What About Last Night

Tender Loving Care

About 45 minutes later Belle strode in the door, arm around Regina to keep her steady, and greeted the women with a slight smile. Tossing the keys to Emma’s tin can of a car on the small table near the door, she guided Regina to the loveseat.

“Hey babe.” Emma quietly greeted her exhausted girlfriend. Ruby got up, making room for Regina to curl up, quickly grabbing a lightweight blanket from the her room and covering her with it.

Regina gave Emma a weak grin, “Hello.” The brunette rasped with a gravelly voice. “How are you doing?” She grunted out as she slumped down into the miniature couch, “How’s your leg? Are you in any pain?”

Emma snickered, not believing that her girlfriend was asking about her at the moment; getting up off of the couch, she hopped over to Regina cupping her face tenderly. “Oh babe! How can you be asking how I’m doing when you’re in the condition that you’re in?” she wondered incredulously. “I should be asking you how you’re doing. You’re the one with the concussion, not me!” On her knees, ignoring the excruciating pain in her lower leg, she sat up on her knees and kissed Regina’s petal soft lips. “SHIT!” she cried out in agony, sucking warm air through her teeth. Falling back onto the floor she pulled her injured leg up to her chest, grabbing it protectively.

“EMMA!!” the three women exclaimed simultaneously. Belle and Ruby, being the most ambulatory of the women, rushed to her side. “You crazy woman!” Ruby yelled at Emma. “What the fuck were you thinking!”

“Sweetheart, you both need to focus on getting better. I know you’re concerned about one another, but there’s nothing either of you can do to help the other person get better except just be there for them, okay?” Belle logically concluded. “I know you want to help in any way you can but seeing as you’re both hurt you can only offer each other moral support and encouragement, okay?”

Ruby nodded her head in agreement then moved to help Emma up and get back to her makeshift bed on the sofa. “Now, are we gonna have to tie bells around your necks to keep track of you or are you gonna behave?” She scowled at Emma then over at Regina waiting for an answer.

“We’ll behave.” Regina responded glumly.

Emma was as pale as a ghost, her leg was throbbing like the bass at a rave, and was dizzy as hell, “Can I get a pain killer, Ruby?” she begged.

“No, you can’t.” The thin woman answered sternly.

Emma’s eyes got as wide as dinner plates. “W-why not?”

Rolling her eyes, “Because it’s too early! You took one around 6:30 right?” Emma nodded almost imperceptibly. “Well it’s….” she looked at her phone’s clock, “almost 9:45 now so you have almost 45 minutes to wait.” Ruby lectured in an attempt to reason with Emma. “Now, I’ll letcha have some Tylenol if you want.”

Grumbling under her breath the blonde came back with, “Fine.”

Belle and Regina simply watched the exchange with laughter on the tips of their tongues. Belle, still standing, bent over the back of the loveseat where she had wandered to after helping Emms and whispered inches from Regina’s ear, “Don’t you just love watching them bicker like sisters?”

Regina nodded fervently, knowing she meant watching their girlfriend’s interact with one another, “Yes, yes I do.” Stars in her eyes.

Once the injured parties were adequately settled Belle relayed the information that Dr. Whale had given her on what to watch for and how to aid Regina as she recovered. This included taking Tylenol and resting as much as she wanted to, no strenuous activity and just lounging around for the next few days. If her vision or headaches got worse she was supposed to go back to Docs On Call or the ER. Ruby and Belle made arrangements between themselves on caring for the injured couple. Ruby was to take care of them during the day because Belle worked at the library then, and then she was their nighttime caregiver due to Ruby working at night at the diner. Ruby had called Granny and explained to her briefly what had happened asking for evening shifts for a week or two, until Regina had sufficiently recovered.