The quiet moments were cherished even more, given their rarity with two young boys to care for. Ruby and Archie barely had time for murmured "good mornings" before the obligations of the day forced them up. While they navigated this next chapter, Ruby also realized how easily the little things came—a shared smile, a squeeze to the shoulder, a kiss on the cheek. She delighted in the sparks evident in the ordinary moments, no longer held back or over-analyzed.
She was truly home.
Another surprise came in the form of an unexpected—but dearly welcomed—visit from Mary Margaret and David. Ruby rushed outside to greet their neighbours when she heard Pongo bark his greeting to the wagon that drew to a stop, and she laughed to see her joy mirrored in her dear friend's face.
"Oh, I knew you'd stay!" Mary Margaret exclaimed as she took her husband's hand and hopped down from the wagon, baby Leo resting on her hip. Emma quickly scrambled down from the back.
Ruby grinned as she hugged her friend, her heart lighter than she'd ever thought possible, and tears welled up as her emotions rose to the surface for the countless time.
"I'm glad somebody did," Ruby said with a wet chuckle as they pulled back.
"I tried to convince her that we should give you two some space, but she insisted that one day was enough," David teased with a grin of his own as he shook Archie's hand.
"David!" Mary Margaret chastised with a swat, though her eyes were merry. She turned back to Archie and Ruby. "Though he might be right. It's been torture not knowing everything!"
Ruby beamed at Archie as he placed his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. Ruby thought she would burst from happiness, as if the presence of their friends was one of the last pieces of the puzzle, confirming that this was all, indeed, very real.
"Oh!" Ruby exclaimed with a start. "What am I doing, making you stand around? Please, come in!" She took Mary Margaret's arm and led her inside, leaving Archie to converse with David and the children to play outside in the June sun.
Mary Margaret placed Leo on the rug in front of the fireplace—unlit, given the warm weather—beside Peter in his cradle. As Mary Margaret unfastened her bonnet, Ruby grabbed some toy blocks from a nearby shelf and placed them in front of Leo. Then, she turned her attention to making some coffee, boiling some more water and measuring out the coffee grinds.
"Soon these two will be running around together like August and Emma," Mary Margaret said with a chuckle.
Ruby nodded, a lump rising in her throat at the realization that Peter would grow up with such friends—such family. "I can hardly believe it," she said after a swallow.
Soon enough, the coffee was served, along with some cookies. Ruby made a mental note to do some more baking when she noticed the low level in the tin, and she smiled to recognize the evidence of celebration over the last day. Still, she'd need to replenish for August's birthday.
Mary Margaret wasted no time in her questions, and Ruby delighted in her friend's candour. "So, how have you been? What happened?"
Ruby grinned and wrapped her hands around her cup. "I—I don't know!" she said with a laugh. "It's all been such a blur."
Mary Margaret nodded. "I'm sure. Truth be told, I couldn't believe that you were going through with it. David and I saw you head into town and I thought my heart was going to break for you all. And then, the next thing I know, Archie's tearing into our place and begging to use our horse! I knew the moment I saw him exactly what he was doing. It was like something out of a novel!" She placed her hand over her heart for emphasis.
Ruby smiled before she furrowed her brow in confusion. "Do you know, I don't know what made him change his mind," she confessed before taking a sip of coffee, her features relaxing. "I just thought that he didn't want us enough, and I couldn't stay if it was just going to be part of some bargain." She shuddered at the thought, remembering the pain of their miscommunication, somehow so fresh and so distant all at once.
"Of course," Mary Margaret replied, her features soft in understanding as she reached out and squeezed Ruby's arm. "But anyone could see he's been head over heels for you for ages," she added with a chuckle as she sat back. "You two were both pining over each other like the most star-crossed pair of lovers I'd ever seen, and I had half a mind to tell you as much!"
Ruby's eyes widened, though her grin stayed in place. "Why didn't you?!"
Mary Margaret shook her head. "It wasn't my place to say," she explained, "though heaven knows I wanted to. David reminded me that some things need to be left to the two people involved."
"Well, we came far too close to ruining it all on our own," Ruby said, holding her mug close as her heart sank for a brief moment. "I'll… I'll have to ask Archie what made him come after me after all."
Mary Margaret leaned closer. "Was it very romantic?"
Ruby bit her lip and nodded. "It really was. Here I was, Peter and I packed tight in this wagon with all of these other women, and I heard his voice calling my name." She took a sip of her coffee and swallowed. "I thought I was crazy at first—as if I wanted it so badly I was hearing things—but then I realized that it wasn't my imagination after all. I finally saw him riding towards us, and I thought my heart would burst from my chest." Ruby trailed off, transported by the memory of how her heart galloped out to Archie before he'd even reached the wagon.
Mary Margaret sighed from across the table.
"I have to admit, I can't remember every detail—it was hard to take everything in, it happened so fast—but the next thing I knew, he's telling me he loves me and wants us to stay, and I'm telling him I love him, and then we're being swooped away back home."
"That's so lovely," Mary Margaret breathed. "Just like your own little fairy tale."
