Chapter XXIV

Take A Look It's In A Book

Holding the charter while Ruby gave her oath of office was one of the proudest moments of Belle's life.

If only there hadn't been an ogre stomping in her head while it happened. She felt dreadful. She was never drinking with Ruby again. She wasn't drinking ever again, period. The other woman didn't even have a headache and Belle felt like death. Well, death might be preferable to the hangover.

Still though, sickness aside, it had been fun. They had talked and drank. At some point they had danced to an incomprehensibly fast-paced song. Everything had been so different, so unfettered. Free. Ruby had brought out a side of herself that Belle hadn't even known existed.

She'd woke up in bed with a very cuddly and half-naked werewolf. Horrifying nausea aside, it had been the nicest thing she could imagine waking up to. It was also something she felt like she could get used to. Being with Ruby made her feel sure of herself and joyful.

Now, a thick layer of greasy food on her stomach and a civil ceremony later, she felt better. She didn't regret a minute of it. She wouldn't let herself regret it. She pushed the guilt aside. She would not feel guilty for having fun. She would not feel guilty for living a free life. She'd spent far too many years locked up, thank you very much. Emma and Regina, Sheriff and Mayor, left and the diner fell silent.

Granny sat down her camcorder and hugged Ruby. She was so proud. Yesterday's paper had been so horrible. It was lovely to see everyone showing the Lucas Ladies kindness and support.

Belle suspected that the very public spectacle was a political move. It was a calculated reaction to the newspaper. She also had a sneaking suspicion that Regina had orchestrated it. The Evil Queen was very intelligent, informed and observant. She also had a dark knack for manipulating people. Belle would know. In this case, though, she didn't mind. Regina had, for once, used her cruel mind for someone's else's good. Even if it was only a side effect of whatever her grand scheme was.

Regina's kind deed aside, it was well deserved recognition for both David and Ruby.

"Belle!" She was almost knocked off her feet by Ruby's excited hug. "A Deputy! I am a deputy!"

Ruby's enthusiasm lit up her face. It made her look more beautiful than ever. Butterflies replaced nausea. It was impossible to resist the urge to touch. Belle reached out and tapped her finger on the star shaped badge, "I, for one, will sleep safer knowing that you are on duty, Deputy Lucas."

Ruby immediately turned as mad as her famous cloak. She was adorable, and not like a puppy or a small child, like-well something else. Something that lit a fire in her chest and made her tongue feel thick and useless in her mouth. Belle didn't want to examine it at the moment. She didn't want to think too hard about it all, not yet. There were consequences and other people (Rumpel) to think about too. At the moment, she wanted to enjoy this moment with the other woman. So she did.

"You" Ruby grabbed her around the waist and twirled her around." Have to come out and celebrate with me."

Belle immediately shook her head. "Absolutely not! I'm still not sure I survived last night, I can not do it again!"

Because one night was one thing, but two nights in the row could be something else entirely. Something that went past the line of friendly.

Something that she should only be thinking about with Rumpel. Besides, even if she did want that sort of more-than-friendly thing with Ruby. She wasn't even sure what that would be. The other woman could not want the same. She didn't even seem very disappointed by Belle's answer . She only laughed, "Librarians are light weights!"

Belle rolled her eyes at the supposed-insult. "Go have fun, Ruby, we will meet up tomorrow for lunch, after all the partying."

Granny smacked Ruby on the arm with a folded towel, "Go on and get out of here. You're going to be useless today, Deputy."

Ruby hugged her grandmother again. The love between them was so visible, honest, and there. There were no reservations. Sometimes Granny was gruff, but her love for Ruby was so real. Belle missed that sort of love, the sort of love her mother had shown her. Her father had tried, she winced. He had tried to destroy her. Rumpel had, well that was far more complicated. She rubbed her temples. Complicated was not something she could contemplate at the moment. The dim quiet of her library sounded perfect right now.

Ruby hugged Snow and shook David, her fellow deputy's, hand. She all but tore off her apron in her excitement. She was so happy, and she wasn't the only one. A few others: dwarves, Marco, Archie and the entire Granny's staff also congratulated her with hugs, cheers, handshakes, and back-slapping.

Belle stood by, watched and enjoyed seeing Ruby so happy. It was the polar opposite of how she had found her the night before.

Ruby took off for her room at the connected Inn, the one Belle had spent the night in. Now that was another very complicated matter. Belle sat back on

her stool with a groan. Now that all the excitement was over she was going back to dying. She took a sip of the black coffee that Granny had told her would cure her hangover. She winced at the bitter taste and hoped it worked fast.

"Here you are."

