Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time. Never will. Except for Ally and Rose.


10- Red Handed

A lot has been going on in Storybrooke, Maine the last few weeks. The once normal and monotonous town is now bustling and bursting with energy and its fair share of crime and drama. Someone had awoken the town of daydreamers and the person who lit the fuse on the dormant powder keg is none other than the Sheriff of this very town.

While the adults were busy rediscovering that they could finally live and make choices again (no matter how reckless they may be) the children are left to sort things out for themselves. The perfect example would be young Henry Mills and his best friend Ally Lucas.

Ever since Regina (the mayor/Henry's adopted mom/Evil Queen), destroyed their castle playground, the pair has been hard at work constructing a hideaway, that not even the Evil Queen herself could find. It had taken much begging, pleading, and even a few tears on the ten-year-olds part to convince Rose that she should help them out.

It did help that the fourteen-year-old was going through a rebellious phase of her own (pink streaks in her hair). This would help to make their mother angry, so that was as good a reason as any for the teen to help. It was in the woods behind the demolished site of their old play castle that Henry and Ally decided to build their fort.

It had to be big enough to comfortably fit two- maybe three people, yet small enough so that it wouldn't be easily spotted by someone who was looking for it. That isn't to say that there weren't set backs in the production. Each of the kids had to find ways to sneak off without being followed, and getting the supplies to build such a place was not as easy as it seemed.

Henry had to sneak away paint from the art room in school, Rose had to borrow and replace their mom's tools in the garage, and Ally had to ask Marco (Geppetto) for spare wood that he wouldn't mind them having. Nonetheless the fort was underway and nearly finished after two weeks. Rose was adding the finishing touches to the outside so that no one would find them easily.

Since the teen is an amazing artist she's camouflaging the outside to look like the trees surrounding the shelter. Henry has been having a hard time getting his mom off of his back though. She's even given him a video game to play since he doesn't have his book any longer.

Good news was that Emma was able to find the book once more. She reasons that it fell out of a junk truck and fell into a gutter. Ally wasn't so sure that that's what actually happened, but Henry was sure that that was a sign that Operation Cobra was back in business, and ready to get to work.

With their secret base of operations up and running (lovingly known as the Wolf Den), life seemed to be getting back on track, though Henry seriously seemed to be cruising for a bruising from Ally for poking fun at the wolf thing even more so than usual.

Things haven't been going all that well for the adults in Storybrooke though. Mary Margaret is now being called a home wrecker for breaking up David and Katherine Nolan. The kids don't really understand what the problem is though for Snow White and Prince Charming are already married and are supposed to be together.

Now Katherine Nolan is missing for someone found her crashed and empty car along the side of the road, and foul play is being suspected with David Nolan, and Mary Margaret Blanchard as some of the prime suspects.

Things have been really tense around the Lucas family as well. Ally's Gigi hates what Mary Margaret has supposedly done for breaking apart the Nolan's marriage, and Ruby is still defending her friend to her. That means that the tension is up, and the fighting around the inn has increased to an all time high.

When Ally isn't covering her ears with a pillow or attempting to drown her mom and Gigi out, she's watching as her Mom leaves every night to go out. It seemed like all the progress that had been made since Emma had come back, was being undone all in the course of a few days. Ally wasn't even all that excited about being able to get her cast off in two weeks time.

Ally is currently going over some of her spelling words at the counter of the diner in her normal seat. She's having a hard time paying attention today for she's keeping a close eye on her mom who is currently flirting with August the stranger— excuse me writer, who came to town.

"You can't be serious. A whole year without a roof over your head?" Ruby asks amazed at the adventures that the man has been able to have while she's been stuck.

"Well, you get used to it. Plus, I had the motorcycle. So, if I didn't like a place after a while…" August trails off. Ally jerks her head to the entrance to the kitchen for Gigi has just called her mother's name out and she's currently not responding. This will not end well, Ally is sure of that.

"I've never even been out of Storybrooke. What was your favorite place?" Ruby questions again determined to keep talking the fascinating and worldly man who happens to look good in leather. Ally cringes while trying to focus on spelling vicious correctly.

"Nepal. Best people. They have these prayer temples carved into mountains that are overrun with lemurs." He replies smiling off into the distance remembering the adventure.

