Once Upon a Time 1. Blood Red and Ink Black

Storybrooke's first blue moon happened two weeks after Greg Mendell was rushed into the hospital with near critical injuries and, while the absence of Sidney Glass meant that the phenomena went largely unreported, it would be erroneous to say that nobody knew about it.

"More cocoa?" suggested the blonde, smiling at the way the woman sitting next to him had buried herself in the blanket he'd passed to her. She traced her fingers along the rim of the cup in her hands, a weak smile making its way across her face, and nodded.

"If I may," she said.

The couple, though they had yet to refer to themselves as such, were in a clearing in Storybrooke's woods, with a clear view of the moon and stars above their heads and a half-empty flask of cocoa between them.

"Do you think this will work?"

She sighed as he unscrewed the lid of the flask.

"I hope so," she said, staring at the moon with an almost desperate look in her eyes. "I'm not sure how much more of this I can stand."

** TWO WEEKS EARLIER**

During the course of her life, Snow White had slept under the open sky, hunted for her own supper and ordered ale from roadside inns rather than chance the water. She had slept in lice ridden blankets, stolen eggs, chickens and all sorts of other things from strangers she chanced upon on her travels. She prided herself as a Queen who could adjust to almost anything fate threw at her, yet the moment she woke up Storybrooke one thing constantly made her wrinkle up her nose in disgust.

"Can't you put some more sugar in it?" she asked, passing the plastic cup back to her daughter, whose immediate response was to roll her eyes.

"If I put any more sugar in there, it'll stop being coffee and turn into a meringue."

Still, she took the cup and retreated to the hospital coffee machine, leaving the group in silence again. Snow watched the way she placed the coffee cup to one side and picked up a small packet of sugar, twisting the paper packet in her fingers before tearing it open. Snow could not help but think about how she remembered those fingers, back when they were much smaller and entwined around just one of her own.

Emma sprinkled the sugar, that same look of concentration in her eyes that Snow recognized from David, before lifting the cup and returning to the group. She passed her the cup and Snow took a sip, pretending not to be disgusted by the bitter taste that her child craved above everything else. She loathed the taste and smell, the way Emma would sit and close her eyes as she drank it, for it served as little more than a reminder that the child she had held in her arms for a few minutes had returned to her a grown adult, with a cynicism that could not be kissed away.

Snow glanced down at her shoes, at the hospital tiles and across at the movement of nurses along the hall, some with clipboards, some without. She wondered about the outsider they had brought in and the progress of his operation, unsure of how she felt about the situation. Ruby seemed convinced that he was in safe hands and she had barely moved since Dr. Whale left for surgery. Snow found it strange that Ruby's body language was so meaningless to Leroy, David and Emma, for to her it was anything but. She had hunted in the woods with her and watched her every muscle tense at the scent of wild deer, watching for signals in the coding for whether or not it was safe to move herself.

Ruby had said very little about the circumstances of her finding Dr. Whale, though Snow only had to look at her to know that _something_ must have happened. She had remained in the same spot since their return, as if she had the scent of something and was ready for fight or flight. Snow did not miss the way he had turned to smile at her, with a kind of warmth in his eyes she had never before seen and thanked her, _monster to monster_. She wondered what sort of secret had passed between them and sipped her coffee, immediately screwing up her face at the taste.

She hated the coffee, but it was necessary, just like her twice-daily routine with David was necessary too. Every morning upon waking, as well as each night just before she rested her head, Snow would ask for David's name, for the date of their wedding and something else of equal significance. No matter how tired David was, he always played along and answered her questions before asking three of his own. It might not have been exactly to her taste, just like the coffee, but Snow could not deny that she needed it as a reminder that everything around her was real and not just another dream. A dream would be easier to cope with, easier to accept. If she was dreaming then there was still a chance that she could wake up in her birthing bed in the castle, with everything just the way it was. Each sip of coffee cleared her head and put everything into focus.

She could not stand around in a dreamlike state, musing over how things could or should have been, while the citizens of her kingdom needed her, nor could she spend her days going over every little detail of the last few days before the curse in her mind. She remembered everything with such vivid clarity, from the way Red had stroked her belly and assured her that everything would be alright to Emma's wide, newborn eyes.

She knew she needed to move on and accept her lot and, when Dr. Whale emerged from surgery with news of the stranger's recovery, she knew she should have been happy. And yet, despite the fact that she remained in the waiting room with both Leroy and David, she watched Ruby take Dr. Whale's arm and Emma follow a nurse to the patient's bedside, feeling more alone than she ever had in her life.

* * *

Dr. Whale's office was a veritable mess of paperwork, whiskey bottles and coffee cups, to the point where it was almost impossible to find actual furniture amongst the debris. Ruby stood by the door, watching as Whale found a chair by force of habit. She had acted habitually too, once he told her that the stranger was going to live, managing to catch herself before she reached out to embrace him.

It was no coincidence that she hadn't been on a date since Billy's death, for she still woke from nightmares and ate her breakfast in silence, trying to shut out the memory of his warm smile. The last time she had ever seen him, he had been in pieces and, though she knew that she herself had not taken the fatal bite, the fact remained that it was still partially her fault. She had not told him about her wolf side, the fact that loving her came with an element of danger and she was not sure if she ever would have given the chance. In their world, Billy was a mouse, after all and mice did not take wolves for lovers.

She did not make a point of telling anyone about the monster inside her, so it had come as something of a surprise that opening up and revealing the truth came so easily when she sat beside Dr. Whale, a man she had found visually pleasing during the curse but beyond that had not given much thought to. She found herself telling him about the wolf inside her without a second thought, though the thing that confused her the most was the way he had looked at her afterwards as if he _understood_. During the course of her life she had received looks of sympathy, hatred and anger, frustration and worse, but never understanding and it had filled her with an insatiable curiosity.

She was suddenly far more aware of how the surgical scrubs fell against his body, showing the contours of his chest and stomach, and the edge of his handwriting on the records that surrounded them.

"Doctor…" she said and he smiled.

"Victor. Call me Victor."

She had never been so conscious of how tousled her own hair was before and she dragged a few strands to one side in an attempt to neaten herself up, all the while telling herself that he might have revealed a little of his past but it was still Whale. _Whale, _who had been her admirer for the best part of 28 years.

She wanted to ask him out on a date but every time she found the words, they ended up lodged in her throat, for she could not escape the knowledge that eventually she would take his hand or he would take hers and they would end the night with a kiss. It reminded her of all of the times she had kissed Peter. Peter, who she only remembered as a mess of blood red and ink black. At the back of her mind, though it grew increasingly faded, she remembered attacking him, remembered the taste of blood and the glimmer of fear in his eyes. She had been intrigued by him too and that curiosity had ended badly for both of them.

