A/N: so I'm convinced reviews are addictive. I was actually planning on posting one chapter per week for this fic because I'm so busy at the moment but the flooding of my inbox meant I sat down early to write for you! Also, I realised I never specified in the last chapter but this story is once again set in England; London, to be precise! Which means all spellings will be British and there will be various cultural references our friends across the pond may not get, sorry! I chose to do this, however, because of the simple fact that everyone in the UK is entitled to free medical services thanks to our brilliant NHS. I didn't want to complicate the storyline with insurance dramas and instead want to focus everything on Henry and our two favourite ladies. Anyway, onwards …
Emma stood up, ashen faced.
"What's wrong with him?" she asked, throat tight.
Regina glanced at Henry who was looking curiously between both adults. "Um, would you mind stepping outside with me, Miss Swan? Henry, why don't you see what you can find to watch on the TV?" she suggested, handing over the controls.
The six year old looked up at her, aware he was being distracted from something important but the temptation of cartoons was too irresistible to stop him reaching out and taking the remote from the smiling brunette.
"I'll be right outside," Emma said, kissing Henry's brow before following the doctor from the room.
As soon as the door closed softly behind the two women, Emma let out a shuddering breath. Regina looked sympathetically on as the blonde sank into a chair in the hallway and after a moment, she did the same.
"What's going on?" Emma asked, suddenly sounding exhausted.
"Well, we're not entirely sure," Regina admitted. "But there were a few interesting results in Henry's blood work and we'd like to run a couple more tests to eliminate any other causes, aside from the glandular fever."
"What other causes?" Emma said.
"We don't know yet," Regina admitted. "But we want to find out. The best way for us to pinpoint a problem is to take a detailed family history. That way we can identify any genetic diseases which could be affecting him and rule those out first."
"Genetic diseases?" Emma frowned. "What does that mean?"
"Henry's blood contains elevated levels of lymphocytes and histiocytes," Regina began. "Two types of white blood cells. But he's also got low red blood cells. There are many different explanations for these results and it could all be linked to the glandular fever but since Henry is rather young and the fever Doctor Whale recorded was very high, we want to make sure he isn't battling anything else as well."
"Anything else?" Emma repeated. "So he might be sick with two things?"
She looked towards the door, behind which her son was lying, dwarfed in the middle of a large hospital bed, hot and tired and in pain. Her heart ached and she silently prayed it was her who was ill rather than Henry.
"We don't know," Regina said, wishing she could give Emma more definitive answers. "But we want to find out. Firstly, would you mind taking me through your family's medical history? The more detail the better."
Emma sighed and flopped back in her chair, hands covering her face. Regina hesitated before reaching out and laying a comforting hand on Emma's arm.
"I know this is hard, Miss Swan," she said gently. "But we need to do this, for Henry."
"No, it's not that," Emma said, dropping her hands from her face and looking at the doctor sat beside her. "I can't really give you a family history beyond myself." At Regina's frown, Emma continued. "I was abandoned as a baby and put into the foster system. I never knew anything about my parents when I was growing up and couldn't find them when I went searching after I turned 18. What if they've got some horrible disease and that's why they gave me up?"
"Are you sick?" Regina asked simply.
"No, but -."
"Then it's unlikely that's the reason," Regina said. "And if you've not shown any symptoms of any genetic disease then perhaps this is something Henry got from his father."
Emma bit her lip. "Can't help you there either," she admitted. "It wasn't exactly a long relationship." She blushed, embarrassed at having admitted to the doctor she had fallen pregnant after a one-night-stand.
"Oh," Regina said. "Right, well, never mind about the family history for now. As far as everything goes with you, however, is there anything I should know in your medical history?"
"I had glandular fever when I was young too," Emma shrugged. "Got over it quickly enough and haven't really been ill since."
"Ok, good," Regina nodded, making a note on Henry's papers. "Well, what I'll do is run a few more general tests, see if we can pick up any more details from those results and then go from there. I believe Doctor Whale confirmed with you that you'd be in overnight?"
Emma nodded. She hated the thought of staying in the hospital, however. It made everything suddenly seem very real. But on the other hand, the thought of going back to her flat without knowing what was wrong with Henry was equally unappealing.
