Summary: Derrick does a little explaining to his wife. Rose takes matters into her own hands.

Notes: Sorry this took a while! We know a bunch of you have been waiting for this.

What if...Ruby was Being Rhetorical

Part 13

Mother

Not a lot got Derrick nervous nowadays. But this particular silence from his wife always would. Their toddler was finally out of energy and conked out in his arms. It had been a nightmare to get her to leave the fox animatronic. And by the time they did, Scott had herded the bots off to give a full explanation to them. And the teenage version of his daughter had disappeared into the vents again which was fairly unnerving. No one knew where she was but Goldy seemed convinced that she was fine now.

Rose had been surprisingly quiet throughout his explanation, except for a few clarifying questions such as, "How old was she?" and "When did she meet Wiggy again?" and "Was he caught?"

Derrick didn't have answers to all of them and he said so, to which she would just nod. He was a good storyteller, courtesy of the times when he needed to be succinct and get facts out in front of a jury. Despite this, he found himself rambling sometimes.

Eventually Rose spoke after thinking for a few minutes. "And you believe all this?"

Derrick's expression fell. "You don't..."

Rose shook her head. "No. That's not what I meant, honey. I just..." She leaned forward, folding her fingers in front of her mouth with her elbows on her knees while she stared at her daughter in sadness. "We die?" she whispered, slightly muffled by her hands.

Derrick saw that look in her eyes. She was going to cry when they got home, after their toddler was safely put to bed and wouldn't see or hear. He probably would too. It was a hard idea to face, personally and as parents.

"Maybe...not this time," he said, a bit of hope there.

"But you don't know."

"Anything could happen," Derrick admitted, shifting his daughter to hold her closer.

While he'd already developed a love for the teenager that his little girl grew into, he could also see that she'd been hurt. She was quick to lash out and clearly didn't trust very easily. And the pain that flitted over her expression every time she saw him... and now when she'd seen Rose. It hurt to see her in pain just from seeing them.

"I don't know the details," he sighed. "We'd need to... to ask her. And I don't think I can make myself do that. She looks so hurt every time I speak, no matter how well she tries to hide it. It clearly affected her badly, Rosie."

Rose flinched and he couldn't hold it against her. She was worried for her daughter, but Rose hadn't needed to think about her own mortality like he had.

"Do you want me to ask?" she asked.

Derrick looked at her in surprise.

"So you can distance yourself and look at it like a detective," Rose explained. Compartmentalizing wasn't always healthy, but it could be practical.

Derrick huffed. "Solving my own murder..." he murmured, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes with his free hand. "Our murder," his voice cracked. He wanted to laugh at the absurdity but could quite get it out.

Rose reached out and squeezed his hand, her other brushing Ruby's hair out of her eyes. "Everything will work out for the best. We...we can handle this."

'What if there's nothing to handle? Rose, this is insane. What if it's one of those fixed point things where it's going to happen no matter-"

"Then what's the point of worrying about it?" Rose interrupted, terse. "You're a detective. Not a physicist, Derrick. We stop what we know we can. We change the future. For Ruby. Even if something happens to us, we can make sure she's okay." Now her voice cracked.

Derrick looked down at their sleeping daughter.

"I just wish I knew where Alistair was in all of this," he sighed.

They couldn't do much without more information. And there was only one source for it. Maybe Rose would have better luck with talking to Ruby?

They had to try at the very least. He didn't want his daughter to have to grow up without them. Maybe they could change things? Ruby had already changed things now hadn't she?

"That's one of the things I'll ask her," Rose assured. "I'm sure there's a reason."

"A good one?"

"One we haven't considered," Rose said. She sighed. "It's getting late..." It was. The place had been closed for a while, other parents and children leaving as the police took statements. The crime scene people had taken their pictures and collected evidence. The tape still marred the usually happy scenery.

Samples had been taken from Spring, with Puppet pacing not far away. They were nervous about being on any kind of record.

One tech had suggested the blood soaked parts of the suit be taken but Derrick shut that down. They had a whole arm they could retrieve from the hospital in a few hours.

"Where is she staying for the night?" Rose asked meaningfully, pulling him out his more work-tinted thoughts.

"...We're bringing her home aren't we?" Derrick asked.

"Of course."

Derrick sighed slowly. "We can ask but something tells me she'll refuse."

