Enjoy Lovelies!
Songs: All I Have by Jennifer Lopez and LL Cool J, Touch My Body by Mariah Carey, Stormy by Hedley
With a heavy sigh, Ruby opened the front door to the mansion. Had she not made such an ass of herself before Zelena's attack, she might have returned last night. Faint music played in the kitchen, but it wasn't the soft twang of Belle's preferred tunes, so she checked the living room first. Emma was wedged into the corner of a sofa and blinked up at her with bleary, red eyes of exhaustion. Regina lay between her legs, head lulled between Emma's breasts. Annabel sucked on her fist atop Regina's chest. Emma's hands wrapped around the infant's belly, keeping her in place.
Ruby sat on the coffee table and ignored the tingle of her wolf connecting with Regina's dark heart. It wasn't Regina reaching out for her anymore. Emma simply lacked control. "You okay?" She asked instead of addressing her minor meltdown the previous night.
Emma readjusted her grip on Annabel. "Besides not having slept? Yes. Good thing we napped so much yesterday." Emma tried to smirk and pull levity into the crackling tension around them, but it fell flat and flopped on the floor as it gasped its dying breath. Ruby sighed.
"Want me to take Annabel for a bit? You look ready to keel over." Her tone told Emma that she braced for rejection.
Emma actually managed a tiny smile. "Please, my arms are killing me. I think there are enough of us here and awake to keep her safe." Ruby smiled brightly for the first time in days as she took the tiny girl into her arms.
She hummed and pressed her lips to Annabel's soft black hair. Emma shook out her hands, returned one to Regina chest and dangled the other over the side of the couch. Ruby glanced up with shining eyes. "They make it all worth it, don't they? Children." She stared down at Annabel as she spoke, and Emma almost felt like she invaded a private moment.
"They do. Speaking of, where are Alex and Henry?" Emma rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses.
Ruby offered Annabel a finger to squeeze and then jerked back at the spontaneous mewing from her tiny lungs. "They're at Granny's. Snow and David are there, too. They're going to stay until I come back. This is the hungry cry, right?" Ruby checked.
Regina sprang to life, "Annabel!" Emma wrapped her in strong arms and hushed her fears.
"She's hungry, Baby. She's okay. Ruby has her. Look to your right." Regina followed the gentle instructions and smiled at her friend before relaxing into Emma's chest with a wince. As the adrenaline faded, the soreness of their love session the previous afternoon and the abrupt movement settled into a burning ache in her stomach.
Laughter exploded from the kitchen, and Ruby squinted towards the foyer. "Who's in the kitchen?" She tilted her head, but her cloak tamed her wolf senses.
"Belle and Amelia. They've been at it all night. I can't wait to see what potions they came up with." Emma answered. Annabel mewed again, protesting the lack of attention.
Regina reached for the girl. "Will you bring me a bottle, Ruby? And a Vicodin," she added as an afterthought. Emma tensed beneath her for exactly one second and then relaxed. Pills hadn't been her vice of choice, but any drug mentioned these days made her edgy.
Ruby nodded and stood as she placed the infant in her mother's arms. "Belle told me where she hid them. I'll be right back." She took two steps towards the door and turned around. "Granny says sorry again, by the way, and to tell you that next time you magic flash to her living room with a screaming infant because your house is under attack you should announce yourself to avoid crossbow bolts aimed at your head."
Emma chuckled against her back, and Regina smiled fondly. She loved that old battle axe. "I've learned my lesson," Regina admitted and offered her daughter the tip of her finger to suck until Ruby returned with the bottle. It calmed the girl for the moment at least.
Emma jerked at the sudden reappearance. Ruby paused momentarily, ensuring no fireballs were flung at her head, and then continued juggling two cups of coffee, a bottle and a pill. The joyous but pained expression in her eyes told the couple that what she'd seen in the kitchen inspired both pain and pleasure.
She laughed as she handed over the bottle and pill. "Amelia is trying to teach Belle how to twerk." She snorted. "Guess she can't be good at every dance style."
Regina wrinkled her nose. "What on earth is twerking?" Emma and Ruby giggled.
Ruby sobered first and cleared her throat. "I'll have Amelia explain it to you when I send her in here," Ruby answered and then disappeared into the foyer. She had avoided Belle long enough.
Sad brown eyes watched the two women for a few silent minutes as they gave into the silliness that lack of sleep brought. Belle seemed so much lighter without her heart. She grabbed Amelia's shoulders as she lost her balance for the hundredth time and laughed with an abandon Ruby never saw before. That's why Belle stayed calm enough to call upon the earth at any moment. If she felt nothing, her memories couldn't haunt her. Amelia noticed her presence first, and like a few minutes ago when she'd retrieved coffee for her friends, she tensed and waited for the backlash.
