"Do I have to leave so soon?"

"Were you planning on staying here forever?"

"I guess not…"

"Then… No, I'm sorry… You have to choose…"

"I'm not ready…"

"Why do you still think we're here?"


"Earth to Ruby…. You awake?" The distinctly male voice sitting next to her asked as she was fighting off the drowsiness from a hard day.

Ruby rubbed her eyes and nodded yawning out a "Yes" as she reached over and turned her other hearing aid on.

Ruby looked around at the assembled group of players around the table. She could see Ren and Nora fumbling with their gaming supplies. She looked to her left and saw Jaune sitting there as always.

Ruby leaned back and signed out [When did you get here?]

"I've been here the whole time," Jaune said with a smile on his face. That same big dopey smile he always had on his face.

Ruby smiled a bit at what he was saying before she signed back to him [Uh, yeah that makes sense.] Ruby shook her head for a moment as if trying to fight off a daze before she asked [So what are we doing?]

Jaune reached over and put a sheet of paper in front of her "Making characters."

Ruby looked at the page confused as she signed [Why are we making characters?]

Jaune smiled "Because the last game is over, and we're starting up a new one?"

Ren poked his head up "I take it you're going to roll up a Dark Knight as you always do?"

"Well you know me all too well, what are you going to roll up Ruby?" Jaune asked as he turned to look at her."

[I... I don't know, maybe you should play a different class though?] Ruby replied

"Why should he? He plays his role so well…" Ruby heard a slightly familiar female voice say as a redheaded girl walked over and pulled up a comfortable spot in Jaune's lap.

[Well Penny I mean wouldn't it make sense for her to play something else?] Ruby said as she recognized that the girl looked very close to Penny.

"Penny? Who the hell is Penny? Jaune you seeing other women behind my back?" The red-headed girl asked.

"Not last time I checked. Ruby, you okay? You're not looking well." Jaune asked Ruby in turn.

Ruby shook her head and paused for a moment. It took her a few moments for it to click in her head to realize who that was.

She has only seen the girl's face once, and even then it was in a picture in Sam Nikos' house. Ruby was completely flabbergasted to see her sitting here.

[Sorry Pyrrha, I got my words mixed up for a second…] Ruby signed trying to hide the look of shock on her face.

Ruby quickly turned away and started looking at the character sheet as the world started to emotionally tumble around her. Jaune talking seemed wrong, So did Pyrrha standing sitting there… All of it felt so wrong.

Ruby felt a hand on her shoulder when she looked Jaune was the only one around the table they were sitting at, he just had a soft smile on his face as he said: "It's time to wake up now…"

Ruby started to verbally ask "Wake up, what do you mean wa-"


Ruby woke up to the sounds of a rhythmic slow beep in one ear, she had clearly fallen asleep and must have left her hearing aids on again. From the seat she was sitting in she lifted her head off the hospital bed she had been using as a pillow and look at the occupant of the bed.

Jaune laid there, unmoving, with a ventilator and a feeding tube quietly working away keeping his body alive. Just had he been in the eight days since he almost bled to death in the entryway of the Belladonna's home.

"Ruby?" Someone to her left had said, Ruby turned to face the person speaking and saw her mother standing in the entryway with a smile. "Hey uh… any change in him?

Ruby glanced at the EKG machine that was monitoring his vitals and sighed, his heart rate was low, as was his blood pressure. All of his other vitals looked like what the doctors said was normal. Rwby then glances at the EEG that was also connected to Jaune's head that showed what she already knew.

"No.. no changes at all Mom." Ruby sighed out

"You're getting pretty good at reading those…" Summer stated to her daughter as Ruby stood up and stretched her stiff back out.

"Well, I've had the time to learn mom… I guess the EEG shows very little going on in his brain, but the EKG shows that his body is still healthy." Ruby said.

"Hon… I…" Summer started to say

"He's going to wake up mom…" Ruby said out getting parts of the phrasing wrong as she tried "He has to, he wouldn't leave us behind."

