Author's Note: Just catching FFN up on the story! This Chapter was already posted on Ao3. I might be posting the next chapter late tonight/early in the morning tomorrow :) aka suffer by my hellish posting schedule.

Everyone I know: "What posting schedule?"

What if...Ruby was Being Rhetorical

Part 7

Not Your Daughter

Ruby followed Goldy around a few turns before dropping down next to the bathroom door. As the human washed her hands, Goldy got a proper look at the girl.

Her clothes were kind of odd and Goldy personally thought it weird to think that sunny little girl grew up to wear so much black with red as her only splash of colour. She was fairly short for her age and on the slender side.

She looked so much like her mother... the girl would look like a clone if it wasn't for the short hair.

Ruby splashed her face when she was done with her hands and just stared at herself for a moment, psyching herself up for the rest of this visit.

Goldy shifted. She was supposed to be right back. She hoped the others weren't panicking.

"Puppet, Spring, and Scott are looking for you," she said cautiously. She whispered carefully. "And, um, y-your father. He's very worried about you..." She winced, unsure how the teen would react.

"Steve," Ruby corrected automatically before she paled at the mention of her father. " Fuck . He knows? Why does he know?! Why'd they tell him?!"

Oh, that was panic in her voice. That was definitely panic.

Goldy shrugged helplessly. "I..I don't know. Puppet woke me up and asked me to find you a-and your…father was there. He didn't freak out about us being alive though. Or me." She was a little impressed with that if she was honest.

Ruby still looked fairly panicked. She didn't have the bandwidth to appreciate Derrick Stone's tolerance.

"Imma kill that clown," she muttered. "Can't keep a secret. Why didn't he just leave to do his cop stuff?!"

"I don't know," Goldy said, her voice shaking slightly. "I don't know what happened. No one told me what happened." With her anger and shock set to the side for a moment, the reality of what Ruby told her was starting to hit. "I-I was asleep." She took a second to center herself. "I said I would only be gone a second. I was just supposed to figure out where you were then go get them to find you."

She perked up, looking toward the door to the hallway before they faintly heard Puppet's voice.

"GOLDY!" he sounded worried and maybe a hallway or two away. It was hard to tell with the bathroom door muffling his voice.

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "Don't you dare-"

It was too late. Goldy vanished to go find her older brother and Ruby cursed.

"Dammit!" She glared at herself in the mirror.

"I don't want him to see that his daughter grew into a sociopath," she whispered to the empty bathroom.

"Puppet!" Goldy popped up in front of the group. "I found her but she was bleeding and she really is Ruby Stone and she's sixteen but she told me about Michael and she freaked out over the fact you told her dad." She paused for a beat while they processed the word vomit. "I think she's mad at you guys for that."

Spring and Puppet both winced, glancing at the man.

Scott hummed.

"She's hurt?" Derrick asked, the alarm very clear. He tensed, wanting to take off but not knowing where to go. "Where is she?"

"She's cleaning her hands. Th-there's a lot of blood. Not...not hers..." Goldy's voice started wavering towards the end. "She told me what happened."

Spring stiffened and looked away frantically, trying to wrangle his panic down.

Derrick spoke up, somehow recognizing the yellow animatronics were fighting back panic on a knife edge. It was much harder for him to tell with Mari Mari (Or was his name Puppet?) but he could see the tension in the thin bot's body language.

"The kids will be okay," he said gently, careful not to sound too stressed or impatient. "They're being taken care of. Hedwig will be back before you know it. I don't think anything can keep her away from this place."

Scott smiled when Spring snorted weakly.

"Right now, I want us to focus on Ruby, alright?" Derrick said. "And yes, I'm biased, but there's nothing any of us can do for the other kids at the moment. Where is she?" The only reason he wasn't being more urgent after hearing she was bleeding was only because Goldy wasn't dragging them to her. He was just calm enough to recognize he had a minute to refocus them. Really, he wanted to tear the place apart looking for her.

It seemed to work at least.

Goldy nodded stiffly. "Girl's bathroom," she gestured in a direction.

"This way," Scott said, knowing which one she meant.

Derrick nodded and followed the man quickly. They practically ran.

The bots followed, Goldy floating.

"Michael..." Puppet started.

"No," Goldy said. "No. I don't want to talk about it right now. I can't."

"I can't either," Spring whispered. "I-I want to see Wiggy first..." he admitted. He wanted her back from the hospital. He wanted to see her with his own eyes and check her over himself. He wanted to hold her before even processing what might have happened to her and the other kids. He froze at a gut wrenching thought. Would she even want to see him ever again after all that? Did he even deserve to hold her anymore? He didn't want to frighten her.

