11: Home

He stood watching the dwarfs at work, glad for the shades protecting his eyes. While he'd grown used to it after living in Storybrooke for so long, it still baffled him how bright the sunlight could get in other worlds. He wouldn't mind a few more cloudy days or, better yet, thunder storms.

Victor scanned the fields looking for a specific face. There weren't that many people he felt he could talk to in town. Most avoided him, which he admitted was fair since they didn't really know him apart from fake memories and what he revealed once the curse was lifted. Hell, most people still called him Doctor Whale. It grated him a little but he always told people to call them whatever made them more comfortable, and apparently Frankenstein was an uncomfortable name even among fairy tale characters.

"Victor! Hey!" Most fairy tale characters, anyway. David approached him, wiping the sweat off his brow. "Don't tell me you're going to work in the fields with us."

"No," he responded, "though gardening probably is a safer way for me to tinker with the boundaries of life and death. Unless I happen to create a breed of killer tomatoes."

"But Bunnicula can take care of those," David remarked. Victor let out an appreciative laugh.

"I'm guessing you got that name from Henry."

"Guilty." David flashed an embarrassed smile. "He was pretty surprised when he heard about you, and since the library opened up he's been reading as much horror as he can- and as much as Emma will allow. He said you weren't in his book," David added as an afterthought.

"Makes sense." He could think of no way to segue into the reason he was here, so he just got straight to the point. "Listen, I'm here to talk about Ruby." Her nickname felt weird on his tongue.

"Good. I was hoping I wouldn't have to track you down. Ruby is like family to me and you... well, I like to think you and I are friends."

"I like to think that, too," Victor nodded. David was just as surprised as everyone else when Victor's true identity was revealed, but he got over it a lot faster. Liza told Victor how David described the Daniel incident in a very casual tone, like the dead rising and a man losing his arm were both perfectly ordinary. That and how he sought Victor out the night Greg crashed into town solidified David as someone who understood, a man who could stare down monsters and still reach the people inside.

"In fact," Victor added as those thoughts drifted through his mind, "you're probably the best friend I have in Storybrooke. I'm not sure that's saying much, though, since I can count how many friends I have here on one hand."

"I don't know," David mused with a smile. "Being the best friend of Doctor Frankenstein sounds both a high honor and a little dangerous. I don't think anyone else here could handle it." Victor chuckled again. He could see how David earned his famous nickname.

"So about Ruby," Victor resumed. "Are there any holidays in your world I should know about? Maybe some kind of Christmas equivalent? And I need to know her birthday. I know I could just ask her, but I want to surprise her."

David raised an eyebrow at him. "You're thinking of celebrating Christmas with her?"

"I don't want my last Christmas to ruin future holidays," Victor explained.

"That's a nice thought, Victor, but what about when the beans are ready?"

Slowly he turned his eyes toward the growing beanstalks. Victor knew that the giant brought a magical bean with him, and the whole purpose of this field was to grow that bean and harvest more of its kind. The beans were to be their way home. He knew all of this, and yet he hadn't considered what that meant for himself and Liza. In fact, he hadn't thought about going home at all since they started dating.

Because somehow Storybrooke became his home.

But his brother was still waiting for him back at the estate. The last he remembered, Victor had locked his brother away with the vow that he would come back. What could have happened between then and now? It'd been well over thirty years. He couldn't abandon his brother, but he couldn't ask Liza to choose him over her home, either.

"What would you do," he finally asked, "if it was you and Mary Margaret in this situation?"

"We always find each other," David replied. Not the most helpful answer, but he said it in the same way Victor and Liza would say "monster to monster". That made the solution easy.

He said goodbye to David and went to find Liza. She wasn't at the diner; her grandmother suggested checking the animal shelter. She'd warmed up to him a lot since he helped her with crossbow maintenance. Victor followed her instructions and wasn't surprised to find Liza playing with the dogs. He would've loved to stand and watch her but she was immediately alerted to his presence. They seemed to move toward each other at the same time, meeting somewhere in the middle and wrapping around each other.

"Do you want to go home with me?" he asked against her lips.

"Yes," came the breathy reply. She pulled back, a smile curling on her mouth. "Do you want to come home with me?"

"Absolutely." Victor caught a stray hair between his fingers and tucked it behind her ear. "So is that the plan? We'll take turns going to each other's homes?" Liza tilted her head up to meet his gaze and something in her eyes told him she understood what he was really asking.

"For now," she agreed. "Until we find a place for both of us."

Victor couldn't help but laugh. "Exactly what I was thinking."