Chapter Text
You know, if you don’t account for the severe blunt trauma to the head. Maria would say this was one of her better days so far. Sure, her car was probably totaled. Yeah, her scroll had shattered and is currently lacerating her jeans pocket. And okay, maybe she’s still repressing her heartache, not that she’ll ever admit it to anyone other than the tiny imaginary therapist in her head. All irrelevant now. The storm had passed to make room for the sun; she was being offered a chance to fix her car, and given something to hopefully take her mind off the terrible everything life had thrown her way.
First thing on her distraction docket? Her car. After Ruby vanished from the conversation, Weiss directed Maria to meet with Ruby out a back door past the split staircase in their lobby. As she stepped outside behind the building, the sound of a garage door and a drill drew her attention. Following the sound to her right revealed a second, larger standalone garage than the one she flopped into. with some… Rather different-looking vehicles. Maria couldn’t help the car nerd in her as she approached.
She recognized the simple silver mini-van as being pretty reliable for its year, not that she’d ever be caught dead driving one, but sense the couple here had three kids, it made sense. The vehicle next to it, however? Not exactly what Maria would call a family sedan. It was a massive, bright red pickup truck, a dually at that. All four tires on that rear axle came up to Maria’s knees and looked about as mean as can be. The two silver exhaust pipes curving up from behind the cab gave the front of the truck an almost devilish look to it. The devil ascetic was complete as Maria entered the garage and walked around the side of the truck to see its ‘tail.’ An articulated crane winch mounted on the bed of the truck.
The almost frightening look of the truck brook in an instant when the shaggy red hair of Ruby popped up from inside the bed to beam a blindingly bright smile at Maria. “Oh hi!”
Taken aback by the whiplash that came with Ruby’s cheerful demeanor in comparison to the monster truck she was in, Maria composed herself enough to speak… Sorta. “Uh, h-hey.”
‘Good stutter. Idiot.’
“Is this your truck?” Maria asked, talking over the nagging voice in her head.
‘Who else’s would it be!?’
Thankfully, Maria’s insulting inner monologue went unheard by the redhead.
“Uh-huh! My baby can do almost anything,” Ruby said with a proud nod, giving an affectionate pat to the sideboards of the bed. “I’m almost done, gimme just a sec.” With that, she dipped her head back down below Maria’s eyeline and the sound of drilling continued.
While she waited, Maria took a quick glance around the larger garage. First thing she noticed other than the vehicles, was the fact that it wasn’t nearly as clean and organized as the other one. Tools were strewn about more randomly, bits and bobs were everywhere, and there was a whole corner piled up with car accessories.
“Done!” Ruby’s voice echoed throughout the garage as she stood up and hopped her way out of the bed of the truck.
Maria looked at the makeshift tow truck hesitantly. “Is that thing going to be strong enough?”
“Ohhhh yeah, for sure,” Ruby assured with a confident smile, walking around and resting her hand on the hood. Maria had to fight down the giggle at the way Ruby’s arm lay straight out since the truck was so tall. “Six-point-six liter diesel, it’ll be fine.”
While an impressive engine, it is not what Maria meant. “Right, I was talking about the winch?”
“Oh…” Ruby looked back and inspected the crane winch herself with a focused expression, weighing Maria’s question. She must have found her answer as she smiled and nodded to herself. “Unless you were driving a semi-truck, it’ll work. Come on! Let’s go.” Ruby pulled open the driver’s side door of her cab and climbed in.
With confidence like that, Maria didn’t see any room to argue and walked around to climb into the cab herself. Both buckled in and ready, Ruby turned her truck’s ignition and it roared to life. Maria couldn’t help but smile at the throaty rumble from in front of them. It was louder than her car’s engine by a mile, but it elicited the same feeling for sure. It was almost comforting.
“Annnnd away we go,” Ruby chirped as she drove them out and around the building to the road.
Maria pointed in the direction she came from and Ruby turned to start rolling down the wet pavement. As they rolled away, Maria took a look behind them since she could see the building clearly now the rain is gone.