"I should go," she said, shaking her head and turning for the door. If she walked fast enough, then the doctor's scent would leave her senses before she grew attached to it.

It was for the best, she told herself, ignoring the way he called her back; a lone wolf could not harm anyone and hers was the kiss of death.

* * *

In the end, Emma only managed a few hours of sleep. The knowledge that not only did she have several new reports to fill out but a trip alongside Gold to look forward to left her incapable of dropping off. When she finally woke up, it was gone 10 and the entire apartment smelled of cinnamon. Emma cursed at oversleeping and dragged on a clean set of clothes before following her nose to the kitchen, where she found Mary Margaret taking a batch of cakes from the oven.

She had yet to call the other woman 'Snow', let alone 'Mom' and she was fairly certain she never would, despite the near constant prompting of everyone else around her. Not a day went by that someone didn't raise their eyebrows or look faintly surprised that she spoke to her mother in the same informal way that she had talked to her friend Mary Margaret, despite the fact that they were practically the same person to her and probably always would be.

The second she entered the kitchen, Mary Margaret placed the cakes to one side to cool and turned to greet her with an enormous smile on her face.

"Good morning, sunshine!" she said as Emma reached into the top cupboard for the coffee.

"You seem cheerful," Emma smiled as her fingertips brushed against the jar. "What are the cakes for?"

It was becoming increasingly apparent that Mary Margaret had been on something of a baking spree that morning. On the far right of the kitchen was a basket piled high with finished cakes, buns and other creations, all in individual paper cases and some with icing too and Emma had to admit that she was impressed.

"I'm making a care package for Mr. Mendell," said Mary Margaret, taking off her oven gloves and folding them over and over. "Getting lost in a strange world, cut off from your entire family, well…that's something we can all sympathize with here."

Emma unscrewed the lid of her coffee and grabbed a cup, only half listening to what Mary Margaret's next words were. All she could think about was Henry and what having a stranger in Storybrooke meant for him. Storybrooke might have been borderline crazy at the best of times, but at least that craziness was kept within the confines of the town line, out of reach of anyone who didn't understand.

She didn't like the thought of just anyone being able to stroll into town, since for one thing it made her job as Sheriff a hell of a lot more difficult. She spooned a little coffee into her cup and promised herself that whatever happened, she would protect Henry.

"Communication is important in times like this… understand what's in each other's heart…two people in one…"

As she put her jar of coffee back on the shelf, she noticed Mary Margaret lift up two cakes from the finished pile and hold them out to her.

"I made a few extra. Why don't you take these with you to the Sheriff's office for later?"

Emma took hold of the cakes and the warm cinnamon smell filled her senses.

"I'm not much of a cinnamon fan," she admitted, staring down at them and wishing she was, for they looked delicious. Mary Margaret looked so sad at her revelation that anyone would have thought she had made some grave insult.

"Cinnamon cakes are a delicacy in our world," she said, as if she could scarce believe Emma's distaste for them.

"Maybe Henry will want one," said Emma. "Maybe he'll want both!"

_Henry, who I wish to protect more than anything._

Mary Margaret shook her head and took both cakes from her, positioning them back in the basket.

"It doesn't matter," she said, picking up the bowls and spoons she had used to bake and placing them in the sink. "Don't worry about it."

Emma knew that it _did_ matter, but even if she didn't have a thousand and one things to organize, she knew better than to press. Instead she carried on making her morning coffee and Mary Margaret rushed around the kitchen, finishing off the icing and wiping the tabletop. Neither of them commented on how awkward they felt, or how much they wanted to communicate that to the other and they certainly didn't notice the two cakes Emma had touched begin to glow.

* * *

"TWO LASAGNAS!"

Ruby pinned her new list of orders to the kitchen board and wiped a fresh sheen of sweat from her brow. She had barely slept either, much to the irritation of Granny, who made a far from sympathetic alarm clock. She had hoped for a quiet day at the diner to even things out, but as luck would have it, it was one of the busiest days they had had for a long time. To make matters even more complicated, Victor had stopped by at least twice that she knew of but had yet to actually buck up the courage to make an order.

She knew he must have been confused, that her enthusiasm towards him followed by her swift exit must have come across as more than a little bit strange, but she didn't know how to explain herself to him. Even if he did understand how it felt to be a monster, how could he know how beautiful the resonance of his heartbeat was or how intoxicating his scent was? Every man who trusted her, who embraced her, ended up jumped from behind by the wolf and she did not trust herself to explain that to him without giving away how much she craved his affection.

She reached for a glass, ready to pour some lemonade for her customer, only to jump out of her skin at the sound of a voice behind her.

"Ruby, are y-"

The glass slipped out her hand and she reached out to catch it, her fingertips slipping against it, but ultimately proving to be of no use. It smashed against the floor tiles and shattered to pieces, leaving Ruby incapable of doing anything but watching it numbly. She glanced up at the owner of the voice and saw Snow leaning over the counter, an utterly embarrassed expression across her face and basket of cakes positioned next to her.

"Oh my goodness," she said, hurrying round and grabbing a broom. "I'm so sorry, I had no idea."

"Don't worry about it," said Ruby, taking it from her and halfheartedly starting to sweep. "Was there something you-"

"RUBY!" Granny shouted through from the kitchens. "ARE YOU KEEPING AN EYE ON THAT LASAGNA?!"

Only then did Ruby remember Granny's request several minutes earlier for her to keep an eye on the ovens while she made a quick visit to the bathroom. She cursed under her breath and rushed over to the ovens, telling herself that the smell of burning lasagna was all in her head and they'd just be a little crispier than usual, a fact that she could not convince herself of when she dragged open the oven door and was swiftly greeted by a faceful of smoke and the charred remains of the lasagna she'd specifically been asked to look after.

_Blood red and ink black_, she thought, as she dragged it out. _Those colours follow me everywhere._

Granny's hips and bladder might have been on their way out, but her nose was in full working order and the scent of the smoke brought her running. When she saw the burned lasagna, the shattered glass and the customers on all sides, she placed her hands on her hips and frowned.

"What on earth are you doing, y'idjit?!" she bellowed. "I asked you to look after the lasagnas, not trash the place!"

"It's my fault, Granny," Snow assured her. "Honestly. I distracted her, I'm to blame."

Granny seemed far from convinced, but she hurried off to the freezer nonetheless, all while Ruby finished up sweeping up the broken glass and fetching an actual drink of lemonade for her customer.

