Author's Notes:

Sorry for the delay! Life got busy.

Chapter 157

Sally

Ruby had been acting oddly, and it was freaking some of them out. Eventually, she seemed to make up her mind about whatever was bothering her and cornered Hedy when she went to parts and services.

"I called the place where Sally is. She had a mental break, so she got locked up in a psychiatric hospital."

Hedy stilled where she was gathering tools and parts for Spring's maintenance.

"I asked them to get her to call me."

"Why?!" The question burst out of Hedy. She could still see that day clearly. Sally pointing a gun at Ruby and the teen not doing anything.

Ruby tugged at a loose thread on her sleeve.

"She doesn't have anyone to tell her about what Jeremy found out. My parents weren't the only victims."

The silence was almost unbearable between them.

"It doesn't need to be you," Hedy pointed out gently.

"I know. But I want to do it. She deserves closure just as much as I do."

"It sounds like you've already decided," Hedy murmured. "Why are you telling me?"

Ruby still wouldn't look at her and when she spoke, it was slowly, words carefully chosen.

"I don't think I should be alone when she calls," she admitted. "I don't… want to be alone when she calls."

Finally, green eyes met grey.

"I know you're still angry with her. I know you don't… get why I want to talk to her. But I need to do this."

Hedy, surprisingly, didn't take a while to consider it. She didn't deny that she was angry with the almost-murderer, either. "Okay," she sighed softly as she dug around in a bin for a spare part. "You have any idea when she's calling?"

Ruby shrugged. "Probably tomorrow. Whenever it's lunchtime at the hospital, I guess." She glanced down. "Do you have school tomorrow?"

Hedy shook her head. "Don't you?"

"I asked Alice if I could skip," Ruby shrugged again. "It's a field trip day, anyway. I never go on those. Figured I'd just wait for Sally to call at your place. I don't want the bots to overhear… or the kids at the orphanage."

Hedy nodded, not bothered that Ruby wasn't even asking if she could come over.

It was nice that the teen had given her this much of a heads up instead of just ambushing her at her house just before the call.

A minute amount of tension eased from Ruby's shoulders and she left again, leaving Hedy to work her way through her difficult feelings regarding Sally.

Ruby was fidgeting. Hedy hated to see Ruby fidget. She only did it when she was actually nervous about something.

The teen was staring at her phone on the coffee table, eyes distant and thoughts who knew where.

Was this really a good idea?
Couldn't they have asked Jeremy to do it?

Why did Ruby want to do it herself?

Eventually, the phone rang, shattering the silence. Ruby visibly hesitated before she picked it up, putting it on speaker.

Hedy had already promised not to say anything, no matter what Sally might say.

"What do you want?" she spat, venom dripping from her voice.

Ruby didn't look bothered by the hateful tone. They were all aware that the only reason that Sally wasn't screaming at her was probably because she was being supervised during the call.

Ruby took a deep breath.

"A cop looked further into the accident. Something didn't sit right with him," she started bluntly. "The case was just closed. He found out it wasn't an accident."
She had to stop, gritting her teeth and blinking rapidly. It still hurt like a bitch to talk about this. It was still too fresh. Still hurt too much.

"... What? What the fuck do you mean it wasn't—" Sally was cut off, and they faintly heard an admonishing voice. "Fine… I won't swear," she muttered. But she said nothing else for a moment.

Ruby's next inhale was a lot shakier than normal, but that wouldn't really translate over the phone.

"It wasn't… I thought it rained," she stared blankly ahead of herself for a moment. "Wet roads. That's what I was told. It didn't rain though. It wasn't an accident. The car…" she faltered. "Someone sabotaged the car. He wanted to kill my-" her throat closed up for a moment. "My dad. And he didn't care who got hurt in the process."

Sally didn't respond, and they suffered through another bout of silence.

"What kind of sick joke do you think this is?" Sally hissed, but there was a panicked crack in her voice. "You're telling me… you're telling me…" She trailed off. She growled a bit into the phone, her words whispered to avoid getting in trouble. "The world does not fucking revolve around you–y-you brat! This is sick! Typical. You… you just can't stand me blaming you. Is that it? So you come up with some story. Some story that paints you as the victim and not the brat who distracted her dad. Meanwhile, my parents…my baby brother… they were.." Her voice cracked again. "What?! Just collateral?! They didn't matter?! They were just in the wrong place, wrong time?!"

Hedy was gritting her teeth, desperately trying to keep her mouth shut.

