“Go.  I’ll be safe with Grams and Gramps.”  Emma was still confused by a lot of things but she did know she could trust Mary Margaret with her kid.  She nodded, not stopping to answer any questions.  Her roommate turned mother almost followed, but David held her back.  She hoped Henry didn’t say too much; she wasn’t sure she was quite ready for her newfound mom to learn that her daughter was in a relationship with her best friend.

“Ruby?”  The diner was empty.  Emma ran up the stairs of the bed and breakfast, breathing a sigh of relief to see the bedroom door open.  "Rubes.”

“I’ve never known anyone who wanted a baby as much as Snow wanted you.”  The only window in the room faced the forward; as Emma drew closer she could see the crowd still gathered in the middle of the street.  There were more people now; the first person she looked for was Henry.  David had an arm wrapped around him.  “It has to be killing her to realize what she’s missed.”

“Why did you leave?”  Ruby’s hand was on the glass as if she could almost reach the group. 

“You need time with your family.  You found them.”  Rumy smiled, but her eyes looked closer to tears.  Emma couldn’t help glancing at the bed; in the dark she’d been able to confess to Ruby how much it hurt never having a family that wanted her, and how she’d secretly dreamed of having parents even after she’d run away from the last foster home.  Ruby had held her and listened, and kissed her more gently than Emma had ever been kissed.

“It’s going to take time for that to sink in, but nothing that’s happened today changes how I feel about you.”  She hadn’t managed to say the words yet; the last time she’d said ‘love’ she’d been a child.  She didn’t need to say it to feel it, though.  When Ruby didn’t move a horrible thought struck Emma.

“Did it change how you feel?  David and Mary Margaret didn’t remember that they were married and had a daughter.  Do you...”

“God no.  I’m not married.  There was someone once, but he...”  Ruby started to reach for her, but pulled back, her attention seemingly drawn to her own red painted nails.  “You don’t know who I am, Emma.  There are things about me...”

“I don’t care.”  She’d kissed her son, and admitted her love, and it had changed things.  Maybe trying it again would work a second time.  She moved closer, crowding Ruby into the corner.  “I know everything I need to know.”

“Emma...” Ruby pressed her lips together.  

“Finding my parents isn’t worth it if it means losing you.”  Emma pressed her hand against Ruby’s cheek.  “I don’t care about anything you have to say unless you don’t want to be with me anymore.”

“You shouldn’t want to be with me.”

“Bullshit.”  Ruby couldn’t deny how she felt, and that was all that mattered to Emma.  “You’re the one I’ve been looking for.”

One bride walks down the aisle with her father.  Emma wears a brilliant scarlet gown, and there is a white ribbon laced through her blonde braid.  Despite the hundreds of eyes on her, she shines with happiness.  After she’s taken her place, the other bride comes, arm-in-arm with her grandmother.  Ruby wears an ivory gown, and a silk ribbon matching the red streaks in her brunette braid. She also radiates ecstatic joy. At the altar, both brides pass bouquets of white and red-striped roses to Belle and Mary Margaret, their respective matrons of honor.

 Archie clasps his hands together, exchanges bright glances with the brides, and announces, “Dearly beloved, we’re gathered here today to celebrate the marriage of Emma Swan and Ruby Lucas...”

 Afterwards, the people within the ring of bunting retire to a private reception.  The brides change into simpler dresses, though still in their chosen colors.  There’s good food, and sentimental toasts, and awful dancing.  Everyone is happy, but for a scattering of significant glances darting across the room as the evening wears on.  It’s fine, it really is.  No one was left out of the decision-making process.  They all got to say their peace, and it’s fine now.  They’ll get used to it.

 Ruby leans in to kiss her grandmother on the cheek before turning to go.  Granny catches her hand and fixes her with a steady gaze.  “Come home safe now.”

 “That’s the plan.”

