So, I had a minor panic attack today. I usually post once I've reached a certain number of views, so everyone gets a chance to experience it before I post the next one. I forgot to change my stat parameter to June and spent all day thinking no one had looked at this story. So, Thanks! For not abandoning me even though I'm a grumpy cow sometimes. Enjoy, my pretties!

Song: Fix You by Mysha Didi


Regina woke with a weight half on top of her and crick in her neck. She rolled it side to side, wincing. She let out a little moan and readjusted her head into a more comfortable position. Her nose and mouth brushed soft hair, and she smiled against it as she pressed a kiss there. Reality slowly melted the dream world – a thin hand with long fingers against her ribs, a head on her chest, a thin body weighted her left hip comfortably, small breasts tucked against her side. She tangled fingers into hair that smelled like her own shampoo and hummed, kissing the scalp near her mouth. She touched a cheek, followed it to a shoulder and down to the hand holding her ribs, pushing her fingers between the ones that opened for her willingly. She guided it higher. It resisted slightly, and Regina frowned.

"Will you touch me, Emma?" She murmured.

"Nope. Nope. Nope," a very different feminine voice sliced through the warm place between sleep and reality, shattering it completely. The body scrambled away from her, not getting very far but enough to sit up and distance itself from Regina's wandering hands.

Caramel eyes flew open and met espresso brown. The sisters stared at each other, mouths open, eyes wide. An awkward energy clung to the moment, Ruby chewed her lip. Regina sucked a breath to speak, shook her head. Ruby saved her with a cheeky grin. Light brown eyes stayed big and round and fearful – of judgement or worry that Ruby would spill the beans, she wasn't able to decipher.

"I'm not going to tell anyone you've got the hots for Savior McSexy Pants," Ruby promised. "Is that why you were down here with me last night? Robin left with his stuff earlier this morning, so I figured something happened." Ruby wiggled her legs beneath Regina's and rested her hands on the older woman's thigh and knee.

"Our discussion last night was enlightening. I ended our relationship a moment after throwing myself at him sexually," Regina admitted. "I was quite embarrassed."

"What did he say?"

"After I cried like an infantile fool, he confirmed what we both already knew but had been too afraid to say aloud. I love him. I feel connected to him, but he deserves better, someone who can remain true to him." Regina gave her a tight smile drenched in self-pity.

"You deserve better, too, Regina. If it's not there, it's not there." Ruby shrugged. "I've had lots of boyfriends who stayed with me because they thought I needed someone to take care of me. Relationships are super weird. It's like, you can have the best sex in the world or a best friend who is good for snuggling but absolutely no sexual attraction. It would have been okay if you let him take care of you for a while. He obviously wanted to."

"I don't want to be taken care of," Regina growled, voice raspy from sleep, and squeezed the bridge of her nose against the headache already forming. She needed coffee. "How are you feeling?"

Ruby plucked absently at the satin atop her sister's knee and chewed her lip. "I'm convinced that fucker from the Mayhem commercials follows me around for fun, and I miss Belle. Other than that I'm fine, I guess."

Regina covered her hand and squeezed tightly, feeling the pang of loss when the returning grip fell short of Ruby's usual strength. She was human. "The tracking potion is done. We'll find her," the witch promised. Ruby nodded, head bowed against the tears blurring her vision.

"She was only gone a couple of hours last time. What if she's… what if they… She can't go through that again. Belle's strong, but everyone has a limit." Ruby rolled her eyes to the ceiling, trying to be strong, but they tumbled onto her cheeks anyway.

Regina sat up, tucking a leg beneath her, and pulled her little sister into chest. "You have a limit, too, Ruby. Emma and I will find her, and then we'll find a way to heal your wolf." Ruby nodded against her collarbone and clutched the red silk robe tightly.

Movement by the door caught her eye, and Regina raised her gaze to hesitant green eyes. The grimace on Emma's face told her everything she needed to know. The Savior felt her friend's pain, felt responsible for it, guilty that she'd not been able to protect her. Emma entered the room and handed Regina a cup of coffee as she sat on the coffee table. Regina held her eyes and Ruby's back while the wolf cried. Emma squeezed her friend's shoulder and met Regina's gaze, confused but comfortable beneath the intensity of caramel eyes. Empty promises wouldn't have helped Ruby feel better, so they waited and sipped coffee and gazed into the other's soul.

Eventually, she calmed and sat up, wiping cheeks and nose. Emma relinquished Regina's eyes and stood. "I'll make some breakfast," she announced and left the room as silently and quickly as she had come.

"Something's wrong with her," Ruby stuttered, trying to catch her breath.

"I know," Regina agreed. She smoothed Ruby's tangled hair and tried to smile. "She's gone through something unimaginable. You remember how disoriented you were when the curse first broke and suddenly held two lifetimes in your memories, two identities."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah, but this feels like more than that. She's not telling us everything. And it just seems too convenient that on the day she tells us about Zelena, she shows up and attacks you. Emma said she didn't have any magic. She didn't just miraculously figure out how to get it back overnight." Ruby grabbed her hand, squeezed it hard. "Regina, something's wrong. What if Zelena or Rumpelstiltskin figured out how to take Emma's heart?"

