The RubyWay Chronicles - Part 2: A Matter of Trust
Apr 12, 2016 16:14:31 GMT -5
Post by #RubyWay on Apr 12, 2016 16:14:31 GMT -5
The gym was practically deserted at 6:30 AM on a Sunday, but Ruby had insisted on the time and she had given Hardaway the impression that any attempts to negotiate would be met with deadly force. In the last few weeks, Ruby had begun questioning this partnership with the man she’d been engaged in a blood feud with less than a year ago. Training him outside the ring was one thing, but working with him in front of an audience made her question just what the hell she was doing with this. She had saved him from a beatdown at the hands of Yun and Cami, only to be left high and dry when she needed him to keep Yun from interfering in her match against Annie. And then once again, she had come to his rescue on the most recent show. It was getting exhausting to always have to be the one rushing in to make the save, to be the hero, and to not be able to depend on him.
And in just a few days, she had to be able to depend on him in the ring, in her first supercard match with a new company.
So instead of talking to him about it, she decided that beating the hell out of him would be the best way to deal with her pent-up frustration. Sparring against him felt natural, more natural than working with him did. They had spent the better part of the last year at each other’s throats, competing in hardcore matches with ridiculous stipulations, including chairshot survival and a funeral procession match that had ended their time in Exodus Pro. The gym didn’t have steel chairs or tables or bats or kendo sticks, but working with him on the mat and trying to out-compete him made more sense to her than partnering with him ever had.
For hours they worked, pushing one another to their limits and getting more aggressive with the moves they were using. At a certain point, Ruby forgot that the entire reason for them training together was for them to get used to one another. Her anger with him, for his actions in both FGA and Exodus, was spilling over into her work and for the first time since she’d thrown him into a casket she didn’t bother trying to control it. Hardaway responded in kind, treating violence with violence until the two of them were all-out brawling on the mat. He wrestled her to the mat and pressed a knee into her chest, laying his forearm across her throat and bearing down with all his weight.
Unable to get a breath, Ruby looked up at him with an expression he had never seen from her before.
Fear.
She raked him across the eyes, causing him to reel back enough that she could get herself out from underneath him and stand up.
“We’re done here,” she told him without looking at him again. She headed straight for the door and didn’t stop moving until she was in her car. But instead of getting into the driver’s side, Ruby laid across the backseat and clenched her hands at her sides, trying to get them to stop shaking. Intellectually, she knew what this was, but she’d never thought it would happen to her. Post-traumatic stress was something that happened to other people, not to her. Not to someone who had dedicated her life to hunting the strange and inexplicable and violent. And it couldn’t happen now, not when she was on the verge of the most important night of her career so far and dependent on the man who had once tried to kill her to help her win. She wanted to put it aside and just move on, but the memories of that night kept coming back.
The chair coming down on her windpipe at the wrong angle and speed.
The feeling of her windpipe swelling shut.
The surprise on the paramedic’s face when she grabbed his arm in a panic.
The relief when they had intubated her and she could finally breathe again.
The shock when her brother Masato had walked into her hospital room and seen her.
All of that caused by one man, the man she was supposed to trust to be her partner. But how could she trust him when he didn’t even acknowledge what he had done to her, except in joking terms?
All of this running through her head so she doesn’t hear the sound of the driver’s side door of her car opening and slamming shut as somebody sits down in the front seat and sees her running through the gamut of emotions running through her head.
“I know that feeling from anywhere.” He says to her as she shoots up and sees that Kevin has gotten his way from the gym to her car as well.
“You have no idea what I’m feeling right now. Get the fuck out of my car,” she snaps, ignoring the fact that she had driven them both here. “I told you, we’re done. Leave me alone.”
He doesn’t move however and just drags his hand down his entire head, not even looking at her direction, but still in a calm voice. “I saw it in your eyes. Now, I know I’m not the best at reading people, yet for some reason...I could read you like a book. Was it something that I did?”
