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The tiny bell of Granny's diner gave a small jingle and the older woman found herself looking up from behind the counter to find her granddaughter walking through the door. The first thing Granny noticed was the drastic change of clothes, and the humbled smile Ruby gave the woman as she approached the counter tentatively.

"You look good." Granny grumbled to Ruby, hard to understand and under her breath but Ruby heard her clear as day.

"Thanks." Ruby approached the counter and let her hands rest on it's edges, looking away from Granny and clicking her tongue a bit to gather up the courage to say something else.

"Did you want something for the Mayor? I heard about what happened at the mines."

"Nope." Ruby let the word slip from her mouth and she winced slightly, wishing it might have come out a bit softer. Granny slammed the cashier box closed and grimaced, exhaling a sharp noise of pain as her hand shot to her arm and rubbed just below her elbow. The old woman's sleeves were rolled up today, four long, deep scars running around her left forearm causing Ruby to remember the incident Granny had told her about getting into when Granny was a small girl.

"How's your arm?" Ruby tried.

"Same as it always is every full moon." Granny replied, rubbing at the skin a bit more before busying herself with wiping down the counter. "What are  you doing here Ruby?" Granny then asked inquisitively. "Come here to tell me that you're finally moving to Boston?"

Ruby opened her mouth, offended at first but then eased her mouth back shut. She couldn't blame Granny, not really. Not with how things had ended between them yesterday.

"I...wanna come back." She said instead, offering a tentative (if not awkward) smile. Granny glanced up from wiping the counter down, her grey eyebrows rising above her glasses.

"Why? You were pretty mad..." Granny said and began to scrub down the counter again.

"I wasn't mad." Ruby said keeping her voice calm.

"Looked like mad from here." Granny grumbled.

"Yeah;  here's the thing..." Ruby paused to tuck a strand of her brown hair  behind her ear. "...you were talking about having me do all this stuff  and I wasn't sure - I said that, you wanted me to turn into you but, what I meant was...I don't know [i]how[/i] to be you."

Granny looked back up at Ruby, her face ungiving to any sort of expression that would allow Ruby to know what she might have been thinking.

"You're a tough act to follow." Ruby added on with a soft smile.

"Oh." Granny seemed to sigh, just a bit, and look back down at the counter, but Ruby kept going.

"And then you wanted me to take on all this...extra responsibilty and I...guess I just...got...scared..."

"Don't  be. You shouldn't be." Granny pulled a small folder from behind the counter and set it on the top, only once it had been set down did she look back up at her granddaughter.

"Well  I am..." Ruby replied honestly. "...but, it's okay. I...can do it anyway." Ruby nodded, not sure if she was towards herself now, or Granny. "I...sort of found someone within myself that was more than I expected."

"What about adventure? What about your night life?" Granny asked, not in a scolding tone, but of genuine curiosity.

"The mines...[i]that[/i] was my adventure. Did that, found out that I [i]could[/i] do that and also that...I don't want to. I don't want a job just anywhere, where I might not be happy. I want to something that makes me happy, somewhere I love."

Granny looked upon Ruby in a way that Ruby almost thought was thoughtful.

"Look, just so you know, I wanted you to do the books and everything so that you could take over when I retire; own the whole place."

Ruby's eyebrows shot up in surprise, and repeated Granny's words.

"Own it?"

"Sure! I mean, who else would I give it to than someone who loves me back?"

Ruby felt hot tears coming to her eyes and her lower lip quivered just a bit. She couldn't stop herself from walking around the counter quickly and throwing her arms around Granny in a tight hug, nearly breaking down again when she felt the old woman's arms hugging her back in return.When they parted, Granny looked upon Ruby in a way that Ruby had never seen Granny look at her before.

"I'm proud of you." Granny said moving away from Ruby to busy her hands with something else behind the counter.

"What was that?" Ruby asked, feeling a light laugh tickle at her throat.

"You heard me."

Ruby just smiled and looked about the diner. It wasn't too busy now, but that didn't mean it wouldn't get busy later. She grabbed an apron from behind the counter and tied it on and went to go check on the customers who were there.