Regina visits Ruby at work.

"Can you sign off on this paperwork real quick?" Ruby asks, poking her head into her grandmother's office and waving the file in question.

Lieutenant Lucas looks up from what she's reading, dipping her head to look over her glasses. She nods to her in-tray. "Add it to the pile."

Ruby grits her teeth but does as she's told. Sometimes her Granny's 'no special treatment' rule is a real drag. She's halfway out the door when Granny's voice stops her.

"I see the Queen is holding court again."

Willing herself not to blush, Ruby turns to look through the window into the bullpen. "She…uh…she's-"

"A great source of information. Yes, so I've been told," Granny tells her, eyes following Ruby's gaze. Regina is perched on Ruby's desk, entertaining a couple of the newer detectives with some scandalous tale, no doubt. "But I don't see your other informants swanning in here whenever they feel like it and planting their asses on your desk."

"That's just what she's like," Ruby says, her lips twitching into a smile as she takes in the rapt expressions on Robin and Mulan's faces. "She likes to put on a show, be the centre of attention." Having been with Regina in a few of her more vulnerable moments, Ruby knows that it's mostly an act; that Regina is just doing what she needs to do to get by in a world she was thrust into. This is her power.

"Uh huh," Granny says, eyes moving between the bullpen and her granddaughter. "Well, she certainly seems to have attracted your attention."

Ruby immediately averts her eyes, closing them briefly before turning to face her grandmother. "She's my most valuable informant," she begins, trying to keep her voice even because she knows her grandmother's ears will pick up the slightest hint of a tremor. "I look out for her for that reason."

"Mmmhmm." Granny takes off her glasses and sighs. "And the lovesick puppydog eyes you're always making at her? I suppose that's because she's an informant too?"

Ruby clenches her jaw to stop herself from snapping back. She thinks about denying it, about lying, but her Granny's been around the block too many times for that. "It's not…it doesn't affect my work."

"So I have nothing to worry about, then?" Granny half-asks, half-tells.

"No, ma'am." She forces herself to keep her eyes forward and not let them stray to see what Regina's doing. Granny looks at her for a long moment before nodding and putting her glasses back on.

"See that it stays that way," she advises, returning to her notes she'd been reading when Ruby entered. "Nothing can come of it, girl."

The words hit harder than she'd like; probably because she knows they're true. "Yes, ma'am," Ruby says with a sigh. Without waiting to be excused, she turns and trudges back out to her desk where Regina's finishing up her story.

"…and then, and I swear it was like something outta the movies, the door gets kicked in and this…this vision appears…"

Ruby grins; this is the story of how they met. She's heard Regina tell it a few times, and each time she adds an embellishment or two. It's barely recognisable now.

"…she was wearin' this long, red coat and there was a spotlight shinin' on her and all this fog around her like in a music video…"

"It was a streetlight and steam from a vent," Ruby interrupts, moving around the desk to take her seat. Regina swats her shoulder.

"Hush, you," she scolds. "I tell it much better than you do." She turns back to her audience and continues as Ruby leans back in her chair, hands clasped behind her head. "So the bastard's still got a hold of me, right? And he looks over at Ruby and laughs, this great big belly laugh." She wrinkles her nose. "I can smell his breath to this day. Garlic and bourbon."

Ruby's smile fades a little as she remembers the scenario. She'd been a rookie detective, working vice, when some of the girls told her they were worried about one of their own who'd gone away with a guy some of them had a bad feeling about. She'd been gone for longer than she should have been and wasn't answering her phone. Without waiting for back-up, and after hastily radioing it in, Ruby'd sped off to the address one of the girls had been to with him before like some idiotic knight in shining armour. Regina tells the tale with humour now, but the guy had really been bad news.

"So, anyways, he laughs at her and says 'What? They so hard up for cops these days that they're hirin' little girls? Get outta here Little Red Riding Hood.' You know, because of the coat." Here Regina pauses and turns to look down at Ruby with an eyebrow quirked. "Say, whatever happened to that coat? You looked really good in it."