The whole time, Ruby's expression didn't change as she just listened to the tirade. Her passiveness still bothered Hedy. It was only at the end that something cracked in Ruby's eyes.

"So was my mom!" she snapped. "He just- he was targeting my dad. And he didn't care that my mom was there. He didn't care that I was there. He didn't care that there were other people on the roads because he just didn't want to get caught covering up a fucking crime-"

She cut herself off and visibly bit her cheek as she dragged herself back under control. Her knuckles were so white that Hedy just knew she was cutting through the skin of her palms with her nails.

"Maybe your dad shouldn't have been doing whatever it was that got him killed!" Sally screamed into the phone. There was a brief scuffle like someone was pulling the phone away, and Sally's voice dipped. "No… no please. I'm sorry," she begged someone, presumably whatever poor nurse was supervising.

Hedy stared, knowing Sally's words were proof that the woman really believed Ruby. That made Hedy more upset somehow. Sally was so willing to hold on to her hatred that she'd deny the truth? Maybe it was all she had left to anchor herself through the news.

It took a few minutes before Ruby could speak again and by then Sally had managed to convince the nurse to let her continue.

"When it comes to finding out if corrupt cops were covering up a bunch of children's murders, I think he did the right thing in pursuing it," she snapped, still a little worked up. She took another deep breath. "Listen, you hate me. I get it. Cope however you want. This isn't exactly my idea of fun okay? But I thought you should know. They got the guy. He's been arrested, and he's going to prison. I didn't want you to find out from the news."

"...This changes nothing," Sally murmured, but her voice didn't have the conviction behind it. "My family… they still shouldn't have died. They died because of your family! It's… just not fair. I don't have anyone left."

Hedy closed her eyes and looked up at the ceiling, some part of her wishing she could slap Sally. Ruby had lost everything too, and instead of reaching out to the ten-year-old and potentially finding some solace in each other, Sally decided to channel all her pain and anger into another little girl, younger than her. She wanted to talk about what was fair? None of this was fair!

Ruby didn't lash out, though, which was infuriating.

"Nothing about this is fair," she responded flatly. "But nothing can change that. At least he's locked up where he can't hurt anyone else. At least he's being punished."

She sounded tired and Hedy suddenly wondered how well the teen was sleeping. With all the news being dropped on her recently, she wouldn't be surprised if Ruby was struggling with nightmares again.

There was a click.

Sally had hung up.

Hedy huffed out a breath. It was an unsatisfying end to the conversation, but she didn't really expect much better.

"Do you think she'll call back?" Hedy asked Ruby.

Ruby shrugged. "I don't know," she muttered. "I don't care. I did what I needed to do. I don't need to talk to her again."

That was the first flicker of self-preservation instincts Hedy had seen from the teen anytime Sally was involved.

Ruby slumped back on the couch, staring at the ceiling blankly for a moment.

"I'm tired," she admitted quietly.

Hedy scooted closer and pulled Ruby into a hug. "I know." She rubbed the teen's back. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Ruby. Jeremy filled me in a while ago. He made me promise not to say anything until he was sure. And then he wanted to be the one who broke the news, after he made an arrest."

The teen sighed. "I get it. I would have reacted worse if he hadn't been completely sure. And I might have done something stupid that got me arrested instead." She stared at the wall ahead of her. "Why? Why did it have to happen like this? It was already terrible enough. Why did it have to get worse?"

"I don't have an answer, Ruby," Hedy admitted. "Our lives kinda suck sometimes. I just… I wish I had more happy memories. I wish you did too. Something to balance things out more." She let out a shaky breath. "We had good childhoods, didn't we? Until I was six and you were ten at least." There was an almost hopeful tone in her voice.

"I guess," Ruby murmured. "It hurts too much to remember."

"Ruby…" Hedy said, her voice pained. "Take it from someone who… who forced all her memories so deep she lost them. If you don't think about them, they'll fade away so much you won't be able to drag them back when you want to. You don't notice when you forget something. It hurts that I can't remember Spring, or Mangle, or Puppet or the rest of the bots as a kid. I don't know how to cope with that. There's just… fragments and one horrible scene. That's it for me…"

Ruby shrugged again, not really showing her thoughts on the matter. Hedy wasn't too surprised by that. The teen was too physically tired and emotionally exhausted to do much deep thinking.

In the end, the mechanic insisted Ruby get some sleep at least before heading home. She didn't put up much of a fight and it wasn't long before teen was asleep on her couch.

Hopefully, things would start looking up from now on. Hedy wasn't sure how much more of this drama Ruby could take…