A/N: Alright guys, just a little more set up, before we get to the good stuff. Stick with me for a little while longer, it'll be worth it, I promise ;)


Ruby makes the drive that weekend to Greensprings. When she arrives in the parking lot, all but beaching her old, beat-up blue van that she'd dubbed Moochie in the edge of the lot by the bushes, I run out to meet her, and we hug for about five minutes, both of us crying.

Ruby had an equally useless degree in theater, and we'd been through so much together in college and beyond it, had been there for each other through everything. And now, again, our lives were changing. But at least we were changing together.

She helps me box up the apartment, making piles of things.

There was a "keep" pile, a "discard" pile, and a "donate" pile.

The "donate" pile was the biggest as we went through each room of the apartment. We hadn't had that much stuff, Anna and I, and Anna's mother had taken a few boxes of her daughter's belongings after the funeral, but there was still, surprisingly, a lot of things.

There were times when I broke down crying, drawing my knees up as I sat on the living room floor, Ruby rubbing little circles on my back and making trips to the local liquor store for really cheap wine.

But somehow, miraculously, in two days we got through it.

And I ended up with a single suitcase of clothes, and a few plastic totes of things. That was it. That was, somehow, my life's worth of possessions.

It made me feel sad and small. And completely alone.

But Ruby wouldn't let me feel that way for long. She drove me to my apartments manager's office, and I told the woman that I'd vacated the apartment.

And then that was it. It was over.

I walked through the apartment one last time, running my fingers over the counter that Anna had pressed me against when she wanted to kiss me deeply, putting her hands into the back pockets of my jeans as she held me to her.

I was leaving the couch behind, the couch that had held us both as we watched movies together, me sitting in her lap as she held me tightly around the waist.

My eyes fill with tears as I walk through every small room, and I say goodbye for the last time. Even if I moved back, I'd never have this apartment again.

But a still, small voice in the back of my head - or maybe my heart - knew the truth of it. I was never coming back to Greensprings again.

I couldn't.

"I'm turning into you," I tell Ruby when I climb up into the passenger side of Moochie, her van. Ruby casts me a sidelong glance as she turns the key in the ignition.

She was looking exceptionally eccentric today, her long, red tipped hair in two braids falling down her back over the paisley peasant blouse. Her green eyes flash as she winks at me, Moochie roaring to life beneath her hands.

"You mean you're becoming reckless?" She grins, casting a glance over her shoulder as she backs out of the parking space.

"I'm becoming crazy," I mutter, fingers sinking into the plush arms of my seat as Ruby roars out of the parking lot, narrowly avoiding a truck that honks for about five minutes behind us irately.

"Crazy's good!" she yells over the noise of the engine. "A crazy person has adventures, sees amazing things...has a good life," she says a little softer, but I still hear it.

I wanted to have a good life. Doesn't everyone? I just thought that particular ship had already sailed for me. That my chance of having a good life had died with Anna.

But maybe not. Maybe in this absolutely crazy move, I had been given another chance.

Another chance in Storybrooke.

I put my chin in my hand and watch the just-turning trees race past our window in the red and golden blurs as Ruby weaves in and out of country roads and little roads and bigger roads on our way through New Hampshire toward Maine.

"What kind of person just takes your word for it when hiring someone?" I ask Ruby what was probably a very obvious question, but one I hadn't yet considered as we stop at a fast food joint, stretching as we tumble out of the van. "The owner of the hotel didn't even want a resume you said..." I mutter, patting my jacket pocket to make certain my wallet is still in it. It is.

"I dunno," Ruby says, shrugging and touching her toes, which causes a group of college boys to run into a garbage can as the walk past, not looking where they're going. I stare at them with a frown, but they aren't exactly looking at me, either.

Even though Ruby is about 10 years their senior, she has that sort of quality about her. She could charm the antlers off of a moose. "She just asked me who she should hire for the job, I told her about you, and she said you were hired if you wanted it," she grins, stretching overhead and straightening.

"That just seems odd - no resumes, no interviews," I mutter, following Ruby and the scent of french fries through the door and into the ordering line. Ruby shoves her hands into the pockets of her coat and shrugs.

"I mean, she's eccentric," Ruby says, peering up at the lit menu above us, glowing with tantalizing pictures of sandwiches and beverages. "Do I want a number five or a number seven?"

"Five," I say, glancing up. "What do you mean, 'eccentric'?"

"I'd like a number five, please!" Ruby tells the fast food attendant cheerfully. "And if you could give me the biggest size possible, I'd greatly appreciate it." She pulls a couple of bills out of her pocket and shrugs at me. "I mean eccentric," she mutters, taking the receipt with her order number.

