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"Here There Be Vampires" A Promise City, Arizona Story Hour
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<blockquote data-quote="orchid blossom" data-source="post: 2819653" data-attributes="member: 12815"><p><span style="font-size: 12px">Aftermath Part I</span></p><p></p><p>Over the next few weeks Kate split her time between the ranch and preparing her school. Nights when she didn't have to be at the Lucky Lady she spent at the ranch house. She got far in the training of several of the horses and helped Sonoma with whatever tasks didn't need a skilled hand.</p><p></p><p>Back in town the desks from Mr. Rixton were installed in the schoolroom. The blackboard arrived and was mounted on the wall, and a sturdy table and chair for her were placed at the front of the room. She continued to work on her curriculum and visited the families who planned to enroll children, asking them what they wanted out of the school and testing the children to find out what skills they already had.</p><p></p><p>She also made sure to make time to see her friends and made sure she spent plenty of time with Ginnie. For a few days after the service she saw concerened glances, but those faded as she showed she meant to live on and find happiness. She took her own lessons with Mr. Gonzales and spent some time with Conrad, both of them trying to find footing in relation to each other.</p><p></p><p>Early the third day after they returned from Thomaswell Ruby begins to stir. Her eyes slowly open; just as the morning light starts filtering into their room. She watches the small particles of dust dance through the light on their never ending journey through the air. She blinks a few times, not wanting to really wake up, knowing what the day should bring. Should, if she can gather the strength to do what she thinks is right. Finally she was feeling better physically, now she needed to make other things right.</p><p></p><p>She turns her head to the left, finding Jake in his usual spot next to her. Lying on his belly, his face smushed into his pillow, an arm and a leg hang off the bed while he snores lightly, letting her know he is still very much asleep. His hair was getting long, and some wild strands cover his eyes. Ruby smiles contentedly, even in his sleep her lover managed to make her heart flutter with delight and longing. He was so handsome and charming in the most perfect roguish way, stealing Ruby’s heart out from under her, even against her own will. She realized long ago that her real true downfall in life was him. She reaches over and pushes the hair off his face. He was peaceful now, even though he had once told her he didn’t feel peaceful, he looked it. Maybe now he would feel it, now that the drama of the past few months was over.</p><p></p><p>Ruby sighs as she thinks over how much her life had changed since January. She had always hoped things would be different but when they weren’t time after time, it started to wear on her and she had started to lose hope. Promise City was only a name at the time she ran from her last town, but it seemed as good, or bad, as any other town. Funny how she hadn’t really thought it would be different here but back in Tombstone she promised herself she would stay out of trouble and try harder this time to make it work.</p><p></p><p>Course, she had done that in every other town she had been in too. But something seemed different right from the start, that day on the stage. Meeting two of the people who would become her best friends, Nanuet and Katherine, and letting herself get involved with them was the first step towards her new life.</p><p></p><p>Not a week later she had met the gambler Silver Jake Cook, having saved him from their wordy friend Chumbley. There was something about Jake even then, and Ruby and Kate had led him back to the El Parador and let him tag along, or more accurately, let him get involved in their troubles.</p><p></p><p>How lucky for all of them that they did. Despite his protests Jake HAD become the leader of their little tribe, the one they all looked to, the one who looked out for them and their interests in the end, and the one who kept them all together.</p><p></p><p>And what started out as almost any other seduction and one night stand had morphed into what Ruby thought would be a lifetime of love, romance, companionship and adventure. She had found a best friend and lover all in one, sitting red eyed and hung over at a saloon in some town that fateful morning.</p><p></p><p>Now it was three days since they had returned from Thomaswell. Before they left Jake and Ruby had started talking about their future, or more precisely Ruby had begun thinking over her future plans for her once aimless life. Jake had given her reason to want more and he helped her to be more than she ever thought she could be. But she knew things weren’t right between them and she needed some time alone to straighten her own thoughts and feelings out. She didn’t want Jake to feel pressured but everything she said seemed to come out that way. All which led to today’s little trip.