Ruby chuckled. "I suppose so." She breathed deeply as she let the idea settle within her—that, after all that had happened, they had found their own little happy ending with each other.
She noticed Mary Margaret giving her a funny smile. "What is it?" she asked, furrowing her brow despite the smile permanently formed on her lips.
"I'm just so happy for you both," her friend replied. "Perhaps it's selfish, but I couldn't bare the thought of you leaving us—and now we get to raise our families together!" Mary Margaret laughed along with Ruby before she turned more serious. "You and Archie are so good together. I—I've never seen him as happy as he's been this year with you—and Peter."
Ruby searched her friend's eyes that confirmed the words she spoke, and it made her heart nestle under her throat. It was high praise, indeed, coming from one of her husband's closest friends. She imagined the smiles he'd flashed her over the last day or so, her heart fluttering in her chest, and she stole Mary Margaret's words deep in her heart, another treasured piece of evidence that this new life was real.
"I… I can't imagine being anywhere else," Ruby trailed off before finishing lamely, unable to voice her deepest thoughts. She was so used to hiding them from herself, let alone those around her, and they still felt so strange and new—so precious—to speak aloud.
"So…" Mary Margaret began after a moment, her eyes sparkling with mischief. "This room sure looks bigger without the beds in the corner."
Ruby's eyes widened, and she let out a chuckle. "We, uh—I mean, we haven't yet, but—it was just yesterday, since I scared August a bit the first night…" she trailed off as she realized how little sense she made. "We moved the cot out yesterday, so last night was the first night Archie was in the bedroom." Ruby felt her cheeks warm. "We haven't… yet, especially since August is confused as to why his pa doesn't want to keep his own bed."
Mary Margaret chuckled. "I'm sure it's not the easiest thing to… coordinate."
"We're taking things slow," Ruby explained, her pulse beating quicker. She felt caught between wanting to get her friend's advice on the delicate situation while not being ready to deal with the subject just yet. "It's, um—it's all very different this time around." She was no means inexperienced in the area, but she'd not had to navigate such complicated emotions before, with memories of her first husband still fresh and trying to manoeuvre around a ten-year-old boy.
Before she could say more, the door swung open, revealing the redhead in question. His eyes were bright and he was panting.
"Mama—Pa says—you should come—outside with us. The weather's awful nice." He threw a glance to the other woman. "Oh, hi, Auntie Mary Margaret."
Mary Margaret grinned. "Hi, August."
Ruby's heart still skipped a beat to hear him call her "Mama". "Tell your pa we'll be right out," she called out after him as he swung around and all but slammed the door behind him.
Ruby and Mary Margaret shared a look and chuckled before they gathered themselves and made their way outside. Mary Margaret collected Leo and Ruby grabbed a couple of blankets in her arms. Mary Margaret reached out, insisting she could carry them both, to leave Ruby to carry Peter and the tin of cookies.
Ruby grinned as she stepped outside and spotted Archie a few yards away with David and the children playing with a ball, and he met her gaze and grinned back. David spotted them, also, and the husbands jogged to meet their wives and relieve them of their goodies.
They settled under the cluster of trees by the side of the house, only partly shaded from the pleasant June sun, while Emma and August continued their game within view. Leo was quick to squirm out of his mother's arms and toddle around the blanket, which kept David busy corralling his son within its confines. Ruby lay Peter on her lap, propping him up so he could watch his little friend with wide eyes. Archie sat beside her, his hand resting on her shoulder for a moment before it settled at his side on the blanket.
"I guess this means you'll be around for the town party after all?" Mary Margaret asked.
Ruby sat up and nodded with a grin. "I will! And I'll get to meet the new doctor, and of course, August's birthday tomorrow." A pang of guilt hit her at the realization that they hadn't prepared much for the actual day, considering they'd been unprepared for this turn of events. She threw a glance to Archie. "I'll bake some more cookies tonight," she promised.
He grinned and reached for a cookie from the tin. "I can't say 'no' to that," he replied, his clear eyes never leaving hers as they beamed back at her in the afternoon sun.
"Well, from what I can see, he's just happy to have his whole family with him," Mary Margaret said, and David murmured his agreement. Ruby smiled, her eyes quickly welling up at the thought, and Archie gave her arm a squeeze.
"Have you and Belle been busy with the preparations for the party next week?" Archie asked Mary Margaret. He dropped his hand from Ruby's arm and placed it back on the blanket between them. Ruby let her own hand rest beside it, leaving only a sliver of space. She held her breath in anticipation of his next move.
"That's an understatement," David jumped in, reaching for a cookie of his own. "I haven't seen my table in weeks, but it's been the saddest party I've ever seen." He started as his wife gave him a teasing slap, and they all laughed.
"Well, it's hard to be happy about a party when you think you're dearest friends are about to be separated forever," she explained, her expression mockingly serious.
Archie's fingers brushed against Ruby's and her breath hitched in her throat as she kept her eyes fixed on Mary Margaret. She only barely registered her friend's words.
"We'll all be there," Archie replied calmly, though Ruby could sense the hint of tremour in his words.
