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Part VII

She was trying to control the pain, and failing miserably. Regina grit her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, determined to neither cry nor cry out again. She had been through worse pain, when the arrows had actually pierced her shoulder, for instance. She could deal with this. Waves of pain radiated from her right shoulder and coursed across her back, up her neck and down her arm. Her fingers tingled and she knew that they would be numb soon. Her teammates walked with her to the dugout and she could vaguely hear some applause and perhaps some jeers, it was all a blurry cacophony of sound that meant little to her. She hurt too much to give a damn what the crowd thought at the moment. She sat on the bench in the dugout and leaned back against the cool block wall, unwilling and possibly unable to move again until she absolutely had to.

Two hands touched either side of her face, "Victor's gone for his medical bag and Archie is getting some ice." Granny's voice, sans its usual sass, "You're going to be okay, Cap'n."

Someone, she suspected Kathryn, sat down beside her. "Of course she is. Our Gina is a tough cookie. She's not going to let a fairy keep her down." Had anyone else dared to call her by such a pejorative nickname or compare her to an over-cooked confectionery treat, she would have set them on fire as a matter of principle. Kathryn, though, was the exception. Despite the entire orchestrating her kidnapping debacle, she had a soft spot in her black heart for the woman.

"I have half a mind to go over there and put my cleat up that dust-slinging blue bitch's ass."

Regina smirked at Jill's comment and was not surprised to hear her brother comment of, "I'll hold her down, you kick."

She heard Whale and Archie return and forced herself to open her eyes. Pongo, smartly dressed in his own double-zero jersey (Henry had insisted that Pongo was a member of the team and had begged her to sew him a uniform several years ago), clamored up on the bench on the other side of her and laid his body across her lap. She smiled and dropped her good arm down to pet the canine on the head.

Victor Whale, all doctor now, knelt in front of her. "On a scale from one to ten, how's your pain?"

Truthfully, Regina mused, it was nearing an eight. "Six or so."

He frowned at her, "So eight or nine, then."

She didn't dignify that with an answer. Apparently Frankenstein was a half-decent doctor after all.

"I need to see your shoulder." He turned his head, "Ruby can you help her with her jersey?"

The brunette nodded and leaned over Pongo to help her with the bright red buttons of their team jersey. Usually Regina would knock her hands away, but she was in pain and Ruby was being careful. It was almost like they were friends. She unbuttoned the sweaty, dirty and now blood spattered jersey to reveal the "Eat at Granny's" tee-shirt she wore underneath.

"I'm going to have to cut your tee-shirt sleeve." What paused and grinned up at her, "Unless you want to give us a real show." His words were crude and a little lecherous, but the twinkle in his eyes told her that he was kidding. Granny slapped the man in the back of the head anyway and Regina smiled.

"Cut the shirt, Whale. We'll get her a new one." Granny's tone left no room for argument. Regina had always liked that about her.

She felt the cold shears snip away the fabric of her sleeve and knew when they could see her scars because she heard Kathryn's soft gasp and Ruby's hiss.

Medical care in their old world had been crude at the best of times and she had not been particularly adept at healing spells. The scars, thick and jagged, marked where two separate arrows had torn through her shoulder on two separate occasions. Such was the burden of being an Evil Queen who fought in a Civil War. The blue gnat's elbow had jabbed right into her weakest spot and twisted with what felt like every ounce of the other woman's weight behind it. She had almost vomited the pain had been so acute.

She didn't need to see her shoulder to know that the usually pink scars were swollen and flushed a deep and painful red. She could feel them throbbing. She could feel the damaged soft tissue underneath her skin burn and throb with every minute movement caused by her shallow breathes.

"There's not much I can do but try to reduce the swelling and relieve some of the pain." Whale examined her scar tissue with soft, gentle, fingers. "You really need to rest it."

They both knew that wouldn't happen. They had no alternate player and even if they shuffled everyone around, there would still be an enormous gap in their defense. Even if they did have an alternate, she wouldn't let herself be benched. She was far too proud and much too determined to quit now.

"Just bandage me up, Doctor. We have a ball game to win."

He sighed, "Keep this on your shoulder. It should help a little." Archie handed him a plastic Ziploc bag full of ice and he wrapped it in gauze then applied it to her shoulder. She jerked and let out a small grunt of pain. The ice burnt like fire on her skin. She was surprised to feel a hand in her hair and another on her good shoulder. Kathryn and Ruby were all but petting her. She should have shrugged them away, but didn't. She let her head loll back and she found herself smiling at the two women. Tomorrow it would be back to business as usual, but tonight it was like she had friends and she wanted the feeling to last.

