Will the Chains Hold?
Summary: When Belle decided to stay, she hadn't anticipated how wrenching it would be to watch Ruby shift into a wolf in Storybrooke for the first time.
Lips that curled back for another scream also revealed rapidly protruding canines and sharpening incisors. Ruby's head jerked away from Belle's hand. "I think…" The reshaping arms and elbows elicited a long, low whimper. "I'm going to black out soon." Her ears were swelling and her teeth could barely fit into her mouth.
Distantly, Belle recalled David and Granny's warnings.
Ruby herself had said that when she blacks out as a wolf, she loses control and causes irreparable damage.
A small sense of self-preservation whispered that Belle should probably consider putting some distance between herself and Ruby before things escalated into something more dangerous.
But the feel of a trembling body against hers; the sounds of whimpers, cries and screams echoing through her ears; the combined sight and feel of moving bones under heated skin; the mere sight of a friend going through unimaginable agony—that was all enough to convince Belle to stay close and maintain her grip and continue her whispers.
"Just hold on, Ruby. You're almost there." Belle continued, "You'll get through this. You can."
"Sorry 'bout your blouse." Ruby managed to say before pressing her face into Belle's shoulder and bunching up more handfuls of the stretched cloth.
That they managed to think about that at this time caused Belle to let out a clipped and broken laugh. "Don't even worry about it." After tonight, it was probably going to look stretched beyond recognition, but was that really even something that mattered?
As if the long, drawn out transformation that had spanned several hours had finally reached its peak, it suddenly sped up. The cracks and crunches came in quick succession, the jolts were faster and more continuous. Ruby's screams became more like wails and howls. The chains rattled loudly with each increasingly wild movement. Her face shot forward, her jaw dislocated itself, changing size and shape, stretching forward while her nose broke and crunched forward.
Terror like she'd never felt before froze every muscle in Belle's body as she watched, eyes wide, mouth agape, heart racing.
How could anyone go through that?
High-pitched whimpers were coming out of Ruby's mouth, more canine than human. Her hands lost their grasp on Belle's clothes when the fingers grew too short to be dexterous.
A paw shot upwards and clipped Belle across the face, sending her back down against the ground.
She stayed where she lay, still too stunned to move.
Ruby was on all fours, whimpering and growling as her body worked on the final touches to the transformation while layer upon layer of fur made its way across her skin. She continued to claw at the ground and paw at her face and wail and buck and thrash for several more minutes.
Until glowing amber eyes locked on Belle.
The wolf –Ruby, that was still Ruby—bared her teeth and lunged, landing right on top of Belle, a heavy paw over each shoulder. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she searched for some sign of Ruby under the unrecognizable features of a snarling wolf baring its entire collection of sharp, intimidating teeth.
"R-Ru…" Belle swallowed and choked on fear. She knew Ruby was still in this wolf's body somehow, but even Belle couldn't deny that those teeth and jaws were easily capable of tearing skin and crushing bone. "Ruby?"
Low growls rumbled in the wolf's throat. The fur along its neck—now fully covered in a thick coat—was raised. It –she—opened her jaws wide and jerked forward. Belle shut her eyes.
Metal clanged.
And no teeth met her skin.
Opening here eyes, Belle saw the wolf –Ruby—turn her head to snarl at the taut chain restraining her hindlegs. She tried again at lunging forward, only to be stopped by the chain at her neck. It pulled at her throat until she was forced to move away from Belle, hacking and coughing.
The distraction and discomfort had only been temporary. Ruby recovered and began charging towards the opposite corner of the jail cell, pulling at the chains with all of her strength and weight. Growls and snarls mingled with the straining chains and rattling bars.
It wasn't so much a question of how well the chains would hold, as it was if the bars could hold. Belle could see the metal already beginning to bend under the viciousness of Ruby's pulls.
Ruby had to still be in there somewhere. This was just the aggressive, unrestrained, wolfish incarnation of the fear and distress that plagued her. It was just a matter of regaining control somehow.
On shaky limbs, Belle managed to push herself into a crouching position, then into a standing position.
Granny and Ruby talked about how much of a monster the uncontrolled wolf could be but Belle still refused to believe that, even as her heart hammered at her chest with unparalleled fear. Even as her legs trembled like she could collapse at any moment. Even as her friend growled with terrifying viciousness and pulled at the restraints with alarming strength. Even as the bars bent more than they should. Even as Ruby looked and behaved so differently from what Belle had seen before.
This was just another side of Ruby, but it was still Ruby.
"You're not a monster." A wolf, yes. Difficult to control, yes. But not a monster.