Mulan appeared, like magic, at her side. Belle jumped at her sudden words. The woman should wear bells or at least have the courtesy to appear with a swirl of colored smoke.

"You did not return home after you stomped away muttering about murder. I thought it best to either locate you or visit the local jail to barter for your release." She tilted her head, "Or find an appropriate place to discard of the body."

Her delivery was so dry and matter-of-fact. If Belle didn't see the mischievous glimmer in her eye she would have thought she was serious.

"Funny, Mulan, very funny."

"You drank too much alcohol last night. You are guàle."

Belle read other languages more proficiently than she spoke them but she understood what Mulan meant.

"Yes," Her lip twitched and Mulan gave her an amused look.

"The most common cure is the best in this situation."

Belle crossed her arms own her chest, "And what is that?"

Mulan didn't miss a beat, "A hair from the wolf that bit you."

Either the woman was still working on her idioms on she was having a laugh at her expense. She was leaning towards the later. Despite Mulan's serious soldier's ways, she did have a fabulous sense of humor.

"I'm going to the library." She dragged herself away, easing her

way through the crowd towards the door. Mulan followed her and if she has laughing she was wise enough to do so silently.

"Some willow bark tea would help as well."

Belle snorted, "No, we have a much more potent magic at our disposal- Excedrin."

Snow, Ms Blanchard, had let them have an extra-long recess, something about a meeting. Henry didn't mind, not one bit. Operation Hydra was his main focus, not school. Who needed to know the states and capitols of a country you didn't actually belong to. It was stupid. Why did they have to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag anyway? Storybrooke was no more a part of The United States then Toronto was. Shouldn't they be pledging fealty to his grandparent's coat of arms, or something?

He had more important things to do. So he was at the school library, researching (and returning the DVD he'd borrowed). The Book didn't have anything about Cora in it. Now that he knew about Esmeralda, he had to find out about Cora. He Googled "Fairy Tale+Characters+Cora". It turned up exactly one article on a blog and it only came up because the author's first name was Cora too. The article was about Grimm's Fairy Tales. Those fairy tales weren't the right ones, though.

He searched for Captain Hook and found a lot about the Disney cartoon movie (He'd seen it a million times). He found the old movie where Pan had been a grown-up (also seen it...his Mo-Regina loved Robin Williams.) but he was sure that wasn't right either.

Why had The Book left them out?

Everyone was afraid of Cora, like she was worse than the Evil Queen.

Speaking of the Evil Queen,Regina, why had she never mentioned Cora?

Esmeralda had raised her, but Cora was her real mom. Wasn't that more important? Why was Esmeralda, Regina's adopted mother, living with her, but not Cora?

Well, of course, she was evil and Mo-Regina wanted everyone to think she was good now. So was it a trick? Maybe they were meeting in secret to plan evil things?

No one talked about Cora when he was around. It was like they wanted him not to know. Him! The one who had figured out the stupid curse in the first place. He hated magic and secrets and plots.

He would figure this out by himself. Just because he'd lost the stupid science fair didn't mean he was dumb.

He scribbled and doodled in his notebook on the blank "Cora" page.

He'd lost the science fair, because school was stupid. Stupid and useless. He wouldn't need that stuff when he was a real prince in the Enchanted Forest.

Right? Right.

He was thinking, trying to decide exactly how to go forward. Ava had been right, he should look into other ways of figuring these sorts of things out. The Book was useful, but it didn't have everything in it. He had to be back on the playground at two-thirty to go back to the classroom with everyone else. He had fifteen more minutes to figure out what to do.

"Ava said you'd be here."

Henry turned around and tried to pretend that she hadn't scared him.

"Oh" He tried to play it cool, "Hey Paige.'' He blinked, "I mean Grace."

The blonde girl shrugged and sat down in the chair beside him. "Either is fine," She smoothed out her uniform skirt, "It's all the same to me."

She riffled through her purse. It was a very nice looking one that she had gotten from her super rich dad after the curse had broken.

"Why?"

She looked up from her purse, "Why what?"

Henry folded his arm over his chest, "Why do you go by both names? Your

real name is Grace. You real dad named you that."

She pulled a stack of envelopes out and started to look through those.

"I have memories of both my Daddy and my Mom and Dad. I love them both."

She handed him an envelope, "Daddy hated it at first but now he's okay,

well sort of. They are working together on my birthday party. I hope you'll come."

Henry looked at the envelope. He'd been to parties before, but that had been during the curse so it hadn't counted.

Before kids were his friends because of the curse. Emma had broken it, though. Paige was inviting him now, too.

