Chapter Text
Ruby knows a lot of things: she knows that she should never enter Arthur’s room without knocking, she knows that her grades will determine whether or not she gets into her dream liberal arts school, and she knows that her Uncle Shane and Ilya have always been there for her whenever she needed advice or somewhere she could crash if she needed some space from her family. Just a year ago, after her seventeenth birthday, she drove to her uncles’ house after a huge argument with her sister about whether or not they should go to college together. Jade never did like being alone. Ruby ended up spending a night talking to her uncles before driving back home and talking with her sister again. However, one thing that has always been a constant when she drives from Montreal to Ottawa, is that she’s always told her parents where she was going; she never let them wonder for too long where she was. It was an unsung rule of the household, which is why this time, when she is already half way to Ottawa, Hayden calls Shane and Ilya in a panic, asking if his daughter is at their house.
“Okay, Hayden. I need you to take a couple of deep breaths, alright? I’m sure she’s just with a friend or something.” Shane glances at Ilya, who shares a look of concern with his husband. They both know that they need to keep Hayden calm, despite what they’re feeling (and they’re feeling a lot), which is why Shane is doing the talking this time. Ilya and Ruby have become almost best friends after the couple of years that she has been driving herself over to visit.
“She hasn’t picked up her phone and her location won’t work and I don’t know why,” Hayden says, taking rushed, shallow breaths.
“I’m sure that she’s alright. How many times have you called her?”
“Probably 50 times,” Hayden says.
“Maybe she’s asleep at a friend’s house,” Shane suggests.
“She would tell us though,” Hayden says, voice wobbling slightly. Shane doesn’t want to hear his best friend cry, because then he might cry.
“Okay, let me call her. I know it probably won’t do anything, but at least we can try? Is Jackie calling Ruby’s friends’ parents?” Hayden just makes a sound on the other end, which Shane takes as a yes.
“It’ll be okay, Pike. We’ll find her,” Ilya says from where he’s sitting.
“Thank you guys so much,” Hayden says. “Call me if you get a hold of her.”
“Of course,” Shane says. They hang up and Shane looks at Ilya.
“What if she was taken?” Ilya asks. He bites the skin on his thumb anxiously.
“Don’t say that,” Shane says. His head shakes slightly as he looks down at his phone. Ruby’s contact flashes on Shane’s screen – a photo of the two of them on her seventh birthday. Hayden had taken the photo when Shane wasn’t paying attention and he was colouring with her in the Pike’s basement; Ruby had gotten overwhelmed with the amount of people that were at the party and Shane wanted to take her mind off of it. After a couple of moments, the voicemail message plays softly through Shane’s speakers.
“Fuck,” Ilya mutters under his breath.
“No, we keep calling her,” Shane says. He presses on her contact a total of seventeen times before calling Hayden back.
“I’m sorry,” Shane says. Hayden lets out a noise of pure devastation.
“Oh, Jackie hasn’t reached a single parent who can say if they’ve seen her today. Her and her friends are going through finals right now so none of them have hung out outside of school much,” Hayden says. Shane and Ilya can vaguely hear Jackie in the background talking to someone, likely another parent.
“Listen, we’ll find her. We’ll call the authorities if we have to, but I assure you she’s somewhere safe right now.”
“You don’t know that, though,” Hayden says.
“I’m aware,” Shane says. Maybe it is time to dial 911. It’s only been an hour and the police would likely tell any of them that they need to wait until 24 hours, but what if they don’t have 24 hours? What if she’s gone before 24 hours. She could be in a basement or a warehouse right now. She would be so alone and-
“Shane,” Ilya whispers. Shane looks up at his husband and recognizes the glint in Ilya’s eyes. Shane goes off on tangents and spirals quite often and quite easily.
“I think we need to call 911,” Hayden whispers.
“They’ll tell us that she’s a runaway or that she’s off partying,” Shane says.
“I need to try,” Hayden says.
“Hayden, really think about this,” Shane says.
“I’ve been thinking,” Hayden cries, voice becoming more rushed and agitated. “I want my daughter back. I want- I need her safe. If it means wasting a couple minutes of police time, then so be it.”
“Hayden, are you-”
The signature sound of a classic doorbell cuts through whatever Shane was going to say. Of course Hayden would have been sure about calling 911. He would have done it in a heartbeat, his children are his children and his first priority. Ilya shoots up and practically runs over to the door, his foot catching slightly on the edge of the rug in their living room.
“What was that? Was that the doorbell?” Hayden’s voice is hopeful on the speaker.
