01/15/1999...

Ruby Long woke up from a pleasant dream she really didn't want to wake up from, the buzzing of her watch on her arm told her it was time to get up. As she reached over to grab her hearing implants her hand hit open air and felt nothing on her night stand.

Because she didn't have implants… she never had the operation. As she shook off the sleep she realized a great many things, her hair was shoulder length. She was Freezing her ass off in the cold air of the room.

She realized as she sat up and realized it was January, not July…

And one month ago, she watched Jaune Arc die on the floor of his Kitchen…

She remembered it like it was yesterday. She remembered walking into Jaune's kitchen with his backpack in hand just to see Jaune laying on the floor of his kitchen with a long knife sticking out of his chest. She froze in place as Jaune, already too far gone to save looked over at her as the last bits of life slipped out of him as the light went from his eyes.

Then she remembered seeing his mother and Mr Ozpin walk in and freeze up. She couldn't hear it, but she could almost imagine the screams that came out of Ms Arc as she fell to her knees next to where her son's body slumped over against the cabinets.

Ruby fought and failed to stop the fresh wave of tears as she started crying immediately afterwards. She must of been louder than she realized as she felt strong arms wrap around her as her father pulled her into a tight hug. Quickly followed by her mother…


[Yeah, it's a shame… but it sounds like Ms Arc and Mr Ozpin broke up.] Yang signed as she spoke out to Blake and Weiss. No one at the morning table was smiling and everyone had an look of despair on their faces [I mean, it sounds like she quickly accepted a transfer to another position in her company… but to lose her Husband and son…. Damn.]

Ruby felt horrid, she still fixated on the what if's. What if she was only maybe a minute earlier to stop him, what would have changed… She wanted to break down again, wanted to cry again. The medication she was on strongly blunted her emotions for her own good and was the only thing keeping her functional at the moment..

[I have an appointment after class today with Ms Fall.] Ruby signed out.

Yang translated for Weiss "Are you doing okay? Is Ms Fall helping out at all Ruby?"

Ruby just shrugged and signed which Yang helpfully translated [I mean I guess, I don't know at all.]

Yang muttered something to the others that Ruby only partially caught through lip reading "I honestly wish she never met that son of a bitch…"

The table degraded into a quick argument that she couldn't follow…. Eventually everyone went their own different ways.


Later on after a conversation with Ms Fall found herself walking home, she was supposed to go home with Yang. But after she learned that Yang broke up with Neptune to spend more time with her. Ruby didn't want to be around her.

"It's bullshit really, why should she have to put her life on hold because my crush… because…." Ruby couldn't finish the thought as she dropped to her knees sobbing in the middle of the walk home.

She became aimless as she walked and feeling sorry for herself… "None of this feels right, We were supposed to be talking about Mina's wedding. Jaune was going to be an older brother. We were going to have our first kiss, be a couple. We were supposed to help Weiss with walking ..."

Ruby stopped and gripped her head as it screamed at her. "This is all wrong!" before she managed to regain enough control over her thoughts to realize where she walked to. A sad looking empty house.

Ruby's walk led her to the former Arc residence. Feeling drained, Ruby just walked over and sat down on the front steps to the empty house and found herself crying on the steps as her medication was wearing out.

"Now ain't that a sight for sore eyes…." A voice rang out in her ears. Ruby looked as she felt her vision become fuzzy and saw the sight of Jaune standing before her. "Don't tell me your beating yourself down over me again…"

"It's your own fault I'm like this…" Ruby said out loud to Jaune. "You just had to go and leave me."

"Please, did you really think you could fix me? I was one foot in the grave when you met me." Jaune scoffed as he said to her. "Now look at yourself, your on anti-psychotic medication to keep… well… Me at bay, Your sister has torpedoed her own love life over you."

