"You terrible, loathsome, poor excuse of a man!"

Ruby was on a rampage, she'd pushed her way into Gold's shop so forcefully the door had knocked against the wall, causing a clock to come loose off its place and go crashing to the floor but the brunette didn't even blink.

"This is your fault!" She screeched not at all concerned with who it was she was speaking to this way. Everyone seemed so afraid of him, with or without magic it didn't even matter to her how powerful he might be. Whether it be magic or money on his side this man could not hurt her anymore than he already has. There wasn't a thing he could do to damage her.

"You did this and now you need to fix it!" She'd never heard herself sound so angry before, words falling like venom off her tongue as she leaned her palms against the glass casing of Rumple's counter. Ruby could feel the rage boiling up inside her, a snarl of a growl clenched up tightly in the back of her throat seeming feral and dangerous. She was certain her eyes must be yellow and glowing despite the fact that it wasn't at all near wolfs time.

Though Rumple was standing his ground, going on about some trinket he was messing with as if Ruby weren't even there. He didn't lift his eyes or stall his movements, she would have thought she was honestly invisible if after a few moments he hadn't spoken.

"This magic is beyond my abilities." He said in an even tone, pulling a magnifying glass between his face and the object in front of him.

"I don't understand." Ruby said quickly, her chest still heaving from her run from the hospital. She swallowed hard, shaking her head harshly. "Magic is magic, all this time you've done all these impossible things and now you are calling it quits!? Just like that?" It was infuriating. For someone who claimed to love Belle so much he did not seem at all motivated to make things right.

She could feel herself shaking, her anger over flowing out from the center of her chest and spilling into all her limbs making her muscles tighten and tremble. Ruby wanted to hit him, to kill him even. As a wolf she knew the taste for blood, before she could control it, before she even realized herself, she had yearned for it. The thrill of a kill by her own teeth and now so many years later, having long ago been over and done with that chapter of her life, Ruby felt it again. The urge to spring right for his throat, to watch the life drain from his eyes.

She shook her head, making herself focus. That wasn't her, it was never her, she's not a murderer and Belle wouldn't want that.

Belle.

How could he stand there looking so calm when Belle's life is ruined? Sitting useless in his shop and piecing together what looked like a broken tea cup, under a magnifying glass?

"Fix this!" The brunette demanded, slamming her fist down onto the glass, causing the contents inside to rattle and a clear crack to spread across its center.

"You think I haven't tried!?" Rumple yelled back, finally lifting his gaze and angrily tossing the glue in his hand aside. "Do you think I haven't thought of every possible thing I could think of!? Nothing will work. There. Is. No. Way." He said firmly, his eyes looking as flaming as she felt, the display case being the only thing keeping them apart.

"Well try harder!" Ruby retorted, not at all phased by his sudden outburst. All she could think of, all she could hear in her head was Belle's voice. Belle's voice telling her how she doesn't know her and the terror laced into her words at her confusion. Ruby wanted her back, she wanted Belle's life righted. This wasn't fair.

"I don't understand, there has to be some kind of magic that can reverse this. If it's a magical curse than it can be magically undone. I won't accept that it can't be done." She was aware that the edge of anger in her voice was beginning to subside. Morphing into something more like desperation but it didn't matter, she wasn't thinking about herself or what Rumpelstiltskin thought of her. All she could think of was Belle.

"If not magic than true loves kiss but it didn't work…" Now she could feel herself starting to slip at the seams, her eyes blurring, lungs burning. "I kissed her but it didn't work." The image of Belle's face when she pulled away, the complete and utter expression of shock painted on those beautiful features replying in her mind. Ruby could hardly stand it, she definitely couldn't stand it and that's why she was standing there in front of this terrible man practically begging him to make it better.

Rumple looked as if he were mulling something over, his face cold and hardened, expressionless. It was infuriating to see, to not know what he was thinking.

"There has to be a way?" She hated herself for coming to this, for coming to him and speaking in this needy tone but if it meant it would help Belle, if it meant it would bring her girl back to her, she'd do anything.

In a moment of shared grief, Rumple lifted his eyes to meet Ruby's and something passed between them, some sort of understanding. It clenched at Ruby's heart, she knew if he felt a fraction of what she felt for Belle, how he was hurting.

"There is nothing I or anyone in this town can do." There was almost no bite to his words. More than anything else they were filled with sorrow and in that moment for the first time, Ruby saw him as a man. Then he spoke again.

