It hadn't been the happiest day. Billy, the man that had attempted to ask Ruby out the night before had left the diner...and been murdered. She had been expecting Ruby to show up on her door, heartbroken, in need of consoling, she even had a carton of Rocky Road already in her freezer upstairs just for the occasion and was hoping that they might be able to talk about what happened last night; why she couldn't stay out long, why she'd turned down Billy in the first place, why she'd avoided her for the rest of the night and then disappeared in the middle of the party without letting her know. What she hadn't been prepared for was Ruby to show up on her doorstep with David carrying heavy chains and Granny holding a crossbow just before sunset, seeking not comfort but shelter.

The three of them had taken her into a back room and she'd listen to the story David told her. And an interesting story it was, one that answered all her questions and more!

It wasn't the craziest thing she'd ever heard of. And she believed it immediately because she could see the seriousness on all of their faces. It was also obvious from the looks that Ruby and Granny kept throwing her, during David's tale, that they all had expected her to shrink away from Ruby with fear and tell them to get out. But she didn't, merely nodded her head and told them that they could set the chains up. She'd be safe here.

They'd stared at her like she was a crazy person, baffled at how easily her acceptance had come. To that she could only roll her eyes. "Obviously you've all forgotten who I'm used to dealing with," she said, finding irony in her choice of words. She felt a stab of guilt as she remembered how long it had been since she'd last seen him, but she shook the thought away and reminded herself to focus on the situation at hand, there was a mob gathering...her relationship with Rumpelstiltskin was not the issue right now. She'd already lost one friend because she'd been too focused on herself, she wouldn't let that happen again! "There is very little that I would find surprising these days and compared to the Dark One...this is nothing," she finished crossing her arms over the bleeding heart within her chest.

With her permission Ruby had found a safe sturdy place in the library and started to reinforce the length of chains that she'd brought. She and David filled the time by going around the library and making sure the windows were covered and the doors were locked. They weren't so much worried about what would get out as they were what might get in. "These should work," she heard Ruby say as she and David came back into the secure room.

"Thanks for letting her hide here," David said, sounding more like a big brother than the husband of his wife's friend. "The sheriff station isn't safe."

"Of course, it's not every day you find out your friend's-"

"A monster?!" Ruby interrupted the hurt and suspicious look on her face upsetting. She smirked at her friend. She hated that word, probably because she had loved dearly every "monster" that she had ever met and in her opinion it was the beasts that didn't know they were monsters that posed the true threat.

"Hunted," she stated clearly, trying to let Ruby know that she was disappointed if she ever thought that she would see her that way. "I was going to say 'hunted'," she said a bit more gently when Ruby cast her eyes down at the floor.

"The crowd is six blocks from here," Granny said suddenly, a look of concentration on her face.

She looked at alarmed at the woman. "You...you have wolf hearing too?!"

"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Granny shrugged, "especially when you run a hotel." She didn't even want to begin to contemplate the meaning behind that statement. After a few weeks in this world she was more learned but still ignorant, and if it meant what she thought it meant...she'd rather be ignorant.

"The only way we're going to get the mob to stand down is if we can prove Ruby had nothing to do with Billy's death," David explained hunched over the table. She wanted to reach out and hug Ruby. She knew that she had liked Billy and that she wasn't a killer. But right now, Ruby didn't believe it and she didn't want to make her friend more afraid of herself then she already appeared to be. The entire situation made her want to cry. Ruby was one of the most confident people she'd ever met, she was almost jealous of her for it sometimes, but right now she looked nothing but sad and upset...broken. Suddenly David stood up, "I'm going to need your help," he said, pointing to Granny. He grabbed her own shoulder suddenly, "if the mob comes this way, call us! Come on," he ordered before leaving quickly with Granny.

She and Ruby watched them go, but when she looked over at poor Ruby she thought that she might be about to break into tears. As soon as the pair were out of the library, she heard her mutter, "I have to go to the bathroom," with a choked voice and hurried away from her in a sprint. She leaned against the closest bookshelf and waited, staring at the ceiling above her.

Ruby hadn't done this. She knew it! She only hoped that something that David and Granny would find would be able to provide proof that she wasn't guilty. Living with the thought that she had committed this horrible crime was torturing her and she just didn't know how to stop it. With a deep breath she moved from the shelf out to the front circulation desk to wait for her. It was a fact of life that people who thought they were monsters tended to push those that cared for them away, in an effort to protect them. She refused to let that happen. The only way to show the good people who thought they were monsters that they weren't was to stand by them and show them that it wasn't true, not just say it.

