AUTHOR'S NOTES: Wow, this turned out to be a huge chapter, and I didn't mean it to-probably why it took so long to post! This is a mix of a lot of talk, a dash of comedy, and a little bit of good old fashioned sex. Definitely don't read this one to the kids, folks. And if you hate Rosegarden as a ship, you're either going to loathe this chapter or you're going to love it.

Ruby's going to seem a little OOC in this chapter, but remember that this is an older Ruby than her canon counterpart, one that is dealing with even more fallout and emotional damage than canon Ruby, and a Ruby that's still very much finding herself. Poor Oscar, in so many ways.

Naval Station Mayport

Jacksonville, Florida, United States of Canada

20 April 2002

It had taken negotiations, Yang said later, that would have shamed any major sports organization. First, Yang and Ruby had immediately returned to Beacon and found Major Oum. Oum had brought in Colonel Kerry. Ruby and Yang had worn both men down, and they had granted them the leave to fly down to Naval Station Mayport. Of course, Ruby and Yang could have easily simply drove to Raleigh and found a flight to Jacksonville, but they wanted to take their fighters. Technically, only Huntresses had the right to cut those kind of orders, which the two women no longer were—but luckily, both Yang and Ruby had a lot of capital with the commander of the 4th Fighter Wing and his operations officer. Thus a F-15C and a F-16C had taken off from Signal with hasty orders temporarily detaching them to "liasion duties" with personnel from VF-84 and VFA-41, embarked aboard the USS Ronald Reagan. Both sisters had their own ideas what that liasion meant.

The next step was to call their father Taiyang, and tell them they would be gone for a week. After Yang explained the situation, Tai had consented, figuring correctly that his daughters intended to go to Florida one way or the other. It left him saddened, in an empty house with Zwei for company, but Tai understood, even if it made him feel old.

Their final step was to place a long-distance call to one Weiss Schnee. Weiss' path to getting time off and taking her Typhoon to Florida was somewhat easier, as all she had to do was convince Pyrrha. As Europe was quiet, Weiss easily got permission to go, with her hasty orders detaching her first to Mayport and then to fly on after a week to Luke AFB, because if GRIMM could attack Phoenix out of nowhere, then they could attack Berlin, or even London or Copenhagen. Before Weiss had got into Arma Gigas, Pyrrha had given her a solemn order: have fun. Weiss had left a day before Yang and Ruby left Beacon, so they would all arrive at Mayport at roughly the same time.

And now, under a warm Florida sun, the band was coming back together. Ruby and Yang stood in their flight suits, grinning at Weiss, who was standing in her flight suit and grinning back. "Been a minute," Yang said.

"It has," Weiss agreed. Then they laughed together and Weiss dashed forward to hug Ruby, then be pulled off her feet by Yang, who kissed her on the cheek. "Steady on, Yang!"

"Steady on? What, are you British now?" Yang put Weiss down on her feet.

"I have been hanging out with Ace Flight. I may break out a few Greek curses from Pyrrha, ehs and aboots from Marrow, British sayings from Harriet, and whatever German that Elm speaks." Weiss shrugged. "She's from Hamburg; I'm from Munich—the dialect is different. It's like trying trying to understand you two when you're drunk." They shared another laugh at that; Ruby and Yang, despite both born and raised in North Carolina, did not speak with Southern accents unless they were very tired or very tanked. Weiss wondered if her smile would ever fade. "It's so good seeing you again." Then she stood on the tiptoes of her flight boots—Weiss was exactly the minimum height for the Luftwaffe—and pointed. "But I imagine you two will be even happier to see them than me."

Yang and Ruby turned around. Walking towards them across the transient ramp was Blake and Oscar. Yang took a step forward and then hesitated, unsure of what to do, if she should just sweep Blake into a hug, or wait, or what. Her heart began to pound with nervousness, and she knew she was blushing. Ruby had no such hesitation: she dashed forward and threw herself at Oscar, who could either catch her or be tackled by her. He staggered backwards as Ruby locked her lips around his.

"Well, they're wasting no time," Blake observed, then seeing how flustered Yang was, walked over and hugged her. "Good to see you, Yang. I missed you."

"I…I missed you," Yang whispered, unable to get her voice above a croak. "Blake, I…"

Blake let go of Yang, and rubbed her shoulder. "We'll talk later." Then it was time to hug Weiss, who got picked up off the tarmac again. "Weiss! This was a surprise, but when I heard there was a Eurofighter inbound, I knew it was you." She read the name underneath the canopy. "Arma Gigas?"

"It's Latin for 'weapon giant,'" Weiss explained. She pointed underneath the fuselage, where four Meteor missiles were mounted conformally. "I thought it appropriate since I can carry four more of those, plus four IRIS-Ts." The four Meteors were the only missiles the Typhoon carried; three of the hardpoints were taken up by giant ferry droptanks. "I tended never to carry a full load with Myrtenaster, but I do with Arma Gigas." Weiss sighed. "And there will never be another Myrtenaster, unfortunately."

