Ruby stood at the door of Belle's room and stared at the handle. She'd done this every day since Belle was sent in to hospital but never built up the courage to enter. Her feet felt glued to the floor and however long she stood there, it never changed.
She could feel the anger and frustration building up inside herself and shouted "Go in already!" before kicking the door in annoyance at herself for being so stupid, which was interfered by a scream from inside the room and something crashing onto the floor. This made Ruby move. She pushed open the door and slowly stuck her head inside to see a tray on the ground and Belle hiding under her covers. Ruby could hear muttering and slowly walked in, closing the door behind her.
"It's okay, nothing's going to happen Belle. Gold's not allowed to come in here anymore." The muttering slowly turned into sobbing and Ruby felt her heart collapse. Ruby had been there a few days before when Gold had been carried out of the hospital for hitting Whale. The doctor had told him he couldn't take Belle home with him that day as they had to do more tests and see if they could bring her memory back. Ruby had been told that after that Gold tried to force Belle to kiss him and held her down before Whale pulled him off but Gold had been so angry true love's kiss didn't work that he punched Whale and got banned from seeing Belle again.
"Let me try again, okay? Umm, hi Belle. I'm Ruby. I'm sorry I scared you but I just…sorry, I'll go." Ruby sighed and went to open the door when the sobbing was interrupted by Belle's voice.
"No, please, wait. He's not coming back?"
She turned and looked at the girl. Her beautiful eyes had tears falling from them and Ruby couldn't help but move closer.
"He isn't going to hurt me?"
Ruby couldn't help it; she walked over to the girl slowly and sat on the bed before opening her arms to offer Belle a hug. Belle observed Ruby for a minute and after deciding she could trust the woman sitting on the edge of her bed, Belle then wrapped her arms round Ruby's waist and placed her head on Ruby's shoulder hesitantly. Ruby responded by wrapping her arms around the librarian's waist. She closed her eyes and they stayed there until her phone started to ring. Ruby slowly released from Belle with a smile and held out her hand, which Belle took happily before Ruby picked up her phone.
"Ruby, you're late!"
"Oh, sorry Granny. I came to see Belle."
"Are you just standing outside again as usual?"
Ruby blushed, as she knew Belle had heard that. "No, I, uhh, I came in today." The wolf girl sheepishly looked at Belle which earned a chuckle from the smaller woman.
"Okay, I was going to close in an hour anyway, I'll finish your shift and you can make it up to me next week. Stay as long as you like."
"Thanks Granny"
"Say hello to Belle for me, and tell her she had some iced tea and pancakes waiting for when she's ready."
"I will, thanks Granny, bye."
"Bye"
Ruby ended the call and looked at Belle. She was looking at the intertwined hands and was rubbing Ruby's hand with her own.
"Sorry about that. My Granny says hi and you have food waiting when you want it."
"Tell her thank you from me… What did your Granny mean when she said standing outside?"
Ruby blushed crimson and laughed nervously before looking at the floor.
"I've been building up the courage to come in for the past week and a half."
"Build up the courage?" Belle let go of Ruby's hand and sat back away from her.
Ruby turned to face Belle, not wanting her to stop trusting her and got her phone out again, showing her that her lock screen was a photo of the two of them hugging. "Were best friends you know? I was scared you wouldn't remember me and that you wouldn't like me as much as you did before hand, but I think I was wrong. I'm sorry for not coming in-"
"You thought I wouldn't want my best friend to come and see me?"
"No, I just didn't know if you would want me to come. I thought you would want no one else to see you other than Gold so I-"
"You know about him? You know what he's like and you thought you'd leave me with him when I don't remember anything about this world? I thought you said you were my best friend?" Belle started to shift and moved right up against the pillows of her bed.
"Hey, he won't hurt you. I'll make sure he doesn't okay? It was a mistake to not come and visit you, I know that. I didn't think he would hurt you…you are dating him you know."
Belle was just about to ask Ruby about dating that man that forced her to kiss him, that was double her age but decided she couldn't quite handle it at that moment so kept quiet.
"Umm, when do they think you will be allowed out?"
"Well they don't know how to retrieve my memories so they said I can technically leave whenever I want to."
"Really? Did you want me to show you to your apartment? It might help seeing things you spent a lot of time with."
"My what?" Belle looked up at the woman with a confused expression.
"You're the librarian for the town, and you live in the apartment above the library. Sometimes you stay at the inn I live in though when we have girl's nights."
"I am? And we were really that good friends?" Belle's confusion only grew as she listened to her supposed best friend talk.
"Yeah, you seriously love books." Ruby giggled and then shrugged. "We are really close friends but its okay to not be sure about me yet, you only just met me technically."
"I'm sorry I can't remember you, you seem really sweet. Can you show me my apartment?"
"Its okay, no problem. Yes, of course. Did you want to go now?"
Ruby watched as Belle nodded softly and then as she reached across to grab Belle the clothes from a chair next to the bed.
"I'm assuming these are yours?"
Belle nodded and stood to follow Ruby.
"I'll go outside while you change-"
Belle nodded and Ruby smiled before heading out the door. She sat and waited for Belle and told a passing nurse that Belle was going with her. As she was signing paperwork, Belle came out of the room and walked over, standing quite close to Ruby. She felt uneasy in the hospital and although she had just met Ruby, Belle trusted her more than anyone who had come to visit so far.
"Right, that's that. Now let's get you to the library."
