Author's Notes- Thank you all for reading, I really appreciate that so many of you like the story the kind words I get in reviews and PM's is what gives me the motivation to write. I would like to say thank you to AmbidextrousLion for editing this story even if she makes ridiculous suggestions (Check the end notes for that). You should all read her story Layer of Ice, it is really good even if she has trouble updating it. Shout out to my friends Roslyne and Sanktimonium, they both have given me ideas in the past Roslyne's first story is called Pushing the Lines and so far it is really good and Sanktimonium's new story is The Red Dragon Case Files which is a Crime AU starring Yang and Pyrrha. Leave a review and tell me what you think of the chapter or if you see any mistakes, I appreciate every review even if you are criticizing the story. Read, Review, Favorite, Follow and most importantly Enjoy! And now to see what happens!
Weiss followed behind Ruby down the ski slope, though the expert slope was so littered with obstacles that she couldn't remain directly behind her. Swerving around a tree that was in her way Weiss scanned the area in front of her for the red snow jacket that Ruby was wearing. Weiss caught sight of a streak of red that was racing down the slope ahead of her, she was about to smile at how well Ruby was doing when she gasped, the air in her lungs being forced from her body. Ruby had been speeding down the slope avoiding trees that zipped past her, but in doing this had not noticed the patch of ice that she hit with her left ski. The sudden unexpected jolt made Ruby lose her balance and drop her ski poles. Weiss looked ahead of Ruby and nearly lost her own balance. Ruby was hurtling towards a large boulder that sat on the track and with her poor balance and lack of ski poles she had no way to slow down or avoid the boulder that lay in her path.
Weiss felt her stomach drop as she could do nothing but watch as Ruby kept getting closer to the stone. She felt her mind race in a thousand directions though one screamed louder than the rest. "Oh god no! This can't be happening!" her ears seemed to ring as her thoughts pounded away in her skull, "No no no, she was supposed to be safe! I was here to keep her safe!" Weiss felt herself go numb as Ruby was no more than a few feet away from the hazard that she couldn't avoid.
"RUBY!" Weiss shrieked as Ruby collided with the boulder, a sickening crunch punctuating Weiss cry. Ruby didn't stop though she hit the rock with her chest taking the brunt of the impact, but her forward momentum was so great that she flipped over the rock and kept tumbling down the slope, crashing into other smaller rocks and trees as she kept rolling. Weiss could only lower herself and try to pick up as much speed as she could so she could reach Ruby when she stopped. "Oh please please be alright Ruby! You'll be fine!" Weiss kept repeating this phrase in her head like a mantra trying to shut out the mental images that threatened to fill her mind.
Ruby stopped tumbling down the hill, her momentum having been lost after so many impacts to slow her down. Weiss didn't want to think about it, but as she drew nearer to the unmoving form or her girlfriend she could tell that she was seriously injured. Her right leg was bent the wrong way and Weiss could see various cuts across Ruby's hands and face from her descent. Weiss felt bile rise in her mouth though when she looked at Ruby's right arm. The arm was bent at an off angle and worst of all Weiss could see white among Ruby's red jacket. Her bone was sticking out from her arm. Weiss felt tears sting her eyes as she threw her ski poles aside and undid her ski's faster than anyone could think possible. The second her left ski was unstrapped Weiss darted to Ruby's side. "No no no," her thoughts were barely coherent now as she looked at the broken form of her love, the snow around her was slowly turning red from the blood flowing out of her.
"Oh god Ruby!" Weiss cried as tears flowed down her face. "This can't be happening!" the thought reverberated through her head as she dropped to her knees by Ruby.
"YANNNNGGGGG!" Weiss shrieked, trying to be heard by the blonde and cursing the fact that they had split up. "BLAKKKKKE!" Weiss kept crying as she watched more and more snow turn red, soaking up the blood that was flowing out of Ruby's wounds. Weiss started frantically searching her pockets, "Please, please you have to be there." After a moment of frenzied searching Weiss felt her fingers brush against the object that she was looking for and she seized it and quickly pulled it out. Weiss looked down at her cellphone. "Come on, come on," she whispered as she turned it on, looking at the top right of the screen and praying that she would have a signal. The screen lit up and Weiss breathed a small sigh of relief. She had three bars, something was finally going right.
Quickly dialing she held the phone to her ear and listened to the ring, "Pick up, damn it!" she screamed in her head, she was on the verge of breaking down, the only thing keeping her going was that Ruby still needed help. Eventually a voice answered on the other end of the line
"911 what is your emergency," the man on the other end asked calmly.