“What part of get the fuck out of my car don’t you understand?” He might have been calm, but Ruby was getting angrier by the second. Sitting up, she smacked him hard on the side of the head. “Do I really have to fucking explain this to you? Use the lump three feet above your ass and see if you can figure out why I don’t want you going for my throat, hm?” She sat back with a huff, clutching her car keys in her fist and debating the efficiency of ramming them through the back of his skull. But then that would necessitate her having to figure out how to get blood out of leather, never mind dealing with a large dead body, so she kept her keys down by her side.
She wasn’t entirely ruling it out though, if the situation called for it.
Suddenly, it was like a weight was lifted off him for the oddest reason one could ask for. In the heat of the moment, during an outright vicious brawl, one can get a bit hasty and one could try to deliver a harsher blow than one could realize. And the memories of the first instance these two fucked up souls met one another came flooding back to him. The chair and crushing her neck with it, trying to actually murder another human being. It was the first and one of the few times in his life that something else got the better of him and now he was feeling the ramifications of it.
“S...s...shit. Yeah...I...I didn’t really think of that until this very moment. Heat of the moment, I guess between us trying to hurt one another in there. Or at least you were. I was just trying to keep up. But still, there was something else I could read in your head. Now that I think of it...it wasn’t just that, was it?"
Or maybe that was it and he was just stupider at reading people than he realized. Either or probably worked in this situation.
“Heat of the moment? That’s all you have to fucking say for yourself? I could have died last year because of what you did to me and you don’t give a shit about that at all! I knew this was a bad idea. Even with me busting my ass to try and make sure you survive the shit you’ve gotten yourself into, you’re still the most selfish fucking bastard I’ve ever had to deal with. Even in the ring! I’ve saved your ass twice now, even after I needed you to be looking out for me and you weren’t there. The whole idea of this fucking thing is that we watch each other’s backs. I’ve already proven that I’ve got yours, but I still don’t think you have mine. And if that’s the case then go find someone else to train you as a hunter. I’m not about to risk my life for someone who isn’t gonna do the same for me.”
Sighing heavily, Ruby pushed the car door open and got out. It was too stifling in the car and she was getting that breathless, panicky feeling again. She hated every single second of this but with him occupying the driver’s seat of her car, there wasn’t a way for her to use it as an escape route. It was too far to walk back to her house, so she leaned against the trunk of the Mustang and tried to think of something - anything - that would get her out of this situation without having to commit murder.
But he wasn’t going to take this lying down. Sure, he could have just said “fuck it” and threw that damned book at her and drove off in her car. But he was sure she was thinking about how she could commit a crime to another human being and get away with it. So he just took a deep breath and got out of the car with her. He was feeling the heat in the car as well--figuratively and literally--so he knew what she was going through.
Kind of.
Okay, he didn’t really know but dammit, he was going to try to.
She saw him walk towards her and she started to just walk away from him. Obviously wanting no part. But he keeps walking with her and immediately, he grabs her hand and jerks her back towards him. That alone would institute a slap and she tries to smack him across the face again, but this time he blocks it.
“LISTEN FOR A FUCKING SECOND, WILL YOU?!” He yells at her as she just looks at him, dropping her hand back down to her side. “Should I have come down to the ring to save you from Yun and Cami? Yeah, definitely. But you know what would have happened? You would have STILL gone up to me and yelled at me. You say that we should have each other’s backs but if I would have went out there and saved you, you would have told me that *I* didn’t need your help out there. And we would have been back at square one. We should have each other’s backs yes, but I also think that we can handle ourselves out there if need be.”
He sighs for a hot minute and then continues what he has to say.