Caramel eyes shifted to the empty foyer and back to the desperate dark brown begging her to do something. "Are you saying that you think Emma drugged you?"

Ruby shook her head. "No, of course not. Emma would never do that, but something is going on that we can't see. It's going to get one of us killed. It might have already gotten Belle…" her voice cracked, and Ruby bowed her head. "It's like I'm the only one who can see it."

"Ruby, you're in shock," Regina started gently, held up a hand when Ruby opened her mouth to protest. "The love of your life has just been abducted for the second time in a week. You've lost an integral part of yourself with no warning. It's no different from me losing my magic or Emma losing a leg. You cannot possibly see things clearly right now." She touched her cheek, expression soft with sympathy. "I agree that some things don't add up, but this is how Rumpelstiltskin works. He tears people apart by making them question everything. Emma has suffered an incredible trauma, and I'm not completely sure she can control her magic, but she's still Emma."

"I know," the wolf murmured, slightly ashamed of her own suspicions. Something clattered in the kitchen, and Emma's cursed bounced into the foyer. Ruby grinned. "You should go help her."

Regina nodded and squeezed her hand once more before standing. "Regina?" Ruby called, and she spun at the doorway to find contemplative brown eyes staring at the far wall, distant. They turned with calculate precision to her own. "Don't be afraid to love her. I don't think she'll get through this if you hold back. You deserve to be loved, and you are more than worthy to be the one she turns to for comfort."

Regina swallowed the sting of tears at the back of her throat, eyes dropping to the floor. The nod that followed barely registered as movement, and she left her sister in silence. A frustrated Emma with a wet towel wrapped around her hand stared hard at the skillet sitting empty on a lit gas burner. Regina killed the flame and reached for the other woman at the same time.

"Let me see," she murmured, eyes dancing between the injured hand and Emma's distant eyes. "Emma, what's wrong?" She snapped twice in front of green eyes. "Emma?"

"It doesn't hurt," Emma said and refocused her eyes.

Regina raised a skeptical eyebrow. Tender fingers encircled The Savior's wrist, holding it still while Regina unwrapped the towel, careful not to scrape it over the injury beneath. Regina held her breath and examined the wound that definitely hurt more than Emma purported. Red and black skin – or the lack thereof – covered the side of her thumb and half of her palm. The start of an 'X' carved out pieces of flesh. Regina winced, but Emma remained unmoved by the pain she must have felt.

"I forgot that I switched burners," she explained.

Regina's hand hovered over the burn, magic reaching for the wound. "Don't," Emma lashed and jerked from Regina's loose grasp. The darker woman stared, confused but unafraid of the outburst. "I deserve to hurt," The Savior declared.

"Emma," Regina exclaimed no louder than a whisper that brushed The Savior's flushed cheeks. She touched tangled blonde hair with one hand and captured the injured hand around the wrist again, lightly without actually trapping the other woman. Her body moved without hesitation, pressing into the warmth emanating from Emma's body. Caramel eyes looked up into stormy green, searching, pleading. "No one deserves to hurt the way you hurt, Emma."

"Yes, I do," Emma said simply. She hadn't argued or expressed anger or anything at all really beyond the unwavering belief that she deserved to be punished.

"Let me heal you." Regina held stormy green eyes, captivated by the things she saw there, depths she'd never thought to explore.

Emma heard the desperate plea all the way to her soul, knew it encompassed more than skin and flesh. Regina hadn't needed her, but she needed Regina. She needed, needed, needed. She needed healing and help and love. She hadn't been wrong when she told The Queen that couldn't live without it. Regina kissed her palm beside burn, giving her what she needed. It felt good without the guilt of Robin hovering at the edge of her mind. Closing her eyes, she held her lips against Emma's hand and waved her own above the wound. Emma hissed as sinewy fibers of flesh regrew unnaturally, leaving only a tiny scar down the length of her thumb where the hot metal burned deepest. Soft lips pressed to the scar, caramel eyes crossing the small space between them to peer into her soul through shimmering green eyes.

"There," the mayor whispered.

Breath caressed her palm, and Emma shivered bodily. "You didn't have to do that."

"Yes, I did," Regina argued, firm but gentle and quiet. "I'm here for you, Emma. I wasn't before, and I'm so sorry. I'm here now."

"I'm fine," Emma insisted and pulled her hand away. Regina let it go with only minimal resistance, following Emma lead for the morning.

"You're not fine," Regina chased her around the island, stopped abruptly when Emma slouched into a chair at the breakfast table and stared out the window.

"Where's Robin?" Emma murmured. Green eyes flickered back and forth like she controlled some unseen demon attacking her soul.