"Please, I need help. My girlfriend is hurt," Weiss hurriedly told the operator, trying to suppress her sobs.
"Alright, I understand. Where are you?" he asked, his voice neutral.
"We are at Vale Mountain by the Schnee cabin," Weiss told him.
"Alright ma'am, I understand and EMTs are on the way, just stay calm and tell me what happened and what kinds of injuries your girlfriend has sustained."
"We were skiing and she hit a patch of ice and lost control before running into a boulder and tumbling down the slope. She has cuts on her face and hands...her left leg is bent at the wrong way and her right arm... is broken and I... I can see the bone," Weiss told the man on the other end, her tears flowing faster as she listed the injuries. She had to pause several time to take shuddering breaths to try and steady her voice to little avail.
"Okay, I need you to do two things for me. First, check to see if she is conscious and then check her breathing," He told Weiss calmly, the girl nodded even though he couldn't see the action. Weiss leaned over Ruby and looked at her face, her eyes were closed and when Weiss snapped her fingers it did nothing to rouse the injured girl.
"Ruby, Ruby, please get up," Weiss sniveled, but Ruby remained motionless on the crimson snow. Moving her head lower Weiss trained her eyes on Ruby's chest to look for signs of breathing and put her ear close to Ruby's mouth to listen or feel for it. Weiss quickly saw the rise and fall of Ruby's chest along with felt the small puffs of air that accompanied the rise. This small thing lightened the weight in Weiss' heart somewhat. At least something was right.
Weiss leaned back and took a deep breath before she put the phone back to her ear. "She's breathing, weakly, but she is breathing."
"Alright, is she conscious?" the operator on the other side asked.
"No she isn't," Weiss answered the man while shaking her head.
"Alright if you can move her while keeping her head and spine straight bring her out of the cold," he instructed while Weiss nodded along as she listened, "If you can't get her out of the snow just keep her warm. If any of the cuts are serious try and staunch the bleeding."
"Alright," Weiss answered in a small voice
"Stay on the line and tell me if her condition changes so I can inform the EMT's on what to be prepared for."
"Alright," Weiss answered mechanically, setting the phone to speaker mode before putting it down on her skis so it wouldn't get wet from the snow. Quickly thinking Weiss reached into Ruby's right pocket. "Oh please be there, please," she begged wordlessly to any and all gods who could be listening. For the second time her fingers brushed against a phone, which she quickly pulled from Ruby's pocket. Clutching the phone tightly Weiss turned the phone on before she felt her heart stop as her breath got stuck in her throat. Ruby's wallpaper was a picture of her and Weiss smiling. She felt her eyes sting as more tears filled them. She looked at the snapshot of a moment in her life when things were not so dark. "Hold on Ruby...you have to," Weiss thought pitifully as she wiped the tears from her eyes before she went to Ruby's contacts, looking for the one name that could help her right now. Upon finding the name she was searching for Weiss quickly called them.
"Answer…you have to answer," she said to herself as the dial tone kept ringing, seeming to go on forever until the person on the other end picked up.
"Hey Ruby what's up?" Yang asked from the other end of the call.
"YANG!" Weiss yelled in relief that the other girl had answered.
"Whoa Weiss, what's up?" Yang asked, confused at the other girls outburst.
"Quick Yang, get up here," Weiss rushed out.
"Why what's wrong?"
"Ru-Ruby got hurt. 911 is on its way," Weiss replied with a shuddering breath, afraid of how Yang would react.
"..." there was only silence on the other end of the call. Weiss was afraid that the call had been dropped
"Y-Yang? Are you still there?"
"Where are you and what happened?" The blond asked her voice unnervingly calm.
"We are at the bottom of the expert slope. Ruby hit a patch of ice and lost control before colliding with a rock and tumbling down the hill."
"How is she?"
"She is unconscious and she has cuts on her hands and face...I think her left leg is broken and and…" Weiss started sobbing unable to finish.
"And what Weiss?" Yang asked coldly.
"Her… her right arm… the bone… I can see it… it's sticking out," Weiss said between her sobs, Yang was quiet on the other end.
"I'm on my way. Is there a first aid kit somewhere in this house?"
"Yes, in the master bathroom, under the sink," Weiss answered and then Yang hung up the phone without a word goodbye. Weiss grabbed her own phone.