“I know I’m an asshole. That much I know is certain. But when someone doesn’t trust you the way that I do, it’s kind of hard NOT to remove that from yourself. And I’m going to be honest, I still don’t know why I decided to crush your windpipe on that fateful night. I don’t even know where I was in my head on that night. Like I’ve said, back then, I wasn’t myself...I honestly believe that the people involved with me doing that to you had a hand in it, but I’ve been trying to have you forgive me for that night. Every single night that we’ve been training. And even after through ALL of that, I still enlisted my trust in you to help me with that damned book. Why? Because...because there’s something there in the both of us, I don’t know. But all I could have done was give you the book, pay you for your troubles, and move on. But no...you wanted to help me too.”
As soon as he was done talking, Ruby wrenched her hand out of his grip, but she didn’t hit him. At least, not yet.
“Oppression. It’s not as showy as a full-on demonic possession, but it leads to what you’re describing. Feeling like you don’t know where you were or what you were doing, just that some unseen force was driving you to do what you did. It doesn’t excuse what happened, but it’s at least a logical explanation given all the other weird shit that was going on there at the time.” She still isn’t looking at him, but she’s also not yelling at him for the time being, so it’s something of an improvement.
“You are without a doubt one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met. But you’ve also got a kid at home, a kid who’s already lost her mother to what’s in that book. I’m not about to let her lose her father too. That’s why I agreed to help you, even though half the time when I look at you all I see is the man who almost made me suffocate to death and sent me to the hospital. And it doesn’t help that my brothers like to bring that up every chance they get. This is the first time you’ve ever said something about wanting forgiveness or hell, even feeling bad about it. So yeah, it’s hard to trust someone when they’ve done to me what you did. Hard to feel like someone’s got your back when you’re waiting for them to find an excuse to hurt you again.”
She shrugged her shoulders, her eyes meeting his for the first time since they’d left the gym. Admitting all of this to him made her feel vulnerable and uncomfortable, but then again, this was not the first time this had happened between them. Back in California, she had revealed to him the story of her life prior to their meeting thanks to their agreement that he could ask her one question and she had to answer him truthfully. At least then, they had been in her house in California. Now, they were at the edge of a parking lot in Maryland, which took away the feeling of safety she’d had back in October. But she was determined to stand her ground until this was over with.
He looks back at her as she finishes what she had been telling him, and the same kind of vulnerability can be seen in his eyes as well.
“Well, this is really the first chance we’ve had in talking since we started training on a daily basis. We haven’t really had the time to talk like this because we’re either training or you’re throwing paper balls at me as I’m yelling at the TV. But believe you me, I know the feeling. Maybe that’s why I didn’t come out to help you in the long run. Even though I’m pretty much demanding you to help me out here, there’s still a part of me that doesn’t know how to trust either. Pretty difficult when the only person I can trust out there is my own flesh and blood, but even then...I’m afraid.”
She looks at him and notices that in his eyes shows the same look that she gave him when she had his elbow lodged deep into her throat.
The one of fear.
And even though she knows he can be the world’s biggest asshole, she knows when he feels out in the open. She’s only seen it twice. The first time being when they were out in the woods and he threatened her to shoot him in the head (long story) and the second being when he told her the entire story about what happened to his wife and how that damned book caused all of this to happen in the first place. Now she’s seeing it again. Even though this time, she’s not sure whether or not to believe in it.
“I’m afraid that I’m going to lose her the same way I did with...with her. And part of me is afraid in general. That’s why I am, to quote you…”the most selfish fucking bastard you’ve ever had to deal with” and...yeah, that’s probably true. This is what I do to make myself not feel afraid. And I end up taking it out on the people who depend on me the most. So, yeah...I’m afraid.”
It was rare that they both allowed themselves to be honest at the same time, and frankly Ruby wasn’t sure what to do with this turn of events. She spent most of her time avoiding people but once again, he was working his way under her skin and getting to her in a way no one else had ever been able to do.
