Alright, Lovelies, we're edging towards the finish line of this behemoth. It IS called Restitution, so it's been about fixing and sort of dull as far as my grand plot go. Trust me, I feel it, too. So, stay with me, keep the reviews coming and enjoy the angst of our family being stitched back together… don't worry, I'm sure I'll rip 'em apart again before you know it.
Enjoy!
Song: Thinking out Loud by Madilyn Bailey and MAX (beautiful cover)
"Got your bullshit out?" Granny asked gruffly and wiped at her own tears as Regina pulled back and sat upright on the ground of her own accord.
"You have never prolonged a meaning in your life, have you?" Regina insulted her vernacular in the way only possible of The Queen. Granny chuckled but remained otherwise silent. Regina cocked her head to the side and studied the odd reaction. The woman remained very much as she'd remembered her, a bit older and gruffer, but more or less steady and true to her morals and values. Granny had never judged her for the mayhem she'd caused but merely attempted to understand her pain. Just as she strove to understand her reasons now.
"I can't control when I slip from one to the other," The Queen admitted, angry at the perceived weakness within herself.
"That's because you're both," Granny figured. "Both sides of you make up the woman you are. You can't have one without the other, understand?" Granny struggled to her feet, and Regina stood to help the old wolf onto her creaky knees. Regina digested her words, holding her forearms though the elder wolf had stabilized on her own feet several minutes earlier. Granny allowed her the time to gather her mangled thoughts, never pushing or demanding she speak more quickly.
Regina tensed, pulling on her magic, and Granny touched her arm. "Why don't we walk? I've had enough teleporting for one day," she suggested.
"Granny, I can't go back," Regina said, sullen. The self-isolation harmed her far more than she cared to admit, but Granny always saw straight through her facades as any mother worth her salt might have.
"Why not?" She barked, parking her fists on her hips and staring down the supposed Evil Queen. Bunch of idiots overreacted one again. She just needed a little understanding, not attacked. She already planned to have a long talk with the other three once things settled a bit.
"They can't… I can't," Regina started haltingly, searching for the right words. She felt something, not love necessarily, but a fondness for the people she'd cursed into oblivion. She bowed her head, shoulders stooping. The old woman smiled.
"Welcome back," she greeted Regina warmly but no more warmly than she'd just spoken to the darker half of her. "They will," Granny assured her. "Whatever's going through that fool head, they will, and your wife needs you. Pretty soon, the biggest idiot of them all is going to tell her that she's having another child, and your Emma is going to get destroyed, you understand?"
"Granny, I can't help anyone right now," Regina admitted honestly, looking every inch of that scared and innocent girl she'd left behind so many years ago. Even her voice sound softer, younger. Granny almost saw the double braids and light blue jacket she'd worn during her horseback riding lessons.
"Well, at least one of you is smart enough to ask for help when you need it," Granny muttered and started down the hill, leading the way to town. Regina fell into step but remained silent, bouncing lightly on her feet.
"I've been watching the four of you for years now, running amuck in my town. "I've seen your tears and fears and triumphs and failures, but I've never seen any of you ask for help, not even from each other." Granny babbled, more to herself than Regina. The younger woman listened.
"We didn't know how," Regina confessed and stopped walking to meet Granny's firm but compassionate eyes. "We're all fighting our own demons, but they've never coincided like our enemies."
"Enlighten me," Granny played along, though she already suspected that she knew the answer.
"Ruby is fighting herself. That's easy. She cannot reconcile her savagery with the principles you instilled within her. Emma sacrifices herself to the point of ruin because she believes if she gives enough of herself, no one else will abandon her. Belle has spent her entire life conceding to the wishes of others because it's the only way she can be certain they won't abuse her. Until released from the curse, the woman had been nothing but an object passed from hand to hand. Though her empathy and inconceivably large capacity for forgiveness is real, she also grapples with her need to lead, her desires for the extraordinary."
"And you, Child?" Granny prodded.
Regina eyes hardened, and Granny sighed deeply. "Welcome back, Majesty," she clipped sarcastically and continued walking towards the town.
"I fear being alone," The Queen answered in a deeper, more commanding voice. "I fear being unloved. It's the reason I sought a child instead of a lover during my years within the curse." The brutal honesty surprised Granny enough to stop cold in her tracks and slowly face the younger woman. She'd prepared for more bluster and bullshit from the difficult and suspicious aspect of Regina's personality.