 Their hands part and Ruby vanishes into the shadows.  Within seconds, Emma looks up from the Electric Slide lesson she’s attempting to give Henry, smile fading as she scans the room and doesn’t see her new wife. She catches Granny’s eye and receives a steady gaze of her own.  She throws a nod and returns her attention to Henry.

 Emma leaves with the last of the wedding guests.  She goes to her car and pulls out a leather jacket, thick socks, sturdy boots, and a flashlight.  Once she’s dressed with the flashlight in hand, she walks into the black forest.  She soon hears a wolf’s howl on the wind.

 ^^^

 THREE MONTHS EARLIER

 “Hey, babe, you’re home early,” Ruby calls as she enters her and Emma’s apartment, “Was it- oh!”

 There’s a wolf in the living room. Small, by her standards.  With a pale coat, almost... blonde.

 Ruby sniffs at the air with a furrowed brow.  “... Emma?”

 The wolf looks at her with bright amber eyes and a lolling tongue.  Then, she hunches in on herself and a shiver of magic rolls over her.  The wolf is replaced by Emma kneeling on the carpet.  “Hey,” she says with a smile.

 “Hey.  Uh, explain please?”

 She shrugs, “I was taking four legs out for a spin.  How’d I look? Like a werewolf?  I wasn’t working from one of Gold’s books or anything. Just kind of going with what felt right.”

 Ruby squints, “Eh, you looked more like a big husky-golden mix, if I’m honest.”

 She wags her head.  “Yeah, well, you don’t learn to drive in a Formula One car, right?”

 “True... Wait, what?”

 Now anxiety breaks the surface of Emma’s good humor.  She climbs to her feet while saying, “I could use some hot cocoa.  Do you feel like hot cocoa?”

 “Oh great, we’re having a hot cocoa discussion,” Ruby says flatly.  She waves a hand, “Yeah, might as well.  I’ll probably need it before we’re through.”

 “Come on, it’s nothing bad,” Emma cajoles her from the kitchen, “At least, I don’t think so.  I hope you won’t.  But, y’know, that’s why we’re talking.  With cocoa.”

 Ruby’s guts are in a cold knot by the time she and Emma sit on the sofa with steaming mugs.

 “The wedding’s coming up soon,” Emma says, “Still excited?”

 A smile creeps onto Ruby’s face despite her current dread.  “Yeah, still excited.”

 “I’ve been thinking maybe... that would be a good time to do more than tie the knot, you know?”

 Ruby suspects she does, but at the slimmest chance she’s wrong, she replies, “I don’t know.  What are you saying, Emma?”

 She blows out a noisy breath. “I think... you should bite me.”

 Ruby gapes at Emma’s cautiously hopeful face until she has to look away.  “I... wow, um...  Emma...”

 A hand curls into the crook of Ruby’s arm, drawing her to focus on Emma again.  “Look, just think about it for a sec, okay?  You know I’m not afraid of you.  And I’m not afraid of being like you.  Do you know what I’m really afraid of?”

 Ruby’s voice is tiny as she asks, “What?”

 “That something will happen one day and the choice will be taken from us.  And we won’t be ready, and you’ll feel guilty, and it’ll just be the worst.  But if we do this on our own terms, we’ll be ready, and you won’t have anything to feel guilty about, and we won’t have to be scared anymore.  Doesn’t that sound nice?”

 It does sound nice.  Almost as nice as the idea of having another wolf in Storybrooke, aside from Granny.  It’s never as fun to run alone.  And if she had to choose, she wouldn’t want to run with anyone but Emma.  She shuts her eyes and shakes her head to dispel the beautiful dream.  “No- I mean, yes, but...  This isn’t like getting matching tattoos, okay?  You wouldn’t be human anymore.”

 Emma nods, face turning somber. “Yeah, I know.  But...  Well, it’s not like I feel all that human now, with this light magic, child of True Love stuff.  Normal humans don’t have to deal with prophecies and curses and world-ending catastrophes, you know that.  I might as well pile on some more weird stuff.  At least I’d get to share this with you.”