The sound attracted Ruby's attention. Her ears pivoted to Belle's direction, followed by a tilted head and eyes locked on her. Before Belle could think of this reaction as a positive one, Ruby's hackles rose up again. She growled and lunged towards Belle.
"Ruby, no!"
Accompanying the growls was the reverberating sound of breaking metal. The first bar gave way, giving Ruby the reach she needed to lean forward and slam her torso into Belle. Another bar gave way. They hit the ground with a thud and a jolt of pain through Belle's back and shoulders.
"No!" Belle put her hands against Ruby's chest and tried to push her away. The wolf's snarls were followed by several barks. Unaffected by Belle's efforts, Ruby lowered herself and brought her bared teeth dangerously close. "Ruby!"
Head pressed against the floor, Belle couldn't move any farther from those teeth. Her arms quivered with the effort of trying to push the wolf back. Warm puffs of breath heated her face.
"RUBY!" Belle screamed her loudest. It affected the wolf this time. She stopped snarling, and for a moment that happened so fast Belle wasn't sure if she'd imagined it or not, a flicker of green went through the amber eyes.
The snarling face changed into a different expression. Shutting her eyes and gritting her teeth, Ruby whimpered and shivered.
"Ruby?" Despite how potentially dangerous it was, Belle reached for Ruby's face and touched her cheek. She licked her lips and pressed her ears flat against her skull.
Another long, low whine left Ruby before she jerked away from Belle and crawled to a corner. There was no longer any sign of the vicious, snarling wolf. This now looked more like someone upset and ashamed.
Again, Belle picked herself up and made her way to Ruby. "You're not going to hurt me or anyone." She kept her back turned and only whined in reply. "I know you aren't." With careful slowness, Belle moved to touch Ruby's shoulder in a gesture of reassurance.
Instead, Ruby turned and snapped her jaws a mere inch from Belle's face. Startled, she fell back and scrambled away.
Ruby barked once, a loud and echoing warning, then resumed her position facing the corner, refusing to face Belle.
Not wanting to push Ruby any further than she'd already been pushed, Belle figured this was the time to leave the cell. She crept out backwards, keeping her eye on the wolf, now curled up and whimpering.
Clashing thoughts kept rushing through Belle's mind as she locked the cell door.
The broken bars indicated that as a wolf, Ruby was strong. The metal just gave way and snapped and while the chains were relatively intact for the most part, there were several links that had bent and deformed. A few looked to be just another tug or two away from breaking, too.
That strength was something to be wary of.
Feeling warm dampness at her cheek, Belle brought a hand up to touch her face and realized two scratches cut through her skin. With the adrenaline gradually wearing off, Belle felt her shoulders getting heavy and sore. A couple of bruises would develop soon.
Ruby did have the potential to cause damage.
But as she leaned back against the sheriff's desk, Belle also knew that if the being in that cell had really been an uncontrollable monster, she would be dead by now. A couple of shallow cuts and a bit of bruising was minor damage compared to what happened to the bars. It was nothing compared to the brutality Belle had been exposed to in the past, back in the Enchanted Forest, when Rumple was at his worst. He would torture people just for crossing him. He would change people into snails and crush them underfoot.
And Ruby? Ruby wasn't like that at all.
Dizzy from the swimming thoughts and drained from all the wrenching emotions tied to this whole experience, Belle went to sit on Emma's chair by the desk. It sank under her weight and felt comfortable.
Still, Belle wished she could do something to be more helpful to Ruby. Lying on the cold floor couldn't be very comfortable, whether or not she was a wolf.
"David and Granny see the good in you." They gave their warnings to Belle, but not before trying to assure Ruby that they believed in her and trusted her not to hurt anyone. David even said that if anyone in the town had a problem with Ruby, they would have to answer to him. "I see the good in you."
A twitch of the wolf's ears hinted that she might have heard what Belle said. "Ruby, why can't you?"
The wolf tilted her head back and howled.
It wasn't a hunting call or a yell of rage. In fact, it sounded more like a song of sorrow. Hearing it filled Belle with a sense of heaviness, of crippling sadness, of wrenching guilt and of that dark, festering hatred Ruby held towards herself.
If not for that warning bark that almost sounded like a clear order to stay away, Belle would be back in there, trying to hold Ruby in her arms and assure her that she wasn't the monster she claimed to be. She wasn't a bloodthirsty beast. She wasn't a killer.
She held back. She stopped.
Ruby may have her faults and she may be a wolf with dangerous teeth and claws. But if there was anything Belle could be sure about, it was the fact that Ruby was not a monster.
Notes: Thanks for the follows and reviewing and for reading this. I'll be posting the final part a little later, after proofreading it one more time. :D