</p><p></p><p>She slowly rolls over in their bed, pulling herself onto Jake’s back. She lets the warmth and weight of her body cover him gently and gradually so not to startle him. She pulls her hair to one side and it cascades, covering the back of Jake’s head and back. She leans her face close to him and letting her lips brush his ear, in a husky-just-woke-up-seductive voice she calls to him in a whisper, “Jacob…Jacob wake up…”</p><p></p><p>His first response is more a grunt than a word followed by, "...is it morning?"</p><p></p><p>"Yes, sleepy head, it is early morning." Ruby runs her hands up and down Jake's arms, leaving her arms lying on his. She snuggles contentedly, nuzzling his neck until she again whispers in his ear, "What are you dreaming about?"</p><p></p><p>He grunts again before replying groggily, "That no one was shooting at me and I could sleep late."</p><p></p><p>"Oh." She should have suspected that Jake wouldn't like to be woken up, hell, she didn't like to be woken up either. But she knew what was coming this day and he didn't... “Sorry," she says softly. She gently rolls off him, back to her own spot on the bed, back to looking at the dust fall through the light.</p><p></p><p>A minute goes by and Jake manages to mumble out through the pillow, "What's wrong?"</p><p></p><p>Without turning her head Ruby replies, "Why does there have to be something wrong? Just because I was hoping you were dreaming about me like I was dreaming about you and..." she turns her head towards Jake, "You wanted to be with me..." She pulls the sheet up higher, "I'm sorry I woke you up, go back to sleep."</p><p></p><p>"There doesn't have to be something wrong...," Jake rolls over on his side, "...but when my Ruby is in a good mood a little thing like me sleeping doesn't keep her from saying or doing what she really wants." Jake yawns and rubs the back of his hand across one sleepy eye.</p><p></p><p>Ruby lips rise into a smile. He was right, and that was the whole point of what she was about to do. "You're right you know." She pushes the wild strands that had fallen back into Jake's eyes away off his face again. "I wanted to make love."</p><p></p><p>Even with his eyes still struggling to rise from their sleepy state, his mouth manages his famous smirk. "That is a world better than being shot at. Heck, I put myself through getting shot at to be here for this." He manages to pry his eyes open without losing the lopsided smile.</p><p></p><p>Ruby smiles even wider, "And when my Jake is in a good mood that is exactly what I would expect him to say." She rolls to her side to face Jake and she kisses him softly for a few long moments while running her fingers through his hair.</p><p></p><p>She pulls her head back to look at him and sighs longingly. "It's too late though. You were right, I'm not myself."</p><p></p><p>"Not yourself? Those feel like Ruby's lips. Hey, Gonzalez didn't make a Ruby disguise for Katherine did he?" He puts a comical look of shock on his face. "No, couldn't be. No one else can kiss like that."</p><p></p><p>Ruby bites her lip, pondering something for a moment before she leans in and kisses Jake again. "No one kisses me like you do either baby. I love that about you." She kisses him again, then pulls her face back again, resting her head on the pillow, keeping her hand on Jake's face. She stays like that for a long time, just staring at her lover.</p><p></p><p>"Jake, I do have something to tell you," she says finally. Ruby takes a deep breath in and holds it. "I just wish you could tell me you won't get mad first but I know that isn't to be." She exhales, but only slightly. "I'm going away for a little while… I'm leaving Promise City."</p><p></p><p>"See, there is something wrong." He sits up. "Is someone sick? Where do you need to go?</p><p></p><p>“I told you that you were right.” She lets the rest of the air out of her lungs slowly in a huge exhale. This is the part I was NOT looking forward to. “Baby, do you truly believe that I love you?”</p><p></p><p>"Yes." He says the word slowly and clearly. The bemusement from his joking is long gone from his face.</p><p></p><p>“If you love me, you have to let me do this.” She knows her words sting, but after going over and over in her mind, this was the only thing she could think of to do. She also sits up and places her palm flat on Jake’s back. “You know I love you, you just said that you did. I do love you, more than anything.” Holding the sheet up around her she continues, “I need to go somewhere that isn’t here. I need time, time to think and figure things out. Time to be… alone.”</p><p></p><p>Before he can interrupt she continues, “Have no doubt that I know in my heart that we are meant to be together. But baby, we’ve promised each other forever and I’m starting to think that neither of us truly knows what that means. Following my heart is not something I let myself do in a very long time, a very long time, not until you.” She keeps her eyes averted from Jake’s gaze while she speaks. “I have to figure out what I want for my future.”