"Hello, are you still there?"
"Yes I am. Has her condition changed?"
"Yes, I have her sister bringing a first aid kit. What should we focus on?" Weiss asked.
"Focus on stopping the bleeding on her face and hands. You can try and immobilize her leg and unless you don't have the supplies, then just try and stop the bleeding on her arm. Nothing else as you could make things worse," he explained to Weiss, the girl nodding her head in acknowledgment.
"Alright."
Weiss just sat there, powerless as her girlfriend lay broken in front of her, the snow still just drinking up her blood. Barely five minutes passed before Weiss heard someone running, bringing her head up and to the right. Yang was charging at her in a dead sprint, the first aid kit in her right hand.
"MOVE!" Yang shouted as she ran up and dropped to her knees in front of Ruby while opening the first aid kit and sorting through its contents. "How long has it been since she got hurt?" Yang asked while she set about staunching the bleeding on Ruby's face with the gauze and bandages she found in the first aid kit.
"About ten minutes," Weiss answered, "Stop the bleeding on her face and hands, then immobilize her leg." Weiss relayed the instructions she had been given.
Yang didn't respond and merely nodded to show her understanding. They descended into silence as Yang worked on helping Ruby as Weiss just sat off to the side, numb and unsure on how to help. After stopping the bleeding on Ruby's face Yang addressed Weiss in a neutral tone that put Weiss more on edge than if the blonde girl had been hysterical.
"Weiss, go to the front of the house and wait for the EMT. Bring them over here when they arrive," she told Weiss without even looking at her as she set to work on immobilizing Ruby's leg,
Weiss just nodded her head; she didn't have the energy or will to argue. She trudged off through the snow to the house. When she reached the house she sat on the stairs dejected.
She didn't know how much time had passed since she had left the side of her girlfriend. To her it felt like hours, but in reality it was only minutes when the ambulance drove up to the house. Quickly two EMTs jumped out of the car. "Where is the victim?" the one from the driver's side asked. He was a middle-aged man.
"This way," Weiss said standing up as the two EMTs grabbed a stretcher before following. Weiss drew up on the scene of Yang still huddled close to Ruby with the two EMTs close on her heels.
"Excuse us, Miss," the second EMT, a young man in his early 30's, said to Yang," We need you to move so we can help."
Yang turned her head; her violet eyes were bloodshot from tears she had shed. Silently she moved out of the way though she remained close to Ruby. The EMTs checked Ruby's pulse and her breathing before they moved her to the stretcher. Lifting it up and started walking towards the ambulance.
"How is she?" Yang and Weiss both asked at the same time, one unnervingly calm and the other on the verge of breaking down.
"She's lost a lot of blood. We are going to take her to Vale General Hospital," he said as the younger EMT got into the back of the ambulance to steady Ruby's condition on the way to the hospital.
"I'm coming," Yang told them as she walked towards the passenger side seat, not waiting for their reactions.
"Wait Yang, let me go with Ruby," Weiss protested, as she followed behind Yang. The blonde didn't even turn around to look at Weiss as she answered the shorter girl
"Weiss, I'm going with Ruby. She's my sister."
"And she's my girlfriend. Blake needs to be told as well. Shouldn't you stay with her?"
"Blake will understand, and anyway we don't have a car so that means we are going to need your limo driver to get back to the city," Yang replied. Weiss was going to continue arguing, but Yang glanced over her shoulder and her eyes had the seemingly red tint that meant "Don't fuck around with me".
"Alright Yang," Weiss answered meekly as Yang hopped into the ambulance. The older EMT went up to Weiss and patted her on the back.
"Don't worry about your girlfriend. She's going to be alright," he said with a kind smile on his face that for one moment made Weiss feel a little better.
The ambulance sped off back towards the city and Weiss watched it the entire way as it grew smaller the farther it went, until eventually she couldn't see it anymore. Without her noticing the weather had darkened and snow started falling around her. Normally Weiss loved the snow, but as she stared at the falling flakes she just felt empty. "Ruby, this is my fault," Weiss thought guiltily as she walked into the house and called the limo driver who had brought them the previous day. "Was it only yesterday?" she thought wearily, "It seems so much longer".
"Yes, ?" the driver, Archibald asked when he picked up the phone.
"Yes Archibald, I need you to come and pick us up from the cabin as soon as possible."
"Very good, . May I inquire why your trip was cut short?"