 Emma sets aside her mug and her other hand comes to Ruby’s arm.  The ring on her finger glints in the afternoon sun.

 “I know you’d help me.  Bet you’d be a way better teacher than Gold. I wouldn’t get out of control.  I wouldn’t...”

 “Eat someone?” Ruby spits out.  A torrent of bloody memories flow through her head, the most recent from not long ago at all.  Emma knows how brutal she can be.  And yet, a soft cheek comes to rest on her shoulder.

 “I know it still hurts, what happened.  But I’m still grateful.  Nothing will change that.”

 It felt like barely half a day after the curse broke that the first adversary came roaring into the harbor, teams of chained mermaids carrying his warships across worlds.  A town still struggling with their newly regained identities was suddenly confronted with cannonballs blasting holes in the cannery.  Davy Jones had come to Storybrooke, and he wasn’t leaving until he got what he was after- a little trinket in Gold’s shop that was in fact a magic doubloon that allowed its owner to control the seas.  No one liked the thought of the maniac Jones wreaking havoc from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and so battle commenced.

 Emma’s powers were burgeoning almost too fast for her to handle.  Gold did his best to help, but he was somewhat distracted by Belle coming back into his life.  Ruby was certainly happy for them- if only so she and Emma wouldn’t have to hide an amnesiac fugitive from Regina anymore.  Her ex-Majesty still has a hell of a lot to answer for, in Ruby’s humble opinion.  In any case, they were running out of ideas to defeat Davy Jones when one of his greasy crew snuck into town and swore he was defecting, that Jones had cursed him into servitude, but he’d do anything to be a free man.  He spoke of a flaw in the shielding spells that protected Jones’ ships that only the most powerful light magic could exploit.

 Emma saw through the lie immediately, but she went with the smirking pirate anyway, just to see if she could exploit him instead.  However, he was more devious than they thought.  Ruby doesn’t really want to know the details, but he somehow got Emma trapped in an enchanted rack that suppressed her magic and held her prisoner. At nightfall when she hadn’t returned, Ruby followed her scent to a warehouse on the docks.  The rest... she wishes the memory was blurrier than it is. But she didn’t lose control, not entirely.  That’s the worst part.  She could’ve stopped, if she wanted to.  But she didn’t.  She didn’t stop until there was nothing left but bloody chunks and scraps of leather and scalp.  And a shiny silver hook.

 Emma could only watch.  She was scared.  Ruby smelled it coming off her in waves as she padded closer.  The rage had subsided at this point, now that it was so well fed.  She pressed her sticky, dripping head against Emma’s hip, and listened to the music of her heartbeat.  Eventually, she had to get Gold to break the rack’s locks and free Emma.  By then, guilt and self-disgust swarmed in her like flies and she ran as deep into the forest as she could.  Granny managed to get her back into town, but nothing made her feel better until Emma showed up at the inn with movies and snacks.  They talked all night, about big things and little things and nothing at all.  And it ended with a soft, sweet kiss.

 Throughout all the crap that’s been thrown at them since, swan princesses and goblin warlords and talking lions that one time, Ruby’s never used her fangs on another living thing.  It makes her gums itch to think of Emma being next, even at her own request.  But still, she’s not wrong about the fear of an accident that’s always hanging over them. Ruby well knows that choice is a luxury that can be stolen in an instant.

 “I think...”  She draws in and releases a breath.  “I think you need to talk to your family about this.”

 “They won’t understand,” Emma mutters, head ducked.

 “Exactly.  If you can get them on board... then we’ll see.  But we’re definitely not doing this on our own. It’ll affect everyone.  They deserve to have a say, because they care about us.  That’s what it means to be a family.”

 Emma’s gaze doesn’t rise from her lap, but she still replies, “Yeah.  You’re right.”