</p><p></p><p>So it has finally come, Jake thinks but his face is unreadable. "Free, is that what you are saying? You want me to give you back your freedom?"</p><p></p><p>Ruby smiles softly and keeps her hand on Jake’s back. “There is an old saying, ‘If you love someone set them free. If they don’t return they were never really yours to begin with. But if they DO return to you, they are yours forever.’ Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s stupid, I don’t know.”</p><p></p><p>Ruby shrugs. “I never thought we weren’t free Jake. I never felt that way. That is why I love you so much. I am myself with you, I give myself to you and yet I still feel free. If that’s what giving up your freedom is truly like, I’d gladly give it you.” She pauses and ponders. “I guess you DO feel that way though, that I’ve taken your freedom, or you wouldn’t have said that. And I don’t want you to feel that way. Ever. That’s just part of Silver Jake Cook, I know that. And if you don’t feel free with me…” her voice trails off and her eyes go unfocused as she pretends to look out the window.</p><p></p><p>Then she speaks suddenly, “What do we really know about love and the future anyway? You and I are just a gambler and a saloon girl trying to make their way in this lonely, harsh world, gambling on our future together. And I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of it. But like you’ve said, how long can it last before we mess it up? And how hurt are we going to be when we DO mess it up?” She repeats a question that she’s asked recently, “How can we promise each other forever if we don’t even know how we work? Leave it to our hearts to figure out? My heart hasn’t done too well for me in the past. That doesn’t seem like good odds.” She continues very softly, “As you can see, I’m confused.”</p><p></p><p>"You'll forgive me if I am surprised and confused too. I didn't say I felt like I had no freedom. I was just trying to understand what you are telling me...." He gets up out of bed and pulls on his trousers. "I don't think I am going to understand. You love me but your heart says you should be somewhere else but you don't want your heart to figure things out because it hasn't done well in the past. You want your freedom but you already have it." Jake shakes his head to and fro on his way to the table on which rests the decanters. He pours himself a large glass of whiskey. "I'm not a quitter, I don't fold on a hand when I think I can win the pot, when I want that pot very badly." He takes a drink from the glass. "If I love you I'll let you do this..." Jake turns away from her but just ends up facing the mirror and looking at her that way. "Strange isn't it that you say something to someone, something that you think comes right from your heart, something that you really believe to be true and then come to find out that maybe you shouldn't have said it, that it wasn't always true."</p><p></p><p>Ruby watches Jake dress from her spot on the bed. “No, you’re not going to understand, I already know and accept that. It’s not my heart telling me to spend some time alone, it’s my head. I never said anything about freedom, that was all you. This is what I mean!” In frustration she smacks the bed. “Things get said and one person means them one way and they come out totally another. I don’t ever want to think you aren’t saying things to me that you want to say but I’m confused. I don’t know what you were trying to say and you keep telling me I got it wrong but you don’t explain any better and I still don’t understand. Why don’t you explain it to me so I do understand?”</p><p></p><p>As Jake turns to face her again, he notices that her bags are packed. He looks at them for a minute before he moves the rest of the way to face her. "I didn't mean me, not what I said. A few weeks ago I asked you a question and you told me 'I always want you to follow me'. It seems that is changed." He drinks from the glass, swallows and drinks again. "I gather you have made up your mind to catch the morning stage." He vaguely waves his hand holding the glass towards her bags. "I have no where else to go, no where else I'd rather be. You can choose to get on the stage or ask me anything you want as many times as you want for as many days as you want."</p><p></p><p>Jake leans his head back and drains the rest of the glass. "It feels like a long time ago that I said I won't leave you alone until you convince me that you really don't want me around." He walks over to the side table again and fills up his empty glass so that it nearly spills over the top. "You always were a smart girl, you have me." He quickly drinks enough out of the glass so he can walk without spilling it. "It is cruel enough to make me suffer through this, do not ask me to explain it to the others. Tell them yourself, leave them a note or find someone else to explain it to them. I won't pretend that everything is just fine." Uncharacteristically he turns his eyes away from hers. "If you decide that there is no future here for you, don't come back to tell me. I don't think I could do this again." Jake walks across the room to the door way. "A stronger or wiser man would not let you go. As you said, I'm just a gambler."