"Whose job is it to make sure Snow doesn't spill a secret?" asked Happy.
Doc finished cleaning off his glasses and held them at forehead height, studying them with a jagged crease in his forehead. Before replying, he replaced them on his nose, smoothed out his forehead, and blinked several times. "Dopey."
"He's not doing a grand job." Happy scratched his shoulder blade with a wall corner. "She overheard a private conversation between Bashful and me, and she leaked it. I'm not happy about it. Bashful is absolutely humiliated, you know how little he likes attention…"
Sleepy bumped shoulders with him. "It's what she does." He made a frame with his hands. "Spilling secrets since she was ten. It's her thing."
Happy mused, "The only secret she managed to keep was when she married David before his mother, not enlightening him King George had cursed her womb. Letting him believe she could have kids. To this day, she never told him. Because it's her secret. If it's someone else's, she feels morally obligated to be a tattletale."
Dr. Whale swung the door to the diner open. His eyes landed immediately on the new intern. His neck tensed painfully. She'd asked him on a date. Against his better judgment, he said, "Yes."
But Ruby was the woman who flooded his fantasies and sweetest dreams. He couldn't rightly get her out of his head. He was aware he was a cad to bring dates to her workplace so he could study her legs. But he couldn't work up the enthusiasm to be sincerely interested in other women.
That date with Mary Margaret—was she really the Princess of another realm, Snow White?—where she'd told him she wanted…20?...children…or did she say her students?
Whatever, he hadn't wanted kids with her. The truth was he'd only asked her out because he'd wanted an excuse to go to Granny's with someone so it'd be less awkward.
But Ruby had been so damn sexy, he'd lost every ounce of intelligent thought he'd possessed and forgot everything but his admiration for her beauty.
Though when David(?) had gone cavorting with Katherine and Mary Margaret needed someone to pick up the pieces, Dr. Whale had done so. But he had, admittedly, incorrectly assumed Mary Margaret was downhearted because he'd never called her and she was secretly in LUV with him…
Not so much, he thought wryly. Truth was, no woman had ever been in bona fide LUV with Victor Frankenstein. Sure, some had crushed on him, but love was profound.
Maybe that's why he was so fascinated by Ruby. Because it was less painful to focus on a goddess who would never go on one date with him and admire her wistfully than face his own lack of lovability.
His father had made sure he knew he wasn't lovable.
Passing by Ruby without looking in her eyes, he put a rose he'd brought her in her hands and continued to his date. His date who failed to notice the gesture.
His date's large yellow-green eyes were round. She'd recently applied lipstick the shade of pink Dr. Whale had happened to notice was on the cover of a magazine in their waiting room. "Sexiest shades of lipstick to make YOU irresistible to the Aloofest of Males!"
The look on her face when she purred, "Victor!" screamed, "I don't like you, but you will fall madly in LUV with me!"
Dutifully, he strolled to the table and sat across from her. "Fancy meeting you here," he couldn't stop himself from joking.
Dipping her finger into her coffee, she brought it to her lips and sucked on it. Extending her too-large bosom, she wryly stated, "Oh yeah. I've seen you around. Handsome." Her eyes crinkled enticingly.
He felt like a hawk in a petting zoo. Scratching the back of his neck, he "Umm"ed.
Smiling encouragingly, she made her eyes as cute as possible. "I want a raise." Then she blanched and her face crumpled. Twirling several strands of hair around her finger, she muttered through her embarrassed teeth, "That's not what I meant to say."
Gallantly, Dr. Whale offered, "I'd like a raise too. I live in a small apartment and donate every penny I can to science. What do you donate to?" he asked to show an interest in her as a person. Looking for something that mattered to her.
Her face went red as she buried it in the lace sleeve of her soft, rose pink dress. "Retail," she mumbled.
"Ah." He nodded awkwardly.
"I want this pair of shoes…they're going to sell out…I can't afford…" Stopping her mortified dialogue, she suddenly ogled him from beneath her lashes. "Forget the raise." Planting her palms on the table, she leaned over the table, making sure her cleavage was visible. "I'll give you a night you'll never forget if you straight-up buy the shoes for me."