"What's a lemur?" Ruby asks before being yelled at again.

"Ruby!" Gigi yells attempting to snap the girl out of her man induced haze.

"Just give me a sec!" She shouts back at her grandmother, not noticing the way her child winces and watches the proceedings with wide worried brown eyes.

"They're little animals. And they have these eyes that reflect light. So, at night, it looks like they glow." August explains before Ruby is called for again.

"Ruby! Stop flirting and get over here!" Gigi growls, and that finally pulls a very unhappy Ruby away from the mysterious stranger and over to her grandmother and daughter.

"I can't believe you did that! That was humiliating!" Ruby hisses to Granny ignoring the ever so distressed sight of her daughter.

"I want you to start working Saturday nights." Granny says before Ruby can go off on another rant about how unfair it was that she was getting decreased time to flirt with the attractive men who happened to show up in the diner.

"Come on— we have an agreement about Saturday night." Ruby says firmly crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at Granny now. Ally shrinks back further into her seat, her spelling sheet totally abandoned by now.

"I want to start training you to do the books and the reorders. Business is booming lately, and, with more money, comes more paperwork." Granny argues needing to instill some sort of business sense into her granddaughter before the diner becomes her responsibility.

"Yeah, none of that sounds good." Ruby states, frowning at the idea of having to do more paperwork than she already has to.

"It's got to be done." Granny says simply crossing her arms as well. Ally bites her lip in worry now. It's never a good thing when they get into that stance. When they're facing off against each other like that it means that they're going to start fighting for real soon.

"Is this a punishment for talking to that guy? That's all I did, talk to him. No harm, no foul." Ruby says rolling her eyes at the generation gap that separated her Granny and her.

"If I wanted to punish you, I'd have better reasons. For one thing, you were late. For another thing, Liza, you dress like a drag queen during Fleet Week." Granny chides getting a steely look in her eye. Ruby's eyes flash dangerously at the insult. Ally starts to slip off her chair so that she can be farther away from them when the situation explodes.

"And you dress like Norman Bates, when he dresses like Norman Bates' mother." Ruby snaps back.

"Ruby, you're a grown woman. You can't keep acting like some kid. You have your own kid who frankly hasn't seen her mother home for weeks now!" Granny hisses trying to keep her voice low as to not alert the customers to the family drama that is currently going down for all to see.

"You just want me to act like you until I turn into you. Well, I am not a fossil yet, Granny. I should be out there having adventures with lemurs! And don't you dare bring Ally into this. She is fine!" Ruby seethes glaring daggers at Granny for daring to bring her ten-year-old daughter into this.

"Well, as long as you work here, you're going to listen to me." Granny says finally. Ally's breath catches in her chest. This is not going to end well, she can just tell.

"I didn't ask to work here!" Ruby cries. Granny glares right back at her.

"Well then what's keeping you?" She demands. Ruby glares harshly at Granny for a second before making a decision.

"Nothing! I quit! And I'm taking my daughter with me!" She growls tearing off her serving apron, and bounding around the counter, taking hold of Ally's wrist.

"Mom…" Ally starts.

"Not now Ally. Come on we have to go pack." Ruby mutters leading her daughter out of the diner, as she tries to look back at her Gigi, and her abandoned homework.

That night Ally wakes up to the feeling of being set down on a soft couch from somebody's arms. She blearily opens her eyes to see the silhouette of her mom standing over her with a sad look on her face.

"Mom…" Ally mumbles, not really sure that she's seeing things right. The last thing she remembers is sitting at a bus stop with her mom with her things packed into one bag. It had been cold, she remembered that much.

"Sh pup… we're at Mary Margaret and Emma's apartment. They're letting us stay with them, until I figure out what to do. Go back to sleep, its been a long day." Ruby soothes, running her fingers through Ally wavy brown hair. Her eyes drift shut again, and Ally swears that she hears her mother apologize to her before she passes out from exhaustion again.


The next day Henry, Ally, and Ruby are hanging out at the police station. Henry and Ally are looking up possible jobs for Ally's mom on the Internet, but are having a hard time finding jobs that would be suitable for her.

