Chapter 31
As you can tell by the last random chapter, I brought in characters from the show Supergirl, which I am now admittedly obsessed with. I do not own those or any of these characters.
Anyway, I had grand plans of having Ruby and Alex get together as I was quite sad after Maggie left the show; however, with the additional of Kelly to the show, I decided maybe I won't go forward with my Ruby and Alex storyline.
Jumping back into Storybrooke, Ruby and Dorothy are together and raising Aurora. As mentioned by Wyatt in the last chapter, Xander went missing when working with Buffy to find other slayers across the world and Ruby adopted Aurora. I had some of those chapters written out, but didn't like them enough to post.
Here's the start of the Ruby, Dorothy, and Aurora adventures.
Ruby shuts off the screen of her tablet and puts it on the stand next to her chair. Aurora is sound asleep on her lap with her head resting on Ruby's chest. Ruby looks down at her toddler and smiles, wiping off the tear stained smudges on Aurora's face. With Aurora, for a fleeting moment, in a world with just the two of them, everything feels peaceful. Unfortunately, the moment doesn't last. Ruby looks back up and over to the stand at her tablet, remembering the painful news headlines and social media commentaries she had been reading for hours, the headlines that caught Aurora's attention before she could explain them to her. She questions how she is supposed to bring Aurora up in a place where some people view this hate as acceptable.
Ruby rocks Aurora in the chair in silence, patting her head softly and moving her curly blonde hair out of her eyes. As she begins to drift off with her toddler, she hears a soft knock on the door. "Dorothy?" She answers aloud.
"No, Ruby, it's me," Granny says softly as she opens the door.
"Come on in," Ruby says as she sits up and shifts Aurora to the other side of her chest. "Did the little one already fall asleep?" Granny asks.
"Yeah, it was a rough evening," Ruby replies.
"How so?" Granny asks as she takes a seat on the couch.
Ruby takes a deep breath. "While Aurora was napping yesterday, I had the news on in the background while I was folding laundry. I didn't realize she had woken up. The first story was about some angry minister threatening to kill all gay people. I've gotten used to ignoring those stories by now, but I didn't even think of what impact they might be having on her. I guess I assumed, well, first, I assumed she was still sleeping, and second, I assumed she wasn't paying attention to the news. She must have been watching for a while because I didn't hear her until the next segment when they talked about the hunting laws changing and including wolves."
"Oh no," Granny begins.
"Yeah," Ruby agrees, "I heard a few sniffles before it turned into sobs and shaking. Now, any time I am out of her sight for more than two minutes, she starts a screaming fit." Tears start to form in the corner of Ruby's eyes as she rubs Aurora's arm and tries to smile. "I don't know what to tell her."
"Well," Granny continues, "you're already off to a better start than I was with you."
"I told you I'm not mad about that any…"
"…I know, Dear. I'm just saying, you are doing just fine. These things are real things happening in the world and hiding her from them isn't going to help."
"What do I tell her to calm her down?"
Just as Granny is about to respond, the door opens and Dorothy walks in. "Hey, Babe!" She says aloud before realizing Aurora asleep on Ruby's chest. "Opps, hey, Granny," Dorothy whispers as she drops some grocery bags on the kitchen table and walks over to sit on the arm of the chair with Aurora and Ruby.
"Still no better?" Dorothy asks as she looks down at Aurora.
Ruby shakes her head.
"How about I let you girls relax?" Granny asks. "I know for sure that you will find the right thing to tell her and she'll come around." Granny gets up off the couch and walks across the room to the chair, kissing all three on the forehead before leaving.
Granny leaves the room as Dorothy sinks down into the chair closer to Ruby, wrapping her arm around her and Aurora. "She's right, you know. We're going to be okay," Dorothy says.
Ruby smiles and leans in to her kiss. "I know Storybrooke is safe, but we can't keep her here forever."
"Then, let's start now."
"What?"
"You were talking about taking her to another land."