Standard Disclaimer: The characters ain't mine, I'm just borrowing their strings for a while, so don't sue me please! Please point out any errors in grammar or spelling privately and I will correct them.

Chapter 9 – Confrontations

As Red made her way up the stairs, she heard Regina open the door and bark a greeting at their visitor. It was Emma. The two extremely aggressive women immediately began arguing. Knowing she might be needed to diffuse the situation, Red made quick work of venturing to Regina's bedroom to change her top. She paused at the thought. It wasn't just Regina's bedroom anymore...it was their bedroom. Having shared it for so long as only lovers, they would be doing so as partners now, and it was kind of weird to consider since Ruby had not been a woman accustomed to sharing a bed with a person on a regular basis. But even though there was still a certain strangeness to the situation, it was not the kind to produce anxiety, but rather instilled a sense of wonder in Red that made her very eager to start living out the next phase of her life with the woman she loved.

The fact that Regina had asked her to move in at all said a lot about both the state of their relationship and about Regina's readiness to move beyond the scheduled trysts they'd enjoyed both before and during the Curse. Back in the Enchanted Forest, Red hadn't pushed things with her lover because she knew doing so would have put too much pressure on Regina to commit to their relationship in a way she was not yet prepared for, and when Regina got backed into a corner or felt threatened, she lashed out. So for the longest time, Red had tempered her desire to forge a more meaningful commitment with Regina.

Now with that she was free from her false personality, it was not at all surprising that she still wanted to take that next step, and it made her happy to know that Regina felt the same. Of course, there were issues that had to be dealt with, not the least of which was the fallout of the Curse being broken, but to be honest, in light of the relief Red felt at knowing she would never have to leave Regina again, they felt inconsequential. While that temporary obliviousness would certainly pass soon enough, Red was content for now to enjoy her little bubble of calm contentment, so she went about her task with a smooth assurance that belied the turmoil hiding just beneath the surface of both her own mind and the town in general.

Once in the bedroom, Red promptly made her way over to the dresser in order to pull out a white tank top from the 'assigned' drawer she'd sweet-talked Regina into setting aside for her a couple of months before. After replacing her mascara soiled sweater with said tank top, she ran her hands underneath the chain of her necklace, pulling her half-moon pendant out so that it was no longer hidden. For a moment, she fingered the trinket, smiling dumbly as she did so. She loved her necklace far more than its monetary or artistic worth could account for. Since the gifting of it had coincided with dual revelations that changed the course of her life, it had attained the incalculable value of becoming the symbol of her bond with Regina.

At the time Red received the necklace, their relationship was still in its relative infancy as they had only been together a few months, and Red was still content with things as they were. Being the first real relationship she'd ever had, she hadn't wanted to be the one to stir up the pot so to speak. But that changed somewhat when she was given the necklace. Receiving such a gift from someone with whom she had formed a deeply intimate bond left a lasting impression on her. Often after that, she would lift the pendant up to study it, an indescribable warmth sweeping over her as she gazed at the incredibly beautiful piece of jewelry that had been crafted just for her. In moments like that, she felt like a giddy young girl who had just been given her first kiss.

Yet being young and smitten did not mean that Red was a fool, for she had harbored no illusions as to why things happened as they did between herself and the Queen. From the very beginning, she was aware that Regina had likely taken her as a lover both as a means for amusement and because through Red she could strike an indirect blow at Snow. For a while it had been a source of insecurity and frustration for Red, but the more time she spent with Regina, the less the woman's motives began to matter.

Red had always been a simple person with simple expectations, so she had never expected much from Regina, a woman who was notoriously cold and cruel. Yet when presented with the necklace, something considerably shifted. She realized that things had changed enough that in at least some small way Regina had come to care for her beyond her relative usefulness, that the Queen valued Red as a person and as a lover enough to invest a part of herself in the relationship. So to Red, the necklace became indisputable proof of those affections that even Regina, who had a tendency to retract her emotions when things got too intense, could not deny, which she often would by downplaying the significance of the gift whenever she caught Red studying it affectionately.

Before that memorable night, Regina's gifts tended to skew toward the pretentious as was the case most of the time with individuals of nobility or wealth. Whether with expensive wines and chocolates or with dresses that were made of ridiculously rare fabrics that felt like a second skin, the offerings presented to Red were either empty tokens from a Queen to the object of her lust or had been given with a clear subtext attached to them. In other words, they were Regina's not-so-subtle way of wooing Red into her way of living and thinking, of bribing Red into switching sides, something Red would have rather died than do.

The necklace was different, though. Rather than procuring some ostentatious piece of jewelry, Regina chose to create something unique, something tailormade for Red, part of which she crafted herself. Red knew this to be true because she'd watched Regina work on the stone set in the pendant, observing as the fascinatingly powerful Queen concentrated until sweat was beading on her brows while wielding her magic with the delicate precision required to shape such an extraordinary stone. Those efforts always left Regina so drained and lethargic that she didn't even complain or object when Red would boldly cradle the Queen's exhausted body in her arms, then carry her over to the bed, carefully undress her, and usher her under the covers before joining her. Being the kind of woman who did not appreciate or accept such doting, Regina's lack of concern over those tender attentions illustrated the cost she paid to create the stone.

Of course, Red hadn't known it was for her until weeks later, but that didn't stop her from being interested in Regina's work. During the long hours the Queen labored, Red managed to keep mostly quiet, contenting herself by reading a book from Regina's impressive library that had caught her attention or by other soothing pursuits such as darning pairs of socks for her favorite guardsmen, the ones that snuck her treats as the wolf when Regina wasn't looking. Occasionally, though, Red's prominent social side overruled her politeness, and when it did, she got nosy enough to question Regina about what she was working on.

The material, Regina had explained to her in tidbits over the course of her week-long effort, was a rare and nearly priceless stone called ametite. What made it so valuable was that it was harder than any diamond and resistant to nearly all forms of magic, which made it incredibly hard to cut, particularly with magic. But those same properties that made ametite nearly impossible to work with also made it an ideal substance to fashion into a talisman in which to store energy or wards of protection. Since the stone itself was nearly impossible to destroy, logic dictated that its contents would be protected. While shaping such an object with magic was a consuming task, storing energy or wards within it was an exhausting exercise that significantly weakened even a wildly powerful sorceress like Regina.