"Yeah, I'm afraid I can't name mine," Blake said. She pointed across the tarmac where the hangars and shelters stood. "My name's on one of those Tomcats over there, but since we tend to swap planes around, we don't name them. The Navy's never been big on naming aircraft anyway."

Yang nodded and thumbed at her F-15. "They won't let me paint a yellow nose on mine. The powers that be said I could name my bird, but I haven't thought of anything yet. The last two Ember Celicas haven't ended too well. Ruby's on Crescent Rose III at this point." Yang looked over at her sister and Oscar. "Speaking of which…let him up for air, Ruby!"

Ruby and Oscar had been lost in making out. He was wearing his khakis and she was in her flight suit; his khakis were spotless and her flight suit was stained with sweat, but neither cared. They broke their kiss, and to Yang's surprise, it was Oscar that spoke—Ruby settled for a glare at her sister. "Go to hell, Yang!" Oscar yelled. "It's been a long damn cruise!" Then he snickered, let go of Ruby, and went over and was next to give out hugs to Weiss and Yang. "Just kidding…kind of."

"Yeah, yeah," Yang said, and kissed him on the forehead. "That's what you get for joining the Navy. See, if you'd joined the Air Force, you could pile into my sister every night, have steak and eggs, not have to land your Super Bug on a postage stamp, and not have to share a ship with 800 other guys." She thumbed towards Blake. "Granted, it's better than being a Marine, because then they serve you crayons."

"Green is the best color," Blake said without missing a beat.

"I have so missed you people," Weiss sighed. "Well, now that we've gotten the reunion out of the way, I think Ruby, Yang and myself need to go sign some paperwork to get our TDY processed. And then I thought we might could all have dinner together…Marrow told me that Florida has some very good seafood, and I haven't had decent seafood in over a year."

"Weiss, you wouldn't believe it," Blake said, wiping drool from her lips. "There's a crab shack here."

"She's eaten there every night," Oscar added.

"Hey!" Ruby stomped over to them. "It's only noon!"

Weiss glanced at the position of the sun. "For me, it's six in the evening. And I've been flying for the past twelve hours, from Berlin to Keflavik, to Goose Bay to here. I'm starving."

"Too bad, Weiss!" Ruby exclaimed. "Because we are near a beach, and I am going to go to the beach in my new swimsuit! And I'm gonna swim!" She grabbed Oscar. "And he's going to swim with me!" She clapped her hands. "So let's go get checked in, find the VOQ, drop off our luggage, and get our beach on!"

"Fine, fine!" Weiss put up her hands in surrender. "Let me unload my luggage pod."

"Just one, Weissy?" Yang needled. "How do you make do?"

Weiss went under the Typhoon to open the luggage pod under one wing. "If there was one thing I learned from our long march through Moravia," she commented, "it was the importance of traveling light." She shooed Ruby and Oscar on. "Don't wait for me."

"No intention to!" Ruby grabbed Oscar's arm and half-dragged him to the terminal building. Yang and Blake watched them go. Yang was smiling, but there was sadness in the smile. "Everything all right?" Blake asked.

"Not really…but it can wait." Yang swallowed past the lump in her throat. "I haven't seen Ruby like that for a really long time, and it makes me feel good." Then she winked at Blake. "Not as good as Rubes and Oscar are going to feel tonight, though. Damn, I guess that was a long six months."

"You're telling me," Weiss said from under the Typhoon. "When Oscar hugged me, I could tell how much he missed Ruby."

"It's times like this that I remember why I've never liked the beach," Weiss said, slathering on plenty of sunscreen. "I don't tan. I fry." She sat down on the towel, made sure she was in the shade of an umbrella, and adjusted her swimsuit. It was a very modest light blue one-piece, Weiss' one concession to sex appeal being the high cut of the bottom, up and over her thighs. "Though it's not too hot, so that's good."

"This is perfect." Blake's swimsuit was the same type as Weiss', though the cut was somewhat lower on the thighs and it was a darker shade of blue. "Mid 70s. Or for you, Weiss, about 26."

"None of that metric crap," Yang commented. "We use freedom units in this here place." Not surprisingly, Yang had chosen a bright yellow bikini, though Blake was surprised to see it was not a string bikini. All the same, the top fought hard to keep Yang's breasts safely contained, and two men had already tripped over themselves when she walked onto the beach. She saw that Blake was staring at her chest, and blushed. "Uh…"

Blake snickered and waved her hands. "Nothing like that, Yang. I just hope those don't fall out."

