i-am-the-savior asked you: prompt: Emma is in a coma for a few months (doesn't matter how) and she lives this alternate reality where her and Regina are married and have a family and when she comes out of the coma, she realizes she wants that to come true.
When the scene breaks look like this: ~0~0~0~0~0~, they are changing between reality and Emma's coma dream. When they look like this: 0~0~0~0~0~0, they are staying in the same place.
Regina had just pulled out the enchiladas that she was hoping to entice the local sheriff/resident savior of Storybrooke with to let her have just a little more time with Henry, to let her have only a dinner with Henry. She had been doing well over the last couple years. She was reinstated as Mayor now and things were looking on the up and up.
And, as for dinner assuming she could get Emma to allow it and stay with them as it wouldn't be an entire loss that an actual grown up that didn't quiver in fear nor glare in disdain—and that Regina just so happened to be overwhelmingly completely, utterly, irrevocably, and most importantly, silently in love with—would be there too.
It was as normal an evening as it could have ever been.
Then the phone rang.
0~0~0~0~0~0
Emma had been walking from Grannies to her bug at the station. The days were shorter this time of year and it was already dark. She scuttled in a quick hop skip as she listened to her iPod. Her hood was on and she didn't see the headlights until it was too late.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma shot up in bed. Her eyes were wide. A scared, cold sweat broke out all over. She was panting as she looked around.
"Darling?" Regina's sleepy, groggy voice broke the evening of Emma's pants. "What is it? What's wrong?"
Emma looked over to the brunette. Since when did Regina call her 'darling'? She did a double take. Since when did Regina sleep in the same bed and since when did Regina wear sky blue, silk low-cut pajamas?
"Emma?" Regina sat up, scooted behind the blonde on her knees and put her hands on Emma's back and shoulders, "Honey, what's going on? What is it?" She leaned forward and kissed Emma's shoulder, neck and cheek.
Emma could really get used to this. She leaned into the brunette, "Nothing. Just a bad dream… I got hit by a truck or something."
Regina's hands fell down to Emma's waist. She wrapped them around her middle and squeezed. "That's no good."
"Yeah…" Emma settled into the brunette. She looked down at their hands and found matching gold bands attached to diamond rings that were so completely the both of them in ring form that Emma could barely handle it. She looked over to Regina, "We're married." She made it sound like a statement and not a question.
Regina gave the blonde a bright, amused smile, "Yes, we are. I'm pretty sure you haven't done anything to warrant divorce, so we should stay that way…"
Emma gave a half smile to the woman before looking down in thought. Regina pulled Emma into her form a little tighter. Emma couldn't help the natural reaction of snuggling closer.
This life seemed pretty perfect. The only thing that was not agreeing with her was that she didn't know how any of this happened…
Emma tried to think about all the information she had ever learned in the last few years. The only thing that kept coming to mind was true love's kiss. She leaned up and took her wife's—HER WIFE'S—lips with her own.
She had never experienced anything so natural yet raw and pure. She was kissing this woman that she'd been secretly falling for since she met her.
And then came the boom.
The boom that burst forth once a curse was seemingly broken. Memories flooded back and Emma remembered everything. She had—they had kids. They had Henry and two more girls. Twins. Rayna and Jane. They were four. How could she not remember them? How could she not remember her life with Regina? She pulled back and let tears come forth as she turned from the brunette.
"Darling?"
Emma shook her head, "I'm fine."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Regina and Henry ran through the ER doors, Snow and Charming already there.
"Do we know anything?" Regina's eyes were crazy as she looked around the room expecting to see the blonde sitting calmly playing some sort of sick fucking joke on her and their son—she was so frantic she couldn't even comprehend that she had just referred to Henry as their son in her head.
Snow swallowed hard and stood up to begin pacing, "No. They just got her back there. There is some head trauma and what looks to be a broken femur; probably another thing or two. The driver was drunk. They think she didn't see her."
Regina had a fierce look in her eye, "She?" Her tone was anything but innocent.
"That's all they told us. The driver was a woman—"
"Was?"
"She wasn't wearing a seatbelt. The impact…" Snow shook her head as tears ran down her cheeks, "But, they have every confidence that Emma will pull through."
"…Good."
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma took the girls to daycare early. She'd apparently taken the girls to daycare everyday—so her new memories told her. Her memories also told her that she was still the sheriff, her parents still weren't thrilled with her falling in love with the evil queen, however, the town was thrilled with the nice mayor and the adorable children, and Henry was happy that Emma broke the curse and the fact that she and his other mom loved each other was the best bonus a kid could ever get.