"I'm sorry," she said, taking hold of it and stepping out from behind the counter. "We're just really busy today. I don't know where they're all coming from!"

As she passed Snow, she became far more aware of the cinnamon smell emitted from the basket of cakes and tried not to show how much her mouth was watering. They were her favourites from home, the one treat that Granny had made for her over and over during her childhood but hadn't caught on in the diner. The fact that she had skipped breakfast in favour of more time in bed only made matters worse and she steeled herself as she passed the customer their lemonade before heading back.

"Any news?" she said and Snow looked confused.

"I was just about to ask you the same question," she said. "Haven't you heard from Dr. Whale?"

For almost an entire minute, Ruby wondered why Snow would think she had and then she remembered the way Victor had smiled at her as he emerged from surgery. He had smiled so broadly and it was idiocy to suppose that she hadn't returned the gesture.

"Oh, _oh_ I haven't heard from him," she said, conscious of increasingly quickly her words came out. "I think it must just be a busy day at the hospital, you know how it is."

"RUBY!" Granny called from the back room and she sighed.

"I'd better go and help," she said, placing a hand on Snow's shoulder. "But let's talk soon, okay? Stop by at six, if you're free!"

Even though she looked disappointed, no doubt hoping for a quick catch up right there and then, Snow smiled and passed her a cake. A cake that, in retrospect, Ruby wished she had tossed in the trash along with the charred lasagna.

* * *

Victor was almost certain that he had spent so long staring at the door to Granny's diner that he ought to have memorized every detail. If he closed his eyes, he was sure that he could bring to mind which areas were cracked and peeling and in need of repainting and the exact position of everyone inside.

He was running out of reasons to casually stop by and he knew that soon he would have to stop altogether, for fear of looking like an absolute lunatic. He wanted to ask Ruby out for dinner, as he was so certain she had started to ask him only the night before, only to stop for whatever reasons she deemed necessary. Victor did not need much imagination to think what they might be; he could scarcely believe she had gone to the trouble of saving his life, after all. Besides Gerhardt, he could not think of anyone who had ever so much as asked about his health. He wanted to thank her, if nothing else, for existing as the source of beauty in an otherwise ugly world, but every time he reached out to open the door, his nerves got the better of him. She had started to suggest something very much like that, after all, had she not? There had to be a reason she had changed her mind so quickly. He was not brave or strong or more intelligent than any of his peers at Ingolstadt and she was beautiful enough to have any man she wanted by her side. He did not dare to dream that despite that, despite _everything_, she would still choose him.

He reached for the door one last time, deciding that he might as well order a coffee to take back with him to the hospital, just as Mary Margaret stepped through it and ended up walking straight into him. She had a basket of small cakes in her arms and Victor caught one just before it hit the ground. He stepped forward to pass it back to her, but she mumbled something about visiting times and hurried off in the opposite direction, leaving him standing there in the middle of the street with a good twenty minutes until he had to return to work, the diner on his left and a cake in his hand. He stared up at the diner, shook his head and sank his teeth into the cake.

* * *

At ten minutes to six, Ruby all but ran back to the inn and began the process of peeling off her diner-scented work clothes, ready for her half scheduled meeting with Snow. It was only when she was down to her blood red, ink black underwear and fiddling with the shower controls that she remembered the cinnamon cake Snow had given to her and she scurried back into her room to take it from her bag. She lowered herself onto the bed and took a bite, immediately wriggling with pleasure at the warm, spicy taste, which was the last thing she remembered before everything went black and she fell back onto the bed, her limbs limp as a ragdoll's.

* * *

Since the curse's end, Victor's days had bled into one. He did not function on such a simplistic system as night and day, for occasionally he fell asleep in his office during the afternoon and worked all night through, taking in the bleary eyed faces of the nurses and telling himself he would repair his sleep schedule as soon as he was able, which of course never happened. Sometimes he did return to Dr. Whale's apartment, though only when he absolutely had to, for the memories he had of place left in him in such a severe state of embarrassment that he could not relax or even sleep. The cupboards were filled with food he barely knew the name of, let alone how to cook. In the end, his possessions drifted bit by bit into his office until it was more like a home in itself.

When his eyes snapped open at six o'clock sharp, he was not confused about why he had been sleeping, for he clearly remembered finishing off the last of his paperwork and laying down his head. The thing that _did _confuse him, however, was the fact that even though he had fallen asleep at his desk in the hospital, when he woke up he was flat on his back on a Queen sized bed. He rubbed his eyes, only to find himself staring at the red and black polish that adorned his nails.


	2. With My Dying Breath

Ruby's suggestion of six o'clock suited Snow perfectly, as it meant she had plenty of time to see Emma and Henry off at the town line before they left with Mr. Gold. She checked and double checked that her grandson was wrapped up in enough jumpers and scarves before scooping him into her arms and clutching him tightly, which only made him squirm out of her grip, laughing that she was choking him. Snow watched him climb into the car and turned to Emma, willing herself not to check that she too was wearing enough jumpers or hug her tightly.

"Make sure you stay safe," she said, as David lifted the last bag into the trunk. "Call us if you need anything."

Emma sighed and nodded.

"Don't worry," she said, turning to look at the car and watching as Henry leaned over the shoulder of the front seat to see what Mr. Gold was doing. "We'll only be gone for a couple of days. In the meantime, I need you two to keep an eye on the town. This new guy doesn't seem to have noticed anything out of the ordinary about Storybrooke and we need to keep it that way."

* * *

Upon his arrival at Ingolstadt, Victor had been assigned a list of text classified as required reading for each student. Those books covered a variety of subjects, from how the measurements of a man's cranium could be used to determine his overall personality and mental health, to detailed illustrations of the muscles and organs in the human body. It was something of a habit of his to set his own body and its forms and functions against the descriptions in the texts and, as such, he felt that he knew its every contour and flaw by heart. The second he looked at the black and red nail polish, he did not discount that the nails in question could not possibly be his because they were painted, but because the fingers in question were far too long and slender to belong to him. He sat up, meaning to examine his arm at a better angle, only to stop and glance down when he became aware of a weight across his chest that had never been there before. He noticed the breasts at about the same moment that he realized a rather more prominent organ appeared to be missing, replaced by narrow legs and provocative red underwear.

