Tanner Morley's Story

Ruby listened as she gave the directions and shook her head. "No. I like you telling me all of that." She made him take another few turns down different streets. "There." She smiled, recognition filling her eyes. "That red bricked house on the corner. That's it." She told him. "My friends are there. I don't think my things will be there. Evans took me here to get all my things to take to his place." She rambled.

The car hadn't even stopped but she was trying to take off her seatbelt and open the car door. She only managed to do both once the car had stopped though. "Stan lives here." She grinned. "He's funny." She added, managing to get out the car. She tried to run, but her ankle wouldn't let her and so she slowly made her way to the rundown building ahead of them without checking to see if Tanner was following her.

"Wait, Ruby - Ruby, you can't get out yet!" Too late. He'd barely jerked to a halt and she was out the car. There wasn't any residential housing on the corner of this street. A halfway house, if you could call it that. Most called it a dump, a hole where the worst and the most unfortunate congregated to offer one another some form of comfort. "Ruby!" The shattered agent threw his own door open and jogged after the slow-moving woman.

"Wait a second," he implored as he caught up to her and stood as if to block her way to the house. "No, no. This isn't going to work." He placed a hand bracingly on her bicep as he took a look up and down the street. This wasn't a good place to leave her. Not to leave a pregnant woman. A pregnant, confused, injured woman. "This isn't right. Come on, Ruby, let's go back. I'll find you somewhere better to live - you can't stay here."

He pushed lightly on her arm and nodded back to the car, doors still flung open. "Please?"

"That is a nice place though." Ruby told him. "Come in and see for yourself." She added, looking around Tanner to the house. "My friends are in there and I want to see if my stuff is there. I lived there since I was a teenager and it was safe. I made nice friends though Stan is funny. Some look a little crazy but they've looked after me." Ruby told Tanner before trying to step around.

"All you have to do is come inside and then you'll see how nice it is. Please, Tanner." Ruby practically begged.

Time to be firm. Time to be the stern agent he was meant to be.

"... Just for five minutes to see if your belongings are here, okay? I can't leave you here, Ruby, I'd not be doing my job if I did. But... I'll look, okay? Just to get your things and then we're leaving, okay?"

God, he didn't have the heart necessary to deny victims their wants. This was why he preferred desk work. Not emotional.

Ruby suddenly hugged Tanner like a kid that had just been given her favourite toy before moving past him and inside. The place was just as dirty and horid as the brothel she'd just come from. It was full of drugs, whores, homeless people and all sorts. No one looked nice like Ruby had described.

When they entered, the men turned their head, looking at Ruby and then at Tanner. Some obviously recognised her and smirked, but Ruby just waved and smiled as if there was nothing to be scared of. And she wasn't scared. She saw this place at home.

She finally got to her bed and someone else was lying in it, someone else's stuff was there and Ruby frowned. In reality though, known to Ruby she hadn't been seen here in six months. Of course they wouldn't keep her bed. "Why have they given away my bed? Why isn't my stuff back here? It was supposed to be here."

Tanner didn't think it was possible, but he felt even less positive about the place than he had when he was just standing outside. The women looked ill and the men looked sick. Fear wasn't visible in Ruby's demeanour, but Tanner's was filled with apprehension.

"They do that if you don't turn up after a while, Ruby," he explained gently, though his voice was tightening with exhaustion. "You'd been in that other building for a while, remember? They must've thought you'd found somewhere better. Come on... I can get you new things. Let's go back to the car." He jingled his keys to illustrate his request.

Ruby sighed and finally nodded caving and understanding that this wasn't her home now. She was pretty sad about it. She'd been there since she was 13. Shaking her head she turned around and moved out of the building again with Tanner. "I had some nice stuff though. Evans must still have it but we took a bus somewhere to his house and don't know where that was." She explained. "Where will my home be now then?"

Ruby had reluctantly followed Tanner away from the shelter though she was upset that none of her things were back there. All of her ponies and glitter and pink things were gone! She'd collected those ponies for years. As they started back towards the car that had been parked on the street before Ruby had randomly got out in excitement, she looked over at to the alley running beside the shelter.

A rubbish dump was there and Ruby stopped as she saw numerous black bags. They looked like her black bags. Immediately, Ruby, with no thought whatsoever to the possible risks, she started looking through the bags once she'd gotten there.

"I found them! I found them!" Ruby grinned, finding her bags of clothes and ponies and other things. "Look! Someone put them here Tanner! Wow. They found me. Apple Jack I'm so happy to see you." She grinned.