She slumped into her chair at her desk and sighed. She fired up her computer and waited. She clicked on a search engine and typed in, 'Spontaneous Amnesia'.
A blog, regular amnesia, a couple studies that she was sure she didn't think she was going to understand, and a website that described 'transient global amnesia' as 'temporary memory loss' were what came up.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Snow stared at the woman for a moment, "Regina. I know I'm not your favorite person, and I know that I have no right to ask—"
"I can't heal her." Regina swallowed not staring, "Rumple can't either. Magic can't fix head trauma. Magic can cure the common cold, it can help with most viruses, it can take away physical pain. But head trauma, broken bones… Magic can't do that. Only trained, licensed doctors. It's anyone's guess on what can happen once she's out of surgery."
0~0~0~0~0~0
Emma had broken her left femur in two places and her left clavicle. The first night they were there, they were most concerned with Emma's head trauma. After her body had had time to rest, they took her back in and put a rod and screws to fix the fracture in her leg.
~0~0~0~0~0~
Emma started researching, or trying to research when Henry's whisper filled her ears.
"My mom's really worried about you. She refuses to come in as long and Grams and Gramps are in here and they refuse to leave the hospital. I think my mom's the most worried of all of us. You need to come back because I have this feeling that mom's not gonna make it in this world without you…"
Emma jumped and whipped her head around the room. She saw no one. "Kid?" She looked out into the main office but again saw an empty room, "Henry?" There was no response.
"What the hell?" She asked herself as she sat completely in her desk chair instead of just the very edge—though she was now on edge literally. Her back stayed off the backrest as she sat up straight. She stared at the computer screen and suddenly she saw a new tab open and a new search begin, 'coma dreams' was typed in. She looked at her hands and saw them typing away. Jesus, she needed to get a grip on things…
She didn't know why she was researching this and clicked back to one of the other tabs. But Henry's words, or not-Henry's words echoed in her mind. This time, she zoned out completely as she let her mind wander.
She didn't even hear the clacking of her wife' heals or smell that natural apple-y scent that is all Regina until she felt her warmth from behind.
"Spontaneous amnesia and coma dreams?" Regina asked as she leaned over the blonde and clicked on the different tabs.
"Yeah, uh…"
"Darling… You know all of this isn't real. You know it's fake and that you are in fact in a coma."
"I…" Emma stared at Regina completely confused, "What?"
"Don't act like you don't know something suspicious hasn't happened… Living one life until you dream you get hit by a car then 'waking up' in another life? Emma, my love, you did get hit by the car."
"And I'm in a coma, dreaming about you?"
"Yes. I'm—everyone in this world is your subconscious."
"Even Henry's whispering in my ear and vanishing?"
Regina knit her brows, "Henry whispering and vanishing? No… No, that's actually Henry whispering to you. He's the first to get through to you…"
"The first to get through to me?"
"Yes. You can hear the people in your real world when you want to."
Emma sat back thinking everything over. Regina waited patiently as Emma finally opened her mouth, "Okay… so, if this is me in a coma, why am I dreaming of you here in Storybrooke and us as a couple and not like… being a princess or something or fighting for a prince or princess or whatever since I've been to the Enchanted Forest and seen things? I don't even think I like you that much."
"Oh, Emma…." Regina laughed that wickedly delighted laugh. "Did you hear yourself just then? Come on, my love. You're better than that. You know you are. Just like you know you're in love with me. You're dreaming of a life with me in Storybrooke because you like Storybrooke better than any other town you lived in and you definitely liked it better than the Enchanted Forest. You're dreaming of us with Henry and the twins because you are as hopeless a romantic as your parents… And as you have come to know the real me to be. You want a happily ever after and that, in your idyllic dream world, comes with more children." Regina took a step into her wife's business, causing the blonde to spread her legs. The brunette took a blonde curl and traced it down to its end.
Emma eyed the brunette, "I'll admit to falling in love with you, but I'm pretty sure my idea of a dream world is not Storybrooke, Maine… I'm pretty sure that it's you and me on a tropical island that was only us unless we wanted to hang out with the kid or other people…"
"Other people… from Storybrooke. Because the tropical island is the vacation and the ideal dream world is back here. This is home to you."
Emma thought that one over.
"Damn…"
AN: I know I've been gone a while... Grad School Apps, Kidney Stones, Finals... too much to handle and not enough time to handle it!
I hope you enjoyed! Let me know by commenting, liking, following! Thoughts and feels?
