Little Red Ruby Hood and the Big Bad Wolf.
Summary: Scarlett had always been warned of a violent and murdering wolf that lived in the very same woods that she travelled through each day on her way back to her Granny's house, but she had never imagined that one day she would come face to face with the beast. Age old stories of interactions with the fated big bad wolf had taught her to be scared of the creature and what it could do to young girls like her, but a soft look of pain in the eyes of her unwilling attacker made the young girl wonder if there was more to the old tales of the big bad wolf than anyone could ever figure.
Pairings are Emma x Graham, and Mary Margaret x David, but mostly Ruby x OC.
Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or any of the characters affiliated.
Rating is PG-13 for language, violence and a little sexuality.
Authors Note: I would like to personally thank the two people that have put this story on alert, KuroAkuma and Dorney77. It was really awesome knowing that people liked it so much. Anyone else out there reading this, feel free to alert it or even drop a line. I take compliments, criticisms and suggestions to heart and would love to know how I can make the story better for you guys. I also apologise for taking another week to get this out there, that is horrible of me. I'll try harder for next chapter.
Spoilers include most canon plot points up until 1x07 "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter."
At the Police Station.
The station seemed to be deserted despite the fact that there were two people inside. No drunken shouts were being hurled at the sheriff and deputy, nobody had come in to report any recent crimes and the only two cops in Storybrooke weren't arguing about who was right and wrong like they usually did.
In fact, Graham wasn't in the station at all. He had left a few minutes after Emma came in, not before dumping a pile of work on her desk and asking her to finish up his filing. That made Emma fume.
She knew exactly why he had left, it was either because of how awkward things had gotten between them after she found out where he had been "volunteering" or because he was off to do it again. And why should she have to do his busy work because he was too busy with her sons adopted mother?
Emma had to refrain from cursing out loud about that last bit. The last thing Henry needed to know about the world was what Regina did behind closed doors with the busy sheriff.
Besides, he looked so peaceful.
Sure there was a little frown on his face as he tried to figure out the answer to his next math problem, but compared to the worried look he got whenever he dealt with parts of his fairytale delusion, the frown was a look of bliss. Plus, she'd never admit it to him, but that frown was too cute to deny.
Staring at his immense concentration for another moment to fill that motherly void in her heart from the day they hadn't been able to spend alone together, she quickly snapped back to her own work when she could feel him looking up from his homework. She couldn't let him catch her staring.
"Emma?" Henry whispered just softly as he looked at the computer screen from his spot on her desk.
Not looking up from the file in front of her, just in case he did see her staring, she answered. "Yeah?"
"Are you trying to find a criminal?" Emma tried hard not to laugh at the innocent way he asked that, she could tell he was trying not to get excited over the idea of having to help her catch a bad guy.
Emma almost wanted to nod her head, involve him in some sort of small case, maybe about one of the nightly drunk citizens. Several things stopped her though. Henry was still young and innocent, no matter how much he wanted to be thrown into the investigator life, she wouldn't taint him. Not willingly.
"Not right now, kid."
He set his work down and hopped off the desk, moving over to her side for a glimpse at her computer screen. "What are you doing then?" His eyes scanned the screen a moment before they caught a name.
"I'm just checking out someone and their files, nothing big really." She lied unconvincingly.
Unsurprisingly Henry didn't believe her and moved closer to the screen, his eyes scanning over the paragraph where he had seen the name. Within moments he stopped in surprise, his mouth hanging wide open and a confused look formed on his face. "Why are you checking Lyra's files out?"
His fear was etched out right on his face, Emma understood though. He had known the blonde his entire life and seeing something that could threaten her sent a red flag up for him. That made Emma proud.
"Don't worry, I just want information." At the lack of his relief, Emma tried to explain a little better to her son, after all things would go a lot easier with his help. "You said she was the wolf, right?"
Henry's expression softened and he nodded his head.
"Do you want to know their story?" He smiled putting away his pencil case and pushed up onto her desk again, this time beside the computer screen so he could see her. "I know most of it, they told me."
Emma put away the file she had on Lyra and exited out of her page on the computer, she knew he was only ten but it sure was easier hearing the story from him then trying to look it up online and in print.
"Alright kid, hit me. Just what is it that's between them?"
Henry had to think hard for just a moment, not about what was in between the two because that part was pretty obvious, but of where he should start for his Mom to get the full story of Lyra and Ruby. "Well... they're madly in love. But they aren't supposed to be."
Emma wanted to challenge him on that. She knew that there was something going on, especially if the blonde girl was supposed to be the Wolf in Henry's story book fantasy, but she had hoped that it didn't have to do with forbidden teenage love. She had enough of that over the years herself. Emma hated involving herself with personal lives too, especially the personal lives of people that she did not know.
But like everything else about Storybrooke, Emma knew that once she had gotten involved in the issue, she wasn't going to be getting uninvolved very easily. "Not supposed to because of the fairytale?"
At the shake of his head, she knew that this wasn't going to be easy.
"In the fairytale Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf do end up together, because of that is why Ruby and Lyra are in love here..." Henry started to trail off slowly with a troubled expression on his face and that is where Emma figured that everything must have took a turn for the worse.
"... But?" Emma nudged him with her shoulder gently.
Henry shook his head quickly and went back to his backpack, gathering up his books like he was ready to go home. "I shouldn't have said anything..." He mumbled and Emma did a double take.
"You were more than happy to tell me a minute ago kid, what happened?" She had never seen him more spooked in his life and following the trail of his eyes to the mayor who was standing in the doorway, she knew exactly why he was scared. "Hello Madame Mayor." Emma commented coldly.
This time the mayor didn't even acknowledge Emma with more than a glance to her direction, all of her focus was on a worried looking Henry. "So I heard Lyra stepped in town, and now I find you gossiping about her history with Miss. Swan... I can only imagine that all this is because you spoke with her today."
Henry nodded, grabbing his jacket from Emma's desk. It was all the older blonde could do to not reach out and pull her terrified son to her chest away from his adopted Mother.
"I thought I told you I didn't want you near her again..." All Henry could do was nod again, but that wasn't good enough for the cold-hearted mayor. "Henry, I asked you a question." She demanded.
"I don't see what the big deal is about!" Emma got to her feet and moved to Henry's side sick of the tone of voice Regina was using towards her kid. "All we did is have lunch with her."
Regina frowned and glared back at Emma. "So he hasn't told you the full story yet, has he?"
"He was about to before you cut him o-"
Regina smiled an almost malicious sort of smile as she interrupted Emma mid-sentence. "As you are the deputy, I find it necessary for you to know that beneath the innocent demeanour she has shown you..."
Henry practically begged Regina to stop talking, but the older woman continued on with her sentence just to spite him for disobeying her wishes. "Lies something much darker."
"Lyra Travers is a coldblooded killer and everyone in Storybrooke, including my son, knows it."
Yes, including another cliffhanger into a story without even revealing the ending of the first one, it has been done folks. I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter, even though it was supposed to solve some answers but in the end didn't really solve anything or have a real point. But I wanted to include some Emma/Henry love.
Tune into next chapter, where one of the cliffhangers will actually be solved!
