Chapter 6

When MacGyver came to the hospital once visiting hours had begun, he was already prepared for the fact that Ruby might not be in the most receptive mood today. But more than anything, he was bound and determined to try and help get rid of that ominous dark cloud that seemed to persistently hover over her head now.

It took a little coaxing, but with some encouragement she agreed to let him push her wheelchair out to the scenic balcony that overlooked a gorgeous view of sunrays beaming down over green grass, a few trees and some wildflowers. A pair of nesting songbirds completed the picture, their cheery voices briefly serenading their onlookers before they proceeded to tend to their young ones.

Mac had made it a point to stop by the cafe to get both himself and Ruby some lunch on the way to the balcony. He was seated on a white wicker chair across from Ruby, who remained in her wheelchair as she sat directly across from him. He tried to make casual conversation with her, just to find her largely unresponsive as she alternated between picking at her plate and staring off into space, leaving him to idly eat his sandwich as he tried to give her a little space. Maybe he would have more luck getting through to her in a little while or something.

Eventually, she seemed to perk up just a little when a butterfly with jewel-like wings floated by, the sunlight bringing out the distinguished yellow colors and making them shine almost like gold. Mac found himself grinning not only at the pretty sight of nature, but at the way it diverted some of Ruby's focus off of her own self-pity, even just for a moment.

Well, at the very least, the proverbial black cloud over her head seemed to dissipate enough to make her more interested in her food…

"If you want I could get you something else from the cafe," Mac offered. He was encouraged at the fact that she appeared interested in eating now, though he didn't want her to be stuck with eating cold food now that she was ready.

Ruby shook her head. "This is fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a little while as Ruby ate what she wanted, then quietly downed the rest of her beverage.

"I wish Bill was here," Ruby finally said into the silence after a few moments.

Mac looked at her fully now, his eyes filled with sympathy. He had no way of knowing if she would want to discuss this, particularly after what happened yesterday, but… it was also logical that she might choose to bring it up now. Even though what happened at the funeral had been terrible, perhaps it had given her some of the closure she needed.

"Yeah, I know," Mac replied emphatically. His eyes said what he did not say aloud. I miss him, too.

"We only went out a few times, but… we just seemed to get along great and we did so well together," Ruby went on slowly. "I liked it when he took me out to places sometimes, and he really did want to make me happy if he could. I think he wanted to help make my life better."

Mac felt a sting of guilt in his chest when he recalled his own previous thoughts and assumptions that he had before, during the last time he saw Bill. He knew now that he had been very unfair about Ruby, even if he hadn't voiced anything aloud. Indeed… Ruby did not seem to be like any of the other girls Bill had the misfortune of getting involved with; she was having a lot of problems right now in the aftermath of everything that happened to her, but it was quite clear that she wasn't the type to take advantage of others or put on an act to see what she could get out of them.

If anything, she struck him as more of the type who just wanted to be left alone for the most part, even if she didn't mind having some company sometimes… on her terms. In her own way, she even seemed to appreciate it if someone made a real effort to pull her out of her shell in a gentle and meaningful way. Beyond that… she simply seemed so… lonely and vulnerable, like someone who never really knew what she wanted out of her life in the first place and now she was even more hopeless and lost than she had been in the first place.

"Hey," Mac placed a gentle hand on her arm when she started to stare off into space. He felt he needed to do something to prevent her from withdrawing into depression again–and he could use a change of scenery to lift his own mood, too. "There is a craft show going on right now in the atrium downstairs. I think it would be nice to check it out and see what's there. Would you like to do that?"

For a moment, it almost appeared that Ruby might say no. When she lifted her gaze to answer, however, Mac locked eyes with her to convey a gentle, friendly encouragement to come with him. Somehow, Ruby suddenly found it extremely difficult to say no, even though she wasn't entirely sure why.

"Okay, I guess I wouldn't mind going there," she finally said after a moment. Part of her did want to just sit here and continue brooding, but… for some reason, it seemed like it would hurt Mac's feelings on some level if she didn't agree to go along. He wasn't forcing or overly pressuring her to do anything, yet she still found herself wanting to go along with him.

Maybe, as she was beginning to learn, that was a huge part of his… charm. MacGyver was not the type to make anybody do something they didn't want to do. But sometimes you just ended up wanting to do something with him because he was trying, and it would make him happy if you did your part in accepting his offer and trying, too.

