Disclaimer: You already know I don't own OUAT so don't look at me like that. -_-

Birthday Girl Part 2 Chapter 2

Maybe our strength comes from love being our weakness.

Love? What the hell? Regina quickly glanced back into the mirror to see Ruby looking out the window. Love….Regina didn't wish to dwell on the fact that when she thought of love she thought of Ruby. Giving herself another mental headshake she pulled over to the side of the road where they would begin their search for Henry. There was no time to think anything about the wolf in the backseat of her car, not now anyways. First getting her son back and then maybe, maybe she could think about whatever she wishes to do with Ruby.

Red Queen

Ruby was the first to take a step out of the car and took a look around at the forest before them. In the darkness she could see fog that had started to accumulate further on in the trees.

The slam of the car trunk had her turning around. Regina held out a flashlight to Ruby and when she took hold of the end held out to her she was met with resistance. Looking up she met Regina's eyes for a brief second before the resistance she met was ended and the flashlight was resting at her side.

"Okay, so, do you happen to have a plan as to how we are going to search for him?" Emma asked in a low voice as she looked around at the trees surrounding them. "It'd be pretty hard to find him if we don't have a round knowledge of where he might be."

"There." Emma turned to see Ruby a few yards ahead of her with Regina not too far behind. Ruby had her nose up and seemed to be sniffing in the surrounding fog. "I'm getting a faint whiff of Henry, along with…." another sniff here, "Chicken, and some odd brand of cologne. He's with a male." Ruby finished and looked over at Regina and Emma who had just caught up with them.

"Gold?" Regina asked with a bit of an edge to her voice.

"No, I don't think it's him." Ruby stated as she looked a bit farther ahead of them and squinted. "If it was Gold, well, let's just say that he wouldn't leave such a trail for us to follow." Ruby finished as she motioned for the other ladies to follow her with a few warnings to watch their steps over some fallen debris and the likes.

Walking farther into the forest, the three women realized that the flashlights they held were no match against the dense fog that surrounded and stretched before them.

Ruby slowed and then stopped in her tracks all together as light from her flashlight began to slowly dim and then blink out. Scowling down at the offending item she gave a shake and a slap. "No good douchebag." She huffed.

Meanwhile Regina watched this with a raised brow as Emma strode up beside Ruby. Taking the flashlight from the other woman, Emma clicked the on/off button a few times with no result. "Hey Regina, got any batteries?" The blonde said as she lifted her head and looked at Regina.

Regina narrowed her eyes. "No." She said with annoyance in her voice. She hadn't thought that she would need to bring any extra batteries and therefore hadn't done so. But after being asked for some, she felt a bit…well, stupid for not having any. Before her mind could think to throw any more insults at her, Ruby spoke up.

"No worries. It's cool. I'm a wolf remember?" The grin she wore was lopsided as her eyes slowly turned gold.

The grin faltered and fell altogether from Ruby's face and noticing this Regina stepped forward.

"I'm fine. It's just….well now I can't see at all except the fog." Ruby's eyes began to wander around. "I think this fog may actually be some sort of spell. The air around here smells like magic." She told Regina who simply nodded.

"I figured as much." Regina conceded.

"Sooo…" Emma looked at Ruby nervously until the gold in Ruby's eyes faded. "Can you still see, even a little bit with your normal eyes?"

Ruby realized that Emma kept shifting her feet and was clutching the flashlight she held a little more tightly than was necessary. The woman was obviously desperate to find her son and this interaction was taking up precious time needed in actually finding him.

"Stay close to me and the light from mine should be enough to light our way." Regina spoke quietly. Ruby noticed the same desperate look in Emma's eyes was currently replicated in Regina's.

"Yeah, okay." Ruby sniffed the air once more as she began following an invisible trail with Regina and Emma close beside her.

Emma looked down at her watch and noticed it was already half past four in the morning. We've been on this trail for over three hours already. I swear, when we find the bastard who took my-our son, he will pay dearly, she thought to herself as she looked at the women beside her, one who raised her son and the other who like a big sister to Henry. Yeah, whoever you are, prepare to be totally screwed.

Red Queen

As early daylight came upon Storybrooke the fog had begun to fade into thin mist and the three women found themselves upon a wide river stopping them from going any further along their path. After a small silence as the ladies weighed on this new development, it was Regina who spoke first. "Are you sure they came this way?" She spared a glance over a Ruby who was further off to her right trying to pick up any scents.

"I'm pretty damn sure they came this way." It had come out rougher than she had intended and she winced at the sound. Clearing her throat she tried again and made sure she didn't look at Regina. "This is where the trail ends. Right here where we are standing, it just stops." She's staring off down the riverbed wondering if they had perhaps fallen in or if she had made a mistake somewhere in her search. But no, she couldn't have made a mistake right? She was a wolf and one of the major points of being a wolf was to always trust her nose. And her nose was telling her that this was where it had ended.

"Well maybe they waded into the water?" Emma asked hopefully. A raised brow from Regina and Ruby had her shrugging her shoulders. "What? It's all I can come up with. I don't see either of you hinting at anything." She turns away and starts kicking at the ground beneath her feet.

Regina stays silent for a beat longer before sticking her booted foot out into the water. Ruby is by her side instantly and tugging at her arm. "Hey, what bright idea of yours has you running out and sticking your-" The words go unfinished as Ruby loses her footing and both her and Regina go tumbling into the water. Ruby can hear Emma's yelling as her first instinct is to keep her arm wrapped around Regina as the waters swiftly carry them down the river.

Water splashes into the two women's faces as they try to keep their heads above the freezing current surrounding them, Regina accidently takes in a lungful of frozen water and sputters it out while Ruby tries to find something, anything to grab ahold to. They can no longer hear Emma's voice above the water as a big rock in the middle of the river comes looming up to them.

"Uh-oh." Regina breathes and tries to angle her knees up as an idea hits her. "See that branch?"

Ruby sees the boulder rushing towards them before she could even blink the water from her eyes, and before she could even take a breath to scream with she felt herself slide past the boulder before she is pushed towards the far side of the river where it meets the tree branches hanging over into the water. Without thinking she grabs onto the first one she can reach and holds on with all her might as the weight of Regina's body tries to pull her back into the current. With her other hand holding onto Regina she tries to pull her closer to the edge with her and is rewarded with hearing Regina's breathing close to her and also a few choice swear words that made her smile inwardly.

After a few more struggles, Ruby was able to heft Regina closer to some of the other branches as her own was starting to give at their combined weight. But just in time, Regina grabbed a branch and pulled herself halfway out of the water and extended her hand out to Ruby, which she took.

Pulling themselves further up and fully onto the soiled ground they collapsed from exhaustion as the fog rolled in around them.

Red Queen

AN: And this is the second chapter to Birthday Girl Part 2. I know this chapter was quite short and it left off suddenly but I honestly tried and it seemed like it just had to end here. I promise next chapter will be back to its regular length. And I also know it took me quite awhiles (misspelled on purpose) to actually update this chapter but I wasn't sure if this chapter was even good enough to upload. V.V Please R&R. I would love to know what you, as the reader, thought of this chapter. :)

After Revise: Sorry readers, I had to put Birthday Girl Part 2 on hold because I started writing a story for Kim Possible, Kim Possible: What's Possible For A Rockwaller? For more details of this story you can pm me, and I am also looking for a beta for my Kim Possible story. I need someone to keep me on my toes and crack the whip on me so updates for KP will be regular.