 ^^^

 PRESENT

 After the incident with the manticore clan, Emma did an intensive study on tracking large, four-legged predators through heavy forest.  Perhaps in the back of her mind, she was also anticipating something like this.  She prefers not to imagine what could happen that would be bad enough for Ruby to literally turn tail and run into the forest again, but it always pays to be prepared.  She feels a small burst of joy and something like relief for the far happier circumstances that have brought her here tonight.

 Another howl comes to her from the east.  She smiles, and wishes she could howl back.  Soon she will.

 ^^^

 TWO MONTHS EARLIER

 When Emma can work up the nerve, she goes to her parents, and they have a talk.  A long talk where she presses her points again and again, and even comes up with new ones she didn’t think of at first.  

 In the end, Mary Margaret clasps David’s hand and says, “We just don’t want to lose you.”

 “You won’t,” Emma replies earnestly, “I know you were there when Red found out what she was, what the wolf had done.  This isn’t gonna be anything like that.  She’ll be there to help me.  Just like Gold did.”

 “Well, we’ll help too,” David says with a firm nod, “If you choose to do this, you’ll have our support. Whatever you need.”

 “Yes,” Mary Margaret says with a nod of her own.

 Emma’s heart swells as she looks at the two people she never expected to find, who she loves beyond words. It gives her the strength later on to make a phone call to the Gold residence in Manhattan.

 Davy Jones’ fatal mistake was enslaving Triton’s daughters to tow his boats.  Once Emma freed the mermaids, they swiftly summoned their powerful father to dispatch the pirates.  In the calm that followed, after Gold had taught Emma what she needed to know to control her magic, he revealed his plan to find his long-lost son.  Emma was happy to help, up until the moment she discovered his son and Henry’s father were the same man.  Everything turned on its head then.  When the dust settled, it was decided that Gold and Belle would go to New York, where he and his son could get reacquainted.  It was also decided that Henry would go with them. As much as it pained them both, Emma and Regina had to admit Storybrooke was far too volatile for a ten-year-old. While they needed to stay and clean up the mess, Henry needed safety and structure, and to get to know his father.

 “I can’t say for sure how your magic will react to the wolf curse,” Gold tells her, “I’ve never known a child of True Love who took it on.  That said, I doubt you’ll end up an unstoppable killing machine.  In fact, it might not take at all.  True Love breaks curses, as we know.”

 “Yeah, but, I mean- who decided it was a curse anyway?  It was a curse for Red because it was hidden from her, and that made her scared and confused and out of control.  But she told me what it was like in her mother’s pack.  They weren’t cursed.  They understood and accepted themselves.  It was part of them.  Does that sound like a curse?”

 There’s a pensive silence.  “I’m the wrong person to ask.”

 Emma’s sure he’s right. Belle’s mentioned his frequent phone sessions with Archie, processing three centuries of the Dark One’s trauma. “Okay, so, if it doesn’t work, then that’s fine too.  At least we’ll know, either way.  Which is what I want.”

 “Well I certainly know better than to stand between you and something you want, Miss Swan,” he quips, “Shall I get Henry now?”

 Emma swallows, “Yeah.”

 The kid takes it in stride of course, because he’s accepted his life is really only going to get weirder. They end up mostly talking about his friends at school and his trip with Neal to Central Park last Saturday.

 Perhaps the most uncomfortable conversation is the one she has with Neal, where she mumbles out her plan and he’s mostly just glad she’s figuring things out ahead of time and not leaping in blindly. “I’m calling your mom and dad, though. If they say you’re rampaging through the streets, y’know, don’t expect to see Henry at winter break.”

 “Understood,” she replies with a tiny grin.

 “Okay.  Guess I’ll see you at the wedding then.”

 “Yeah, see you.”

 ^^^

 PRESENT

 The forest has been silent for a while.  Emma’s been following paw prints in a muddy river bank which now veer back into the underbrush.  She holds in a sigh.  She didn’t think Ruby would make this easy, nor did she want her to, but she didn’t expect to work quite this hard.

 It doesn’t matter.  She’ll keep going.  This is for their future.