"Well…wouldn't be the first time. This was the biggest one I could find at the Beacon BX." Yang commanded herself to relax around Blake. They were going to talk, and no matter what, Blake was still her friend—and she hadn't seen her friend in six months. To hell with it, Yang told herself, let's have some damn fun. "You going to swim?"

"In a bit. I think I want to work on my tan."

Yang got up. "Didn't you do that on the carrier? Steel beach and all that shit?"

Blake laughed. "Are you kidding? It rained most of the time we were out there!"

Oscar joined them, dressed in a pair of swimming trunks. "It even rained when we went across the Equator. That was a fun day, wasn't it, Blake?" Yang took a moment to admire Oscar's build. He was still the skinny tanned farmboy she remembered from the year before, but he had put on some muscle tone.

"Oh yeah, that was great," Blake said sarcastically, putting on her sunglasses. "Bad enough we had to crawl through the garbage chute and run the Gauntlet of Doom, but we had to do it in the rain. At least it washed off whatever gunk was on the Royal Baby before they shoved our faces into Chief Budge's belly."

"And at least we don't have to do it again," Oscar added.

"Shellbacks for life!" Blake exchanged a high-five with her shipmate.

"I wish I had any idea what you two are talking about," Weiss commented.

"Yeah, me too," Yang said, her fists on her hips. "Garbage chute? Royal Baby? Gauntlet of Doom? What the hell is a shellback?"

Oscar opened his mouth to answer, but his jaw dropped even further, and no sound came out. Yang turned in the direction he was staring, and her jaw dropped. That caused Blake and Weiss to look around, and both lowered their sunglasses. "I don't believe it," Weiss breathed.

Ruby Rose had arrived on the beach. Her swimsuit, if it could be generously referred to as such, would have gotten her arrested in five of the remaining 45 states and fined in six more. It consisted of two straps that plunged across Ruby's small breasts down to her crotch, the fabric barely hiding her nipples. When they reached their destination between her legs, there was just enough material to keep her intimate areas from being exposed to the world, before the fabric returned up her back, between her nearly completely exposed bottom to her neck, splitting there. Her only other clothing was a pair of flip-flops and her aviator sunglasses. Behind her, a waiter from the crab shack who was following her with his eyes slipped and fell down the stairs, taking out three other patrons on the way down. Yang had the very odd sensation of not being the sister that most of the men and possibly a few of the women were mentally stripping—which would take about two seconds with Ruby, if that.

"Hi," Ruby greeted them.

"Hello yourself," Weiss said, the only one of the four that weren't shocked into silence. She rolled back over and pulled her sunglasses back up. "Why didn't you just come out stark naked, Ruby? You might as well have."

"I would've gotten arrested, Weiss," Ruby told her.

"You're probably going to be arrested in that!" Blake pointed out. "My God!"

"Hallelujah," Oscar gasped. Yang was still staring at her sister, open-mouthed.

Ruby went up to him, and despite herself, blushed from head to toe. "I…I picked it out for you, Oscar," she said quietly.

"Aren't…" Oscar tried to get some saliva going in a very dry mouth. "Aren't you embarrassed?"

"I'm embarrassed!" Yang finally found her voice. "Holy shit, Ruby! If Dad saw you in that, he'd have a heart attack!"

"Well, I'm not embarrassed!" Ruby said defiantly, though her words were betrayed by the full-body blush. She jammed her fists on her hips and thrust out her chest—which honestly wasn't that impressive; of the four women formerly known as Ruby Flight, Ruby had the smallest bust. She wasn't flat-chested, no matter what Yang said, but clearly the Branwen genes were responsible for Yang's superstructure. "I don't care what anyone thinks! I'm tired of thinking what anyone thinks! C'mon, Oscar—let's go swim." She tossed her sunglasses to Yang, grabbed his hand, and dragged him towards the surf.

Yang watched them go. "I honestly don't know what to do."

Blake let out a low whistle. "I'd expect that swimsuit from you, Yang, but never from Ruby. If she turns suddenly, that thing's going to become unraveled faster than a ball of string, and then she will be naked. She had to have shaved down there." The Faunus pointed to her groin. "I mean, not just a landing strip, either. Completely off."

"You know what's strange?" Weiss observed. "Ruby doesn't care, either."

"No, she doesn't." Yang watched her sister dive into the surf; Ruby was a good swimmer. And maybe that's not a good thing, she told herself.

Oscar watched Ruby swim through the water. He was up to his waist in the surf, which tugged at him, but he dug his feet into the underwater sand. I really hope that thing doesn't come off of her, he thought. He still couldn't believe this was Ruby Rose. At the tarmac, she was the Ruby he remembered, but the shy Ruby he remembered from that night in Algeria, or the frantic mornings in Poland, would never have come out wearing such a swimsuit. Oscar had thought he had been lonely aboard the Reagan for six months, but clearly Ruby had been even more so.