</p><p></p><p>Jake stands in the door way, bare foot, his hair tousled and only wearing wrinkled trousers. He rapidly drinks from the glass again, spilling whiskey down his chin. He finally looks back at her sitting on the bed. "This is a deplorable test of whether I love you or not, one where I cannot prevail. I do love you Ruby West, I will not hinder you from traveling any path that your heart or head chooses. All that is left for me is to wonder if I will regret this day for the rest of my life or not." He looks down, as if he is going to say something else but instead leaves the room.</p><p></p><p>“Jake…” Ruby chokes out but suddenly finds him gone and she is left alone in the quiet of the morning. Not even the puppies stayed, they had bounced out when Jake left the room. Ruby tries to blink back her tears but they come anyway. That went as badly as I could imagine, she thinks. Why do you think you have to do this anyway and hurt him so? “I never said I wasn’t coming back!” she cries out to no one. She continues to cry for a few more moments before stubbornly wiping her eyes.</p><p></p><p>She slowly slides off the bed, making sure her legs will stand underneath her. The room is growing dark, a storm brewing outside and Ruby needs to light a candle to see. Perfect, it matches my mood. She numbly dresses, putting on her normal travel dress, jacket and hat. Her wild hair refuses to be tamed under her hat but today she could care less. Looking at her red eyes in the mirror, she takes a moment to caress the heart shaped earrings that never leave her ears. As she does, her ruby ring sparkles in the candle light, still residing on her left hand ring finger. She had ‘accidentally’ forgotten to move it to a less provocative finger after their last adventure was over. A few more tears stream down her face before she turns her back on her image.</p><p></p><p>She picks up her bag and stands near the door, taking a long look around her room. Stepping back in, she picks up Jake’s worn and crumpled shirt, lying on the floor from the night before. Putting it to her nose and inhaling she closes her eyes and takes in every second of her favorite scent. Then she stuffs the shirt in her bag, on top of the picture of her and Jake that had been placed there so lovingly. Nothing really could be the same now.</p><p></p><p>Slowly descending the familiar stairs to the sound of thunder rumbling, she holds her head high when she reaches the bottom. Taking a big breath in she takes the final step down and looks into the saloon. It is empty and the front door is swung open. On the bar is a glass as empty as the saloon. It is not one of the bar glasses, but one of the fine quality drinking glasses from their room.</p><p></p><p>Ruby sighs as she fights the urge to find Jake and run to him, to embrace him, to apologize, to ask him to take her to bed like she planned that morning, to beg him to forget what she said. Without saying a word to anyone, and with fresh tears falling down her face, Ruby West leaves her home, the Lucky Lady Saloon and the man that she loves more than anything.</p><p></p><p>Ruby stands in the pouring rain, bag in hand, numbly staring at the coach in front of her while she gets soaked. People run all around in the muddy streets, trying to get out of the unusual torrential downpour. “Are you alright?” Chuck Nevers yells to her from atop the stage. “Miss West, are you alright?” Ruby blinks as she snaps out of her thoughts. She takes Mr. Nevers hand, climbs into the stage and takes a seat near the window. She keeps her head down, ignoring the other passengers, and hopes her tears are mistaken for raindrops. Leaning her head against the window she closes her eyes and hopes for this trip to soon be over.</p><p></p><p>…………………………………………………………………………………</p><p></p><p>Chuck Nevers pull up his collar on his jacket and curses the gods for the horrendous weather. 4 hours of this… he shakes his head, I must be crazy… They are only 10 minutes out of town and he is already soaked through and cold.</p><p></p><p>He hears a strange noise coming from below him. He looks back and down to find the sound and discovers Miss Ruby West with her head sticking out the window, screaming to him. He quickly slows the horses and the worry can’t be hidden on his face as he jumps off the coach. “What’s wrong?” he asks frantically as Ruby swings the door of the stage open. She barely answers him as she hops up on the open door frame and stretches for her bag. “Miss West, what are you doing?” he asks in disbelief.</p><p></p><p>“I have to go back,” Ruby replies, “I have to go back NOW.” She jumps up a little until she catches a piece of her bag and it falls to the ground. She hops off the stage and grabs her bag. “It’s ok Mr. Nevers,” she yells though the rain, “I know what I’m doing...” The passengers in the coach look at her like she has gone mad. </p><p></p><p>Chuck says, “Let me take you…” but before he can finish Ruby is already running through the rain, back to Promise City, bag in hand, as fast as she can. He looks back to the passengers inside the stage.