"What are you going to do?" Fred's mom asked. "I mean, now that this has happened?"
The first thing that came to Fred's mind was wanting to go after Knox and hurt him the way he had tried to hurt her, but she didn't want to say that to her mother, not after everything that they had already discussed. She could here the concern and fear in her voice, and she didn't want to add to that. So she'd deal with Knox soon enough. Instead, she just shrugged even though her mom couldn't see her.
"I don't know yet. I guess we'll figure that out soon enough - Ruby is supposed to get information from whoever assigned her to look after me. I do know that I won't be going back to work at the firm." She sighed softly and ran her hand through her hair. "Mom...thank you for telling me."
"I just wish--."
"It's going to be all right. I promise."
"We love you, Fred. Given everything...I'm glad you're still with us."
Fred's throat tightened again for a moment as tears welled in her eyes. She remembered what she had said to Ruby right after she had woken up and now realized how awful that would have been for her parents. Obviously, they all--her parents, Ruby, Wesley, Rupert - they all still saw her as Fred, and Wesley was right. If this was what she was supposed to become, then she was who she alway had been.
"I love you too, Mom. I'll call you later and let you know how things are going," she finally said.
"Bye, Baby."
After hanging up, Fred stared at the phone for a moment then looked up as Ruby came in with a tray. She set the phone aside and took the letter and credit card from her, looking at the card in amazement. She had thought that the money from WRH had been unbelievable, but this...
"Wow," she said before opening the letter to look at it. Stay close to Angel. Her brow furrowed in confusion, but before she could say anything, she felt Ruby's hand on her cheek and she raised her head again, looking over into her eyes. "She knew. Well, she knew that the Huntress was supposed to be born into the family, but she didn't think it would be me."
Fred went on to explain what she had found out during the phone call. Once she was finished, she let out a deep breath. "I'm going to have to call her again later once things settle down and we figure out what's going on. She's so worried about me, I could tell, but she said she was glad I'm still here. And actually...so am I."