Disclaimer: I own OUAT in no way, shape or form.
Like a silent sentinel, guarding her princess, Regina sat beside Emma's unmoving body. It had become a peculiar habit, sitting here, watching the beeping of machines and the slow motion of Emma's chest raising and falling in a rhythm that reassured with every breath.
I'm alive. I'm alive.
The silence was suffocating in its absoluteness, the only constant on which Regina could rely. The former Queen often found herself wondering over the months in which Emma did not move. What might have become of her world if she had allowed the Savior to continue on her destined path. Might she have done more damage than merely powering the town clock tower to move? Might she have actually broken the dark curse altogether?
Regina would never know.
Time did not pass as normal, so it was only natural that the overnight nurses were surprised each and every time that they found Regina poised and watching in the corner of Emma's hospital room. They would say their spiel about how visiting hours were over, Regina would threaten them, and they would scurry away like cockroaches from the light.
How utterly predictable.
Emma's eyes fluttered, her lips moving faintly before she fell still once more. This was common. The first night that Regina had noticed this activity, it had been a source of eager excitement, as if the blonde would stand and challenge her in a matter of minutes. As the weeks passed, however, hope dwindled.
"Regina.." Emma mumbled, followed by some gibberish that Regina could not make out. Her heart picked up a few beats per second as her mind raced, wondering just what sort of visions were plaguing the cursed woman.
A thought occurred to Regina, not for the first time in the weeks that she had been surveying Emma's comatose body, but more convincingly than ever before. What if… She ignored the thought for a bare second before entertaining it again. What if..
She was standing from her chair without realizing, crossing the hospital room to Emma's 'sleeping' body. Fingers hovering over the helpless woman's chest, Regina was uncertain. It wasn't the first time she had been so, but it was the first time in quite awhile.
What was she doing?
What she was born to do, she answered herself, plunging her hand into Emma's chest before she convince herself to do otherwise. The heart she drew out from the woman's breast was brighter than she had expected, though she scolded herself for expecting any less from the Savior.
The temptation to crush the thing was enormous, and very nearly won out over the urge to save it, but there was a higher power at work. With a quick glance around her, Regina made certain that there were no witnesses before she pushed the organ into her own chest.
She only wanted the power of the Savior, she reassured herself, leaving the hospital briskly. That's all.