Robin doesn't show up in this chapter, and I am not sure whether I will be paying any attention to him later. SwanQueen, for now in the most innocent way.
Set somewhere after 3.20 – at least the first chapter is.
I don't own anything, ABC does.
Sorry, not beta-read *you've been warned*
Emma ran up to the porch of the house on 108, Mifflin Street and knocked several times. When no answer followed, she knocked once again, this time louder. Regina's car was parked in front of the house, she should have been home. Why wasn't she opening the fucking door? Emma was beginning to feel really worried now. Of course, had she not worried before, she wouldn't be standing here in the first place.
She knew something was off the moment Henry came up to her and said that Regina had suggested meeting with him for dinner on another night. He said that she sounded alright over the phone, just a bit tired, and since fatigue was actually the excuse that the Queen used to get out of the dinner, Henry didn't doubt her words. But Emma definitely knew better. She knew that it required much more than a bad day to make Regina give up an opportunity to spend some time with her son. And so here she was, standing impatiently outside the Mayor's house, having sneaked out of the loft for a run. And she did run indeed, her guts telling her that something was wrong and thus hurrying her along.
When no answer came for the second knocking as well, Emma reached for her gun, grateful that she had brought it with her. Her magic was there, within her, but if she had to be honest with herself, without Regina's guidance the only weapon she could really use to protect herself was the gun. And yes, she had already been considering Regina not being able to guide her now or not being there for it - two scenarios which included terrible things that could have happened or be happening to Regina right now.
Her hand on the gun, Emma turned the door knob. The door squeaked slightly but opened easily. The house was completely still. Debating with herself about doing a quick silent check on the whole house and shouting the name of the mayor in order to learn her whereabouts faster, the sheriff chose the latter – just because whoever could be hiding there, sneaking on magicians isn't really possible and if there was someone without magic in this house, well, that risk she could take.
"Regina? Are you here?! Regina!", her voice echoed in the hallway of the mansion and she nearly missed the weak answer coming from upstairs.
"I'm in the library", Emma let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Regina's alive and in the house, it's already something. The sheriff flew up the staircase and froze. She had absolutely no idea where the library was in this huge house. An open door at the end of the floor was a guess – and a lucky one. Emma stormed into it with her gun ready to take its aim just to find Regina alone in the room lying on the couch, a blanket covering her from neck to toes.
"Regina? Regina! What the hell is going on? We've been worried sick about you. Why did you cancel the dinner with Henry?", Swan poured her endless list of questions on Regina who didn't move even an inch from her pose on the couch.
"I told you, I was tired, now can you please just leave?", her usually powerful voice was bleak and weak, there was even no usual edge to the phrase she said, and Regina herself didn't look too good. Something was off, Emma was sure now, she just couldn't figure out what it was. Yet.
"I could have bought you tale about fatigue if I didn't know better. You should be deadly tired to cancel a dinner with Henry. And since when are you so tired that you can't even answer the door? I've been standing on the porch for ages", Emma put her gun back into the holster and looked around. The room was full of books, just as a library should be, and there was absolutely nothing strange about it… Apart, probably, from the glass which was scattered all around the floor next to the couch, "And what is this glass all about? Were you hoping that I'm going to step on it and what, cut my shoe?"
Emma sat back on her heels, carefully picked one glass fragment und smelled it.
"Whiskey, huh? So what, are you drunk? Did you crush the glass against the floor? What the hell, Regina?!", the blonde was definitely confused. Confused and irritated, and this was always a dangerous combination for her.
"Of course I'm not drunk, Miss Swan, I don't drink that much; don't judge others by yourself", Regina eyed the woman squinting, her expression wary and even a bit… frightened. And a frightened Evil Queen is, well, frightening.
"OK, you're not drunk but what's the matter then, Regina? Answer me.", her patience was running out, it was already practically non-existent. Regina looked like she needed help, and fast, but how on Earth could she help her without knowing what the matter was?! Emma eyed the lying woman once again, and some vague suspicions started crawling into her mind. Regina was probably never a woman of too many movements, it would be unseemly for the Queen, but now she didn't move a muscle since Emma had entered the room – and that was already outright weird.