"I tried a kiss too."

Before Ruby could register what she was doing, the slap rung loud through the room.

Rumple reeled back, shock momentarily crossing his face before pure hatred took its place. "Why you little-…"

But his sentence wasn't finished, Ruby was already reaching forward, grabbing him by his suit collar and yanking him forward. She was stronger than him, ten times stronger. In another word he could probably ruin her but here, there wasn't enough magic to lift a hair on her head.

This time Ruby let the growl escape up from her chest, slipping past her clenched teeth and falling deadly into the air around them.

"You stay away from her." She warned in a low voice, her eyes locked on his. "It's your fault she is in this mess, it's your fault she's ever caught up in anything. Whether or not you personally pushed her over that line or not its you that has done this to her. Every person you've ever wronged, every evil you've ever done. They target her because of you."

Ruby hadn't prepared to do this, to unleash her hate onto him but even with her fingers curled tightly around the fabrics of his shirt, his face level with her own it didn't feel like enough. There was so much worse she could do.

"Every time she's been torn from her loved ones, locked away for years and years, hurt like this by magic, it has all been your doing." Ruby pushed him away harshly, making him fall back into the wall behind him. "Every trial in her life has been at your hands Rumple, so you stay away from her. Stay away from her or I swear to God I'll kill you." As much as Ruby meant them the words made her hate herself. The thought of what Belle would think of her right then stabbed at her heart. She couldn't deal with being in this space anymore. Before Ruby knew it she had turned, ignoring Rumple's angry words, making her way out of the shop and breaking into a run in no particular direction.

By the time Ruby stopped moving her legs were sore, her throat and lungs aching from the cold air. It hadn't been clear to her where she was running to until she stopped, until she was standing there right at the edge. It seemed a little mad but as soon as Ruby thought of it she couldn't talk herself out of it. She couldn't do this, not without Belle. A lifetime of being without her with her so close and watching her being so mixed up and confused. Ruby couldn't take it, she wouldn't.

Standing at the edge, the tips of her shoes lining up perfectly against it, she reached into her pocket and dialed the one person she'd hoped would understand.

"Ruby." Mary Margret breathed out on the other end when she answered, the sound of relief flooding through her voice. "Emma said she and Henry saw you running from the hospital, we've been looking for you. Are you alright?"

Ruby took a moment, taking in a deep breath to calm herself. Her cheeks were wet with tears, slick against the phone she was holding to her ear. "Must have been on silent." She spoke, trying and failing to make her voice even. This was Mary Margret, Snow, Ruby could never hide anything from Snow, in any world.

"Where are you?" The words spoken clear of concern from the other end but Ruby didn't want to explain, she knew she couldn't reasonably justify what she was about to do. But this was love, love was never reasonable or rational and she knew Mary Margret understood that.

"I don't want this Snow." Ruby spoke slowly, shaking her head and dropping her shoulders in defeat. "She doesn't know me… Belle doesn't…" Her words trailed off, broken by a sob rolling up from inside of her. "I can't do it." Those words spoken firmly, so much finality Ruby didn't know how she'd managed it.

"No." Mary Margret said with just as much finality, scolding Ruby. "Ruby, don't you dare."

"We could be together Snow, like starting over…"

"It wont work like that Ruby. She could… it could.. her memory could come back. Please don't do anything stupid!"

"If you find a way for her, you'll find a way for me too." Ruby wasn't even crying anymore, her mind was made up and soon none of it would matter. She wouldn't feel a thing.

"Ruby please, just wait? We are on our way."

"No Snow, I'm sorry." She swallowed, gripping her fingers around the phone tightly, her knee's wobbly where she stood, teetering at the edge. "You'll always be my family, whether I know it or not. Don't forget that."

Ruby pulled in a deep breath, her eyes set far down the long unknown road. "You and David come and get me okay? Bring me back…" There was more to say but Ruby couldn't bring herself to. With the sound of Snow's voice loud in the receiver on the other end, calling her name, she pulled it away from her ear and tossed it aside.

The decision was made and she wasn't turning around now. Ruby couldn't do this, not without her. So with a long deep breath and her eyes closed tight, she stepped over the town line and forgot everything.

—-

"Who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Belle or at least… that's who everyone says I am."

"I'm…um, I'm… I'm not sure."

"They said you wouldn't remember but you had told me your name is Ruby… before."

"You know me?"

"Uh, yes. I suppose I do."