</p><p></p><p>One of them comments, “I thought she was asleep and then she sat up and said something about starry nights?” Chuck shakes his head and watches Ruby disappear into the rain.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="orchid blossom, post: 2819653, member: 12815"] [SIZE=3]Aftermath Part I[/SIZE] Over the next few weeks Kate split her time between the ranch and preparing her school. Nights when she didn't have to be at the Lucky Lady she spent at the ranch house. She got far in the training of several of the horses and helped Sonoma with whatever tasks didn't need a skilled hand. Back in town the desks from Mr. Rixton were installed in the schoolroom. The blackboard arrived and was mounted on the wall, and a sturdy table and chair for her were placed at the front of the room. She continued to work on her curriculum and visited the families who planned to enroll children, asking them what they wanted out of the school and testing the children to find out what skills they already had. She also made sure to make time to see her friends and made sure she spent plenty of time with Ginnie. For a few days after the service she saw concerened glances, but those faded as she showed she meant to live on and find happiness. She took her own lessons with Mr. Gonzales and spent some time with Conrad, both of them trying to find footing in relation to each other. Early the third day after they returned from Thomaswell Ruby begins to stir. Her eyes slowly open; just as the morning light starts filtering into their room. She watches the small particles of dust dance through the light on their never ending journey through the air. She blinks a few times, not wanting to really wake up, knowing what the day should bring. Should, if she can gather the strength to do what she thinks is right. Finally she was feeling better physically, now she needed to make other things right. She turns her head to the left, finding Jake in his usual spot next to her. Lying on his belly, his face smushed into his pillow, an arm and a leg hang off the bed while he snores lightly, letting her know he is still very much asleep. His hair was getting long, and some wild strands cover his eyes. Ruby smiles contentedly, even in his sleep her lover managed to make her heart flutter with delight and longing. He was so handsome and charming in the most perfect roguish way, stealing Ruby’s heart out from under her, even against her own will. She realized long ago that her real true downfall in life was him. She reaches over and pushes the hair off his face. He was peaceful now, even though he had once told her he didn’t feel peaceful, he looked it. Maybe now he would feel it, now that the drama of the past few months was over. Ruby sighs as she thinks over how much her life had changed since January. She had always hoped things would be different but when they weren’t time after time, it started to wear on her and she had started to lose hope. Promise City was only a name at the time she ran from her last town, but it seemed as good, or bad, as any other town. Funny how she hadn’t really thought it would be different here but back in Tombstone she promised herself she would stay out of trouble and try harder this time to make it work. Course, she had done that in every other town she had been in too. But something seemed different right from the start, that day on the stage. Meeting two of the people who would become her best friends, Nanuet and Katherine, and letting herself get involved with them was the first step towards her new life. Not a week later she had met the gambler Silver Jake Cook, having saved him from their wordy friend Chumbley. There was something about Jake even then, and Ruby and Kate had led him back to the El Parador and let him tag along, or more accurately, let him get involved in their troubles. How lucky for all of them that they did. Despite his protests Jake HAD become the leader of their little tribe, the one they all looked to, the one who looked out for them and their interests in the end, and the one who kept them all together. And what started out as almost any other seduction and one night stand had morphed into what Ruby thought would be a lifetime of love, romance, companionship and adventure. She had found a best friend and lover all in one, sitting red eyed and hung over at a saloon in some town that fateful morning. Now it was three days since they had returned from Thomaswell. Before they left Jake and Ruby had started talking about their future, or more precisely Ruby had begun thinking over her future plans for her once aimless life. Jake had given her reason to want more and he helped her to be more than she ever thought she could be. But she knew things weren’t right between them and she needed some time alone to straighten her own thoughts and feelings out. She didn’t want Jake to feel pressured but everything she said