“Listen to me. Neither of us are any good with people. I think we’ve established this pretty well. But we’re in this shit together, you got that? You brought me that book when it showed up because you knew I could help you. And I will. I’m not going to let you or Kim down. I’m going to help you beat them, and keep the both of you safe. This is what being a hunter boils down to - helping people and keeping them safe, no matter what the personal cost to yourself. But you and I, if we’re going to be working together, we have to figure out a way to trust one another both in and out of the ring.”
“Yeah, I’ve pretty much figured that out. And believe me...we really do have to find a way where we can trust each other, or we’re both not long for this world. Even if you do have a ton of experience under your belt. But thank you...thank you for believing that no matter how big of a jerkass I can be, that you still think and know that you’re going to try your damndest to keep me and my daughter safe through it all. And yeah, I will trust you for your help more often, even if my head tries to fight it, I’ll offer up your help. Especially now that me and you are in this for the long haul.”
Kevin reaches his hand out this time and looks at Ruby with a more confident look than the look he gave her before during the middle of all of this mess. Awaiting a handshake to confirm that maybe, just maybe, they can finally put the past behind them...for now at least.
“Well…look, Kim wasn’t old enough to remember her mother. But she’s old enough to remember you, and as someone who knows what it’s like to lose a parent? I’d rather not put an innocent kid through that if I can avoid it. And it’s like I told you in the beginning - if you die then that’s a lot of time and effort I’ve just wasted on training your ass. So yeah, I do actually have your back out there.”
Glancing down, Ruby saw his outstretched hand and took it, giving it a firm shake.
“First though, we gotta go teach some bitches that nobody fucks with us. And then… well, after that we’ll figure out the next step. Rome wasn’t built in a day and this won’t be either. But I think ‘stay alive and give ‘em hell’ is good enough for now. So… you trust me to have your back out there in Hershey?”
He firmly shakes her hand in return and gives off a brief but confident smirk.
“Yeah, I’ll have your back out there. Even if we didn’t back then, we know now what Yun and Cami are both capable of. We got this, okay? As you said, “stay alive and give ‘em hell!” Right?
She nods as they let go of their handshake.
“Now...let’s get the hell out of here. Actually, let me buy you a drink first. I feel like you might need one after today.”
“Fine.” She tells him. “But you’ve realized that we have hit our personal quota for the next six months, right?”
He laughs as he enters the passenger side of her Mustang.
“Hey, works for me.” He tells her as she enters the driver’s side.
“Of course this doesn’t mean I’ll stop throwing paper at you every time you yell at MY television set.”
Hey, you can’t win them all.
And in just a few days, she had to be able to depend on him in the ring, in her first supercard match with a new company.
So instead of talking to him about it, she decided that beating the hell out of him would be the best way to deal with her pent-up frustration. Sparring against him felt natural, more natural than working with him did. They had spent the better part of the last year at each other’s throats, competing in hardcore matches with ridiculous stipulations, including chairshot survival and a funeral procession match that had ended their time in Exodus Pro. The gym didn’t have steel chairs or tables or bats or kendo sticks, but working with him on the mat and trying to out-compete him made more sense to her than partnering with him ever had.
For hours they worked, pushing one another to their limits and getting more aggressive with the moves they were using. At a certain point, Ruby forgot that the entire reason for them training together was for them to get used to one another. Her anger with him, for his actions in both FGA and Exodus, was spilling over into her work and for the first time since she’d thrown him into a casket she didn’t bother trying to control it. Hardaway responded in kind, treating violence with violence until the two of them were all-out brawling on the mat. He wrestled her to the mat and pressed a knee into her chest, laying his forearm across her throat and bearing down with all his weight.
Unable to get a breath, Ruby looked up at him with an expression he had never seen from her before.
Fear.
She raked him across the eyes, causing him to reel back enough that she could get herself out from underneath him and stand up.
