You probably don't think very often about your bones. You don't even realize they're there most of the time, until you jounce your elbow or find yourself staring at your hands. When you change into a wolf, you realize how much of you is bone, because they move. They stretch, and grow, and warp. You realize your whole body is stretched over them like the thin paper on the crossbars of a kite. And that your mind is just the bright flower at the top of a long, fragile stem. And once you really feel that, you can never un-feel it again. I can feel my bones start to shift, to tremble as I make my way to the woods.
I pull into a small parking area near the wishing well, near where Belle and I were last night. Call me sentimental. I step out of the car and the wind tears its endless fingers through my hair. I pull my dress over my head, and I'm about to unlatch my bra when the wind changes directions and I pick up a sent. A lizard smell underneath, with strong topnotes of dust and rusting old metal. I'm about to throw myself back in the car when I see him in the distance. I see him put his hand up, and clench his fist.
My throat constricts. Every muscle tenses. I fall hard on the ground and then the world swings wildly, the trees blurring around me as I find myself hovering in mid air. Gold walks up to me slowly, his cane making a tck-tck on the ground as he walks.
"Well well well." He purrs, looking up at me. "If it isn't the gossipy little werebitch." He cocks his head and I feel myself squeezed tighter. I glare at him, I'd snarl but my throat is too constricted. In another moment he slings me into my own car and gets at the wheel. Humming a bizarre little tune, he fights to put my low rider into gear.
"We're going to take a little trip. Not to grandmother's house this time, my dear. Deeper into the woods." He looks over his shoulder at me. "We're going to see about my new coat."
"If you can get my car into drive." I choke, and his smile drops, but just for a moment. With a little snort he grinds the gears into drive and I watch the blurry deep blue of the sky slip between the black shapes of the dark pines. I can taste blood in my mouth from where I've bitten my tongue when I fell to the ground. I can see the pale face of the moon staring at me through the car window, like a friend I was supposed to meet wondering where I am. I feel my bones shiver, even through Gold's magic. I need to- I have to change soon.
He parks inches from the line that runs across the road outside Storybrooke and stares at me. Then he looks up and stares at the moon. Then back at me. What is he waiting for?
"You should know what I have planned for Belle." He says at long last. "I've decided I will take her back to the enchanted forest, set her up in a palace. I'll be a busy man as the new Dark King, but since Snow and James have promised me a lock of hair in exchange for my ogre hunting services, I'll have the perfect ingredients for a very convincing love potion. It'll convince me at least."
He chuckles to himself and leans back in his seat, rapturously gripping his cane and looking at me, expectantly. He pauses a beat, then continues. "Of course, I'll have to drag Belle over the town line once before we go back. I'd hate for any pesky memories of her experimental phase with you to linger once we're together again."
My blood is boiling under my skin. My teeth snap together. I feel a hot wave of heat falling over me and the colors of the world shift to sepia tones as my pupils turn to slits. Before the wolf takes over some small part of me screams: he's trying to make you mad. But why? Does he want me to change? Why are we parked this close to the line? I look at him and I fight the change back with every ounce of strength in me. Sweat beads on my forehead as I push it away. It's like fighting sleep when you're exhausted. It's like fighting gravity when you're falling.
"Ahhh now, you're controlling your temper. But don't you want to change? Don't you want to become a big bad wolf and bite my face off, Red?" he leans toward me and bops me on the nose, which makes me shudder. "Come on, dearie, let the wolf out. Let the wolf come play."
He cracks open his driver's side door and then the back door, pulling me out into the moonlight. This I can't bear. It's falling directly on my skin, with a magnetic force that makes my animal mind swirl out in my brain like ink drops in water.
"There now. Turn into a nice little wolfie and I can throw you over the line." His voice is dark and evil, and his fingers dig into my shoulders as he turns to face me toward the moon. My head is swimming. The moon is silently screaming down at me, making my bones jump and twitch. " Isn't it want you want, to be in a world without magic? You do know what a werewolf is in a world without magic, don't you?" his hot, evil whisper is right against my ear "Just a wolf, dearie. And then, eventually, a coat… Actually, I think I'll make you a rug and then I can make love to Belle right on top of you."
