AN: My brain is an evil, evil thing and this is its evil lovechild.
"Mom, Mom wake up!"
Regina was woken quite unceremoniously by the frantic shaking of her shoulders coupled with Henry's voice. Pushing herself up slightly, she blinked to clear her eyes. "Henry?" She looked from his clearly worried face to the digital clock on her bedside table. "It's two in the morning."
"It's Emma," Henry's voice cracked. "I…She…Mom, we have to go!"
Regina sat up fully, completely alert but confused. Henry wasn't making a whole lot of sense. "What is it, did something happen? Bad dream?"
Henry shook his head, unable to speak but shoving the house phone into her hand.
Confusion and dread were Regina's primary emotions. She'd heard the phone ring, it had half roused her from sleep, but she ignored it because of the obviously late hour. It was easy to work out that Henry had answered it instead. Whoever called was clearly still on the line. "Who is th -?"
"Regina, it's me," the voice on the line cut her off with an answer before the question was even finished.
"Snow? What on earth - ?"
"I was going to tell you first, I swear, but Henry could tell right away something was wrong and he's quite persistent –"
"Snow. You are rambling. What's going on?"
"Emma was shot," Snow blurted out, physically incapable of sugar coating the situation. "She was shot on patrol and we're at the hospital and she was asking for Henry but now she's unconscious and losing a lot of blood and…"
Snow's monologue was surely continuing, but it was to static. Regina had heard enough. They would be on their way in two minutes. She just had to grab a thick coat and slide some shoes on first. She hadn't realized at first that Henry was fully dressed, but it did come in handy.
"You're right, Henry, we do have to go." Regina grabbed his hand and pulled him out of the room with her, but he quickly broke free and ran ahead of her.
It was a good thing Regina still held title of Mayor because there was quite a hefty amount of driving laws she broke in her haste to get to the hospital. It was all she could do not to beat the hell out of her steering wheel. Her mother's voice was taunting her in her head. 'See my dear,' it was practically sassing her. 'Love is weakness. But you will never learn that, will you? Always were the bleeding heart defeatist. Must be your father's gene's, they certainly weren't mine.' Regina growled, slamming on the brakes when she reached the hospital parking lot. In her rush, she hadn't even buckled the seat belt.
If she were in the right state of mind, she would reprimand Henry from jumping out of the car before it was even off. She was not, however, and damn near did the same.
No one knew she and Emma had been seeing each other before the curse broke, and it became even more important to maintain the secret once the curse broke. Regina should have felt all of her glorious royal pride being attacked at being someone's dirty little secret, but the fact that Emma stayed, even after knowing she really was the Evil Queen, even after Regina's traitorous dark side had tried poisoning her because old habits die hard, it meant more to Regina than anything, save the gift that was Henry. It was that meaning that brought tears to her eyes and blurred her vision as she threw the hospital doors open.
"How is she?!" she demanded, tone all Evil Queen.
No one said anything. Snow was too busy staring.
Regina grabbed the nearest doctor by the collar of his shirt. It wasn't Whale, who had to be the one with Emma now, but it was a small hospital and people talked. "I said," she repeated. "How is she?" She shook him for good measure.
The man only babbled uselessly. Regina dropped him, moving on to Snow.
"Say something!" she snapped.
"I-I…I don't, she…"
Regina snarled. "I'm giving up on you." These people were utterly useless. She needed to see Emma.
"Oh, let me guess. The curse is broken now, so you'll be off playing happy families and joining the ranks of those that no longer see Regina as soon as the Evil Queen emerges. No one is ever different." What else could 'we need to talk' possibly be implying if Emma wasn't planning on leaving her? For a matter of fact, she should. She had tried to kill her after all, because she was too afraid of losing Henry. Now she was going to lose them both.
Emma shook her head. "I'll be the one," she replied with determination. Then she faltered, looking at the ground. "If you want me to."
Too stunned for words, Regina pulled her into a kiss.
"Anywhere," Emma murmured against her lips. "I would've followed you." Even if that meant the Enchanted Forest. She'd grabbed both her and Henry's hands when she realized the curse broke for a reason. It was supposed to send them all back, she had thought. And she'd wanted them to be together, all of them.
