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Chapter 9 There's Some Things That Just Can't Wait

Thanks to the pain meds, Regina slept like a baby. She didn't wake up once and Emma held her until the early hours of the morning. She couldn't sleep. She kept thinking about the woman lying in her arms. She was thinking of ways to help Regina get her sight back. She was thinking of healing magic and what Regina had told her about it. Healing was tricky. Healing was a sense that could take years or even decades.

It was then that she decided she would work on it. She would practice healing magic no matter how long it took to give Regina her sight back. She decided to keep it to herself though in case she'd fail or if Regina made her stop.

The sun hasn't risen yet. The house was quiet and the outside street lights filtered through the window. It had to be around 4 in the morning and Emma never went to sleep. Her head was full… filled with too many racing thoughts to actually allow her to sleep.

It wasn't until Regina shifted in her sleep was Emma pulled away from her thoughts on healing magic. Regina had gone to sleep early due to her pain and it was only natural for the drugs to wear off a couple of hours before sun rise. Brown eyes fluttered open and for the first time Regina didn't flinch or panic from the darkness. With a sinking feeling in her chest, Emma knew she had gotten used to waking up in her new dark world.

"Stop thinking so much dear," she said softly, her voice hoarse from the heavy drug induced sleep. Emma looked down at her, a soft affectionate smile growing on her lips.

"How did you know I was awake?"

"Your breathing is different," she said and Emma noticed she hasn't pulled away. She was still holding the brunette in her arms and she loved the feeling. They just seemed to fit.

They were quiet for a while, just lying in each other's arms and lost in their thoughts. Emma was still thinking about her plans to practice her healing magic and Regina's mind was full of flashes from the accident. All she could think about was the last face she would ever see. Emma was the last thing she saw before the light faded.

"Can I try something?" Regina asked, abruptly ending their comfortable silence.

"Of course," Emma whispered and Regina hesitated for just a moment before reaching out and placing her hands on warm skin.

Emma leaned into the touch. Regina had placed her hands on her cheeks and then slid them down as if she were mapping out the shape of her face. Her fingers glided down to her chin and then she was tracing her lips and Emma suddenly had this urge to kiss the smaller woman.

She didn't know where this urge had come from and she hardy registered Regina's fingers tracing her nose and eyes.

She had always cared for Regina ever since she started her road to redemption. Even before that, there was always tension between them and now… Now that she had almost lost her, Emma was finally realizing she more than cared for the mother of her son. It was why she wanted to help her so much, to give back what she had lost. It was why she held her all night.

Somewhere along the way she had fallen in love and she wouldn't let herself feel it until now. When it came to her heart, she put up walls and was so guarded, but how could she close herself off when she was trying to encourage Regina to let down her own walls. To open her own guarded heart to her… To trust her.

"You were the last person I saw," she heard Regina whisper the moment she was finished tracing her face with her hands. "I don't ever want to forget how you look."

Emma lost it right there. She guessed she was just exhausted from the lack of sleep because the next thing she knew, tears were slowly streaming down her cheeks and Regina frowned at Emma's silence.

She reached out a hand, feeling the tears on her cheek.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, not meaning to make her cry and leaning up to place a sweet kiss on her cheek and then Emma was suddenly grabbing her into her arms. Hugging her close and burying her face into dark hair. She was a sobbing mess right now, but instead of pulling away and shutting down emotionally, Regina let her hold her.

She said she trusted her.

So she gave Emma this moment.

Emma had finally fallen to sleep and Regina stayed awake much like Emma had throughout the night. She had cried until she had fallen into a much needed sleep and Regina held her no matter how terrified the intimacy of this moment made her. Emma had done so much for her since the accident. She was Regina's rock. She kept her grounded and it was about time Emma finally gave into the bone deep exhaustion. Regina stayed quiet, not moving in case she'd wake the sleeping woman in her arms.

She didn't know how much time had passed. It could have been a couple of hours if she had to guess. It wasn't until she heard movements from downstairs, and the smell of breakfast and coffee, did she know the rest of the household were waking up and starting their day.

She heard sheets rustling and Henry's heavy breathing becoming silent.

"Henry?" she called gently and she smiled when she heard the sleepy groan coming from the young teen. It sounded muffled and she knew he was burying his face into the pillow, trying to squeeze in a few extra minutes of sleep before school.

His breathing became heavy once more and she shook her head in amusement.

"Henry, if you want breakfast you better get up now or else you won't have time. Whatever Snow made smells delicious."