"Want to be a bike messenger?" Henry asks Ruby suddenly looking up from the screen to the woman sitting across from the two kids. The kids can't help but notice that she looks a little lost without something to do. Ruby snaps her gaze up to look at Henry just as the office phone rings again for the millionth time in the office.

"Bike messenger?" Ruby asks dubiously. Ally glares at Henry for thinking of something so dumb since he's going off of her fairy tale profession now.

"That's about taking things to people in a little basket." Henry says looking closely at Ruby like he's expecting it all to come back to her at the mention of the basket.

"Nope. Yeah, see, I'm not so great at bike riding." Ruby tells Henry unsure of why he would even suggest that job.

"Its true. I ended up having to have Rose teach me. Remember Henry?" Ally snickers with a faint smile on her lips. Ruby sticks her tongue out at her daughter, happy to hear her giggle. She swears that her daughter is more serious than she is most of the time.

"Yeah. How about taking things on foot, to people, in a little basket." Henry winces when Ally smacks his arm at his insistence that her mom has to work like Little Red Riding Hood in the fairytales.

"I'm not sure that's a real job." Ruby says tossing a crumpled up piece of paper into the trashcan.

"Yeah Henry." Ally hisses to him as suddenly the shrill ring of the phone goes off in the empty sheriff's department.

"Why do the phones keep doing that?" Ruby asks after the call goes unanswered.

"Oh, the non-emergency calls go to a machine when Emma's busy." Henry says turning back to the lists of jobs in front of him when the phone rings again. This time Ruby picks up the phone before it can go to voicemail again.

"Sheriff's station. How can I help you? Mmhmm. I'll get her to return. Thank you, too." She says hanging up the phone. Henry and Ally exchange a look as Ruby picks up the next phone call. This seems almost natural for her.

"Sheriff's station. Hey, Miss Ginger. Uh, no, that's not a prowler. That's Archie's dog – Pongo. Throw him a vanilla wafer. He'll quiet down. Did you still want to talk to Emma? Great. Glad I could help." Ruby says hanging up the next call, just as Emma comes into the station.

"How's it going you three?" She asks hanging up her jacket and coming over to the little group.

"Great. Except I can't do anything." Ruby says looking glum. Ally bites her lip, hating that her mom has that low of an opinion of herself, then again her Gigi isn't all that encouraging all the time. Its only because she loves her mom, at least Ally hopes that that's the reason.

"I'm sure that's not true. I saw you on the phone right now. That was good." Emma assures Ruby with an encouraging look.

"That? That's nothing." Ruby scoffs, and Henry nudges Ally trying to see whether she sees what he's seeing.

"No. No, it isn't. I actually have some money in the budget if you want to help out around here." Emma says trying to gauge her response. Ruby leaps to her feet excitedly with a huge smile on her face.

"Yes! Thank you! Yes. Um, I could answer phones and help out. Um, is there anything else that you need done? Organize files, cleaning up? Please – I want to be useful." Ruby stammers trying not to trip over herself in her excitement.

"I'm swamped with the Kathryn Nolan thing. If you maybe want to grab us lunch, I would never say no to a grilled cheese." Emma tells her. Ruby nods her head happily.

"Done. You want anything kids?" She asks them. Henry grins widely at that seeing his shot to have food that his mother would never let him have.

"Um, two chocolate chip cookies, an apple pie, and a hot dog." Henry says quickly.

"Ditto please!" Ally chirps grinning at her mother. Ruby shakes her head at the kids laughing at their appetites and seemingly never ending stomachs.

"And to think they ate at school." Emma says with a sigh. Ally and Henry shrug their shoulders. They can't help it that they're growing kids.

Ruby goes to leave when she practically runs into Mary Margaret, she doesn't look the greatest, so the kids immediately know that something is up.

"Hey! Lunch, Mary Margaret? I'm getting for everyone." Ruby says with a smile. Mary Margaret shakes her head.

"Uh, no. I'm not hungry." She mumbles and Ruby shakes her head before leaving. Ally and Henry watch closely as the remaining two women start a conversation.

"David's in the woods. There's something wrong with him. He looked right through me. It's like… It's like he was a different person." Mary Margaret tells Emma. Ally gives Henry a worried look. Something is not right with Prince Charming.