seemed to come out that way. All which led to today’s little trip. She slowly rolls over in their bed, pulling herself onto Jake’s back. She lets the warmth and weight of her body cover him gently and gradually so not to startle him. She pulls her hair to one side and it cascades, covering the back of Jake’s head and back. She leans her face close to him and letting her lips brush his ear, in a husky-just-woke-up-seductive voice she calls to him in a whisper, “Jacob…Jacob wake up…” His first response is more a grunt than a word followed by, "...is it morning?" "Yes, sleepy head, it is early morning." Ruby runs her hands up and down Jake's arms, leaving her arms lying on his. She snuggles contentedly, nuzzling his neck until she again whispers in his ear, "What are you dreaming about?" He grunts again before replying groggily, "That no one was shooting at me and I could sleep late." "Oh." She should have suspected that Jake wouldn't like to be woken up, hell, she didn't like to be woken up either. But she knew what was coming this day and he didn't... “Sorry," she says softly. She gently rolls off him, back to her own spot on the bed, back to looking at the dust fall through the light. A minute goes by and Jake manages to mumble out through the pillow, "What's wrong?" Without turning her head Ruby replies, "Why does there have to be something wrong? Just because I was hoping you were dreaming about me like I was dreaming about you and..." she turns her head towards Jake, "You wanted to be with me..." She pulls the sheet up higher, "I'm sorry I woke you up, go back to sleep." "There doesn't have to be something wrong...," Jake rolls over on his side, "...but when my Ruby is in a good mood a little thing like me sleeping doesn't keep her from saying or doing what she really wants." Jake yawns and rubs the back of his hand across one sleepy eye. Ruby lips rise into a smile. He was right, and that was the whole point of what she was about to do. "You're right you know." She pushes the wild strands that had fallen back into Jake's eyes away off his face again. "I wanted to make love." Even with his eyes still struggling to rise from their sleepy state, his mouth manages his famous smirk. "That is a world better than being shot at. Heck, I put myself through getting shot at to be here for this." He manages to pry his eyes open without losing the lopsided smile. Ruby smiles even wider, "And when my Jake is in a good mood that is exactly what I would expect him to say." She rolls to her side to face Jake and she kisses him softly for a few long moments while running her fingers through his hair. She pulls her head back to look at him and sighs longingly. "It's too late though. You were right, I'm not myself." "Not yourself? Those feel like Ruby's lips. Hey, Gonzalez didn't make a Ruby disguise for Katherine did he?" He puts a comical look of shock on his face. "No, couldn't be. No one else can kiss like that." Ruby bites her lip, pondering something for a moment before she leans in and kisses Jake again. "No one kisses me like you do either baby. I love that about you." She kisses him again, then pulls her face back again, resting her head on the pillow, keeping her hand on Jake's face. She stays like that for a long time, just staring at her lover. "Jake, I do have something to tell you," she says finally. Ruby takes a deep breath in and holds it. "I just wish you could tell me you won't get mad first but I know that isn't to be." She exhales, but only slightly. "I'm going away for a little while… I'm leaving Promise City." "See, there is something wrong." He sits up. "Is someone sick? Where do you need to go? “I told you that you were right.” She lets the rest of the air out of her lungs slowly in a huge exhale. This is the part I was NOT looking forward to. “Baby, do you truly believe that I love you?” "Yes." He says the word slowly and clearly. The bemusement from his joking is long gone from his face. “If you love me, you have to let me do this.” She knows her words sting, but after going over and over in her mind, this was the only thing she could think of to do. She also sits up and places her palm flat on Jake’s back. “You know I love you, you just said that you did. I do love you, more than anything.” Holding the sheet up around her she continues, “I need to go somewhere that isn’t here. I need time, time to think and figure things out. Time to be… alone.” Before he can interrupt she continues, “Have no doubt that I know in my heart that we are meant to be together. But baby, we’ve promised each other forever and I’m starting to think that neither of us truly knows what that means. Following my heart is not something I let myself do in a very long time, a very long time, not until you.” She keeps her eyes averted from Jake’s gaze while she speaks. “I have to figure out what I want for my future.” So it has finally come, Jake thinks but his face is unreadable. "Free, is that what you are saying? You want me to give you back your freedom?" Ruby smiles softly and keeps her hand on Jake’s back. “There is an old saying, ‘If you love someone set them free. If they don’t return they were never really yours to begin with. But if they DO return to you, they are yours forever.’ Maybe it’s true, maybe it’s stupid, I don’t know.” Ruby shrugs. “I never thought we weren’t free Jake. I never felt that way. That is why I love you so much. I am myself with you, I give myself to you and yet I still feel free. If that’s what giving up your freedom is truly like, I’d gladly give it you.” She pauses and ponders. “I guess you DO feel that way though, that I’ve taken your freedom, or you wouldn’t have said that. And I don’t want you to feel that way. Ever. That’s just part of Silver Jake Cook, I know that. And if you don’t feel free with me…” her voice trails off and her eyes go unfocused as she pretends to look out the window. Then she speaks suddenly, “What do we really know about love and the future anyway? You and I are just a gambler and a saloon girl trying to make their way in this lonely, harsh world, gambling on our future together. And I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of it. But like you’ve said, how long can it last before we mess it up? And how hurt are we going to be when we DO mess it up?” She repeats a question that she’s asked recently, “How can we promise each other forever if we don’t even know how we work? Leave it to our hearts to figure out? My heart hasn’t done too well for me in the past. That doesn’t seem like good odds.” She continues very softly, “As you can see, I’m confused.” "You'll forgive me if I am surprised and confused too. I didn't say I felt like I had no freedom. I was just trying to understand what you are telling me...." He gets up out of bed and pulls on his trousers. "I don't think I am going to understand. You love me but your heart says you should be somewhere else but you don't want your heart to figure things out because it hasn't done well in the past. You want your freedom but you already have it." Jake shakes his head to and fro on his way to the table on which rests the decanters. He pours himself a large glass of whiskey. "I'm not a quitter, I don't fold on a hand when I think I can win the pot, when I want that pot very badly." He takes a drink from the glass. "If I love you I'll let you do this..." Jake turns away from her but just ends up facing the mirror and looking at her that way. "Strange isn't it that you say something to someone, something that you think comes right from your heart, something that you really believe to be true and then come to find out that maybe you shouldn't have said it, that it wasn't always true." Ruby watches Jake dress from her spot on the bed. “No, you’re not going to understand, I already know and accept that. It’s not my heart telling me to spend some time alone, it’s my head. I never said anything about freedom, that was all you. This is what I mean!” In frustration she smacks the bed. “Things get said and one person means them one way and they come out totally another. I don’t ever want to think you aren’t saying things to me that you want to say but I’m confused. I don’t know what you were trying to say and you keep telling me I got it wrong but you don’t explain any better and I still don’t understand. Why don’t you explain it to me so I do understand?” As Jake turns to face her again, he notices that her bags are packed. He looks at them for a minute before he moves the rest of the way to face her. "I didn't mean me, not what I said. A few weeks ago I asked you a question and you told me 'I always want you to follow me'. It seems that is changed." He drinks from the glass, swallows and drinks again. "I gather you have made up your mind to catch the morning stage." He vaguely waves his hand holding the glass towards her bags. "I have no where else to go, no where else I'd rather be. You can choose to get on the stage or ask me anything you want as many times as you want for as many days as you want." Jake leans his head back and drains the rest of the glass. "It feels like a long time ago that I said I won't leave you alone until you convince me that you really don't want me around." He walks over to the side table again and fills up his empty glass so that it nearly spills over the top. "You always were a smart girl, you have me." He quickly drinks enough out of the glass so he can walk without spilling it. "It is cruel enough to make me suffer through this, do not ask me to explain it to the others. Tell them yourself, leave them a note or find someone else to explain it to them. I won't pretend that everything is just fine." Uncharacteristically he turns his eyes away from hers. "If you decide that there is no future here for you, don't come back to tell me. I don't think I could do this again." Jake walks across the room to the door way. "A stronger or wiser man would not let you go. As you said, I'm just a gambler." Jake stands in the door way, bare foot, his hair tousled and only wearing wrinkled trousers. He rapidly drinks from the glass again, spilling whiskey down his chin. He finally looks back at her sitting