote down "Actually they did a little bit worse after I left, I guess I spent all that time feeling like I was holding them back, but I was one of the better runners on the team."

Ruby clicked her tongue and wrote "I can't picture you as not being super confident."

"Well that's a story for another day sweetie, how are you feeling now?" Summer wrote.

"I guess I feel a lot less nervous now." Ruby wrote back.

Summer smiled and leaned over and kissed her daughter on the forehead and wrote. "My mom did the same for me when I had my knee operation, she sat the way we are now and she told me old stories to distract me from it." she looked up as an orderly stepped in. "Looks like they are about to roll you off here so I better go back out and reassure your goofy ass boyfriend that your going to be okay."

Ruby smiled and giggled a bit before she wrote. "Thanks mom, I know I don't say it often, but yeah, thanks."

Summer smiled and said out loud, "I'll be here when you wake up." Ruby watched as an admiringly handsome orderly clicked off the wheel brakes and started to roll her into the operating room.


It took a few minutes for Ruby to be rolled into the operating room. Ruby was them moved from the rolling hospital bed and laid down onto the operating bed and had a sheet put down behind her head. She looked around, the room had a sort of teal green paint on all the walls that almost matches the color of the scrubs the surgeon and the orderly were wearing. The doctor was speaking to her trying to tell her something. It seemed the surgeon forgot for a moment that she was actually deaf until she shook her head at him. One of the orderlies, not the cute one, but this one was not bad looking, stood near her and translated for the surgeon. [Apologies, the anesthesiologist is going to put you under in a few minutes, because the operation should take between two to four hours were going to put you out for about five hours, do you understand?]

Ruby simply nodded out in the affirmative. The orderly kept going. [Do you have any questions for any of us before we get going? If not I'm going to put the Oxygen mask on and were going to have you start counting to yourself backwards from ten.]

Ruby shook her head forward before the orderly said [Hey so they warned you they were going to have to cut your hair around your ears to work right? I'm a decent barber. If your okay with it I'll try to style it a bit so it doesn't look too bad okay?]

Ruby just smiled and nodded okay. Before the orderly lifted her head up so they could put the mask around her. She watched something get injected into her IV and she was asked to start counting.

She got to seven before she was out like a light…


Ren sat out in the hospital lobby watching his friend Jaune pace back and forth in a hospital lobby, He had decided to join long time friend while his girlfriend was having an operation done on her.

"Girlfriend" was still a weird word for Ren to describe the Long girl. For as long as he knew Jaune. Pyrrha was his one true love. Now it's almost a year after her death and Jaune is calling another girl by that title.

"You do know they said the odds of anything going seriously wrong are about ten thousand to one right?" Ren said with a yawn. "Did you remember your Game Boy? I wanted to get some Pokemon duels in."

Jaune just looked at Ren and sat down with a quick "yeah" before he pulled out his busted bulky first generation Game Boy and flicked it on, Ren meanwhile was already holding his transparent purple Game Boy color out of his bag. Both of them fired up their copies of Pokemon and started to set up for a duel.

"So, uh, my offer is still open. I'm just saying." Ren said as he waited for Jaune to pick his team.

Jaune sighed and signed out with one hand. [I know Ren, I'm just not sure I'm ready to go see her Urn.] before he went back to choosing his team.

"It might give you a bit of closure." Ren said as Jaune finally finished picking a team and they got to playing.

Jaune signed with one hand [I know, But I'm not ready yet.] Jaune then watched in dismay as his lead Pokemon got taken out in one hit. [Don't you normally play this with Nora, where is she today?]

Ren chuckled and said "She's off with… I think Yang? The Blonde one?"" Ren waited for Jaune to nod yes in confirmation "Anyways she said Yang was going to drag her around town to all the hangout spots."

[So the community center, and Ruby's living room? I mean I wasn't kidding when I said this town doesn't have much in the way of places kids our age can hang out.] Jaune signed out. He left out the place that Blake showed him as that was kinda well their occasional hangout.

"Well yeah, I guess there is the Library as well, but I kinda warned them about that." Ren said with a smile.

Jaune hand signed as his second Pokemon went down. [She does not handle quiet places well at all]

"No she does not, I keep asking Sam to look into her getting checked for ADD, but I don't think that's going to happen," Ren said as he was looking at Jaune. He did notice that Jaune, in the week and change they had been back in each other's lives has changed in many ways.

Ren recalled that a few days ago he sat down with Blake to get to know her and they talked, Jaune came up as Blake wanted to hear some stories about their friend from back where he came from. Jaune told her the story that Pyrrha shared about the time they met, how Jaune picked a fight on the second day of school to take out a bully for a girl he just met, and how he did it with a smile on his face the whole time.

All Blake could say at the time was "I can't picture him smiling that much, it just seems unnatural for him."

Jaune exhaled and leaned back in his seat as the last of his Pokemon fainted in battle [Dude why are we playing this? I know you have Tetris in there.]

