Chapter 47 – Patch: Qrowbaby

Cover Art - Mi Chumi

Chapter Beta - ZoroEpsilon

Summer Rose was having an incredible day of pampering.

It was the thirteenth day of incredible pampering in a row. The first week, the girls had been kept home from school, as much to keep them from unspooling and blurting out the fact that their mom was back, as it was so she could spoil them. It turned out they were insistent on spoiling her right back. The most she'd managed was baking endless batches of cookies, which Ruby, to her credit, consumed like the Cookie Monster that she was.

They'd taken to helping Tai feed her breakfast in bed that week. They'd also prevented her from doing any housework, as per Tai's orders.

At least she was allowed to read them bedtime stories. In her own bed of course. She'd still not managed to get them to sleep in their own rooms at night. That first week had been a little tense between the two adults, since the odds of five minutes alone… and she'd have accepted five minutes of 'wham bam thank you Tai', well the odds were zero.

She'd also gotten to know her daughters again. Tai hadn't changed much in three years. He was still the horrific pun machine on the one hand, a complete pushover for the girls on the other, and on the third hand, he was her rock. A bastion of strength in a sea of change. She could count on him. Oh, she could tell her absence had affected him. Every once in a while, he'd get that haunted look, and then she'd catch his eye and it would fade immediately, almost as if he'd forgotten she was back, or he was suddenly convinced he'd imagined it and had to go back to being alone.

But the real change was in the girls. At their age, three years' absence was an eternity. Ruby had shot up eight inches in height and had leaned out from lost baby fat while gaining a good ten pounds of bone and muscle. The real change was in her personality. Where Summer had left a bubbly and good-natured four-year-old, she'd returned to a veritable hyperactive body-in-motion. The girl just would not sit still for very long and wanted to know everything.

Dear gods, Summer thought, if that's any indication of Ruby's future Semblance, we are in deep, deep trouble.

And Ruby now was obsessed with weapons, likely thanks to Qrow. The young girl had been absolutely devastated when she found out that Sundered Rose had been "misplaced" somewhere and swore that someday she would make her mom an even better version. The thought had filled Summer with warmth and bemusement.

Yang on the other hand had turned from the pint-sized terror she remembered fondly, taking after her birth mother, to something that was in many ways more mature than she had a right to be. She'd returned to find a young girl who pretended to be strong like Tai, but beneath that brash facade was hiding incredible fragility and insecurity. A girl who was extremely touchy about her hair, for example, because brushing Yang's hair had been Summer's job, before she'd disappeared three years ago.

It was a facade, because Yang had lost her birth mother, whom she barely remembered, and then the mom who raised her, and then felt obligated to take on the role of acting mother herself for her younger sister. That realization had left Summer sobbing in Tai's arms in the bathroom. Quietly, so Yang and Ruby wouldn't hear.

But according to Tai, that first week along made a difference. A dramatic difference. Kids were resilient. And by the end of it, they'd convinced the girls that if they went to school, Tai would stay home with Summer for another week. That had been after hours of hard bargaining with Yang and huge, soulful, puppy-dog silver eyes from Ruby.

If I can survive that, I can survive anything, Summer had giggled to Tai afterward.

The girls had apparently followed their instructions to the letter at school. Not one person called Tai or showed up at the house in an excited frenzy, eager to see whether Summer Rose was in fact back. The worst they got was a message from one of Yang's teachers complimenting her on her suddenly improved attitude at school.

Which left Summer and Tai alone at home during the day. To say they made the most of their days, considering the girls filled their bed at night, would be an understatement. To say that Tai pampered her would be like calling Tyrian Callows 'a bit eccentric'.

She was currently enjoying one of these pampering sessions late on Friday morning, seated comfortably in a fuzzy robe at the kitchen table with a hot mug of cocoa in hand. Tai was clad in loose pajama bottoms, bare-chested, and had his back to her throwing together some bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches to take the edge off the appetite they'd just worked up.

Summer eyed the flexing muscles of his back and shoulders as his arms moved back and forth, slicing some tomatoes on the cutting board. Next to him, a pan was heating up to fry some bacon.

