AN: This will most likely be the last chapter. I want to say thank you for the reviews, favorites, and follows. You people are great!
It was Rumple. He was the one that started the fire and was the cause of all the strange occurrences in town. How Emma had found out, Ruby would never know. She just knew that Rumple was basically dragged into the police station by Emma, Regina following them with a wicked look on her face. A few hours after, Emma and Regina had emerged, and Ruby caught Emma.
"What happened?" she asked the blonde.
"It was him. He set the library on fire and did that other weird shit. He said he wasn't going after Belle, that he hadn't meant to hurt her."
"The why did he-"
And then the realization dawned on her. He was going after me. He wanted to hurt me.
Emma seemed to sense what she was thinking, and patted her back. "It's not your fault, Rubes. Don't beat yourself up."
"He'll get what's coming to him," Regina said with a slight grin, but a look that also had an apology somewhere hidden inside it.
"I know, I just..." Ruby sighed. "How am I supposed to tell Belle? She'll be devastated."
"She'll be fine," Emma said. "Just go tell her. Now."
Ruby sighed again and began to walk toward the library. She entered and as soon as Belle saw her, the shorter girl lit up, but then she deflated upon observing the look on Ruby's face.
"Ruby," Belle said. "Wh-"
"It was Rumple," Ruby blurted. "He set the library on fire and blew up my car and kept turning out the power, not to hurt you, but to hurt me, and-"
"Calm down," Belle chuckled. "I figured it was him. Although, I didn't expect he'd try and hurt you... but that isn't surprising."
"Why isn't it. And how are you not freaking out?"
"I saw Emma bring him into the station. And it's not surprising because I don't love him anymore, so he's jealous. He's jealous because I love you."
Ruby gasped just a bit. "Did you just say what I think you said?"
"I did indeed."
"Oh. I love you, too."
For the first time since the fire, Ruby felt completely relaxed and at peace. She wasn't worried, wasn't scared, she was happy. Happy that Belle was fine, happy that Belle loved her, and happy that Rumple couldn't hurt them anymore. She knew that whatever Regina and Emma had done in there had made sure he wouldn't terrorize anyone again.
Ruby smiled at Belle, and Belle smiled back. Belle, too, was happy. She walked up to Ruby, got up onto her toes, and kissed her girlfriend. Ruby gratefully kissed back, wrapping her arms around Belle's hips as Belle put her arms on Ruby's shoulders. They kissed for a little while longer, and then pulled back, looking each other in the eye.
They were really free. Completely and utterly free to do whatever they wanted. And what Ruby really wanted at that moment wasn't to kiss Belle, it wasn't to have sex with her, Ruby wanted to read. Or, technically, have Belle read to her. She wanted to hear Belle's beautiful voice say the words written on the pages, she wanted to fall into a trance.
So, she grabbed Belle's hand and led her around the library. Ruby winded between shelves of books and numbers, and finally stopped when she found the book she was looking for. She pulled it out and let her eyes examine the cover.
"Great Expectations," Belle laughed.
"Will you read it to me?" Ruby asked quietly.
"I'm working," Belle chuckled, but she still walked toward the door and flipped the open sign to closed.
They walked up to Belle's office and sat down on the couch together, Ruby being the big spoon and Belle being the little spoon.
Belle opened the book and started reading aloud. "My fathers family name being Pirrip, and my Christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip. So, I called myself Pip, and came to be called Pip..."