Ruby surfaced a few feet away, brushing back her wet hair. "Come swim, Oscar!"

He gave her sheepish smile. "Um, about that." Oscar scratched the back of his head. "I, uh, actually can't swim, Ruby."

"Huh? But you're in the Navy!" She grabbed one strap and pulled it back up, and Oscar gulped at the hint of a pink areola before it was once more hidden. "I thought all of you had to learn how to swim."

"I can dog paddle," Oscar amended. "But for the rest? We've got lifejackets. I barely passed the Dilbert Dunker test." She looked puzzled, so he explained. "They shoot us down this ramp in a simulated ejection seat, and then we have to unstrap and swim to the surface. Then they stick us in a tube and roll the thing upside down, and we have to swim out. Took me three times, and I almost drowned."

"Oh, sorry…I guess I just assumed." She smiled sweetly. "Forgot you're from Nebraska, Oscar."

"And I forgot you were on the swim team," he said, which was not what Oscar wanted to say.

"Actually, Yang was. I was in track. But I used to practice with Yang." She sighed and looked down at herself. "I guess this is a little much, huh? Or maybe a little...little." Ruby looked up at him. "I just wanted to wear it for you." She glanced around and giggled. "Though I guess I'm wearing it for everyone else, too. Oops."

That made Oscar feel a little better—the little furtive glance, the blush in her cheeks, the girlish giggle—that was the Ruby he knew. "I love you," he blurted.

Ruby's smile faltered. "I'm…" She shook her head. "Let's…let's just swim some. You can watch me, okay?"

"Sure," Oscar replied miserably. Ruby's silver eyes were pained as she turned and dived back into the ocean. He sat down in the surf and let the waves splash against his chest. Ruby hadn't said she loved him back.

She'd said it before—in the height of passion, usually—but Oscar wondered if he'd just been a fool the whole time. Maybe Ruby didn't love him. They had agreed after they had started their affair that it wasn't love, just two people trying to find a little light in a very dark world, comforting each other as everything came apart around them. It was friends with benefits, nothing more. Oscar had been fine with that, just happy to have a girl that thought that way about him. He knew Ruby felt the same way, to have a boy that liked her.

But when he had been hanging naked from a strap in the basement of a Warsaw ruin, with first Salem and then Hazel torturing him, Oscar had clung to the image of Ruby Rose like a life preserver. He remembered her naked body against his, even the image of her in her dress uniform or in her flight suit, those silver eyes sparkling with mirth, or half-closed in gasping pleasure, or just that gentle smile. It made the pain of Hazel's fists smashing into his jaw or into his limbs bearable. He had survived and come back to her, and she to him—Oscar knew Ruby had her own trauma, the knowledge that the Hound had specifically sought to capture her, to drag her back to Salem. That trauma would be made even worse by Neo Politan's torture of her, the kerasine drugs tearing Ruby's psyche apart even as Neo beat her almost as badly as Hazel had beaten him. He only knew that from what Weiss had told him; Ruby had not spoken about it when they had been reunited, and he hadn't asked.

On the carrier, after being separated by the court-martial, Oscar thought about Ruby every day. He wrote letters—the ones he didn't tear up because they sounded stupid. His squadronmates had kidded him about having it bad, and they were right. He had gone ashore at Cape Town only to buy something for Ruby and his mother, and that was all, even as some of the other pilots wanted him to come with them to the bars; a few of the more insensitive ones had even told him to find a brothel and at least get rid of some of the tension. Oscar had refused, of course, even as Ruby tormented his dreams. He loved her, he knew he did, but now he wondered if Ruby loved him. People change, he told himself as the spray hit him in the face; the tide was coming in. His relationship would hardly be the first the Navy had inadvertently broken up.

He never saw her. Ruby rode the incoming tide underwater like an otter, sliding up the sandy shelf. Oscar nearly leapt out of the water as he felt her hands touch first his feet, then his legs; at first, he thought it was a shark. Then she surfaced like a submarine-launched ballistic missile between his knees, her face sliding up his chest until her lips found his. They tasted of salt. So did her tongue. Ruby broke the kiss, only to clasp him tightly to her. He shuddered as her tongue found his ear. "Oscar," she whispered huskily.

"W-W-What?" he stammered.

"I'm going to fuck you like I just got out of prison." Oscar turned to face her, his eyes wide in utter surprise. Ruby grinned at him hungrily.

Oscar couldn't reply at first. Naturally, he'd fantasized about this moment himself: the two of them repairing to the VOQ after their swim on the beach. There, she'd slowly remove her swimsuit (which, in Oscar's imagination, was a lot more substantial) in the half-light of dusk and the distant sound of the ocean, and he'd gently take her on the bed. Now here was Ruby baldly proposing sex in the filthiest language possible. "Ruby? Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine." Her voice was smoky. "C'mon. We'll catch up to the others later. Much later."