"What do you have under this blanket? What is it?!", the sheriff made an abrupt step towards the couch and yanked off the cover.
Whatever she expected to see, it wasn't there. There was, well, just Regina, Regina's body, legs, hands… Emma, who was examining the Queen from head to foot, frowned. Regina looked alright, if slightly pale, but her hands, they were shaking violently, even though they were pressed against the couch palms down.
"Regina… Regina, what's wrong? What is it? What's happening?", the sheriff kneeled down in front of the couch and reached out to touch a trembling hand but stopped shortly. Touching something which doesn't look healthy is not the best idea in the land with magic and curses and poisons.
"Nothing is happening, Miss Swan, everything has already happened", Regina turned away, choosing to look at the ceiling rather than at the blonde kneeling next to her. "And I'm not poisonous, if that's what you think."
"I don't think anything, I don't know what to think! Regina, tell me! You are not poisonous, what are you?" Emma pressed, looking Regina straight in the eyes, hoping for her to turn back. The Queen, however, remained with her eyes looking elsewhere. Her jaw moved as if she was about to say something snappy but Emma could actually see that Regina was blinking away the tears.
"I'm ill", it was barely a whisper but it was enough for Emma to hear.
"Ill… Like seriously ill?", the sheriff was still trying to process the received information, worry creasing her face.
"If it was a child's game, I would be having dinner with my son now, not be stuck with you and your dumb questions", the sharp comment lost a lot of its sharpness due to the fact that it was delivered in a baffled tone.
"Yeah… yeah, sorry for that. But what, what's wrong? Are you in pain?"
"My head is pounding, but that may very well be due to the fact that I have to lie still and can't just walk away from this awful conversation we're having"
"Why is that? Why do you have to lie still?", Emma was desperately trying to get some information out of the Queen and she was going to succeed even if it meant questioning her every word.
"Because I can't stand up, you moron!", out of all possible answers to her question, this definitely wasn't the one Emma expected. She barely even heard the insult, she was so taken aback by what Regina just said.
"You… you can't?", once again, she just had to make sure that she heard Regina correctly but the question was extra anyway since she spotted a predatory tear making its way through the cheek of the Queen. Regina could feel it, no doubt, since she bit her lip and tried to lift her hand to her face to wipe it away. However, the violently shaking hand only just about lifted itself from the couch and fell back twice as quickly.
The sheriff still couldn't quite embrace what was happening in front of her, otherwise she would be heartbroken already. The struggle of the Queen to raise her hand didn't go unnoticed though.
"How... Why?.. What?! We need to get you to the hospital!", the questions were leading nowhere, but the hospital and the doctor, even if it was Whale, were definitely a good idea.
"No, we don't. WE don't have to do anything, Miss Swan, but YOU need to leave.", her voice sounded hurt and hollow and, well, broken.
"I am not going anywhere! Are you out of your mind, thinking that I'll leave you alone in the state you're in?! You can't even raise your hand!"
"No need to remind me about it, it's not something I can easily forget."
"We need to get you to..."
"No, we don't! They can't do anything. Whale can't do anything."
"So you went there, didn't you? You went to Whale?!", if it was worrisome before, now it was outright terrifying. Regina never-ever went to get help, and she hated the Frankenstein guy, so if she broke those two unspoken rules of hers, well, it must have been really bad. Of course it was, Emma mentally kicked herself, she's fucking lying here and she can't move, what can be worse? "OK, forget I asked that. Is it... Does it - whatever it is - happen often?"
"Every now and then, Miss Swan, but I still fail to see how it is any concern of yours."
"Well, whatever thoughts you are entertaining in your head right now, I do care about you, and so does Henry, and so do my parents, so..."