A little while later Emma is getting ready to leave and Ally is covering for Henry while he's hiding his book.

"I'm sorry to kick you out kids but I need to go and deal with David." Emma says as Henry comes back to stand next to Ally.

"Its okay. I'm supposed to meet my mom anyway. Ally is coming with since it's near the weekend." Henry tells her. Emma leads the two kids out to the sidewalk.

"You know, you can let Ruby do more. She's Little Red Riding Hood." Henry says, and Ally nods her head.

"Little Red Riding Hood? With the little basket? That seems real kickass." Emma scoffs. Ally scrunches up her nose and shoots Emma an annoyed look. Her mom is plenty badass.

"She is. She just doesn't remember how cool she is or what she's capable of. But it's true." Ally tells Emma earnestly with Henry nodding along. Red is not someone that he'd want to upset a lot like Ally. She takes after her mom in a lot of ways in his opinion.

Ruby comes up to the three of them with two bags of food. "Sorry about the wait. One grilled cheese, and two heart attack specials. Don't let Regina know that I got that for you kid." Ruby says handing out the food that she had acquired. A weird look is on her face, but Henry and Ally can't figure out what had happened. Ally knows that she had to have gone and seen Granny. Maybe she and Gigi had a fight or something.

"You okay Ruby?" Emma asks her slightly worried. Ally watches closely to make sure that her mom is truly okay and not trying to fool her.

"I guess. I mean, this is something I know how to do. So, yay." Ruby says trying to shake off the bad feeling that's sticking to her.

"Okay, let's pack these back up, and we can eat it in the car. I need to do a little wilderness search, and I need your help." Emma says with a grim smile.

"I'm pretty sure I'm just going to screw it up. I mean, I'll screw it up with flair, but…" Ruby trails off. Ally shifts closer to her mom and nuzzles into her side. Ruby strokes her hair absently.

"No, you won't. Come on – you can do this." Emma tells her encouragingly. Ruby sighs, and slowly pries Ally off of her.

"Mom…" Ally says worriedly not liking that her mom is going to go out with Emma when she feels that badly about herself.

"Pup, I'll be fine. I probably won't be home till late, so be good for Mary Margaret for me. Henry you and Ally stay out of trouble." She says kissing both kids on the head, before following Emma to her yellow bug, and they pull away with a wave. Henry and Ally raise their hands in goodbye then slowly drop them.

Henry glances at his best friend not liking the worried look in her eyes. "Come on Ally let's get to our fort and we can eat. We have lots more planning to do!" Henry says.

Ally wrenches her eyes away from the road where her mom and Emma had disappeared and nods at him in agreement. "Sounds good."

With that the two take off heading towards their new base of operations.


It's late and Ally is supposed to be in bed. Mary Margaret had tucked the girl in and read her a story to make her fall asleep. As soon as Ally heard the front door close after Mary Margaret a long time after she had finished the story, Ally threw off the blanket draped over her, and slipped off the couch.

She pads over to her sneakers and jambs her feet into them and tugs her coat off the rack. Her mom hadn't called at all that night, and she was worried out of her mind. Usually there was Gigi if she go too scared to soothe her back to sleep but now even Gigi wasn't there.

Mary Margaret is nice and everything but Ally just really needs her mom. Once she's got her jacket zipped up she unlocks the door, and slips out of the now empty apartment. Ally climbs down the stairs quickly, and sneaks to the front door of the apartment building.

She looks left and right on the street, seeing no one she sneaks out letting off a shiver when the cool air nips at her. Ally pulls her jacket closer to her, groaning when she realizes that she should have changed out of her pajamas. Running as fast down the streets as she can, she makes her way to the Sheriff's Office relieved when she sees that there's a light still on.

Ally fumbles with the knob for a second before getting the door opened. The bell overhead rings, drawing the attention of Emma and Ruby who are crouched over something on the desk in front of them. They turn around to see Ally shivering, looking at her mom with big eyes.

"Ally! Pup what the hell are you doing here?" Ruby cries shooting Emma a look and hurrying over to her daughter. Ally knows that she's way too big to be held, but she's had a rough night, and really needs a hug, so she launches herself at her mom. Ruby catches her, and holds the girl to her tightly.