“Yeah, Ilya’s getting the door,” Shane says. The sound of the door opening and hushed voices fill the foyer, but Shane can’t hear anything that’s being said or even who it is at the door. Suddenly though, the voices go silent and the curiosity eats away at Shane. With just a couple of strides, he reaches the foyer and upon arriving, the phone slides out of his hand and Shane’s not even worried about it because all of the stress from the past forty five minutes has all washed off of his back and now he’s hugging the two of them and breathing in the smell of Ruby’s lilac and wisteria body lotion.
“Shane, what’s going on? Do I need to call the cops?” Hayden’s voice echoes through the foyer.
“No, it’s alright, Hayd,” Shane says. “We have her.”
“Oh thank God, can you put her on?” Hayden says. Shane pulls away from the group embrace and that’s when he notices Ruby’s face. More than just the tears and the red eyes. He notices the scratch on her cheek and the bruise on her forehead and the busted lip. He notices the tremble of her chin and the way that her entire body shakes.
“Oh Ruby, what happened?” Shane says in a hushed voice, as to not worry Hayden. She just shakes her head and closes her eyes.
“Shane, can you hear me?” Ruby glances down at the phone. She’s the first one to pick it up.
“Hi, daddy,” she says in a small voice.
“Ruby, baby. I’m so glad that you’re safe,” Hayden says. “Why didn’t you tell us where you were? We would have been alright with you going to visit your uncles, but why no heads up, hon?” Ruby closes her eyes again and takes a deep breath.
“I guess I just didn’t think about it. Uh- finals have been crazy and I-I just need a break or something,” she says.
“Oh honey, I’m sorry. Just please, please call next time. Or text. Oh, hold on, let me get your mom.” Ruby glances at Shane, then Ilya, a silent plea that she needs the call to end and to just talk to the two people she drove two hours to see. Jackie’s voice is heard in the distance, and then it slowly gets closer and closer to the mic of Hayden’s phone.
“Ruby, are you alright? Why didn’t you text me?” Jackie asks, sounding dishevelled and harried.
“Hey, mom, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about it, I really didn’t. I’m alright, though. Just tired.”
“No, don’t be sorry. Your father and I were just worried, that’s all. We needed to know if you were safe.”
“I’m alright,” Ruby says. Her voice trembles slightly. She closes her eyes and prays that her parents can’t hear the shake. Shane places a hand on her back and looks at her, trying to decipher what caused her so much pain and anxiety that she drove all this way.
“I bet you’re wanting to go to sleep, honey,” Jackie says softly.
“I am, I’ll probably crash in a couple of minutes,” she chuckles.
“Well we’ll let you go, but please text us when you wake up and when you plan on heading back,” Hayden asks. “Alright?”
“Of course, daddy. I love you guys so much, I’m so sorry for worrying you,” Ruby says.
“It’s no problem, sweetie. We love you too,” Hayden says.
“Love you, darling,” Jackie says.
“Alright, bye Hayden,” Shane says.
“Bye Shane. Thank you so much,” Hayden says.
“Bye Shane,” Jackie says. The call ends with a couple more niceties and then Shane looks at Ruby.
“Can we sit down? In the kitchen?” She asks. Now, she has no prerogative for hiding her trembling voice. Shane nods his head.
“Of course,” Ilya says. He leads the three of them to the kitchen island and immediately pours Ruby a glass of water. She accepts it graciously and takes a couple of sips. Ilya sits to her left and Shane behind him. Ruby turns herself so she faces the two of them; her eyes look everywhere except for their direction and when she does, tears well up in her eyes.
“I can’t seem to get away,” Ruby finally says. Ilya offers a hand on the island counter and she takes it instantly.
“Get away from what?” Ilya asks. Ruby takes in a deep breath and then exhales very slowly.
“A couple of months ago, right after winter break, I was at the library. The one in Concordia that has my college classes. Well, we got a bunch of snow and I didn’t realise it because I wasn’t looking at the windows, I was studying, and when I was finally ready to leave, it was dark and we couldn’t leave the building, so I thought I could go back up to the study hall and finish some other things I had to do. On the way up, though, the elevator got stuck with just me and this other guy and he was cute and we started talking and he was so nice so we exchanged numbers, but ever since then he won’t leave me alone and I don’t know what to do. I’ve asked him to stop messaging me so many times, but I’m afraid that if I block him he’ll show up to my classes, but when I went to his dorm earlier today and told him I was going to block him if he didn’t stop harassing me… he got kinda handsy.” Ruby’s eyes are filled with tears and her cheeks are glistening with tears. Ilya’s heart went cold. Someone out there was hurting his niece and he would find who. Shane’s hand found Ilya’s and gave it a small squeeze.