It most likely had around four floors, maybe five. The further away they got, the more spooky the building looked. Its rotting wood made up the exterior walls and the barred windows, implying a lack of escape. Oh, don’t forget the two round windows atop the building that looked like a pair of owl’s eyes that followed you wherever you went. It seemed hard to believe someone as cheery as Ruby would want to live in such a destitute-looking building.
Ruby eventually broke Maria’s silent observation of the shrinking manor. “So, what were you doing, driving out and about last night?”
Even though Ruby had her eyes firmly planted on the road ahead, Maria could somehow still feel the smile directed at her with the question. As nice as the implied smile was, it didn’t do much to ease Maria’s hesitancy to answer. She didn’t feel particularly comfortable about explaining why she left Vale. The rational part of her knew she wasn’t quite over her ex and still needed time to process the whole ordeal. A normal person would just explain she wasn’t in her right mind and was still reeling from her bad breakup and ended up doing something stupid.
But then there was the far stronger irrational part of her brain. Maria couldn’t tell these women about her ex! Surely if she brought up the fact she was single, she’d run the risk of wrecking this home. She couldn’t do that! They seemed like a nice couple, with kids, dreams, and everything. Maria may be humble-
‘Yeah right-’
BUT, she was very aware of what her presence did to many a man and woman when she went out on the town. If it wasn’t for her girlfriend at the time, she’d certainly be drowning in partners. It isn’t her fault! It’s just how she is! No, no, no. She can’t explain the truth. At least not the whole truth. It wouldn’t be fair to them.
‘Very humble. You really are a saint.’
Deciding on how she was going to execute her traitorous thoughts later, Maria answered Ruby’s question. “I had something of a rough week.”
“Oh no. I’m sorry to hear that.” Ruby’s sickeningly sweet concern hurt to hear. Especially considering Maria’s next white lie.
“It’s okay. Last night I had a pretty big argument with my girlfriend- ah!” Maria instinctually caught herself on the dash of the truck as it suddenly dipped in speed before picking back up again. Though she couldn’t stop herself from hitting her already bruised head against the seat. At least the seats were soft.
“Uh, sorry!” Ruby exclaimed, surprised coughing briefly appearing in her throat before she cleared them. “There was, uh, squirrel, mouse, thing. You were saying?”
Maria rubbed the back of her head as she tried to recollect her thoughts. “We argued, and then I ended up going for a drive.”
“In that weather?” Ruby gasped. “Why not just, I don’t know, walk somewhere?”
“I… I wasn’t thinking straight,” Maria truthfully admitted, looking out her passenger window in embarrassment.
Maria could see in the faded reflection of her window, Ruby turned to look at her with an odd face. She couldn’t place the emotion on it, but it wasn’t happy. The redhead looked back to the road and let out a deep breath.
“I’m sure you’ll work it out,” Ruby broke the new silence, her voice sounding different. Not quite the over-cheery voice she had heard back at the aspiring hotel. More of a realistic determination in her voice. Kind of like how Maria’s dad used sound during certain meetings. Though, this was a pretty different subject matter. “Love can bring a lot of pain. But take it from someone who’s been engaged for three years and married for one. It does right itself in the end. You just gotta hold on until you find that end.”
“Maybe. I still need time to even process what happened.” There was a lot to unpack with what Ruby said. A part of Maria wanted to, out of curiosity and a legitimate interest in whatever romantic knowledge the girl had. The other part was too busy spiraling into bad thoughts and dwelling on her mistakes over the last month.
“Fair enough,” Ruby replied, sounding more and more somber as she went on. “Just don’t wait too long.”
Silence reigned in the truck cab again. A far more awkward silence than before. A silence that Maria felt responsible for. Turning to look through the rear windshield of the truck, she eyed the winch and various bolts and screws holding it in the bed. Her mind drifted back to the garage as a potentially more positive talking point came to her mind.
“Back at the garage. You said your truck could do almost anything?”