"Where will she sleep if she does?" Rose asked in concern. "Here?"

Derrick had a feeling that was the girl's plan. She was pretty focused on the pizzeria and bots and didn't seem to plan on leaving it at all.

He rubbed his face and sighed.

"We can offer," he said. "But trying to force her into anything is probably a bad idea. She's not a toddler and I don't know if she's even used to any kind of parental behaviour at all."

He saw a potential problem in his wife's expression that said something along the lines of "Well, that's changing." And he was fairly sure he couldn't convince her otherwise. Unfortunately, he might just have to let Rose realise that would be a fight she might not win. They were still new parents. They really were not prepared for this. He doubted anyone would be, but still.

Derrick was in his twenties. He still felt like a kid himself. That teenager made him feel young and out of his depth and yet so...old at the same time. He never really imagined himself dying of old age, but now he wanted nothing more.

She lost them only eight years from now as well. He never even got to see her reach her teens. By this point in her life, she hadn't seen them for six years.

He didn't say anything as his wife stood up and clearly got ready to look for the teenager.

Although he wasn't sure how she planned to find the girl. As far as he knew, she'd gone into the vents again.

"I don't know where she is," he said.

Rose nodded. "I'll find her. Or I'll ask for some help. You said this place is alive?"

"Yeah. Something else I'm not sure how to react to."

"Well, if it's alive and it's aware of people inside, and it likes Ruby, then I would assume it knows where she is."

"You're going to ask it?" He was a bit bewildered over how easily she seemed to accept that little fact.

"It can't hurt to try," Rose said with a mischievous smirk. "I'd like to let it be known that we care about our daughter."

"Good luck..." Derrick said dubiously.

From what he'd heard, the building definitely didn't think like a human, had very different morals (if you could call it that) and was extremely selective in who it liked. Judging by everyone's reactions, it's willingness to do what Ruby asked before was extremely surprising.

Then again, if anyone could manage it, it would be his wife.

She gave him a sly wink and smile before heading off down the hallway.

Derrick sighed and tried to relax into the booth, with Ruby asleep on his chest.

She was drooling a little in her sleep.

He wasn't sure how long it would be until they could go home. Maybe he should sneak back into the staff room and use their couch. It was just too awkward to try lying down on the vinyl seating.

His daughter was unlikely to wake up any time soon. Ruby slept like a rock.

Whenever Rose walked past a vent entrance, her heart twisted at the thought of the teenager inside them. It could hardly be comfortable and wouldn't it be cold? Ruby had only been wearing a leather jacket from what she'd seen.

She couldn't help but worry. Had the girl even eaten? Or had anything to drink?

Ruby read through the documents she'd borrowed from the manager's office. The woman had pressed herself into the corner of the room the entire time Ruby was there and she was pleased that she still had what it took to traumatise people. She'd worried sometimes that Hedy was making her too soft.

So now she was settled comfortably in the too big vents as she scanned through the documents. So far she'd found some lovely accounting that did some impressive gymnastics to reach the numbers they gave and a copy of the contract for renting the bots. She planned to give that one to Steve. Maybe the others to her- her dad? She didn't have the contacts she usually had yet and it would be annoying to make new ones.

She could do it, but it would take time and she'd need to leave the restaurant to do it. So she'd rather just pass them on.

She wasn't going anywhere she'd decided. She wasn't setting a foot outside. Fix everything, then go home. That was it. She wasn't really interested in what the 90s might look like to her teenage perspective, especially not when that meant interacting with even more people than she wanted to.

It was getting late by the time she settled in with all the documents. The place was closed by now, even without taking into account the fact everything shut down because of a crime scene regardless. She wasn't sure where Timmy went off too. Maybe he went to talk to his past self, to coax him into coming out and saying hi to Goldy and the others. She hadn't seen the past version of Timmy at all, although she knew he was probably around at times. It would be weird to see them side by side. It was all already very weird.

Things should actually be quiet for a bit now though. Steve was dealing with the bots and explaining everything to them. It would take them a bit to process it all and no one should be looking for her for a while.

She leaned her head against the vent and sighed. Time for her to process stuff too she supposed.

She missed her bots keenly in moments like these. The Originals were the best when it came to Ruby just needing to ramble her way through dealing with stuff. These bots were all babies though. Foxy was so young and didn't even know her here. He'd only just met her toddler version.

