Ruby Redfort Fanfiction: Look Into His Eyes And Take Your Last Breath

Just Cluby Because Y'all Couldn't Wait

Ruby looked around cautiously before crossing the street to Cherry's. Making sure no one could see her, she slipped into the alleyway and strode down to the back. She could hear the pitter patter of shoes and checked her watch. Five to twelve. Someone was here already. Ruby sucked in her breath and stepped out onto the back alley. A lanky boy looked up from where he was leaning against the wall. Clancy Crew. And he looked nervous. A scowl grew on Ruby's face.
"Oh boy. I should have known it was you." Clancy sighed.
"Believe me Ruby, I wasn't to keen on seeing you either." Ouch. That hurt. But, thought Ruby guiltily, maybe she deserved it after treating him like he didn't exist.
"What do you want?" Clancy adopted the same nervous expression as before.
"Rube," a jolt ran through Ruby. She hadn't been called that in so long, "I saw the Count." Ruby stared at him for the longest ten seconds in her life. Then she laughed. It started as a quiet chuckle and grew into a hysterical, Elliot scale fit. Ruby wasn't laughing because it was funny, she was laughing purely as a response to the statement, and also to give her time to mull over the suggestion head on. When she finally stopped, she had one thought on her mind. What utter nonsense. And she told Clancy that too.
"Clancy, I'm afraid that paranoid brain of yours is acting up again." As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Ruby kicked herself. Why was she being so cruel? The truth was that Ruby didn't dislike Clancy at all. Not one ounce of her believed that she really hated him at all. Ruby Redfort was afraid. Afraid of several things. One, that being so close to Clancy would put him at risk. Two, the thing that Ruby refused to acknowledge was that she was actually in love with him. She really didn't like this idea because it sounded so impossible, so ridiculous. Ruby Redfort, who could do everything and anything by herself, stood in the face of danger, etc. etc, was melting on the inside as soon as this scrawny boy opened his mouth. Ruby didn't want to be pinned down like this. She was a secret agent for god's sake, her IQ was through the roof. She wasn't going to go and get moony eyed over a boy of all things. Ruby Redfort had seen almost first hand what being too close to someone could result in, and Ruby was not going to be conquered by this, no sir. But in truth, Ruby felt a tingling sensation that warmed her body to the core every time Clancy touched her, and she couldn't stop thinking of that day on the wall, and how everything seemed so electric, and she wanted more... Ruby shook herself out of her thoughts. Clancy was scowling,
"Ruby, I'm not joking. The Count is here, in Twinford." Ruby looked amused.
"Uh huh. Where exactly is this Count?" Clancy grit his teeth.
"He came to meet my dad. He is imitating a fellow ambassador from another state. He was talking to my father about the recent crime wave in Twinford and how he would send over more policemen to join the force. And he winked at me, Ruby, winked at me!" Clancy looked so terrified, Ruby felt like she could almost believe him.
"As I said Clance, you're over thinking it. The Count is locked in a high security prison almost a thousand miles from here. If he had escaped, Spectrum would be on high alert." Clancy frowned, skeptical.
"Are you sure?"
"Positive." Clancy looked as if he didn't quite know what to. He hopped from one foot to another awkwardly.
"Still... Be careful, Ruby. The world's not your oyster you know."
"Why do you care so much?" Ruby blurted, unable to bite her tongue any longer. "I've already said, I don't-" Clancy prevented her from finishing her cutting remark, to her relief.
"Do you not get it Rube? When you... Like someone, you don't stop liking them because they don't like you. That's not how it works."
"I know that."
"No you don't." Ruby's pulse was hammering in her head. His comment hurt.
"I regret it okay? I didn't mean what I said that day. I like you, but-"
"-then you'll be fine with me doing this." Clancy's arms went around her waist, pulling Ruby towards him, and his lips crashed onto hers. Ruby's palms instinctively raised to his chest and she pushed Clancy off her. "See." He said bitterly, "You don't have to lie for my benefit." Ruby's mouth opened and closed like a fish. She finally managed to whisper.
"Every single time Clancy, someone mentions the word 'surprised', I'm back on that wall that day you kissed me. And I can't help it. It haunts me every living moment, and constantly reminds me that if anything, anything, happens between us, then I put you at risk for every living moment of your life. I know that from just watching. LB is torn apart." Clancy's eyes softened.
"That's a risk I don't mind living with."
"I mind living with it!" Ruby screamed, "I don't know what I'll do if anything happens to you! My whole life has come crashing down on my head, and you and Hitch are the only things that keep me standing!"
"Ruby-"
"Don't say anything more. Quit trying to see me, because my resolve weakens by the minute. As an agent, that can't happen. Stay away Clancy, for your own good." And Ruby spun on her heel and ran off. She didn't want Clancy to see the tears in her eyes, or the wobble of her chin. Keeping him safe was her only current concern. Clancy stood in the back alleyway, mouth open to tell Ruby how he would keep himself safe, he would promise to never get into any dangerous situations, how Hitch would keep him safe. But he had let her run away from it all. Again. His head hung low. Somewhere far off, a thunderclap sounded and rain pelted the alley, soaking him in seconds. Great.
---
Ruby didn't say a word about the confrontation, Hitch hadn't noticed her absence, he was as busy as any other Spectrum agent, trying frantically to keep up with this ruthless killer who was taking down all their agents. Mrs. Digby had taken one look at Ruby's crestfallen face and went back to her cooking. Ruby's parents were out of town again, this time to the Mediterranean with Clancy's parents for their wedding anniversary.
----
When Clancy came home from the meeting with Ruby, close to tears, he took a long shower to give him time to bury his grief and take many a deep calming breath. When he finally emerged from his room, he was wearing his dinner clothes and a fake, shiny smile. No one noticed though, to Clancy's relief.
----
Ruby didn't touch her dinner. At all. She was too wrapped up in a maelstrom of thoughts and emotions, trying to focus on unraveling the case, but her mind kept flittering back to Clancy and she didn't even manage to focus long enough to make a list of things she already knew. She retired to bed at eight.
----
There was a visitor for Clancy after supper. The maid came up to his room and interrupted him in the middle of his book (he had barely even read half a page). Curious and with the tiny ounce of hope that the visitor was Ruby, he made his way down the staircase. When he reached the bottom, he was greatly surprised.
"Dan?!" The boy shook off his dripping rain jacket excitedly.
"I've figured it out!"
----
Ruby lay awake until the early hours of the morning. She had long since given up all methods of sleeping and was falling in and out of long lapses of thinking. One moment, her mind was on the case. Why had this person killed Blacker? Why were they using the things stolen from her previous cases. And while Froghorn had definitely stolen the things, something told Ruby that he hadn't pulled the trigger on the gun that killed Blacker. Ruby suspected he wasn't the mole, either. So who was? And were they related to this case? Another moment Ruby was thinking about Clancy. Did she need to keep him safe? She was so tempted just to let herself fall into his arms and for her worries to be washed away. But Ruby kept telling herself she couldn't. To strengthen this, she made a list of things that she would never give up, not even for love.
At three o'clock in the morning on a Thursday, Ruby sat bolt upright on bed. Dan was right. She really had been so blind this whole time.
----
Finale starts on Saturday! Can't believe how many chapters I've written, and with so many more to go! Only a couple of weeks to go until the 6th of October, I am counting down till the book is released. I will do a spoiler free review, then one with spoilers later on... Only 15 days to go as of tomorrow. All the good stuff comes out in Autumn, there's the Ab Fab movie and How To Get Away With Murder series three that are released and begin in two to three days, there's that movie with Asa Buttefield, a few other books that I can't wait for... I have so much to do and watch and read!