"Five minutes!" he groaned once more as she woke him from the light doze he fell back into.

"Better get to it kid before I get there and eat your share," Emma's sleepy voice sounded throughout the room and Regina jumped in surprise. She hadn't noticed Emma's breathing pattern changed, a sign that she had woken.

"Fine," he grumbled and after a few long moments Henry was finally up and dragging his feet to the bathroom. Regina settled her gaze down towards Emma, her eyes blindly searching for her until Emma reached up, cupping her cheek with her hand, guiding her. Regina leaned into the touch, welcoming it.

She didn't want to push Emma away… Not anymore.

"I'm sorry… for earlier," the younger woman apologized, grateful that Regina couldn't see the bright red flushing her cheeks. She hadn't meant to cry on the brunette. She had just been so overwhelmed with everything… the accident, Regina's blindness, healing magic, and her newfound feelings. How could she even begin to deal with these feelings? She was afraid to act upon them especially so soon after Regina's accident.

"Don't be ridiculous," she scolded her and then her voice grew tender. She was concerned. "You should take the day off. You're exhausted."

She couldn't. As much as she'd love to lay in this bed all day and sleep, she needed to take care of Carter. The bastard needed to pay for his crimes. His hearing was only a couple of days away and Emma needed to prepare. She needed to prepare Regina in case the court wanted her to testify.

"Can't," she sighed tiredly and she sat up. Regina immediately missed the warm contact. "I have so much to do with…" she trailed off, not exactly wanting to mention the asshole responsible for her lost vision. "There's some things that just can't wait."

"Things like Carter?" Regina asked and Emma's heart clenched the moment those words fell from her mouth. She could feel the tension radiating from the brunette.

"He's going to pay for what he did Regina, and that means getting this trial running as soon as possible."

"Trial?" her voice so full of hurt and loss.

"Yes," Emma said, sitting beside her and taking her hands. "There's going to be a trial and he will get what he deserved. He has a history of DUI's. We have to make sure he can't hurt anyone ever again."

"Will I have to testify?" she asked and Emma didn't know how to answer that question. She knew facing the man responsible for the accident wasn't going to be easy on Regina. Showing up blind to a courtroom full of people and the man had who changed everything wasn't ever going to be easy. Apparently there was still a whole lot of hurt to get through… to face, before justice can be served.

"Maybe," was what she came up with because honestly, maybe the court will have enough evidence to put him away without Regina's statement. Emma could only hope.

She didn't have a lot of time. She had finished whatever she needed to finish at the station and was driving out to the woods. She couldn't risk anyone finding her. When the yellow bug came to a stop, Emma stepped out. She slammed the door closed and headed into the forest.

She only had an hour until she was expected home for dinner.

When she was sure no one had followed her, she pulled out a pocket knife from her jacket. She knew this was a thousand times stupid because eventually she'd have to practice on deeper wounds than the scratch she was about to inflict on herself. She had to though. She had to try for Regina, because if she didn't, then that meant she hadn't tried everything possible to bring back her lost sense.

She pulled off her jacket, shivering in the cool Maine air. She rolled up her sleeve. In case she couldn't heal on the first try, then the bandage would be easy to hide.

She winced the moment she felt the cool blade slicing through skin on the inside of her arm. She bit back a scream, dropping the knife and taking a nervous breath. Blood streamed down her arm, bright red crimson dripping onto the forest floor.

"Come on Swan," she whispered to herself and placed her hand on the wound. She thought about everything Regina had ever taught her about magic when she had agreed to teach her back in Neverland.

Magic is emotion.

That day flashed in her mind. The image of the black Benz crushed and so very damaged. The way her heart stopped the moment she spotted it on arrival.

She saw Regina pinned to her seat, her chest and ribs nearly crushed between the steering wheel and the seat. Her legs trapped amongst the metal. Blood dripping down the side of her face. She had been so still and Emma didn't even think she was breathing until she whispered her name in shallow breaths. Now that she looked back, she realized Regina couldn't seem to focus her gaze the moment she noticed Emma was there.

The fear in her eyes. The panic in her face the moment her sight faded and the shadows became a dark prison. Emma had promised she wouldn't leave her and she didn't.

She opened her eyes, expecting to be some kind of progress but she only frowned in frustration when her blood continued to stain the forest floor.

"Dammit!"

She tried again and again and when it seemed as if healing just wasn't in the cards tonight, she wrapped up her arm, picked up her knife, and was stomping back to the bug.

She'd try again tomorrow.