Summer stopped speaking, completely at a loss for words as she paused for a moment to look at the comatose ex-boyfriend of her daughters in the hospital bed. "Well… I brought a spare outfit, I know you wanted to go to Winter Schnee's funeral today…"

Ruby nodded and replied, "Did you also grab batteries for my hearing aids?"

"And your soap and shampoo so you can shower in the bathroom over there before we leave…" Summer said, "Trust me on this one…"

Ruby nodded "Grab me if anything changes with him before I'm done, okay mom?"

"I will sweetie… don't worry…" Summer said before she pulled up a seat. Summer thoughts turned inward thinking about the state of her daughter "Poor girl… she's barely sleeping, she practically lives at the hospital… I wonder if she blames herself for this boy…"

Summer looked at Jaune and sighed softly muttering "You caused my daughter a lot of pain mister… I hope you understand that…"


Twenty minutes later Ruby stepped out of the hospital restroom fully clean and wearing one of the few formal dresses she had. Mina Arc had arrived to keep an eye on her son for a few hours as she didn't have plans on attending the funeral and her husband was resting at home mostly able to care for their daughter.

As she stepped out she heard Mina and Summer talking briefly about Mina's continued frustration that she was being asked almost every day about cutting off the life support for Jaune.

"They seem real damn quick to remind me that he hasn't improved at all since his coma…" Mina said with a saddened sigh "I mean, I won't quit on him…"

"Nor should you Mina, those damn doctors don't give a damn about your boy, if we didn't need them I'd say we'd toss them out the damn windows." Summer said with an air of such seriousness that it even got a smile out of the mentally besieged mother.

"Well can we wait till my son wakes up before we start throwing doctors out of their own hospital?" Mina asked with a chuckle

"Hell, we'll make it a race to see who can throw out the most." Summer said before she noticed Ruby standing there waiting. "Ah hey there, you ready to go."

Ruby nodded to her mother in the affirmative as she waved to Mina.

Mina just said, "Don't worry we'll still be here when you get back kiddo." Mina softly declared before she winced slightly at the implication of what she said.

Ruby just waved it off "hold the fort for me, I'll be back in a few hours."

"Maybe after your father and I get some real food inside of you!" Summer sternly declared

"Alright, fine, but let's make it drive-thru okay?" Ruby said, trying to compromise with her mother as they both walked out of the hospital room.


It was snowing when they got to the graveyard where the funeral was taking place. The weather this entire winter had been weird but the snow was a pretty strange sight to see this late into the year in this part of the state. Ruby's parents were attending another funeral in a different part of the graveyard for the sheriff's deputy that died a week ago when he was ambushed by Adam…

Ruby was quickly greeted by her sister who was wearing a black coat over her long winter dress [Hey sis, you holding up alright?]

Ruby put on a fake smile and signed [As well as I could be.]

Yang smiled and signed out [Yeah I here you sis, I'm just taking it one day at a time.]

Ruby looked around and saw Blake standing with her parents sitting down already.

Yang tapped ruby on the shoulder and signed [Go on and say hi, you've been pretty scarce lately and I know the Belladonna's wanted to check on you.]

Ruby nodded and walked over to the trio. Blake noticed Ruby first and smiled with a wave before she walked over and gave her a large hug "Ruby! Hey glad to see you out and about!"

Ruby signed out [How are you and Weiss doing?]

Blake spoke up "Were all doing as well as we could be, mom and dad, are barely letting me out of their sight right now."

Ruby nodded [Yeah that sucks Blake… When are you guys going to be let back into your house?]

"I hope soon, my parents are staying in a camper and I'm still in the Schnee's guest bedroom…" Blake said tiredly "I miss my bed…"

[Yeah I do too…] Ruby signed out

"You don't have to stay at the hospital you know?" Blake said as she helped Ruby find a seat near hers

[I know… But it's starting to really feel like Mina and I are the only two people really holding out for Jaune to wake up you know?] Ruby signed.

