This is a little darker than my usual. Content warning for mentions of suicide. I still haven't watched volume 9, but this is set in Vacuo post volume 8. Enjoy!
Hospital waiting rooms are far from Yang's favorite place to be on a good day, let alone on a day when she's received a call from the emergency room as her sister's emergency contact letting her know that Ruby was injured. The line at the front desk seems endless, and it takes all of Yang's willpower, plus the intervention of Blake and Weiss, to keep her from shoving her way to the front and demanding to know what's going on with her sister.
It's not terribly surprising that the hospital is completely packed with people. Ever since the refugees from Atlas and Mantle had arrived, Vacuo has been struggling to manage the flood of people to manage.
No, Yang is more worried about Ruby. Her sister had only been gone from the dorms a couple of hours before Yang had gotten a call from the hospital. Ruby had just been running a simple errand. She should never have been in danger.
What could have happened in the short time they'd been apart?
Finally, after what seems like an eternity of waiting, the three of them manage to reach the front of the line. "My name is Yang Xiao Long, here to see Ruby Rose," she says impatiently.
"I see," the woman manning the front desk says absently, typing something into her computer without even looking up at Yang.
"Her teammates Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna are here to see her as well," Weiss chimes in.
"Uh-huh, uh-huh," the woman replies, continuing to type away. After a minute or so, she frowns, finally looking up from the screen and glancing at them for the first time. "I'm sorry," she tells them, sounding genuinely apologetic. "Miss Rose isn't permitted to see any visitors at this time."
"What?" Yang explodes. "You're telling me that I was called to be told that my sister is here, but I'm not allowed to see her? Come on!"
"Is she still being treated?" Weiss asks, desperately trying to get to the bottom of what's going on. "Do we just need to wait until the doctor is finished and then we can see her?"
"Well-" the receptionist begins, before she's cut off by Blake.
"Suicide watch," Blake announces. "Ruby's file says that the doctor placed her on suicide watch."
The receptionist splutters, clearly flustered. "You're not supposed to reading that!" she scolds Blake, but it's too late for it to do any good. While she'd been distracted by Weiss and Yang, Blake had been casually reading over her shoulder.
"She's on suicide watch?" Weiss repeats, sounding incredulous. "There must be some kind of mistake."
"Ruby wouldn't do something like that," Yang insists firmly. "There's no way."
"You'll have to speak with the doctor about that," the receptionist insists, trying to regain some kind of control over the situation. "The doctors are the ones who make those kind of calls. I'm just telling you what the orders were for your friend."
"Then the doctor must have gotten something wrong. My sister would never try to do something like that." Ruby wouldn't, Yang is sure of that. Her sister isn't that kind of person. When things get tough, Ruby keeps on trying to push through. When they were all devastated after the fall of Beacon, Ruby had kept moving forward.
And sure, things have been rough lately, with everything that happened in Atlas and the challenges they've had to deal with since arriving in Vacuo. Penny dying-again-had definitely been rough for Ruby. But there's no way her sister would try to hurt herself like that. Not when she has people counting on her.
Imagining otherwise is simply unthinkable.
Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you liked it.