Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own [Ruth]

[Ruth Edwards]

Pff, social graces. "I think social graces are all my mother ever talked about. She was always sticking me in stupid pageants and stuff like that. She drummed those things into my head, as much as she could. I think she wanted to mold me into something acceptable. Almost as acceptable as a son..." Ruth paused and thought about the similarities Cobalt saw between the two of them, realizing that she was growing more and more fond of him every minute. "I'll have to go looking for that tree sometime. I don't think I've seen it before." Ruth smiled at Cobalt's remembrance of the snow war and tried to imagine a little teen Cobalt running (or trying to run) through the snow. And she laughed at it. "I did alright, I guess. Estelle dragged me out without a coat, but then Edie lent me one. And then this other speedster showed up and dumped snow on Estelle and she's too nice to care and I went after him and he's a JERK. But yeah, I guess I did have a little fun." She stopped for a second, blushing just a little as she realized that she was talking too fast again.

As Cobalt talked, Ruth felt something clench in her heart. She really hadn't ever seen anyone care about her this way and it felt... nice. And feeling nice was different. Even though Cobalt had just picked up his chopsticks, Ruth couldn't hold it in anymore. She stood up and hugged him, probably with a little more force than was necessary, but hey, she'd never felt this way before. "Thank you Cobalt. For everything."

[Cobalt Weaver]

Cobalt mirrored her distasteful face. “Pageants like…” He gestured vaguely, trying to understand the glittering, opulent world that Ruth had come from. “…Pageants?” This was something that Ruth and Cobalt most certainly did not have in common. Cobalt had grown up with very little in the way of money or resources. He’d had to work all through college despite getting financial help from the establishment just so he could pay off the little that the scholarship didn’t cover. He frowned a little at her mention of “almost acceptable as a son”. Cobalt held his tongue because regardless of his personal opinions, they were still her parents, and it was tactless to talk ill of the dead; but he could never stand the idea of family rejecting their members. Especially parents rejecting their children. It made him furious, as someone who had always wanted a family, but had to more or less resign himself to the fact that he would never have one. And to reject someone as sensitive as Ruth… Cobalt smoothed out his expression into a smile. “Well, for what it’s worth, I can’t think of a thing wrong with you.” He smiled at her reassuringly.

Cobalt laughed at her speech, not minding the fast speed. “Sounds good. I’m glad you had fun, at the very least.” He took a bite of his food. He was about to think of something else to say when suddenly he found himself with an armful of teenager hugging him tightly. After a moment of surprise, Cobalt returned the hug, patting her on the back. “It’s no problem, Ruth. It’s fine.” He smiled at her. “Finish up; when you’re done, I want us to stop by the office again before you have to go back to classes. That okay with you?”

[Ruth Edwards]

Ruth sighed. "Pageants as in... beauty. Glamour, ritz, the whole shebang." Ever since she was little (thought old enough to understand that something was not the way it should be), Ruth had been stuffed into fancy dresses, painted with layers of makeup, and transformed into a living doll for her mother's pageants. Even now, she flinched at the thought of putting on makeup, still afraid of being paraded around like something less than human. But she'd let her thought carry her away and she realized Cobalt was saying something. "What? Oh..." Cobalt's smile dragged her out of her reverie and she smiled back.

For just a moment, Ruth was worried she'd gone too far with the hug. Maybe Cobalt wasn't a hugging kind of person. But then again, Ruth hadn't really had the opportunity to discover if she was a hugging kind of person or not. Then the moment was over as Cobalt gently hugged her back. I think I like hugs. "That's cool, I don't have any classes today." Ruth smiled broadly and ate quickly, glad that Cobalt hadn't mentioned how much food she was eating.

[Cobalt Weaver]

“O-oh.” Cobalt rubbed the back of his neck helplessly. Again, he kept his opinions to himself out of respect for her parents and because it wasn’t really his place, but he could tell by the look on Ruth’s face that she wasn’t too fond of them either. Which Cobalt couldn’t really fault. Personally, Cobalt thought child pageants were just weird. And the thought of little Ruth having anything less than a happy childhood was upsetting to Cobalt. He wanted to say something; tell her that he wished she could have had a better childhood. That she deserved that. But he didn’t really know how, and figured that would probably be overstepping his boundaries anyways.

They finished up their lunch with more pleasant conversations afterwards. They kept the conversation light: talking about friends and classes and memories. Several times, Cobalt had managed to startle a laugh out of Ruth and several times, Ruth had managed to do the same for him. He learned that she had a few friends at home, but hadn’t really been in contact with them since her parents had died. She liked to eat (and she certainly ate well) and she didn’t like Hammel, her power or cheesecake. Ruth learned that Cobalt had only one friend from childhood, liked to argue with his intern and didn’t like Hammel, summertime, or peanut butter. As they walked back, Cobalt was grinning widely and was happy to see even a smile on Ruth’s face, however tentative.