"We're going to beat the shit out of those freaking assholes, Regina."

Jill's eyes flashed and she crossed her arms over her chest. The only thing that was holding her in the dugout, Regina suspected, was her brother's grip on her arm.

"Damn Skippy!" Granny handed her two Advil and a bottle of water, "Those Blues won't know what hit them."

"No more playing around." Kathryn squeezed her good shoulder, "It's time to take 'em to the mattresses."

Regina raised an eyebrow. Had the sugar-sweet Princess Abigail just quoted The Godfather?

Above her, hand still petting her head like a puppy (if she wasn't hurting so much she wouldn't be able to resist making a sarcastic remark about that), Ruby growled. "We're going to cream them, Cap'n. Just you watch. If you mess with one wolf." The werewolf-waitress growled again, "You get the whole pack."

Whale wrapped the ice to her with more gauze, it itched a little but the cold had finally started to cut through the pain.

"We'll show them exactly how Red rolls in Storybrooke."

He tilted her head to look at the scrape on her cheek. "It's not going to need stitches. He wiped the scrape carefully with an alcohol pad and then antibiotic cream. A small beige bandage covered the wound, and Whale sat back on his heels to survey his work.

"Still the prettiest pitcher in town."

Even Archie chuckled at the glare she gave Whale for that one.

The redhead lifted his cap to ruffle his sweat-soaked red hair, "If they ever had a chance, it's gone now." He held out his hand and it was quickly joined by Granny's, both the Hills and the rest of the team. Regina couldn't help but smile as she laid her left hand on top of the pile.

"Go Red!"

They broke up with a scream of "Go Red!"


Things in the Blue Dugout weren't quite as cheerful.

Emma threw her blue cap on the ground, followed by her glove.

"What the hell was that?"

She glared at the Blue Fairy and balled her hands into fists. The red-haired High Priestess of dust and mojo, or whatever she was, only raised a russet brow. "She slid, I tagged her out, and we both fell. Accidents happen, Princess."

The team said nothing, it was almost like they agreed. Only, she knew these people. They were good people, her family and friends. This wasn't like them at all.

"Here's the thing, Tinkerbelle, it wasn't an accident. You did it on purpose. I saw you sink your elbow into her bad shoulder and twist it. Just because you could. If we had an alternate I would bench your pixie ass so fast your head would spin." She stepped up into the redhead's space, nose to nose with her. "You are a stone cold bitch, Lady, and you should be freaking ashamed of yourself."

Blue didn't back down. If anything she puffed up more. "I'm the Team Capitan, Swan."

Emma's eyes narrowed, "Well consider this a mutiny." She pushed the other woman away from her and smirked when she had to brace a hand on the dugout wall to keep from falling on her ass.

"No. Here's the thing. Consider this a wake-up call for all of you. This is supposed to be a friendly game. It's for charity for fuck's sake. Those are our friends out there and you people have turned it into some kind of Spartacus, Gladiator, Braveheart "Victory or Death" situation. Shame on you!"

Emma Swan, voice of reason. She was pretty sure that the ice-capades would be telecast live from Hell this year.

"This is a simple game: you throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball. You people have turned it into a mess. This could be the greatest night of our lives and you're making it the worst! Screaming about fireballs and cursed marriages and making dog jokes and for what? To win? If that's victory than you can keep it. I came out here to play a game, not fight like punks."

She wasn't sure where all this was coming from, a lifetime of crappy sports movies she supposed.

"When you put on that jersey you represent yourself and your teammates and everyone in the stands that have come out to support this team. The color of your shirt, the meaning behind it is more important than winning. It's a helluva lot more important than the name on the back. No more dirty tricks, no more shouted sucker punches. I am drawing the fricking line in the dirt right here. This far and no further. My Kid is out there in the stands watching." She whirled around to look at Michael, "your kids are out there watching. What the fuck are we showing them? It's okay to be assholes because we're the so-called good guys?"

That was something of a re-occuring theme in Storybrooke and Emma was sick to death of it.

She turned to glare at her mother and hoped Snow was listening to what she said.

"She's the Evil Queen." Blue had finally found her balls and spoke again. "She'll just heal herself."

