A Curse Upon Thee 2-16

She fought the urge to scratch at her nose, nostrils itching as she kept a solid yet slow pace down Main Street. Damn it…

It was more than just a little twitch, unfortunately. No, it was everywhere all at once and nothing she could fully just ignore.

Over the last couple weeks, the scent of Storybrooke had shifted to something entirely new, the purple smoke rolling over the town line twisting as much as it revealed.

Salt air, fresh pine, and simple exhaust was not all that filled the air anymore.

No, the atmosphere was more oppressive now, and to Ruby Lucas, whose freshly-returned memories came packaged with their own set of old instincts, Storybrooke came with the thick scent of something rotting under the sun.

“So, how long has that David guy been mayor, exactly? 

And right now, it also came with the distinct smell of crisp cotton and custom cologne.

Chad.

“He’s the sheriff too, right? That seems a bit much.”

“What do you want from us?” She walked side-by-side with him, the both of them putting space between themselves and Granny’s diner. Chad had been all over town the last few days but he somehow managed to find his way back around to the diner, always hovering around during her chosen shifts. As much as she wanted to keep her distance from him, Ruby also knew she desperately needed out of the suffocating four walls of the B&B before she clamped her teeth around an annoying customer. “It’s a small town, Chad.”

“And I appreciate that.” One eyebrow went up as the blond boy kept an even pace down the sidewalk, dressed as always like he’d just stepped off a yacht. Ruby doubted any yacht in particular — fancy or not — would ever dock in Storybrooke but at least ‘Chadwick’ would definitely be dressed the part if it ever worked out that way. “I’m just saying that separation of powers isn’t just a nice idea. Things tend to work better when delegated.”

“…uh-huh.” 

Chad nodded back at her sarcasm, entirely unbothered by her lack of response. Thick arms folded over his chest, a blue polo underneath hugging his broad shoulders. Every inch of him was clean and fresh in crisply pressed clothing, from the polo to the pristine white chinos, and even the brand-new pair of baby blue boat shoes that hadn’t seen a single scuff of dirt. 

“Seriously, mayor and sheriff… I mean, that’s a lot of power for a small town. He might as well be… I don’t know. Would it be wrong to call him a king at that point?” Afternoon sun caught the silver of his square watch, custom blue inlay flashing bright enough to actively make Ruby’s eyes twitch.

But that really wasn’t what disturbed her, not the watch or his words. …why do you have to look exactly like him?

Life was never fair but this was a type of cruel that Ruby was surprised didn’t come from Regina herself.

The same bright blue eyes stared back at her from a face that wore a jawline only a little bit wider and a little more square, but almost just as sharp. It was a face that could have belonged to a clone, a more well-fed Finn even.

But where Red was a bleeding edge wrapped in leather as red as his long wild hair, Chad was almost entirely sanded down. Polished and coiffed and perfectly placed as the rest of him, his bright blond hair was styled neatly just above his neck.

But despite all the differences, the uncanniness of his looks was enough to make Ruby’s chest ache every time she looked his way. 

“So, you had a bite today?” Not even bothering to look her way as he dropped the question out of nowhere, Chad’s attention was firmly fixed on the people walking across the street for some reason.

“I literally live above a diner. Work there too, Chad.” Ruby sighed his name, shaking her head as her voice rasped against the back of her throat. “You think I haven’t had the chance to grab a fry or something?”

“Not what I asked.” His lips flattened into a tight line, eyes finally on her. “I’m being entirely honest, Ruby. You’re halfway to a stick and you’re dragging your feet right now.”

“You’re such a flirt.”

“Are you even sleeping?” He didn’t bother to take the bait, crisp words somehow managing to sound warm even without any simple sloppy sympathy. “Because you don’t look like it.”

“Granny, is that you?” Ruby scoffed back, taking a page from Finn’s book. “What blue eyes you have.”

“Alright…” Those familiar blue eyes rolled slowly in his skull before flicking right back over at her. “You’re clearly starting to hallucinate from lack of sustenance, so we’re gonna sit down right here and take five.”