All of that information had been neat, but Red hadn't understood why her lover was wasting so much time and energy on it when her life had been at present as safe as it ever was. Few wielded more powerful magic than the Queen, and since she was infamously paranoid about potential assassins, she kept herself well protected wherever she went. But since Red was spending increasingly more time in the Dark Palace, the Queen's security had only been enhanced. Twice Red had smelled out assassins who slipped past the guards, identifying the threat via their poisons and neutralizing them long before they ever even got the chance to face Regina's enormously capable personal defenses. As such, Red had been confused why Regina would be making herself a necklace to store wards in. Since she had both Red and her magic at her disposal, she hadn't needed it.

It wasn't until a cold winter night that Red found out the real reason Regina crafted the stone. After a long night of passion, they were cuddled up together on the comfortably sized lounger in the Queen's study, a warm fire blazing in the hearth nearby. Red could remember how peaceful she'd felt at that moment, laying there in Regina's arms, feeling properly cherished. Regina was always an attentive lover, but that night the Queen had seemed exceptionally driven to the point that it seemed like her sole aim in life to give Red pleasure above all she had ever experienced, a goal which she very successfully achieved.

But beyond that, Red had noted that something else was different in Regina that night. Normally, Regina was a woman who hid her feelings behind iron walls, and – lest she was in a good mood – withheld compliments from even those who sorely deserved them. But that night, the Queen had seemed more open and expressive with her emotions, more free with her admiration than Red had ever seen. Red might have thought it some kind of game the Queen was playing except for the fathomless brown eyes which were revealing parts of Regina that had heretofore been kept secret.

With Regina having lost that perpetual edge that always seemed to exist in her expressive orbs, Red could detect no ulterior motives lurking underneath the surface, no long term plans being seeded through skilled touches and fervent kisses. That clever, plotting unpredictability that always seemed to be present in Regina was gone, as was the coal black darkness of her irises which were typical of the vicious and hate-filled woman she could be and often was. Instead there was a warmth present in Red's lover that shimmered with halting devotion and bespoke a tentative though heartfelt affection.

That night, along with her breath, Red's heart was properly stolen away, never to be returned.

"I have something for you, darling," she recalled Regina saying as they lay together well into the night.

With Red on her side facing away toward the fire and one one of Regina's arms stretched out underneath her neck, she felt the Queen lift herself slightly and lean over in order to trace a well-manicured fingernail down Red's hip and thigh. Between placing open-mouthed kisses on Red's arm, shoulder, and neck, she said, "And unlike my other gifts, this one is more...personalized."

Red had detected a hint of uncertainty in Regina's voice which was very unusual for such a larger than life and incredibly self-assured person. All dressed up in her regalia with shadowy make-up applied to accentuate her eyes and her cheeks, it was a sight to behold when Regina was on the prowl, making deliberate steps that flared her incredibly well proportioned hips, her gaze smoldering and eliciting all kinds of aggressively lustful emotions in Red. To Red, Regina was hot as hell twenty-four hours a day, but her confidence was one of her sexiest attributes.

"I know you're not one for grand gestures or extravagant gifts, so I wanted to give you something unique as a token of my affection," Regina had continued, working her hand over Red's hip to smooth over the skin low on her belly. Red shuddered at the intimate nature of the contact. "I'm not normally one for such things but I've come to trust you enough that I can admit how important you've become to me. So, I hope this gift adequately reflects that."

After lifting her hand from Red's abdomen, Regina snapped her fingers and in a puff of purple smoke, the necklace appeared in her palm. The licking flames of the fire glittered off the polished metal, creating an almost hypnotizing effect, and as she stared at the gorgeous piece of jewelry, the ametite stone in the pendant began to glow, pulsating in concert with the accelerating beat of her heart.

"It's beautiful," she had replied, nearly in tears due to recognizing the stone. "Isn't this what you were working on a few weeks ago?" Regina hummed her confirmation, nodding against Red's arm as she placed another lingering kiss there. Red looked up with awestruck eyes. "You were making this for me?"

"I was," Regina replied, smiling softly.

After shifting in her lover's embrace so that she was now on her back, Red studied her lover. Hovering over Red with her silken ebony tresses hanging down in loose and gentle curls, and with her head tilted just so, Regina had looked more a vision than ever before. In that moment, she seemed almost otherworldly by the way her olive skin glowed in the firelight and with how her dark eyes gleamed with uncharacteristic levels of affection. The gaze Regina regarded with was so intense that Red felt her throat and chest simultaneously constrict.

"I don't know what to say," Red eventually croaked as she fingered the pendant absentmindedly, all the while alternating between looking down at it and then back up at Regina.

"Well," Regina said apprehensively, "does it at least please you enough that I may put it on you?"

Breathing deeply, Red nodded and lifted up a bit so that so that Regina could maneuver her arms around her neck in order to fix the necklace in place. Once done, the Queen smoothed it down over her chest, her finger gently stroking the pendant that was nestled between the valley of her breasts.

"Perfect," she'd commented, and Red was unsure whether she'd meant the necklace or her breasts (she was aware that Regina especially appreciated the latter), but she was so becoming so aroused that she figured either was fine.

Returning her head to rest upon Regina's arm, Red stared up wordlessly, unable to process much beyond the flush of heated emotions that she was feeling. As her eyes took in the beauty of the woman above her, she realized with startling clarity that she loved Regina, and not in an ordinary kind of way, but in an all-consuming one that made her want to cast everything aside, no matter how badly it would hurt those she loved, so that she could stay with her Queen for the rest of her life. With that realization came awareness that she was long past the point of no return, and that eventually she was going to have to make a choice between Regina and her friends.

Because Red was already lost to the Queen who had staked claim over her heart, the results of that choice would leave both her Granny and Snow devastated, for there was no other option. To give Regina up and walk away from the person who had come to mean more to Red than anything and anyone else in the world would mean inflicting a wound upon herself that would never heal. And with the wolf having grown every bit as inextricably attached to Regina as the woman was, Red knew severing the tie would mean risking not just her heart but her dearly won control. As such, it was much too late for her to attempt extricating herself from Regina's clutches, she had already been too far gone.

"Well, say something," Regina had then pleaded from where she half hovered above Red, looking strangely nervous. It was adorable but Red withheld commenting on that.

"Sorry," she apologized sheepishly, "I'm just overwhelmed." Which was true. It was impressive that she'd been able to formulate even that lackluster response.

A tentative smile formed on Regina's lips at that. "In a good way, I hope."

"In the best way."