"O-O-Okay."

Ruby kissed him again, and then stood up out of the water, looming over him, wet and warm and alive, her barely-covered crotch only inches from his face. "Well? What are you waiting for?"

Oscar drew his legs up to his chest. "Give me a minute, Ruby, or the whole of Atlantic Beach is going to know how much I love you."

They said some hurried goodbyes to Weiss, Blake and Yang. Weiss watched them over the tops of her sunglasses and rolled her eyes, but she was smiling when she did. Blake was clearly fighting down laughter as she waved at them. Oscar was most surprised at Yang's expression. He expected her to laugh, or to playfully make fun of them, or even look angry—Yang was still struggling with the fact that her little sister was a grown woman with her own lover. He hadn't expected her to look so worried. He made a mental note to ask her about it later, if he survived that long.

The beach was off-base, so Ruby and Oscar both had to change back into civilian clothes and drive back; Oscar, showing the forethought of his sire, had rented a separate car from the others. It was only five minutes from the beach to the Mayport VOQ, and Ruby's feet beat an impatient tattoo on the floorboard. When they got to his room—which happened to be closer to the entrance—they barely got in the door before Ruby fastened herself to Oscar like a lust-addled lamprey.

They made it to the bed, but Oscar had no idea how. His shirt was torn off his body, his pants ended up parts unknown, and his underwear was hanging off a picture of the USS Enterprise-the World War II one. Ruby's T-shirt somehow ended up on the ceiling fan and her jean shorts near the room's little refrigerator. She had worn the alleged swimsuit underneath her clothes, and that was peeled off and tossed haphazardly on a chair. Once they were naked, Ruby had pushed him on the bed. Their lovemaking was passionate, torrid, loud—in that the bed squeaked alarmingly throughout, though Ruby wasn't exactly quiet—and short. It had been so long that Oscar had anticipated he wouldn't last very long: what surprised him was that Ruby reached her peak even faster.

Once they were finished, Ruby fell over next to him, gasping for breath. "How…how was I?"

Oscar willed his heart to stop thumping and tried to get some air. He felt like he had run a marathon. It had taken all of six minutes from the moment the door closed to now. "Like…Ruby, I feel like…like I just made love…to a tornado…"

She snuggled up against him. "Welcome home, Oscar."

"Yeah, I guess!" He turned over. "You too, or something."

"Heh." She grinned at him and caressed his cheek. "What did you think of that swimsuit?"

He glanced over. "It looks really good on that chair." She giggled at that. "Why did you wear that thing?"

"Oh, I thought that it would get you all hot and bothered." Ruby rolled over and looked at the ceiling. "And I felt like being adventurous. I'm a grown-ass woman. I'm tired of people seeing me like I'm some fourteen year old kid playing fighter pilot. I want people to see…well…me."

"I think people saw a lot more of you than you wanted." Oscar got up and walked to the air conditioner, switching it on, then pulled some water out of the minifridge. He gave one to Ruby, then downed half of the other.

"So what." Ruby sat up and pushed up her chest. "Fuck 'em."

He opened his seabag and rummaged through it. "You sure you didn't switch bodies with your sister?"

Ruby looked down at her breasts. "I wish."

Oscar looked back at her over one shoulder. "My uncle used to say more than a handful was a waste." He pulled a small box out of the seabag and walked back to the bed, keeping it hidden behind his back with one hand. Ruby didn't notice, too busy drinking the water. She drained the bottle and fired it at the garbage can, and missed. "Dammit! Thunder Dan I'm not." He sat on the bed and put the box on the floor. There were a few things he wanted to do first. One of them they had already accomplished. He got back next to her. "You want to go again?" she asked him and teased him with her fingers.

"Ruby, have you heard of the male refractory period?"

"Nope." She kissed him. "But I can wait a bit. We'll go slower next time."

"I don't think I can go any faster." He looked down at his genitals, making sure there wasn't any bruising or friction burns. "Ruby…what's going on?"

"Huh?" She sat up in the bed as he did, the playfulness of the moment evaporating with the tone of Oscar's voice. "What do you mean?"

"I may be a naïve farmboy from Nebraska," Oscar said, "but you're acting really weird, Ruby."

Ruby was silent for a moment, then her hand found his. "I've been really lonely, Oscar. I don't have any friends at Hill. It's been nothing but work. Training kids—" She stopped at that, and snorted. "Yeah, right. Whose grandmother am I, huh? But training, flying, and writing reports. That's me the last six months."

"Didn't you go over to Salt Lake?" Oscar asked.