"Gold, what are you doing?" I hear Snow's voice- small, urgent, and her footsteps racing toward us. She's got her bow slung across her chest and a quiver of arrows over her shoulder. "You said we wouldn't have to hurt her!"
Gold looks at her and tenses. "Don't question me, Princess. You're going to get your daughter up the beanstalk tonight. The wolf bitch is the price for that. The plan will go just as well - maybe even better- if this bitch is on the other side of the line."
"That wasn't our deal-" Snow looks uncertain. I'm staring holes into her and she refuses to meet my eyes.
"Do you want Emma with you or not?"
Snow's eyes harden. "Make the call first." She says icily.
"What deal did you make with him?!" I scream at Snow. Snow tugs me away from Gold's grasp and holds me close.
"Sheriff Swan, I need you to get down here immediately." I hear Gold say into his phone, his hand still clenched on my wrist, but then he has to take a step away to get better reception. "Sheriff? Sheriff Swan- yes- its Mr. Gold- I've been attacked by a wolf. Yes I think…I think its Ruby…we've been fighting over Belle, if you must know- she ran back into the woods but I think I hurt her quite badly. Near to the beanstalks, as you might guess, I've been down there making preparations to go up. Please, if you could get a medic for me and maybe if you could talk her out of her current state…she's maimed quite badly…"
I was so scared before I thought Snow had been hugging me, but as I try to struggle away from her arms, I realize she's not hugging me. She's holding me. Trapping me. I rear back and snarl at Snow. The last expression that registers in full color is her face, when she realizes she's holding a wolf.
Blue. Red. Headlights. And then the sound, the bone crunching, metallic crack. I feel myself fly across the asphalt which tears at my bare body, leaving broad stripes of wet red from my hip to my knee, from my shoulder to my wrist. The cold air hits the tender rawness and I realize whats happening as I'm still sliding across the road, still gently skidding to a stop. Engine exhaust fills my nose.
Maybe even in my animal mind I was trying to stop Emma, if that's so then thank you, animal mind, it worked. As I look up at the blue and red spinning lights on the vehicle, I realize I've discovered something new: excruciating pain is one of the things that can keep me human. Emma leaves the car, looking white and shaken. Not only has she had the traumatizing experience of having an animal leap at her car, she got to watch that animal shift back into her semi-conscious Aunt Ruby, in her bra and underpants. The headlights hit me like a searchlight as Emma kneels by my side.
"Oh my God, Ruby, I'm so sorry- Ruby, are you okay? What did do to you-"
"No, it's a trap, Emma." I gasp. "They're taking you up tonight. That's the plan." The words are hard to get out. My thoughts are all knocked loose and rattling around my head and I'm still physically in shock. "I need to get to Belle. And you- you go get Henry, now."
I come to as Emma carries me into Granny's diner wrapped up in a blanket. She must have called ahead to get Granny to clear out the place, its empty except for Regina and Henry. They've put several tables together as a makeshift table and Granny has covered it with butcher paper. Regina hurries over to Emma's side, I see her dark eyes rake Emma up and down, making sure every bit of her is intact and uninjured. Emma sets me down gently on the table and then I see the two women embrace with a frank, necessary gesture, Regina's dark sleek head tucking effortlessly into the crook of Emma's neck. They're whispering to each other, very soft, so their words don't go past the bounds of each other's hair. Except of course, for me and my dumb wolf ears.
"It's okay." Emma says, comforting the Evil Queen. "Shhh,I'm here, it's okay."
"I can't lose you." Regina says roughly, ashamed of the weakness but unable to contain it. She looks up at Emma, a mixture of terror and fury on her face. "I-I can't lose you."
"Red darling!" Granny hurries over to my side. She's too strong to cry, she takes my hand and brushes gingerly at the gravel still embedded in my hands and tips a shot glass of whisky between my lips. I love you too, Gran.
"Belle." I say, after the burn washes down my throat, looking around the well-lit but otherwise empty diner, trying to raise myself on my elbows. "Where's Belle?"