Over the Rainbow Broom (aka There's No Place Like Home…Base)

by jodief1

Pairing: Ruby/Red (Wolfie) and Dorothy (Kansas)

Rated: M, M & M forever…

Status: Semi-complete.

Summary: Ruby/Red (Wolfie) and Dorothy (Kansas) commit to True Love, immediately post-5x18, "Ruby Slippers"

Boilerplate: ABC owns these characters, but we have to fill in their entire storyline, I guess, since all we got was that one episode. At no profit to us except to fantasize...

A/N: I will try to wrap things up with one more chapter. As much as I enjoy spending time with these characters, I'm just not prepared to re-write canon or to re-integrate our heroines with other OUAT principals. Also, I really do appreciate all your feedback! And thanks for asking me to stick with it. ;)

When Dorothy noticed Ruby's tears, her intense gaze became tinged with concern, and she gripped Ruby's neck. "Wolfie – what is it?"

Ruby cupped one of Dorothy's hands in her own. "There's something I wish I didn't have to tell you. I'd do anything to avoid it, but I can't." Her heart sank when she saw Dorothy visibly gulp. "But – don't worry about me, or us. I love you, Kansas, and I'm not going anywhere, okay?"

"Okay," Dorothy nodded slowly, stroking Ruby's hair. "You're just starting to scare me. What's wrong?"

Ruby took a deep breath to steady herself. "I should have told you earlier, but we were a little…busy." She blushed, thinking about how they'd been occupied since their conversation on the walk out to the cabin. "Because Snow was my best friend in Storybrooke, and she also once experienced the Sleeping Curse, I happen to know that it has a lingering effect. Snow had nightmares for a while after she woke, of being in a burning room, with the curtains on fire. She felt alone, hopeless, and terribly afraid when she was there."

"Oh," breathed Dorothy, frowning and looking down in concentration. Ruby touched her temple lightly and continued. "One of the more powerful magicians in Storybrooke said these dreams came because Snow's soul had traveled to the Netherworld – a realm between life and death – when she was under the curse, and it kept returning there in sleep even after the curse was broken. I know that it's possible to see other recent victims of the curse there, but they might be across the room and impossible to reach. You can't just force yourself to wake up or to change the dream, and unfortunately there's no way for any uncursed person like me to visit you there. But I'll be right here in this world, and if you cry out in your sleep or make some sign that you're having a nightmare, I can try to wake you. The wolf makes me extra-alert and aware of my surroundings, even when I'm sleeping. Okay?"

Ruby grasped the back of Dorothy's neck and looked searchingly into her eyes, hoping to reassure her beloved. Dorothy returned Ruby's gaze unflinchingly; if a shadow appeared there, it was gone an instant later. "Okay, Wolfie," she answered, resolutely. "It's hard for me to imagine feeling alone and hopeless when I feel so close to you right now, and more hopeful than I've ever felt in my adult life. But it makes a certain kind of screwed-up sense that a curse as powerful as that wouldn't just end, all of a sudden. Leave it to that witch Zelena to give me a gift that keeps on giving…"

"True, my love," responded Ruby, "but you don't have to take her bait. If you find yourself in the burning room, please calm yourself as much as possible and try to think of me, and then call my name peacefully, in a way that takes back control over the situation, and hopefully you will focus my attention here next to you. In this bed. In this warm bed, in the real world, where our naked bodies are pressed together…" – Ruby reached down with her uppermost arm to clench Dorothy's thigh and pull it against hers – "deliciously," – she grazed Dorothy's nipples with her own – "…like this."

"Mmmm," Dorothy dropped her head and purred against Ruby's throat as she reached around her body and began to caress her: "Of course I'll call for you. Every time. Like this: Wolfie." She kissed the pulse point in Ruby's neck as Ruby trailed her fingernails up and down Dorothy's thigh. "Wolfie." Dorothy traced Ruby's pulse with her tongue as Ruby's hand began to trail between their interlocked legs. "Wolfie!" Ruby smiled into her lover's hair when she felt a nip at her collarbone as she parted Dorothy's moist curls and flicked her clit. Well, there's always one way to avoid nightmares, Ruby thought wickedly, as Dorothy's arms tightened around her: Just keep making sweet love all night long…

Ruby opened her eyes to see a thin light percolating through the gaps between the dusty curtains. She wasn't disoriented, exactly: the wolf kept her always aware of her surroundings – but she did register feeling out of place, as though this were a new home on which she had not yet made her mark. I can start by beating out the curtains, she thought with a yawn and a stretch, as she turned over to see her new partner in life and love.