“We’re done here,” she told him without looking at him again. She headed straight for the door and didn’t stop moving until she was in her car. But instead of getting into the driver’s side, Ruby laid across the backseat and clenched her hands at her sides, trying to get them to stop shaking. Intellectually, she knew what this was, but she’d never thought it would happen to her. Post-traumatic stress was something that happened to other people, not to her. Not to someone who had dedicated her life to hunting the strange and inexplicable and violent. And it couldn’t happen now, not when she was on the verge of the most important night of her career so far and dependent on the man who had once tried to kill her to help her win. She wanted to put it aside and just move on, but the memories of that night kept coming back.
The chair coming down on her windpipe at the wrong angle and speed.
The feeling of her windpipe swelling shut.
The surprise on the paramedic’s face when she grabbed his arm in a panic.
The relief when they had intubated her and she could finally breathe again.
The shock when her brother Masato had walked into her hospital room and seen her.
All of that caused by one man, the man she was supposed to trust to be her partner. But how could she trust him when he didn’t even acknowledge what he had done to her, except in joking terms?
All of this running through her head so she doesn’t hear the sound of the driver’s side door of her car opening and slamming shut as somebody sits down in the front seat and sees her running through the gamut of emotions running through her head.
“I know that feeling from anywhere.” He says to her as she shoots up and sees that Kevin has gotten his way from the gym to her car as well.
“You have no idea what I’m feeling right now. Get the fuck out of my car,” she snaps, ignoring the fact that she had driven them both here. “I told you, we’re done. Leave me alone.”
He doesn’t move however and just drags his hand down his entire head, not even looking at her direction, but still in a calm voice. “I saw it in your eyes. Now, I know I’m not the best at reading people, yet for some reason...I could read you like a book. Was it something that I did?”
“What part of get the fuck out of my car don’t you understand?” He might have been calm, but Ruby was getting angrier by the second. Sitting up, she smacked him hard on the side of the head. “Do I really have to fucking explain this to you? Use the lump three feet above your ass and see if you can figure out why I don’t want you going for my throat, hm?” She sat back with a huff, clutching her car keys in her fist and debating the efficiency of ramming them through the back of his skull. But then that would necessitate her having to figure out how to get blood out of leather, never mind dealing with a large dead body, so she kept her keys down by her side.
She wasn’t entirely ruling it out though, if the situation called for it.
Suddenly, it was like a weight was lifted off him for the oddest reason one could ask for. In the heat of the moment, during an outright vicious brawl, one can get a bit hasty and one could try to deliver a harsher blow than one could realize. And the memories of the first instance these two fucked up souls met one another came flooding back to him. The chair and crushing her neck with it, trying to actually murder another human being. It was the first and one of the few times in his life that something else got the better of him and now he was feeling the ramifications of it.
“S...s...shit. Yeah...I...I didn’t really think of that until this very moment. Heat of the moment, I guess between us trying to hurt one another in there. Or at least you were. I was just trying to keep up. But still, there was something else I could read in your head. Now that I think of it...it wasn’t just that, was it?"
Or maybe that was it and he was just stupider at reading people than he realized. Either or probably worked in this situation.
“Heat of the moment? That’s all you have to fucking say for yourself? I could have died last year because of what you did to me and you don’t give a shit about that at all! I knew this was a bad idea. Even with me busting my ass to try and make sure you survive the shit you’ve gotten yourself into, you’re still the most selfish fucking bastard I’ve ever had to deal with. Even in the ring! I’ve saved your ass twice now, even after I needed you to be looking out for me and you weren’t there. The whole idea of this fucking thing is that we watch each other’s backs. I’ve already proven that I’ve got yours, but I still don’t think you have mine. And if that’s the case then go find someone else to train you as a hunter. I’m not about to risk my life for someone who isn’t gonna do the same for me.”
Sighing heavily, Ruby pushed the car door open and got out. It was too stifling in the car and she was getting that breathless, panicky feeling again. She hated every single second of this but with him occupying the driver’s seat of her car, there wasn’t a way for her to use it as an escape route. It was too far to walk back to her house, so she leaned against the trunk of the Mustang and tried to think of something - anything - that would get her out of this situation without having to commit murder.