"I thought I could blind a child to what I truly was as my mother blinded me. I loved her until she crushed her heart in my hand." She raised the appendage in question, staring at it as though she'd never seen it before, failed to recognize her own skin and fingers. "And I love her still. I thought I could instill such loyalty of heart in Henry, but he remained true to his bloodline."
Granny's face softened into something resembling sympathetic pity. Regina's anger flared, but Granny's crossed arms smoldered it. "You're all fighting for the same thing, Regina. Love, family, a place to belong. It's why our little troupe keeps collecting outcasts for leading roles in this little melodrama."
Regina mulled the thought, and Granny resumed the trek towards town. Regina ran to catch up with her, the spring returning to her step rather than an irritable stalking. Granny sighed deeply and shook her head at the emotional whiplash Regina must have felt to continuously switch from one to the other. So much pain. These women deserved a break, but even after they emerged victorious from battle, their individual shortcomings generally wrought more disaster and heartache upon them. Silly things.
Belle putting the wrong heart in Emma's chest. Emma embracing the dark arts. Ruby fighting herself and her wolf day in and day out with Belle riling her at every possible moment to hide her own insecurities. Whatever in the hell had begun blossoming between Ruby and Regina during Emma's absence (That was a helluva a mess). Regina's request for the memory potion. None of those things were meant to intentionally harm any of the others, but they had with dire consequences. No wonder Katy screwed up so royally, Granny harrumphed in her mind.
"Might I… reside with you temporarily?" Regina startled her from the grouchy inner monologue, hands clasped behind her back, head bowed slightly. She looked 13 again, and Granny heard Cora reprimand the young princess for walking like a man but complimented her breasts. Sheer will and determination brought that girl through adolescence alive – with heavy scars gouged into her morals and sanity that left her vulnerable to the manipulation of anyone with a stronger will or slyer tongue.
Granny nodded and wrapped a stout arm that all old people of her generation seemed to possess. "Of course, if that's what you think you need in order to heal." Maybe, just maybe, she'd not lost her chance to heal the old wounds wrought upon her soul at this age. Perhaps this journey belonged to her as much as Regina.
Regina smiled bashfully up at her without fully raising her head. "I think I require a place where I feel safe. You've always made me feel safe, Granny."
Granny squeezed her shoulder, pulling her frame tighter against her bosom. It created an awkward walking pattern, but neither women noticed, comforted by the contact. "Does your more powerful half surface when you feel threatened?" She asked carelessly, not pushing the girl one way or the other. She carefully avoided trigger words like 'evil side' or 'dark side' or 'The Evil Queen.'
"Yes," Regina answered easily, trusting her elder implicitly. They walked on in silence for a few moments. "I struggle in the presence of The Savior," she elaborated.
"Is that why you gave her the memory potion?" Granny asked in that same disinterested tone that kept the girl at ease.
Regina nodded, slightly ashamed by the grievous decision. "She was the most formidable threat," she whispered, pragmatic even in her guilt.
"Because she's the only person truly capable of breaking your heart again," Granny stuck all the pieces together, pieces she'd puzzled together in her mind from the moment Regina began acting strangely.
Regina nodded and fell silent. Granny allowed it. They'd progressed enough for one day, and she already foresaw many sleepless nights in her immediate future. Regina always despised the night, choosing to stay awake rather than fight her demons in the dark. Even as a child, she struggled with the night a few months after Cora's mental abuse began. Granny strove for the age of the girl at that time but came up empty, little… six or seven, maybe. She'd wrapped herself in the problems of Anita and Jack and allowed this gem to slip through her fingers, and then a few years later, Ruby suddenly became solely her responsibility. Her honor and privilege, she amended silently, even though no one else heard the thought. She prayed Ruby learned from her mistakes and cherished her children before her absence damaged them beyond repair, made them fear the night.
She'd failed Regina to save Ruby, made an impossible choice that she hoped Ruby finally began understanding.
Time passed in a blur, and Regina only fully acknowledged that they'd returned to town proper when she stood before the sliding doors of the hospital. Granny hugged her tighter and walked her thru the doors, head up, ears alert. No one knew of the almost disaster that nearly occurred, the loss the town and its people nearly suffered by taking Regina's guiding hand from it during such a vulnerable era. She guided the young queen to the proper room that Ruby dictated before they'd gone to the barn.