"It was…impractical," Ruby says, without elaboration. These young detectives look up to her and don't need to know that she got her leg twisted in the damn thing one time when she was trying to get out of her car to chase a suspect and faceplanted onto the street. "I still have it, though."

"Maybe you can wear it for me sometime," Regina suggests. "For old time's sake?"

Ruby rolls her eyes with a smile. "Just finish your story, Regina," she says. "These guys have work to do."

With a wink, Regina turns back to finish her tale and Ruby notices that it's not just the youngsters who are listening, but the whole room, despite the fact they've all heard it before.

"So he's just called her Little Red Riding Hood and before I could blink she was across the room with a gun pressed right against his balls."

Ruby flushes at her own idiocy, but raises an eyebrow as Mulan opens her mouth to comment. "Yes, I'm well aware that's not standard procedure, Chung." The young woman can recite the Department handbook backwards and forwards. Regina continues as if the interruption never happened.

"He's shakin' now, I can feel it, he's about to shit himself with fear. And Ruby leans in real close-" Here Regina leans down closer to the two open-mouthed detectives, lowering her voice for effect. "- and she says 'I'm no Red Riding Hood, I'm the big bad fuckin' wolf!" She hadn't said anything even remotely close to that, but it's one of Regina's additions that she kinda likes, so she leaves it be. "'So you better let the lady go right now, or I'm gonna gonna show you that the big gun I got is all the better to shoot your balls off with.'"

Regina mimics a gun-shot, using her finger as a prop, and Locksley just about jumps out of his skin. Ruby shakes her head. "I didn't shoot him, Regina."

"No," Regina agrees with a thoughtful tilt of her head. "Shame."

Ruby stands up, hands on hips, towering over the rookies. "Okay, story time's over for the day. Get back to work before the Lieut catches you slacking." That has them scooting their chairs back to their desks; at least they're not stupid enough to get on the wrong side of Granny. Ruby turns back to Regina, who's swinging her legs back and forth, fingers gripping the edge of the desk.

"'All the better to shoot your balls off with'? Really, Regina?" she asks, one side of her mouth creeping into the smile she's trying to hide.

"Details," Regina says with a dismissive wave of her hand. "I get the important parts right." She hooks one of her legs around the back of Ruby's knees, smiling up at her. "Like the part where you were the first person in a long time to call me a 'lady'."

It's these moments that make Ruby wish that Granny was wrong; that something could come of this. Because Regina should be treated like a lady all the damn time. A Queen, even. She smiles and tries not to let Regina see what she's thinking; because she's frustratingly good at reading Ruby's moods.

"You are a lady," Ruby says, her voice low. "And don't ever let anyone tell you different."

Regina laughs a little and lets her leg fall back down to swing with the other one, her eyes dropping to watch them for a moment, before coming back up to meet Ruby's. "As long as you think I am, Red, I don't give a shit what anyone else says."

In another world, Ruby would have leaned in and kissed her. In this world, she gently punches her shoulder. "Awww, shucks, you're making me blush."

"Like that's difficult," Regina says, hopping down from the desk. "C'mon. I'm takin' you to lunch."

That's code for 'I have information that the rest of them can't hear'. Ruby reaches for her jacket and shrugs into it, watching the swing of Regina's hips as she saunters out of the room. She starts to follow, but Granny appears in the doorway of her office, catching Ruby's eye as she approaches. She knows what's coming before Granny opens her mouth.

"Nothing can come of it," she murmurs. "I know, I know."

Granny's mouth is set in a stern line as she nods. "As long as you do." Ruby sighs and picks up her pace to catch up with Regina. She finds her waiting for her on the steps, leaning against one of the handrails. A smile lights her face when she sees Ruby and it makes Ruby's heart beat faster.

"Hey good-lookin'," Regina drawls. "Thought you'd ditched me for a second there."

"Ditched you?" Ruby asks. "Never." And she means that with everything in her. She'll never leave Regina and nothing can come of it. She's condemned herself to a life of secret, tortured longing. But when Regina smiles that smile, Ruby thinks she might just about have made peace with that fate.