"I've got the nightshift today so I'll be around if you need me," Regina said. "Do you have any questions?"
"Do you have any answers?" Emma bit back.
Regina blushed and looked away. She knew Emma didn't mean to snap at her. She knew the blonde was just worried about her son and frustrated that the doctors didn't seem to know what to do to help. She was sure she would feel the same way if she had children.
"Sorry," Emma said after a moment. "I know you're trying."
"No need to apologise," Regina assured. "I'll come by in a few hours and see how Henry's doing. If he hasn't eaten anything, we may consider putting him on a drip for the night just to get his levels up. It will help with fighting the fever too."
"Ok," Emma said, standing up just as the doctor did. "Thank you, Doctor Mills."
Regina nodded her understanding and watched as Emma peered around the door to her son's room. With a final glance back over her shoulder and a slight smile at the doctor she disappeared. Taking a deep breath, Regina exhaled, sinking back into the chair she had just vacated. This was going to be a tough one, she could tell. She scanned the sparse notes in front of her, chewing her lip. Not much to go on, she mused, and it appeared they were unlikely to get any more familial information to add to the profile. She wondered briefly about Henry's father. A man Emma had presumably met when she was rather young. After all, the blonde couldn't be much older than … she checked the paper … twenty-five. What an ordeal to go through, Regina thought. A young, single mum with no family of her own.
Her mouth fell open as she realised the huge and varying assumptions she had just made about her patient's mother. Jumping to her feet, Regina hurried away down the corridor, forcing her mind onto her next task.
"How are you doing, kid?" Emma asked as she settled back down besides Henry whose eyes were barely open as he fought to stay awake and watch Cartoon Network.
"I'm ok," he said sleepily.
"Are you hungry?" she asked, holding out the chicken salad sandwich she had purchased earlier.
But the little boy shook his head, snuggling down under the covers and finally letting sleep claim him now his mother was back in the room. Emma ruffled his light brown hair and stood up. She walked over to the window, intending to draw the blinds against the black sky beyond. She paused for a moment, staring out over the glittering city below. The sounds of the street were muffled behind the glass, the cold night air pressing against the window but unable to penetrate. She should have felt safe, protected from the rain still hurtling down across London. But she didn't. She felt far from safe. The blind lowered, eclipsing the world beyond and she turned back to her sleeping son.
As a mother, Emma had always strived to keep Henry safe. It hadn't been easy. She hadn't exactly planned to have a baby. But from the moment she had found out about the little life growing inside her, she couldn't wait to meet him. The first few months had been the hardest but with a great support network she had made it through and created a life for her and her son. Their flat wasn't large but it was big enough for the two of them and Henry had a room of his own. True, the railway line from Clapham Junction clattered right past their living room window but at least she didn't have to walk far to catch the train to work. And Henry's school was right around the corner too, allowing the little family to spend as much time together in the mornings as possible.
But now what? After six years of doing anything and everything she could to make sure her son was safe and happy and healthy … Emma was helpless. There was nothing she could do. Even if it simply turned out to be glandular fever she knew Henry was in for weeks of discomfort as he recovered. But it wasn't just glandular fever. That she knew too. If the doctors were telling her they feared something else, she knew things must be bad. They wouldn't worry a parent for nothing.
She glanced at the door, silently begging Doctor Mills to walk through it and tell her it had all been a mistake and Henry could be taken home. The knob didn't move. The door remained firmly shut. Sighing, Emma returned to her chair and switched off the TV. Pulling out her phone, she quickly replied to the many texts she had, reassuring everyone that Henry was OK. No point worrying them all yet, she reasoned. Noting the time, Emma suddenly stifled a yawn. She hadn't realised how late it was and she had been up the previous night seeing in the New Year too. Doctor Mills had said she'd be a few hours, she thought to herself. If Henry was getting some sleep, she supposed she should too.
Regina didn't notice her best friend enter the staff room until she had collapsed into the chair next to her. The brunette lowered the lab results she had been scrupulously analysing and raised one perfectly sculpted eyebrow.
"What the hell happened to you last night?" she asked, taking in the redhead's dishevelled appearance.
"Don't ask," Zelena said, leaning forward and resting her forehead on the table, stethoscope clattering against the surface as she did so. "Is it eight yet?"
