The moonlight streamed through the leaves and down to the forest floor. The woodland was silent and cool. The leaves were washed in beautiful moon and starlight. Ruby Lucas both loved and hated this place. She was both free and trapped among them. Without the forest, she was no longer her wolf. With them, she was chained to become the wolf. Still, this was the one place in Storybrooke where she felt at home. Her other homes were lost. She had lost her cabin in the Enchanted Forest, and she had lost the Jolly Roger when she was left by the infamous Captain Hook.

He had left her knowing what was coming. He had known she would be lost to him, lost to everyone, and yet he let it happen. He didn't even give her the chance to decide. She looked down to the pendant that was around her neck, the last trinket she had from him. The necklace had survived the curse, and even stayed with her. Every day for 28 years, she put on the pendant before she went anywhere. She couldn't bear to be parted with it, and she didn't even know why.

She pulled the pendant over her head, holding the trinket in her hands. She gazed at it for a moment, thinking back to when he gave it to her. The beautiful circle of silver with the moon, two stars, and a ship now made her sick. She didn't want to think about what she had lost; what he had given up on.

For the first few days after the curse broke, she didn't mind wearing it. But once she had seen him in the hospital, and he said that she must be real, she lost it. She ran. She ran all the way to her home; the woods.

She clenched the pendant in her hand and prepared to throw it as far as she could. Before her hand flew, strong fingers grasped her wrist. Instinct told her to swing a punch as she turned, and so she did. Her punch was easily knocked away as she came face to face with the one person she couldn't stand to see, and the person she wanted to see more than any other.

Captain Hook. Killian Jones stood before her, his stoic face in sharp contrast to the anger that had pervaded her features. "You don't want to throw that away, love," he said, his voice still soft with love.

"Why not?" she spat in reply. "You did."

Her words cut deep because they were partially true. "I never wanted to give up on you, Red."

"Then why did you?" Ruby asked. Her eyes filled with the sadness of lost love. She looked at the man who held her heart. She wanted it back, but she knew he would have it for as long as she lived. "Why did you leave, Hook?"

Killian turned his eyes downward in shame. He truly had never wanted to leave her. She had taught him how to love again. He thought he would never love anything as much as he had loved Milah, or as much as he loved the sea. But Ruby had changed his mind. Perhaps Milah hadn't been his true love. He had loved her, and she was one of the greatest things to have happened to his life. His years with her had been amazing, but Ruby had blasted them out of the water. She made him want to be better, and she had taught him that he didn't have to be alone for the rest of his life. "I left because I wanted you to have the forest. I saw you gazing at the forest in Neverland longingly, and I never got to give them to you. I wanted you to have what you needed. When I left you in the Enchanted Forest, I had every intention of coming back."

Ruby's eyes narrowed at the pirate. "Then what stopped you? I called for you, just like you told me to."

"I heard, but I was already in Cora's clutches. She wanted to take my heart, and I couldn't lose that. I couldn't lose my feelings for you," he explained.

"But I had to lose my feelings for you! 28 years of not knowing you! I didn't even know I had found love anywhere. I was desperate to feel something, and I didn't know that anyone had ever loved me!" she yelled.

Killian's face darkened as realization struck. He had hurt the one person who mattered to him more than anyone. "I did that to you," he muttered softly.

Ruby sighed heavily. "No, Regina did that to me. You just didn't have the courage to live it with me." She breathed deeply, her eyes cast downward for a moment. "I need to ask you something," she said softly, looking back into his eyes. The eyes the same color of his passion, the sea.

"Ask me anything, Red," Killian replied softly.

"Do you still love me?" Tears were welling in her eyes. He saw the fear in her eyes at what his answer could possibly be. She couldn't take him saying no. It would break her. But she didn't know if she could forgive what he had done if he said yes.

"Of course I love you, Red. I never stopped. I spent that same 28 years trying to get back to you. I never stopped thinking of you," he said after a few moments of weighing his words. "Do you still love me?"

Ruby hid her face behind her hair for a moment. She couldn't decide what words to use. She was at a loss as to how she was feeling. But when she looked back up at him, she still saw the man she had fallen in love with. The man that had given her exactly what she had wanted: adventure, love, and freedom. He was a monster, just like her. He was shaped by what had happened to him that was out of his control. He had lost his first love, and she could see everything that he felt for her in his eyes. "I do. I have since I first met you, and I won't stop now." His fingers released her wrist and touched her cheekbone. "That doesn't mean I've forgiven what you've done to me, or to Belle."

"I will spend as long as it takes to make up for what I've done," he said lovingly. He pulled her face towards him, brushing his lips lightly against hers. His touched turned from soft brushes of his fingertips to his hand buried in her hair at the base of her skull. He couldn't get her close enough, and she couldn't be close enough to him.

Her hands gripped the front of his jacket to keep him pressed against her. The pendant was still clutched in her hand, but she didn't mind. All she knew was that the man she loved had come back. She knew there was a lot for them to get through, more demons that had pervaded their relationship, but she couldn't let him go again. For once, she had him in her element. They had fallen in love at the port, near his sea. She wanted him to fall in love with who she was in the forest, too. He may belong to the sea, and she may belong to the forest, but they belonged to each other.