"You didn't come back! You promised, but you didn't come back! Gigi's gone and you didn't come back!" Ally cries, tears finally falling, and she buries her face into Ruby's neck. Ruby sucks in a breath, squeezing Ally tighter, and turning around to look at Emma.

Emma had moved the box that contained Katherine's heart so that the girl wouldn't see anything scarring. Ruby gives Emma an apologetic look, and she nods in understanding. Ruby needs to be a mother first now.

"Okay come on Pup, stop crying. I'm right here. There's no need to be scared anymore. I have an idea, let's go and see Granny I think that will make you feel better don't you?" Ruby asks her daughter rubbing her back soothingly.

Ally pulls her face away, and hiccups a little. She locks onto her mother's eyes judging the seriousness in them. "Really?" She asks softly. Ruby smiles at her.

"Really." She says. The pair say goodnight to Emma and walk out of the Sheriff's Office and head to Granny's diner down the street. Ruby doesn't let go of the little girl gripped in her arms the whole way.

When Ruby pushes open the door to the diner Ally is almost asleep in her arms and Granny is behind the counter wiping it down. She looks up surprised at seeing her granddaughter and great-granddaughter in here. "Hey Pup look who's here?" Ruby says softly shifting Ally in her arms.

Ally blinks her eyes open sleepily to see the smiling face of her Gigi. "Gigi…" Ally says happily holding out her hand to her great-grandmother. Granny smiles lovingly at the young girl and squeezes her hand.

"Someone's up past her bedtime." She says softly. Ruby nods her head and shifts Ally's weight in her arms again before going over to one of the empty booths and setting her down on the seat. Ally lets out a loud yawn and lays her head on her arms.

"She was worried about me. I didn't come back when I promised I would…" Ruby tells Granny. The old woman just nods her head understandingly.

"You look good." Granny says.

"Thanks." Ruby replies shifting nervously. Ally closes her eyes and just listens to her family.

"Want something for the Sheriff?"

"No."

"Ah…"

"Your arm okay?" Ruby asks worriedly. Ally tries to pry her eyes open, but its just not working.

"Same as it is every full moon." Granny replies tersely.

"What are you doing here, Ruby? You here to tell me more about your fine new job?"

"I want to come back." Ruby says.

"Why? You were pretty mad." Granny says suspiciously.

"I wasn't mad."

"Looked like mad from here."

"Mmhmm, yeah. Here's the thing – um… You were talking about having me do all this stuff, and I…wasn't sure. I-I said that, you wanted me to turn into you, but… What I meant was, I don't know how to be you. You're a tough act to follow."

There's a moment of silence.

"Oh." Granny says softly.

" And then you wanted me to take on all this extra responsibility, and I… Guess I just got scared. I can't even take care of Ally by myself."

"Don't be. You shouldn't be." Granny says.

"Well, I am. But, it's okay. I can do it anyway. I sort of found someone in myself that was more than I expected." Ruby explains.

"What about adventure? What about lemurs?" Granny asks her.

"Emma was my lemur. Did that, found out I could do that, and also that I don't want to. I don't want a job where a good day means ruining someone's life. I want to do something that makes me happy. Somewhere I love."

"Look – just so you know, I wanted you to do the books and everything, so you could take over when I retire. Own the whole place."

"Own it?" Ruby breathes shocked.

"Sure. I mean, who else would I give it to but someone who loves me back?" Granny says.

"Proud of you." Granny tells Ruby.

"What was that?" Ruby asks.

"You heard me." Granny says a little sharper. "Now, I think its time to get a certain child tucked into her bed."

"I guess so. She conked out on us didn't she?" Ruby says lifting up the sleeping girl and holding her in her arms again. Ally shifts some and lets out a soft sigh. "Time for bed Pup."

"Love you…" Ally slurs sleepily, and relaxes completely into her mother.


A/N: Hey guys, sorry for the really long update time. School and other stories came up. Anyway I'm back working on this one! :) I decided that I would give something back to all the people who favorited, followed and commented on this story. Everyone is curious about who Rose is in Fairy Tale Land so I'm going to post a poll. I have some ideas for her, but I would love your input! So look for it because it will be up pretty soon, and I hope you liked the chapter! -99bottlestogo :)