ooo. prologue
pre season four

Planes were Ruby's first love. Back when life was simpler - before uniforms, battles, training and scars - he spent hours staring at the sky, imagining himself up there, soaring through the clouds.

He'd lie in the grass until his skin itched from the bugs and the sun started to set, tracing the trails left by jets as if they were maps to some secret place only he could find, only he could see. There were days where he'd lay there with his younger cousin by his side, and she would pretend she shared the love of planes and aircraft's just so she could spend time with him.

For someone with big dreams and not much to his name as someone whose family worked for each and every thing they ever touched, even watching planes felt like freedom.

Then life happened, as it does. The kid who loved planes turned into a teenager who needed a way to provide for family and take care of them, and at nineteen, Ruby found himself in military school where they'd give him full scholarship and teach him whatever he wanted.

Emergency medicine - it wasn't the cockpit, but it was something. Before he had gotten to where he was, he held a gun and was apart of a rescue team.

Saving lives, though? That was a purpose, a reason to get up every day, even when the weight of it all felt so fucking crushing. By the time he joined the army, Ruby had traded his dreams of flying for something heavier: duty.

The army shaped him, no doubt about that forsure. It gave him discipline, precision, a way to survive the chaos. It taught him how to live on his own, how to fold his laundry and how to survive if the world went to shit.

But it also chipped away at who he used to be. Nearly two decades later, Ruby was leaving it all behind - his career, the life he'd built, the uniform that had defined him for so long, even some of the friends he had made. He was done.

He said as much when he asked for an honourable discharge after he injured his shoulder - "I miss my baby cousin, and with my shoulder I'm getting old. I wanna settle down, start a family, find the love of my life somewhere other than a battlefield." - they had signed the paper work, smiled and gave him a hug, before they paid for his ticket to go home.

Home wasn't the place Ruby had left when he joined the army. That house was gone, sold to someone he'd never meet. The people who'd made it feel like home had scattered, moved on, grown up. They had been able to get away with the money he was sending them each month.

Roma was the closest thing he had left to family. His cousin, though she'd always been more like a sister to him, was in Seattle now. She was building a life as a resident at one of those big-deal hospitals Ruby had only heard about in passing. He had sent her money and with the scholarship she applied for, she got a full ride. She's smart, driven, intimidating.

Seattle wasn't home, but it was somewhere. Maybe it could be enough that she was there - he was her home too. They stayed in contact when they could, but to be where she was, safe.

When Ruby showed up in Seattle Washington after his plane ride where he was seated at the window, it felt like stepping onto another planet. Everything was too bright, too loud, too alive. He wasn't to sure how to see the world anymore. He carried a duffel bag, but the real baggage wasn't the kind you could sling over your shoulder. It was in his head, the memories he couldn't shake, the scars no one else could see and the ones some could see but he his from prying eyes.

Roma was his lifeline. She'd always been there, no matter what, and Ruby clung to that like it was the only solid thing left in his world. His mom and dad, gone somewhere they'd reveal to him when they died - hating him for leaving and putting his life at risk for others. A post card from his aunt occasionally, here and there from places all around the world.

The hospital she worked at, he couldn't avoid it forever. She told him they needed an emergency surgeons since their er doctor quit. Emergency medicine was in his blood, like it or not, and Ruby found himself drawn to the chaos he understood. Hospitals were their own kind of battlefield, after all.

Seattle Grace was its own kind of place, own kind of world. The chatter, the moments of peace and quiet, vs the hours of the day where it was nothing but voices screaming.

The bar across the street from the hospital was the first place he went. Not his new apartment, not the hospital to plead for a job, the bar.

It was busy, and everyone looked when he stepped in. Murmurs and weird glances were seen as they all said something similar - "who's that guy?"

A younger woman, dark haired and wearing a bright big smile as she chatted with the bartender was who refilling her pretty pink drink was the only one who had an empty space beside them.

"Hello, ma'am. Is this seat taken?" His voice had a sweet accent hinting at his roots and wrapping his words in old-school charm. For a moment, Lexie blinked up at him, startled but clearly intrigued at who this mystery man was.

"Oh, oh! Go ahead!" she said quickly, flustered but smiling. She shuffled in her seat, turning to face him fully. Her cheeks flushed a little, though it might've been from the drink she'd been nursing. "I'm Lexie, and you?"

"Ruben," he said, offering a hand that had was two sizes bigger than hers. "But you can call me Ruby, if you'd prefer."

She grasped his hand, small and chilled from her cold glass, and gave it a firm shake. "Nice to meet you, Ruby."

Settling into the seat, Ruby glanced down at the menu briefly, then back up at her, "I'm starving," he admitted, his tone low but pleasant. "Do you recommend anything?"

"The burgers are amazing!" she said immediately, her enthusiasm lighting up her face. The way she said that, made Ruby think that was all she ate. "I mean, they're the kind you think about days later, and then find yourself coming back for -so yeah, definitely the burger."

Ruby chuckled softly, the sound deep and rich, as he leaned back slightly in his chair. "A burger it is, then," he said. Just as the bartender approached, Ruby raised a hand in acknowledgment.

"What can I get for you?" the bartender asked, wiping his hands on a towel slung over his shoulder.

Ruby didn't answer right away. His gaze flicked to Lexie's drink before returning to the bartender. "I'll take two burgers," he said, "and one of your... what's it called? Surgeon's Surprise?" He lifted a brow, looking at Lexie for confirmation.

She grinned. "You're in for a treat. Just, uh, make sure you've got a ride home."

Ruby smirked, thanking the bartender with a nod before turning his attention back to her. "Sounds like my kind of drink," he said. "Something strong enough to take the edge off after a long day."

Lexie tilted her head, her curiosity showing. "Rough day?" she asked, folding her arms on the table and leaning in slightly. "Or are you just one of those guys who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders?"

There was a moment, just a flicker, where Ruby hesitated. His smile softened, the humor in his expression dimming just enough to hint at something deeper. Before he could say anything, the bartender slid a blue drink in front of him, and smiled kindly before moving away to someone else.

Ruby held his drink out, and Lexie clanked hers with his.

"Cheers." Lexie smiled.

Ruby smiled back. "To new friends, cheers."