In some cases, perhaps that was the only thing a person needed–a small, gentle, subtle gesture was worth far more than being offered a trip to the Grand Canyon of Hong Kong.

Mac flashed a warm smile as he rose and took up a position behind her wheelchair. Once he was certain she was well-situated, he began to push her off of the patio and in the general direction of the nearest elevator.

Ruby seemed to brighten a little as she and MacGyver entered the atrium. It was a bright and lively place with several, cozy places to sit along the walls. A few potted trees and fern-like plants had been placed intermittently between the seats near the windows, livening up the space tastefully.

The majority of the space within the center of the atrium was abuzz with mild activity. Several large foldout tables had been placed near each other in accordance to each vendor, their space varying depending on how many handmade craft items they'd brought to sell. Patients, visitors and members of the hospital staff who were off duty moved about as they took the time to admire some of the crafts and buy whatever they fancied.

MacGyver found himself admiring the seamless stitches on a few homemade plushies that showed remarkable talent, particularly when he overheard the older woman behind the table closest to the door mention to a prospective customer that she made them entirely by hand, without the use of a sewing machine. This humbly spoken admission impressed the woman with the little clutching her hand, the former of which picked up a finely crafted teddy bear and handed it to her daughter. When the child took an instant liking to it, the seller's eyes crinkled with a mixture of warmth and what seemed to be sadness as she spoke softly to the mother, offering a significant discount.

Although Mac was not intentionally trying to eavesdrop and he kept his attention primarily on Ruby, trying to gauge where she might like to go and which crafts she appeared interested in looking more closely at, he couldn't help but catch the mother of the child and the woman mention something that helped him… understand the gesture a bit better. The little girl had been diagnosed with Cancer just the other day.

In a smooth motion, Mac gently maneuvered the wheelchair away from that table and brought himself and Ruby over to a different table further down, in a manner where nobody noticed or felt they were deliberately being avoided.

"MacGyver?" Ruby whispered as she craned her neck up to look at him.

Mac leaned down just enough to hear her talk softly. "Yeah?"

That's when he saw what she was looking at. He was fairly certain that she had paid full attention to the exchange involving the little girl back near the entrance, and now they both found themselves peering at an elderly man who appeared barely lucid, perhaps struggling with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. A younger man who was presumably his son was interacting with him alongside a nurse as they tried to determine which homemade handkerchief he liked best in order to get him a gift.

"I guess there are other people here who have problems just as bad as I do," she said near Mac's ear. "If not worse."

Mac looked at her for a moment, trying to gauge her expression and determine what effect this was having on her. A small part of him wondered if they should have stayed on the patio if being in here might be a bit much for her somehow, or… maybe this would help her snap out of her funk a bit more.

"There are a lot of people here who come here to get better," he acknowledged quietly. "Just like you'll get better–as long as you take care of yourself, do your exercises and eat well." His eyes tightened slightly as he tried to empathize his statement with a knowing look and a small, unspoken communication passed between them.

He knew she hadn't been doing any of her physical therapy exercises, nor had she been eating that much… except sometimes at dinner, and when they were together on the patio.

"I'm gonna be stuck in this wheelchair forever," Ruby moped mildly as she looked up at him, almost like he might be able to provide some kind of Santa Clause answer. "What if I never leave this hospital?"

It made Mac's heart ache to see those dark brown eyes looking up at him. It was as if she was asking and hoping for a miracle, yet she expected and already half-accepted a condemnation to a fate that would be like hell on Earth, at least until she could adjust–if she could.

There was absolutely nothing he could give her. There were no magical words that could make all of this all better, or give her a new pair of legs and the ability to walk again. Mac wished there was something he could do, but he highly doubted she would perk up over a stuffed animal like that little girl near the door had.

That was when Mac noticed Ruby staring intently, her eyes fixated on something, unblinkingly, and it didn't appear to be anyone in the room. Mac followed her gaze with his own eyes to find a very nice knitted afghan made of granny squares that were mostly black with a mixture of red, yellow and purple in the center.

Mac's hands moved without hesitation to bring Ruby just close enough to that section of the table to take a closer look, to touch that afghan if that was what she wanted to do. He could tell she liked it, that something about it appealed to her, though he was having a difficult time deciphering the look in her eye.

