Author's Notes: I've liked Ruby since her episodes in Season 1 and then Season 2. I found Ruby/Otis a mostly enjoyable side-trail on the journey to the destination. I make no apologies for that.

If you don't like Ruby, you almost certainly won't like this, but this is part of the journey to the destination.

It's still an Otis/Maeve story.

All but the final two sections were drafted prior to Season 3 (with just minutes to spare before I started watching), then a polish thereafter.

The rest is influenced by a mixture of my original ideas and events of Season 3.

There's an implication to having Otis find out the voicemail was deleted before Maeve did that I was too stupid to consider when I wrote the first chapter. I will deal with it in a later chapter. Apologies to anyone who picked it up before I did.

Chapter Two

Do You Still Love Her?

Otis walked through the darkness, his arm around Ruby, his mind awhirl. He glanced down at her, wishing he could see her face. She hadn't said anything since telling him she would like him to walk her home and he was reluctant to intrude on her thoughts but the need to say something was growing stronger.

"I wish you hadn't found out like that," he said, quietly, when he could bear it no longer. "I wish I had told you personally. Ages ago. I'm sorry."

"Did you know she hadn't heard it… before we started dating?"

"Yes," Otis said.

"Why didn't you say anything to her?"

"I tried. Aimee gatekeeped. Said Maeve was really happy with Isaac and he was treating her as she deserved to be treated and hadn't been an arsehole to her as I had been. I didn't think it was right to destroy that over… one mistake."

"Do you still love her?"

Otis was silent.

"What are the three T's, Otis?" Ruby asked.

"Talking, truth and trust."

"Truth," Ruby said. "Do you still love her?"

"I don't know," he sighed.

"You'd know if you didn't," she said, sadly.

"I'm sorry…"

"It's not your fault. Wiley always fucks up everything she touches, doesn't she?" she said. "That was their last concert. I was so looking forward to it."

Otis meandered the long way home, allowing his thoughts to ramble and swirl and drag his feelings with them. By the time he walked into the kitchen of his house and saw his mother sitting at the table, eating caramel ice cream from the container, nothing had been resolved, nothing had been decided, nothing had been understood.

"Hey, mum," he said, subdued.

"Did you have a good evening?" Jean asked.

Otis shrugged and walked to the fridge and Jean frowned at his demeanor.

"Where's Ruby?" Jean asked. "I thought she was coming back with you."

Otis took a bottle of water from the fridge and said, "I walked her home."

Jean studied him for a moment and asked, quietly, "Did you two have a fight?"

"No," Otis said as he sat down and took a sip of water. "Maybe… I don't know… Yes…"

Jean held her curiosity at bay, waiting.

"We broke up."

"I'm sorry," Jean said tenderly.

"My fault."

"These things can happen in relationships. It doesn't mean it's really over. We fight. We break-up. We make up—"

"Ruby found out I left a voicemail for Maeve telling her that I loved her."

Jean hissed in a breath. "You…?"

Otis realized how that sounded and said, "Before Ruby. Last term I liked someone called Maeve…"

"And Ruby is feeling you were just using her to get over your feelings for this Maeve?"

"Ruby knew I was trying to get over Maeve when we got together. She never even tried to stop me when Maeve and I started talking to each other again. Ruby trusted me."

Jean studied Otis, certain she was missing something.

"Maeve never heard the voicemail. Her boyfriend Isaac deleted it," Otis explained.

Jean frowned, and said, "Sorry, Otis. I'm… trying to keep this straight-"

"It's complicated," Otis said, then his face crumbled. "It's all so fucking complicated," he continued, anguished. "It shouldn't be so fucking complicated."

He leaned forward and put his head in his hands.

"Do you still love Maeve?" Jean asked, gently.

"I wish I'd never met her."

Eric stared down at Otis in disbelief as he was sitting on the wall bordering the footpath where he knew The Untouchables would soon be passing. A small bag was between Otis' feet.

"That is fantastic," Eric squealed.

"Is it?" Otis muttered. "Great. I'll tell Ruby how fantastic this is. That'll make her feel so much better. She'll be overjoyed."

"Oh, who gives a damn about Ruby?"

"I do," Otis, said, fiercely. "I care. She didn't deserve this. She didn't ask for this. I shouldn't have…"

"But Maeve…?"

"Maeve and I are two people who used to be closer and now talk occasionally. That's it."

"But you still love her," Eric insisted, frustrated.

"So what, Eric? So what? We're not good for each other. We just keep hurting each other. And other people are collateral damage."