Regina stiffened, digging in her heels when their family came into view outside the room. Granny rubbed her back, glancing between the group looking at them expectantly and Regina's petrified eyes. David rested his hands on Snow's shoulders in comfort. Belle held Alex on a hip and held her arm over Henry's chest to squeeze his shoulder and hug him simultaneous from behind, barely tall enough to be seen over his recent growth spurt. Bethany cuddled Annabel to her chest. Further back, Amelia and Caleb sat in a couple of plastic chairs. They all waited, praying, hoping.
Regina tensed, and Granny thought for a moment that she'd lost her. She halted their progress abruptly and rubbed Regina's arm, telling her silently that she'd not ask more of her that day.
"Alright, girl," she murmured. "Stay right here. I'm going to go let them know that you're okay, and then we'll go to my apartment at the diner. Stay right here," she repeated with emphasis, looking over her glasses with stern eyes.
Regina nodded and held perfectly still as Granny left her side and approached Belle and Henry. They said things that her mortal ears failed to hear. Everyone relaxed visibly and glanced in her direction. Belle said something to Granny, and the old woman's shoulders drooped in what appeared to be relief. Without leaving her sight, Granny poked her head into the room and pulled back with a happy expression on her cheeks now rosy from the hike and excitement. She said something else to Belle, touched her cheek, and then marched back to Regina.
"Come, Regina, we've been charged with making a wonderful dinner for our family. Caleb will pick it up at the diner when it's ready. Thought he'd be the safest choice, hmm?" Granny cooed at her like a child, and Regina felt that familiar desperation for maternal affection swell in her chest. Granny wanted her. Granny hadn't abandoned her. Granny returned without ordering the sad-eyed group of heroes to attack her.
Henry raised his hand as a parting call, and Regina slowly returned it as she leaned into Granny's stout figure once more and left the hospital without glancing over her shoulder. Eva and Lauren emerged from the room in time to see the underwhelming departure of the broken woman.
"So, that's it. We're just going to let her leave, not even try," Henry yelled at the group, his adolescent voice cracking and squealing with the increased emotions of the moment.
"Henry, your mom needs time to herself right now," Belle explained, but the words sounded hollow even to her.
"No, we have to do something. She shouldn't be alone," Henry demanded. They all felt the boy's pain, but the reality remained that no one but Granny possessed the power to help Regina right now.
"She's not alone, Henry. Granny won't leave her, and we'll try to go see her soon, okay?" Belle tried again, unable to really touch the boy with Alex sprawled across her chest. "She needs this, Henry." She reached out with her free hand, but he smacked it away belligerently.
"What do you know? You promised you'd never leave any of us. You promised that you'd always be around to protect me. Where have you been, Belle? People were dying. Aunt Ruby, Granny, Lauren was missing for weeks. Katy tried to kill herself. Where the hell have you been? What the hell do you know about what people need? We needed you here!" His chest heaved, face flushed, as he ran out of steam enough to feel embarrassed about the tears in his eyes.
"Henry," Belle tried to reach out to him again, but the boy barreled through the group of adults and sprinted down the hallway. His punched Belle in the chest, and she felt herself move forward and extend her daughter towards the first person with available and capable arms. She'd understood that her actions came with serious ramifications, but she'd not expected one of those to be Henry's angry. She'd taken his blind faith in her for granted and trampled all over it.
Before Belle handed a drowsy Alex to David, Caleb stood and held out his hands to stop her. "Stay by Ruby and Emma. I'll talk to him. Can someone help Amelia get back to her room?" David stepped up and allowed the woman to lean against him as the other man jogged down the hallway after the upset boy.
Belle sighed in frustration and turned her back to the group, seething as privately as possible at her failure, "I used to be able to calm him with just a look." He'd never left her side during the two months his mothers traipsed about Neverland. She had always served as his comfort, his solace, his rock. She hugged Alex to her just a little closer.
"Perhaps you should have thought of that before you abandoned your family for no apparent reason," Lauren snapped and stalked towards Amelia and David to offer her assistance. Amelia needed sedated and put to bed for a week. She'd gone above and beyond the past few days, and they needed her sharp in order to understand the memory potion currently keeping Emma broken in half as much as Regina. One thing at a time. Today was finished in regards to progress, only healing remained.