It's not the only thing warming up at the moment, she mused, silver eye sparking. Oh no indeed.

"I can feel you staring at me, Summer. If you keep this up, you'll burn off the calories faster than I can feed them to you."

"Hmph. Not likely. Besides, I—" Her scroll buzzed on the table beside her, and Summer froze.

There were only a handful of people who had her number… who even knew she existed at the moment. And there was only one reason she expected a call.

"Summer?" Tai asked, turning around. The knife was forgotten in his hand, and his face was tense with concern. Summer raised one hand and picked up her scroll with the other.

She disabled the video and kept it off speaker mode before accepting the call and holding it carefully up to her ear.

"Summer, it's Selene, can you speak freely? It is… excellent news."

Summer sat still, trying to process the words, and feeling her thoughts run in circles until she saw Tai set the knife down and start to move toward her. "I… One sec." She lowered the scroll and addressed her husband. "Tai. I have to take this. It's good news, but I made some promises… to keep some people out of things." He paused, looking conflicted. "Tai, I swear, it's good. I'll fill you in as soon as I'm done," Summer promised as she stood up.

He sighed, looking frustrated, then recovered quickly. That was her Tai. He trusted her completely. Maybe too completely, considering how she'd misused that trust once, three years ago. She moved quickly through the living room, and into the guest bedroom, since it was the closest, before she enabled video and speaker.

When Selene's face appeared on the Scroll, Summer was elated to see her smiling, though the woman's face quickly transformed into shock.

"What is it?" Summer hissed.

"Summer. You look wonderful!"

And it was probably true. When Selene had first seen her in March, Summer had felt thin, frail, and nearly broken. When they'd rescued her a month later, she'd improved in spirit, but she'd still felt weak and worn out. Now, a mere two weeks later, Summer knew her fair-skinned face had become fuller and rounder, and there was so much life in her silver eye when she peered into a mirror.

Summer smiled, eye crinkling. "I feel… I feel good." She glanced back toward the closed door. "I may be about to feel even better?" Summer knew her expression was hopeful. She'd expected bad news to come as a terrifying emergency text message, not a voice call. So this… surely this…

"Yes," Selene's smile returned broadly. "Yes, you are."

Summer dropped to the floor with a thump as her legs weakened.

"Summer? You okay?" Tai's voice called from the kitchen.

"I'm fine!" Summer yelled back from where she sat on the floor, and continued with a white lie, "I just bumped something!" She took several deep breaths, and Selene smiled madly as she watched Summer collect herself. "You mean it? It's done?"

"Yes. I informed The Queen that you are aligned with me, and the terms of our agreement. She… was not, in any fashion, happy with my actions, but she has agreed to abide by the conditions of what she has termed your 'parole'."

Summer scowled at the last word. "Parole… of all the…" she sighed and shook her head. "No. No, I'm not gonna get hung up on semantics. I'm not. I'm… you have no idea, Selene." Summer chewed her lip. "I made a huge mistake, and I've got to spend some time with my family making up for that. But after that… what do you need me to do?"

She watched as Selene tilted her head. "I do not know, Summer. For now, I want you to be well, and happy, and free. Later, I may ask you to assist me, but I will not demand anything of you..." Selene's smile faded, "Other than keeping my role in your escape and my true nature secret. You are the only one, beyond Garek and Visha, who knows what I am, Summer. I was not exaggerating when I said that you could cause my death."

Summer stared at her for several long seconds, the reality of that sinking in. This woman, whom she'd met once three years ago in the bowels of Evernight, had then risked her own life and freedom to secure hers. "I swear to you, Selene. I won't betray you like that. Not after what you've done for me. Not after… I think I know what kind of person you are. And… it's making me ask myself some hard questions."

"Good. I question myself all the time."

"Your friends don't know?"

"Not yet. I wish to tell them. I swear to you. But it is… terrifying. What if they reject me? What if my true nature is too much for them to accept?"