One hand gestured over to a green wooden bench sitting outside the town pharmacy, Chad’s  clipped words clearly not a request — polite or otherwise. It was that unearned authority he walked around with and constantly threw around, the guy just taking charge of a situation because apparently nobody else was doing enough to meet his standards.

That why they sent you to look for Finn? Ruby bit hard on the inside of her cheek, the taste of copper in her mouth as she fought the instinct to push back against the order. With a grunt, Ruby sank onto the wooden slats anyway, long legs feeling exactly like dead lead. She still didn’t fully know who ‘they’ were even supposed to be, but the thought still hung around in her head.

“So…” At least until she decided to voice it. “What the hell is Blue Trumpet anyway?”

Chad raised one eyebrow high. “Oh, so now you actually want to know about me?”

“…yeah, I do want to know.” It wasn’t just idle curiosity at this point either, and it wasn’t even about him either. Absolutely anything to find out more about Finn and exactly where he came from was worth talking to this guy for a few minutes longer. “What is it?”

“The family company.” His mouth twitched down as he tilted his head barely an inch. “My family’s side of the company, at least. A lot of fingers in a whole lot of pies, but we keep our index firmly in real estate, mostly.” He hummed under his breath, Ruby blinking as everything about him — from clothes to car — suddenly began to make a lot more sense. “Apartment complexes, commercial storefronts, urban redevelopment, even major city stuff. Very into long-term continuity. Which…” 

The blond sighed low. “Well, it really just means if we touch a neighborhood once, we fully plan to stay there for a couple generations.”

Jesus. Ruby almost held her tongue, staring in silence for a long few seconds. “…so you’re telling me you’re richer than God?”

“No. Well… maybe a little.” Chad snorted under his breath, two fingers scratching the underside of his chin. “That’s significantly more Finn’s side of the tree, honestly, but we’re definitely a decent-sized branch.”

“…Finn’s side?”

“Side, root, trunk, whatever you’d call it.” Those two fingers waved over at her before he dropped a hand back down to his side. The McHales.”

When Ruby just blinked at Chad as she waited for more, those eyes just widened a fraction as he looked back her way. “Oh… oh, wow. Small town, I forgot. You’ve never actually heard of the McHales, have you? That’s… well, it makes sense.” He leaned back casually against the metal lamppost, blond eyebrows going high as Mr. Clark from the local hardware store walked briskly past.

The older man took one look at Chad — a dead ringer with a dye job for the ‘delinquent’ deputy who supposedly vanished into the woods two weeks back — and froze where he stood, eyes wide behind his glasses. Oversized frames made those big eyes appear massive as they darted right from Chad in the pressed blue polo straight to Ruby’s narrowed eyes as she jerked her head in a silent message. Keep moving.

A tight smile — hollow as a rotten log — stretched wide across the older man’s face. “Afternoon, Ruby! Lovely day, isn’t it?” The former mouse practically squeaked out the words as he scurried off, head fimly down as he made it his business to be absolutely anywhere else.

Chad’s gaze stayed on the man, watching as he nearly tripped over himself in a frantic flurry of feet. By the time Clark had rounded the corner, that gaze dropped down to check his watch, the silver glinting as he let out a short huff through his nose. “Yeah, okay, no.” 

Four syllables came out tight, each one almost a snap as he aimed his focus over at Ruby, face deadpan as deadpan could possibly be. “What exactly is this, Ruby? A cult?”

“What are you even talking about?” Arms crossed tightly over her red shirt, Ruby did her best to keep newly-sharpened nails from biting too deep into her skin.

“C’mon, Ruby,” Chad’s eyes drooped, suddenly looking almost as tired as she felt. “I’ve been in this zip code for days now and the people are ‘nice’, sure. But this… this is not at all small-town nice. I turn my head, and the polite smiles drop when they think I’m not looking.”

“Well…” Ruby nearly bit back a sigh before letting it free. “Can you blame them?”

“If I felt like it, yes.” He clicked his tongue. “There a point to that?”