When they walked back into the office, they stopped in the doorway at the sight of Leila, standing in the middle of the office, her arms crossed and her foot tapping. Cobalt nudged Ruth with a mischievous look on his face. Giving her the signal to play along, he adopted an overly innocent look. “Oh. Hey, Leila. What did you do to the windows? They weren't like that when we left, were they, Ruth?”

He stepped into the office, Ruth in tow. “This is Ruth, she’s a student from Hammel. Ruth, Leila. Say hi everyone.” As he said this, Cobalt limped around to the other side of his desk and began to look through his bottom drawer.

[Leila Gold]

Lunch had been spectacular. Leila had just found this great little cafe which was cheap and delicious. she was still smiling and licking her fingers as she walked back to the office. She was about to tell Cobalt about the great restaurant, but she stopped short upon seeing the door.

"What..." she whispered, looking at the broken glass. "COBALT!"

But of course he wasn't there. But the glass was all swept up and put away, which meant it hadn't just been somebody breaking in. Plus, everything was still in order. But how could he break the window and then just walk away? What if someone had broken in, had stolen something? Not like there was much to steal, but still. It was the principle of the thing.

So she waited. She sat at her desk and did work until she heard Cobalt's distinctive voice from outside. Then she stood and got into her best intimidation pose. Arms crossed, foot tapping, eyes glaring.

"Hey Blue. Did you have a nice time out and about?"

And then he tried to claim he hadn't broken the window.

"Don't you dare give me that! If you didn't break the window, then how in the world was all the glass cleaned up before I even got back to the room? Honestly Blue...I just...I...ARGH!" She threw up her hands in frustration and let loose. "Was haben sie getan? Wie könnten sie? Wissen Sie, wie schwer das ist zu wiederholen? Sind Sie bereit zu bezahlen?" She'd taken German in college as her second language. It sounded appropriately angry for most situations. Plus, most people didn't know it, so it sounded even worse. To add to the situation, her wind was starting to act up, shuffling papers on the desks and rocking the framed documents on the walls.

She looked up at the girl following Cobalt. "Ruth, huh? And a Hammel student?" She glanced suspiciously at Cobalt, who was going to his desk and trying to pretend nothing had happened. "Did you kidnap her from the school? Do I have to remind you that is still illegal, no matter how much the students don't want to be there?"

She threw a look over at Ruth. "Hello, by the way. I'm his partner, Leila. And I like to paint. I painted the door. It was beautiful. 'Blue and Gold Law Firm,' all in gold lettering." She looked back at Cobalt. "And it's broken." She narrowed her eyes as if to say And I blame you.

"I'll redo it this time. And I'll even cover the expenses myself. But the next time I paint that door, I'm going to put a big RAINBOW on it. With unicorns. And lots of puppies." She scowled and went to her desk. "Before you go, make sure to board that up. Any person could just get in here and steal all your precious candy. Or the coffee pot." She looked at Ruth. "Speaking of candy and coffee...I suppose I should be hospitable. You like Airheads? And how do you like your coffee?"

She pulled a candy bar out of her desk and tossed it to the girl. Then she stood and went to the back room to brew up a fresh pot of coffee. "Feel free to browse through the books in there," she called into the other room. "My stuff is far more interesting than his at least."

[Ruth Edwards]

Ruth had been enjoying lunch and conversation with Cobalt during the walk back that she had almost forgotten that she had broken his window. A window that had been meticulously cared for by Cobalt's partner, who seemed to have returned to the office while Ruth and Cobalt had been at lunch. And she didn't seem too happy either. Ruth was about to launch into a stuttering apology when Cobalt nudged her and decided to have some fun with it. Then Leila really got upset, and Ruth began to wonder if being yelled at in German was Cobalt's idea of fun. It definitely wasn't hers, especially along with a sudden wind whipping through the office. Ruth felt herself edging back towards the door when Leila switched back to English and began berating Cobalt about the illegality of kidnapping children. "But he..." Ruth started in an attempt to defend Cobalt, but Leila kept right on talking, moving on to the loss of her beloved door. Ruth didn't think it was fair for Cobalt to take all the heat for things that really weren't his fault at all and thought about correcting Leila, but she couldn't get a word in edgewise.

"Don't forget the kittens," Ruth muttered in her most sarcastic tone as Leila talked about repainting the door. Leila tossed her an Airhead, which Ruth sniffed tentatively. She'd never had one before, and didn't usually drink coffee either, but Leila seemed intent on making coffee. "Sugar. Put sugar in it," she called out, even though she knew sugar was probably a bad idea. She glanced at Leila's books before asking Cobalt, "So what do you read that she thinks is so boring? Textbooks?"