Belle stayed close to Ruby as they walked through the hospital and they finally got to Ruby's car. The ride was quite comfortable for Ruby as it just felt like any other day, whereas Belle was finding it a new and exciting experience seeing a town she didn't recognise. When they got there, Ruby opened Belle's door for her and they walked in to the library together.
"Wow"
"I told you, you like books." Ruby laughed as she put Belle's bag onto the floor. "Did you want to go see the apartment?"
Belle nodded and they made their way up to her home. When Ruby opened the door, Belle smiled at the amount of books up there too. "I really do like to read don't I?"
Ruby laughed and nodded, walking in behind Belle and closing the door. "You really do. Did you want to pick one to read to me?"
"I read to you?"
Ruby blushed and nodded.
"Which one's my favourite?"
"Well, its not Little Red Riding Hood or Beauty and the Beast, I know that one. I know you like Jules Verne."
"Jules Verne. Okay, what about this?" Belle picked up the Mysterious Island and Ruby smiled sadly – it was the favourite book that Belle had ever read to her.
"It's a lovely book, I'd like to hear you read it again."
"Okay, this one it is."
Belle read Ruby a couple of chapters before she started to yawn.
Ruby giggled and got up from where she had been sitting and stretched, "Looks like you need to go have a nap Belle."
"I think so."
"Alright, I'll be going then-"
Belle looked up at Ruby confused for what she felt was the millionth time that day. "What? No, you're going to leave me here on my own?"
"Did you want me to stay over tonight? Just so you can get used to the place? I did the same thing when you first moved in here."
Belle nodded and they walked to her bedroom. Ruby took off her jacket and her shirt before picking up the t-shirt she used for bed when she slept at Belle's and then jumped onto the bed next to her best friend. When she looked up, Belle was blushing and Ruby looked at her confused.
"What?"
"I, umm. You just…uhh, never mind."
Ruby looked where Belle was looking and laughed. "Oops. Sorry, I normally change in here and you used to be okay with it, I should have asked."
"Its fine, I just wasn't expecting it."
"Well, you invited me into your bed and asked me to sleep over so what did you expect?" Ruby smirked and Belle smiled before frowning and looking down at her hands in her lap.
"What's wrong Belle?"
"You going to have to leave at some point aren't you?"
"Well, yes but I'll stay as long as I can. It's Sunday tomorrow so I don't start work until later and then you can just sit in the diner if you like before we come back here."
Belle smiled and laid down facing away from Ruby. Ruby laid facing Belle's back and she felt Belle move into her body. She wrapped her arm round the beautiful girl in her arms before falling asleep.
When Ruby woke up, Belle was still in the same place but was half way through the first Narnia book.
"How can you read this early?"
Belle jumped at the sound of Ruby's voice and turned to face her new friend. She had tear marks on her cheeks and put the book down.
"What's wrong Belle?"
"I had a dream that you locked me in chains in the library to go and give yourself up to be killed because you were some kind of werewolf and you thought you deserved it." Belle laughed through the few tears that were there and wiped them away. "Just a silly dream."
"You remember that?"
Belle looked up at Ruby and laughed, "What, you're going to tell me it actually happened and you're a werewolf? What am I, a princess?"
"Actually, yeah. Both of those things are true."
Belle looked at her like she was crazy and just shook her head and grabbed her book again.
"No, Belle, really. The thing you can't remember is that there was a curse that bought all of us here from another world. In that world you were a Princess and I was a werewolf…" Ruby started to laugh at how absurd it was and put her face in her hands briefly. "You don't have to believe all this, I sound crazy. I just don't want to lie so even if it sounds ridiculous, I'll tell you the truth."
Ruby had to then spend the next hour explaining to Belle everything that had happened since they met and some backstory to each event. After telling what had happened at the library the night Belle had been chained up, Ruby felt a tear roll down her cheek which she tried to laugh off but she couldn't stop the frown.
"You really didn't want me to go. I was selfish that night, I knew you didn't really talk to anyone other than me and Gold but I still thought I would be dangerous for you. I thought you being friends with me would get you hurt…and I don't want you to get hurt Belle. I don't know if I could live with myself if you got hurt."
Ruby watched as Belle started to blush and sat frozen for a minute. She finally looked up at Ruby and laughed nervously with her cheeks crimson. "Ruby, did we date at any point? You said I dated this Gold guy but that doesn't seem right. I just, its so comfortable being around you and you make me feel safe. Its hard to believe someone would be this kind to me unless we were seeing each other."
A blush crept over Ruby's cheeks and chest as she shook her head. "No, we never dated Belle. You're still with Gold…but true love's kiss didn't work to wake you up. So I guess you can treat this as a fresh start and date whoever you like…"
"So I can kiss you?" Ruby nodded and Belle leant in to kiss her. The librarian gasped into the kiss and suddenly deepened it, surprising the wolf but definitely not in a bad way. Belle eventually pulled away and smiled up at her best friend, tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry Ruby"
"You really don't have to be sorry for that kiss." Ruby chuckled but was silenced by Belle's stare.
"I'm sorry I had to forget everything to finally get the courage to do that when I should have done it before. When I wanted to do it before."
"I had to get courage to walk through a door so I think you're good… Wait a minute, did you just refer to before you lost your memory?"
"Ruby I remember everything. Every single thing and I should have left him sooner."
"You remember!" Ruby leaped at Belle and they both fell giggling into a hug on the bed.
"I love you Ruby"
"I love you too"