Ruby snorted and pushed off the door where she leaned. "Amelia, Regina has a question. Please go to the living room." Amelia nodded and slipped by her with wary eyes.
Belle clenched her jaw and moved to the Ipod deck, unwilling to meet Ruby's eyes. A larger hand covered hers as she touched the electronic minstrel, and Ruby's heat pressed into her back. Blue eyes slipped shut slowly, catching a brief glimpse of red furling around their feet.
Ruby touched the shell of her ear with her lips and whispered, "She started you out too fast." Ruby pulled the Ipod from beneath her fingers, and Belle shivered against her lover. God, she wanted so badly for this to happen, but the vicious, perpetual cycle between her and the wolf was evident. They destroyed each other a little more each time. Perhaps ending it now before they and Alex were further damaged was the best path.
And yet, "Teach me," came the breathy response.
Ruby released a heavy breath into her ear, relieved, and splayed her hand over Belle's flat belly, careful not to touch her too intimately yet. "You need to start on slower beats, some good contemporary R&B. Rhythm and Blues," she added before Belle asked for the meaning of the acronym. The music indeed changed to a slower and more soulful beat.
She pressed against her stomach, and Belle allowed herself to be pulled to the center of the kitchen. Ruby bent her knees slightly and fit the curve of her ass into her crotch hesitantly. "You have to train your hip and stomach muscles slowly, just like any other type of dancing."
Belle gasped lightly when Ruby moved her hips, rubbing against her before she followed with her own. "Ruby this song is about a break up from a relationship that isn't working anymore." Belle distracted herself with the nervous comment. Even without her heart, love and arousal swelled in her chest for the other woman. The wolf inspired the first deep emotion she'd felt since last night, and with the love came the pain.
Rather than a real response, Ruby repeated the lyrics into her ear, "Pride is what you had, baby girl, I'm what you have… Be easy don't make decisions when you're mad." Their hips moved in a slow figure eight, and Belle bit her lip in frustration as she gave into the moment.
Fingers slid between those on her stomach and the other hand gripped the back of Ruby's neck. The taller woman relaxed into the sensual embrace now that Belle gave her permission. Long fingers slithered over a voluptuous hip, thumb hooking into the waist of tight jeans and fingers splaying over button and zipper.
Belle shivered and bowed her head in frustration. "I can't say no to you when you touch me."
"Do you want me to stop?" Ruby asked sincerely.
Belle shook her head as she turned in her arms and locked her fingers behind her neck. "How do you dance like this while facing your partner?" She asked in her ignorant, innocent way that made Ruby fall for her in the first place. She was so curious and so very inexperienced in this world still after nearly two years.
Ruby bit her lower lip and sighed gently, eyes slipping shut. If the minimal contact damaged Belle's rightful anger and defenses with arousal, grinding crotches obliterated them completely. With a steadying breath, Ruby slipped a thigh between her legs and bent her own as she pulled their hips together. Belle inhaled sharply through her nose and dropped her head to Ruby's shoulder.
To her credit, the wolf held perfectly still. She may have initiated the contact, but this remained Belle's game she played with herself. The song changed to something slightly faster, but that same slow beat and bass thrummed beneath the feathery lyrics and sensual voice. Belle rolled her hips, understanding what was supposed to happen without being told. Why the fuck had she put Mariah Carey on Belle's Ipod? Yes, she knew Belle wanted her to touch her body without being told over and over.
Her stomach clenched as her hips responded involuntarily. "Belle," she hissed. Hot, wet lips pressed against her throat, inspiring a low growl and a bubble of pressure between her legs. Strong hands pulled at the wider hips of the shorter woman, grinding them together.
Belle braced her arms on solid shoulders and lifted her body easily onto her lover, hooking her ankles behind them. Ruby leaned back slightly and held the hips rocking sensually to the bass of the song. Belle released her neck, trusting Ruby to hold her, and pulled her shirt over her head. Trembling fingers buried in brown and red hair, guiding the wolf's head to her bare chest.
"No," Ruby whispered, lips brushing against sensitive flesh of the scar between Belle's breasts.
Belle froze except leaning back slightly and glared down at her lover. "What?"
Ruby pushed at her legs, forcing her to the floor, and snagged up her shirt. Shaking fingers turned it right side out and then extended it to the dumbfounded librarian with shimmering blue eyes. "I said no, Belle. We need to talk. This is why we are where we are right now. I fuck up, and you're big beautiful forgiving heart lets me back in without hesitation. We make love, and the problems get swept under the rug but not resolved." Belle wiped at her eyes. The rejection hurt, but Ruby's assessment of how they dealt with their issues was correct.