Ruby looked back at Maria with a perplexed brow for but a moment. As she saw where Maria was looking, she gained her smile back and caught on. “Yeah. Since it’s pretty much just me and Weiss working on the place, I figured we would need a vehicle that could do anything.”
“And so you went for a massive diesel truck?” Maria followed up, appreciating the more chipper atmosphere.
“Absolutely,” Ruby said proudly. “My dad had one when I was growing up and it could already do almost anything on its own. With my baby, I throw my winch back there for towing. I can haul loose stuff with the bed cover on. I even got a plow for when it snows this year!”
Maria chuckled at the infectious excitement that was now radiating off the driver. “Prepared for every eventuality.”
“With what we’ve gotten ourselves into?” Ruby chuckled as well. “You kinda have to be.”
“Oh joy,” Maria said with a playful roll of her eyes.
“Hey now, you just might enjoy helping out when you come by. We haven’t even been through all the rooms ourselves yet. Who knows what you might find!? It’s like a treasure hunt!” Ruby continued to talk excitedly. Oblivious to how her comment sent a troubled thought into her passenger’s head.
No wallet. No money. Nowhere to go. Maria wasn’t even thinking about that when she agreed. Of course, they wouldn’t be thinking about having Maria stay with them. They’d probably assume she’d get a real hotel somewhere or go back to her home while Ruby worked on the car. Now she had to figure that out too.
“Is that it?” Ruby’s question brought Maria back into focus. She leaned forward to see further above the dash and into the ditch on the side of the road. She didn’t much like what she saw.
“Yeah,” Maria sighed. “That’s mine.”
Ruby threw her hazard lights on and parked on the side of the road before killing her engine and hopping down out of the truck. Maria wasn’t far behind and winced as she came around to stand next to Ruby.
“You walked away… From that.” Disbelievingly, Ruby pointed to the wreckage. Every window broken and the front end severely crumpled up from where it contacted a tree.
The best Maria could do was shrug. “Seatbelts save lives?”
“Rico might’ve been on to something,” Ruby said, eyeing Maria head to toe suspiciously. “Maybe you are a zombie.”
Maria scoffed and started to head down the slope to check on her car. “Tell that to the throbbing pain in my head. No, I just drank my milk growing up.” On her way over, she had to stop and turn around at the sound of an absolute giggle fit behind her. “What?”
“Nothin,” Ruby dismissed with some more giggles as she hopped down the ditch as well.
Maria walked over and tried to lift the hood up to see her engine only to find that no matter how much she grunted and cursed under her breath, it was terminally stuck. The sound of an impressed whistle got her to let go of the hood and turned to see Ruby had taken a couple steps back to admire the less broken elements of the car. And she was impressed.
“That is a nice piece of car,” Ruby breathed, letting her eyes roam over the frame.
Maria flushed at the sight of Ruby ogling the car, even in this state. “Thanks. It is, or rather, was a sixty-five Nuckelavee.”
“Wow.” Ruby walked around to the passenger side to appreciate the half-horse, half-man badge in front of the door. “You don’t see many Grimm on the roads these days.”
“No you do not. Me and my dad were real proud when we fixed this thing up.” Maria ran her hand over the waves that now made up her car’s hood, every bump feeling like an ounce of disappointment from her father from beyond the grave. Not because she wrecked the car, but because she was so torn up about it. He’d want her to just move on already, forget about it.
“Well alright then!” Ruby announced suddenly with a loud clap. “Let’s hook her up and get back! The sooner we get back to the garage, the sooner we can get her back together!” Climbing back up the ditch and pulling the tailgate of her truck down, Ruby pulled the winch out and let out its slack.
“You do know what you’re doing, right?” Maria couldn’t help but ask, seeing the way the crane arm wiggled when Ruby pulled on it.
Ruby nodded as she eased herself down the wet grass to the back of the wrecked car. “Oh yeah, don’t worry. I’ve towed plenty of cars before.”