Unable to restrain herself anymore Red had then reached out to rest a hand on her lover's cheek, which prompted Regina to lean into the touch so that she could place a kiss on Red's palm. With that simple kiss, warmth spread back down through Red's body in a rush and all too soon words were forgotten as lips collided and hearts and bodies began to tangle once more in that intimate and age-old dance, expressing things through physical action that could not be spoken in any other way and until both women were left utterly spent.

To Red, the necklace was a reminder of that night, the night she had accepted her choice for better or for worse. For a long time before that, she'd struggled with uncertainty about what she would do if Snow discovered her liaisons with Regina. Wavering between the two, she'd felt caught in an impossible situation. Any choice she made would leave someone she cared for in bitter pain. But after that night, Red's uncertainty was wiped away by the realization that no matter how much she would always love her Granny and Snow, her heart forever belonged to Regina alone. In the short time Red spent with her mother, she had learned that once a werewolf chooses a mate only death could part them, so along with her heart came her eternal loyalty.

Come what may, Red had determined then and there to stand by Regina, to fight for her, kill for her, and if it was required, die for her, and just as there was no going back then, there was no going back now. Being driven by that reminder, Red started to make her way back downstairs, intent on ensuring Regina knew once and for all that she had nothing to worry about in regards to Red's love and fidelity.

Upon reaching the top of the stairs, Red heard Regina and Emma still arguing, and with a forbearing sigh, she paused to listen in.

"Look, Henry sounded upset when he called me," Emma stated accusingly, and Red could hear the frown in her voice. "Said that he was right all along and that you had admitted to being the 'Evil Queen'. I thought we had made some real progress here, Regina."

"We have," Regina replied tersely, "but your tone right now is severely threatening that progress."

"Hey, don't blame me," Emma shot back, "I'm not the one filling our son's head full of lies!"

A tension descended over the house that Red could have cut with a knife. Magic. Though incredibly faint, she could smell the familiar tang and recognize the pull it was exerting on her mind. No, Regina, she silently pleaded.

"I wasn't lying, Miss Swan," Regina gritted out as the nearly indistinguishable tingle of magic fizzled out. Whether Regina was unable to properly summon it or because she had made a conscious choice not to attack Emma, Ruby wasn't sure, but she was relieved either way. She was, however, most assuredly surprised by Regina's next words. "Unfortunately, everything in Henry's book is actually true," she said, sounding weary.

A breath whooshed out of Emma's lungs. Obviously the woman had expected the open admission about as much as Red had. "What? I don't believe you. What's really going on here, Regina?"

"I've just told you!"

Emma's derisive scoff reverberated through the entryway. "And why should I believe you? Not too long ago, you sent Henry to a shrink to get that crap out of his head and as if that was not bad enough, now you're spouting it. So, what gives? Is there some kind of mass delusion going on this town or something and it finally hit you, too? 'Cause I swear, people are losing their damn minds!"

Red heard Regina's breathing stop. Strange, she thought, being able to hear something like that again. She had gotten so used to Ruby's dulled senses that it was an adjustment to ajust to being a werewolf again. The only positive in the situation was that everything hadn't flooded in at once. Her enhanced senses seemed to be coming back slowly, one at a time, as if not quite the same as they used to be.

"What do you mean by that?" Regina then asked Emma, clearly concerned. Red understood Regina's apprehension. With the curse broken, people's memories would have returned to them, which meant trouble for the person who was responsible: Regina.

The once Evil Queen and current Mayor of Storybrooke now had a town full of angry people who would be after her head with a vengeance, which conflicted Red in a way she never again wanted to be since Snow would be foremost among them. Back in the Enchanted Forest, Red's loyalties had been divided between her friend and her lover for over a year. In the end, she hadn't been forced to make a choice because of Snow's compassion, but even so, she knew what that choice ultimately would have been. Her love for Regina was absolute, and as such would have compelled her to act in the Queen's defense, no matter that in doing so she would have to stand against friends for whom she would gladly give her life. Those divided loyalties had been an almost constant source of stress for Red in that year leading up to the curse and now, they were returning with even more acute intensity due to Emma being thrown into the mix.

To Emma, though, it must have seemed disconcerting to have everyone she knew in town suddenly become someone else, like everyone in town had been suffering from some severe and unheard of form of mass dissociative identity disorder that was suddenly and instantly cured. As an unbeliever and an admitted skeptic, Emma was clearly struggling to make sense of things, which was to be expected. From what Red knew of the woman, though, she was convinced that Emma would adapt quickly. Red just hoped her friend would at least be willing to talk things through with Regina lest they find themselves on opposing sides, something that would break Red's heart.

As Ruby, she had loved Emma and as Red, she still did. The blonde spitfire was a steadfast confidante and above all, a good person, the kind that would rise up to fill the role she had been cast into even though she didn't want to. Emma, Red realized, had become her best friend, having taken Snow's place due to the distance that the Curse put between them living under the curse. There was even a time Red had flirted with the idea of taking the friendship to the next level, but then Regina had made her move, sweeping Ruby off her feet before she even had a chance to become acclimated to standing. In more than one way, Red was glad of it, because it would have been awfully awkward to come to herself realizing she was having sex with her goddaughter. The thought of it made her shudder.

Still, even though she was no longer Ruby, Emma remained important to Red, which made it painful to contemplate facing Emma as an adversary if it came to that. But if such was the price she had to pay to be with Regina, she was more than willing to do so. She had lost Regina once. She wasn't going to allow anything or anyone to ever separate them again.

"I mean," Emma then explained to Regina, "I saw Mary Margaret and David in town on the way, and they acted like a couple of lunatics when they saw me drive by, waving and hollering, looking at me like they actually believed they were my...you know. But that's not all. People were hugging and kissing like they had been separated for years, right out on Main Street! It was freaking weird."

"Well, that's because they hadn't seen one another in 28 years," Regina stated casually. "Not in a true sense."

After sighing, Red heard the shuffling of Emma's feet. "I still don't understand what the hell you're trying to tell me."

"Are you dense, Miss Swan?" Regina growled. "Let me lay it out for you. This town was, as Henry posited, cursed by me, the Evil Queen. That curse has now been broken, and as such, very soon all of those people you mentioned are going to be coming to kill me. Thus the reason I had Henry call you. You must take him away from here, Emma. Take him away from Storybrooke. Go back to Boston and never return."