"Belle, I had an affair," Ruby blurted, averting her gaze to her navel. Belle's followed suit, stomach knotting as the words finally fell from Ruby's lips.
"We never had sex, but we might as well have because everything else was there. It's fucked up because neither of us actually realized it while it was happening." Ruby crossed one arm over her stomach and held the other elbow, already uncomfortable.
With a deep breath, she continue, "Archie called me out on it the first week we returned to Storybrooke, the day I brought my guitar home. You remember that day?"
Belle nodded and smiled into the memory as she swiped at her tears. "I told you that you were insane and that it'd take you forever to teach yourself. By the end of the week, you were playing as though you'd been born with that thing in your hands." She laughed sadly and met Ruby's eyes.
"I…" she pulled a folded piece of paper from her back pocket and handed it to Belle. "That's why I've been spending so much time at Town Hall with Regina. She's been going through all of Gold's property deeds." Ruby explained without actually explaining anything.
Belle studied the paper, quickly digesting the page of words. "This is the property deed to the house across the street." Belle looked up at her with confused eyes and held the limp paper between them.
"The council agreed a few months ago to repossess all of Gold's property, sell it cheap, and use the proceeds to finish repairing the damages from the war and to assist those families who lost loved ones. I've been holding onto this one because I wanted to show it to you first before it went public." Ruby worried her lower lip and crossed her arms over her chest, waiting anxiously for some sort of response beyond a blank stare.
Belle licked her lips and looked at the deed without actually reading it again. "You want us to buy a house?" She tossed the paper to the counter as if it burned her. "After all those horrible things you said last night, you want to buy a fucking house?"
Ruby found her navel and swallowed the burn of tears. "I never should have mentioned Breck."
"Yes, you should have," Belle countered coldly. "Months ago, to me, in private. You're allowed to be angry about the things you saw and at me for doing them. I did that. I killed those people because I lost control. We can only deal with it if you talk to me, but you just keep everything bottled up until it explodes like it did last night." Belle waved her hands in frustration as she spoke and finally settled for retreating to the stove. She slammed the kettle on the burner and braced her hands on the counter without lighting it.
Ruby moved to her side, close enough to touch but chose not to act on the urge. "Belle," she whispered. "I'm sorry. I'm trying. Sometimes…" she huffed and leaned her back against the counter, arms crossed tightly.
"Sometimes it's easier to talk to Regina about stuff because I'm not afraid she's going to leave me," Ruby mumbled. Encouraged by the softening of Belle's taut muscles, she continued, "I could probably handle losing her or not being as close with her. Hell, that's why we're having this conversation, right? If I lost you or Alex…" She sighed heavily, afraid to voice her theory of the direction she believed her life took without her anchors.
"You'd shrivel up and die even though you continued breathing?" Belle supplied the words Ruby failed to find. Ruby nodded and exhaled harshly through her nose.
Belle raised her head and studied her lover's face, seeing the honesty in those soulful brown eyes. "You know I'm powerless to leave you, right?" Ruby breathed harshly, head bowing as her eyes closed beneath the weight of that confession.
"Please don't leave me," she begged, unable to keep the tears from her voice. "I fucked up. I'm trying to fix it. Please." She raised shimmering brown eyes to blue, displaying all of her fear and grief and regret. "Please let me fix this, Belle. Come see Archie with me. He says that he can help me learn how to talk about things better, but the early stages are a lot of trial and error. He would be there to mediate when we got lost. Please."
Belle bowed her head and processed the new information as well as the new development in their relationship. "Under one condition." Ruby brightened, her eyes agreeing to anything. "Don't ask me to marry you again. If I ever want that with you again, I'll bring it up."
Ruby smiled. "I can do that." It wasn't perfect, but it was a step in the right direction. Forgiveness wasn't just a fantasy.
"Ruby?" Belle pressed off the stove and met her lover's eyes.
Ruby's arms fell from their protective embrace across her chest. "Yeah?"
"May I resume what I began earlier?"
"God yes." Ruby cupped the back of her neck as she pulled their lips together. Soft moans swirled across joined tongues. Belle's hands slid up Ruby's shirt and scraped her scarred back with vicious intent.
Ruby pushed her away far enough to grab her wrists gently and pulled them back together. "Not like that. I want to make love to you." Gentler lips reconnected with a more meaningful passion. She lifted Belle to her hips again and moved out of the kitchen.
They giggled when Ruby stumbled in the foyer and nearly fell over, saved only by her wolf reflexes. Regina raised her eyebrows from the sofa in the living room. Emma and Amelia shared a smirk.