…wow, he is like Finn. Ruby blinked quickly, mouth moving in silence before she caught the words again. “You just look exactly like the guy who skipped town, okay?” Her throat went incredibly tight around the massive lie David had forced her to tell and the rest of town to go along with. “People are just jumpy right now, Chad. Part of living in a small town is we don’t really know what to do with new kids. Get over it, Boston.”

“Fine, no blame. Can you do me the same courtesy for trying to get a better picture here?” Chad pushed out a sigh on his own, eyes still on her as he pivoted right back to the one specific topic she had been aggressively trying to dodge all week. “I’ve been trying to talk to you for days because you clearly knew him better than anyone else. Two whole years my cousin is off the grid, bouncing around God knows where, and he suddenly puts down roots right here?”

“Yes, Chad.” Storybrooke may have been a bumfuck town off the coast of Maine that she’d spent twenty-eight years on repeat trying to escape, but it was still her home. “Here.”

“In this specific place? Why?”

I don’t know. Maybe because he had nowhere else. She pushed down the snarl in the back of her mind, eyes down at her scuffed black boots to avoid those eyes. “I told you. He had a job here. First at the… the creepy pawn shop for a little bit, then a shiny badge.”

“Right. See, right there, that’s what I keep tripping over.” Chad pushed off the lamppost, dropping down next to her on the very edge of the bench. A respectful two feet of distance between them, he turned to face her with a frown. “Finn doesn’t do authority. Not listening to it or using it. So, that… that doesn’t fit. He’s…” A blond head of hair shook as Chad tried to find the words, frown deepening for a second. “Look, my cousin’s not an idiot, but he’s very much a dumbass, okay?I had to watch his back growing up just to keep him from drinking paint and trying to catch knives. I don’t care what you say, Finn’s not about the whole ‘protect and serve’ boy scout routine.”

“He wasn’t a boy scout.” She almost growled the words, heat in her glare as words spilled out faster than she could rein them in. “He just did his job. He stood in front of things. When things got really bad, he didn’t ever run away. He just put his hands up and he fought for us.”

His eyes locked intensely onto hers, his jaw set just a little tighter as he repeated the words quietly. “Fought for us.” 

It wasn’t a question.

Ruby swallowed hard, a lump in her throat. “Look, you might think you entirely know your cousin, but he was different here. He was… he was the absolute best thing in this stupid little town.”

“I’m not actively trying to insult him, Ruby,” Chad clicked his tongue, eyes on her as he took in all she had to say. When he spoke again, it felt like his voice had changed, tone almost flat even as new warmth slid into it. “Just help me understand the timeline, the motive, anything to make it make sense. If he had it here as good as you said then… why’d he run?”

“He just did,” Ruby bit the lie out. “People leave.”

Chad let out a tight breath, four fingers and a thumb raking their way through his perfect blond hair. “People. Yeah, people leave.” For all his effort, he only managed to disrupt the heavily coiffed look for all of three seconds before it seemed to settle right back into place. “Yeah. I guess they definitely do.”

Silence stretched between them as Ruby closed her tired eyes, the wolf-girl desperately doing her best to actively focus on the mundane noise of the street to drown out every other thought in her head.

That lasted for all of four seconds as the wind shifted and a new scent hit the very back of Ruby’s throat.

Dark green eyes snapped open as the pacing wolf scratching at the back of her skull went dead still.

Old leather, cheap familiar aftershave, and… dirt.

Damp, heavy, dirt.

Graveyard dirt.

What…

Ruby stood up fast enough the bench rattled against the sidewalk. No.

“Ruby?” Chad rose to his feet much more slowly, practical calm easing into a steady sort of alertness. “Ruby, look at me. What’s wrong?”

She couldn’t look his way. Hell, she could barely hear him over the rush of blood pounding in her own ears as she stared blankly across Main Street to the sight of someone that shouldn’t be there.

A tall man stood still on the opposite sidewalk, eyes half-glazed as he looked around. His dark denim jacket stretched tight across broad shoulders, a few solid days worth of stubble still prominent on his jaw and as dark as his messy head of hair.

“Gr-” Ruby’s hands flew up to her mouth, voice cracking right down the middle as the absolutely impossible stood right in front of her. “Graham?”