Red heard Emma scoff angrily. "Now I definitely know something's wrong. You've lost your damn mind, and while I think the Curse stuff is a load of crap, you're sure as hell right that I need to get Henry out of this house." Emma's voice moved closer as she spoke, and Red heard the rustling of fabric against leather as Emma shouldered by Regina. She appeared at the bottom of the stairs a second later, her face a picture of frustrated anger. "Henry!" she yelled, looking up at the landing to find Red staring down at her. "Oh! Ruby. What are you doing here?"

"This is her home now," Regina answered from behind Emma, her face heavily guarded.

Emma's eyebrows rose at Red, thinking her to still be Ruby. "Is that so?"

"It is," Red answered and made her way downstairs with a confidence in her gait that Ruby would have lacked. Emma looked at her curiously but said nothing.

"How are you feeling, dear," Regina asked Red once she had joined her lover, the mask she so impressively wore while in public holding despite the tremulous fear Red could see in her eyes and detect in her breathing and heart rate.

"Much better," Red replied, smiling as she deliberately fingered the pendant of her necklace. The action drew Regina's attention, whose face softened at catching sight of it. That is, at least, until Red heard Henry's door open and subsequently slam, which caused Regina's face to shift back into trepidation. After a moment, the plodding of heavy boyish footsteps entered the hallway, and once he had flown down the stairs, Henry barreled into Emma at full tilt, his eyes wide with frenzied excitement that was mixed with quite a bit of anxiety.

"It's real, just like I told you," he said in a rush, his face reddening. Glancing over at his mother, his eyes narrowed hatefully for the briefest of moments, causing Regina to flinch. But then his demeanor shifted when he took a moment to really study the woman who had raised him and loved him, becoming aware – just as Red already was – of how all of this was affecting her, for it was clear by her posture that Regina was tormented by her mistakes and as uncertain as she had ever been about the future.

As if wearied and stricken by what he saw, Henry sighed. A boy that young, Red thought, should not look so old. "You really did cast the curse didn't you, Mom?" he asked.

Despite looking wounded and extremely skittish, Regina did not bother lying. "Yes."

Big eyes implored her for an explanation. Red knew there was none, though the tempered curiosity just beneath the surface of his next question indicated a tentative willingness to hear Regina's side of the story. "Why?"

Red's whole body stilled. She had a feeling in her gut that this was one of those moments that lives hinged on, a moment that might very well change everything, not only for Regina and Henry, but for Red and Emma and everyone else in Storybrooke as well. It was not hard to guess how Regina might react if Henry walked out on her for good, for even though she had expressly told Emma to take him away, Red knew that deep down inside she needed Henry as much, if not more, than she needed Red. Losing her son for good might finally be what broke Regina for good, and Red was acutely aware of the fact that the last time Regina had been broken she wound up cursing an entire realm to another world.

Fearing for her lover, Red looked at Henry to gauge his mood. Instead of seeing hurt, anger, or betrayal, she saw something else in his eyes, something that made her proud. It was as if he was searching for a reason, any reason to forgive his mother if she could but give him one. It became clear to Red that in the time he was in his room alone, he had really thought the situation through more carefully, giving him pause about acting in a knee-jerk manner.

Henry was an extremely intelligent boy, and as such had obviously realized that something wasn't adding up about his precious book's depiction of Regina. The Evil Queen he had read about was very different from the doting mother who had expended herself for his sake, cherishing him over all else for the past ten years, a point which was further underscored by the last five months. The Regina who had raised him was not the same one as had created Storybrooke in order to destroy all happy endings. That woman's happy ending had been to take away everyone elses, but the Regina standing in front of Henry now, clutching her hands tightly at her waist as if fearing the judgment he were about to pass upon her, was a woman who had carved out a happy ending not predicated on the suffering of others.

Quite contrary to what Regina had thought it to be, her happy ending wound up being adopting a baby boy, loving him and raising him into a fine young man, and finding love, which she had with Red. In both both aspects, she had succeeded all on her own, without the aid of magic, and without overtly harming a single person.

And though Regina had her faults and made plenty of mistakes, Red thought her to be a good mother, one she would be proud to have raise her own children. Without any help from friends or from a partner, Regina had taught Henry to be a healthy, intelligent, well-read and relatively well-adjusted kid who, apart from a few semi-recent deviations, behaved and minded his manners. Ruby had always enjoyed being around him, and not just because she'd thought his mother to be the most beautiful creature on earth, but for his own sake. When he wasn't all worked up about curses and being angry at his mother, he was a good kid that was fun to be around. Much of that was, she thought, due to Regina.

As far Regina herself was concerned, Red thought she was about as close to perfect as possible. Because of how much she loved the woman, it would be disingenuous to ignore the obvious bias, but even taking that into consideration, from her very personal perspective there was no one on earth that could love the way Regina did. Having seen and experienced that love, Red now understood Regina's reluctance to give her heart away when they'd been together back in the Enchanted Forest, for when Regina gave her heart, she gave it all the way. Because of that, when it got broken the devastation was total. This new understanding went a long way toward explaining why Regina had become the Evil Queen, and that is not to mention Rumplestiltskin's nefarious interference.

That Regina was still capable of such enormous emotion begged the question as to whether she was truly evil even at her worst. After all, if an evil person could tap into such vast reserves of love, what did that say about love as an emotion worth having? Was love really something so wonderful, really something so valuable and precious enough to fight for if someone intrinsically evil could experience it in its fullness? Red didn't think so, and she got the sneaking suspicion that Henry was coming around to the same opinion, which was a good thing judging by how tenuous a grip Regina seemed to have on her psyche at the moment. The past hour had been hell on the woman, and the worst kind of it: one of her own design.

"I made a mistake," Regina then admitted, flushing with shame before her son's scrutiny. "Remember how I told you that Ruby and I were together before I cast the Curse?" Henry nodded. With an apologetic look to Red, Regina continued. "I thought for a long time that she was only infatuated with me, that she didn't really love me and was trying to trick me on Snow White's behalf."

"Snow White. That would be my mother, correct?" Emma interjected with trademark sarcasm. "You know, just to keep things straight and in context."

"As I was saying," Regina ignored Emma, rolling her eyes, "because I didn't trust her, I went ahead with my plans to cast the Curse. You see, Henry, everything I have ever loved has been taken away from me: my first love, my freedom, my innocence. When I learned about the Curse, I thought it to be my last recourse, my only means of obtaining any form of happiness, however inadequate. I realize now how wrong I was, as I did at the last before the Curse took effect. Ruby did love me but it was too late. I had already cast the Curse and was powerless to stop it."