Unnervingly, she found that Dorothy was already awake and looking at her unblinkingly. She felt her cheeks grow warm, but before she could give in to embarrassment, she remembered with a start that Dorothy did not wake her in the night, and that meant she might have endured the nightmare alone. "Kansas! Are you alright? Did you sleep…?"

Dorothy placed a gentle finger on Ruby's lips and continued gazing at her intently. "You don't remember anything?" she asked softly.

"No – you didn't call for me, did you?"

Dorothy shook her head no, and gently probed further. "Can you remember any dreams?"

Nonplussed, Ruby chuckled. "Why do I feel like I should be asking you the same question? No, I don't remember dreaming, but I generally don't." She cupped Dorothy's cheek with her hand. "More importantly, did you dream?"

"I did: just as you said, I dreamt I was in the burning room." Inexplicably, Dorothy smiled. "But it was fine."

"What?" Ruby sat up, not bothering to cover her bare torso, and grasped Dorothy's arm. "Why didn't you call for me? I really thought I would wake up…"

Dorothy sat up, too, and encircled Ruby's waist with her arm, intimately. She leaned in until their faces were very close together. Ruby instantly felt that Dorothy must have been fine, as she had said, though she couldn't immediately understand why Dorothy wasn't more concerned. Snow had clearly been really traumatized by her recurring nightmare in the time after her waking…

"I was fine, Wolfie, because you were with me. In the burning room. As a wolf."

Ruby sat back, stunned. Her mouth fell open and her mind started working overtime, as Dorothy continued: "First you came trotting up to me before I even had a chance to call for you, and you nuzzled my hand, and then you lay down between me and the flames, calm and alert. I decided to lie down too, and I put my head on your back and closed my eyes. After a little while, it was as though I fell asleep – in the dream – and then I woke up here, with you."

Still speechless, Ruby felt her eyes fill with tears of relief, mixed with a dash of confusion. How could this be? She hugged Dorothy tight and pressed her lips to her lover's shoulder.

After a few moments, they separated, and Dorothy wiped the dampness away from Ruby's eyes with a shy smile. "I was so glad to have you there with me. I wasn't frightened. I felt…maybe a little concerned for both of us, but not at all alone."

Ruby chuckled again, this time a little thickly. "Yes, of course, I'm happy you saw me there, but I'm a little sorry I don't remember it! I just…" Ruby turned her head to concentrate: "I guess I just haven't heard of any sleeping curses being lifted by people like me, who could take on a different form and join their beloved in the burning place – but it makes a strange kind of sense, now that you've described it to me." She turned to face Dorothy again. "As I said, I rarely remember my dreams, so it may be that my subconscious self is more wolf-like. And of course I traverse a lot of boundaries more easily than others can – so why not this one?"

"You're amazing," murmured Dorothy, as she leaned in for a kiss. It was not as passionate as some they had shared the previous night, though it still made all Ruby's senses tingle. When they parted, Ruby pulled Dorothy's shoulders back onto the pillow and rested her own head on her lover's collarbone. Dorothy's arms tightened warmly around her, and Ruby snuggled in as close as she could.

"Mmmmm, you're amazing, Kansas. You make me want to purr."

Dorothy stretched her neck to look down at Ruby. "Wait: do wolves purr? I don't think I've ever heard of a purring wolf – at least not a self-respecting one, anyway…"

Ruby bit her lip and swatted Dorothy playfully on her other shoulder. "Well, you're going to have to get used to hearing some purring from this self-respecting wolf. At least I don't yip like Toto."

Just a few short moments later, after Dorothy's strong hands had started massaging her back, neck, and arms, Ruby felt more like moaning then purring. "Hey, speaking of Toto," Dorothy muttered in Ruby's ear, "why don't we take advantage of the fact that he's not whining to come in yet?"

"You know, Kansas," gasped Ruby in mock surprise, "I'm getting the distinct feeling that you're insatiable. Whatever would your fellow Kansans think?"

"Guess what?" panted Dorothy, who had already adopted a very compromising position, indeed. "If my old neighbors could see you like this, I know for a fact they'd be thinking exactly the same thing I am. They may be Midwestern, but they do have pulses, you know."