on the bed. "This is a deplorable test of whether I love you or not, one where I cannot prevail. I do love you Ruby West, I will not hinder you from traveling any path that your heart or head chooses. All that is left for me is to wonder if I will regret this day for the rest of my life or not." He looks down, as if he is going to say something else but instead leaves the room. “Jake…” Ruby chokes out but suddenly finds him gone and she is left alone in the quiet of the morning. Not even the puppies stayed, they had bounced out when Jake left the room. Ruby tries to blink back her tears but they come anyway. That went as badly as I could imagine, she thinks. Why do you think you have to do this anyway and hurt him so? “I never said I wasn’t coming back!” she cries out to no one. She continues to cry for a few more moments before stubbornly wiping her eyes. She slowly slides off the bed, making sure her legs will stand underneath her. The room is growing dark, a storm brewing outside and Ruby needs to light a candle to see. Perfect, it matches my mood. She numbly dresses, putting on her normal travel dress, jacket and hat. Her wild hair refuses to be tamed under her hat but today she could care less. Looking at her red eyes in the mirror, she takes a moment to caress the heart shaped earrings that never leave her ears. As she does, her ruby ring sparkles in the candle light, still residing on her left hand ring finger. She had ‘accidentally’ forgotten to move it to a less provocative finger after their last adventure was over. A few more tears stream down her face before she turns her back on her image. She picks up her bag and stands near the door, taking a long look around her room. Stepping back in, she picks up Jake’s worn and crumpled shirt, lying on the floor from the night before. Putting it to her nose and inhaling she closes her eyes and takes in every second of her favorite scent. Then she stuffs the shirt in her bag, on top of the picture of her and Jake that had been placed there so lovingly. Nothing really could be the same now. Slowly descending the familiar stairs to the sound of thunder rumbling, she holds her head high when she reaches the bottom. Taking a big breath in she takes the final step down and looks into the saloon. It is empty and the front door is swung open. On the bar is a glass as empty as the saloon. It is not one of the bar glasses, but one of the fine quality drinking glasses from their room. Ruby sighs as she fights the urge to find Jake and run to him, to embrace him, to apologize, to ask him to take her to bed like she planned that morning, to beg him to forget what she said. Without saying a word to anyone, and with fresh tears falling down her face, Ruby West leaves her home, the Lucky Lady Saloon and the man that she loves more than anything. Ruby stands in the pouring rain, bag in hand, numbly staring at the coach in front of her while she gets soaked. People run all around in the muddy streets, trying to get out of the unusual torrential downpour. “Are you alright?” Chuck Nevers yells to her from atop the stage. “Miss West, are you alright?” Ruby blinks as she snaps out of her thoughts. She takes Mr. Nevers hand, climbs into the stage and takes a seat near the window. She keeps her head down, ignoring the other passengers, and hopes her tears are mistaken for raindrops. Leaning her head against the window she closes her eyes and hopes for this trip to soon be over. ………………………………………………………………………………… Chuck Nevers pull up his collar on his jacket and curses the gods for the horrendous weather. 4 hours of this… he shakes his head, I must be crazy… They are only 10 minutes out of town and he is already soaked through and cold. He hears a strange noise coming from below him. He looks back and down to find the sound and discovers Miss Ruby West with her head sticking out the window, screaming to him. He quickly slows the horses and the worry can’t be hidden on his face as he jumps off the coach. “What’s wrong?” he asks frantically as Ruby swings the door of the stage open. She barely answers him as she hops up on the open door frame and stretches for her bag. “Miss West, what are you doing?” he asks in disbelief. “I have to go back,” Ruby replies, “I have to go back NOW.” She jumps up a little until she catches a piece of her bag and it falls to the ground. She hops off the stage and grabs her bag. “It’s ok Mr. Nevers,” she yells though the rain, “I know what I’m doing...” The passengers in the coach look at her like she has gone mad. Chuck says, “Let me take you…” but before he can finish Ruby is already running through the rain, back to Promise City, bag in hand, as fast as she can. He looks back to the passengers inside the stage. One of them comments, “I thought she was asleep and then she sat up and said something about starry nights?” Chuck shakes his head and watches Ruby disappear into the rain. [/QUOTE]
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"Here There Be Vampires" A Promise City, Arizona Story Hour
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