Without thinking, he smoothed a fingertip over the lace and then, realizing what he had done, snatched his hand away and climbed off the bed. He had been under the influence of one curse too many and moved over to examine what appeared to be a small chest of drawers, littered with bottles of perfume and sparkly things that he could not identify. Everything seemed so much louder than usual, amplified, and as he took his first steps he wondered if he had jumped rather than stepped. He pulled open one of the drawers and rifled through its contents, lifting up a strange, stringy piece of fabric that mystified him upon first glance, only to put it back and move on to the next drawer. He had to find some clue, some _symptom_ to rationalize everything, for as far as he was aware, the only two people capable of casting curses had both met him before he had ever been that disgusting creature known as Dr. Whale and as Victor, he had not treated women so badly that he merited the transformation.

He paused for a second and bit his lip, remembering that that was not entirely true. He _had _tricked a woman once in his life, after all, by promising to revive her lover when he had no intention of doing so. While he would have liked to believe that such an act was minor compared to what other people in the town had done to their Evil Queen, he knew that a betrayal was a betrayal, no matter how small. Had he not locked himself away in his room as a boy because his Father had promised to take him out hunting, just to forget when the actual time came and laugh at his disappointment?

"Are you a woman?" his Father had asked when he dared to look upset.

Victor opened the second drawer, thinking that it would have made far more sense for whoever had cursed him to have cursed his Father, who treated his horses with far more respect than he did women. _Woman_ and _lady_ and anything remotely feminine was an insult to the Lord Frankenstein, but to Victor, who had studied female anatomy and attended a birthing bed or two, it was anything but. To be female was to be strong and unyielding, to stand one's ground even with one's dying breath.

The second drawer had several necklaces and bracelets inside it, which looked oddly familiar and he reached out to touch one, just as Granny Lucas bellowed from somewhere nearby, calling for Ruby. At the mention of Ruby, his heart soared, only for it to sink in that Granny Lucas sounded exactly as she had earlier on that day. Whatever curse had afflicted him, it could not have hit Granny or Ruby and if Ruby was nearby…

Victor pulled a blanket from the bed and wrapped it around his half naked body, just as Granny Lucas stepped inside. He stared at her, realizing that everything about her was playing havoc with his senses. He could hear her heartbeat, the blood in her veins, smell every fiber of the wool she was wearing and he crumpled up his face at the sudden rush

"Snow called, she-"

Victor flinched, for her words were almost deafening and whatever perfume she was wearing was making his eyes water. Granny took in the sight of him standing there wrapped in a red plaid blanket and blinked. Victor blushed and wrapped the blanket tighter.

"Pardon me," he said, keeping his voice as low as possible so as not to deafen himself, "but I appear to be in a state of undress."

Granny opened her mouth as if to say something, but seemed to think better of it, for she shook her head and folded her arms.

"Snow called. She says everyone crossed the town line safe and sound. Everyone still has their memories intact."

Victor had to wonder why Granny was even talking to him, let alone telling him about a conversation she had had with Snow, but it would not do to be rude about it. He smiled and nodded, trying to ignore how ridiculous it must have looked while he stood there wrapped in a blanket.

"Ah," he said. "How fortuitous."

Granny raised an eyebrow and he wondered if he had sounded sarcastic.

"Ruby, have you been watching _Downton Abbey_ again?"

Victor's heart always soared at the mention of Ruby, but right then, it was far more appropriate to say that it jumped right out of his chest, leaving him rapidly very aware of the fact that he could hear it pounding against his ribs.

"I…no…might you direct me to your bathroom?" he asked, running his fingers through his hair to try and ease the growing migraine and wishing he hadn't when he saw the dark locks.

"It's where it's always been…"

"But could you direct me?"

Even as Whale, he had never set foot in Granny's inn and had next to no understanding of its layout. Granny sighed and reached for his shoulder, pulling him towards her, through the open door and into the hallway, slapping a hand against his arm and pointing to a door further down the hall.

"Oh, thank you so much," said Victor, walking towards it and opening the door, smiling pleasantly at Granny before he closed it again. He turned to face himself in the bathroom mirror and had to suppress a cry of horror.

He knew he was Victor, knew that he was a man of the house of Frankenstein and approximately six feet tall. And yet, when he looked in the bathroom mirror of Granny's inn, that was not who looked back, who poked and prodded at their face when he willed it. No. The person looking back in the mirror, wrapped up in blankets just as he was, was Ruby Lucas.

He heard footsteps behind him and, judging by the familiar scent from earlier, he presumed it was Granny that approached. He wondered how he was expected to explain what had happened when he did not fully understand himself, but still he reached for the door and inhaled sharply when the first thing to greet him was the sharp edge of a crossbow and Granny's stern face.

"I…" he said, raising his hands above his head and letting the blanket drop to the floor. "I think I can explain."

* * *

Snow waited at the diner for twenty minutes with David, checking her watch every so often and politely declining every time one of the night staff offered her something to drink. There was no sign of Ruby anywhere and she began to wonder if she had forgotten or gotten caught up somewhere. As the clock hit 6.30, she sighed and turned to David, who had not been able to restrain himself from sampling the blackberry pie.

"You know you didn't have to wait with me," she said, as he polished off the last of the pastry. "One of us should stay at home in case Emma calls."

She didn't want to say that she wanted him to leave so that he wasn't there when she accepted Ruby wasn't coming or that she had been forgotten, but he seemed to know that anyway. He shook his head and picked up a napkin to wipe away loose crumbs from his lips.

"Emma will be fine," he said. "She's the savior and she knows this world better than we do, so if anyone's going to find Mr. Gold's son, it'll be her."

He smiled and took her hand.

"We promised we'd protect our kingdom with our dying breaths," he said. "And this is our kingdom now. These people need us more than our daughter ever will."

Snow remembered all of the times she had waddled into the council chamber, huffing and puffing because of her swollen stomach, to discuss battle tactics ready for the day Regina's curse would hit her kingdom. Back then, the end of the curse had seemed so different in her mind. She remembered sitting back in the chair of the nursery, stroking a hand over her stomach and embroidering a blanket for the baby while Red made a wolf out of straw, imagining what strange new world she might take her into when she stepped into the wardrobe.

"Do you suppose it will be cold there?" Snow had asked and Red laughed, twisting the straw so that it looked like a snout.

"Does it matter?" she replied and Snow had looked down at her half-finished stitches, smiling herself.

"No," she said. "I suppose not."

In that moment she had believed everything would be alright. No matter which world she ended up in, neither she nor her daughter would be alone. Her daughter may have been the savior, but it was a responsibility that she would not have to bear alone.

"We should try the inn," said Snow, climbing from her chair and lifting her handbag from the table. "Maybe Ruby's just-"

David smiled and shook his head.

"She'll be there," he said. "Something probably just came up."

