Regina ground her teeth in frustration as David and Mary Margaret stood on opposite sides of her study, arguing about how they were going to find their daughter.

"I've got the dwarves out looking, I'm going out to patrol and Granny is watching the diner—what more do you want?" David was saying.

"I'm the best tracker in the kingdom! Let me go out and find her!" Mary Margaret was insisting. Regina looked over and saw Henry sitting in the shadows, his eyes glinting in the dark. It was way passed his bed-time—he still had school the next day—but Regina could see that he wasn't going anywhere until a plan was figured out to find his birthmother.

So stubborn, she thought to herself with a small inkling of pride. So much like Emma.

She winced at how she reacted in her apartment.

When Henry met them at the elevator, Regina didn't know what to think. Her heart was pounding wildly in her chest and all she could think of was Please don't let Emma be dead, please don't let Emma be dead, pleasedon'tletherbedead! She had exploded out of the small box and practically ran to Emma's apartment. She threw open the door and ran to the couch, afraid to find Emma's still, cold body staring back at her.

Instead, an empty room glared back at her, the scent of sickness still heavy in the air along with… Something else. Something vaguely doglike. She had no time to ponder that. She ran from room to room, shouting Emma's name like it might do something. But the blonde never jumped out, miraculously healthy and yelling "Surprise!".

"I told you, Mom, she's not here," Henry murmured from the living room. "But look at this."

His voice moved her from the stale smelling bedroom back out to the living room, where Henry was kneeling at the far wall. She stood over him, staring at claw marks in the paint.

"What is that?"

"Claw marks," he said. "Something wasn't happy."

"Could've been old."

"No, Mom, look." He swiped a finger down one of the claw marks and it came back speckled in red. "This is blood."

"So what does this have to do with Emma?"

"I don't know but it wasn't here before."

Regina scowled to herself and paced the length of the room. "I don't believe she could've just… Disappeared. Come on, Henry, help me look."

"She isn't here though."

"Then we look around the place. We have got to find her."

Together the mother son duo spread out and searched all the halls of the four story building. When they could find no trace of a certain blonde haired menace, Regina reluctantly paid the paramedics a hefty sum for their time and then left to call her son's grandparents. They were not too thrilled.

The argument between the Charmings had blossomed over a homemade dinner at Regina's house. At first it was about the size of the search party for her—should only a select few go, should many go—and then it grew to who exactly, now it was down to the dwarves or Snow. The former Queen was perched regally in her armchair, watching the "perfect couple" shout back and forth in annoyance. Normally she would find it amusing, but normally her blonde counterpart was beside her, teasing them both. With Emma missing it was as if nothing else mattered.

"Alright quit it!" Regina finally shouted. Everyone in the room froze and stared at her in surprised silence. She had used her commanding voice. "Thank you. Now, this argument is not going to find your daughter. To find her, I believe you two should work together what do you think?"

David eyed Mary Margaret, doubt clouding his blue eyes.

"What is your problem, David," his wife seethed, her temper growing at his hesitation. "Don't you want to find her?"

"Well, of course I do. But what about Neal? What if Emma shows up? One of us should stay behind to watch him and let the other know if she comes."

"Well how about this," Regina threw in again, flexing her fingers as she gathered her thoughts. It was a common thing to see when she was proposing something at a council meeting. "How about Henry sleeps at the loft tonight and I watch Neal in case Emma should come either here or there?"

Now both husband and wife looked at Regina with surprise.

"What?" She demanded.

"Nothing," Mary Margaret shrugged, eyebrows raised. "I just thought you would be out looking for her with us."

Every instinct told Regina to go with her old nemesis, to scour the city and the woods shouting Emma's name until the girl she was growing to love came back. But logic told her to stay. She knew Emma had enough connections to this house that if she were stumbling around in a fevered state—and not, in fact kidnapped by some crazy person—that she would probably stumble her way here at one point in the night.

"Yeah, Mom," now Henry stood up, a frown darkening his features. "Why aren't we going looking for her?"