“What kind of handsy?” Shane asks, dreading the answer.
“He hit me and slapped me and… he grabbed me. There.” Her chin wobbles so hard Shane is worried it’ll fall off or something.
“Does he show up to your classes often?” Ilya asks.
“All the fucking time.”
“And other than that? Does he show up at other places of yours?” Ruby shakes her head once.
“He doesn’t have my location or anything and I’ve only ever told him about my college classes,” she says.
“Has he ever been to your house, or knows our address?” Her head shakes.
“It only took a week for me to realise he was bad news, so I never gave it to him, but I don’t know if he’s ever followed me to my house. I wouldn’t put it against him, honestly,” she says. Shane nods his head.
“This really seems like something we need to tell your father. He can help you,” Shane says. Ruby closes her eyes, forcing a couple more tears to streak down her face. She shakes her head rapidly.
“It would break him knowing that someone hurt me. Please, I need you guys to help me, not him.” Her cries choke her after every couple of sentences.
“It breaks us too,” Ilya says. “You know that?” Ruby nods her head.
“It would break my dad in a different way. You guys remember when Jade got into that car accident last year? Right after our junior year?” The two nod in unison. Both of them remember very vividly driving to Montreal to see her in the hospital, where she was unconscious for nearly two days before coming to and not being able to remember what had happened for the couple of hours leading up to getting into the car. The three hockey players had had concussions before but never as bad as Jade had gotten.
“She’s still in PT from it,” Shane says. Ruby chuckles wryly.
“That took a lot of my dad with it. He still has dreams about her getting into a car accident. If he found out about this, it would take another piece of him. The only way that he would think to get that piece back would be to literally kill this man, and I don’t want my dad going to jail or doing anything stupid. So please, don’t tell him,” Ruby pleads. Shane and Ilya exchange a glance. Neither knows what to do, because Ruby has a point. Hayden would do something drastic. He’s just one of those people.
“Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. This is not going to be solved tonight, and I can’t be of much use if I’m tired, so we’re going to go to bed, then in the morning, we’ll talk more about this guy and whether or not we need to get other parties involved.” Shane looks at Ilya and Ruby to gauge their thoughts on his proposed plan.
“Sleep sounds pretty good,” Ilya says. Ruby agrees with a nod.
“Alright. Ilya, can you take Ruby to her room?” Ilya nods. Before the two disappear, Shane opens his arms for Ruby and she falls into them.
“We love you so much, Ruby,” Shane mutters in her ear.
“Thank you. I love you guys too,” she says. They part and Ruby follows Ilya to the stairs, completely silent. Before they reach Ruby’s room, though, Ilya turns into one of the guest bathrooms and beckons Ruby to join him.
“I know you don’t think it’s bad, but we still need to clean your cuts,” Ilya says. He pulls out their first aid bin that they have in every single bathroom, and starts taking out different things – rubbing alcohol, neosporin, bandaids, hydrogen peroxide. Ruby sits down on the toilet with the seat down, which creates the perfect seat for her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. Ilya stops what he’s doing and looks at her.
“Sorry for what?” He asks.
“For dragging you guys into this,” she says.
“Darling, you could drag us into hell, and we’d still be honoured that you chose us,” Ilya says with a soft smile. His smile has an effect on Ruby that nothing else seems to have. Her nerves settle and her heart seems to get the memo that everything really is alright. Ilya kneels down in front of her with a cotton swab soaked in alcohol and starts slowly dabbing her cheek. Ruby inhales sharply as the sting travels throughout the spot around the cut and she closes her eyes so that she can focus on getting through it. The cut is much deeper than she thought. After a couple minutes of slow, gentle cleaning of her cut, Ilya places a bandaid perpendicular to the cut so that it heals well. Just a little something he learned from getting into fights as a kid. He wants to know badly how she got all of these injuries, in as much detail as possible so that he knows exactly what to do to whoever this guy is.
“You look like you want to ask me something,” Ruby says. Ilya just shakes his head grimly.
“I know you would not like me to ask,” he says.
“It’s okay, Uncle Ilya. I know what you’re going to ask. Just say it,” she says as he lightly rubs over the bruise with a gauze pad covered in hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol.