Finally, after a long while, longer than it took to really go to the bathroom, she heard a toilet flush and a sink running. She watched the door eagerly but it took another few moments before the door opened and Ruby faced her with a shallow impersonation of her usual confidence. "You need to leave," she insisted, predictably. "The moon's going to be up soon," she informed her, walking around the desk and putting as much distance between the two of them as possible.

"Well, will the chains hold?" she asked following after her. She wasn't just going to leave her alone through all of this, not after all Ruby had done for her!

"Hopefully," she said, sounding like she did this all the time. But she knew, David had told her, it had been 28 years since she had.

"Then I'm staying." Ruby spun around to face her at her words, fear flickering in her eyes. She gave her the biggest reassuring smile she could muster and reached out to grab her shoulders. "Think of it as girl's night," she said trying to make a joke. Ruby didn't find it funny. In fact she looked not just scared but also angry, like she didn't know why she was making this harder than it had to be. Ruby stepped away from her touch like she was contagious. "What's wrong?"

"I know David wants to believe the best," she explained backing away, looking like she might break into tears again, "but I've killed before, and I'll do it again!" she yelled, grabbing the chain like it was her only chance at safety. "Everyone in this town is right to be afraid of me,"

"Okay, well, I'm not!"

"You should be!" Ruby yelled, but it was the same old story. The monster was trying to scare her, but it wouldn't work. For whatever reason beasts weren't able to frighten her. He never had and she wouldn't now. People could change, she had seen it and she wanted her to understand it as well. It felt like déjà vu, telling someone that they were not the sum of their prior mistakes, but rather that they were who they chose to be. For a moment she half expected it to be a hallucination and the room and woman before her to melt away into his face and his castle. She had to shake her head to get rid of the thought. This wasn't about him, wasn't about them, it was about Ruby.

"No matter what you might have done in your past," she insisted. "David sees the good in you, and that tells me one thing..."

"What?" Ruby asked timidly.

She sighed, "That it's in there! So if we can all see it...why can't you?!"

Ruby just looked shocked, like she wanted to believe it, but something was in the way. Billy. "You really think so?"

"Trust me," she said, her mind wandering back to Rumple, she really did miss him. "I'm sort of an expert when it comes to rehabilitation." Ruby smirked, like something might have been funny. She'd never divulged any of Rumple's secrets to her, but she had told her about their life and how she felt with him, how hopelessly in love she was with him even now after all he'd done. Ruby was smart, she knew who Rumple was and who she was, she could put two and two together easily enough she imagined.

"Maybe," Ruby swallowed, like she was trying to hold back tears again, "maybe you're right." Ruby stepped forward and for a moment she thought that she was going to reach out and take a hug from her, but suddenly she found a cold heavy weight pressing against her wrist, biting into her skin between the metal and the bone. She looked down at the shackle, shocked and confused. What was she trying to do? And how had she managed to become a prisoner yet again?! "But the towns right too," Ruby insisted. "I am a monster and that's why I need to make sure that I don't ever hurt anyone again!"

"No, no!" But Ruby moved around her and out of the room. "What are you doing?"

"I can't let you stop me!" she said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. It wasn't. What was she planning that Ruby thought she'd would stop?! "The mob wants a wolf I'm going to give them one. I have to pay for what I've done!"

She felt her jaw drop. "They'll kill you!" she said, realizing too late that Ruby already knew that and had planned on it.

"Isn't that what I deserve?" But it wasn't a question, it was a statement, like there was no other option for her but to pay for a crime she didn't even know she had commit. She wasn't going to wait for Granny and David to get back. She wasn't even going to hope they could prove her innocence! In her mind she was guilty. And without another word, Ruby turned and stormed out.

"Ruby!" she called uselessly. "Ruby don't! Don't do this!" But the heavy library door slammed after her last word and she realized that it was too late. It appeared that she had vastly misunderstood the depth of her guilt and self-hatred. It turned out that monsters were indeed different, but at least her beast had some sense of self-preservation that kept the guilt away, prevented him from destroying himself. Ruby didn't seem to be as lucky. She was going to sacrifice herself out of guilt! It was penitence for the life she thought she had taken. And Ruby was right, from where she was now she couldn't do anything to stop her!

Pretty straight forward chapter. Not too much to say about it other than I hope that you like it as I hope you do all the chapters!

Peace and Happy Reading!