Summer nodded slowly and looked toward the door that led back to Tai. "Not a big fan of secrets now, but I can understand what you mean." She chewed at a fingernail. "What about… Tai? I… I feel like I need to tell him how you helped me. All of it."

Selene's eyes took on a hunted look. "I cannot… I do not know your husband."

She could see the conflicting emotions warring on Selene's face. It was strange, really. Summer was viewing the blue-eyed and fair-skinned version of Selene on the scroll. But she felt like she could see, beneath that surface, the real Selene. White skin. Black and scarlet eyes. Features that should have filled her with terror or anger, but didn't, because Selene was a person, not a thing.

And she wanted Tai to understand that, too. She didn't want to keep secrets from him anymore. "I trust him like… like you trust Garek," Summer insisted. "He won't betray me, and I won't betray you."

Selene closed her eyes and swallowed. "Then I will trust you, as you have trusted me."

Summer thought about that word, trust. She barely knew Selene, and yet… she probably knew more about her than most people Selene interacted with. She'd been the first kind voice she'd heard, those three years ago in Evernight Castle. And then she'd been the one to facilitate getting her back home to her family.

"Yeah. Like a friend would." Summer felt her eye beginning to tear up, and wiped at it. "I mean that. When the time comes, if you need me in your corner when you have to… explain your situation, I'll be here for you."

Selene felt her entire body tense at the idea. It was too soon. Still too soon. She tried changing the subject. "And you? What is your plan to make your return known?"

Summer grinned toothily, drying her eye. "Oh, I'm going to start with the girls' uncle Qrow, he's Raven's brother, now that we're in the clear. That'll be the final member of Team STRQ back in the know. I got word from Raven that she's already broken his brain, so this should be quite the show." Her silver eye danced. "Not that I won't probably blubber like a baby too. Gods, I miss that idiot." She grew quieter. "And I'll let him tell Ozpin." Her face hardened slightly. "He'll probably be overjoyed, and want me to run off to Beacon to report in. And he can kiss my butt. I'm not setting foot off Patch for months at least. If he wants to talk to me, he can call me, or drag his latest incarnation's carcass here."

"Summer—"

"Oh, don't worry, I'll be careful." She chewed her lip. "I've decided to stick to the truth as much as possible and plead trauma and family to stay out of his sights for the near future. But at some point, I need to get Qrow out of his clutches."

"I will leave that to you. I just want you to be safe. Ozpin can be just as dangerous as The Queen. To me, he is deadlier."

Hearing that fact spoken aloud shocked Summer, but she realized quickly that it was true for Selene. "I understand." Summer fidgeted with her sleeves for a bit. "You know what's the weirdest thing?"

"Hmm?"

"I've got a gravestone, out at the edge of the forest where the cliff drops off. They put up a marker for me." She shook her head. "Still trying to decide whether to dig it up or leave it. It's… sobering, y'know?"

"I cannot imagine how it must have been, to have your family believe you dead. For them to put up a marker, not knowing how you died? Where? When? Or even if you even were dead, or just lost to them forever." Selene shivered at the idea. "Do what brings you joy, Summer. Perhaps you should ask your family?"

"Yeah. I intended to." Summer smiled. "You do the same, Selene. I gotta get back to Tai." She paused. "Don't be a stranger. I mean it. If you need me, call me. Tai and I will come, and I'll drag Raven's sorry behind with me. I promise."

"Thank you, Summer," Selene said, with a warm smile. "That means much to me."

After the call ended, Summer Rose collected herself, exited the guest room, and made her way back into the kitchen where Tai was making lunch.

"Who was that?"

"Confirmation that I'm safe. That we're all safe," Summer took a deep breath. "Finish making those sandwiches, this is going to take a while."

Two hours later, Taiyang sat at the table opposite Summer, his second BLT half-eaten on his plate, staring at her in disbelief.

"You've held this back for two weeks."

"I didn't know whether it was safe yet. I didn't… if we'd ended up on the run, putting Selene at risk—"

"You think I would—"

"I wanted to focus on us first, Tai." Summer interrupted. "On you and me and Yang and Ruby. I wasn't ready. I was still afraid it would all fall apart."