Mary Margaret clapped her hands together before reaching for her runaway toddler. "Now it will be a true celebration," she beamed as she returned Leo to the middle of the blanket. Her features shifted as an idea took form, her hands still around her son as he bounced in place. "Oh, what if we turn it into a little reception for the two of you?"
Ruby shrank as her cheeks warmed. "Oh, that's not necessary…" she trailed off, recoiling from the idea of being the centre of attention. It was enough that she'd be seeing everyone in Storybrooke—some of them for the first time—that she didn't need to be singled out even more.
"But it would be lovely to celebrate the two of you, especially since we, well, didn't have a proper wedding."
"I think we'll be centred out enough as it is," Archie added, his hand covering Ruby's slowly. Ruby had to fight to focus on anything beyond the warmth of his touch as her mind honed in on the sensation on the back of her hand. "We don't need all that."
David placed his hand on his wife's arm as she glanced around at them all.
"I understand," Mary Margaret said, slightly deflated. "But I still think it will be about you two, a little bit."
Ruby relaxed slightly. "I guess we have been providing the town with some solid gossip for almost a year," she said with a chuckle, and Archie raised his brows at her before grinning and giving her hand a squeeze.
"We wouldn't want to deny them that," he agreed, turning back to David and Mary Margaret. "But please, nothing official."
"That's fair," Mary Margaret affirmed, and with a nod of her head, it was decided. "I'm meeting with Belle tomorrow, so we'll go over the details."
Ruby thought she saw a knowing look pass between Mr. and Mrs. Nolan at that, and she bit back a smile.
The conversation took a turn away from herself and Archie—and the party—and Ruby was glad for the chance to visit with friends. No longer haunted by the future—or the past—she felt herself rooted in the present for the first time in a long time, savouring every detail from the warm breeze that swept across her cheeks to the sound of Emma's and August's laughter. It was a brief moment of indulgence, a moment in the calendar in between the planting and the harvesting when there weren't so many duties demanding their time.
Well, almost.
"Poor David's been spending so much time in town," Mary Margaret told them, resting her hand on her husband's arm. "I keep telling him that they need to find someone to be full-time sheriff, because it's getting to be too much."
Ruby turned her hand upward in Archie's grasp, lacing her fingers with his.
David sighed as he grabbed Leo from taking off towards his big sister. "I don't want to have just anybody take over that kind of job," he replied with the tired tone of one who had said the same thing more than once, looking at Mary Margaret. He kept his wiggling toddler in his grasp, placing him firmly in his lap. "Especially with so many people coming in."
Ruby slipped her fingers from Archie's grasp and began to trace his palm. She heard him take a sharp breath beside her, and she bit her lip.
"I, uh, I mean, it's nice to see Storybrooke growing, but I agree—we do, we're going to need more," Archie managed.
"But I don't know that you'll convince everyone to hire on anyone else, since there's already the doctor coming," David countered. "They're not exactly going to want to pay more taxes."
"Oh, I don't know," Mary Margaret said as she plucked a blade of grass and twirled it in her fingers. "I think everyone wants to have those services. The people who grumbled about the doctor will see the benefit soon enough, if they haven't already." She tried to captivate Leo's attention with the blade of grass, but soon discovered that Peter was a much more captive audience, and she leaned towards Ruby and the baby. "Besides, we need a schoolhouse and a church, which requires a teacher and a preacher."
Archie played his fingers over Ruby's, joining in her game. His feather-light touch tickled her skin and she licked her lips, fighting to concentrate on the conversation. She bounced her leg lightly to release some energy, which had the added benefit of keeping Peter content.
"Exactly!" Archie agreed. "I didn't want to press too soon, but we really should have a school and a church. If it were one building, I don't see why we couldn't complete it this year."
David laughed. "I wish that were true, Archie, but you saw how long it took to convince everyone to hire the doctor. I think we need to leave it at one civic project at a time."
Archie sighed. "I hate to say it, but you're probably right." He moved his fingers from Ruby's and trailed them down her palm until he stopped at her wrist and traced patterns along the delicate skin. A small hum escaped Ruby, and she froze, keeping her gaze fixed on Leo to avoid looking at Archie.
He drummed his fingers on her wrist gently before he continued his gentle touches, and Ruby tried to keep the desire from rising to a simmer within her. Jiminy Cricket, Archie Hopper.
Ruby wasn't entirely sure where the conversation went from there, lost to her husband's touch. She was saved by her son's fussing once he deemed it time for his supper, which allowed her a moment to escape and collect herself. After that, the little party realized it was time for everyone to eat, and so Ruby and Mary Margaret threw together some fixings while their husbands corralled the children and saw to the washing.
Soon enough, she and Archie were waving goodbye to the Nolans after a happy day together. The amount of things Ruby now had to look forward to hit her with full force as they had become caught up in dreaming with their friends. No longer regrets, events that would carry on without her, these plans now held the promise of blessings to come. She was also reminded of the character of the man she had married, and how much he wanted to help others.
She let out a happy sigh, still amazed that this was now her life, and Archie pressed a kiss to her temple as they turned to go inside.