But he wasn’t going to take this lying down. Sure, he could have just said “fuck it” and threw that damned book at her and drove off in her car. But he was sure she was thinking about how she could commit a crime to another human being and get away with it. So he just took a deep breath and got out of the car with her. He was feeling the heat in the car as well--figuratively and literally--so he knew what she was going through.
Kind of.
Okay, he didn’t really know but dammit, he was going to try to.
She saw him walk towards her and she started to just walk away from him. Obviously wanting no part. But he keeps walking with her and immediately, he grabs her hand and jerks her back towards him. That alone would institute a slap and she tries to smack him across the face again, but this time he blocks it.
“LISTEN FOR A FUCKING SECOND, WILL YOU?!” He yells at her as she just looks at him, dropping her hand back down to her side. “Should I have come down to the ring to save you from Yun and Cami? Yeah, definitely. But you know what would have happened? You would have STILL gone up to me and yelled at me. You say that we should have each other’s backs but if I would have went out there and saved you, you would have told me that *I* didn’t need your help out there. And we would have been back at square one. We should have each other’s backs yes, but I also think that we can handle ourselves out there if need be.”
He sighs for a hot minute and then continues what he has to say.
“I know I’m an asshole. That much I know is certain. But when someone doesn’t trust you the way that I do, it’s kind of hard NOT to remove that from yourself. And I’m going to be honest, I still don’t know why I decided to crush your windpipe on that fateful night. I don’t even know where I was in my head on that night. Like I’ve said, back then, I wasn’t myself...I honestly believe that the people involved with me doing that to you had a hand in it, but I’ve been trying to have you forgive me for that night. Every single night that we’ve been training. And even after through ALL of that, I still enlisted my trust in you to help me with that damned book. Why? Because...because there’s something there in the both of us, I don’t know. But all I could have done was give you the book, pay you for your troubles, and move on. But no...you wanted to help me too.”
As soon as he was done talking, Ruby wrenched her hand out of his grip, but she didn’t hit him. At least, not yet.
“Oppression. It’s not as showy as a full-on demonic possession, but it leads to what you’re describing. Feeling like you don’t know where you were or what you were doing, just that some unseen force was driving you to do what you did. It doesn’t excuse what happened, but it’s at least a logical explanation given all the other weird shit that was going on there at the time.” She still isn’t looking at him, but she’s also not yelling at him for the time being, so it’s something of an improvement.
“You are without a doubt one of the biggest assholes I’ve ever met. But you’ve also got a kid at home, a kid who’s already lost her mother to what’s in that book. I’m not about to let her lose her father too. That’s why I agreed to help you, even though half the time when I look at you all I see is the man who almost made me suffocate to death and sent me to the hospital. And it doesn’t help that my brothers like to bring that up every chance they get. This is the first time you’ve ever said something about wanting forgiveness or hell, even feeling bad about it. So yeah, it’s hard to trust someone when they’ve done to me what you did. Hard to feel like someone’s got your back when you’re waiting for them to find an excuse to hurt you again.”
She shrugged her shoulders, her eyes meeting his for the first time since they’d left the gym. Admitting all of this to him made her feel vulnerable and uncomfortable, but then again, this was not the first time this had happened between them. Back in California, she had revealed to him the story of her life prior to their meeting thanks to their agreement that he could ask her one question and she had to answer him truthfully. At least then, they had been in her house in California. Now, they were at the edge of a parking lot in Maryland, which took away the feeling of safety she’d had back in October. But she was determined to stand her ground until this was over with.
He looks back at her as she finishes what she had been telling him, and the same kind of vulnerability can be seen in his eyes as well.
