Gabrielle sat on the love seat with the head of a sleeping Sheriff in her lap. The woman broke down after their discussion and ended up using the bard as a pillow when she passed out from sheer exhaustion. Xena came in and quietly closed the door when Gabrielle pressed her finger to her own lips indicating the Sheriff was asleep.
"There's no sign of her, I've informed Solari to ask around the watchtowers to see if she left the village," Xena whispered.
Gabrielle nodded her head in acknowledgment but continued to stroke the long blonde hair that draped over her bare legs.
"Do you really think she would leave the village?" Xena asked and sat down on the armrest next to her bard.
"It wouldn't be the first time that woman has run since we got here," Gabrielle replied quietly.
"Well I hope you are wrong, the woods aren't safe."
The bard looked up at her warrior with worry, "Me too."
Xena quickly got to her feet and answered the door before a second knock could be rapped. She came back to her Queen with a hopeful look in her eyes. "Watchtowers report no one left."
"No one saw her leave last time either," Gabrielle countered in a whisper.
Emma stirred despite how quiet the couple was trying to be and sat up and wiped her chin of any drool. Emma asked, still groggy, "What happened?"
Gabrielle looked up at Xena and carefully replied, "Nothing as far as we know."
"Okay," Emma mumbled and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. "Sorry I crashed I haven't been sleeping well."
"It's okay Emma. Sleep disruption is pretty standard considering. I'm sure this world is a big change for you, and the stuff with the raid can't be easy to…"
"No," Emma stated simply. "I don't want to talk about that." The Sheriff stood and put some distance between herself and the couple who appeared to be scrutinizing her. She felt the pressure of their eyes and felt the need to leave the hut, to go and talk to Regina about all the things she needed to set straight. Or at very least just to go and see the woman. "I'm, uh going to go check on R'gina. I'll see you guys tonight huh?"
Xena folded her arms and continued her silent study of the Sheriff, but Gabrielle spoke up, first glancing Xena's way before speaking. "She hasn't returned to your hut yet."
Emma's green eyes met Xena's before looking back to the bard and asked cautiously, "Okay…?"
"I don't want to frighten you," the Queen said as she stood.
Concern clouded the taller woman's sleepy eyes and she begged, "Then stop. Just tell me."
Xena spoke frankly, not being one to sugar coat things and appreciating the most direct course of action. "I went to check on her, and no one has seen her."
"No one no one?"
Xena's mask slipped, and confusion crossed her features as she looked to her bard for help. Gabrielle put a reassuring hand on her warrior's knee and answered Emma, "No one saw her leave, but no one has seen her around either."
"And she's not in your hut or the baths," Xena added dutifully, pushing away the strange way the sheriff communicated.
"Did you check with Maggie? I mean, Regina likes her," Emma asked and then amended when Xena gave her a skeptical look. "I mean as far as Regina liking people go." The Sheriff took a deep breath, "I'll go check the healer tent, she's been having headaches, she is probably there getting meds. Unlike the Evil Queen, my… uh... the real Regina wouldn't be foolish enough to run off." Emma shook her head slightly at her slip up, and she huffed as her inner-self started in on her silently from within. "I'll find her. It's what we Charming's do." She smiled mirthlessly when both the warrior and the bard looked to one another for guidance. She thanked the couple and apologized again for waking them. She reassured the bard that she would take what she said under advisement and told the couple she would see them that night at the celebration.
Emma found Magdalus in the healer's hut, the woman had an earful for the likes of Emma Swan and after fifteen minutes of the blonde replying with "I know!", "I am an idiot!" and "I fucked up!" Maggie felt the blonde was chastised well enough to answer the Sheriff's questions. She informed her that the Mayor was safe and well and not as angry as she was when Maggie first encountered her. The blonde visibly relaxed at this news.
"I realize this isn't my place Sheriff," Magdalus started, completely unable to keep her opinions to herself. Maggie sighed and placed a hand on the young woman's shoulder, "You both are on equal footing in the idiot department."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"I've promised your Mayor that I would no longer speak to her on this subject because I've said my peace, she doesn't find my opinions credible. But you Sheriff, I never said I wouldn't meddle you up, down and sideways."