Tai stared at her as if he was trying to make sure she was really Summer.

"Salem's daughter..." he hissed, disbelieving.

"Half Huntsman," Summer replied defensively.

"Half Grimm," Tai retorted, arms crossed and blue eyes judging. "You remember Grimm, right? Red eyes, tendency to tear open your ribcage and eat your organs?"

Oh, heck no you aren't. "And Faunus have animal traits. And you aren't stupid enough to believe that makes them act like animals, Tai. And you don't treat them like animals." Tai jerked back, blue eyes wide. "Yeah, it's like that. Selene's a person, Tai. And she's risked her life with me just knowing this and letting me tell you. Because she trusts me."

"I still feel like you're making a deal with the devil."

"No!" Summer growled. "Selene's the one forced to make a deal with the devil, on my behalf." Summer glared at the table so that she wouldn't glare at her husband, hands twitching, before she continued more quietly. "No, that's not right. Salem's a bitch." Tai started. Summer never cursed. She just didn't. "But she's not the devil. She's inhuman, and petty, and selfish." She shook her head. "But she's not the personification of evil, even if that's what it feels like to us mere mortals." She held Tai's eyes. "Just like Ozpin… Ozma… isn't the perfect example of all that's freaking holy and righteous in the world. Sure, he wants to prevent humanity from being destroyed, but he doesn't know how, and he's not telling us enough to make informed decisions!"

Summer was breathing heavily, trying to stay in control of her emotions.

"Summer…"

"I'm sorry Tai. I just… I believe Ozpin means well, I really do. But he's not a god either. He's a screwed -up person in a screwed-up situation, and he's lived so long… he's seen so many of us come and go. Can you understand what that means? He'll sacrifice me, you, our entire family if it means another few decades of peace." She reached across the table and grabbed at Tai's arms, pulling them from where he'd wrapped them around himself defensively, and grasped his hands in hers. "And then he'll do it again to some other family. And he'll cry about it every time. Because he doesn't have a freaking plan other than hope humanity gets better some day or some miracle happens and solves this for him."

She gripped his hands tightly, begging him to understand. "I won't let my family, our daughters, be fed to this war. Not if there's another option."

Tai searched his wife's face for… truth? Reason? It was all insane, and yet he believed her. He had to believe her. In the last two weeks, he'd satisfied himself finally that this was Summer returned to him and not some doppelganger or cruel joke. And this was Summer. This is exactly how she'd react.

Still. "And what exactly is this other option?" Tai asked quietly. "You haven't told me that."

"We don't know yet."

Somehow, Tai found that blunt admission more reassuring than some wild pie-in-the-sky scheme would have been. "Huh."

"Yeah. But it's better than fighting a war you can't win, right?" Summer squeezed his hands. "I'm not telling you we can't fight Grimm. I'm not telling you we can't protect people. That's what Selene and Garek and all of them are doing! They just aren't… fighting Salem and Ozpin directly. They're trying to figure out how to work around them."

"But they'll have to fight one of them at some point, Summer. At some point, Ozpin and Salem are going to figure out what they're trying to do and force them to pick sides."

"Maybe. Or maybe we'll…" she emphasized the word "…figure out something different. Something that screws up their war so badly that… I dunno… makes them both rethink what they're doing. Maybe we'll be the ones who come up with the miracle." She shook her head. "But I'll tell you one thing. If it comes down to picking sides, Selene won't hurt her mom, but she won't serve her either if it means the rest of the world gets hurt."

"You believe that."

"I know it." Summer leaned forward. "Please, Tai. I need you. I need you on my side. For me. For our family."

The blonde man searched Summer's face, and then sighed. He closed his eyes and leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers. He could feel the rough material of her eye-patch against his eyebrow.

She'd sacrificed so much, nearly everything. They both had. She was asking him to trust her now, when she hadn't given him the chance to, all those years ago. "You already know what my answer is," he huffed.