"I couldn't stop her from doing that anymore than I could stop you!" Ruby shouted at the Hallucination of Jaune. "My dream last night… God I would have wished for it to be real… Your mother getting married, Weiss walking, Being able to hear…"

"Ruby by the time you got there, the knife was sticking out of me, you heard what they said, it damn near cut my heart in half, I was technically dead by the time you found me." Jaune said to Ruby as he scoffed. "Or what, you kicking yourself for not seeing the warning signs?"

"I was so blinded in my stupid crush, I didn't even really see it, I mean he poured his heart out to me so many times and I couldn't even do anything about it!" Ruby screamed as she folded her arms around self clawing at her own arms.

"You need to stop, the real me wouldn't want you like this!" Jaune shouted to Ruby. "Do you want them to have to put you in an asylum?"

Ruby looked up and let go of her arms, she still looked down at her fingers and saw blood on them "No… I don't… I don't want to end up locked up for my own good."

Ruby looked up and Jaune was gone, her vision was clear again, and she saw her father walking up in full uniform with Neo, Jaune's former neighbor talking to him. Her father thanked her with a hug and took a knee in front of her signing [Hey kiddo, what are you doing here?]

Ruby wiped her hands off on her pants as her father checked the scratches on her arms. She then signed out as she cried her eyes out [I guess I got lost on the way…]

[Alright, let's get you home okay?] Her father said as he helped her up and walked her to the car.


04/15/1999…

Jaune died four months ago to the day, Ruby's long frazzled hair was getting in her way as she tried to brush it out of her face. She couldn't remember the last time she bothered sitting with Blake and Weiss who eventually stopped coming around. It was just her and Yang once again and even then that was not as consistent as it once had been.

Ruby had been difficult, for her sister to deal with the last few months. I mean she wanted her sister happy, and maybe for her get back with Neptune.

It didn't pan out, Neptune moved on to another girl, and Yang eventually went on a couple dates with Cardin Winchester…

"That bitch, she knew I had seen him first." Ruby thought with a chuckle as she sat outside of the principal's office. Once the privately hired sign language interpreter arrived she was called into his office.

When she sat down in front of Mr Ozpin, the first thing to catch her was the cold gaze that fell on her. Mr Ozpin had been one of the "Cool teachers" she was told. But the last few months had more or less hardened the once kind man.

Mr Ozpin spoke through the interpreter "I can imagine you know why your here today right?"

Ruby leaned back in her seat dismissively and signed [I don't know, you tell me.]

Ozpin grimaced in agitation "I'll be blunt, in the last four months your grades have plummeted, all of your teachers have expressed concerns about your behavior and now I get word that you got in a fight with another student in the halls. Ms Long I know you took the death of the young Mr Arc personally. But as it stands you're destroying your own academic career here."

Ozpin leaned back in his seat. "Frankly it hurts me to see such a brilliant young mind go to waste like this."

Ruby took in the principal's appearance, at the start of the year, he had a long ponytail in his hair, wore bright clothes and was an easy going man. The Ozpin sitting here was a cold man, in a black suit with a closely cut almost military looking buzz cut.

Ruby thought to herself "Guess he took Mina leaving hard as well… Or maybe he took Jaune's loss personally."

[I guess if Velvet didn't want her face smashed in she shouldn't of started it.] Ruby signed much to Ozpin's disappointment.

"Then I have no choice but to suspend you from classes for the next week, I do hope you find the in in the next week to try right the ship Ms Long." Ozpin said through the interpreter.


06/15/1999…

Ruby no longer cared about much, School let out a few days ago and she was in her room. Grounded for poor grades. If you consider C's and D's poor that is. Ruby figured that if "Hey I passed" was good enough for her, it should have been good enough for her parents.

To say she didn't have much of a relationship with her folks anymore would put it lightly. She barely spoke to her father, and she never spoke to her mother at all. As far as she was concerned they existed to have a liquor stash she could sneak the occasional drink from.

While her parents were at work Ruby sat in her room with a glass of her father's (or was it her mother's?) Scotch sipping off of it. She didn't do it for pleasure of course, she drank to forget about him. Her Vision blurred and became distorted, a tell tale sign that a hallucination was coming on.