"And for you?" the fast food guy says in a very bored tone of voice.

"Um...a medium coffee and a large order of fries, thanks," I say, handing him my debit card. He swipes it through and gives me my receipt, and I follow Ruby to the side where we wait with a bunch of other hungry people waiting for orders. "You're being dodgy," I tell her with a frown.

"I Mean, she's kind of quite. Keeps to herself. Wears a suit and tie..." Ruby says, trailing off and watching me closely for a reaction. "That's why I told you about the whole 'gorgeous women' thing. I'm pretty sure my boss is gay. And a few other people there are, too, I think.

"How is that even possible? It's a little town in Maine...how many lesbians can there possibly be? Ad if you think she's gay just because she wears a tie, your gaydar is massively malfunctioning," I snort, not caring that the elderly man ahead of us is frowning with all of his might back at me.

"My gaydar is functioning just fine, thanks. And I wasn't talking about lesbians in the town...I mean, there might be. I was actually talking about just the hotel," she says mildly, biting her lip. "Um..."

"Order seventy-nine!" Yells one of the attendants, dropping a tray of very largely sized bags on the counter.

"That's me!" Ruby says with glee, stepping forward and scooping up the bags.

"Order eighty!" It takes me a second to process that this is my order. Mostly because I was trying to compute the fact that there was a hotel apparently full of gay women in Maine.

"I mean, not everyone there's gay, I don't think," Ruby says, bursting my bubble as we head back to the car. "I mean, I'm not. I think the head cook isn't. But my gaydar has gone off every single time I meet anyone new from the Mills clan, and -"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa...back up there. I think you need to tell me the whole story. From the beginning."

We head back to the van with bags of more calories than ten people should probably have ingested for lunch, and very large cups of coffee. The scent of the french fries mixed with steam from the coffee makes my stomach roar in protest, begging to be fed.

"So the Mills Hotel is the only hotel or motel or whatever in Storybrooke," Ruby says, starting the engine again. "You're going to love Storybrooke, by the way. It's this crazy little town. Everyone I've net is awesome, and there's this cute little clothing boutique, and...Anyway," she continues, when she catches my glance.

"The hotel is owned by Regina Mills. She's going to be your new boss. And she has a pretty big family. They all live at the hotel."

"Big family?" I dip a french fry into the hole on the top of my cup of coffee and take a bite.

"That's disgusting," Ruby says, wrinkling her nose as she takes a chug of coffee. "And yeah, big family. I guess she had a lot of adopted sisters? Or something? Look, I don't try to be nosy, but there are a lot of ladies who are staying at the hotel, all with the last name of Mills. And they don't look related. It's kind of weird, but they're all nice to me, so I've never really pried, asked questions, you know? Anyway, if you ask me, I kind of think all of those ladies are her harem or something," she says, waggling her eyebrows at me as she takes another sip of coffee.

"They're all really unspeakably gorgeous, all of the women I've met. And they cover the whole spectrum of gay ladies, apparently. I've met butches and femmes and really hard femmes, and...I'm telling you, I genuinely think all of those women are her harem,"

"Get your mind out of the gutter," I snort, rolling my eyes as I dip another french fry into my coffee and try to wrap my head around this.

Gorgeous lesbian women.

All with the same last name.

It was actually a little weird.

"And french fries in coffee isn't disgusting," I tell her proudly as she makes a little sound. "It's actually quite tasty. Tell me a little more about Regina..." I say then, sitting back in my seat and cradling my coffee cup in my hands.

Regina Mills.

"Like I said, she's a little weird. But she's always been really nice to me, She's very quiet, but when she comes into a room..." Ruby actually shivers when she says those words, her shoulders shaking a little as she breathes out.

"I mean, you know it when she walks through a door, is all," she says, raising her eyebrows at me.

"She has this...presence. It's really commanding. I hope you know it took quite a bit of courage from me to tell her about you. I had to seek her out, ask her for a meeting. I told her about you, and she just said you were hired if you wanted the job. She makes very firm, very quick decisions. She just...that kind of lady."

"You mean an eccentric lady," I say, holding my cup a little tighter as the sun comes out from behind the clouds, causing all of the trees to brighten, their leaves moving in the wind, as red as if they were on fire.

"Yeah," Ruby says, though her brows rise a little higher.

We drive a little farther in silence.

Her eating the contents of her greasy paper bags of fast food.

Me munching on french fries soggy with coffee, thinking about how absolutely crazy I am to have gone along with this.

The sun lights up the autumn trees, the road stretching ahead of us, leading toward the unknown.


A/N: Next stop: Storybrooke! :)