"Ruby, come on, we need to get going if we're going to have time to visit the hospital!" Granny called, her voice bouncing off the diner's grey-green and white linoleum tiles. The older woman leaned against the counter as she buttoned up her brown felted coat.
"I'm here, I'm here," Ruby panted as she swept through the back doorway to greet her grandmother. "Have you heard anything more from Emma about Henry?"
Granny stopped partway through her buttons and gawked. "You're not going in that, are you?"
Ruby gave her a hurt look. "What's wrong with this?" She thought she'd been dressing more appropriately lately. Today was a basic black three-quarter sleeve t-shirt and skinny burgundy pants tucked inside boots instead of her usual heels. Aside from being secretly pleased at garnering more approval than she was used to, Ruby was done with the chafing and chills of miniskirts and cropped tops.
"No, I only mean, it's freezing out there. You need more than that thin shirt is all."
Ruby pivoted around to snatch her fur shawl off the counter. The softness felt so cozy and warm that she was always drawn to a touch of fur in her accessories. She just made sure it was always fake, or really vintage.
As they left the diner, Ruby clicked the front door shut and Granny pulled on her black gloves.
They started down the Storybrooke street when a sudden blast of wind radiated through the town. It took Ruby's breath away, and she barely had time to realize it came from the direction of the hospital before memories gushed over her, almost drowning her. She couldn't focus on any one in particular, they came so fast. Like jumping into a cold lake, but warm like soothing bathwater. All at once, she couldn't breathe as she took in the first gulp of truly fresh air—the rejuvenating shock of one deprived for so long.
"Granny!" Ruby clutched her fur around her as she turned to see if the woman beside her felt it too. But this woman wasn't just Granny who ran the diner and Bed & Breakfast. This was Granny, the woman who had raised her in their little cabin in the woods. Granny, who had made Ruby her first blood-red cloak when she was thirteen. Granny, who had mastered the crossbow, and heaven help anyone who gave her a reason to use it.
"Red!" her grandmother beamed back with eyes wide but joyful. They fell into each other's arms and held tight as if they had been reunited after an agonizing separation instead of living and fighting together for the last twenty-eight years. How could you miss something you couldn't even remember? And yet it felt so good to hear that name fall from her grandmother's lips after all this time. They were finally home with each other, without knowing they'd been searching for it all along.
Granny's hands cupped Ruby's face as grandmother searched granddaughter. Both women studied each other as if to memorize every detail, eyes glistening. Their quiet reunion broke when out of the corner of her eye Ruby noticed the dark purple cloud racing towards them as it enveloped the town. The two women clung to each other, forehead touching forehead, eyes shut as they braced for what the fog brought. When it passed with far less fury than it threatened, they slowly open their eyes to see what damage had been wrought.
The streets looked the same, save for the commotion of people gathered, and they turned to see Snow and Charming, blinking back tears.
Snow and Charming. Not David and Mary Margaret, but Snow and Charming! The prince and princess with whom they'd served and fought… and prepared for this very moment! There were no precise thoughts, but feelings of what had happened, identities just known as friends rushed to embrace friends. Charming wrapped his arms around Granny while Red and Snow clung to each other in bosom friendship that had finally been restored. Ruby felt she would burst with happiness, and about a million other emotions that couldn't be named as they continued to flood through her every pore. The two women finally pulled back, and Ruby knew her own grin was reflected in Mary Margaret's. Ruby then hugged David as Granny hugged their dear princess.
Ruby watched as Snow then met the seven dwarves. It was almost too much, and Ruby choked on a hiccup that threatened to overflow into tears. To see Snow reunite with the dwarves, a tangle of arms as they squeezed in the biggest of group hugs, was almost like partaking in her own family reunion. Their council of the round table, their family, had been reunited. The curse was broken!
But nothing could compare to seeing Charming and Snow reunite with their daughter. Emma.
Ruby had never even seen the baby. She remembered when Snow told her that they were expecting, her face aglow with the excitement of a mother-to-be who had dreamed of this moment with her whole heart. Even then, though, the joy was clouded by a persistent uneasiness that haunted Snow, as if she knew that their happy ending was not yet certain—that someone would try to take it away.