Oh Hell to the no, bitch wasn't going there.

"Really?" She grabbed the nun's shoulder and jerked her around just in time to see Whale duck back into the Red team's dugout with his medical bag. Archie quickly followed with a bag of ice from the concession stand. She shoved the other woman away again, just as hard and a tad rougher than the last time, and wiped her hands on her jersey to get rid of any residual fairy bullshit.

"She's not the Evil Queen tonight. She's not even the Mayor. Her jersey is red and the back of it says Mills. She's a pitcher, a ball player. She has shown more freaking sportsmanship than this entire team combined. The Red team is kicking our asses because they're playing like a real team, not like a bunch of bitching teenage drama queens. If we keep this up they're going to walk away with the "W" again. You know what else, they'll freaking deserve it too. They're earning their stripes and they're doing it without being assholes. There's trash talk and then there's what you guys have been doing out there."

She took a deep breath, it was time to dig deep.

"We can't have any more freak outs. We won't have any more accidents and if I hear one more Evil Queen or Werewolf of Cricket comment out of any of you I will kick your ass myself. We've come too far. There's too much to lose. There's such a fucking thing as dignity and you are stomping all over it like spoiled-ass children."

She was mixing and matching movies, throwing in curses and trying to remember anything anyone had ever told her about sportsmanship. Basically she was pissed off and flying by the seat of her pants but she meant every damn word she was saying and her teammates had better listen and take it to fucking heart.

"Right now isn't about talent. It's about heart. It's about who can go out there and play the hardest and play the smartest. They've had their victories. They've been here before. They won't give it up. We're going to have to reach out and take it from them. As a team. I don't know about the rest of you, but my kid is watching and I am going to show him that I can play to win the right way. Hard work, determination, guts and sweat. I am going to go back out on that field and show Storybrooke exactly how True Blue I can be."

This was the cheesiest shit that had ever come out of her mouth.

"Exactly how good this entire team can be. Let's show them that The Blue Team came to play and win. Not for us, but for all of them. For our friends and our kids who came to watch a good game and cheer us on. They will watch us finish this game the right way and when we win they will know it was because we were the better team tonight. They will know what we can do. Now-"She held her hand out, "Who's with me?"

She was shocked to see that Grumpy's was the first hand to join hers.

"We can beat them fair, square and squeaky clean."

Nova's hand came next, and conveniently covered Grumpy's, "Definitely."

David and Michael's hands came next, followed by the other two dwarves.

Emma turned to look at Snow and was shocked to see the woman was crying.

"Mom?"

Snow blinked the tears away, "You're right, Emma." She put her hand in, "I am ashamed of myself."

She should be, but Emma kept that thought to herself.

Everyone turned to the Blue Fairy, who looked positively pissed.

"Fine. Whatever."

She dropped her hand on the pile.

"Blue on three."

She counted them down and the dugout echoed with their shouts of "Go Blue!"

Less than two minutes later the game started again and Snow shouldered her bat and walked out to the plate. Emma watched her go and hoped that the woman remembered her promise to play clean.

"That was" Nova, or Astrid or whoever she was slid up beside her, "really great, Emma."

Emma shrugged a shoulder, a little embarrassed by her display. "I think I'm going to be sued for copyright infringement. I got most of that from movies."

The right fielder grinned and picked up a bat, "I know. I watch Miracle at least three times a month, it's my favorite movie."

Nuns, or fairies, got to watch movies?

"It doesn't mean you weren't right. You always seem to be there when we need to be reminded where the line is when the so-called-righteous try to step over it." Then the fairy smiled big enough for twin dimples to pop out. "You really are the Savior, you know."

The crack of ball on bat made them both swing around just in time to see Snow get her first hit of the night (and maybe ever).

"Holy Crap!" David leapt to his feet, "Run, Honey, Run!"

When Marco called her "Safe!" Nova tugged her blue cap almost self-consciously as she stepped out to take her turn at bat. "See, things are already turning around, Captain."

Emma's mouth dropped open as she watched the slender woman walk out to the plate.

No wonder Grumpy liked her so much. She was pretty, sweet, and surprisingly insightful for a woman who had been locked up in a convent for twenty-eight years.

When she sent a ball bouncing across the diamond towards the middle of the third base line, Emma smirked. She was also full of surprises.

AN2: I'm pretty sure I love Astrid/Nova simply because she's played by Amy Acker.