She… almost had that kind of look like someone might have if she was being reunited with a long lost pet she hadn't seen for ages, that she had given up for lost… or perhaps if she was being presented with a long-lost childhood toy or family heirloom she hadn't seen for a very long time.

A young woman who appeared to be no older than Ruby herself–twenty-two years old–stepped closer to them after concluding her business with another patron. She was very slim with a natural, almost athletic build. Her golden-blonde hair hung loosely and framed her face with natural curls. Her blue eyes paled in the bright light of the room until they were almost gray.

"My grandmother made these afghans," the young woman informed them with a touch of pride in her voice. "They're twenty-five dollars apiece."

"Your grandmother made this?" Ruby asked softly, her fingers secretly gripping the edges of the knitted yarn as though drawing some comfort and, perhaps, a small sense of familiarity from it. "My grandmother bought me an afghan that was almost exactly like this one when I was a kid." Her hand tightened a little further around the afghan, momentarily lost in a memory. "I loved it so much, but it somehow got misplaced and I never found it again."

The vendor blinked, her brow furrowing as she peered more closely at Ruby for a moment. "Hang on…" She raised an index finger as a figurative lightbulb seemed to appear above her head. "Ruby Allen?"

Ruby's head snapped up from the afghan to look at the other girl with widened eyes. "How do you know my name?"

"It's me, Lilly Harris," the young woman across the table from her said. "It's been quite a while hasn't it? I mean, I haven't seen you since you…" Her blueish-gray eyes darted in MacGyver's direction momentarily, then glanced around the room briefly before settling on Ruby once again. She seemed to be reminding herself that they were in public. "Well, since you… stopped going to school."

"You mean since I dropped out of highschool," Ruby deadpanned bluntly. "But yeah," she said as she turned some of her attention back to the afghan, "I remember you." She looked up at MacGyver, who was currently standing just behind her left shoulder and regarding the conversation of the two girls with quiet curiosity. "MacGyver, this is Lilly–we met in Junior High, when both of us were attending the same private school. I guess one thing we always had in common was that each of us had a Grandma who had enough money to keep us enrolled."

"Ruby and I sometimes helped each other with our homework," Lilly said with a nostalgic nod. "And our Grandmothers liked each other, so that meant we would sometimes hang out while they were hanging out."

"You helped me with my homework way more than I ever helped you with yours," Ruby commented, with a touch of bitterness. "I was never really good at school."

"Don't put yourself down like that!" Lilly admonished. "It wasn't a walk in the park for me, either! But it's good to see you again even if it is in a hospital."

Ruby's eyes narrowed slightly, as though taking in the fact that her friend from school was indeed in a wheelchair… and what that could possibly implicate.

Ruby dropped her hands into her lap and lowered her gaze, her lips pressing together in a thin line as she bit back some emotion. A blanket was currently draped over her lap and down in front of the wheelchair just enough to help conceal the space where her legs should have been, though the fact that her wheelchair was so close to the craft table helped hide it further. Up until now, this seemed to be adequate enough to help her feel less self-conscious, but now…

Mac sighed inwardly. On the one hand, the poor girl was gonna have to start learning to accept that people were going to notice sometimes, but he could also understand that coming face to face with someone she hadn't seen for quite a while… it was rough. The last time these two had been face-to-face, Ruby still had her legs and wasn't paralyzed from the waist down–all that was different now.

It might not have worried Mac so much, except for the fact that he had been trying very hard to help Ruby come out of her shell and not withdraw back into herself again. She was still trying to adjust to everything, and he still remembered the cruel statements that a few of Bill's relatives said to Ruby at the funeral–including how they felt she 'deserved' to lose her legs for 'causing' his death.

Thankfully though, Lilly proved to be far nicer and more gracious than any of that. She looked at Ruby a moment longer and, when it became clear that Ruby wasn't going to answer and that, perhaps, this was not a good time to go into the subject of what happened or why she was in the hospital, Lilly did something that surprised both Ruby and MacGyver.

Lilly leaned forward just enough to pick up the afghan in a smooth motion, folding it over and sort of holding it in a bundle, then extended it to Ruby. "Here, I would like you to have this," she offered, staring at Ruby intently.