“How did he cut so deep? If he only hit you?” Ruby goes silent for a couple moments, figuring out how to phrase it without infuriating her uncle even more.
“A bottle that he had,” she says. Ilya’s movements falter; not enough for anyone to notice, but enough for Ruby to notice.
“He drinks? Around you?”
“He’s always drinking.”
“You’re 18 years old. You’re too young to be hurt like this and he needs to know that,” Ilya says, trying to hide the trembling in his voice. To be completely honest, it hurts him more than anything to hear her dealing with this and knowing that there’s almost nothing she can do to protect herself right now other than hope that he doesn’t know where she lives.
“I really thought he was alright when we met. He seemed perfectly fine. I guess this is just what I get for trying to be nice,” she mutters.
“No, being nice has nothing to do with this. Never stop being nice. It is all because of this guy being an asshole and taking advantage of you,” Ilya says. Ruby nods her head slowly.
“I suppose,” she says. Ilya finishes up by placing a thin layer of neosporin over the cut in her lip. He stands and puts everything carefully back into the bin, then helps Ruby up from her seat. The two exit the bathroom, but not before Ruby takes a look at herself in the mirror. The person looking back at her doesn’t really seem like the person she’s used to seeing in the mirror. This person looks tired and beaten and helpless. She’s used to seeing someone strong and capable.
“Sleep will make you feel better,” Ilya says. Agreeing, Ruby nods her head again. Now that he mentions it, Ruby is incredibly tired. Her bones feel like lead in her skin and her eyes are crying to be closed. She follows her uncle to her room, which she claimed at the age of 10 years old. Cold air washes over her as they walk past a vent and that’s what Ruby focuses on. She focuses on the way it causes her eyes to open just a little bit more.
“I know you’ll probably get mad if I say this again, but I really am sorry. I feel like I’ve put you guys in a really stressful situation.”
“I’m not mad, I just need you to know that it’s not your fault.” Ruby stands in front of the bedroom doorway. The two look at each other for a few moments, just taking in what the night has brought them. Ilya opens his arms and Ruby breaks the second that she envelops herself in her uncle’s scent. He smells of firewood and some sort of cologne that coats almost all of his clothes. Ruby’s entire body shakes as she sobs into Ilya’s arms, releasing the emotions that she felt she couldn’t express when her dad was on the phone and when she had to explain why exactly she was in Ottawa and why she had these bruises on her body.
“It’s alright, love,” Ilya says, running his fingers through his niece’s hair. She has the prettiest brown hair that cascades down her shoulders.
“I just feel so stupid,” she sobs.
“I know you know this, but you aren’t,” Ilya says.
“It feels like such a dumb mistake to make and I made it.” Ilya stops himself from shushing her, despite it feeling like the right thing to do. He knows that right now, she needs to get these feelings out of the way in order to be able to make decisions tomorrow. The two of them stand together until Ruby feels herself falling asleep standing up, so she breaks away from the embrace despite really wanting to stay that way forever. Ilya kisses Ruby’s forehead and she disappears into her room. Ilya doesn’t want to leave her, but he knows that she needs her own space right now and he can wait until tomorrow to be with her more. Tomorrow, when he knows that he and Shane are going to convince her to tell her parents about what has been going on, because it may seem scary but the only thing scarier would be to lose her.
Ilya waits a couple of seconds before walking down the hall and towards the stairs down to the rest of the house. Shane still sits at the island, phone underneath his hand as if it will keep the world at bay. Ilya walks over to his husband and wraps his arms around him. A soft chuckle escapes Shane’s lips as he wraps his own arms around Ilya. The two of them stay like this for a while, just taking each other in. It doesn’t feel like long enough when Shane pulls back ever so slightly to look up at Ilya. There’s sorrow and pain in his eyes and Ilya doesn’t like it. He hates it when Shane looks pained. It makes Ilya pained.
“Hayden texted me,” Shane says. Ilya looks over at Shane’s phone as if Hayden were going to be on the screen or something.
“What did he say?”
“Just another ‘thank you’ for taking care of Ruby. Jade also texted me a thank you. I think she’s almost more worried than Hayd and Jackie." Ilya nods.
“She doesn’t admit it but she loves her sister,” he says. Shane makes a noise of acknowledgement. His eyes are now lost at a point behind Ilya, glossing over like they do when he zones out. Ilya knows what he’s thinking.
“We both know what we have to do tomorrow,” Ilya whispers into Shane’s hair.
“Yeah,” Shane agrees. They have to tell Hayden about this guy.