Kindly, Dr. Whale remarked, "You're very sweet." A lie. She bit off one of the patient's heads because she'd wanted the nurse to explain the procedure before performing it. She was good at the medical part of the job but mighty short-tempered. However, he wasn't responsible for hiring or firing her—or her paycheck. "But you overestimate my wages." He didn't need to know how much the shoes cost—he could tell he couldn't afford them and also knew he wouldn't enjoy her end of the bargain half as much as she wanted him to believe he would. She was a con artist—all talk and no action. Expecting the world to fall to pieces with awe over her because she yawned.
"Why me?" he asked. "If all you wanted was money, why not ask—"
She interrupted hotly, "I'm not sleeping with that ugly imp! Ew! What kind of—"
Gently, Dr. Whale informed her, "I was going to suggest Jefferson."
Her yellow-green eyes widened. "Oh! Great idea! You're a lifesaver!" She leapt up from her seat. Jefferson was heading their way. She bumped into him without seeing him and raced out of Granny's, clutching her red tiny sequined purse against her stomach in both hands.
Jefferson tilted his head quizzically. "What's the rush? Her dad dying?" He looked hellishly exhausted, dark rings under his eyes, face gaunt and full of shadows. Staggering, he appeared seconds away from falling to the floor and snoring.
"Shoes going to sell out."
"Oh. Right. No wonder she's running." Jefferson eased himself and his dark blue cape in the seat the intern had occupied, the seat across from Dr. Whale. Victor Frankenstein could see Jefferson's heart beating hard through his navy shirt. "Big problems, shoes. Definitely run like you're on fire if your footwear is escaping your clutches." Rubbing his temple, Jefferson mused, "No wonder she looked deliriously hopeful."
"She checked you in the other day…Long night?"
An insanely happy smile curled on Jefferson's lips. "We'll see," he promised cryptically.
Then Jefferson drew in a calming breath. "The reason I'm here, actually, is because I never properly thanked you for saving my life." From his midnight blue cape, he produced a gift card to a fancy restaurant—the best in Storybrooke. "It's nothing much, but—"
Dr. Frankenstein studied the gift card. "Wow," he breathed, blinking incredulously. Daydreaming of taking Ruby there…he didn't think she' want to go to such a fancy place, but he had to ask, right? Otherwise, it was a waste of such a grand gesture.
Dr. Whale had no words to express his gratitude. He accepted the card and stared at it as a fantasy of Ruby giving him a lingering kiss stumbled upon his senses.
She'd turn him down—how could she not? She was beautiful—but he would ask.
He made himself confess as he stared at the card, "I've lived at Storybrooke Hospital for…thirty? years. Never has anyone felt like thanking me. After they leave the hospital, they forget about it. Even Granny and her heart attack…" His voice faded then he cleared his throat and moved the card around between two fingers then flipped it over. "You didn't have to."
"I wanted to," confirmed the tired father. "I had something very important to do to a bitch—"
"Regina?"
"Yes. Who'd done something awful to my daughter." Jefferson made the motion of washing his hands. "Mission accomplished. So now it's fine if I die, but you saved me when I needed to live."
Dr. Whale studied the card as he admitted, "Saving lives fills me with psychological trauma. I aspired to bring people back from the dead. My father loathed me for it, but I wanted to because when Mother was alive, he was far happier. He never liked me, but when she was alive, he pretended I was part of his imagination. He smiled and joked around me, even if not to me. He very obviously loved her and my brother, and it touched me to see the beauty of that love shining in his eyes. When she died, he stopped smiling and took all his anger out on me. I didn't care, but it bothered me that science hadn't learned to bring people back to life, and I made it my mission in spite of my father claiming my goal was evil.
"But in my world, every one of my good intentions to save someone led me to hell and self-hatred. I tried to bring my beloved brother back...my father always loved him. And I cared for him too, very much, but I'd really been thinking how happy my father would be to have him back…
"It did not end well. Father screamed at me until Gerhardt killed him." Victor became lost in thought before wryly commenting while burying his face in his hands, "I didn't mean to ramble."
"Aw," Jefferson opined, "that story has been locked in your chest. You needed to get it out…Thank you for walking through fire for me. I appreciate it. I know fighting mental demons isn't a picnic. My wife, Priscilla, died because she was with me on a mission to help someone take back a stolen object. I feel guilt over it and quit my line of work because I didn't want to leave Grace an orphan or have her follow me in my footsteps and end up dead at Priscilla's age…
"Then try as I might to convince myself Regina manipulated me into—what is he doing here?" The Mad Hatter frowned darkly over Dr. Whale's shoulder. To himself, he asked, "Is he stalking me?"