"Yeah, first week. Hit Temple Square, and…done. Gone over to the Hill Museum a few times. There's nothing else to do there but go gawk at the Great Salt Lake and go ski, and I don't ski. Most of the time I just stayed in my room and did a lot of reading on my day off." Ruby shrugged. "And missed you. Not just you, but…everyone."

"You didn't try to meet new people?"

"No. Why?"

"It's a four-year assignment, right?" Oscar spread his hands. "You're going to have to make friends sometime."

"I don't want to make friends. I have all the friends I want." Ruby pulled her hand away and folded her arms across her breasts. "Besides, it doesn't matter. The Air Force has an up-or-out policy. I have a letter of reprimand in my promotion file and half the people at Hill wish I had been thrown in the deepest hole in Leavenworth. So after this tour is over, I'm probably going to be forced out of the service. And then what?" she said bitterly. "Probably go mercenary. I should've taken General Gale's offer to resign before that stupid fucking court-martial anyway." Her hands clenched into fists, then relaxed, and she let out a long breath. "Hell with it. I was ordered to take a month off and rest, so I'm going to do that. I'm going to enjoy this week with you. We're going to spend the next two days eating takeout and screwing, and if I put on my clothes for anything but answering the door for pizza, then I've failed at being your girlfriend."

Oscar knew an opening when he saw one. He got out of bed and got down on one knee, acting like he was looking for something under the bed, when his hand was already on the box. Ruby gave him a confused look. "Actually," he said, commanding his voice to stay steady and not break. This was not the speech he was practiced, but if Oscar Pine had learned anything in the past year, it was to adapt and overcome. He raised the box and opened it. "Do you want to try being my wife?"

Ruby's eyes went wide as platters. Her hands went to her mouth in a gasp. Oscar smiled, because this at least was going according to plan. He saw her eyes fill with tears, which ran down in two rivulets. It was a full minute before Ruby found her voice. "Do you…do you mean it?" She shook her head. "That's a dumb question…of course you do."

He used his free hand to wipe his own eyes. "I mean it more than anything I've ever meant, Ruby Rose."

"Oh, Oscar…" She tentatively reached out and touched the ring. It was a simple gold band, surmounted by two small diamonds of equal size, touching each other like two tentative lovers. "It's so beautiful. How…where?"

"Ship's store, if you can believe it." It had cost him two months' pay, but Oscar didn't care. "Aren't you going to put it on?"

"I…" Ruby sniffled. Her hand was shaking.

Oscar decided maybe she needed a little incentive. "Ruby Rose, please be my wife. I love you. I loved you the minute I saw you for the first time." On countless midwatches, he had rehearsed that line to himself.

Ruby's tears only increased, her silver eyes getting red. Her lower lip trembled, and to Oscar's horror, she reached out and closed the box. "I…I can't."

Oscar was stunned. He remained on his knees, holding out the box with one hand, even as Ruby curled up in a corner of the bed, drew up her knees to her chin, and covered her face in her hands, crying. "You can't?" he asked at length. She shook her head. Oscar finally set the box on the little nightstand and got into bed next to her. He reached out hesitantly and drew her into an embrace; Ruby didn't resist that. "Ruby, what's wrong?"

"I can't," she sobbed. "God help me, Oscar, I can't."

"I don't understand," he said, because he didn't. "Look, if you're worried you can't be a Navy wife, don't be. I'll resign tomorrow. Turn in my wings and walk away."

Ruby took her hands away from her face. "Oscar, you worked hard for that. Don't throw that away for me."

"I don't care."

"Yes, you do." She rested her head on his shoulder, her face streaked with tears. "You don't care now, but you will. You'd resent me for that. What would you do—go back and be a farmer?"

"I don't know…maybe." Oscar shrugged. "It's honest work. I always figured that's what I would do once I retired anyway. My mom intends to leave me the farm after she passes."

"No," Ruby said firmly. "Oscar, I can't—I won't ask you to do that for me. Ever. How much of a bitch would I be if you resigned your commission and I didn't? Because I want to keep flying, Oscar." She touched his lips with a finger. "And I'm not going airlines. Not even for you."

"So…you're okay with being a Navy wife?"

Ruby looked down at them both, still nude. "Well…I do like the welcome home part of it." Oscar laughed. This was progress. He reached back for the ring, but she stopped him. "Oscar, it's not that I can't be a Navy wife. I can't be a wife at all."

Oscar visibly crumpled. "I don't understand."

Ruby withdrew from his embrace and got out of the bed. She sighed. "Oscar…I've never told you what happened to me when Neo tortured me."

"You don't have to," he assured her.

"I'm not going to go into details, because I don't want to remember." She did remember, though—the fever dream of seeing a broken, bloody and naked Oscar at her feet, her own fists dripping with blood. She knew now that the whole thing had been a kerasine-induced hallucination, though the blood had been Neo's, and real enough. Ruby hugged herself, not able to look at her lover. "It was…after. After Delta rescued me. I was out of it for a long time, but I had a really weird dream. So weird…I'm not sure it was even a dream or what it was."

