Collaboration between YoshiSkittlez and Ghost Shadow
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With the side of her head resting atop of the bar, Ruby flicked what was left of the torn up straw wrapper onto the ground, joining the possible thirty other pieces that had been previously been ripped to shreds. Her face was flushed, her nose and eyes red from crying until there were no tears left, only the nauseous flip-flopping in her stomach remaining to remind her that she wasn't quite numb yet. 

With a heavy sigh, Ruby raised her head to glare down at her perfectly full drink she had ordered almost an hour ago. Funny, the first time she legitimately could use a drink and it just didn't interest her...nothing did right now.

As Ruby wallowed in self-pity, she would have been able to hear the sound of footsteps approaching from behind, the floorboards creaking slightly with each step. 

Giving no greeting or acknowledgement, Henry sat down beside her at the bar; taking a long drag from a cigarette he held between his index and middle finger. "Damn habits...keep coming back." He said nonchalantly, as if oblivious to Ruby's current emotional state. 

Without waiting for her to respond, he signaled to the bartender; ordering himself a glass of red wine. "You look worse for wear." Henry observed aloud, finally turning to look at Ruby fully. 

If Ruby had the energy, she would have scowled at Henry for that latter comment, but instead she kept her eyes forward looking at nothing in particular.

"I don't feel like talking." Came her almost snappy, bitter reply.

"And why's that, eh?" Henry asked in an almost snarky tone, but not unfriendly. "You're usually not like this." He observed, taking a drink from his wine as it was brought to him. 

Ruby slowly turned her head to look at Henry, a single tear rolling down her cheek at the slight movement, though she either didn't notice or didn't care. She let out a quiet sigh and shook her head before returning to look straight back at the wall in front of her.

"You ever walk into a situation where you know [i]exactly[/i] what's going to happen?" Ruby began, but kept going without waiting for an answer. "And then you go into it anyway, and then when what you're afraid of happens...you kick yourself because you should have known better...but that's just who you are, so you keep punishing yourself..." Another silent tear rolled down her cheek, but again Ruby made no move to wipe it away and just let it drip from her chin.

"Ha....all too well." Henry replied in an almost bitter manner, as if there were a bad taste in his mouth. 

"I was a...street magician in New York for a time before I came here. Bloody terrible pay, but the connections were nice. I struggled in every way you did...and I let other people around me suffer because of it: when they had no choice or control in the matter." Henry finished in an almost wistful manner, taking another long drink from his glass preceding a drag of his cigarette. 

"You end up hardening yourself, I find. Until there's nothing left inside of you...that way the pain just rolls away." He added on quietly, feeling tears sting at his own eyes. But in his own defiance he kept them held in, refusing to let old memories pain him now. 

Ruby turned her head to look at him once again, though shook it side to side slowly. He really had no idea what she was talking about did she? Ruby reached over to her untouched drink, only to watch the ice as she swirled the straw around in small circles; it was better than looking at the wall anyway.

"Knox is married." She said simply, knowing that she wouldn't have to explain anything much further. The words hardly rolled out of her mouth though, nearly choking as the sentence seemed so...alien to her. Sure she had only really spent enough time with Knox to count as 'casual dating' over the last two weeks but still, imagining him as a married man...happy with another woman, it just didn't fit; although that was probably her selfish side talking to her, trying to rationalize that this was all just one big, horrible dream.

"Bastard. Who's the unlucky bride?" Henry asked curiously, twirling the cigarette between his fingers to pass the time. 

Ruby stopped spinning the quickly melting ice and sighed once more, looking down at the tear splashes on the counter top.

"Mary Margaret Blanchard Kowalski." She stated matter-of-factly. "But you, and the rest of the town probably only know her as Jane Doe from the hospital." She then pushed away her drink and rested her chin on her hands, shutting her eyes tightly to keep the new wave of tears from formulating.

Henry's reaction was quiet, sombre, mostly through body language. His fingers stopped absentmindedly moving about, his posture became stiff and tall; his lips twitched. "What?" He practically demanded, almost as if the words didn't register or connect. 

Suddenly realization hit him, his eyes narrowing dangerously as he rose from his seat at the bar; slamming a few bills on the countertop to pay for the drink. 

"Regina...." He muttered under his breath before turning to head towards the door. "I need to see things for myself." He told Ruby at a normal volume. "Keep your head up." He said lastly before starting to walk towards the front door. 

Too emotionally drained to even begin to question Henry's reaction to the news, Ruby just pitifully waved him off with her hand as a sort of 'goodbye' and stared down the drink that she had pushed away just moments ago.