It was good to see that she'd already got the fox wrapped around her chubby little fingers. It didn't feel right to have a universe where she wasn't close to Foxy.

In comparison to the rest of the shit happening though, the bots had been an absolute breeze.

Ruby closed her eyes and sighed. Her parents... they were definitely an unexpected hiccup in the plan. She stared blankly at the vent in front of her.

She'd seen her parents again. Talked to them and had a pretty substantial breakdown in front of her dad. They were so young. They looked like they were barely a few years older than Hedy and Mike. Her Hedy. Her Mike. It was jarring. She had never thought of her parents as young. And her dad was already a detective? He must have been incredible. She knew that already.

The swell of pride hurt.

Her wrist burned where she'd dug into it and she felt a shame that only cropped up when the bots saw the scars or new bloody scratches.

Her coping methods were far from healthy but she'd yet to find a way to break them. Pain was her immediate response to strong emotions. And the emotions she felt every time she saw her parents were extremely strong and they hurt.

The teen closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath to try and calm down. They snapped open immediately though when the vents shuddered.

"What?" She asked flatly.

The vents rippled and Ruby's eyes narrowed. The building was trying to coax her out. Which meant that someone had asked it to find her and it was semi interested in helping. That suggested it could be Spring, Goldy or Puppet. Maybe Foxy or Mangle. The building was nicer to the foxes because of hers and Hedy's bias towards them.

Ruby groaned. "Really?"

The vents shifted in a distinct 'shrug' and Ruby sighed. She might as well see what it was about before she found a nice stretch of vent to sleep in.

The teenager followed the ripples until she found an entrance and bit back a groan. Great, her mom apparently wanted to talk. She'd hoped they'd gone home for the day.

Bracing herself, the teen swung out of the vent to land a short distance away from the woman.

"That actually worked..." Rose said in surprise. She stared at Ruby for a moment, clearly not knowing what to say. Eventually, she just smiled gently and lowered her voice. "Hello." She clasped her hands in front of her, almost like she was placating.

The woman rocked on her feet for a moment, fighting the urge to rush to the teen.

She looked a little nervous.

Ruby couldn't help how she crossed her arms defensively and her gaze skittered away from Rose. She would have thought after seeing them a few times that it wouldn't hurt as much anymore. No such luck.

It was also just... weird to see her mom looking so nervous. Rose Stone never looked nervous. At least not in her memories.

"Yeah?" she asked, biting back the usual flat 'what' that she'd give anyone else.

Rose looked a little surprised and frowned as she approached, slowly. "I'm sorry, baby girl," she said gently when she was in arm's reach. "I can't imagine how awful this must be for you."

When Ruby didn't answer, Rose shifted, trying to figure out what to say. "Your dad did his best to explain, but I think we're both out of our depth here. But he didn't lie to me. I know it's been…a while since you saw us." Her voice cracked at the end.

Ruby tried to hide her flinch at those words but Rose still caught it.

"I'm not your kid," she muttered. "Your kid is a toddler who probably needs to go home now. Why are you still here?"

Her tone seemed to see-saw between rude, dismissive and pained, even in the same sentence.

Rose laughed, a pained incredulous sound. "You're ours, Ruby. Do...do you really think we would be able to see otherwise? Even now?" She shakily took Ruby's hands.

They were so cold. She warmed them gently before reaching to put a hand against Ruby's cheek, hesitating when Ruby flinched away. "Look at you..." she whispered in awe. "Please...look at me, sweetheart?"

Reluctantly, green eyes moved over to her. The same green eyes she saw in the mirror every day. Her daughter was practically her spitting image, only really different in her height and the interesting hairstyle.

There was so much pain in those eyes though. When she looked at her young daughter, Rose only ever saw mischief and happiness in her eyes. When she looked at this teenager, she saw a haunted kind of pain that made her look older than sixteen.

"Oh baby girl..." Rose murmured with a sob, cupping Ruby's face in her hands as she fought her tears. It hurt her soul to see her little girl so world weary and closed off. She carried this girl for the better part of a year fairly recently and it was disheartening to see what she and Derrick had done to her, no matter that it presumably wasn't their fault.

