Title: (And I Don't Know Why) I Can't Keep My Eyes Off of You

Summary: Lacey wants to ask if Ruby remembers, but she's making new memories, ones that she can keep.

Notes: Set during an AU Season 2 where Belle stays Lacey. I started this for captainswans…um, years ago? Well, no one can say I don't deliver.

Lacey grins wide with a happy giggle bubbling in her throat. After everything, the stay in the hospital, the confusion of not knowing anything at all, she deserves to be happy. Besides, it's Ruby, Ruby who spent every day by her bedside making sure Lacey wasn't bored out of her mind, protecting her from her fears and the vast emptiness of her thoughts.

Until suddenly they weren't empty, and she could remember drinks at the Rabbit Hole and men with strange hats and even stranger smiles. She remembers Ruby, too, and her long, long legs covered only in a short red leather skirt and her smile wrapped around the mouth of a beer bottle.

She left red lipstick stains on it. Lacey remembers that as well.

A strong, reckless part of her really wants to ask if Ruby remembers it as well – but then, those memories are fake, the manufactured life of a girl with an addiction to thrills and highs and a carefree life.

They feel real. Lacey feels real, and Belle is just the shadow of a past that Lacey sometimes, in the middle of the night when she should be sleeping but spends staring at the ceiling instead, can convince herself isn't even real and that tomorrow, she'll wake up as Lacey, just Lacey and not a specter of Belle.

"I'll show you the way," Ruby says. For a moment, she stares at Lacey as if unsure. The moment passes and she wraps her hand around Lacey's wrist before snaking her arm into the crook of Lacey's elbow, hooking them together.

Lacey knows the way, but she lets Ruby lead her. There aren't many places for people to have a fancy night out in Storybrooke, but Tiana's Place is both upscale and relaxing, the kind of place Lacey would only take a special date.

The thought is almost as disconcerting as being Belle. She doesn't remember ever taking anyone there.

Tiana is at the door to the greet them and inside it's bright and alive with music playing that makes Lacey feel like they're down in New Orleans, the one Ruby described while they waited for the nurse to refill Lacey's pain killers. People dance in the front by the band of Jazz players and others, couples and friends alike, sit around beautifully decorated tables, eating and chatting.

"Good choice," Lacey compliments.

They're seated at a table tucked against the wall, not too close to the stage so they can't hear each other, but not so far away, so the music still gives their conversation a charming lilt.

Everything is so warm and inviting that Lacey feels comfortable here, watching Ruby pore over the menu in excitement, her reddish-brown hair hanging over her face.

Lacey reaches over and tucks the wayward hair behind Ruby's ear. Ruby looks up, a questioning smile on her face.

"I've decided already."

"Sorry, I'm taking so long, it's just exciting to eat something different for once."

Lacey raises an eyebrow. She doesn't mean for the mischievous smile to take over her expression, but her mind is whirring with laughter and memories of Granny's grilled cheese and burgers.

"Don't tell her," Ruby warns, eyes wide.

Lacey lifts her hands in faux-innocence. "Tell who what?" Dropping her hands and her voice conspiratorially, she adds, "I make no promises."

Ruby's tongue is still sticking out at Lacey when Tiana's husband comes by with a delicious smelling appetizer on the house and takes their orders. Ruby turns a red reminiscent of her name at the edges of her hairline and hastily looks over the menu again.

Lacey and Naveen share a grin. She gives him her order, followed by Ruby who mulls over two different options before Lacey closes her eyes, stabs her finger at the menu, and picks one.

Ruby spends the time that passes in between Naveen's departure and his return with their food alternatively trying to cajole Lacey into making a promise not to tell Granny and telling stories of how much Belle loved Granny's food.

As Ruby talks, Lacey feels the familiar pangs of lost memory, like stuck, misaligned gears trying to work themselves back into place. She is grateful when the food comes and the conversation shifts to how delicious the food is, how wonderful the music is, and how much Ruby loves dancing, which they should do after they eat – "because I'm certainly not leaving this table until I've finished everything on my plate; a wolf girl's gotta eat."

Naveen comes back, takes their order for dessert later and invites them to the dance floor. "You should let Tiana's food settle if you plan on dancing," he warns with a smile.

Ruby and Lacey don't need to hear the rest to get his meaning.

They talk for a while – about coming back to eat here again. However, the conversation soon melts away. The silence of the Jazz settles around them. In the moment, Lacey's thoughts aren't empty – far from it, buzzing with life and urges she recognizes and yet feel so far away. She has these memories but –

"So…Lacey, you still don't remember Belle at all?"

Silence broken, Lacey shakes her head. "I don't, and honestly, I don't want to. Belle's life sounds like...like a tragedy. All those years spent locked up in this world and the Enchanted Forest. Getting shot because my boyfriend killed his wife and chopped off her lover's hand…who would want to remember something like that?"

Ruby frowns and sets her half-empty glass of champagne down firmly on the table. "Belle would."

Lacey echoes Ruby's frown. "You're right," she says. It's obvious that she has surprised Ruby by the way her hand trembles and nearly topples over her glass. She catches it with animal-like reflexes – wolf-like reflexes.

"You're right," Lacey repeats. "How can you truly appreciate the good if you've never known anything bad? And I should want to remember, I know how much you want me to, but I'm happy being Lacey. I'm happy with this life that I now know. If Belle comes back to me, I won't fight it. But – I'm happy."

"Well,Lacey, I'm happy if you're happy," Ruby says with a smile, and it is Lacey's turn to be surprised. They'd spent all these weeks trying to help Lacey remember in between bouts of laughter and attempts to convince Dr. Whale to splurge to get Lacey some better food, or better yet, share some of his brandy.

Yet, most of that time had been spent starting new shows on TV. Playing games that Lacey didn't recognize and naming far off places that Lacey couldn't remember and Ruby had never been to but imagined frequently and vividly. They'd make their way to the park outside the hospital almost every day to watch the sunrise or the sunset, and rising and fading lights in the sky burnt themselves into the empty spaces of Lacey's mind.

Lacey studies her with new understanding and says, "I'm really grateful to have you as a friend, Ruby."

Ruby smiles, but it is one that Lacey recognizes. She remembers Ruby, standing in the dimly lit alley behind the Rabbit Hole, lipstick stained bottle in hand. Lacey was stumbling home, drunker than she should've been and riding a delicious high. She hadn't thought to call a cab because she thought the walk would do her some good – except her 4 inch heels weren't making that very easy.

Ruby had caught her before she fell. When Lacey, in lieu of thanks and slurred flirtations, asked her why she wasn't inside, Ruby had given her that same smile and replied, "If you're gonna walk, you should take your shoes off. Otherwise, I can call you a cab, if Dale's actually around and not crying about the Olden days and the era of hero pilots."

"I can walk," Lacey had said, already kicking off her heels. Although she'd wanted to suggest that Ruby walk her home, Ruby smiled that crestfallen, sad smile that desperately wanted to be happy but just couldn't reach it and Lacey had let her go, too high and too happy to want to kiss that sadness away.

Their chairs are seated only so far apart that Lacey doesn't hesitate to grab Ruby by her elbows and pull her in close for a kiss that only misses the mark for a second before Ruby's hands curl around Lacey's arms and she fits their mouths together perfectly.

Lacey's head feels empty again when they pull apart, but the glow of Ruby's smile, bright and real, fills her with all the memory she needs to furnish the empty home within her heart.