"That's why I love you. Why I've always loved you, even when my best friend got to you first." Summer laughed, both in the memory and with relief. She pulled back, felt him tilt his head, and met him with a kiss. It's going to be okay. It really is.

Finally, they separated, and he frowned at his plate. "Food got cold."

"Eh, we can make more."

"You mean I can make more. You can't fry anything without it turning into charcoal or ending up raw."

"Meanie." Summer huffed.

"Seriously, though, what's next."

Summer felt a smile creep across her face. "Ohhhh… I was thinking we invite Qrow over, like immediately, for an emergency conference with you about… heck you'll figure something out. Do it for lunchtime, so the kids aren't home. I want to see his face. I want to see him blubbering like a little girl."

"Like you won't be all over him."

"Meh. Probably. But still."

Tai gave Summer a look. "So… Raven's in on this too?"

"She doesn't know what Selene is, just that she's got a mole in Salem's court."

"Oh. That's going to go over well."

"I'll be the one to break that news. Preferably when Selene is far, far away from Raven and Omen, so that if I have to I can beat some sense into her before she tries to take Selene's head off."

"Hmph. If what you say is right, that's as much to protect Raven from Salem's vengeance as it is to protect Selene."

"Eh. Po-tay-toe. Po-tah-toe."

He stood up, moving back toward the stove-top. "So Qrow first, huh?" He glanced back over his shoulder, one blue eye glinting with mischief.

"Yep, and that gossipy old bird will do the rest for us."

Tai laughed. "You're not wrong. Okay, let's do it."

"An emergency, huh? You're lucky I happened to be in Vale, Tai. I've been putting in some serious frequent flyer miles for Oz lately."

"Anything you can talk about?"

"Sure, just not over scroll."

"How soon can you get out here?"

"How's tomorrow morning sound?" Qrow said in his gravelly voice. "If I can't get transport, I'll book a ticket on Qrow Airways." He narrowed his eyes. "You're not gonna tell me what this is all about?"

"Sure, just not over scroll."

"Touche," Qrow laughed.

Tai smiled in response. "How about: It's personal, and it's important. It's actually good news, but we can't talk about it in front of the kids."

"Huh. Alright. So, I should bring some booze?"

Tai laughed. "Nah, I've got beer on hand."

After he hung up, Tai met Summer's cheshire grin. "Oh, this is gonna be fun."

When Qrow arrived at the Xiao-Long household, the first thing he noticed was the smell of baking cookies wafting through the cracked-open front door.

That was a familiar memory, and a painful one that had him reaching for his flask reflexively. That particular smell had texture. It had years-old memory associated with it. Of better times, now lost forever.

What should have wormed its way into his thick skull was one small, niggling fact.

Taiyang Xiao-Long did not bake.

Qrow knocked on the doorframe as a formality as he pushed the door the rest of the way open. He was Awesome Uncle Qrow, for crying out loud. Except when he was Pathetic Drunkle Qrow, which was more often than he should be.

Trying to shake the ache in his chest, he entered the living room to find a tray of still-warm and fragrant chocolate-chip cookies on the low table in front of the couch. "Yo! I'm here, Tai!"

"Finishing up in here!" Tai's voice called from the kitchen. "Grab a seat, Qrow!"

"Drags me all this way, and then makes me wait. Great." Qrow flopped down on the couch, his back to the hallway that led to the bedrooms. He twisted, letting one leg fall across the arm of the couch, with the other bent and knee propped up against the back. He eyed the cookies on the tray. "Hell, why not," he muttered. Grabbing one, he bit into it.

Vivid memory flooded through him. If the aroma had given him a hint of it, the taste nearly broke him. The taste was perfect.

Gods… how the hell did Tai figure out Summer's old recipe? She never shared it, never even wrote it down…

He felt his eyes start to sting as the combination overwhelmed his senses and flooded him with painful nostalgia. He blinked clear the threatened tears and looked up to see Tai standing in the doorway to the kitchen with a grin the size of Sanus on his face.

He recognized that grin.

Throughout their Beacon years, he'd seen that grin whenever Raven and Summer had cooked up some fucking prank and suckered Tai into going along with it. Tai had the world's worst poker face. And when he was grinning like that, it meant that Qrow was about to get nailed, hard.