 ^^^

 ONE MONTH EARLIER

 “You know you’re just supposed to take a walk on the wild side.  Not live in a cave there.”

 Emma valiantly refrains from rolling her eyes at Regina.  Still she can’t help retorting, “You must’ve been hanging onto that line for a while, considering we’re already engaged.”  She can see the wall of petulant anger rising, and so tries to soften up.  “Look, Regina, I’m talking to you because this affects our whole family, which means you have a say in it too.  So, lay it on me, I’m listening.”

 Regina draws herself up to her full height and gives Emma the full-throttle slit-eyed imperious stare. Then she says, “I want you to talk to Dr. Hopper about this.”

 Emma’s eyebrows jump.  “You want me to see Archie?  You think I’ve lost my mind?”

 “No, I don’t, and you’re welcome for that.  But the cricket is... fairly good at making you think things through.  You need an objective opinion.  Once you get it, if you decide to go ahead, you won’t hear a peep out of me.”

 Like Gold, Regina is regularly squeezed into Archie’s very busy schedule.  Emma wouldn’t have guessed the former Evil Queen had made this much progress already.  All she can do is nod.  “That’s... a good idea.  You’re right. I’ll do it.”

 “Fine.  If there’s anything else...”

 “No.  See you around.”

 Regina nods, and glides away.

 It takes almost a week, but Archie finds time for a sit-down with Emma.  He gives her a warm smile from his armchair and says, “So I assume wedding prep is in full swing.  Are you feeling any jitters you’d like to work out?”

 “Uh, no, there’s... there’s something else.”

 “I’m all ears.”

 His smile dims as she talks, rolling out her by now rote points one after another.  He doesn’t interrupt, and it feels like hours have passed by the time Emma says, “And that’s about it.  Do I sound nuts?”

 “Nobody’s ‘nuts,’ Emma,” he chides her gently, “And I certainly can’t judge you for choosing to turn into an animal.  It sounds like you’ve given this some deep consideration.  You’ve identified as many potential consequences as you can.  Do you think the good outweighs the bad?”

 “I think so.  I mean... I love Ruby, I want to be with her, but this possibility is always there.  It’s this loaded gun we never talk about.  I don’t want to start our married life with it still there.  I want us to be comfortable, and... together, I don’t know how else to say it.  I want to be...”

 “A wolf?”

 Emma lets out a soft, helpless laugh and throws up her hands.  “Yeah! I want to be... a werewolf, oh god...” Her flash of joy fades as the absurdity of her life rushes back.  She lays a hand over her eyes and murmurs, “And I thought marrying a woman would be complicated.”

 “It’s a- rare relationship issue,” Archie concedes, “But both of you are strong.  And stronger together.”

 “Thanks.”

 Emma leaves soon after, going home and starting on dinner for her and Ruby, who returns from work at the Storybrooke Mirror a little later.  When their relationship started, they decided Ruby should stop working at the police station to avoid conflicts of interest. She’s fit in very well at the Mirror.  Curse-memories of sniffing out the latest gossip in the diner have given her a nose for news, and she likes being able to keep her fellow citizens informed of impending doom.

 “Hey, how’d it go with Archie?” she inquires, leaning over to give Emma a one-armed hug and a kiss on the temple while she stirs noodles at the stove.

 “Good.  He really is a pretty great listener, that cricket.”

 “And?” she asks softly.

 “And... I still want to do this, if you do.”  Emma forces herself to look up from the pot and meet Ruby’s gaze.

 “Okay.  You know I’ve been thinking about it too.  Talking with Granny a lot.  And, so, I had this idea, do you want to hear it?”

 Emma turns to her, leaning a hip against the stove.  “Of course I do.”

 Ruby heaves a breath, and says, “If you’re really, totally sure, then we can do it.  After the wedding, I’ll leave the reception, and go into the forest.  And... you have to come find me.  If you find me, then it’s done.”

 “Oh.  Uh, okay, if that’s how...  Sure.”  Emma hasn’t let herself imagine the actual step-by-step logistics of what they’re going to do, but somehow this feels right.