Snow hugged herself as they stepped out into the cold night air, her breath emerging as a white mist. She had known cold nights, but only ever wrapped in furs and her Storybrooke wardrobe did not keep her as warm as she would have liked. She had to compensate for the lack of heat by wearing sweaters under her blouses and a variety of different hats.

"I hope so," she said, crossing the street and reaching for David's hand for a little extra warmth. "It'll be good just to catch up on everything that's happened. I…couldn't believe it when you told me about Billy. I-"

"It wasn't your fault," was his immediate response. "You were in our world with Emma, Ruby knows that."

Snow had to smirk at his absolute assurance.

"I suppose we should be grateful that it happened when it did," she said, reaching for the door to Granny's inn. "There's a full moon in a couple of weeks and at least we can retain a degree of normality this way."

She dragged open the door and her jaw dropped.

Granny was sitting behind the counter, flipping through the pages of her accounts with her glasses perched on the end of her nose. She did not seem to have noticed them come in, let alone the crossbow next to her or the chair in the middle of the entrance hall. Ruby was sitting on the chair, bound and gagged and wriggling and the second she saw them approach she made a number of muffled noises that sounded awfully like cries for help.

* * *

During the course of her life, Ruby had found great humor in the increasingly strange places she laid her head during the phases of the full moon. Once she woke up in a sarcophagus within a cathedral crypt, having laid so still for such a long time that she walked with a limp for quite some time afterwards. The day she woke up in a lab coat, though, that probably took the biscuit.

The first thing she became aware of was an irritating sort of beeping that seemed to be coming from her left hand side. She reached out and tossed whatever it was to one side and smiled to herself when the beeping subsided, only to scowl when it started again, louder. She opened her eyes and sat up, determined to find the source of the beeping and finding herself more and more confused by the minute. She was in Victor's office and sitting in his chair, but she couldn't smell him anywhere. In fact, she could barely smell anything at all. The usual layers of scent and sound that she was accustomed to were gone from her senses and everything seemed so much more muffled than before. She sniffed the air, wondering why she could only smell coffee and cardboard. She had never lost her wolf senses before and certainly not when it bordered on her wolf's time.

The beeping started again and she climbed onto her hands and knees, ready to look for whatever the source of the racket was. As she got down on the ground, she realized that her hands were suddenly much bigger than before and, perhaps more importantly, there was something between her legs that almost certainly had not been there that morning.

Then the beeping noise erupted, causing her to recoil and bash her head on the desk. She rubbed her fingers through her hair, noting how short it was and picked up the small electronic device that had caused all of the trouble. It was a cell phone and it was ringing, with the caller display showing 'Mary Margaret' in angry glowing letters, next to the time, which was 6:45. She cursed aloud as she realized that she was late for their meeting and moved to answer the call.

"Ruby, is that you?" Snow seemed frantic.

Ruby glanced around her, at the disheveled papers and her strange new body.

"I think so," she said. "Why what-"

"Listen to me," Snow interrupted. "You need to get to Granny's right away. Something's happened – you're in Dr. Whale's body and he's in yours. I don't know how but we need to fix it and - Ruby, listen to me – _don't, under any circumstances, treat anyone!_"

She hung up then and Ruby stared at the phone, unsure which part confused her more: that Snow still had Whale's number or that she apparently was in his body. She supposed the latter did explain her dulled sense of smell and stood up, dusting herself off and turning towards the door.

First things first, though.

She smoothed her fingers along the fabric of the shirt she had on and hooked her fingers along the belt buckle before pulling it forward, glancing down at the package below and raising her eyebrows in approval.

"Oh."


	3. Moonless Night

Ruby had no idea whether she was expected to leave the lab coat in Victor's office or not. She reasoned that she had never seen him walking around Storybrooke in it, so pulled it off and smoothed it over the chair. It looked a little odd, arranged so neatly beside such a vast array of plastic coffee cups, so she picked up every one that she could find, meaning to drop them off in the bin on the way out. As she lifted the last one, a paper bun case drifted to the floor and she knelt down to pick it up, noting the cinnamon aroma that still lingered around it.

Her wolf senses were gone, but she had not lost any of her intuition and she held the bun case up to the light, examining the floral pattern and reminding herself that there was no such as thing as coincidence. Especially not when the last thing she remembered was tucking into a cinnamon cake that had been in a case just like that one.

* * *

Getting Victor to verify his identity had proved somewhat awkward on more than one count. Granny had been utterly convinced that whoever had taken Ruby's form was just pretending to be him, hence the tight bindings and so she demanded that he recite something only he would know. Initially he was quite reluctant to do so, for the only two things he knew were quite problematic, but one glimpse of the sharp end of Granny's crossbow and he had no choice.

"A while ago you punched me," he said to David. "Because I slept with Mary Margaret."

Mary Margaret's jaw had dropped and she turned to her husband, just for David to flinch and give away the game completely.

"Is that true?" she had gasped in such a high pitched tone that Victor's head was left spinning.

"I-w-b-_Anyone_ could have seen that! We were outside!" David had responded, turning back to Victor and putting one hand on each gun holster.

"You mean you _did_?!" Mary Margaret followed up and Victor sighed. Everyone was looking at him expectantly and there was really only one thing he had that could possibly prove his identity.

"Forgive me," he had said, "you needn't have hit me. I came over that day to tell you that when it came down to it…she called out David."

Mary Margaret's response was to flush a bright red, confirming the statement without saying a word and Victor took the opportunity to climb off the chair and lay down on a couch. The sounds, the smells, all of them were giving him a migraine and he closed his eyes in an attempt to soothe himself. He listened as Mary Margaret grabbed her cell phone and dialed his number, wondering if Ruby found everyday noises as unbearable as he did or she had just become attuned to it over time. From as scientific perspective, it was really quite fascinating and he wished that the migraine would clear so that he could note down some conclusions; which chemicals and smells seemed to give him the most problems and the exact pitch that was most comfortable.

He was becoming very aware of the fact that he was breaking out in a fever, partly because of the thick jumper that Granny had shoved onto him before tying him up, though not entirely. He lifted a hand – Ruby's hand – to wipe off the sweat and saw that it was shaking. The migraine, the fever and the general sense of fear had made him nauseous and he retracted the hand, inhaling sharply, before exhaling slowly.

Mary Margaret paced in the next room, taking deep breaths and arching her back.

"We should call Emma," said David, stepping forward and placing a hand on her shoulder, which she swiftly brushed away. Victor supposed that their perspective on the situation was not all that different. From what he had heard of Snow White, she was far more accustomed to the practical approach, but never something so inherently complicated as people inhabiting each other's bodies.

"No," she said. "She has enough on her plate with Gold right now."

David leaned against the counter, folding his arms.