Rose was scared of dying. She never understood how Derrick was able to accept the possibility with his job. It terrified her that she might have only eight years left with her daughter. She didn't want to leave her daughter alone like this.

She...she didn't want to go...

"I'm so sorry..." she whimpered out as she cried, bowing her head. She didn't cry often. She was too stubborn for tears to come easily. Ironically, Derrick tended to be the more emotional one in their personal life, bringing down his walls when he wasn't at work and letting his wife be his stability. She was always fine with that. It was usually easier for her to be balanced. Not right then. This was too much...

Ruby did not know how to react to this. She could count on one hand the amount of times that she'd seen or heard her mom cry. Her dad? Yeah, he was a crybaby. But not her mom. Oh fuck, she made her mom cry?

"It's not- why're you- don't apologise. You didn't do anything," she finally forced out.

Why was her mom crying?!

Rose shook her head and tried to wipe her eyes. "I'm fine. I'm fine," she whispered frantically. "I'm just so happy to see you." She cracked Ruby a weak smile, but she couldn't really hide that those weren't tears of joy.

What a strange type of grief. For herself? How selfish. For what she would lose? For what would become of her baby?

She desperately wanted nothing more than to hold the teen and never let her go as she cried. Derrick mentioned that he had pulled the teen into a hug, but Ruby's reaction had been worrying. Rose didn't want to do the same and risk stressing the teen out more with the invasion. But resisting was so difficult.

The teenager looked like a deer in the headlights at the moment. Actually, she looked like Derrick did whenever Rose cried. He got all wide-eyed and panicky when it happened.

"I'm so sorry," Rose stammered, taking a deep breath in a feeble attempt to gain some stability. "I'm sorry. I..I was just looking for you t-to make sure you have somewhere to stay tonight." She sniffed. "This is all just a little...much." She laughed a little frantically through her tears, guilt in her tone. She never wanted to cry in front of Ruby, always worried it would scare her daughter. She knew that wasn't healthy though.

The teen was just watching her with wide-eyes, one hand half raised like she was contemplating patting Rose's shoulder or arm consolingly.

Her frozen uncertainty just reminded Rose so much of her father that it was adorable.

"Uh, I'm- I'm fine," Ruby stuttered. "I'm staying here. There're couches."

"Do you...' Rose shook her head. "You should come home with us. We can set up the camping cot in your room. O-or set up some blankets on the coach.." She glanced at the walls suspiciously, clearly not the happiest with Ruby staying there.

Ruby's lips twisted down into a familiar frown. "No. I'm not leaving the building. I've slept over at it plenty of times anyway, I'll be fine."

The building rumbled a bit like it was adding its agreement.

Rose looked ready to argue but oddly hesitant, her expression nearly mirroring Ruby's."...I have to insist," she said sternly.

"And I have to say no," Ruby responded sharply. She took a deep breath and rubbed her face, trying to shove down her natural aggression to anything even slightly parental. "I'm fine," she repeated after a moment. "Besides, I've already changed a lot of shit. I don't want to change too much. At least this is still limited to the pizzeria."

Rose was quiet for a moment, the frown never leaving as she considered what Ruby was saying,

Ruby really expected her to fight the issue more. Maybe Ruby's snap surprised her.

"...I at least want you to get some decent food besides pizza," Rose said. "Do you want me to bring you something?"

The expression that crossed Ruby's face in that moment had Rose's 'mom' senses going off the chart.

"Um." The teenager crossed her arms and looked away. "Yeah... uh, I don't really... get hungry? Not in the building anyway." She kicked at the floor, a move Rose already recognised her toddler doing when trying to talk her way out of something.

"You still need to eat something," Rose said, a little gentler, figuring Ruby just didn't feel like eating due to stress, although the way she put it was odd.

Now the teen ran the fingers of her hand through her hair in a painfully familiar move. She'd picked up a lot of mannerisms from her father, hadn't she?

But that was also one of Derrick's nervous ticks...

"Seriously, I don't... eat. In the building anyway. I eat normal outside." She grimaced. This was going disastrously and she knew her mom wouldn't give up. "Uh, nothing with... salt."

"Are you allergic?" Rose asked, concerned, confused and a little alarmed. If her daughter was allergic to salt, or had a sodium sensitivity, that was something they were going to have to address with their toddler as soon as possible. She still had no idea what Ruby meant by "in the building." At least the confusion was distracting her from crying.

