A/N- Thanks for the quick reviews, here is a quick update in response. I hope no one objects ;)
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"Oh shit." She gasped and shuddered as pain shifted through her body; radiating like electricity from her right shoulder. "I think I dislocated my arm." She bit down on her lip as tears of pain rippled down her cheeks.
"Don't move." Regina said and reached for her but Emma bucked away. Scrambling to her knees.
"No, don't touch it."
"Really, Miss Swan. I can fix it." Regina shuffled slowly closer to the blonde with her hands outstretched, palms up; approaching her as she would a wounded animal.
Green eyes met dark brown as Emma waited for her to come within reach. Regina slowly put her hands on Emma's right shoulder. Showing tenderness that Emma was surprised existed in the brunette. She felt the tingling sensation she had experience during the embarrassing blister episode. Suddenly her shoulder gave a loud crack and she toppled backward in pain. Regina followed her and held her still.
"Goddamn it!" The blonde raged. "You said it wouldn't hurt." She choked out through her tears.
"I said I could fix it; you didn't ask if it would hurt, dear." The brunette's voice was gentle and free of malice. Her hands continued to pour out healing magic and Emma felt the tingling replace the pain. "You did dislocate it."
"No shit." Muttered the blonde as big, fat drops of rain began to fall.
Regina looked up to the sky and frowned faintly. "We will find shelter and then I'll continue to heal your arm."
"It doesn't hurt anymore."
"Not right now. But the ligaments and tendons will have to be healed. If we're lucky, you haven't torn your muscles too badly."
Regina's hands retracted and she helped Emma up. As she did so, the blonde felt a dull ache in her shoulder. It was better than the sharp pangs that had been tearing through her body previously but she had to admit that she was eager for the brunette to finish her medical attention.
"Alright, but I'm not getting back on the horse right now." Emma cast Venus a dirty glance and the horse whinnied as if chuckling at her. "It's not funny." The blonde muttered but stroked the soft silk of the animal's flesh. Venus turned and nipped her tenderly as if apologizing. "That's ok girl, I'm the one who fell. You can't help it you're so damned tall." She stroked the blonde mane and then turned to Regina. The brunette was staring at her with an odd expression. "What?"
"You talk to her like she can understand you."
"She can."
"Of course she can," the woman said dismissively and took the reins of the horse but did not mount her; preferring to walk beside her companion at a slower pace. "but many people would find that silly."
Emma shrugged and then winced at the ache in her shoulder. "Well, I think you and I can agree that neither one of us is what you would call normal."
Regina's lips curled in a smile. "No, dear. I suppose we cannot be accused of that."
They walked on, in search of an abandoned building or some such thing. Emma continued to throw sideways glances at the brunette wondering exactly how her own hands had ended up where they were just before she had toppled backward. The whole reason that she had fallen was because she found that her fingers had been in rather…ahem…sensitive areas on Regina's body. In an attempt to jerk them back, she had tumbled off much to her surprise and chagrin.
Regina, however, had not mentioned this and the blonde was trying to decide when she would needle her about it. Perhaps she was waiting for the opportune moment; just as Emma was waiting for the best time to ask her about her "nightmares" the night before. A slow grin spread over her face as she realized just how she would do it.
"Regina, I want to apologize for my…wandering hands." Emma feigned an abashed expression and looked down when the woman glanced over to her.
"It's quite alright, dear. I couldn't say that I blame you." The quip came back with all of Regina's usual disdain.
"Right, well I must have been dreaming or something…dreams can be funny like that; making you do stuff you wouldn't usually."
Regina felt her own face grow warmer as they walked in the sprinkling rain. She felt almost as though the drops of water would sizzle on her blushed skin. "Don't mention it, Miss Swan. We have no control over our dreams."
"Obviously, or you wouldn't have so many damn nightmares, right? Like the one last night? I thought you were going to…attack me or something when you woke up. Your eyes were so wild."
"Wild?" Regina blushed deeper and turned to Venus, pretending to be picking something from her mane as they walked.
"Yeah, I've never seen you so…out of control." Emma needled her with an innocent ring in her voice. She watched as the woman fidgeted arbitrarily with the horse's saddle.
"Well, as I said; I was out of control in my dream."
"I could tell." Emma said quietly and spied a cottage through the trees. She put a hand on Regina's arm and nodded her head in the direction. "Looks abandoned. Perhaps we could shack up there?"
The brunette's dark eyebrows shot almost into her hairline at the word choice the blonde had used. "Sure," she choked out. "let's check it out." She led the horse behind the blonde as Emma stepped through the woods; carefully avoiding any debris that might pitch her off balance and cause her to fall.
Regina frowned to herself. She had been genuinely worried for the woman when she had fallen off the horse; had felt her pain as acutely as if it were her own. The older woman had become increasingly more aware of her feelings for the blonde both sexual and emotional. It was bizarre to consider that here, in Oz, far from the rest of their group and god knows how distant from their son, the two women were finding friendship, companionship, and maybe…maybe something just a bit more.
Guilt twanged deep in her belly as Regina considered the bobbing blonde head before her. She had no right to feel this way about anyone; let alone the infant she had sentenced to a lonely, orphaned life. But Emma Swan was no longer an infant. She was a capable, strong woman and had it not been for the curse, Henry would not have been born. Therefore, the brunette quelled her sense of remorse, squared her shoulders and allowed herself the small luxury of hope. Somehow, it felt that with Emma, everything was possible.