"Because it's late at night and you young man have school tomorrow. I believe if Emma is able to walk on her own, she might stumble here on her own. I want to stay in case that happens."

David narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but Mary Margaret—to everyone's great surprise—nodded her head with soft green eyes. "Alright, then. I believe you. But if she shows up will you let us know?"

"Of course!"

"Great," David sighed, whipping out his phone. "Then there's only one more thing we need to do before we go looking for her."

"Which is?"

He met Regina's fiery brown eyes and sighed. "Someone needs to call Hook."

"Her ex-boyfriend?" Regina's voice was incredulous, if not slightly cold and jealous. "Why on Earth would you want to do that?"

"He still loves her, Regina. He has a right to know."

"You do realize that your daughter broke up with him because of his profound clingyness and quite terrifying drinking habits? Don't you think this will cause a problem?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out." With that, David picked up the phone and dialed.

For the first time in a week, she slept peacefully. No restless dreams rolled behind her eyelids, no waves of nausea or head pain made her whimper and cry out. She was peaceful. Until she realized that the smell of the room she was in—the smell of greasy food and the sharp, smoky tang of winter—was not the same as her living room.

She bolted awake, eyes darting around wildly as she took in her new surroundings. A small window in the corner leaked watery white light in from the world outside. The walls were cinderblocks and the far wall had a small fireplace installed in it. She rested on a plush single bed, wrapped in green blankets and a fresh smelling pillow behind her head. Her muscles felt like string and her bones felt like Jello.

"Emma?" The voice was familiar. She lifted her head and saw Ruby sitting in a plastic chair at the foot of her bed, three sweaters and two scarves wrapped around her torso. Even so, she was still shuddering. A hand was held out towards the sheriff, palm out, fingers down, the symbol of no harm.

"Ruby?" She saw familiar hazel eyes light up as a smile graced her friend's face.

"Hey. Glad you remember me this time."

This time? Emma frowned, tilting her head as she heard chatter and footsteps from above her. "Where am I? What happened? Where were you? How long has it been? How did I—"

"Easy, Em." A sculpted eyebrow twitched upwards. "One thing at a time."

Emma paused, trying to dig through her cloudy memory of things that had happened. She remembered Regina and Henry in her apartment, her head on fire, her body rippling, shredding, changing. She remembered waking up in a red car, still on fire. She remembered being trapped. She shuddered. The question that left her mouth was none of her originals.

"What am I?"

Again Ruby smiled. Her eyes, the wolf's eyes, sparkled with knowledge. "You're a wolf. Like me. Sorry 'bout the bite, by the way. You scared me."

"You're the wolf?" I'm a wolf?

"Crazy, right?"

"But then, where have you been? How does no one know about you?"

"Well, Granny knows. As for where I've been, the woods."

"Belle misses you, Rubes." The brunette lowered her head.

"I miss her, too."

They were quiet, Ruby beginning to shudder a bit more violently and Emma lost in thought. Somewhere above them, something was dropped and laughter rang out. Emma frowned. "Where am I?"

Ruby, glad for the subject change, glanced around them as if the answer were obvious. "We are in the basement of Granny's! Couldn't you smell the food?"

"Well yeah, but I didn't know. I've never been in the basement before."

"Right." Again another silence, punctuated only by the sounds above them. Finally, Emma regarded Ruby and her silent sadness and spoke.

"Ruby, why don't you come home?"

"Emma, perhaps we could continue this conversation another time?" A cold draft slipped into the room from the single window. The other girl's skin darkened a shade and as she shook her head, the scent of wolf drifted over to Emma's newly sensitive nose. She began shaking violently before a wolf backed out of her skin and observed Emma with Ruby's eyes. The answer became clear. Ruby couldn't come home because she wasn't fully human yet.

As a sudden wave of nausea took over Emma, she looked up and realized too late that the door to the room was shut. There was nothing she could do as the wolf burst forth and leapt off the bed.