Then she did turn back to him, partially. "I talked to my mom, Summer Rose. Her ghost. I mean, I don't know that she's even dead and it was all drug shit, probably…but I talked to her. And she pointed some things out to me. Like how hard I've been trying to be her all these years. I always wanted to be a fighter pilot, Oscar. But after Mom died, disappeared, whatever, I wanted to be her. I wanted to find out what happened to her, become as good as she was, even fly the same F-16 as she did. And I kinda have. But for what, Oscar?" Ruby angrily wiped her eyes. "Penny's dead. Both of them. Jaune's dead. Your dad's dead—I know you didn't know him, but he was a good man. Yang almost died, twice. So did Blake and Weiss…and you. Ironwood's dead, and I wonder if I had a hand in killing him."

"You didn't," Oscar insisted.

"Still, Oscar…I still wonder. And then I get court-martialed for doing what I thought was right, only to find out that I probably wasn't. Or I did the right thing the wrong way or something." Ruby rubbed her arms. "So everything I tried to be hasn't worked. I didn't measure up to my mom. But my mom, in this weird dream…she told me I was enough the way I am."

"I think you are," Oscar told her, trying to be helpful.

She smiled sadly. "Thanks. I appreciate that—really I do. But if I'm not Summer Rose, and I'm good enough the way I am—who am I, Oscar?" She gave a tired shrug. "I don't know. That's one reason I wore that slutty swimsuit today. I wanted to try that Ruby Rose. I kind of like her. I don't know if I like the cast-iron bitch that I am at Hill, but that seems to be the only way people take me seriously. They don't like it, but they learn. And that's going to keep them alive."

"Ruby, damn." Oscar got up from the bed and hugged her from behind. He wasn't quite a head taller than her. "We're all trying to figure that out. Here I am, thinking I'm just some farmer's kid from Nowheresville who managed to get through Pensacola and get some wings of gold, and I find out three days before graduation from some mystery CIA lady that my real dad wasn't some farmer from South Sioux City, but a Medal of Honor man with more medals than Patton. And he managed to accidentally start World War III along with the woman that controls the GRIMM. That my mom was his rebound chick, and I was an accident. Even Salem pointed that out, before she started torturing me." He felt a sympathetic twinge of pain in his testicles; Salem had started there.

"So I'm not Oscar Pine, farm kid who did good," he continued. "I'm Oscar Ozpin, Junior, the son of a hero that I didn't know and frankly not even sure I like. But that's okay, because people don't know that. At least Ozpin did that. I'm free to figure out who I am, as a naval aviator—but more than that. I'm a guy who survived being tortured by someone who might as well be Queen of the GRIMM. I'm a guy who flew halfway around the world and managed to survive snowstorms, cannibals, crazy French generals, the Hound and Neo Politan. Ozpin didn't do any of that for me. I did that myself…and at the risk of committing the sin of pride, Ruby, I'm damn proud of that." He kissed the top of her head. "But I'd be pretty damn proud to be the husband of Ruby Rose—or Ruby Pine, if you like."

Ruby was silent. "I can't be that, Oscar."

He felt anger well up inside him, and forced it down. "Okay, okay…you know what?" Oscar gently turned him around to face her, tipped her chin up with a finger just like they did in the movies, and kissed her. It was a gentle kiss, not the devouring ones they had shared minutes ago, or the tentative kisses of new lovers as it had been in Algiers. It was the kiss of a man who wanted this to be the first of ten thousand kisses with the woman he loved. When they parted, he wiped away a new tear. "That was a lot to take in. I sprung that on you pretty fast. Take some time to think about it, okay? You don't have to make a decision now."

"Oscar, it's not that I don't want to be your wife…" Ruby paused. "I mean…I don't even know if I love you or not." She stepped out of his embrace a little and opened her arms wide, so he would look at all of her. "Yeah, we have sex, Oscar. We make love, and it's wonderful. And I enjoy being around you. I love your eyes, and I love your smile, and I love your butt." She tried a joke; it fell flat. "But I don't…I don't know what love means. Maybe you don't either. I can't see myself spending my life with you and being an old woman telling there-I-was stories at the VFW in Pilger or wherever." She wanted to cry again at the utterly crushed expression on Oscar's face. "The reason isn't anything to do with you, Oscar. You're perfect. In so many ways." She gazed at him from his tousled black hair to his wide feet. "It's me."

"Ruby, I just said that you don't need to make a decision now," Oscar pleaded.

"Oscar…" Ruby closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out. "I'm going to die, Oscar."