"That is bullshit, Otis."

"Is it? For the last two months I haven't been agitated once with Ruby. Less than 24 hours after this shit with Maeve, this."

"And that is the passion, Otis. That is the love. That is the fire roaring within aching to burst free."

"Are you still reading that trash?" Otis muttered.

"Before Maeve you were just a… you were a weed. A scrawny little weed sitting in the corner and then Maeve's light shined on you and you blossomed. You bloomed, Otis. You were a weed who became a sunflower. Don't go back."

"Does this look like a weed?" Otis said, indicating his clothing.

"This is a dandelion."

"Maybe I like being a dandelion."

"You just don't want to risk getting hurt again," Eric said. "What about what your dad said? You are supposed to keep around the people who get you."

"That's why I keep you around."

"You need to keep Maeve around. You two get each other."

"If Maeve and I really got each other, do you think this mess would have happened?"

Eric looked along the path and groaned, frustrated. "Oh, here's your dandelion sunshine."

Otis glanced around, saw The Untouchables approaching then looked back at Eric.

"Our conversation is not going to be for your entertainment, Eric," he said after a moment.

"I will see you later," Eric said, affronted.

Eric walked away. Otis watched as the Untouchables approached. There was a wistful smile on Ruby's face.

As Anwar and Olivia walked past, they glanced at Otis neutrally and then faced front. He knew she had told them.

Ruby sat beside him, held out her cheek as usual and then stopped, settled back, a little sad and embarrassed. "Morning," she mumbled.

"Morning," Otis said, then reached down for the bag between his feet, moving it in front of her. "I think I got everything. If I've missed anything, I'll give it to Olivia."

"She probably won't speak to you. You can give it to me. If necessary."

"I'm sorry, Ruby. I wish… I wish I could have loved you the way you deserved."

"You loved me the best you could. And that was amazing," Ruby said, then stifled a sniff. "But we both knew this was temporary when we started. We weren't the Romance of the Ages. We were just two sad people seeking comfort with each other."

To her own ears, she almost sounded as if she believed it.

She looked down at her wrist and hitched a breath and slowly removed the special bangle and held it out for him.

"Oh, Ruby…" Otis said, pained. "Please keep-"

"I don't need it to remember that it happened, but it'll remind me that it ended and I can't bear to just throw it away," she said, softly.

"I'm sorry," he said, taking the bangle.

"It's not your fault," she said. "I heard someone once say, you can't choose who you fall in love with. He was a really insightful, caring guy. I think you'd like him."

"We could just wait a few days… see if maybe… a break… not a break-up… I'll get my head clear…"

"You're getting clingy, Otis. I told you, it's amazing until they get clingy."

She almost said it without a hitch in her voice.

Aimee and Maeve sat on the school perimeter wall, looking across the grass at Otis still sitting at the side of the path. Aimee absently scratched Goat beneath the chin.

"Look, it's obvious Ruby's just dumped him. He's sitting there alone. Go and talk to him," Aimee said.

"He doesn't want me to. He made that clear last night," Maeve said.

"He only said that about Ruby because she was right there, you said. Otis wouldn't want to hurt her in front of you."

"It was more than that," Maeve said. "He wanted me to know that he wasn't wanting… that he didn't… that it was really over between us. Whatever we had. That he doesn't want to make things better between us. That he wants me to keep my distance. It's amazing how much he can say with just three words."

"He's just hurt and confused," Aimee said.

"He can get in line," Maeve muttered.

Aimee sighed. "Look, we've got to get to our lockers. Let's just walk down there. You can say, 'Good morning'. You can tell him you dumped Isaac. And you can say…" She frowned, searching for something else to say. "You can thank him for escorting Isaac home and you're sorry he had to get caught up in the middle of that. Don't say anything about the voicemail. Don't say anything about talking to him about it. Just be civil like you two have been recently and then we go to our lockers. Let him at least know you're willing to keep it where you managed to get it back to if that's all he can give you right now."

Maeve thought for a while then nodded, giving her friend a small smile. "Yeah. Okay."

They stood up and Aimee held out the leash. "Do you want to take Goat? So you've got an excuse to not look at him?"

Maeve nodded and took the leash.

"Come on," Aimee said, and they walked across to the path.

They noticed Otis glance in their direction, abruptly stand and walk along the path away from them, passing The Untouchables seemingly without looking at them.

Maeve stopped, swallowed. "I told you," she said. "He doesn't want to know me anymore."