"If Regina has something to do with this then Emma needs to know. She has Henry with her."

"You think this was Regina?"

"I think it's a possibility."

"This doesn't seem like her. Interfering with the recovery of Mr. Mendell is far from in her best interests and, even if she wanted to, she'd kill Whale or take his heart, not put him in someone else's body."

"Unless it wasn't Regina who did it," piped up Granny.

Victor was in the midst of stretching, arching his back and frowning, for the nausea had turned into a flat out ache, but he froze at Granny's words, wondering if she was implying what he thought she was implying.

"What do you mean, Granny?" asked David, but Victor felt like he already knew.

"We all know the guy's had the gooey eyes for Ruby since the curse was here and what _exactly_ do we know about him? Didn't Frankenstein have a bride? What if he wanted Ruby's body for some reason but his methods backfired?" said Granny. "Seems like the sort of dirty, perverted thing _Whale_ would do."

Both David and Mary Margaret fell silent and Victor wondered why he was even surprised. That was the story of his life, was it not? He would try his hardest to prove himself or to help another person just to fail or burn his own fingers because of some dire misunderstanding. He was not Whale. He was Victor of House Frankenstein and the speed with which they came to their conclusions showed how little they understood what that meant.

"I assure you, I have neither the methods nor the desire to use Ruby's body against her volition," he said, stroking a hand against his throbbing stomach. "And who are you anyway, to judge me on such a matter? Did you not lie to her and keep her human for your own benefit?"

Granny lifted her crossbow again so it was level with his eyes.

"Why you son of a…" she snarled, just as the door behind her opened.

"What the hell is going on?!" Victor recognized his own voice, even if the words weren't his, and he looked up to see himself standing in the entryway, hands on hips and scowling at Granny. It was his body, in the same clothes he had been wearing only a short time before, yet somehow he looked transformed, brave and strong, more like his beloved brother and exactly the sort of man that his Father would have been proud of.

"We're trying to figure out what happened here," said Mary Margaret and Ruby stared at them all in disbelief.

"So you blame _Victor_?" she said. "Are you seriously that low on options?"

Victor could not help but watch the scene play out before him, enthralled by its every detail. He had always taken every insult laid before him, every chiding remark and comment and allowed his anger to bubble away on the inside until it was little more than an irritation. He had diagnosed many patients who suffered from chronic pain and lived with day to day discomforts that would drive anyone else out of their mind and his own paranoia, anger and passions were much the same. He was a veritable tempest of hate and pride and love and grief and wounded versions of every one of those that he was used to the ache. He had always believed that expressing his true feelings about any given topic would cause more trouble than it was worth, so instead he stayed silent, accepting the throbbing until it didn't bother him anymore. Of course, when he saw Ruby standing there, demonstrating exactly how irritated she was and how powerful that made him look, he could not help but feel inspired.

He had always felt unworthy of her, unworthy of so much as sharing a bus seat beside her, but the man he saw through her eyes was far from what he expected.

Ruby reached into her shirt pocket and pulled something out, holding out her hand so that everyone could see.

"Before we start throwing around false accusations, why don't we look at the facts?" she said. "I found this in Victor's office at the hospital."

Mary Margaret stepped forward to take a look at whatever the _thing_ was, immediately shrugging her shoulders when her curiosity had been sated.

"It's a bun case," she said. "They sell those at the store. I bought a few packets yesterday."

Ruby grinned.

"Exactly! The last thing I remember before," she motioned to her body, "_this_ is eating one of the cakes you made!"

All of a sudden, everyone's eyes were on Mary Margaret and she slumped down onto the chair that Victor had been tied to not so long ago, rubbing her temples and squeezing her eyes shut.

"So… you think that my cakes did this?" she asked. "I can't do magic!"

Ruby rested a hand on her shoulder.

"It's the most rational explanation we have so far. Cinnamon does have a reputation in our world for granting wishes," she said. "And nobody said you were doing it deliberately."

Victor didn't miss the dirty look she shot Granny at those words.

"But…I made a basketload of those cakes," groaned Mary Margaret. "And most of them are in the hospital! And even if we somehow manage to get those back from Mr. Mendell without telling him there's something wrong with them, how are we going to reverse what's happened when we don't _know_ what's happened?"

Ruby sighed and leaned back, glancing across the room at Victor and catching his eye for the first time. He smiled, despite the aches that racked his body and the smile slipped from her face.

"We have another problem," she said, causing everyone to stare at her in disbelief, as if incapable of believing things could possibly be any worse.

Ruby went a little pink and then sighed.

"I got my period this morning."

* * *

About an hour into the journey, Emma's cell phone began to ring and she sighed.

"Kid, can you get that? I don't want to miss our flight."

Mr. Gold snickered as Henry burrowed through her handbag.

"Storybrooke can't be in tatters already, surely."

"Oh, hey Grandpa!" Henry answered. "How's things? What… uh huh."

He placed his hand over the speaker and leaned forward so that his head fitted in between the two front seats.

"Grandpa says that Ruby and Dr. Whale have switched bodies and they don't know how to fix them."

The roads were all but empty, which proved beneficial, for Emma slammed her foot onto the brakes with such force that the squeals echoed for miles. Henry leaned back and uncovered the speaker.

"Did you get that? Yeah. We'll call you back."

* * *

After Emma called to get a detailed version of events herself, she promised to talk to Mr. Gold, despite the fact that the prospect of owing him a favour did not particularly sit well with anyone. In the meantime, Granny made a pot of coffee while everyone waited for the results. David picked up both his and Snow's cups and walked through to the sitting room, where Snow was sitting with her head in her hands.

"Don't worry," he said, placing her cup on the small coffee table in front of her. "Emma will find a way to make Gold talk."

Snow lifted her head and turned to him and he could see that there were tears in her eyes.

"_That's_ what you think this is about?" she said. "David, you hit a man out of pride, a man who was coming to _apologise_ to you over things that happened during a curse."

"I…Snow, I-"

"How does it make you any different from, from _him_?"

David didn't need her to say his Father's name to know that was who she meant.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I was angry, and…"

Snow lifted her coffee and stood up.

"It's not me you should be apologizing to," she said, taking the cup and leaving him alone in the room.

* * *

Ruby opened the kitchen cupboard and reached her arm inside it, grateful for the added height she had gained as Victor.

"This really isn't necessary," said Victor, leaning into the fridge and watching her.

"Ahh, no problem," she said, stretching out her fingers and smiling when she felt the box she wanted. "This kind of situation is why we keep chamomile tea."