For a moment, Henry seemed to contemplate her answer. "And what if you could have...stopped it? If you could go back now, would you?"

At that, Regina knelt before Henry, her eyes pleading. "I wanted to then, but knowing what I do now, I wouldn't do anything differently," she said. Henry puffed up in anger but before he could start castigating her, Regina continued. "But only because of you, sweetheart." All of the anger deflated out of Henry at that, causing his eyes to soften, along with Emma's, though the Sheriff remained tense. "I love you and would never do anything that would jeopardize you being in my life. Getting to be your mother has been my greatest privilege."

Red watched as a measure of acceptance formed in Henry's expression and his posture somewhat relaxed. It was evident he was still angry, but at least he believed that his mother loved him. It was a step in the right direction. But then his gaze shifted to Red.

"But what about Ruby? You loved her, too, and look what you did. You cursed her. And not just that, 'cause I've heard things..." he trailed off, eyes wide that he had even started down that line of conversation.

Regina's spine straightened, her eyes hardening. From a few paces away, Emma stiffened as well, casting worried eyes at Red.

"What kinds of things?" Regina asked.

"Things about her that people shouldn't say," Henry replied, flushed with embarrassment as he turned apologetic eyes up at Red.

For a second, Red blanched. That Henry had even the vaguest idea of what she'd done while cursed was mortifying, though she recovered her composure quickly. However true the rumors might be, she did not want to lend credence to them, both for Henry's sake and her own. Contemplating what she'd been through right now would only drive her further into the dark place she'd almost sank into when the curse broke. So, pretty much, she just wanted to ignore what had been insinuated. Yet, seeing Regina's aghast expression, she felt compelled to respond.

"I won't lie to you, Henry," she said uncomfortably, "bad things happened to me here." When Regina looked over at her with an ambivalent expression, appearing both unsure of what Red was going to say and concerned as to where the conversation might be headed, Red smiled reassuringly. Regina had good reason to be concerned about her addressing the issue directly, but Red felt it necessary if only to keep Henry from digging further into the issue, which she knew to be a likely outcome if his inquiry was not satisfied.

The reason for Regina's nervousness was not so simple as the subject matter, but was also rooted in previous experience with Ruby's unique way of handling awkward situations. Under her cursed personality, Red had lacked tact in some areas, a constant source of complaint for the prim and proper Mayor that thrived on keeping up appearances. Regina often quipped that Ruby's lack of decorum was why they didn't go out much, which was probably true. As Ruby, she was sometimes painfully oblivious to notions of etiquette and propriety, but even her cursed self knew better than to discuss some things in front of kids, such as decades worth of skeevy behavior being inadvertently forced upon her.

Being so young, Henry wouldn't be able to understand such things, nor should he have to be required to. He was just a kid. Although he had certainly been through some crazy stuff these past few months, in all of the ways that mattered most, he was still innocent. Such a bright boy with a limitless future at his disposal did not deserve to have Red's problems heaped onto his own, and more importantly, Red felt his innocence was something worth preserving at all costs, a sentiment she knew his mother would vehemently agree with.

Sighing, she wrestled for a moment with what to say. She wanted to help Henry understand but not at the expense of discretion. She needed her explanation to be as vague yet effective as possible.

"Some of those things will haunt me for a long time," she began carefully, noting that all eyes were attentively on her. "There are memories of my life during the Curse that I would do almost anything to forget, the kind that will probably give me nightmares. I was...compelled to act in ways that I never would have, ways that make me sad and angry and want to curl up in a corner somewhere and cry when I think about them." The hurt that swam over Regina's face at that statement curled Red's stomach but she knew she needed to be truthful in a way that would best drive home her point. She pressed on. "But having said that, your Mom is right, because even though I have all of these terrible memories, I wouldn't change anything either. A lot of people might disagree, most will certainly not understand, but to me, the Curse was not all bad. In fact, I think it was for the best."

Henry looked genuinely shocked at her statement, as did Emma. "How can you say that? It took away everything from you!" His disbelief was nearly tangible.

"But did it?" she replied, giving him an easy smile born of increasing confidence. It was strange feeling so calm when talking about such a disturbing topic, especially when just a few minutes ago, she had been sobbing her heart out while her emotions ran roughshod over her like a herd of wild buffalo. But when she'd heard Regina talking to Henry, something clicked. By confessing that her love for Red existed even before the Curse was cast, Regina had in her own way admitted regret that her pride had caused her to make a mistake, and that seemingly simple admission acted as a trigger to jog Red's memory. As Henry walked away and Regina collapsed in sorrow over what was happening to her family, the last night before the curse flashed through Red's mind, and along with it, Regina's heartfelt declarations.

Though it was not enough to erase the pain of what happened during the Curse, knowing Regina was hurting on her behalf was enough for Red to realize that she was not to blame for Ruby's questionable character. Aside from the wolf, those unrestrained sexual urges Ruby had battled every month came from somewhere other than the woman who cast the curse, and Red had a pretty good idea of who that was.

Having been made aware that Rumplestiltskin had authored the Dark Curse from the man himself, it occurred to Red that it was altogether possible – and even likely – that he had provided himself a loophole to augment things to his liking, a backdoor of a type that would allow him to slip in unnoticed and supersede Regina's command over his creation. If true, she had to wonder why he would utilize that loophole to warp her into a raging slut, which would hurt not only Red but Regina as well. Maybe it was in retaliation for Belle, she guessed.

Upon returning home after meeting Belle for the first time, Regina had told Red about her plan to trick the bookish maid into trying to break Rumple's curse, and though Red was not able to dissuade Regina from her decided course of action, after much discussion she was at least able to convince Regina to provide the girl with a new life should the plan go awry. When it did, both Red and Regina helped Belle to settle in somewhere far away from the monstrous man she had somehow managed to fall in love with. Where Belle was now, Red could not guess, but wherever it was, she hoped that the kind young woman had the good sense to stay away.

Still, even though he had authored the Curse and likely exacerbated its effect on her, Red couldn't cast all of the blame on Rumplestiltskin, for some of Ruby's behavior was her own cross to bear. Once Regina had given Red a taste of what sex could be like, she quickly developed quite an insatiable appetite. She'd figured that in all likelihood, her very healthy libido was strongly inspired by the wolf, but with the Queen's towering, authoritarian presence to bend the wolf to her will, and with her practiced hands and hot mouth to satisfy Red in every way, it didn't really matter where her abundant sexual energy came from. Sex with Regina sated the animalistic cravings of the wolf in way that she wasn't sure anyone else could, and it made Red extraordinarily glad that she had ventured out in the Queen's lands that day, if only so that Regina could be her first mate...and her last.