Abruptly, Goldy disappeared again, reappearing in front of Ruby to block the door. "Please. Ruby, stay here," she begged, putting her hands out as she heard the men approaching. "Please." She actually was shocked Ruby stayed in the bathroom instead of running somewhere else immediately.

The teenager grimaced, turning away from the mirror and facing the far wall instead. She'd wrapped her arms around herself, almost like a hug. Or like she was holding herself together.

She didn't say anything but Goldy got the feeling that the girl had (hopefully) agreed.

It wasn't long before the others arrived and Ruby was not happy about being in a room with only one exit.

Scott got to the doorway first surprisingly. He scanned the teen quickly but couldn't find any sign of bleeding. Any obvious sign, that is.

He wasn't surprised when Derrick outright pushed him out of the way though.

Ruby was tense as she heard the multiple footsteps stop behind her. She stubbornly refused to turn around immediately.

Derrick froze. "Ruby…?" he said. His mouth felt dry saying it.

She violently flinched and curled into herself. She was trembling.

Derrick halted and looked back at Scott.

Scott frowned and backed, pulling Goldy with him. "Come on kids, back up."

Goldy didn't fight but Puppet still strained to see into the bathroom as Scott pushed them further from the door.

Derrick nodded gratefully. He still didn't approach the teen though.

The silence was deafening.

Derrick coughed awkwardly. "This is...new." He didn't know what to do with his hands. He wanted to hold her, hug her, touch that familiar hair, make sure she was real, but all that probably would not be a good idea.

Ruby didn't respond.

"...they say your kids will always find some way to surprise you, but I don't think this is what those parenting books meant," he said with a nervous chuckle, feeling very much unlike himself. All the confidence and calm he spent years practicing were out the window. He wanted to kick himself. Kids shouldn't hear their dad sounding...afraid. He doubted it would calm her down.

But he was afraid. Afraid of what she would say. Afraid of why she was here. And how? Afraid of why his little girl wouldn't look at him.

He thought he heard her huff out a faint laugh.

"Surprises..." she murmured. "Are my speciality."

Her shoulders tensed like she was bracing herself before she suddenly spun around to face him.

He'd only got a brief look at her before but... fuck , she looked so much like her mother.

But Derrick could also see the differences. She'd got her eyes shape from him and not Rose. She also had his wavy hair texture instead of her mother's pin straight hair.

He noticed other things though. Bags under her eyes that suggested lack of sleep. A wary look in her eyes, the way she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

This was a girl ready to run. And likely one who was used to it.

Ruby briefly met his eyes before her gaze skittered away, pain flashing across her expression so clearly there was no mistaking it.

"This..." her voice cut out briefly. "This wasn't part of the plan."

Derrick had a realization. He recognized this. He had seen that body language in teens before. Kids who had run-ins with the law and knew what the back of a cruiser looked like. Kids who knew that the system wasn't always kind or just. Kids who didn't trust the world anymore because they had been hurt by it too much.

Kids who were...alone.

There were only two reasons why he had seen kids like that. Either their parents wouldn't be there for them or their parents couldn't ...

Oh no…

Please no...

Derrick Stone knew the risks with his job. He knew there might be a day he didn't come home.

Rose hated it but she understood why he had to do what he did. But this Ruby was alone.

Alone.

He had the sudden urge to find the love of his life and never let her out of his sight. He hoped he was just being paranoid and there was an explanation that didn't terrify him. But just for that moment...

He couldn't help it anymore. He crossed the tense space between them in two steps and pulled her into his chest, hugging her tightly, well aware she might shove him away and think he was violating her personal space. He really couldn't help it…

Ruby froze up, hands halfway lifted to push him away. But she couldn't. She'd started shaking again as well.

His hugs were just like she remembered. Just tight enough to be comforting and the smell of his aftershave was the same.

Her dad was hugging her.

Her dad was hugging her.

Ruby's eyes burned and she swallowed back tears. She couldn't break down now. She couldn't just start crying, because she didn't think she'd be able to stop. The lights flickered above them and Ruby felt Goldy start in surprise and confusion as her emotions almost got away from her.

She needed to keep a handle on it.

"I'm not- not your daughter," she tried, hating how her voice shook. "Your daughter is in the main room with your wife."

She begged him not to look any closer, not to see the broken teenager she'd pieced herself back into.

"I'm accepting that the world is a little crazier than I thought, Princess," he murmured into her hair, not letting go.

Ruby broke.

He had to catch her as her legs gave out and she curled into his chest, hands clutching his shirt as she wailed.