"What the fuck, Tai? First Raven and now you? Has everyone lost their damned minds?" Qrow said, spewing crumbs out in the process.

If anything, Tai's grin just got bigger. "Oh? Raven's keeping secrets?"

"Raven's whole freaking existence is a black-market Ponzi scheme, Tai. Of course she's keeping secrets." Qrow started to sit up, and then froze as several things happened at once.

The first was the sound of floorboards creaking softly, just behind him. Qrow felt his body tense.

The second was a low, feminine voice speaking very close to his right ear. "Qrow Branwen, if you don't get your disgusting boots off my couch in five seconds, you'll never walk right again. And you're gonna clean up those crumbs you just spewed onto my table, too."

Qrow felt his eyes widen so much he lost the ability to focus properly. Or maybe that was the booze kicking in. He could see Tai well enough, and the son of a bitch was grinning from ear to ear, muscular arms crossed, head dipping low once in acknowledgement.

Qrow knew that voice.

That voice.

Those cookies.

That attitude. That way of sounding so soft and friendly while she was threatening him with mortal injury.

He moved before he realized he was even doing it, jerking his legs off the sofa and standing up in one motion. In the process, he hit the coffee table, and sent cookies flying all over the floor. "Fuck!"

"Potty mouth! And you better clean that up too!" the voice said.

He stood in place, staring at the woman who wasn't… couldn't be standing in front of him.

She's gone, Tai.

The words echoed back to him from years ago. From the day that he'd finally accepted it, and asked Tai to accept the fact that Summer wasn't coming back. That they needed to pick up what pieces they could find and try to move forward with life, for his nieces' sakes.

And he could only stand there, gasping for breath, nearly choking on cookie crumbs.

Trying to remember how to fucking talk as his mouth bobbed open and closed, gaping like a fish.

Summer was there, in front of him. She was the same, but different. She was older. Hell, so was he. But she looked worn. And she was wearing an eye-patch.

And she was grinning at him like a cat, silver eye gleaming with mischief despite her accusations. "You going to stand there drooling, Qrow? Or are you gonna pretend you didn't miss me?"

Qrow gave up on speaking and tried to jump over the couch and hug her.

True to form, his Semblance picked that moment to have his foot slip, causing him to instead barrel over the couch and slam into her in a flying sideways tackle, and them to both collapse into a heap of limbs with a squeak.

Over the roaring in his ears, he could hear Tai laughing his ass off. And then Summer was alternating between complaining and laughing underneath him. "Jeez Qrow, I think you broke my spleen!"

"Summer! Dammit, how?!" His words were rough, but his nose was already threatening to run, and his eyes were stinging.

As they attempted to figure out whether they were going to untangle or hug each other first, they managed to miss a strange electrical tearing sound that emanated from the open area of the living room. But Tai didn't, and he knew exactly what that sound signified. Two weeks ago, he would have been pissed-off and maybe ready to punch her in the face.

But now? Now he wasn't sure how he felt. Raven had treated him like shit seven years ago, and then ditched him. Even after Summer disappeared, she never made any effort to even see if Yang, much less he and Ruby, was okay.

But things had changed. She'd rescued Summer and immediately dropped his wife back in his lap, where she belonged. That counted for something. That meant that Raven, as fucked up as it sounded, cared.

So, he sidestepped a few more paces away from where the sound emanated from, and watched to see what the hell was going to happen next.

A red and black portal formed, and Raven stepped from the interior of her spacious tent, a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other, and took in the living room with one smug, red-eyed sweep of the situation. When her red eyes lit on Tai, there was a moment of uncertainty that filtered through that arrogant smirk. A second of vulnerability, and then it was gone as she took in the tangle of bodies flopping around behind the sofa.

One dark eyebrow tried to climb up her forehead. "If I'd known you two were gonna be getting kinky on the floor, I would have skipped this, Summer," Raven quipped.

There was a moment of stillness and silence from the tangle of limbs.