“Well, this is really the first chance we’ve had in talking since we started training on a daily basis. We haven’t really had the time to talk like this because we’re either training or you’re throwing paper balls at me as I’m yelling at the TV. But believe you me, I know the feeling. Maybe that’s why I didn’t come out to help you in the long run. Even though I’m pretty much demanding you to help me out here, there’s still a part of me that doesn’t know how to trust either. Pretty difficult when the only person I can trust out there is my own flesh and blood, but even then...I’m afraid.”
She looks at him and notices that in his eyes shows the same look that she gave him when she had his elbow lodged deep into her throat.
The one of fear.
And even though she knows he can be the world’s biggest asshole, she knows when he feels out in the open. She’s only seen it twice. The first time being when they were out in the woods and he threatened her to shoot him in the head (long story) and the second being when he told her the entire story about what happened to his wife and how that damned book caused all of this to happen in the first place. Now she’s seeing it again. Even though this time, she’s not sure whether or not to believe in it.
“I’m afraid that I’m going to lose her the same way I did with...with her. And part of me is afraid in general. That’s why I am, to quote you…”the most selfish fucking bastard you’ve ever had to deal with” and...yeah, that’s probably true. This is what I do to make myself not feel afraid. And I end up taking it out on the people who depend on me the most. So, yeah...I’m afraid.”
It was rare that they both allowed themselves to be honest at the same time, and frankly Ruby wasn’t sure what to do with this turn of events. She spent most of her time avoiding people but once again, he was working his way under her skin and getting to her in a way no one else had ever been able to do.
“Listen to me. Neither of us are any good with people. I think we’ve established this pretty well. But we’re in this shit together, you got that? You brought me that book when it showed up because you knew I could help you. And I will. I’m not going to let you or Kim down. I’m going to help you beat them, and keep the both of you safe. This is what being a hunter boils down to - helping people and keeping them safe, no matter what the personal cost to yourself. But you and I, if we’re going to be working together, we have to figure out a way to trust one another both in and out of the ring.”
“Yeah, I’ve pretty much figured that out. And believe me...we really do have to find a way where we can trust each other, or we’re both not long for this world. Even if you do have a ton of experience under your belt. But thank you...thank you for believing that no matter how big of a jerkass I can be, that you still think and know that you’re going to try your damndest to keep me and my daughter safe through it all. And yeah, I will trust you for your help more often, even if my head tries to fight it, I’ll offer up your help. Especially now that me and you are in this for the long haul.”
Kevin reaches his hand out this time and looks at Ruby with a more confident look than the look he gave her before during the middle of all of this mess. Awaiting a handshake to confirm that maybe, just maybe, they can finally put the past behind them...for now at least.
“Well…look, Kim wasn’t old enough to remember her mother. But she’s old enough to remember you, and as someone who knows what it’s like to lose a parent? I’d rather not put an innocent kid through that if I can avoid it. And it’s like I told you in the beginning - if you die then that’s a lot of time and effort I’ve just wasted on training your ass. So yeah, I do actually have your back out there.”
Glancing down, Ruby saw his outstretched hand and took it, giving it a firm shake.
“First though, we gotta go teach some bitches that nobody fucks with us. And then… well, after that we’ll figure out the next step. Rome wasn’t built in a day and this won’t be either. But I think ‘stay alive and give ‘em hell’ is good enough for now. So… you trust me to have your back out there in Hershey?”
He firmly shakes her hand in return and gives off a brief but confident smirk.
“Yeah, I’ll have your back out there. Even if we didn’t back then, we know now what Yun and Cami are both capable of. We got this, okay? As you said, “stay alive and give ‘em hell!” Right?
She nods as they let go of their handshake.
“Now...let’s get the hell out of here. Actually, let me buy you a drink first. I feel like you might need one after today.”
“Fine.” She tells him. “But you’ve realized that we have hit our personal quota for the next six months, right?”
He laughs as he enters the passenger side of her Mustang.
“Hey, works for me.” He tells her as she enters the driver’s side.
“Of course this doesn’t mean I’ll stop throwing paper at you every time you yell at MY television set.”
Hey, you can’t win them all.