Belle turned slowly to face the rest of the group, too shocked by the sudden vehemence tossed at her. "Have I done something to upset her?" Belle asked Eva quietly and hiked Alex further on her hip. Maybe she became the most convenient target to blow boiling steam at because everyone already harbored anger towards her for bolting in the middle of, literally, a life and death situation. Their entire family ached and throbbed with the daunting task of somehow moving past this ordeal.
"I'm certain it's less to do with your actions towards her than towards Ruby," Eva answered cryptically. "Emma and Ruby would like to go home," she changed the subject before Belle pried any further.
"Of course," the crestfallen librarian responded, taking the hint easily.
"Belle, we can take Annabel for the night. It's no trouble," Snow offered graciously, but Belle shook her head.
"Why don't you and David come over for dinner later? Emma could really use your support right now," she counteroffered. Her focused shifted quickly to something beyond the hateful words that sliced through her heart.
"Nothing serious, just a nice evening of being together," she added pointedly, and Snow nodded slowly, understanding the meaning without pressing for more details. Emma needed to know about her baby brother soon, but not that day, not with Regina like that.
"I'll call Granny and ask Austin to bring dinner to the mansion," Belle plotted the rest of their evening, uncertain exactly how all the executive decisions about the children and dinner fell into her hands. Regina usually handled it. She pressed the tips of her fingers between her eyes, fighting the migraine with a little extra pressure, and sighed deeply. She could do this. She wasn't flashing back, her hormones felt balanced for the moment, Alexandra had stopped fussing a half an hour ago, her stomach remained settled for the moment. Her turn to take charge fell upon her suddenly.
"Okay," she settled into her role once she saw Ruby and Emma emerge from the room, leaning against each other for support. Ruby found a hospital gown that wrapped around her stick-figure enough to tie the strings in front through the jagged holes someone created on one side. It looked like a wrap instead of a gown. Ruby needed to eat. Snow snapped her from the silent rant when she went immediately to her daughter and slipped an arm around her waist.
Belle nodded in approval. "Where's Katy?"
Ruby jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "She wants to stay with Batch. Austin can bring her and Caleb some dinner or Caleb can go get it or whatever. I'm sure Lauren and Eva are going to go home and crash. Right?" She turned her eyes towards the seer who nodded once in response and then returned to the room.
She reappeared a moment later with the manila envelopes and Katy's cell phone. "She keeps throwing the damn thing in the sink, so just take it and save her the misery. I'll loan her mine for the night since I have my pager. Ruby, you need to call Jack and get information about this girl. She looks underage, and I'm bound by law to report her to child services if I can't find a guardian."
Ruby stiffened, pulling herself to her full height. "She's a wolf, Eva."
"I'm aware, but that doesn't change the laws of this world that I am bound to follow," Eva argued. "This hospital has suffered enough loss and disruption recently, and I will not damage the fragile balance we've found again by allowing The Council to demote me and put someone like Whale in charge again for failure to follow protocol, especially where a minor is concerned. Regina cannot protect us in this state," Eva explained her stance calmly, and Ruby knew her decision already stood firm. This hospital was her baby.
"How about a compromise? She deferred to me as her alpha more than once in there. I'll assume responsibility until another guardian comes forward." Ruby made it look so easy. Just like that, she's a wolf, she's mine.
Eva pressed her lips into a thin line and then nodded once. "I'll take that for the moment. The situation is unique. I'll check on her periodically throughout the night, and I imagine Caleb intends to stay with Amelia two doors down. If you need to contact me, remember to use Lauren's cell phone. With her healing abilities, I'd estimate her stay no more than two days before her lung is healed enough to be discharged."
"Thanks, Eva. I'd give you a hug, but I think you've been in our heads enough today," Ruby joked. Eva narrowed her eyes and disappeared into the room.
"Do you think it's wise to leave Katy unsupervised?" Belle addressed the concern at the forefront of everyone's thoughts.
Ruby glanced over her shoulder and fingered the objects in her hand. "She'll be fine. Caring for Batch can only make her feel good about herself, give her something to focus on that isn't the insanity of the past two weeks."
Everyone looked at Ruby like she grew two heads and danced an Irish jig wearing a fluffy pink princess tutu.