Maria watched as Ruby kneeled to look under the car, but with the ditch being as steep as it was she couldn’t really see under it. “Hey, do you want me to lift it a bit? Get to the axle a little easier.”
“Think you can?” Ruby asked back, from her sideways position on the grass.
Taking off her windbreaker with a smirk, Maria tossed it on the roof of her car and stepped over to the other side of the prone Ruby. “I’ve done it plenty before. Let me know when you’re ready.” She squatted and situated her hands past the bumper so she could get a good hold and waited for Ruby’s go-ahead.
She waited, and waited, and waited. Getting sick of waiting, she glanced down at Ruby just in time to see her whip her blushing head away and shout, “Uh, ready!”
Deciding to leave that alone, Maria shut her eyes and lifted. Counting her deep breaths as her muscles strained under the weight. After around the seven-second mark, she heard, “Done!” and eased the car back down.
Shaking her arms out, she watched as Ruby scrambled up off the ground, desperately trying to mask her face with a rather fake nose scratch. “I’m gonna go do the, uh, winch thing now.”
“Got it,” Maria confirmed, grabbed her coat, and climbed up the ditch out of the way.
“Alright, pulling.”
Maria kept her eyes on the cable of the winch as the motor in it whirred and the line’s slack slowly stiffened out. Once the cable was taut, the car it was connected to lurched backwards away from the tree it collided with. Maria wanted to turn off her ears at the sound of her beloved car creaking as it was slowly dragged up the ditch. Halfway up the ditch and Ruby stopped it.
“Nice!” she said, easing herself down next to Maria and offering up her palm. “Caught ourselves a big one, up top.”
With a small sarcastic huff, Maria reciprocated the shorter girl’s high five. Which somehow brightened Ruby’s already glowing smile. “Awesome! Let’s get going.”
Jumping back in the truck, Ruby slowly turned them around while they both watched the towed car for any problems.
“It’s looking good. You all set?” Ruby asked.
With one final look at her car in the side mirror, Maria exhaled and nodded. “I think so.”
“Cool! Next stop. Chateau WhiteRose!” With the truck back in drive, Ruby started taking them back to the aspiring hotel.
Feeling an ache in her hands, Maria tried to massage the pain from lifting her car away. As she worked her hands over, she looked back at her car and smiled.
“How you feeling?” Ruby inquired, no doubt noticing the way she was massaging her hands.
“Good,” Maria replied. “It finally feels like something’s going my way. Thank you again, I really appreciate this.”
They were very dangerous thoughts, but Maria really thought Ruby looked adorable with a little blush in her cheeks. Maybe that was why she’s named Ruby?
“Ahh pfft, don’t worry about it,” the red-faced girl dismissed. “And hey, don’t you worry. I gotta feeling that things are gonna be nothing but uphill for you from here on out!”
Maria cocked her head at that. “What?”
“What, ‘what’?”
“I don’t think that’s a good thing, Ruby.”
Now it was Ruby’s turn to tilt her head. “What do you mean?”
“Going uphill is usually harder than down,” Maria clarified. “Things going ‘uphill’ from here isn’t good.”
“Yeah but, if something is going ‘downhill’ that usually means bad. Right?” Ruby challenged.
Maria had to concede that. “I guess.”
“Soooo, the opposite of the phrase must be going uphill means good stuff!” Ruby insisted with a smile and a dramatic point of her arm at nothing in particular.
Maria just settled for laughing at the driver’s antics. “I’m not so sure about that, but I’ll take your word for it.”
“Okay fine,” Ruby sighed, reaching over to poke Maria in the shoulder. “Things will be better for you starting now. Is that better?”
“Much,” Maria agreed with another chuckle.
“BA-DUMP”
Ruby slammed on her brakes at the loud sound emanating from behind them. Maria rolled down her window and leaned out to look back at her car. Only to see the front passenger side tire of her car had come off and was currently bouncing down the road they came from until it flew straight into the surrounding forest.
“Damnit,” Maria groaned and let her head fall against the door of the truck.
She felt another poke on her shoulder. “Starting now.”