"Because I let Ruby get hurt!" she wanted to scream, but this wasn't becoming of a Schnee. "There was an accident," she replied curtly, letting him know to drop that line of questioning.
"Understood , I will arrive as soon as possible."
"Thank you, Archibald," Weiss replied before hanging up the phone.
With that done Weiss walked farther into the house, to where the bedrooms were and knocked on the room that Blake and Yang had selected. "You are a failure," her thoughts whispered at her. Blake opened the door and stepped out into the hallway with Weiss, looking at the disheveled girl with concerned amber eyes.
"Weiss what happened exactly? Yang told me briefly that Ruby needed her before she tore out of the house. Speaking of that, where are they?" she asked looking down the hall towards the front entrance to see if she could catch sight of the other two girls. Weiss started crying as she collapsed against the wall behind her, sliding down until she was sitting on the floor. Blake's concerned look became shocked at this unusual display of emotions from the normally reserved girl.
"Ru… Ruby was hurt while we were skiing," Weiss began, fresh tears following the tracks on her face left by her previous tears. "Ya...Yang went with the EMTs to Vale General Hospital," Weiss finished.
Blake nodded as she sat down next to Weiss and put her arm around her shoulder, pulling the girl into a side hug. "Okay, when are we leaving?"
"The driver will be here as soon as possible. A few hours at the most," Weiss answered as she looked at the wall ahead of her. "It should have been you."
"How are you?" Blake asked.
"I… I'm afraid… what if Ruby…" Weiss couldn't even finish her thought.
"That won't happen, I promise you," Blake said giving Weiss a reassuring squeeze. "Weiss, you don't need to hold it in," Blake told her, knowing that Weiss was trying to put on a tough act.
"Blake… I… I…" Weiss started before she accepted Blake's offer and let her tears flow as she cried, putting her head against her knees as she emptied herself of emotions. This was a rare display of unbridled emotion from the young Schnee girl and so Blake just let her take as long as she needed, merely sitting next to her and offering support if it was needed. Eventually Weiss had cried her eyes out and looked at Blake with a small smile on her face.
"Thank you Blake for letting me do that."
"It's no problem, I'm your friend," Blake replied as she stood up and pulled Weiss up with her, "Now let's get all of our stuff packed and be ready so we can get back to Vale much faster and go to the hospital and see how well Ruby is doing, okay?"
"Alright, I'll pack up mine and Ruby's stuff," Weiss answered turning on her heel and walking to the master bedroom, as soon as her face was out of Blake's sight the smile dropped and was replaced by a frown. Weiss may have emptied of herself sadness, but she was now just left with an empty feeling of self-blame. "This is your fault," her thoughts taunted her; "If you had taught her better she wouldn't be on her way to the hospital now."
Weiss was now stuck with the last thing she wanted to be stuck with: her own thoughts. Weiss contemplated on how time worked, 40 minutes was not a long amount of time. In that amount of time you could watch a show on TV, or you could cook a meal. No one ever considered how dramatically your life could change in that time. It had been less than an hour since Weiss and Ruby had been standing at the top of the expert hill. Less than an hour, and yet Weiss had gone from happy with her life to a barely contained wreck. Now all Weiss could do before Archibald arrived to take her and Blake back to Vale was sit and wait.
Packing up the luggage that she and Ruby had brought had taken only a short amount of time for her to pack and so now all she could do was just sit on the bed. She ended up staring at the wall. "You are a danger to her," Weiss' thoughts wouldn't stop and all of them were self-blame. She couldn't escape her negative thoughts, all of which named her the number one reason that Ruby was in the state that she was. Weiss threw herself back onto the bed and lay down. "Ruby was here yesterday. Yesterday she was healthy." Weiss turned on her side and closed her eyes, hoping that sleep would offer her a reprieve from the thoughts that were plaguing her mind. "Yang was right to hate you. You let Ruby get hurt. You were supposed to keep her safe and you failed." She could sleep for several hours before Archibald would be arriving, slowly consciousness slipped away from her, but before she could fall into the comforting embrace of sleep one last thought crossed her mind,
"You don't deserve Ruby."
So this was one of the suggestions Lion made while editing this story, I'll let you make your own opinions.
Weiss went over to Ruby's fallen body, looking at her as blood seeped out around her. Weiss grabbed Ruby with both arms, terrified for her life. Suddenly, Ruby sat up. She wore one of her signature grins, and she whispered seductively, "I'm gonna bang you like I banged that rock."