Jaune's hallucination sat in the chair at her computer desk watching her. "Is this really how you plan on spending your whole day?" He said.

"It helps me ignore you." Ruby said.

"Your already grounded again, are you trying to make it worse?" Jaune said as he held his arm out.

Ruby laughed out loud in her tipsy state. "The fuck dose it even mater if I'm grounded or not? Yang's off with her fuck boy, Weiss is going to be going to that private school in the fall, and Blake… Well Blake still needs to help me meet her dealer."

"Don't be stupid… It's obviously Torchwick." Jaune said as he wore a look of concern on his face. "You need to let go of me."

"Ha, I never had you in the first place, that was all just a lovely little dream I had where you were still alive." Ruby said as she took a long drink finishing off the glass as she sat it down on her nightstand. "I wonder when my dear sister is going to tell Raven about the bastard in her belly?"

"She made a mistake, just like your making one right now." Jaune said as he stood up and say next to her on the bed. Ruby reached out and her fingers passed through air as she tried to touch his arm.

"You know, in my dream, we made a cute couple. Yang never left Neptune." Ruby started to tear up in her intoxication "Your mom was supposed to get married next month… Do you regret what happened? Do you regret any of it?"

"You know I can't answer that, I'm dead, hell my remains are in an urn that was last seen in the back of my mom's car." Jaune Said. "The me your talking to right now, is based on your fantasies."

Ruby leaned her head back and closed her eyes, she almost felt like she could hear a whisper in the back of her head. "Jaune… I think I want to be with you."

"That's not the answer…." Jaune said. "It wasn't the answer for Pyrrha, it wasn't the answer for Me."

"I don't have a thing left going for me here." Ruby sobbed out and closed her eyes. "I want that dream back!"

"Then wake up Ruby." Jaune said as he put a hand on her shoulder and gently rocked her in place. "Just open your eyes."


07/30/1999 at around eight in the morning…

Ruby was Gently rocked awake from the deep sleep she was in. the first thing she saw was the worried face of her boyfriend Jaune looking at her.

Hey boyfriend… Her very much alive boyfriend...

Ruby grabbed on to him and pulled him down into the bed with her and hugged him tightly as she sobbed out. Jaune didn't quite know what to make of it but he gave her a warm hug back in return. Jaune reached over and slipped one of Ruby's implants into her ear for her so she could hear her dad speak.

"Hay! Lat the boi hve some arr." She heard her dad say as she pulled away for just long enough to forcefully kiss Jaune for a solid half minute.

Once she pulled away Jaune was finally able to sign out [Hey, you okay?]

Ruby signed back [I… Sorry, I had a nightmare. A real nasty one…]

Jaune talked [Well, nightmares can't hurt you hon, and besides, we got a wedding to attend today right?]

Ruby smiled and got up wiping her eyes [Yeah, I'll get a shower so we can start getting ready okay?]

As she got up and walked past Jaune she smiled as she saw Ren and Nora chatting. Sam had traveled over to Mina's for some last second dress prep, and Jaune was apparently over making breakfast for everyone. She still felt her stomach turn from her nightmare, but at least she knew that Jaune was not going anywhere.

Ruby smiled as she made her way to the showers to get ready for the biggest day of the summer.


Hey Everyone, as I write this A/N it's about 4:40 in the AM as I just finished cleaning up the chapter and after this i'm going to get ready for work. So, this is a bit of filler yeah? I kinda got the idea that I wanted the wedding to take place on chapter 40, and I also wanted to explore the "what if" scenario that Jaune didn't survive the events of "The knife" chapter. While I didn't exactly want to dedicate a full arc to it, I figured I would be happy just writing a small taste of how badly things would turn south on the Gang.

The point is, talk to someone if your having thoughts like these.

The next chapter is going to take a bit to write of course, I mean I've only been a part of two weddings and as much as my wife my give me sideways looks while I googling about weddings in my spare time. Considering I got married nine years ago I don't blame her. It is going to take a bit more time to get the details of the event down right.

As Hallways, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next chapter.