Emma took a step back uncertain as to what the much older woman was trying to say and whispered, "What?"
"By Zeus! You need to tell that little girl how you feel!" The older woman folded her arms over her chest and shook her head as she watched the walls shoot sky high around the blonde. "Oh no, we will have none of that," the healer pushed the blonde off balance, and she crashed down into the chair behind her. Maggie placed her hands on the table in front of her and looked down on the startled blonde. "You need to tell her. She needs to hear the words. The actual words."
"Wh-what words?"
"You know what damn words girl! Don't be the idiot our dear Mayor insists you are!"
The blonde blushed knowingly then grumbled, "She's not wrong."
"She's not right," Maggie countered and stared the blonde down.
"Gabby said the same thing," Emma mumbled.
"Well, our Queen…" Maggie shook her head and amended, "Our former Queen is a wise woman."
"Yeah but…"
The healer cut her off "Yeah but… You could have lost her Emma! For good! She would have been gone and never knew..."
"Don't you think I know that? Don't you think I've thought nothing BUT that since the day she got darted? I know that Maggie! I know that, and that fact scares the shit out of me! I've peered over the edge of what life would be like without Regina Mills, and no, I can't do it. I can't lose her. I just can't!"
Maggie barked back, "Well while you are perfectly content with sitting back and enjoying the status quo, that girl is sitting around thinking she is unworthy! Especially by the likes of you!"
"What the hell are you talking about, unworthy? Unworthy? She is the most worthy! She is everything! I've never met anyone who could do what she has done! She survived what she lived through and is beautiful and composed and fucking brilliant! She… she… is SO worthy! She deserves only the best! So don't tell me she is unworthy!"
"I'm not the one who thinks that, Sheriff," Maggie replied softly in the face of the passionate Savior. Emma blushed when she realized she was not only shouting but at some point she stood and got in the face of the brunette across from her. Emma swallowed hard and tried to control her breathing as she righted the chair and sat back down across from her friend.
Maggie took a deep breath when the Sheriff did not reply. "Right. I am also not the one who needs to be convinced of that little girl's worth! Why do you think the book showed back up?" Maggie asked with an eyebrow lift.
Emma's eyes grew wide at the depth of the healer's knowledge of what had transpired. "She told you about the book?"
"What she told me is inconsequential Sheriff," the healer replied curtly. "Why do you think it showed up for our little Mayor to read? Unless you are the idiot our girl insists you are, and you burned the wrong book?"
Emma scowled and looked down at the table and managed to mumble, "No. I'm sure it was the right one."
"Then why?"
"Your ridiculous gods are evil manipulators hell-bent on making my life as miserable as possible?"
Maggie rolled her eyes and sat down across from the Sheriff and replied, "Not all of them." She smirked when Emma's dimple made an appearance in a smirk of her own. "It could have been Cupid," Maggie offered up, hoping the stubborn little girl would see things clearly.
Emma rolled her eyes, "Why, is he a little troll with wings who gets off on screwing with people's friendships?"
The healer scolded, "Oh, she is more than a friendship to you. Stop it!
He is the son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and is known to give a little push to the stubborn and thick skulled!"
Emma pouted petulantly assuming the older woman meant her and not Regina, when in fact the healer meant them both.
"She is so mad Maggie, that book didn't make her magically want… It.. it screwed up everything!"
"You are awfully pessimistic for a savior, Sheriff."
Emma wrinkled up her nose and folded her arms around herself in a huff.
Maggie realized, like Regina, Emma couldn't be pushed, she needed to be guided. "You two are leaving this world soon, correct?" The healer side glanced the Sheriff, and the blonde nodded in agreement. "Alright well, I'll have something beautiful for you to wear for tonight delivered to your hut."
"I can't let you do that Maggie, you guys have limited resources as it is, I've got a little thing…"
"Wear it," the healer barked, "and when your Queen notices you, ask her to dance. That is my only repayment."
Emma chuckled, "Even when she says no?"
"Even if she says no." The healer shook her head and smiled wide making her look years younger than her age, "You both are two peas in a pod."