"Robin and I have decided to end our romantic relationship. We're much better as friends," Regina answered honestly, keeping her voice as steady as possible. It wasn't Emma's fault that she'd realized her feelings for her, and The Savior dealt with enough at the moment without adding romantic drama on top of it. Still, the weight of the knowledge bowed the woman's head, pressed down on her shoulders.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"I'm not, and neither is he." Regina touched her shoulder, and Emma flinched hard enough for her to pull her hand back. "Emma, talk to me."

"I'm fine," she repeated. Bracing elbows on her knees, she leaned her face into her hands and breathed – rapid, shallow things that moved her ribs beneath the thin gray shirt.

Regina took a steadying breath, pulling her patience in line. "You are not fine." She touched her shoulder again.

Emma surged out of the chair, startling a gasp from her. "What do you know about it? Nothing. You don't know who I am. You don't know anything, so just leave me alone, okay?" Emma tossed over her shoulder and stomped to the front door.

"Where are you going?" Regina asked at the top of the foyer stairs.

"I need to get out of here," Emma muttered, more to herself than to Regina. What the hell just happened?

"Emma, where are you going? None of us should wander off alone right now," Regina appealed to her logic rather than emotion. Clearly, Emma's mental state scrambled her reason.

The Savior's shoulders fell flat, defeated. Regina couldn't know, so she couldn't understand. How easy it could have been, to kiss her, to have her. She protected them, but they weren't aware. If she kissed Regina, she set into motion the same events of the other timeline. Rumpelstiltskin tried to take over because she had the power to break the curse and set everyone free. If she kissed Regina in this timeline, she risked lighting a stick of dynamite with no way to stop the fuse.

"I'm hungry," she said. "I'm going to Granny's. I'll bring you something back and then we can try to find Belle with the tracking potion. No sense in us running off halfcocked and starving, is there? We have to be smarter than him." Emma paused long enough to throw on her coat. The ire seemed to fade in the coolness of the doorway, so Regina remained at the top of the stairs with hands clasped tightly in front of her hips.

Ruby touched Regina's back, making her jump. "Can I go with you? I haven't seen Granny since I was in the hospital, and I really want a hug right now." Ruby squeezed her shoulder, silently telling her that she would watch over Emma.

The Savior puffed and wrapped hands around her hips, glaring up at the two sisters. "Fine. Just hurry up. I'll wait outside, and we're walking."

The air pressure changed as the door flew open and then slammed, with one gust of cold air soothing the dark energy in the foyer.

"Told you something was wrong with her. Believe me now?" Ruby clipped and turned towards the stairs. She really hadn't wanted to go traipsing about in the cold, but Emma needed her.

"I do," Regina conceded at the foot of the stairs. "Call me if she loses control of her magic. The only reason she hasn't been arrested yet is because she helped me defeat Zelena in the square. This town will not tolerate much more bad behavior from her before it explodes."

Ruby nodded and sprinted upstairs, puffing by the time she reached the top. Humans were stupid and weak, she grumbled silently. She changed into jeans and snow boots and took her time descending the stairs. Her entire body felt unbalanced, like having a permanent inner ear infection on top of a fever that weakened her muscles, like being on morphine. She hugged Regina who waited at the bottom of the stairs and left the house. Emma waved her hands impatiently at the front of the walk, and Ruby braced against the cold. Had it always been that cold? Everything ached instantly, but she pushed through it. If this was to be her life, she needed to be stronger, for Belle and for Emma.

"What's your deal, Savior McSnappy Pants?" She barked two feet from Emma.

"I'm hungry," Emma said as though it explained everything.

"Being hangry doesn't give you the right to be a bitch to Regina," the wolf defended her sister's tender heart. "She's trying to help."

"I don't need help. I just need everyone to stay the hell out of my way and let me eat some goddamn breakfast," Emma snapped back and set a brisk pace that left Ruby struggling for breath in the cold temperature.

"Fine," Ruby sniped back, practically jogging to keep up. "Would you mind telling me why we're walking to town instead of driving? Why the hell are we going to town at all when my girlfriend is out there somewhere alone and possibly hurt? Your breakfast can wait because you know Regina won't go without you."

Emma whirled on her, wild green eyes a few inches from her chin where they tipped up to meet hers. "When Belle was abducted last time, did you feel her? Could you feel her pain?"

Ruby shifted weight foot to foot, crossed her arms loosely. "I thought I did," she admitted, not liking where Emma went with the question.

"Do you feel the same fear now? Can you sense that she's in pain?"

Ruby rolled espresso flavored eyes and shifted her weight again. "No, but my wolf…"

"Ruby, your wolf doesn't control your heart," Emma interrupted. "Trust that. Trust what you feel." With that, she turned and stalked through the snow, not bothering to glance over her shoulder.

Ruby gave chase, barely catching up much less kept up with The Savior accustomed to normal human limitations. Her legs and chest burned. A stitch plucked at her side. She refused to yield and matched Emma step for step. The Savior couldn't bully her the way she had Regina. Something was very wrong with her best friend, and she intended to get to the bottom of it, wolf or not.