Olivia and Anwar leaned against the wall by the steps and softly glared at Otis as he walked past them but, apart from a brief moment to sadly glance at Ruby's rigid back as she studiously looked away from him, he kept his gaze fixed firmly on the ground ahead of himself.

Olivia's eyes followed his retreating form until she finally murmured, "He's gone."

Ruby relaxed and was about to turn to face her when Anwar muttered, urgently, "Wiley's coming."

Ruby straightened again, staring into the middle distance, as Maeve and Aimee, holding Goat's leash between them, began to pass by.

Anwar stared at them as he always stared at those he did not consider friends and said, "Need a name tag—"

"Don't," Ruby murmured softly.

Anwar clamped his mouth shut immediately and he and Olivia watched the two best friends and the comfort goat silently walk down the nearby steps and away from view.

"Okay," Olivia said and watched Ruby relax again.

"He's an idiot," said Anwar.

"He's an arsehole," said Olivia.

"He's not," murmured Ruby as she stepped toward the wall.

"She's a bitch," said Anwar.

"She's a cow," said Olivia.

"She's not," murmured Ruby as she laid her hands on the wall to keep herself steady while trying desperately not to give the appearance of needing to keep herself steady.

"I can just about understand him but you're defending her?" Anwar asked, astonished.

"You'll never understand, Anwar," Olivia sighed, wearily.

"Why not?" Anwar asked, slightly annoyed.

"Because you have a penis," Olivia said and stared at him, raising her eyebrows and widening her eyes.

Anwar stared at her, uncomprehending, until Olivia jerked her head in the direction of the school entrance and he finally realised her meaning. He silently sighed and picked up the bag from the wall where Ruby had placed it.

"Right," Anwar said as if the burden of the ages was on his back. "I'll take this to the car."

Olivia watched Anwar as he walked along the path to the school entrance, carrying out a task he clearly considered far beneath him. When he was far enough away, she turned to gaze fondly at Ruby.

"Did he ever love you?" Olivia asked, gently.

"A little," Ruby said. "I thought a little would be enough."

Otis sat in the study room, head resting on one hand, staring at the paperwork lying on the bench in front of himself. He glanced over as Adam sat next to him, dumping his bag onto the table.

"Alright, New Kid?" Adam said in greeting. "Seen Eric around?"

"He's here somewhere," Otis said, indifferently.

"Yes, I expect so," Adam agreed in the tone Otis had come to recognise as that used when Adam was trying not to respond negatively to an undertone he didn't quite understand. "Do you know where?"

"No," Otis said, curtly.

Adam paused for a moment then asked, "Are you two fighting again?"

"We may have had terse words," Otis conceded.

"About me?" Adam asked, trying to conceal both his concern and his disappointment with his own past behaviour.

"No," Otis said, flatly reassuring. "Not about you. We don't fight about you anymore."

"So what was it about?" Adam asked, covering his relief.

"It's private."

Adam was silent for a moment, gathering his words, then he asked, "Is it about what you're going to do about Wiley now Ruby's dumped you?"

Otis glanced at the clock on the wall. "Less than an hour," he sighed.

"News travels fast, New Kid," Adam said.

"Will you stop calling me 'New Kid'?" Otis asked, annoyed. "We started at the same time."

"That's why I think it's funny. It's what I called you that first week."

"I know."

"Why don't you like 'New Kid'?"

"It's the name you called me on the day you stole mum's video. It's the name you called me when… we… were helping you with your priapic misadventure. It's a name I associate with the clinic and everything about the clinic. And the clinic is over. And everything related to the clinic is over."

"So, you want me to stop calling you 'New Kid'?"

"That name reminds me of how everything about my life became so complicated right after you started using it again. So, yes, I would like you to please stop using it."

"Okay."

"Thank you."

Adam stared at Otis for a long moment. "Do you still love Wiley?"

Otis was silent.

"My mum said, you have to let the people you love know that you love them," Adam said, quietly.

"I did that," Otis said. "And it all got even more fucking complicated. And I hurt the only three women who have ever shown even the slightest interest in becoming my girlfriend."

"My mum said, life is complicated."

"One of the women I hurt is living with me because her dad is having a baby with my mum. That's fucking complicated enough. It'll get more complicated after school. I don't need more complications now."

"But you love her."

Otis was silent for a long moment, then said, "Your mum loved your dad once. My mum loved my dad once. Love doesn't conquer all, Adam. If Maeve and I are this fucked up without even being together, how much shit are we going to cause when it all goes pear-shaped?"