"No! Yes? Not yet," Ruby let out a frustrated growl. "Toddler me is fine. You just develop an intolerance for the stuff when the eldritch, sentient building decides to classify you as part-ghost cause you almost... died, a couple times." She winced as the words left her mouth.

This is why she tried to never have meaningful socialisation with people! If they weren't the bots, Hedy or Jeremy, things went south so fast. Poor Mike was still learning.

Rose was clearly a bit shocked but she had at least a few minutes to adjust to the situation. She clearly wasn't sure how to respond.

"Ghosts?" she eventually settled on, raising an eyebrow. She didn't want to think about Ruby's presumed brush with death. It hurt too much. She had to assume it was when she and Derrick...died, but she was shocked to hear something had happened to her daughter more than once. It made her stomach twist. They failed to protect their daughter and the idea made her want to start crying again.

She didn't.

She was hanging on by a thread. She would break down properly when she got home. She hoped Ruby would say something. If Rose tried to speak in the next two minutes her voice was going to crack and the tears would come again.

The teen was twitching slightly.

"Timmy!" she called suddenly. "A little help?!"

A little boy appeared next to her, looking completely unimpressed.

"Ruby, she's your mom," he deadpanned. "Are you actually going to chicken out?!"

"Yup, I'm tagging out," Ruby said, backing up. "I came here to stop Michael, not face my past. I'm not ready for this at all. I didn't even ask for this. The building doesn't understand rhetorical questions!"

Timmy gave a long, drawn-out sigh before looking at Rose. "I'm sorry ma'am. Ruby's had a long day," he gave her a shy smile. "I'm Timmy. Yes, ghosts are real. No, Ruby isn't one but the building treats her like one. She's fine," he eyed the teen. "Sorta. She doesn't feel like she needs to eat when in the building but she'll feel famished if she steps outside. She can't eat salt though. Salt really stings for ghosts."

Rose took a deep, slow breath after she bit back her startled yelp.

"Ok..." she said. What else was she supposed to say? "Do you..." she swallowed, feeling a headache coming on. She was firmly setting the ghost boy into a mental box for a second.

"I…can still bring you something. If you just can't eat in here, then I would feel better if you at least ate something outside. I don't want you needing to leave in an emergency and suddenly collapsing from starvation."

Timmy looked back at the teen. "How come your parents are so nice? And they had you?"

Ruby shot him a glare. "Brat."

"It was nice to meet you, Mrs. Stone." Timmy just grinned and waved before disappearing again. He was still trying to help past him after all.

The teen sighed after a moment. "I can eat. I just don't get hungry in here. Just... nothing with salt. Can't eat salt at all. Feels like a thousand fire ants in my mouth."

"I'll figure something out," Rose said with determination. She would. She was sure there were salt-free recipes she could find. Salt substitutes were a thing. She was still unhappy about Ruby's refusal to come home but she had a feeling she wasn't going to be able to get the teen to budge. It would be an immovable object vs unstoppable force situation if she tried to push the issue. She couldn't help glancing at the space the little boy had been a moment ago, clearly wanting to ask. Derrick had left out a mention of him so she wasn't sure if her husband knew about him or not. She felt like he would have said something. Ghosts were real apparently. And the boy had looked very young, no more than ten years old, if that.

Ruby shifted her weight back and forth, looking anxious to do nothing more than leave.

"Right, so, if that's all? You've got a toddler and husband to get home and I've got some last things to do before I sleep. Great? Great." She spun around and started walking down the hall again.

"Wait," Rose said, sharply.

Ruby froze, but didn't turn around.

"We love you, Ruby. So much. Nothing could ever change that," Rose said, her voice threatening to shake again. She swallowed. "I want you to know that you don't have to lie to us. Maybe not right now, but you can tell us everything. Even if it's hard. And painful and sad. It might hurt, but your father and I need to hear it. It's not your job to protect your parents from the truth. Alright? We want to get to know the girl you grow into, all parts of you."

Ruby's shoulders were a tense line as she stared down the hallways.

"You really don't," she said, voice empty in a way that chilled Rose. "You really... don't."

She disappeared around the corner before Rose could say anything else.

Rose stood there for a moment. She turned to leave, awkwardly patting the wall. "Thank you...?"