Rise At Dawn

Jumping the Girlfriend Already?

     After the liberation of the camps, it all felt so surreal and like it would disappear any moment.

     Besides the joy of finally being free, each person claimed their own baggage full of guilt and grief, although some got more than others.

     Nobody knew how they ended up here, but no one questioned it. Each kid was scared of what life would look like when they each went their own ways. For four of them, they hadn't seen each other basically every day for almost 2 years and for the whole six, they had in some weird way 'trauma bonded', as Chub's dad called it. After they returned from the meetings at the hotel, the 6 teenagers convinced the parents to have dinner together which led to each person passing out somewhere in the living room of Ruby's house. The parents decided it best just to let them sleep, so they set up the 2 guest rooms and Ruby's room and let the adults sleep there for the night.

     Everyone was asleep except Ruby, who had woken up a few hours earlier, and Cate, who was making Ruby help with the few little pieces of work to finish up; however, eventually, an hour turned into two, and soon it was 11:00, which was past Cate's bedtime.

     "Cate," Ruby said with a pointed look, "You're tired, go to bed. I'll finish up," Ruby told Cate as her eyes slowly fell to a close and then snapped back open, clearly struggling to stay awake.

     "Roo, you know we don't have to finish this right now right? We can finish up in the morning and let you get some sleep..."

     "Good night Cate," she says sing-songy, "Let me finish up, I'll go to bed soon," In reality, Ruby just didn't want to go to bed. Every time she let her eyes close, she saw someone die. She never wanted to relive it, so she never made herself, only falling asleep in the security of Liam's arms or when the medicine her parents make her take for her leg makes her fall asleep, anything to help her escape the screams that always seemed to follow her in her dreams.

     Finding herself in a rhythm of writing emails, sending them, and creating new meetings for the future of PSI, she hadn't taken the time to actually notice the migraine making its way into her head from the use of her computer. She also didn't notice how much she needed to go to the bathroom. Between the doors, she heard the gate to her basement open and close, and then preparing herself to start a conversation with someone's parents, she got the courage to open the door to the hall. B-lining to the pantry, in no mood to converse, she grabbed the aspirin.

     "You know what time it is Ruby?"

     Harry.

     Ruby heard a light slap coming from the kitchen and realized there was no getting out of this conversation. Harry and Grace. She was about to talk about one or both of their sons. Neither of which was a conversation she wanted to talk about at whatever time it was. Leaving the pantry with the strongest medication she could find to stop the shooting pain in her leg and head she simply shook her head.

     "Gotta finish the work before I even worry about going to bed. Besides, the sleep schedule is so messed up that it feels like 9 pm for me, I'm good," she says as she motions to her head, slightly smiling.

     "Is your sleep schedule messed up or do you just not want to sleep," Grace questioned.

     "Probably both," Ruby laughed lightly, trying to make the situation seem better than it was. In reality, this was the last thing she wanted to do. Talk about her problems to the parents of two dead kids and one who is probably traumatized for life, and here she was, about to talk about how she can't sleep because she lost some friends. Chugging some water to get the pills down and then slightly hobbling back over to her computer, she found herself back at the spot she's been at for 3 hours, going back to work she wanted nothing but to be done with. It was quiet for a few moments until Grace spoke up.

     "Thank you, Ruby," Ruby looked up from her computer and smiled. It was obvious Ruby didn't understand what Grace was thanking her for but she knew well enough that the silence that followed wasn't a comfortable silence. It was a silence created from the thankfulness of a mother who still had one son when both could've been gone. They had been sitting for a few minutes, waiting for someone to say something, but in the end, neither of them did but their focus switched to the light steps coming from the living room.

     "Y'all jumped her in the middle of the night?" Liam asked, voice rough from sleep, "You couldn't have waited for the morning? Woke her up and every-," he stopped mid-sentence, eyes glancing over the open computer and cup of coffee sitting by it, "Ruby. You know how late it is?"

     "Your parents just asked the same thing," she smiled, "just finishing up some things."

     "Calm down Liam," Harry started, "No jumping of the girlfriends was done tonight, saving that for another time."

     "Dear God," Liam groaned.

     "Go to bed you two," Grace said standing up and heading to the fridge, grabbing two glasses of water, "Just came up here for some water, we're going back to bed."

     "Night Mom," Lee said, walking up to her and giving her a hug, his head resting on hers. When the two finally retreated back to the basement, Ruby sat back down at her seat and began typing again, or at least tried to before her arms were captured by Liam and he grabbed her computer away before she could do anything.

     "Liam," she whined, "I'm trying to do work."

     "Yea, and I'm trying to get you to go back to bed."

     "Not until I'm done. I'm almost done. Promise."

     "Nope. Come on darlin'. A nice cozy floor awaits you," he said, gripping her waist and turning off the kitchen lights, leading her to where she was lying just a couple of hours before.

     "Stupid Cate stealing my bed," Ruby grumbled while Liam snickered.

     "Grumpy," he said, ruffling her hair. The only issue with the 6 of the sprawled out on the floor, due to the small 2 cushion couches that fit no one, is that there is absolutely no room for 6 of them. Nonetheless, a leg cast thrown in the middle.

     "Liam, I swear to God. Move your leg," Ruby whispered.

     "I don't have anywhere to put my leg," he said, looking back at her, "also I'm bigger than you and need more room," he fought.

     "My broken leg takes priority over you, Lee."

     "Fine," he said, slinging his leg over her waist, making her laugh at the position he was in.

     "Not what I meant," she said, leaning forward and softly kissing him, "but I love you so it's ok."

     "For the love of God. Shut up," Vida whispers/yells.

     "Sorry Vi," Ruby turned to her, "Love you too."

     "Mhm," she hummed sarcastically, "Go to bed, Roo."

     "Fine. You know I don't know why y'all are always forcing me to go to sleep, I have my own sleep schedule."

     "Save this for the morning. Go to bed," Liam smiled and Ruby groaned.

     "I hate y'all."

     "No you don't," Vida said.