To Regina's great surprise and immense relief, Emma was awake when she reached the hospital room she'd been put in. Or at least, that's how it seemed. Something was off, though. Emma didn't seem to be looking directly at anything, more like through everything. She did, however, show signs of recognition upon sight of Regina.
What started as a lazy smile turned into a wince. When she spoke, her voice held a trance-like quality, "I know you."
Regina made a noise crossbred between a laugh and a sob. She nodded, taking her hand, needing to maintain a tangible connection.
"I walked with you once upon a dream," added Emma.
Regina frowned. Was she doped up on drugs already? She almost rolled her eyes at her question, of course she was. She'd been shot.
"I know…" Emma's gaze finally locked onto Regina's. "You. That look in your eyes." She was trying to point with the hand Regina was holding. "…So familiar a gleam."
The door was pushed open, Henry standing there with Snow right behind him, hands on his shoulders. When Regina caught sight of them in her peripheral vision she shook her head at Snow. "She's not lucid." In no way was Henry going to see his mother like that. If it made Regina feel small seeing her that way, there was no telling how it would make Henry feel. She was feeling in over her head, and worse, that she truly knew nothing at all. But her need to be with Emma was stronger than any feeling of inferiority.
As Snow pulled Henry away, Emma spoke again. "And I know it's true that visions are seldom what they seem." She remembered that teen delinquent and his gun. Regina wasn't with her, she was just a pretty imagination in her head. It would only cause her pain to believe, but she knew she wouldn't look away.
Regina tried leveling with her, trying conversation on the same kind of vague train of thought. She assumed Emma was thinking aloud and therefore only she was meant to understand her words, so Regina eased her own filter down, "And I will stumble and fall." She squeezed Emma's hand gently. "I'm still learning to love, just starting to crawl." A tear fell from her eye, accompanying her silent plea for Emma to stay with her.
"But if I know you, I know what you'll do. You'll love me at once, the way you did once upon a dream." Only it wasn't a dream at all.
No strings, just a good round of sex in the office. That's how it started. The fire between the two had grown to its peak, and that last round of eye sex had been the straw that broke the camel's back, making clothes fly at a shared silent thought that had to have somehow involved telepathy. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am. When it was over, Regina kicked Emma out before she had the chance to fully clothe herself.
Regina squeezed her eyes shut, it was painful to listen to Emma's misconstrued sentences. More tears slid down her face as she took in a shuddering breath. "Say something," she whispered. That makes sense, she added in her head. Her whisper broke when she gave away her thought on Emma having that particular ability, "I'm giving up on you." But God, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to. She pressed a soft but desperate kiss to her lips, hoping, betting against herself, that it would sober her up more. Bring her hyper realistic Emma back to her instead of this trance-like shell. "I'm sorry that I couldn't get to you." It was illogical to blame the shooting on herself, but she had a habit of self deprecation that wasn't going to end anytime soon. She stroked Emma's cheek gently.
What exactly Emma felt herself fading into, she didn't know. But she was fading. She was fading and Regina was right there, imagination or not. Time to buck up on the chance that she was wrong. Her lower lip started trembling, but she paid it no mind. "And I will swallow my pride," she was getting choked up, even with her sense of fading, so it came out a very broken whisper. One that was heartbreaking to Regina. But it had nothing on her next words. Now or never, Emma, the blonde told herself. Now or never. "You're the one that I love."
A sob escaped Regina. Her sense of foreshadowing was screaming at her, but she was trying to push it away. Even as the monitor hooked up to Emma started beeping erratically.
With a burst of strength, Emma gripped Regina's hand hard. She pushed the next words out, even though they were painful enough to tear yet another hole in her body, though this time in her heart. "And I'm saying goodbye."
Whatever composure Regina still maintained was completely lost. She didn't even register when doctors ran into the room, shutting her out. She was on complete auto pilot, as she had completely caved into herself. She didn't need to hear the flatline, she felt it as sure as if a hand were yanking her heart from her chest.
No one could get an answer out of her when they tried speaking to her, not even Henry. When she did speak, it was only to repeat what Emma's greeting to her hand been, "I know you. I walked with you once upon a dream…"