But under the Curse, things were different. As Ruby, she was disconnected from the wolf and sundered from Regina, so she hadn't really been aware of why she became so compelled to seek out carnal gratification when the moon was full, just that she needed it with an almost savage intensity. For most of the month she was able to maintain enough control to keep her raging libido under wraps – though admittedly there were a few casual flings during the weeks in which the moon was not waning or waxing – but those few brief affairs were nothing in nature like the drunken, marathon sexcapades she regularly indulged in during the handful of days that would ordinarily constitute Wolf's Time back in the Enchanted Forest.

When the moon was full, Ruby had felt like her skin was crawling with so much energy that she could barely sit still. Everything ached of a morning, particularly the more sensitive parts of her anatomy, to the degree that even giving herself release time and again did not help to temper her boiling blood. During the evenings, she would pace the floor of her apartment, wearing out a trail in the floor that was still there at present, trying to control her keen impulse to hit The Rabbit Hole and hunt for a victim with which to sate her primal urges. It never worked. By the time 9 or 10 pm rolled around, she would be in her closet, digging out the most revealing outfits she owned until one caught her attention. Soon thereafter, she would drive to the bar, dance with anyone who dared to chance an encounter with a predator on the prowl, get plastered once she was tired of that, and then when the bar was about to close, pick out the most attractive person there to seduce. In all of the years of the Curse, whether male or female, 20 or 50 years old, no one ever turned away Ruby's advances. The wolf always got what she wanted.

Now that the Curse was lifted, Red realized that her wolf had been acting out in the only way she could, asserting herself through provocative dress and aggressive sexual behavior. Having been provided the opportunity by Rumpelstiltskin to affect her moods and behavior, in lieu of shifting, the wolf's only available method of self-expression was to live out an unfortunately apt Nine Inch Nails song. It still disgusted Red to think that she had slept with so many people, but having a good idea what had caused her to act that way helped take the sharp edge off of the hurt. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how one looked at things), she was accustomed to dealing with the fallout from the wolf, so she was equipped to deal with this latest violation, which said a lot about how tragic her life had been in general.

Yet even though she had been doubly cursed for however many years the Dark Curse had lasted, only one of those was attributable to Regina, and it, for the most part, was not so bad at all. Storybrooke was a great little town in a pretty great world. The modern life afforded here, stuck as they were in one era, was a far cry better than anything she'd experienced back in the Enchanted Forest. From indoor plumbing to electricity and from movies to music, the many amenities of this world had spoiled Red to the point that even the privileged life she lead in Snow's castle seemed unbearable in retrospect. So, barring a few obvious exceptions, she was grateful to be in Storybrooke, Maine. Red loved the life Regina had created for her and the citizens of the Enchanted Forest, and now that she and her Queen were together once more as they should be, she had no desire to abandon it – ever.

Her patient smile still in place, Red crouched down in front of Henry and then brushed his boyish bangs out of his face. He blushed at the action, causing Red to chuckle.

"You're young, Henry," she said gently, "and you got to grow up in a world with conveniences that I never had. I know it's hard to imagine because of how idyllic the storybook makes the Enchanted Forest seem, but no matter what anyone else may tell you in the days to come, it is not a nice place. It's dangerous and wild, cruel and unforgiving. Even a good life there is hard."

Her gaze turned up to Emma, who was looking down in awe, as if Red mentioning her childhood in the old world caused it to finally dawn on her that all of this was really true. Giving a confirming nod to her friend, Red stood and returned to stand next to Regina, then slipped her hand into Regina's delicately smooth one to link their fingers together. Before returning her focus to Henry, Red looked over at her lover to see her biting her lip with an overflowing amount of gratitude in her eyes. The expression was both an acceptance of Red's decision to confront Henry with the truth and her encouragement to continue with the brutal honesty.

"I grew up poor – really poor. Dirt poor, really," Red then told Henry, feeling Regina squeeze her hand in support. Her girlfriend knew how touchy a subject this was.

At first, the wealth disparity between herself and Regina had been a notable point of contention between them. Regina had always wanted to spoil her and Red was too prideful to accept most of the gifts she was given. The few she kept were because Regina had given them out of honest affection and not out of an ostentatious display of her station, the necklace foremost among those offerings. But over time, their wildly disparate upbringings lost relevance in the face of feelings that superseded all sense of socioeconomic status.

As something beautiful bloomed into life between them, it began to matter less and less to Red that she had been born a peasant while Regina was born into the nobility, and the same was true for Regina. Those kinds of things no longer seemed to be obstacles but rather mere facts that had no bearing on how they felt about each other. When all Red wanted was to be with Regina, no matter the cost, the class she was born into suddenly lost all relevance. Love, Red had discovered, did not see such human artificiality, for it was not concerned about material things but about forging deep, lasting, fulfilling bonds between people.

But just because their differing levels of social status did not hinder their relationship, it did not mean that they had no influence on them as individuals, an impossibility proven in this world by the nature vs. nurture debates. While genetics had a part to play in what kind of character a person developed, the environment a person grew up in had at the very least an equal influence, of which Red was an example. The hard life she had been born into had shaped her into the person she became, and Red could not feel even a little sorry for that.

"When I was a little girl," she continued in her effort to enlighten her lover's son, "Granny got sick for a while and we had to move into this little one room cabin that got so cold in the winter that we had to sleep huddled up on the floor just to be near the only heat source we had – a pitifully inadequate stove that just barely kept the chill off. That winter it got so bad that I didn't really know what it felt like to be warm until spring came again.

"Granny eventually got better, but she lost so much business while she was sick that we had to stay there up until the time I was around your age. Thankfully, Granny's chickens, knitting, and cooking services finally started to make enough money for her to build us a nicer place. Somehow we made it until then but there were some rough times in between. I can honestly say that I know what it feels like to not eat anything more than a morsel or two of bread per day for a whole week, all the while feeling miserable with each bite because I had to watch Granny starve and suffer just so I could eat. Can you say the same?"