"All of us are hoping he wakes up…" Blake said with a smile

[I know that I'm sorry I worded that badly] Ruby signed out

"It's alright I know what you mean…" Blake said as Weiss walked over.

"Ruby, how are you holding up?" Weiss asked, "I half expected you to go to Deputy Clover's Funeral you know?"

Ruby shook her head as she started to sign out [I mean, I didn't know Deputy Clover very well, I knew Winter a lot better…]

Weiss smiled "I know, Winter talked about you a few times, I think she liked you."

[I'm sorry for your loss.] Ruby signed

Weiss wore a painted and forced smile as she replied flatly "Thank you… I should get back to dad…"

When Weiss walked off Blake said as she looked on at Weiss "That's the other reason it's hard to sleep… you saw it right? The look in her eyes when she talks about her sister?"

Ruby just nodded "yes".

"She has nightmares about that night, I guess we all are having bad dreams right now, but she's having some really bad nightmares," Blake said with a pained tone in her voice.

[Yeah I don't know about nightmares, but my dreams have been weird,] Ruby said.

Blake nodded as she turned to watch as the priest called everyone to attention and began speaking. Ruby tried to pay attention to what was being said but she simply couldn't focus on it at all… Her eyes kept focusing on Weiss as she was sobbing into a handkerchief her father had given her.

Ruby knew she was also crying, but she felt numb inside as she quietly listened to the priest talk. She remembered all the times she and Winter sat around a table at her work as they worked on some revision of Weiss's leg braces.

"With everything that has happened, I guess it's not surprising I've been taking more interest in medicine… I never thought about what I wanted to do with my life, but learning how to read Jaune's vitals… Learning how to upgrade Weiss's prosthetics… Maybe I could have a future in this?" Ruby thought to herself.

Ruby quietly watched the priest speak to the gathered crowd…


Later one Rwby was back at the hospital eating a take out burger as she watched the EKG and EEG make the same rhythmic beeps they were making when she went out.

"No change… there's never a change…" Ruby thought to herself as she slowly ate her burger. "Are you actually planning on waking up?"

The silence in the room was starting to get to her. Ruby chuckled how it was almost funny that the silence was bothering her when she had lived for her whole life with silence being a constant factor in her life.

Ruby sat the rest of her burger down and started talking, "You know… you missed Winter's Funeral… It was a pretty lovely service…"

Ruby paused and took a bite of her burger as she thought. "I guess you don't know she died… I guess you don't know a lot of things."

No longer feeling all that hungry she wrapped up the rest of her burger and set it aside and looked directly at Jaune for a moment before she walked over to him and took his hand… "Wake up soon please…"

For a brief second Ruby stared at Jaune memorizing the expressions on his face, she noticed his previously baby faced face was not growing into a light fuzz as he slept peacefully. Ruby leaned in and kissed Jaune on the forehead before she sat down holding his hand…

"Please… Just wake up soon…"


So sorry about how slow this chapter took to get uploaded this week, I had a bit of a busy week between my Job and Working on my second novel more (hey I got three chapters and a lot of pre writing done on it.) so this chapter ended up a bit slow. I'm also fighting a realy nasty non Covid-19 bug thgat's sapping my energy in my free time

So lets talk about the reviews...I kinda know all of you are waiting to see what happens to Jaune ultimately, and that is coming. But more importantly alot of you want to see Blake and Weiss's recovery, which is clearly understandable, Blake, at least I hope I conveyed this so far, blames herself for what happened to every one. Weiss on the other hand is clearly not in the best shape. I would like to set the expectation that I am going to work on that, but I also need to kinda flesh out the rest of this arc and lay out what happens when first. I also do prefer a small cast to write around so expect a couple more people to get written out soon as well... but we'll play that as it goes.

Sorry I didn't address each review one by one like I normally do but I'm just drained at the moment, but it was good to see you all, I hope your all well and i'll catch you all next time.