And now, she was at Tanner's place, in the bathroom washing all of her ponies because Tanner had said they probably had all manners of filth on them after being in a rubbish dump for God knows how long.

"I'm sorry I left you ponies. I never meant to..." She told the one she was currently washing.

As much as Tanner hadn't wanted to put black bin bags (that had been in a dumpster) into his clean car, he hadn't been able to say no to Ruby. If worst came to worst, he had decided as he pulled away from the shelter, he could always have it professionally cleaned. And disinfected.

At least Ruby had listened to him when he suggested that she clean all of her... items, he mused as he stood in the door of his bathroom, mobile phone held against his ear as he listened to his boss tell him he was simultaneously an idiot and very 'brave'.

"Director Tavi, sir, I just -- no, sir, I understand that you're talking, but -- Yes. Sir, we've recovered some of her belongings and she seems happy. I'm sure she'd like that, sir. Well, I mean, I don't know, I'd have to ask her..." Tanner grimaced, rubbing at his eyelids with the back of a hand.

"Hey, Ruby? Director Tavi would like to know if you're comfortable staying here right now? We have various addresses where we can set you up right now if you're not entirely sure you want to be here. And Miss Bell wants to let you know that she's taken the liberty of picking up some clothes for you."

Tanner felt like this was going to be a long, pony-washing night.

Ruby stopped washing her ponies when Tanner spoke to her. Up until then she'd been in her own little world, like a little child talking to her dolls. Ruby was an adult in a lot of ways. Some of her thoughts even ended up being adult sometimes but unfortunately, most of the time her thoughts wored in a child-like process. "I wanna stay here forever and ever." She told Tanner. "You're the father of my baby and we have to make a nursery and get a dog and get married..." Ruby was back to mentioning pregnant again now that the fact that she was indeed pregnant hadn't being bought up for a while.

"Are the new clothes pink? And do they have sparkles and glitter? I only where pink clothes." She told Tanner. Her clothes in the bags would need some serious washing though it was probably for the best to just throw them out. Ruby was convinced that they could be shoved in the washing machine though.

"Who is Director Tavi and Miss Bell? Do they like ponies?" She asked, sidetracked back to the ponies once again.

"I can confirm that Ruby would like to stay here for the time being, Director Tavi," Tanner stated, choosing to paraphrase rather than to quote his new house-guest word for word. He was pretty sure that he could end up disciplined for what Ruby'd just said. "Er... Hold on a moment, sir."

"Ruby? I'm sure Miss Bell bought you nice clothes. You can come see them with me tomorrow, okay? Um... Director Tavi's my boss. And Miss Bell is his assistant. They're both very nice, I'm sure you'll meet them and think so too. Um..."

This was probably why he wasn't a field agent. Interacting with people face to face was awkward. Give him a headset and a computer screen in his cosy MTAC, though? He'd be content and safe.

"Director Tavi?" Tanner added, turning his back on Ruby for just a moment as he lowered his voice. "Maybe some, er... Psychological therapy wouldn't go amiss? I mean, just to be sure that she's coping... with the pregnancy and the trauma. Sir. Yes, sir. Of course. Tomorrow, Director. Goodnight."

The knackered agent turned back to Ruby and stifled a yawn. "Do you want to wash all of those right now? It's just... been a long day and I have to go to work tomorrow, and Miss Bell will want to see you to make sure your clothes are acceptable and Director Tavi will want to make sure that I haven't misplaced you."

Ruby took no notice of the rest of what Tanner said after he answered her questions while he went back to being on the phone. She was happy enough cleaning all of the ponies. So far, five out of 35 had being washed. Some of them were the same pony, but she treated them all carefully and tenderly.

When he got off the phone and talked about bed, Ruby turned from her ponies then him, then back again, trying to decide what to do. She kind of wanted bed. But she didn't like the idea of bed. Last time she'd being in a bed bad things had happened and Ruby was good at blocking the events out of her head. In the end though, she had a solution.

"Can I leave the rest of them to sit on the bath for the night. The five that I cleaned can come watch us sleep." She smiled, lining up the ones that hadn't being washed on the side of the bath while she picked up the five that she had washed to bring with her, though their hair was still soaking.

"This is Apple Jack. This is what I'm going to name the baby after. And this one is Pinkie Pie..." Ruby went to introduce them all individually to Tanner. "They protect us when we sleep. And I need my pink pajamas. Have you seen them?" She asked.