Dr. Whale didn't know whether Jefferson required a response. He was about to ask if Jefferson would like him to report someone to the sheriff when Jefferson ditched him due to sheer forgetfulness and went to punch Will in the nose. Will's nose dripped blood. Jefferson staggered off, fuming. Cape swirling behind him.
Everyone in Granny's Diner witnessed the exchange. Most were slack-jawed silent. Granny released several expletives no one in Storybrooke had heard her say. Especially one that started with "D" and ended in "head". Granny was hardly one to hold strong words back, but these words she reserved for situations that demanded them.
On the contrary, Will stood there with a nose leaking red, a maniac, drunken smile lighting his eyes—fairy lights pushing darkness back.
"Feisty!" he declared. "I like that. Granny, give me some Irish coffee on the house."
"For chrissake," she grumbled, "you never pay, you mooch. I don't know whether to ban you or him." But she tossed him a coffee with several vodka shots.
Will took a sip. "Too weak." He reached in his satchel but came up empty. "Hmm…guess I misplaced me flask." He snuck in the back room and dumped half a bottle of tequila in his already full coffee mug.
Two gulps, and he passed out cold in the back room with a huge smile on his face. Gripping the handle securely as he crashed to the floor, he spilled most of the contents before the glass shattered on impact.
His hand twitched and caused the mug to give him a long, thick curved wound on his chin. Shaped like a clown's smile, he bled from the wound.
Ruby found him like that half an hour later. In which she dragged Whale, who'd been slowly drinking orange juice and working up courage, in to check on him.
Victor looked at the blood staining Will's heather grey shirt. "He's alright. Just mixed tequila with vodka. Didn't have much, or I'd recommend hospitalization. He's been in the hospital for alcohol poisoning dozens of times, but he's alright today…Red, is that your name?"
Ruby caught the different tone and smiled sweetly at Victor. "No, it's what everyone called me because of my cloak. No one had called me by my real name in ages before Regina did the curse, even Granny…Red always suited me better than the name my mother gave me, It was so boring I would rather not tell anyone." She made a face. "I heard it's a middle name of a downright nasty character in Harry Potter, though Regina freezing us in the 1980s didn't help me confirm that rumor." Batting her lashes, she encouraged, "Did you need to ask me something?" She had a feeling he wanted to. And she was never wrong about these things. She wanted him to feel comfortable asking her.
Never mind that cursed night she'd "waited for the bus that would never come" and he tried to pick her up in a predatory way. That wasn't really Dr. Frankenstein but his cursed self. It was like how David was helping his false wife wrack up votes for Regina when if he hadn't been cursed, David would be helping Snow wrack up votes for Emma. Ruby refused to allow Regina to taint her feelings for Victor Frankenstein.
Victor's heart fluttered. Becoming instantly afraid of all that could go wrong, Dr. Whale stammered out a, "N-no-no."
"There is," Ruby challenged.
Dr. Whale rubbed his eyebrow. "Well, it's just Jefferson gave me a gift card to Storybrooke's finest restaurant. Enough for me and a date. And I want to take you, but…"
Grabbing his hands, Ruby pulled herself up. "You think I'll say no." Huskily, she whispered, "Victor…I'd love to."
Hearing her say his name was a shot of thrill. Lightning jolting through his chest. It felt so good, it was unbelievable. Felt more like what happens in fiction than real life.
Waiting for the "but", Dr. Whale held still. But she said no more.
Embarrassed, Dr. Whale murmured, "I'm sorry, I-I heard you wrong."
Clearing her throat, Ruby enunciated while tracing a wolf head in the back of his hand with her fingertip, "I want to go. With you. It should be fun!"
Then she strode off, making good and sure his eyes were stuck on her legs when she left.
He needed some alone time in a bathroom.
Will made Dr. Whale jump so hard he bruised the back of his head when the man stated, "I think she fancies you, mate."
Dr. Whale snorted softly. "No, she doesn't. But…we can still have a nice time. I hope."
Still clutching the broken mug's handle in his fist, Will warbled, "Alright, which one of you buffoons dragged a dwarf's pickaxe along my chin?"
Rubbing the back of his head, Dr. Whale didn't answer. Traipsing back to the hospital, he was amazed Ruby had agreed to go on a date…with him.
He was elated.