Ruby gripped her grandmother's hands as they watched the Charmings' reunion that was twenty-eight years in the making. To finally get your happy ending, after so much pain. Okay, never-mind her grandmother, Snow and Charming, and the dwarves—this might be the moment she was about to lose control. Her eyes brimmed with tears and she could feel her nose stinging and her cheeks tighten. Not now. You can't cry now.
Just then, Henry walked up towards the growing group. Henry! Their grandson. Snow has a grandson?! Snow has a grandson!
Ruby squeezed her grandmother's hand and whispered in her ear, "I'll be right back." Granny nodded her understanding as Ruby rushed off to find a quiet corner to collect herself. She wasn't usually one to be overcome by emotion, but over twenty-eight years of history and double-identities—never-mind seeing your best friend reunite with her soul-mate, grown daughter, and grandson—was a lot for anyone to take in.
Behind a hedge, Ruby bent over with her hands on her knees and drew in a deep breath, her eyes closed. The blackness and the quiet felt good after the sensory overload of the last few minutes. Was it really only a few minutes? Only moments ago, was she really just Ruby, the waitress whom no one took seriously? It felt like she'd lived whole lifetimes.
"Ru—I-I mean, Red…?" a soft voice called her back from her reflections as Ruby opened her eyes with a start and sprung up.
"Archie!" Ruby exclaimed with a gasp as she threw her arms around her friend and drew him close. Her face smushed against his jacket and his zipper pressed into her cheek, but his strong shoulders felt reassuring under her embrace. Sturdy and steady.
Archie slowly wrapped his arms around her furry shawl, her long dark hair silky under his hands. Her head was pressed up against his, with her hair brushed against his cheek. He held the embrace, one hand flat against the soft fur she was wearing, the other in a fist around the wooden curve of his umbrella handle. The stick of the closed umbrella rested straight down Ruby's back, but he couldn't shift the awkward object without disturbing her, so he left it alone and focused on being what comfort he could. Her shoulders started to shudder—was she crying?
"Ruby, are you okay?" he asked softly. He didn't want to startle her, and given their proximity, he whispered into her ear. Ruby pulled back with a sigh and ran her index fingers under her lower eyelids.
"Yes, I'm fine. Just… Jiminy!" Ruby's hand flung to her mouth as her eyes widened. Then a snort escaped followed by nervous giggling as her cheeks flushed. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what's up with me. But you're—a man!"
Archie flushed as he spread his hands open before him, palms up. "A-as you see me, as I have been for the last twenty-eight years."
"You know what I mean. I mean, I think I've only known you as a cricket. But now I know you as Archie. I mean…" Ruby broke from his gaze and stared at the pavement. What did she mean?
Archie stepped forward to close the distance between them. "It's okay. It's a lot to take in. The human mind has the ability to cope with an amazing amount of information and stimuli. It might just show its process in funny ways."
Ruby glanced up. "I know. I just needed a moment." She felt the corners of her mouth turn upwards to convey her gratitude. "Thanks."
He smiled back. It had the power to warm her through, his smile that brightened his whole face and crinkled his eyes, and made her feel that everything would be okay. The same smile that she saw almost every day at the diner.
The curse hadn't taken that away.
Maybe the curse let me get to know Archie more.
Ruby brushed the thought away as quickly as it had come. "Oh! Have you seen anyone else? Snow and Charming and the dwarves…" She was already backing up slowly to the group, only a few feet away but entirely caught up in a new problem. At the same time, grumblings of another crowd grew behind them.
"Wait, Ruby, I have to find out what's going on over here," Archie implored her to let him go. As if he wanted to make sure she was okay before he left.
Odd, Ruby noted, but nodded to him, and Archie turned and ran towards the crowd, umbrella in hand. Something was urgent. Ruby turned in the opposite direction and returned to her grandmother, hugging her arm with raised eyebrows at the commotion that had started with Mother Superior's—Blue's—arrival.
"Magic has returned," Granny whispered. "That's what the smoke was." Ruby's eyes widened. She couldn't grasp all that that meant, not right away, but the tightening in her stomach told her it wasn't good.
Life in Storybrooke was going to be very different.
