Lock and Key (novel)
After her drug and alcohol addicted mother abandons her, child services forces 17-year-old Ruby Cooper to move in with her sister, Cora, who had left for college when Ruby was young. Ruby is upset about this arrangement and continues to wear the key to her old home on a chain around her neck. After learning she will be transferring to a new high school, Ruby attempts to run away but is found out. Nate Cross, Jamie and Cora's next-door neighbor, covers for her. Over the span of the story, Ruby slowly becomes closer to Nate.
Child of the Moon
At Granny's, Billy the tow truck driver introduces himself to Ruby as Gus, a mouse who lived in Cinderella's pantry, and asks her out for a drink. She declines, and Belle provides the false excuse of a prearranged "girls' night; Red keeps secret the fact that she'll turn into a wolf that night. Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) drinks coffee to avoid sleep, due to his curse-induced nightmares, but David reassures him. Albert Spencer (Alan Dale) arrives and tells David that he is determined to discredit him. David assures Spencer that, having defeated him before, he can defeat him again. Granny finishes welding a cage for Ruby since, after 28 years without turning, Ruby is unsure if she can still control herself and she has been unable to find her red hood in Storybrooke. She locks herself in for the night, but in the morning Granny discovers claw marks on the destroyed cage; she and David find Ruby in the woods, and she has no memory of the previous night. They then check on an abandoned vehicle in town, which turns out to be Billy's tow truck. When Billy's corpse is found nearby in two pieces, Ruby believes that she might be responsible for his death and asks David to lock her up in jail, even though David believes that Ruby is innocent.