Emma made her way into the bullpen bright and early Thursday morning, wearing her trademark goofball grin as she announced, "I have the most wonderful news."

"Your voice sounds super creepy when you say things like that," Graham mocked her in sing-song, and Ruby had to stifle back a laugh.

"Don't you start, Humbert. I'm serious. I have awesome news," said she sheriff as she removed her red leather jacket and hung it up on the peg just inside the door to her office. She turned back to her team. "Boston PD collared the idiots who set the fire to City Hall."

"No shit?" Ruby asked, sitting up a little in her chair.

Both she and Graham seemed much more interested in what Emma had to say.

"Ah, see? Told you it was good. And yeah, they're sitting in a jail cell right now. Three of them, the oldest no more than nineteen. According to my guys over at the 23rd, they've all got records the size of Texas though. They've been bouncing around, place to place, leaving behind a trail of badly burned buildings and houses. Thankfully, no one's been hurt. Well, no one except Ruby, and the mayor, kind of," Emma explained.

"So, are we gonna go get 'em, or are they staying in Boston?" Graham asked.

"Most of the stuff they've done took place in Boston, and PD's got a pretty damn good case against them there, so we're gonna hand over what we have here and they'll tack it on," Emma replied. "They'll go away for a while, I'm sure."

"You going to add attempted homicide to those charges too? 'Cause the mayor and Ruby nearly died," Graham said, looking over at Ruby, who was just sitting back in her chair and looking sort of lost.

Emma shook her head. "They've got enough on them already. They're just stupid kids, with nothing else better to do than screw up other people's stuff," she said. She quickly added, "No offense to you, Ruby. I just don't think we need to pin anymore on them right now. Like I said, they're already going away for a long time."

Ruby didn't say anything. Graham leaned forward in his chair and snapped his fingers in front of her face, and she jumped, turning quickly to glare at him.

"What? Huh?" Ruby asked, confusion furrowing her brow.

"You were off in La-La Land, Lucas. Focus." It was the sheriff herself who answered.

"Sorry, Em," Ruby said, training her eyes on the blonde. "You were saying something about attempted homicide?"

Emma shook her head. "Just that we're not going after these kids for that. If Boston wants to, that's them, but I don't wanna tack on charge after charge and send these kids away for God knows how long. They're young, stupid, maybe they'll learn their lesson from all this."

Ruby nodded along. "Oh, yeah. No, that's good. I'm sure they'll get something out of all this. I hope so anyway," she said, still clearly off in her own world.

Emma narrowed her eyes and watched her Deputy carefully for a moment. "O-kay. Well, I'm going to lock myself in my office for a while and get some paperwork done. If you need anything," she said, looking to Graham and letting her voice trail off before she headed into her office and closed the door.

Graham waited a minute, then leaned up in his chair again and tapped his fingers on Ruby's desk to get her attention. When that didn't work, he said, "Hello. Earth to Ruby. Ruby!"

The brunette jumped again and turned to face him. "What?" she asked, annoyed.

"Where are you right now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You're clearly not here in the present with us. What are you thinking about?"

Ruby sighed. "Just... stuff."

"Regina-related stuff?"

"Yep."

"You're still trying to figure this out, aren't you? How to get through to her?" Graham asked, resting his elbows on the edge of the desk. "What have you tried so far?"

"Well, there were the flowers that completely backfired, and I sent her candy, which probably didn't go well either, since I didn't hear anything about that," Ruby began.

"Maybe she ate them all. She probably wouldn't tell you if she did," Graham interjected, smirking.

Ruby shook her head. "No. I get the feeling that she's not into romantic gestures. I mean, even casual first date dinner blew up in my face."

"Ah, yes, but it got you a kiss, which is good," Graham said.

"A kiss that also blew up in my face," Ruby corrected. "A kiss that's likely to never happen again because Regina has too many rules and regulations and too much hard facade for me to actually crack through."

"Wait. You're not giving up, are you? Because that sounded to me like you're giving up. You must not be feeling well or something."

"Graham, what else am I going to do? She's made it pretty clear that the other night was a mistake and that it can't and won't happen again, so what can I do?"

"You sure as hell can't give up. That's not the Ruby I know. When you want something, you're usually pretty good at tracking it down and getting it. You just gotta try a little harder with this one. Regina's a tough nut to crack."

"Hah, that's an understatement if there ever was one," Ruby shot back.

"Just promise me you won't give up," Graham said.

"Why do you care, anyway?"

"Because we've been friends forever and I think you deserve to be happy, even if the person that makes you happy is really, really terrifying and a little bit insane."

"You think Regina makes me happy?"

"Well, she must, otherwise you wouldn't have been so damned determined to win her over."

Ruby was quiet for a few minutes, mulling over Graham's words in her head. She had been happy. Somewhat. Kind of, before the whole dinner thing went awry. And before that, she'd sort of come to terms with the fact that Regina made her feel like there were butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. Ever since that gala, something had shifted, changed, and Ruby felt drawn to the mayor, though she didn't want to be. That sense of being pulled toward the thing you want the most was what made her go to Regina's office that night. It was why she was there when that fire started, why she had been the one to save Regina, and she refused to believe that didn't mean something.

Brushing it off as a crush hadn't worked then, and brushing it off as a failed attempt at winning Regina's heart wasn't going to work now.

"You're right," Ruby said, letting out a breath as she got to her feet, "I can't give up."

She pulled her coat from the back of her chair and slipped into it, then grabbed her car keys and turned and headed for the door.

"Cover for me," she told Graham.

"Yeah, sure," Graham said. "Hey, where are you going?"

Ruby turned and gave him a determined smile. "I'm going to track down what I want."