"I guess their twerking lesson went well," Amelia tossed out with an amused voice. Regina clicked her tongue at the despicable form of dance that Amelia and Emma explained to her for the first five minutes until finally giving up and pulling up a video on Emma's phone.
Amelia shrugged at the obvious disapproval. "I think the four of you should just have a foursome and get it over with. You're all practically in a relationship anyway." Emma barely saved Regina from being sprayed with the coffee in her mouth with her hand and then coughed.
"Give me my daughter back," Regina demanded playfully. "You're getting your filth all over her." Amelia beamed. She'd missed Regina's sass the most.
The moment shattered as the sound of the doorbell snapped a band of tension around the three women. Emma moved first. Amelia repositioned Annabel in one arm and grabbed Regina's hand, ready to teleport away. Ruby's wolf hearing would alert her to any screaming or fighting even if it probably tuned out the quiet tone.
Emma lit a fireball and then peeped out the window beside the door. "What the hell?" She ripped open the door, revealing a very distraught Eva Zambrano in blue jeans, snow boots, and a light purple winter coat. Her dark purple scarf, hat and gloves were beautifully handmade with thick yarn. Tears glistened on her cheeks, and she wiped at them in embarrassment.
"Eva, get in here," Emma demanded and stood to the side, fighting the urge to grab the clearly aching woman into a hug.
She guided her to the living room where Amelia and Regina perked up instantly. "Eva?" Amelia blurted after she'd recovered. She'd never even seen the woman in street clothes, much less outside the hospital.
"What's wrong?" Emma asked immediately. Eva pulled her hat and gloves off and wiped her face as fresh tears dripped down.
"Zelena, took her heart," she blurted before bursting into tears. No further elaboration required, they all knew that the "she" Eva referred to that left her such an utter mess was Lauren Danes. Emma touched her shoulder instinctively. Eva screamed and pulled away, flinging herself back into the couch.
Emma jerked back. "Shit. I'm sorry, Eva. Amelia, I think we need some tea. Decaf. Chamomile. The calmest thing we have in the kitchen. And I need you to start another batch of that heart protection potion."
Amelia handed Annabel to Regina but stopped in the middle of the motion when Eva reached for the infant. With a glance to both mothers for permission, she deposited the infant into the surgeon's waiting hands. Eva relaxed instantly and leaned back with the baby nestled into her chest.
"Children don't hurt until their cognitive development reaches the point of understanding free will and intention, usually around age four or five sometimes later. I've spent much time in the hospital nursery since returning until…" Tears stole her words, and she pressed her lips to Annabel's head. Amelia disappeared to the kitchen after the explanation.
Regina took Emma's hand and a steadying breath. "What does Zelena need with Lauren's heart?"
Eva wiped her tears again, much calmer now that she had a warm body in her arms for comfort. "Lauren is a succubus. A pusher. She can push her feelings and emotions onto others. I'm sure you've noticed our new physical relationship while at the hospital. Lauren's powerful. She has the ability to drown out even the strongest readings I have from others. If she wanted, all of Storybrooke would be under her thrall." Her voice held pride and affection, and the other two women smiled despite the situation. Eva took a deep breath.
"I was on-call last night, but I made her stay home since she'd practically lived there when the two of you terrorized my hospital once again. I came home, crawled into bed, kissed her. She felt wrong. I'm still a soul seer, and no matter how much she pushes on me, I can still tap into her mind. She intends to control the two of you through Lauren since she cannot obtain your hearts. I barely made it out of the house without raising suspicion with the excuse of getting us breakfast at Granny's.
"I thought it strange that so many personnel called off last night and this morning. Now I know. Zelena is building a group of followers, namely those of us who have the ability to save the lives of someone gravely injured. Arizona and Addi are MIA, half the nursing staff called in this morning. I'm relieved to see Amelia here and safe. Some of them were warriors, but most of them are lambs to the slaughter. Distraction during your pending battle, I'm sure."
Regina leaned forward and clutched Emma's hand tighter. "Emma."
"Yeah, David, Snow, Archie, Stacy, Granny, Henry, Alex. Eva, get comfortable because you aren't going anywhere," Emma ordered.
The doctor sat up quickly and protested, "I have patients, Emma. I cannot simply allow their care to suffer. Your fiancée is one of them."
"Fine, then someone who can magic flash will escort you, but Eva, if someone is seriously injured, Lauren included, you may be the last person left who can save her life." Emma disappeared, leaving the doctor with that unsettling thought.
That night, Emma decided, she and Amelia finally put that glove to good use and tracked down the evil bitch. Zelena's timeline just escalated.