"If you ever say a word of what you just saw, I'll rip your heart out and make meatballs out of it", Regina tried oh so hard to behave like everything was as usual but it simply wasn't, she was lying helpless on her couch and her dark promise wasn't at all terrifying though Emma could see that the Evil Queen part did mean every bit of it.
"Hey, calm down, no need for new fancy recipes", Emma raised her hands in defiance, "I promise, I won't tell anyone unless you agree to it."
"Oh, and I am just supposed to believe you because your family has such a lovely history of keeping my secrets".
"No, because I quite fancy my heart being inside my chest - and because I am not a spoiled princess of the age of ten. That - and you don't really have much choice either... You... You've said it had happened before. How did it go away? I mean, it certainly did, I saw you out and about just yesterday."
"It gets better... eventually."
"And how long till it does?"
"I have no idea but I guess I will wait and see. You, however, are free to go now."
"I told you, Regina, I am not leaving, I am staying till you get better and then we talk.", Emma finally reached out and put her hand on the Regina's trembling one. It was deadly cold, and even Emma's touch couldn't stop it from shaking. "Oh my God, are you cold?"
"No, Miss Swan, I used all the powers I had left to summon a blanket because I was unbelievably hot"
Emma's eyes drifted to the blanket which she had thrown on the floor several minutes ago. "Oh, I'm sorry", she quickly grabbed it and stood up, throwing it over the Queen's slender frame which looked even smaller on that huge couch of hers. "Is this better?"
"Yes. Thank you", came a stifled response.
"Do you need another one? I can fetch it if you tell me where to look for it."
"In my bedroom there is one on my bed... First door on the left after the stairs", after a short contemplation about whether she's willing to accept this help – because it was damn obvious that she needed another blanket, she couldn't be thinking about it – Regina did choose to accept it, and Emma was glad she did.
"OK, I'll be right back", said Emma already halfway through the door.
She had obviously never been in Regina's room before and she was definitely curious but she would be damned if she spent even an extra moment there to study the interior. She did spend a couple of extra minutes on fetching a bed warmer from under the silk sheets and filling it with hot water in the adjoining bathroom though.
When entering the library, she was half-expecting Regina to disappear but the mayor was still there, lying on the same couch with the same painful expression on her face. "Hey, I've fetched this thing for you as well", Emma placed the hot-water bottle on the couch next to Regina and unfolded the second blanket. It was heavier than the first one and, hopefully, warmer, so the sheriff threw it over the woman and picked up the bottle, "Take…"
She trailed off, realizing that she would have to be the one to put the warmer next to the Queen's body since Regina herself wasn't much for moving right now. "Let me… I will just put it on your belly between the two blankets, and if we can just put your hands near it…", she bent over the woman but didn't touch her just yet. "May I…?"
Regina nodded silently, and so Emma folded back both blankets. She blinked once before touching Regina's hand once again. It was trembling violently and it was still cold but not as cold as a couple of minutes earlier. Regina winced and tried lifting her hands on her own. She succeeded, Emma's hand just hovering over them until they took their place on her chest. Emma pulled the blankets back in their place, putting the warmer between them. "Is it okay so? Are you warm?"
"Yes, Miss Swan, thank you", Regina's answer was as stiff and forced as it gets which by no means came as a surprise to Emma. She couldn't even comprehend how difficult it must have been right now for the Queen to accept her help – and she probably wouldn't be able to do it until she knew all the details of the Queen's condition, whatever it was.
"OK, then let me call my mum – don't worry, I won't tell a thing, I'll just tell her that I'm OK and alive – and after that I can probably invite myself for a cup of tea, what do you say?"
"What I say is irrelevant, Miss Swan, you're gonna stay anyway, and right now I can't force you to leave"
"Then it's my lucky day, Your Majesty. Call me if you need anything, I'll be right outside", with that Emma walked away and closed the door behind her back.
When she came back five minutes later after her conversation with Snow, the Queen was sleeping peacefully.
So, what do you think? I do love a good critic and any suggestions are also welcomed.
And I am sorry that I haven't updated my another story yet but this one was just so eager to get out... I'm working on both of them now)