She pulled out the box and placed it on the kitchen counter, before turning to look at her patient. She had never really considered what it felt like for an ordinary human to gain wolf senses in such a short period of time, for it was something she had always had and never needed to become accustomed to. Victor flinched at most noises when he wasn't curling over and rubbing his stomach and she bit her lip at how feeble her body looked in that instant. In that oversized sweater, with pale, clammy skin and near constant fever, Ruby's body appeared vulnerable and so far away from the beastly creature that she saw whenever she looked in the mirror. She adorned herself in furs and animal prints, after all, because that was what she believed people saw when they looked at her. Danger, teeth and death. Looking at herself through Victor's eyes, though, she did not see anything so terrible, but a human being she wanted to embrace and love.

She took a cup from the shelf and slipped a tea bag inside, wondering how on earth regular people found chamomile soothing when they did not smell it as intensely as she ordinarily could. She glanced at Victor out of the corner of her eye and smiled to herself at the way he seemed fascinated by the mild scent.

"You know," he said, wincing and rubbing his stomach as she fetched the kettle. "After this we should go for dinner."

Ruby laughed as she poured hot water into the cup.

"I'm happy with anywhere that doesn't have cake," she said, passing Victor the cup and listening as he laughed, only to fall silent as Granny stepped into the room.

Granny had left the inn to check on the diner, claiming that the night staff were almost never up to par, but Ruby noticed that she'd come back with more than just a chip on her shoulder like she usually did. Ordinarily, she'd sigh, complain about how lackluster the waitresses were and settle down in front of _Wheel of Fortune_, but right then she had a brown paper bag in her hands, which she dumped in front of Victor.

Victor glanced at Ruby, as if silently asking if it was safe, before lifting the bag and opening it, lifting out the slice of blackberry pie inside it. Ruby could not help but smile, because she had watched him tuck into it day after day in the diner, along with his usual coffee, and judging from the bewildered expression on his face that significance had not escaped him. He stared from the pie to her in disbelief, and somehow she still felt that he probably expected it to explode.

"What's the matter?" said Granny, passing him a spoon. "Hasn't anyone ever apologized to you before?"


	4. Lightning

After checking through security, Emma halfheartedly glanced around the shops, watching as Mr. Gold examined the lumberjack shirts on display.

"Gold," she said, "don't forget-"

"Don't forget what?" he said, "that Storybrooke is in trouble? That you want my help? I think you're the one who is_ forgetting_. My help will cost you dearly…"

He stepped aside from the clothing rail and grinned.

"Dearie."

Emma rolled her eyes and followed him out of the shop, keeping an eye on Henry, who was looking at an enormous teddy bear in one of the other windows. She had barely managed to make sense of anything that Mary Margaret had told her, at first thinking she was just telling her that the couple had finally slept together, which only seemed to cause frustration on the other end. Like Mary Margaret, she couldn't pin down a cause either, but Ruby's theory about the cakes seemed to amuse Gold greatly.

"Let's look at what we know," she said, hands on hips. "Whale is currently the only qualified doctor we have in Storybrooke and he's in Ruby's body. If anything happens as a result of that, Greg Mendell will file a lawsuit and I shouldn't have to be the one to tell you how bad that would be for us. If you think having one outsider to the town is worrying, try having lawyers going over everything with a fine toothed comb. If Storybrooke ends up on national news as some new kind of _Roswell_ how long do you think it will be before they start tearing it up and locking us away? Locking _Belle_ away?"

He didn't understand the Roswell reference, but it didn't matter too much. The thought of Belle being in danger was enough to grab his attention.

"You do me a favor by telling me how to break this spell and I'll make sure nothing happens to her," said Emma, motioning for Henry to come join them. "I promise."

"You make a fine point Miss Swan," said Mr. Gold, leaning over a news stand to examine the headlines. "And it would appear you're in luck!"

He lifted a copy of _World News_ and flipped it over so that the front page faced her, so that she could read the headline: BLUE MOON RISING

* * *

In the end, Snow stayed the night at Granny's, for the thought of returning to her apartment with David made her feel physically sick. The man she had married was the sort who _protected_ the weak, not lash out at them because they did something he disagreed with, who listened to the reasoning of his enemies rather than judge them solely on their actions. She remembered the cup of poison that had rendered her infertile, the wars that had felt endless, the bargains, the tears. She had believed that David was different and even the faintest possibility that he was not made her question everything.

She was still exhausted from the past few days and decided to take something of an early night, pulling her cell phone out of her bag and keeping it in her hand as she walked along the corridor towards Ruby's room. Part of her only wanted to ask if she had any spare pyjamas, the other wanted to collapse into the arms of her best friend and sob the whole night through. Ruby had encountered George after the curse broke, after all and David had been the one to protect her. She wanted to believe that if anyone could pat her on the head and convince her of David's goodness, it would be the girl he had sheltered from the mob.

She could hear muffled voices inside and hesitated before knocking, just for Whale's voice to ring out from inside.

"Come in!"

Snow was sure she'd never get used to that and she stepped inside, wondering what she'd find. Ruby, in Whale's body, was sitting on the bed, watching as Whale, in Ruby's body, gave her a twirl. Ruby had dressed him in a red blouse and black trousers and Snow couldn't help but be intrigued by what was going on.

"I…am I missing something?" she asked, taking a seat next to Ruby as she fluffed up Whale's hair.

"We're going to the hospital for night rounds," said Ruby, taking a hat in each hand and scrutinizing each before finally placing one on Whale's head.

"Is that safe?" asked Snow. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you don't exactly have a medical degree."

Ruby laughed and climbed off the bed.

"That's why Victor's coming with me," she said, lifting up a cardboard box from under her bed and taking a pair of portable radios out of it, ignoring the way that Snow's jaw dropped.

"Are those…office supplies? _Sheriff's office supplies_?" Snow asked, reaching in and grabbing a set of handcuffs. "How did you get these?"

Ruby took them back off her and shrugged.

"Graham let me have them," she said. "I paid him in _Jack Daniels_."

She flicked the switch on one of the radios and it crackled into action, just as Snow's phone began to ring. She glanced at the caller display, ready to ignore it if it turned out to be David, but when she saw Emma's name there in glowing letters, she immediately answered.

"Emma!" she greeted, willing herself not to cry. "How are you?"

She remembered all of the times that Emma had consoled her during the curse, while she tried and failed to woo David Nolan. She had known exactly what to say and when and even just the sound of her voice was a great comfort.

"Got some updates. Gold says that there's going to be a _blue moon_ in two weeks, which apparently has the ability to put things back in their proper place and order."