"I'm with Ruby," Emma piped up, putting the subject to bed. She stared forlornly towards the entrance of the hospital, somehow sensing that Regina had been near. Of course, she knew that she stood outside her door not five minutes ago, but she felt it. In her soul, she felt her.
"Snow, I need a favor," Emma whispered to her mother, not that it helped. Everyone crowded so much around them that she should have spoken normally, but whispering felt right.
"Emma," Belle warned, sympathetic but firm. "She doesn't want to see us right now. We've all had our breakdowns, it's Regina's turn." She hiked Alex higher, transferring the deadweight of her sleeping child onto her shoulder and chest, wincing slightly at the painful pressure she put on her breasts and the second degree burn left behind by Regina's fireball. Gauze separated the tender flesh from the tiny girl's scratchy Dalmatian decal on her red shirt, but the human shelf took a bit of the weight off her trembling arms.
"No, Belle, we haven't. Just because I haven't been here does not mean that I've had the luxury of a breakdown. Everything I've done has been a fight to just get back to her because I feel her in my fucking heart, but I can't even remember who the hell she is!" Emma yelled. Alex startled in Belle's arms, whimpered, glanced around in a panic and then settled into Belle's neck to cry softly.
"Shhh, it's alright, Alexandra," Belle comforted her daughter with a soft tone and soothing hand on her little back. She glared at Emma who glared right back.
"Welcome to our mornings, naptimes, and bedtimes for the past two months," Emma snapped. "I'm glad you're back, but you've lost the right to advise me on the appropriate course of action where my family is concerned. Or do you forget that I was willing to lose my memories and possibly die to go The Enchanted Forest with all of you?" The Savior ripped into her friend viciously, reverting to Young Emma's defense mechanisms to prevent more pain. Belle reeled from the onslaught, falling silent for lack of any sort of response that might have diffused the situation. What the hell was this? Punch Belle where it hurt the most now that crisis had been averted?
Snow grunted when the brunt of Emma's weight fell onto her. Ruby snapped, "That's enough, Emma," quietly, too quietly. Emma banged the drum to the beat in everyone's mind, but it only ripped them further apart. She touched Belle's hair, kissed her temple and then Alex's. "Enough," she whispered against her daughter's head, and the girl settled down at the gentle command.
Without preamble, Ruby disengaged and clomped towards the entrance, quiet and still despite the obviously huge amount of energy buzzing beneath her surface. Something obviously transferred from Lauren to Ruby and vice versa, but they'd sworn each other to secrecy, as it should have been. Still, the sight of the strong, hardheaded, proud wolf walking away with the subtle energy register of the tender succubus worried them. Ruby exuded energy, like the good little overly emotional extrovert she was. Lauren absorbed it, and the abrupt change definitely merited monitoring.
"She okay?" David asked as he and Lauren rejoined the group.
Belle shifted Alex again. How long had she hefted 35 pounds of sleeping toddler while they waited for Ruby and Emma and Lauren and Eva to recover? At least 45 minutes. David took pity on the pregnant woman and reached for the girl.
"Alex, want to go to Uncle David for a little while?" Belle asked, leaning her head back to try and see the face of the tiny monkey clinging to her neck. Alex shook her head vehemently and loosed an animalistic shriek. Belle's face pinched tightly in a pained expression from the ringing in her increasingly sensitive ears.
"Okay, okay, okay," she promised the toddler who settled down to sniffle quietly once more. "You can stay right here, Baby," Belle promised and pressed a lingering kiss to the side of her head. With a glance to Emma and then Snow and David, Belle sighed heavily.
"David, will you call Caleb and ask him if he wouldn't mind watching Henry and then go with Snow and Emma to the diner to see Regina?" David nodded and pulled out his phone, sensing the storm brewing beneath the other woman's usually placid surface. He'd learned the hard way not to press a pregnant woman. "Thank you," Belle breathed.
"Bethany," she started, but her younger sister merely held up a hand and pulled Annabel closer.
"This is my charge for the night," she assured Belle in her own clipped, regal way, and then softened as she cooed at the slobbering infant. With all their power, royals still refused to speak plainly, Belle noted with a hint of disgust in the language she used to find elegant and proper. Why couldn't Bethany simply have said, 'I love you, Belle. You're obviously going to need help tonight, and I'm with you all the way.' Like Emma or Ruby would have? She beat away the thoughts racing through her brain and focused on David's moving mouth.
"Caleb says he'd be more than happy to hang with Henry for a couple hours."