He went pale. "What…how? Is it…do you have—"

"No, I don't have cancer or anything like that. At least I hope not." Ruby couldn't meet his gaze. "I'm going to die because I'm a fighter pilot. I can't give that up. I won't. It's what I exist to do. It's why I'm such a hardass to the trainees and why I press my engagements too close and ignore the fucking hard deck. They need to learn the lessons we did, so there's no more Jaunes and no more Pennies.

"But I don't see how I survive this war, Oscar. Even if I managed to survive for four years and then go merc or the Air Force tears up my letter of reprimand or I end up like Uncle Qrow, working for Arashikaze, I'm going to die. I know I am. I made peace with it. I'm going to try to make sure Salem dies too, but I am going to die."

Oscar was silent for a long moment. His sorrowful expression was replaced by one of anger. "I thought you said you weren't trying to be Summer Rose anymore."

Now she faced him, and her eyes were just as hard as his. "I'm not. Because my mother got married and had a child, and then she died. At least, I pray to God she's dead and not rotting in Salem's prison somewhere. She left behind a husband that still hasn't recovered and two daughters that still miss her a lot. I created this perfect Supermom because I didn't remember what my real mom was like." She stabbed a finger at the engagement ring box. "And now you want me to make the same mistake she did? Marry you, Oscar? Get pregnant and have your kids? And then get killed and leave them motherless and you a widower? Sentence you to be a single dad raising a daughter or a son who is constantly asking you where Mommy went?" Tears began filling her silver eyes again, but this time Ruby was not sobbing; her face was a mask of cold rage. "No, Oscar. I'll be your lover. I'll make love to you and have fun with you and be your friend. Even if you hate me now, I understand, but I want to be that for you. But I'll be damned if I make the same goddamn mistakes my mother did."

Ruby and Oscar glared at each other for a few more seconds, and then the room phone jangled, causing both of them to jump. They then looked at the phone, which let out another perverse ring, then back at each other. Finally, since it was Oscar's room, he stomped over and picked up the phone. "Room 13, Lieutenant Pine, and this is a very, very bad time."

"Lieutenant Pine, this is Commander Kzutto." Oscar blinked; it was the base commander. "And if you think this is a bad time, it's about get very fucking worse. This is an active air scramble, Lieutenant. We're surging everything that we can find pilots for. Where's those two Air Force pilots and that Luftwaffe one?" There was a shuffle of paper in the background. "Lieutenant Rose, Captain Xiao Long, and Hauptmann Schnee?"

Oscar glanced at Ruby. "Er…well, Lieutenant Rose is, um, next door, and the others are at Yamada's Crab Shack." Blake had mentioned eating there after relaxing at the beach, with the same expression of a starving man in an all-you-can-eat restaurant. "At least, I'm pretty sure they are."

"Fine. You call Lieutenant Rose and I'll find someone to get the others."

"Sir, what's going on?" Oscar asked.

"We've got GRIMM coming, that's what. It's Phoenix all over again. We got lucky this time and someone spotted them over the Atlantic, otherwise Mayport would be doing a great impression of Pearl Harbor. Right now we've got about thirty minutes before they hit us and Cape Kennedy. So move your ass, sailor."

"Holy God," Oscar breathed. "Sir, how many?"

There was a pause. "Hundreds of them."

AUTHOR'S NOTES: And for those of you tired of the talky chapters...your wait is over.

A few quick explanations. What Oscar and Blake describe is a classic Navy Equator Crossing ceremony, which I doubt has changed much since the introduction of women on vessels. It's basically a day where the Navy takes it off and subjects any "pollywogs" (those who haven't made an Equator crossing yet) to all kinds of abuse, purely in the name of tradition. The pollywogs have to crawl through a chute of garbage, run a gauntlet of shellbacks (those who have made an Equator crossing) armed with sticks and tie-down straps, and kiss the Royal Baby-the fattest Chief Petty Officer on the ship, who is dressed like a baby and has his belly smeared with things like cake batter, ice cream, and vinegar. There's other rituals too, but those are the ones my dad went through in Vietnam and my grandfather went through in World War II-though my grandfather's Gauntlet of Doom had guys with cattle prods. The Jackass cast has nothing on the Navy. Once you're done, you're a shellback per order of King Neptune (usually the oldest man on the ship), and you get a certificate and a card. I still have both my dad's and my granddad's.

Major Oum-Monty's ORW counterpart-is joined by Colonel Kerry in this story. It should probably be the other way around as far as rank goes, but that's all right. In reality, such TDY orders would probably not be created, but this is fiction, of course.

Finally, that swimsuit of Ruby's-whew. Sounds like she borrowed Weiss' swimsuit from Sunshine and Summertime, but it's not plagiarism if you steal from yourself. I think.

Anyway, the next chapter is going to be air combat on a grand scale, as Mayport and Cape Kennedy fight for their lives. But where did the GRIMM come from, and why aren't they being detected?