Title: Realities
Author: AoN
Word Count: 855
Genre: Hurt/Comfort
Rating: G
Feedback: Please and thank you! Let me know what I'm doing right or doing wrong.
Summary: After the events in the hospital, Ruby finds herself discussing all her worries with Granny that evening at the bed and breakfast. (2x13: "Tiny" spoilers)
From the moment the nurse had taken Belle away, Ruby could not get her out of her mind. Things had been going relatively well and Ruby had hoped that some of the goodies and trinkets she had brought would have jogged Belle's memory in the slightest. Then, Belle asked a simple question – a truly simple one, really. Had they been friends?
Yes, they had been, of course.
The transformation had been almost immediate.
Belle looked at Ruby with those terrified, wild eyes, begging Ruby for answers that she could not give. Yes, they were friends and Ruby should have been able to tell Belle the truth, but it was a truth so far beyond her grasp of current reality.
Did a man really conjure up a ball of fire in his hand? Yes, he did. Oh, and also, one of your dear friends, perhaps evening the one standing right in front of you, turns into a werewolf during the full moon every month – she's also pretty close to Snow White and, in case you were wondering, your primary health provider is actually, well, Dr. Frankenstein. He had his arm ripped off by his monster a few weeks back, but he's fairly okay now.
No, their reality sounded absurd.
"What if she never gets her memory back?" Ruby found herself murmuring quietly.
Granny peered up from her knitting, looking over at her granddaughter who had her legs thrown over the armrest of the armchair upon which she sat. Ruby was leaning forward slightly, hunched over in a posture Granny had tisked at only moments ago.
"What's that, dear?" she asked.
With an audible sigh, Ruby lifted the side of her head away from the cushion on which it rested and pulled her eyes away from the window that gave her a glimpse of the night outside. She shifted slightly, twisting her torso so that she now faced Granny. "I said," Ruby began, speaking up. "What if Belle never gets her memory back?"
Ruby had recounted the earlier events at the hospital to Granny when she showed up at the diner for her closing shift. Obvious that Ruby had been quite bothered, Granny insisted that she take the night off instead, but Ruby, stubborn as ever, refused, saying something about needing a distraction and how work would provide her with just that.
Now, with the diner closed for the night and nothing else to entertain her calming mind as they sat together in the downstairs living area of the bed and breakfast, Ruby's thoughts were quickly catching up to her.
"You mustn't think that," Granny simply replied.
Except it wasn't that simple.
"You didn't see her today, Granny," Ruby said. "It was just awful – and what they're doing to her-"
"I know, Ruby," Granny interjected. "I know," she repeated, setting down her knitting needles and the scarf she had barely begun to work on. It was an off shade of blue, meaning Ruby knew full well it was not for her. Ruby had a multitude of scarfs in nearly every shade of red. One could accomplish so much knitting in twenty-eight years. "But we have to believe that everything will work out in the end."
"Nothing has worked out in this town so far," Ruby commented, murmuring once more. "We even had a terrorizing giant today parading around today…"
"No, not exactly normal by Storybrooke's standards either," Granny agreed. Even in their land, a giant sighting was incredibly rare. They usually kept to themselves. "But the fairies are working on a new batch of fairy dust. That's certain to help take care of Belle."
"And what if that doesn't work either?" Ruby asked. Although Ruby did not want to entertain the thoughts, they were too dangerously close to being her own absurd reality. She would never see Belle back in the diner, ready to try yet another new dish this realm had to offer, or Ruby would not be able to sneak into the library to help update the collection and the records, or they would not be able to discuss whatever title their little makeshift book club was currently reading. No, instead, Belle, reverted back to her cursed self, would be trapped in the hospital. She would be a kept woman all over again and there wasn't anything Ruby could do about it.
"Fairy dust is powerful magic," Granny reminded.
"As is true love's kiss – more powerful even," Ruby pointed out. "And that didn't work. Mr. Gold-"
"Who's to say that it was true love's kiss?"
At Granny's question, Ruby fell silent. She lowered her head, eyebrows furrowing. Ruby turned her gaze back to the window as she repeated it back to herself: what if it wasn't true love's kiss?
Without another word, Granny picked up her knitting needles.
End