"Well, will the chains hold?"

Ruby nearly snorts when she answers as she makes her way across the room, "Hopefully."

Belle follows close after her, "Then I'm staying."

She gently grasps Ruby's shoulders when she's turned towards her and gives her a soft smile, "Think of it as girls' night."

The taller brunette takes a step back and Belle's hands drop from her shoulders as she asks, "What's wrong?"

Ruby continues to put as much distance between them as she can, "I know David wants to believe the best, but I've killed before, and I'll do it again." She picks up the chains when she's close enough to them, "Everyone in this town is right to be afraid of me."

Belle steps closer still, cutting the distance Ruby previously put between them, "Yeah, well I'm not."

"You should be." Ruby emphatically states, her eyes pleading and hard, her voice cracking under the strain of trying to get Belle to leave. To understand her.

"No matter what you might have done in your past…David sees the good in you, and it tells me one thing." She pauses, and Ruby takes a breath and murmurs a hardened, "What."

Belle walks even closer still and shrugs gently, "That it's in there. So if we can all see it, why can't you?"

Ruby's eyes soften immensely; she swallows and tilts her head, "You really think so?" Her green eyes search Belle's blue ones for a clue, a hint, that she's not being completely honest. She finds nothing to suggest that.

Belle smiles at her softly, "Trust me, I'm, sort of an expert when it comes to rehabilitation." Her eyes never leave Ruby's once, knowing she needs this. Knowing exactly what she's doing.

Finding nothing but open honesty towards her, Ruby lets out a soft, "Maybe…" she pauses as she swallows again, waging yet another internal battle, but not once breaking eye contact with Belle "Maybe you're right." She nods as she surges forward and in that split second both women believe they will kiss.

Belle's breath catches and Ruby stops herself a mere hair's width away from her lips.

She shuts her eyes as she rests her forehead against Belle's as she murmurs, "Maybe you're right…" she attaches the manacle to Belle's wrist and as she straightens up her eyes harden again, "But the town's right too." The pleading look on Belle's face is almost enough to stop her from doing what she's about to do, but the knowledge that she'll be putting Belle in danger if she doesn't do this is more than enough to make her sold on her decision.

"I am a monster." She states with conviction, her eyes a stormy green swirl. Her fingers unconsciously caress Belle's wrist in a silent apology for having to do this. "And that's why I need to make sure I don't ever hurt anyone again."

"Wh-What're you doing?" Belle asks as Ruby walks away from her after making sure, once again, that the chains will hold.

Ruby twists around to face away from the exit, "I can't make you stop me. The mob wants a wolf, I'm going to give them one. I need to pay for all I've done."

"N-no they'll kill you!" Belle's chest hurts as her mind is filled with images of what that may look like, her face contorts into a pain filled look.

Ruby breathes as she tries to stop herself from crossing the room to be by Belle's side again, "Isn't that what I deserve?"

Belle's eyes fill with tears as she stands there and watches Ruby walk away after having waited for her to give an answer. An answer that did not come.

"No!" The word rips from her lips, loud and broken as the barricade against the tears she's held at bay is broken. Her answer to Ruby's question lingers in the air, but it's come too late, because the woman is long gone.

Belle falls to the floor and cries as she tugs against the chains, trying in vain to get back those precarious seconds she had before Ruby left to face the angry mob.

xoxo Later on that night xoxo

"Belle?"

The librarian's head snaps up so fast she knocks herself flat on her ass as she smacks said head against the back wall.

"Ruby?!"

Shuffling her feet, the taller brunette nods her head as she bends down to unshackle the still chained Belle, "I-I'm so sorry."

Belle leaps across the floor onto Ruby and wraps her arms around her neck so tightly Ruby's breathing is labored.

"I thought I'd never see you again. I thought- you're not dead!" She pulls back just as suddenly as she attached herself to her and Ruby laughs gently as she shakes her head, "No. No I'm not dead."

Belle's eyes frantically flit between both of Ruby's before surging forward and capturing her lips with hers.

It is Ruby's breath that catches in her chest this time, but she's quick to recover as she tightens her hold on Belle's waist to assist in making sure she doesn't fall back.

Belle softly pulls back and rests her head against Ruby's forehead and there's a smile that Ruby can hear on her voice as she softly says, "That's…That's what I thought you were going to do earlier."

Ruby's voice, Belle now can detect, is raspier and lower than per usual, having spent a good amount of time growling and howling, "That's what I was going to do…I then realized I was probably about to die and if I kissed you I'd have stayed and I wouldn't have been able to live with myself knowing that I risked your life by staying instead of leaving."

Belle pulls back further and gently takes hold of Ruby's face, her thumbs gently caressing her cheeks, "No."

Ruby tilts her head and Belle's lips form a small smile, "Answering your earlier question. I-You left and you didn't hear my answer."

Realization dawns on Ruby as she grins at the woman on her lap, "I-Thank you." She then pitches forward and claims her lips in the softest kiss Belle has ever had the pleasure of receiving.

Deliriously dazed, Belle's eyes slowly flutter open to view Ruby with the prettiest smile on her face, "I hope you know there's no way I'm letting you go now Red."

Giggling, Ruby nuzzles her face in Belle's hair at the crook of her neck, "I would never dream of that happening Belle."