"Great, so Henry is with Caleb, Katy is staying with Batch. Jack is coming to sit with them. Shit, did Ruby call Jack?" She glanced around, but no one knew.
"I'll call him," David offered helpfully.
Belle nodded and continued her list. "You, are going with Snow and David who will bring you by the mansion for dinner." She met Emma's eyes. "Beth is going to babysit Annabel with me and Ruby at the mansion. Amelia is probably passed out in her hospital bed, and you and Eva are going to your apartment to get some sleep. Have I missed anyone?" She asked, not quite trusting herself to have handled everything. "Wait, who has the damn dagger?" Belle slapped her hip and snorted at herself. She never thought the power of The Dark One such a burden, constantly worrying about the beautifully ornate but incredibly deadly object that Ruby packed around on a daily basis.
"That's Wolf's dagger," Alex protested, pushing back on her shoulders to glare at Belle in an adorable way only children managed.
"It is," Belle promised the tiny ball of attitude. "I'm just holding it for her until she's better." Alex nodded in satisfaction and resumed clinging to her neck. Belle released a slow, deliberate, silent breath in response to the aversion of that small. She'd been home six days. They'd resolved their catastrophe in time for Bethany's surgery the following morning, another mind fuck altogether.
After a quick reassurance from Katy that she'd stay put all night and a stunted goodbye from Lauren, Belle led them away from the room. When they reached the entrance of the hospital, Ruby slowly exited the Camry she'd pulled to the front and helped Bethany get Annabel buckled into the back, though Alex clung to Belle until the last moment to release her Mama. Bethany nearly swore in the vernacular trying to figure out Annabel's car seat, the "infernal contraption," and Ruby patiently showed her how to hook it properly. Everyone watched the interaction with fascination but withheld comment. Whatever Ruby saw and felt while hosted in Lauren's body dug deep and rutted a gorge into the ever-present angry energy surrounding the wolf. She looked far older than her 29 years, and yet somehow younger without the pinched lines of rage marking her face.
Belle stared blatantly, not even bothering to study her discreetly like the others while they waited for David to bring his truck to get Emma and Snow. Ruby crossed one arm over her stomach and held the other elbow, and Belle smiled fondly at the gesture she'd seen a million times. Ruby was still Ruby.
"What?" Ruby blurted, diffident under the scrutiny.
Belle smiled, scar stretching with the wideness of it. "I forgot how beautiful you were, that's all," she answered bashfully, acutely aware of the extra eyes on the private moment. She'd forgotten how much she loved watching Ruby move. The natural fluidity and physical dignity clashed with Ruby's insecurity as a woman – despite the fact that she was still the most gorgeous creature that ever graced the earth in Belle's opinion.
Ruby flushed and dropped her head, heart lifting with the attention she'd so desperately sought from her lover for far longer than the brief hiatus Belle felt she needed. She'd not really felt attractive since her internment on Hook's ship at Cora's hands, but if Belle continued looking at her with that look in her eyes, Ruby thought maybe, just maybe she'd feel worthy to be looked at again. Belle smiled wider, her cheeks aching with the effort. Suddenly, the ache in her arms faded to the background, and she brushed her cheek over Alex's hair without taking her eyes from Ruby's.
"Would I completely destroy that feeling if I spit on the ground?" Belle asked, laughing at herself alongside Ruby's light chuckle. The wolf shook her head, and Belle at least turned from the rest of her the group to expectorate the excess drool pooling beneath her tongue and in her cheeks. She smiled up at Ruby and happily tucked beneath the arm she offered. Ruby's body hadn't taken half the beating or energy loss as Emma's. She just felt like she'd not slept for a day or two, not really like Emma's soul slowly killed her body. Poor Emma looked like death warmed over with a fresh side of refried kick-to-the-teeth.
So, Ruby gently pried Alex from around her mother's neck, relieving her fiancée's quivering arms of their precious load. The transfer went far more smoothly than the one she'd attempted with David, and Alex resumed an identical position of hiding in Ruby's hair, arms wrapped around her neck. Belle dropped her tired arms to hang loosely around Ruby's thin hips and rested her head against the other side of Ruby's neck. Belle gasped lightly, breaking under the sudden emotion of the moment, and ran her hands over Ruby's back and hips and ribs. Explanation of the reaction seemed trite at that point. She held the right soul in the right body, and everyone saw the perfection of that moment as much as they felt it.