Looking ashamed, Henry shook his head. Red hated making him feel that way but she needed him to understand the unintentional gift his mother had given the people of the Enchanted Forest, herself included. To her relief, Regina seemed to understand what she was going for and refrained from chastising Red for making her son feel bad.

"I'm not trying to be mean, sweetie," Red reassured him soothingly, rubbing his arm in a gentle motion. "I just want you to understand." Leveling her eyes on Emma, Red then posed the same challenge to her friend. "And how about you, Em?"

"Can't say that I ever had it quite that bad," the blonde replied, "but I know what it's like to be hungry all the time."

Red nodded. She was somewhat generally aware of Emma's lousy childhood. Though tight-lipped about her past, Emma had shared enough tidbits to Ruby for Red to understand how bad it had been at times.

"Then you know what Henry has here is a blessing," she said, watching Emma open her mouth to object but shut it immediately afterward when realizing she had no leg to stand on. "And I'm not just talking about my childhood either. I dealt with things back there, lost people and did things that have left permanent scars on me, that made me feel like a monster and question whether or not I was actually a good person."

With Red's voice swimming with emotion, Regina let go of her hand to begin to soothe the small of her back, tenderly rubbing circles there that helped take the sting off of very bitter memories. Looking up at Regina with unadulterated love, she said, "Your mom understands because she lived it, too," and then turned back to Henry. "And because of all that, I would never go back there. Never. I would rather die. I love my life here, and someday people are going to realize that despite your Mom's bad intentions, they do, too. So, while it might seem impossible, something good did come out of her cursing us here."

"And what about me?" Emma asked, glancing between Red and Regina. Her looks at Regina were more pointed, Red noted, more angry. "Let's say that all of this is true. What about me having to grow up alone and unwanted in foster care? I spent my childhood learning that people couldn't be trusted, that families were all messed up and that love was a lie. I was abandoned on the side of the road like trash for Christ's sake. How is that good?!"

Red bit her lip, understanding Emma's turmoil but needing to redirect it from being fully blamed on Regina. "It's terrible what happened to you, Emma," she said, "and you can blame Regina if you like, 'cause she certainly had a part to play which she's not denied. But the situation was not as simple as you might think. There were choices that could have been made to spare you some of that pain."

Emma frowned, her brows drawn together. "Such as?"

"For one," Red supplied, "your parents didn't have to put you in that wardrobe."

She hated throwing her friends under the bus, so to speak, but the truth was the truth. Red knew why Snow had chosen to send Emma through the wardrobe but that did not change the fact that the option of keeping Emma with her was available if she so desired. Emma, however, did not seem to appreciate that fact.

Glowering, the Sheriff crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive posture. Good, Red thought. At least on some subconscious level, Emma had started to accept the possibility that Mary Margaret Blanchard and David Nolan were really Snow White and Prince Charming, her long lost parents.

"Are you seriously trying to insinuate that this is their fault?"

"No, I'm not," Red soothed, her eyes earnest. "I'm saying that things are complicated. Your parents love you, Emma, and they did what they thought was best for you, but there were consequences to that choice, your lousy childhood being most prominent among them. You have to understand that you're not the only one here who had a terrible childhood. I've told you part of mine but if you need more, come over some time and I'll tell you the rest, or Regina can tell you about hers. The life you lived in this world might have been tough but I guarantee it wasn't as bad as what we went through."

Clearing his throat, Henry tried to get their attention. "Guys..."

"How dare you," Emma erupted, almost snarling with anger. "You have no idea what it was like. I…"

"Guys!" Henry yelled this time. They turned to find him standing in front of the front door, which was now wide open. Apparently everyone had been so absorbed by the tense atmosphere that they hadn't even heard Henry open it.

"What is it, Henry?" Regina asked.

Henry pointed outside, his face showing a startling amount of fear. "Look."

Following his finger, Red peered out the door. When she did her eyes widened, for outside Regina's house, a large mob had gathered. The steady hum of their chatter wafted into the house, and as she took in their faces, she noted that nearly all of them were twisted by irrational rage. Replete as they were with every type of weapon imaginable from guns and knives to pitchforks and baseball bats, reasoning with them was going to be a delicate if not impossible task. The only problem was that Regina did not do delicate, nor did Red really, but between the two of them, something was going to have to be done to resolve the situation lest things escalate beyond control. That many people could not be fought off, not when Red had no control over her wolf and Regina's magic was at best unreliable because it was just coming back to her or at worst not there at all.

Realizing that someone had to get Henry to safety, Red turned on the Sheriff, fixing her with an urgently pleading look. "Take Henry out the back door," she ordered. "Now, Emma!"

Having caught sight of the mob out on Regina's front lawn, Emma did not question the command. Laying her hands on Henry's shoulders, she began to usher him away, protesting though he was, but not before looking back at Red with a silent promise that she would return if she was able. The look reassured Red that even though Emma was upset, she still valued their friendship. Red just prayed her friend was able to make good on her silent promise because she had the sinking suspicion that things between the mob and Regina were going to get ugly very quickly. The possibility seemed slim, though, since Henry's safety was of the utmost importance. And seeing as Red was not sure where Emma would take him in order to guarantee he stayed safe, she could not guess as to whether or not Emma could get him there and return in a feasible amount of time to help rein in the mob.

The further away the better, Red thought, even though that would leave her and Regina to deal with the mob by themselves. She would much rather risk her own safety than Henry's.

Speaking of Regina, once Emma had Henry out the back door to safety, she wasted no time in pulling herself up to her full height. After squaring her shoulders, she then strode out the door like the Queen that she was. Not bothering to wait for Red to accompany her, she approached the frothing crowd gathered around her porch, her face twisted in haughty pride.

"Can I help you?" she asked, stepping up into Victor Whale's face with a condescending smirk.

Scowling, the mysterious doctor of whom Red knew next to nothing aside from his disconcerting leers and unwelcome advances replied, "That smirk isn't gonna last forever, Regina. You took everything from us, and now..."

Regina scoffed derisively. "What? Now you're gonna kill me?"

"Eventually," Whale snarled, "but first, you need to suffer."

Regina's smirk returned with a vengeance. "Listening to you has been enough suffering for all of us." Looking out at the crowd in general, she then dismissed Whale as if insignificant, her eyes hardening into two points of steel as she began to lift her arms dramatically. Reacting out of ingrained instinct to fear their Queen, the crowd cowered back a step in concert. "That's right," Regina grinned. "You wanted to see your Queen? Well, my dears, here...she...is."