"Because you'd destroy me in that game, and I always lose to Nora at Pokemon." Ren chuckled out.

[Your playing me because I'm an easy win?] Jaune said looking put off.

"Hey it's passing the time right?" Ren said as he saw Summer Rose enter the room.

[How was she looking?] Jaune signed to which Ren interpreted.

"She's was a little nervous, but she'll be out cold by now till later this evening, do you boys want me to take you somewhere to eat while she's in there?"

Ren asked "Is she going to be okay if we go out?"

Summer held out her Nokia 3210 Cellphone "I've had one of these for a couple months now for emergency use only, if we need to rush back they'll call us."

Ren and Jaune looked at each other and shrugged Ren spoke for the pair "Well I guess I'm hungry and I'm not going to say not."

The three then stood up and followed Summer out for a quick lunch before coming back.


Almost five hours later, a very groggy Ruby started to wake up, her ears hurt quite a bit and her stomach felt like it wanted to kick out what was inside of it despite the fact that Ruby had not eaten anything since the night before. As she groggily looked around the room she saw Jaune playing on his Game Boy and her mother sleeping in a chair nearby.

Jaune had noticed her first and reached over to tug on Summer's shoulder. Summer then woke up and said something to Jaune that Ruby didn't quite make out. Jaune signed to Ruby [My dear sister, your mother and I were most worried about you!]

[Very funny Jaune] Ruby groggily and lazily signed out before she reached up to run her hand through her hair only to catch air.

'What the hell?' Ruby thought to herself before she signed out to Jaune [Hey let me see a mirror]

Summer winced as she handed her daughter a make up mirror so she can see the damage done. Ruby took a look in the mirror and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. Her hair was buzz cut artfully around the sides, but her bob was gone, her hair was now cut to being only an inch and a half on the top. She turned and looked at Jaune and lazily signed [I kinda look like a dyke.]

[Eh, it's just different, your still pretty.] Jaune signed with a smile.

[Your hair is longer than mine] she signed as she pointed out that Jaune's barely maintained mop of hair was in fact longer.

[Well I can go get my hair cut as well, I'm long overdue for one] Jaune signed back as he would stop to write down what he and ruby were saying for Summer's benefit.

"You look fine dear, it'll grow back out a bit before school starts I'm sure." Summer said nonchalantly to not distress her daughter any more than she was starting to look. Jaune translated for her.

[I guess so, I mean It's not that bad at least.] Ruby signed back. [Mom did they say if I'm going home tonight, I kinda want to curl up into a ball and die, and my bed with be more comfortable to do so in.]

Jaune wrote it down for summer and signed back to Ruby as she spoke "No, they had been in and out and said as long as your not feeling any numbness in your face or any signs of facial nerve damage you should go home tonight."

[I feel like crap Jaune, I hope this pays off] She signed to him.

Jaune smiled and ran a hand through her short hair and signing with one hand. [It will, by this time next month you might damn well be hearing for the first time.]

Ruby smiled as her eyes felt heavy. [Yeah, that would be great.]

[Do you need to sleep some more?] Jaune signed out with a smile

[I might… does my hair really look okay, one of the orderlies said he'd try go fix it up, but I'm not sure.] Ruby signed as she yawned.

[Get some rest, you clearly need it okay?] Jaune signed with a smile.

[Your not going anywhere?] Ruby asked

[Your mom is my ride home. Your dad drove Ren home an hour ago.] He signed and smiled.

Ruby was too tired to respond, she just smiled and nodded her head as her eyes drifted closed.

Neither paid Summer much mind as she watched the pair. 'I have to admit it, I may not like the kid because of his baggage, but he's damn good to my daughter'

Summer slipped out the room with a smirk on her face.


Well everyone here we are, the start of Ruby's implant story line. For the Sake of realism, don't expect the next chapter to be her getting the rest of her cochlear implant set up as it does in the real world take about four to six weeks to recover from the operation. As you can imagine this chapter took a staggering amount of research into it, mainly around the operation itself and the timeline one takes from operation to have their implants activated. Even to later parts revolving around the calibration and eventual activation of the external parts of the implants.

I also read an article about how cochlear implants do come with some controversy, as many in the Deaf Community believe that said implants are damaging to Deaf culture. I'm not going to go super deep into it here, but the long and the short if it, while their are many who like Ruby in the story wants to be rid of this disability, others don't see as such and see it as part of their identify. These people also believe that the use of Cochlear implants may even erase American Sign language outright.

Learning about this while researching this part of the story, well it made me feel the need to acknowledge the controversy. Even if it doesn't come up during the story itself. Time Magazine has an article online called "Science gave my son the gift of sound." Which touches on the topic far better than I can, and it's a worthwhile read.

Other than that, nothing in the comments really needed me to address here, except to say there is a chapter coming up involving Jaune and Pyrrha's Urn, so look forward to it. but other than that, Thanks again for reading.