"Have you always smelled like this?" Belle asked, suddenly aware of a faint musk mingling with the lingering scents of Emma's shampoo, forest and dirt from Emma's captivity, and hints of Regina's sandalwood lotion which probably transferred from Regina.
"Is it a sort of… ummm, primal scent, like you can sense me on a molecular level almost?" Ruby asked, and Belle nodded. "Then yes, I've always smelled like this, you just couldn't pick up the scent before."
Belle pressed close and inhaled a healthy breath near Ruby's throat and then laid her head on Ruby's collarbone, content to hold her lover's hips for another moment. "I like it," she whispered.
"You two are making me want to slap you again," Emma muttered, shattering the overwhelming, nauseating adorableness of the moment. Ruby only smirked and pressed her lips to the crown of light brown and bottle blonde hair tickling her chin, and Belle smiled contentedly but opened her eyes to make sure Emma only jested. She'd pissed everyone off enough for one lifetime.
Luckily, David saved them from an awkward moment by pulling up in his truck. He hopped out and rounded the front to open the door for his wife and help Emma climb into the higher vehicle. Ruby and Belle reluctantly parted so Ruby could strap Alex into her booster seat beside Bethany in the back.
"David, do not let her drive. She's fucking blind," Ruby jabbed one last time at Emma who flipped her the bird with the hand dangling out the window.
"That's because you wouldn't wear my glasses or contacts, dumb ass," Emma sniped, not really upset but tired enough to sound irritated. David smiled at his daughter and then pulled away from the hospital.
"Do you think she'll get through?" Ruby ask Belle over the hood of the car.
"We can hope. Regina is a very broken woman," the librarian answered sadly. A stab of guilt burned through her chest, and she met Ruby's eyes. "Do you think I did the right thing? Attacking her, I mean?"
Ruby's face softened, forehead scrunching a bit, eyes wide and empathetic… the first Ruby-expression Belle fell in love with that day she'd wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her towards the inn entrance the day Emma saved her from a complete memory wipe in the mines. How could she have known where that one compassionate expression on the features of the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen would lead her three and a half years later?
"Would you have expected Regina to do the same if you lost control?" Ruby asked, wishing for the ability to read Belle's thoughts. She felt off, but there… more there than usual but less readable. She felt new, Ruby realized, and her heart fluttered.
"Absolutely," Belle answered with an introspective smile. She and Regina solidified that unspoken agreement the moment she protected Belle's heart while Zelena terrorized Storybrooke to avoid a forced magical showdown between them. "She'd have preferred that to unleashing something else in Storybrooke."
Ruby nodded with an effacing but somehow charming smile that completely removed her opinion from the question and left the answer up to Belle's big brain. Belle pursed her lips, still unable to place her finger on the change in Ruby. Whatever she'd seen during the soul exchange had centered her again, healed something that had been broken, maybe something that Ruby hadn't even realized had cracked until it mended once more.
"Let's go home. I've been in leather pants for two days and I have places that require air flow," Belle pulled them through the moment with the surprisingly raunchy comment, and Ruby actually rolled her eyes at the supposedly eloquent woman as she sank behind the wheel of Emma's Camry.
The moment the shifter moved into the "D" slot, Ruby's hand found Belle's and laced their fingers together. They'd be okay, Belle realized, wondering briefly if this was the sort of faith Emma always felt in her love for Regina. Ruby was her touchstone, the hearth ever-burning, and while she finally realized that never changed with time, she also accepted her own responsibility for stoking the embers.
With an extended sideways glance that pulled her head down slightly, Belle studied Ruby's face as she concentrated on the quiet, nearly-empty streets that they both loved so very much. "Ruby Lucas, I want to make you my wife before I get too big to make love to you."
Ruby smiled, surprised but not shocked by the bold statement. "Name a date, and I'll be there in whatever attire you deem appropriate," she vowed. She thought about suggesting the courthouse right then and there, but Belle wanted a wedding, a commitment ceremony. It shocked her when she realized that she maybe (kind of, sort of) wanted one, too.
"I wonder if The Evil Queen will wear a bridesmaid dress," Bethany pondered from the backseat, and the couple shared a knowing smile.
Of course she would. Because everything would be okay. Everything would heal, including Regina's fractured mind.