 ^^^

 PRESENT

 The full moon is high by the time Emma emerges from the forest onto the shore of a lake.  It’s been a while since she heard a howl, but all the signs have been leading her this way.  The water shimmers silver in the moonlight, allowing Emma to see more easily than in the near pitch darkness of the forest.  She scans the area and her breath catches when she spots Ruby, standing several steps away, wearing her white dress and red cloak.

 Ruby walks forward, pale eyes focused on Emma.  When she reaches her, she cups Emma’s cheek and presses a kiss to her lips- firm, warm, searching, apologizing, loving.  Emma’s head feels light when they part, pulse thrumming in her veins.

 “Sit down,” Ruby says.

 Emma lowers herself onto the sandy shore, her gaze staying locked with Ruby’s.

 Ruby kneels beside her and takes off her cloak in a long sweep.  By the time it settles, the wolf has taken her place.  Emma now locks gazes with the wolf’s glowing yellow eyes as she inches forward, nostrils flaring to sniff at her.  The wolf’s head trails down along her body until she reaches Emma’s lower left leg.  The massive jaws part, and Emma grips the cuffs of her jacket just before they close again, fangs sinking into her flesh.

 “Ah, god!” she gasps as burning pain shoots up from her leg.  The wolf holds her, one eye staring, for three seconds.  Then she lets go and steps away.  Emma trembles as she gapes at the rows of punctures in her calf and shin that ooze streams of blood.

 The wolf grabs the cloak in her jaws and throws it over her back.  An instant later, Ruby is up and running for some nearby bushes.  She returns with a duffel bag she rips open, revealing medical supplies and a bundle of cream-colored velvet.  She disinfects Emma’s wounds, tapes gauze pads over them, and wraps her leg in a bandage.  Only when it’s done does she sit back on her heels and take a breath.  “How do you feel?” she asks, face filled with worry.

 “My fucking leg hurts,” Emma replies honestly.

 Ruby’s eyes gain a wet shine, even as she rolls them and grins.  “You’ll get over it... Mrs. Swan-Lucas.”

 That’s more than enough to make Emma smile as well.  She nods at the last of the duffel bag’s contents, “What’s that?”

 “Rumpelstiltskin’s wedding present.”  Ruby takes it out and unfurls a white cloak with a swirling design that echoes her own. “With this, you’ll always have a choice,” she says as she drapes it over Emma’s shoulders.

 Emma can feel its magic settling on her, making the cloak a bit heavier than it should be.  She pulls it close around her.

 “You’ll keep it on tonight,” Ruby says, “And next month... we’ll see what happens.”

 “Okay.”

 “Do you wanna go home?  I can turn again and you can ride on my back.”

 “Let’s wait a minute.  It’s nice out here.”  She turns her gaze to the moon.  Does it look different than before?  Brighter and wider and more beautiful than it’s ever been?  It just might.

 Ruby settles against Emma’s side and wraps an arm around her, head resting against hers.  “I love you, Emma.”

 “I love you too, Red.”

 ^^^

 ONE MONTH LATER

 A wolf runs in the forest. Her black coat makes her nearly invisible, just a hint of movement racing through the gloom.  She darts over streams, jumps logs, ducks under branches. On and on, never slowing, never pausing. The moon is rising and it calls to her, commands her to run, to rejoice in the strength and speed and grace it’s given her.

 There’s a sharp bark up ahead, and Ruby sets aside her reverie to put on more speed and pick up the trail of that most precious scent.  In a clearing she spots a flash of gray-streaked white between the trees. She leaps through the foliage to land heavily in the grass.

 Emma’s head jerks up from the stump she was sniffing.  She lets out a yip and bursts into motion, barreling into Ruby like a battering ram. They tumble together in a nipping, growling storm of fur.  Ruby pins Emma down quickly and rests her head on Emma’s chest, where her heart thumps strong and true.