"Daddy is paying for everything so it will be as awesome as the ones your Mom used to throw you. In fact, it will be better. He's sort of got it in his head that he has to show her up. Something about what happened in the Old World. Anyway." She tossed her hair over her shoulder, "There's going to be a bounce house, ponies and Mr Dopey is going to DJ for it. Daddy said we can't have any crazy music where there's cursing, though." She shook her head, "He wants it to be perfect. "I hope you'll come." She wrinkled her nose, "We used to be friends." She frowned. "We had fun."

He shifted in his chair, unsure of what to say. He did like Gra-Paige. she was cool, and funny and very good at Wii Bowling and Mario Cart. She even liked comics too, well if manga counted as real comics.

"It wasn't really-real, though. You were cursed." Her brow furrowed, and if his Mom and Emma were anything to go on, that meant she was mad.

"So? Most people were. It doesn't mean we were robots or dumb. Just because you broke the curse doesn't mean it never happened.

"I" He didn't know what to say to that. If he'd had a minute he might have come up with something. He didn't get a minute.

"Grace!''

Mr. Dash, Grace's real father was jogging towards them. He ignored Ms. Potts telling him to stop.

"Grace!"

He wore fancy clothes, a suit like Mr. Gold, but instead of a tie he wore a fancy scarf, like Freddy from Scooby Doo.

"Grace, sweetheart, get away from that boy."

He grabbed her purse and pulled out her chair, "We're leaving right now."

He turned to Henry, "stay away from my daughter."

Henry's jaw dropped, "Huh?"

Mr. Dash was acting crazy. Henry was one of the good guys.

Grace was also confused by his words, "Why can't I hang with Henry? We're friends."

He ripped the party invitation out of Henry's hand. "Not anymore. Not with The Queen of Hearts in town." He tugged Grace away.

"He is a target. A walking, talking target. His entire family is doomed. This entire town is at her mercy."

He shook his head. His eyes, lined with makeup like his Mom wore sometimes, were wide and darting around.

"From who? My Mom?" Henry had never heard her called the Queen of Hearts before, but it did make sense.

Grace's father looked at him. It was hard to figure out his facial expression. It looked like he was remembering something. It must not have been nice, because he looked both afraid and surprised.

"Regina?" He said her name like a bad-word, then he shook his head, "No." His voice was different, almost kind. "No. No. Dear Boy, Regina is a regular saint compared to Cora." He paused, his eyes steady for a second, "When I met her, before either of you were even thought of, she was friend. A friend, once upon a time." His voice sounded sing-songy at the end of the sentence.

He tugged at his scarf and Henry could see an ugly red scar that went all the way around his neck. "The Queen of Hearts turned Wonderland into never-ending nightmare. She will tear Storybooke apart." Now his voice was deep and rumbly, both scared and scary.

He tugged Grace again, but she tried to pull away. Instead of fighting with his daughter, he picked her up and held her on his hip like a baby.

"That monster won't touch my Grace. If I were you.'' He tucked the scarf back into place, "I would say goodbye to your mother. Regina is on the top of The Queen's hit-list."

He turned and walked away with Grace in his arms. When Ms Potts tried to say something, he only held up a hand to silence her.

"I am removing my daughter from this school. She might return if The Queen of Hearts is dead. When she is burnt to ashes and buried. Mix in salt. Sanctify it with silver and sage. Off with her head. Maybe not even then."

He was breathing fast, like his Mom when Emma had fallen, "Off

with her head, you know."

Henry watched them leave and was as confused now as he had been before.

He had been de-invited from the best party ever because his Mom and her Mom were evil. He did have way more to go on for his search, though. Cora had been the Queen of Hearts in Wonderland. So now he had something to go on.

"Hey" He turned to look at Ms Potts,"Do we have a copy of Alice in Wonderland?

She nodded, "Yes, but I think that the book is right on your reading level so no movie this time, young man."

Busted!

She shook her head, "I've got my eye on you from now on."

He smiled, and hoped it looked innocent. "Yes Ma 'am."

She pushed him out of the library as soon as she'd checked out his books. He had an illustrated copy of Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass to read. It would answer some questions. It would help him with Operation Hydra.

"Remember Henry"

He paused at the door to look back.

"Those stories are not our stories, only reflections of them. It's like looking in a carnival mirror, everything is there, but not exactly right. It is too all or too short, too fat or skinny. Sometimes it curves around so much it doesn't look the same at all. Even that fairy tale book you're so fond of didn't get everything right. A librarian" She wagged her finger at him, "knows how to tell a biography from a bedtime story."

He nodded but wasn't exactly sure what she meant. Of course The Book was right, right?

Right.