"Get the heck off me, Qrow!"

"Dammit Raven! What the…" Qrow managed to disengage and eased up onto his knees, wiping his tear-streaked face. He took in her smug expression. "You knew," his red eyes narrowed, and his jaw clenched. "You fucking knew! You knew when I came to the camp, and you… you… fucking toyed with me!"

"Guilty." Raven replied. "Cry about it."

"Already started," Summer sniped as she eased up using the back of the couch as leverage, while smiling toothily. "Big old Qrowbaby."

Qrow stared between them, then at Tai, who was working overtime to manage a 'who me? I'm just along for the ride' expression with his lying-ass blue eyes. Qrow finally turned back to Summer, whose smile had faded to something softer.

"Hey Qrow. It's good to see you again."

Qrow choked and let her help him up the rest of the way to his feet, and then gripped her arms tightly, staring between eye and eye-patch. "Summer. It's really you?"

"Yeah. Really real Summer. Well, most of me." She tilted her head, rolling one silver eye toward her eye-patch. "But yeah."

He felt his throat trying to close up, and his eyes filling up again. "Fuck. Shit. Fuck!"

"Potty mouth," Summer said softly, and Qrow heard Raven snort behind him.

Screw my sister and her bullshit 'strength is all that matters' mantra, I'll cry if I want, Qrow thought, and let himself as he drank in the sight of one of his best friends, a woman he'd given up for dead years ago. He'd been the first one of them to lose hope. When he felt Summer's hands rest on his waist and saw her eye go glassy too, he gave in with a gasp that was somewhere between a sob and a laugh of disbelief.

And then Summer leaned in and hugged him, and he just fucking gave up. He let all the lost hope pour out of him with the tears that streamed down his cheeks and dripped off his stubbled jaw onto Summer's shoulder.

"Stupid Qrowbaby," Summer whispered in his ear. "Always acting all tough but a big old softie underneath."

"Shut up, Sum. I'm having a moment," he rasped back.

On the other side of the room, Raven suddenly felt a little uncertain. She glanced over at Tai. "Uh, you're not gonna try to hug me, are you?"

"Nah."

"Should I be ready for you to try to hit me with any furniture?"

When she'd sensed Qrow rapidly approaching Tai and Summer with Yang nowhere near, she'd guessed what was about to happen based on the message she'd gotten from Selene days prior.

She'd decided to gamble. She hoped Tai wasn't about to make it a losing bet.

Tai laughed and saw her expression ease a little more. "Nah. I think we're square."

Raven exhaled. Huh. Looks like I came up Aces.

She looked around the room.

Team STRQ. All in one room. Nobody trying to kill anyone.

Square.

Holy shit...

"Who's up for a fucking drink?"

[A/N] Special thanks to Shadowstorm-Vash, DragonL0RD, AtomicR4y, and AceRaptorVIII for your recent reviews. And special thanks to my Beta Reader ZoroEpsilon who is writing the most excellent story Neo Penance.

And yet another chapter that was an absolute joy to write. Seriously, part of the drive to write this story was the gradually darkening storyline from volumes 4-7 with seemingly no bottom in sight, then the absolute empty hole that Volume 8 left in me, followed by some of Volume 9's revelations (and resulting questions) about Summer Rose, and then the news that we might not get an ending any time soon. Put more simply, I needed a story that could show both sorrow and joy. Despair and hope. Is it gonna be all sunshine and roses? Clearly not. But I can say I've already written the end of this story, and I doubt it will make you want to throw your e-reader at the wall.

So, here we get a little more insight into Summer Rose's post-captivity mentality, and my take on Summer and Tai's relationship. I hope the beauty of that comes through. I also really enjoyed torturing poor Drunkle Qrow. I'm a horrible person like that.

And Raven. Raven is still adjusting to the new normal. Keep in mind that Summer was the leader of STRQ, and based on what we've seen the only person who could convince Raven to do things she wouldn't otherwise choose to do. Summer's return will continue to cause changes in Raven's viewpoint regarding life in general, along with Raven not being the Spring Maiden.