[Cobalt Weaver]

“Oh yeah, we had a fabulous time. Went to that Chinese place that you say I eat at too much.” Cobalt kept his voice nonchalant, smirking a little as he ducked down behind the desk. He resurfaced when Leila started yelling German at him. “Oh! Wait, don’t tell me. I know this…” He stood up and walked next to Ruth, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Ah… was haben sie getan… that’s something like ‘how could you’, right? Well, easy: I didn’t do it. Uh… I missed most of the rest. If you repeated it, I could probably figure it out. Now, put your wind away. You’re scaring the kid.” He squeezed Ruth’s shoulder protectively and gave her a grin. “And no. I didn’t kidnap her from Hammel. That would take an awful lot of planning and I highly doubt I could pull it off without an accomplice of some kind. That and I think Josh would be really upset if I screwed with Sean that much.” He bit his tongue after he said that. He hadn’t meant to reveal his personal feelings about Ruth’s instructor. Shoot.

He rolled his eyes, “Leila, don’t yell at Ruth. You shoulda just gotten the stickers for the letters. I still don’t understand why you didn’t just get the sticker letters. It doesn’t really make all that much of a difference and you can use that energy to… I dunno, paint us a painting for the office? That way, you get to paint or whatever, and we don’t have to worry about that damn window.” He glanced down at Ruth who still looked nervous, “Don’t worry, Leila’s just ranting. It’s normal, trust me.”

Cobalt snorted at Ruth’s sarcastic comment. “Don’t give her any ideas. “ He muttered in her ear, grinning, “I don’t think I could handle kittens on my window.” He raised his voice to Leila, “And I hope you know that if there is a single rainbow or unicorn on that window, I actually will break it.”

Cobalt noticed Ruth sniff the Airhead suspiciously, “What? Never had one before? They’re really tasty, but if you don’t like it, I call dibs.” He turned to Leila, “Sugar in mine too, please? And no sedatives this time, thanks.” He grinned at Ruth, “Don’t worry about it.” He said as way of explanation.

He shrugged at her, “Mostly. But speaking of books.” He turned back to his desk, “Got distracted. Here.” He pulled out a dog-eared and battered paperback, the title reading Journey to the Center of the Earth. He smiled at her, “It was one of my favorites, hence the beating it took. But you can have it. Something that’s completely yours.” He handed the book to her, suddenly wanting to hug her again. She was a good girl, and he wanted her to feel like she had some control over her life. Something more than a ratty old book that she could feel like she owned, but that was really all Cobalt could offer.

[Leila Gold]

"What do you mean you didn't do it? If you didn't do it, then who..." And as she trailed off, she shot a glance at Ruth. Cobalt claimed she was being scary, which was probably true. He also claimed he hadn't kidnapped the girl, which may or may not be true. Further research was necessary. While it was true that he couldn't have taken her directly out of Hammel, there was always the opportunity that he had seen her walking around on the street and pounced. It would not be unlike him to take in a stray kid who looked a little lost.

Then she turned to Ruth. "You thought it would be fun to break the door, huh?"

But then Cobalt butted in. "Leila, don't yell at Ruth."

"I am not yelling at Ruth, and I am not ranting. Does it sound like I'm ranting to you? No. Whyever would I be ranting? Is it just because I'm working so very hard to try to make this place look nice, to make people choose our law firm over others, because let's be honest, we're new here, we could use all the help we can get, and yet every time I try to do something that will make the office seem a little nicer, make us seem a little more reputable, you just shrug it off. So why would I be ranting about that? And don't think that the conversation about you picking up strays is over, either. I wouldn't be surprised if one day you just walked in with a kitten..."

But it looked like no one was listening to her, anyway. "You try to break the window, it'll be a little tougher. I'm going with the reinforced stuff if we get that far."

In the back room she changed out the coffee filter and added enough water for a couple cups of coffee. It would only take a few minutes for it all to filter out, but in that time Leila took a moment to think. The glass was annoying, but it wasn't the big deal here. It looked like Cobalt had picked up some sort of protege, which was fine, so long as it didn't end up going badly. Leila mostly hoped the girl didn't disappoint him, since Cobalt was already having so many problems. Worst would be if Ruth ever left. Blue had huge abandonment issues.

So Leila made a point to try to talk to Ruth and let her know what was up at some point. For now, though, she'd just do her best to be the little intern, instead of always trying to be Cobalt's mother.

She took the coffee out into the main room, three steaming mugs, all loaded with sugar, two with cream. "It's really sweet. I hope you don't mind. And if you want cream, we have some in the back there. Just check the mini-fridge." She smiled gently. "And don't mind too much about the window. I can afford to pay for a new one, and it'll give me a new project. But try not to make this a habit."

She glanced down at the book the girl had. "Journey to the Center of the Earth, huh? Well, I hope you enjoy it. And if you ever want some different reading material, feel free to drop by. I've got some nice novels and plenty of comics, if you're interested in that kind of thing."

Then she went to Cobalt's desk and set the coffee down. "You did good, Blue," she whispered. "Just know I'm expecting you to board up that broken window before the end of the day." This last statement was accompanied with a malicious grin, then Leila turned on her heel and went back to her seat.