Snow had heard of the legends of the blue moon, but never thought of it as much more than superstition. She positioned the phone in between her shoulder and ear and watched as Ruby passed one radio to Whale.

"But…if they're real then why wasn't the Storybrooke curse broken by one?" she asked.

There was a pause.

"Gold says magic is all about intent. If the intent is pure, the spell can only be broken by true love's kiss. Since it's unlikely that what happened here was deliberate, the blue moon is as good an option as any."

"Oh," said Snow, watching Whale wince at the sight of the heels that Ruby had picked out for him and lift up a pair of sneakers with a hopeful expression across his face, just to receive a firm shake of the head in response. "But two weeks… that's…is there nothing else?"

"It's the best that Gold could come up with without coming back to Storybrooke or Regina stepping in to help," said Emma. "I think we can both appreciate how unlikely that is. The best you can do for now is keep Storybrooke running smoothly, get David to keep an eye on things and don't let it turn into a full scale panic. Do you think you can do that for me?"

Snow considered the fact that she didn't know what David was doing right then and even if anything _did_ happen, she wasn't sure if she trusted his judgment. She didn't want to let down her daughter, though, not after everything that had happened. Emma had spent her life without parents, drifting through the system and fending for herself and now that they were finally reunited the last thing Snow wanted was for her little girl to have to look after them too.

"I can do that," she said, hanging up and putting the phone on her lap. Ruby and Whale turned to look at her, waiting for the verdict.

"So…the _good_ news is that Emma got Gold's advice," she said, trying to look reassuring.

"And what's the bad news?" asked Whale, lifting up his foot when Ruby patted him on the ankle.

"The bad news is that there's really only one way to restore you," said Snow. "And that's to wait two weeks for the blue moon."

The pair's reaction was incredible. Ruby jumped to her feet, her eyes wide and immediately grabbed Snow's shoulders, leaving Whale standing with just one heeled shoe on and reaching for the dressing table.

"Two weeks?!" Ruby cried out. "Snow, I burned a lasagna earlier, I can't be a doctor for that long!"

"Forgive me if I'm wrong," said Whale, as he steadied himself. "But doesn't a blue moon mean _two full moons_?"

* * *

The decoration of Greg Mendell's room in Storybrooke hospital was rather minimalistic. He had a bed, a TV and a couple of shelves, but other than that there was very little to occupy his mind while he was alone. He would send texts every so often and roam the corridors when he was confident that he would not get caught, but the majority of his entertainment came in the form of whatever was on television. Choice was limited and he spent a lot of time flicking through channels, skipping from cake decorating to cartoons. He _had_ had a visitor earlier on that day, a strange woman from within the town, who offered him a basket of cakes and spent the rest of her visit sitting in the chair beside his bed, telling him all about how she didn't know how to talk to her daughter. He hadn't touched the cakes for fear she might have laced them with cocaine or something similar and he was in the middle of scrutinizing the waffle making technique of a man in sunglasses when there was a knock at his door. When Dr. Whale stepped inside, he breathed a sigh of relief. The good doctor was the closest thing to normal that he'd seen in Storybrooke.

Or at least, that was what he thought, for Dr. Whale had barely stepped inside when he exploded into an enormous sneeze that rocked his enormous body, right over the basket of cakes. He pulled a tissue out of his pocket and wiped his nose, shaking his head as he did so.

"I'b so sobby," he said, picking up the cake basket. "I'll just get rid of these."

* * *

Victor had promised Ruby when they arrived at the hospital that when she did rounds he would stay in his office and forward instructions to her using the radio if necessary.

"You have nothing to worry about," he had said, passing her several clipboards and taking in her worried expression. "Trust me."

She had been quiet ever since they left Granny's, no doubt because of the revelation of the two full moons. She had protested the point for quite some time, looking so upset when she eventually fell silent that Victor wondered if she was going to stand there and weep.

"We have to break this curse before that happens," was the last thing she had said. "I can't…I just…"

When she took the clipboards, she had barely been able to look him in the face and had left without a word, despite his reassurances that the nurses would take over any technical job she asked them to and he was only a radio call away. He was not sure what else he could possibly say to her that would reassure her, but in her absence he dragged off those godawful heels and rubbed his aching belly. He did not know how he had managed the trek to the hospital in them and it felt like his feet were on fire by the time he sat down. The second he was able to press his feet against the cold tile -of his office, he had barely moved them.

Usually while he sat in the silence of his office, he could make out the muffled voices of whoever walked by, but with Ruby's wolf hearing, he could distinguish between voices with near perfect clarity. In the time he had been sitting there, waiting for a distress signal or question, he had eavesdropped on around thirteen different conversations, some of which he made a point to remember when he was back in his own body. The one conversation that really made an impact on him, though, was the first to reference his own name.

"Did you see Whale drop by earlier?" he heard Nurse Smithson ask. He recognized her overtired, oversmoked voice immediately.

"I did," Nurse Ratched followed. "Coming here with that diner girl? Is there no level he won't stoop to?"

He knew Nurse Ratched well enough that the coarseness of her comments didn't surprise him in the slightest. Mildred Ratched's evening cigarette break was one of the few highlights of her day. She matched it perfectly with the doctor's evening rounds and would sit down on one of the benches outside of the hospital with photocopies of patient's records, breathing in that sweet nicotine and flicking through the notes. She was never gone for more than twenty minutes and when she returned, the patients would have brand new prescriptions, recommendations, observations and the natural order remained. She was far from Victor's favourite person and Whale had tolerated her out of necessity.

"Did you hear?" she whispered. "That Ruby girl is a _werewolf_. She ate a man in her last kingdom, I heard. Barely even human!"

All Victor could think of was the look in his brother's eyes as he stared into the barrel of Victor's gun, begging for death and for the first time in his life that anger he had kept so dutifully compressed fizzled out of control. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed inside him and he was on his feet and out of the door before he could so much as remember his name. Nurses Ratched and Smithson outright stared at him when they saw him approach, no doubt wondering if he planned to gobble them up whole.

"I wonder if you know what humanity truly entails," he snapped, realizing that he probably did not make an ounce of sense. "Understanding, compassion, love – if those are human traits, then I believe that you are the monsters! I…that is…Dr. Whale should be lucky to have a person that embodies such devotion by his side, regardless of what form it takes!"

He didn't notice Ruby standing behind them until afterwards, the basket of cakes under her arm. He caught her eye and blushed a bright pink, waiting for her to be disgusted by his outburst, to run away and sob as girls in his own world had.

But she didn't.

She dropped the basket and scooped him into her arms, cupping his face and kissing him full on the lips and holding him so tightly, as if she would never let him go.


End file.