As she threw her hands forward, Regina tried to cast a spell but nothing happened. Stunned, she looked at her hands in disbelief and then back out to the crowd, who had regathered momentum at the failed attempt to drive them away with magic.

"She's powerless!" One of them yelled, causing their voices to rise in a cacophony of curses and vengeful promises. They began to advance.

"What?" Glancing back at her hands, Regina seemed still unable to understand what had happened. With her so distracted by the failure of her magic, Red stepped a bit closer, prepared to protect her lover from the unruly mob of justifiably angry citizens.

All of the sudden, one of the people in the crowd screamed, "Get her!" just as Whale straightened up to loom over Regina.

"Now," he growled, raising his hands to Regina's neck, "where were we?"

But before he could close them, a man stepped out of the crowd from his left, slipping carefully past the doctor as he towered over Regina, who seemed to have shrunk a foot in a matter of seconds. There was a thin sword in his hand, gripped tightly, and a predatory grin on his lips. Regina was so bewildered by her powerlessness and so focused on a steadily advancing Whale that she didn't see the man approach. It was only as he prepared to strike that her eyes eyes caught sight of him, but being without a means to defend herself and with nowhere to run, there was nothing that she could do.

With a strangled shout, Red burst into action, surging forward with inhuman speed until her body was wedged as a shield between Regina and the deadly blade intent on ending her life. Red didn't even have time to brace herself before she felt the cool metal of the blade slide into the center of her abdomen just beneath her sternum. As it passed through her body, she could feel it brush against her spine before emerging out her back. Almost instantly her legs gave out, rendered useless by the glancing blow to her spinal column, causing her to drop like a rock to the concrete of Regina's porch where she landed with the full force of her weight on her side.

After the impact, she heard Regina cry out her name. Red tried to respond but blood prevented her from speaking as it began to rise up into the column of her throat, threatening to choke her and causing her attempt at words to come out as a sickening gurgle rather than translatable communication. Feeling the blood leak in streams from her mouth, she gasped for air. The pressure on her lungs was so terrific that it felt like an ogre was sitting on her chest. What part of her upper body was still able to move writhed as she fought to get oxygen to her screaming lungs.

Eyes wide with fear, Red caught sight of Regina falling to her knees. "No, no, no!" her distraught lover wailed, tears running down her face only to splash down onto the concrete. The passage of time seemed to have slowed to such a degree that Red could almost see and hear the salty droplets hit and then form into sad, lonely little puddles that made her heart lurch. In synch with the evermore sluggish movement of time, her heartbeat began to decline, though the force of the muscle pounding within her breast reverberated in her ears as if composing a requiem for its host. The tragic melody told Red an awful truth: she was dying and with no magic in Storybrooke, there was little that could be done to save her.

Drowning in her own blood, she began to panic. "I don't want to die," she tried to say, but again it came out as gurgling and gasping.

All of the sudden, a spike of adrenaline hit her, speeding up time once more and giving her the strength to heave her chest in an effort to draw precious oxygen into her lungs. As her body thrashed, she felt hands on her shoulders, holding her steadily down, along with the sounds of more shouting, though this time it was not just Regina. Red thought she heard Snow and Charming as well.

Great, she thought morbidly around a wet, wheezing breath, an audience for my demise.

Dots began to swim in her vision as her head grew light to the point that she thought it might float away. She could still feel the slick texture and tangy taste of blood in her mouth, and somewhere in the back of her mind, she recognized she was going into shock from losing so much of the life-sustaining liquid. Red could feel herself slipping away. But as a foreboding yet somehow enticing darkness appeared just at the edge of her vision, all of her fear began to fade away.

Turning her eyes up to Regina, she found her Queen kneeling at her side, the beautiful face she had come to associate with happiness so broken with sorrow that it hurt her to gaze upon it. It hurt so much to know that Regina was in pain because of her and her impulsive actions, and she couldn't bear to watch it anymore. Mustering her strength, she lifted the arm not pinned underneath her body and then extended it in order to caress Regina's face, somewhat startled to find the appendage coated with blood from where her life's essence was spilling out onto the concrete.

At the touch of her hand, Regina let out an awful choking sob, her tears now flowing in torrents.

"I..." Red struggled to say.

"Shh," Regina responded, agony rolling over her features like waves of a stormy ocean. "Don't talk, my darling. Just let Victor help you."

Out of the corner of her vision, Red saw Dr. Whale inspecting her wound in only his undershirt, holding his crisp blue oxford in his hand. She briefly wondered what he planned to do with the expensive garment but was immediately enlightened when he tore it into two halves and then began to pack it around the wound in her back and stomach. The pain when he did so was incredible. Her vision blurred as a white hot lance of pain shot through the wounded area.

"Hold on, Red!" she heard Regina shout in that imperiously demanding tone that she had perfected. "Hold on! You hear me? You keep fighting, dammit! Don't you dare give up! Fight, Red! Fight!"

Frustrated by her inability to form words, Red lifted her head, albeit at a shallow angle because of the fact that she was still on her side. She felt a hand slide under her neck to brace it but was too focused on Regina to be aware of who had provided her the much needed support. She was grateful nonetheless. Driven by a desperate need to speak one last time, to spend what was left of herself for Regina's sake, she summoned what remained of her energy and will.

"I..." she tried again and this time a word emerged, though it was strangled and wet and didn't sound anything at all like her own voice, "Love..." Knowing her next word would be her last, Red gave Regina a blood-stained smile, hoping that the endless depths of her love was evident enough to be read, and hopeful that it might provide some measure of comfort to Regina when she was dead. And then with one last gasping breath, she stroked Regina's cheek. Her beloved Queen. How Red wanted to stay with her forever. Fate, however, had other plans. "You."

Her head falling backward, Red's breath left in a whoosh. Eyes fixed and open, she stared at Regina's face, determined to imprint the tragic beauty of her lover into her very soul so that wherever she went beyond this life, she could take Regina's memory with her. All too soon, though, a creeping cold descended upon her body, clouding her mind with darkness, and Red could do nothing but watch numbly as Regina began to scream again, the vein in her forehead throbbing so furiously that Red absently thought it might burst.

And then silence fell as the darkness gathered into a great black cloud which billowed around Red's consciousness until it swallowed her whole. As she faded away, all she was and had hoped for and dreamed of was swept away into nothingness, until all too soon, existence ceased and she slipped away beyond the circles of this reality.