Ruby's head inched up. She stared at the proffered afghan for a moment, then looked at Lilly. "Um, I'm not sure if I could. I can't afford–"

Lilly shook her head. "I know my Grandma wouldn't mind. She couldn't be here today because her health hasn't been so good, even if she can still make crafts at home, but I'm positive that if she was here right now, she would insist you have it… for old time's sake." Lilly's pink lips softened into a smile, as she gently indicated Ruby should take it.

Nonetheless, Ruby still seemed reluctant. "I… I don't know."

"Why not?" Lilly asked patiently. "I mean, I can tell you absolutely love it–just like the one you used to have."

Ruby glanced momentarily toward the door, at the general area where the little girl had been just a few minutes ago. Then she glanced down at her own lap again, as though making some kind of baseline comparison. "Well, it's not like I'm dying or anything," she finally said. "I'm gonna be stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of my life, but that doesn't mean I need freebies from people who feel sorry for me."

Lilly lowered her hands, setting the afghan down on the table, but didn't quite let go of it. She kept her eyes on Ruby, trying to hold her gaze. "Ruby, we were friends back in school. Your grandma and my grandma absolutely loved each other like the best friends they were, and I always liked it when we hung out and watched TV together. I just thought it would be nice for you to have this, especially since your grandma–"

"Yeah, I know," Ruby snapped, her dark brown eyes flashing brightly with a fresh wave of grief and self-pity. "My grandma passed away from Cancer and I dropped out of school because it just wasn't working anymore, and because I had no-one else around to help pay for tuition anymore."

"I…" Lilly averted her gaze. "I always felt that if you had just come to my grandmother and I–"

"I didn't want or need your money then, and I don't need anything from you now." Ruby pushed back from the table, forcing Mac to side-step so his foot wouldn't get run over by the sudden motion. "I just want you and everything else to leave me alone, okay?"

"Ruby," Mac started, but was quickly cut off.

"I just want to go back to my room!" Ruby's voice attracted the attention of a nearby nurse, who ended up agreeing to take Ruby back to her room–particularly after Ruby brushed MacGyver's hands aside when he started to offer. Evidently, she was very serious about wanting to be left alone right now.

Lilly watched them go, still clutching the afghan in her hands. Once they were gone, MacGyver regarded her thoughtfully for a moment. "That was a nice thing you tried to do," he said.

"I don't get it," Lilly said, sounding a bit perplexed and hurt. "I mean, it's always been a bit hard to get through to her sometimes–from what her grandmother told me, she's been that way ever since her parents died, though that was before I ever met her. But I know she likes this afghan, I know she wants it."

"Maybe she's not ready for it yet," Mac gently suggested with a slight shrug.

Lilly sighed. "I don't know. I've been through some things in my life where I lost something that meant a lot to me, and when I was later presented with something that was almost exactly the same… sometimes I didn't want it."

"Because you felt it wouldn't replace the original?" Mac surmised aloud.

"Yeah, I guess," Lilly shrugged.

"You could just hold onto it and try visiting her again in a day or two," Mac suggested.

Lilly looked regretful. "Well, I'm not sure if that's possible," she said slowly. "You see, I have to go out of state tomorrow for a… personal reason I'd rather not go into. And Grandma is giving up the craft business because her age and health issues just won't let her do it anymore, and she made it quite clear she wants me to sell off everything here today if possible, and just donate anything left to the thrift store." She eyed the afghan sadly. "I wish I could just hold onto it, in case Ruby changes her mind, but you know… she also made it clear she doesn't want charity, or whatever she thinks it is."

Mac considered the afghan thoughtfully for a long moment. "Hey, um…" He found himself reaching into his pocket to extract his wallet. "How about if I buy it from you. Then I'll just go put it in my Jeep, and take it home and put it somewhere safe. That way it won't be 'charity' and well, if she decides she doesn't want it…" He nodded at it. "It is a very nice afghan."

Lilly smiled. "Well, if you don't mind–"

"I'm planning to visit Ruby again tomorrow, after she's had some time to settle in," Mac told her as he placed a couple of paper bills in her hand and then scooped up the afghan to place it under his arm in a bundle.

"You're a good friend," Lilly observed thoughtfully. "Look, I don't know how you guys became friends, but… just please do me a favor and don't give up on her, okay? I can't afford to stick around right now, but she just…" Lilly lowered her gaze, sadly. "She really needs someone, I can tell."

"I'm gonna give her space when she needs it," Mac assured her, "but I'm also not gonna let her push me away."