"It's," Regina checked her watch, "just gone midnight."
"Oh God!" Zelena groaned, wrapping her arms around her head. "Please let me curl up and die."
"Why your most recent assessment came back advising you to work on your bedside manner, I'll never know," Regina teased. "Seriously, Zee. We're in a hospital and that's the phrase you choose to use?"
"It's an accurate description of how I feel right now," Zelena argued.
Regina shrugged and went back to her notes. "I told you those jaeger-bombs were a mistake."
"Yeah but you should see what I can get Robin to do in bed when he drinks that stuff," Zelena said, her eyes glazing over in memory.
"Oh please, do not tell me anything about what happened between you and Robin last night," Regina said. She had heard enough about their sexual escapades during the early months of their relationship. After two years of marriage, it appeared the heat hadn't died down.
"Spoil sport," Zelena said. "Anyway, what happened with you? Did you take that cute blonde home?"
"She had to work early this morning," Regina shrugged. "She gave me her number but I haven't called yet."
"Are you gonna?" Zelena asked, leaning over and pulling the notes from Regina's hands.
"Maybe," she huffed. "Give them back please, Zee."
"Who's this?" Zelena asked, eyes scanning the pages. "His results are all over the place."
"I know," Regina said, snatching the records back. "New patient admitted this afternoon. Six years old, glandular fever and something else is lurking there too but I can't work out what."
The two doctors sat side by side in silence for a while, both taking in the numbers before them. Regina had already been in the staff room for half an hour, taking a longer break than she would usually do in order to delay the moment when she'd have to go and speak to Miss Swan and tell her they still had no idea what was wrong with her son. And yet, clearly, something was definitely not right with young Henry.
"Well the elevated lymphocytes could just be due to the glandular fever," Zelena reasoned. "As could the low red blood cell count."
"But what about the histiocytosis levels?" Regina asked.
Zelena frowned. Those results were also the ones that were troubling her and she knew they weren't explained away by the glandular fever. She turned the page and scanned the information.
"Nothing more detailed?" she asked, pointing to the family history box. Regina shook her head and Zelena shrugged. "Good luck. Let me know if I can help or if you need a second opinion."
"Thanks," Regina said. "I'd better go and speak to his mother."
"And say what?"
Regina didn't answer. She couldn't. She had no idea what she was going to tell Miss Swan, the mother to a very sick little boy for whom she didn't have any diagnosis nor cure.
Emma awoke as soon as she heard Regina enter the room. Glancing first at her son, she was relieved to see the boy still sleeping. He was exhausted, she reasoned, and sleep would help his body conserve energy and recover faster. She stood and moved to join the doctor by the foot of the bed.
"How has he been?" Regina asked.
"Asleep mostly," Emma said.
"Has he eaten?" Emma shook her head. "We will need to put him on an IV when he next wakes up then," Regina said apologetically. "It's the best thing for him if we want to boost his antibodies and start fighting the glandular fever."
Emma nodded her understanding and looked back towards her sleeping son. "Any results yet?"
"Nothing conclusive, no," Regina said. "If possible, I'd like to talk to Henry when he wakes up, get a little more detail about how he's feeling. If he has any particular aches or pains then we can also investigate what might be causing them."
"Aches?" Emma frowned.
"We want to consider all possibilities," Regina said simply.
"You're thinking meningitis, aren't you?" Emma said.
Dark eyebrows rose once more. It was clear someone had been googling symptoms, never a helpful activity for a worried parent to partake in. "We're not speculating here," Regina said. "But we can't afford to rule anything out."
"Can you test it now?" Emma asked, moving at once to Henry's side. "Please, just … I need to know."
"We … we can," Regina nodded. "But you'll need to wake him if you want me to do a lumbar puncture. That's the most effective diagnosis we have. Give me two minutes to get a kit."
Emma nodded shortly and turned to her son, shaking his small shoulders gently. "Henry, honey, it's time to wake up."
The boy squirmed away from her touch, reluctant to rejoin the real world. He rolled onto his side and buried his face in the pillow. Emma sighed and gently turned him back over, kissing his cheek. Eventually, brown eyes fluttered open just as Regina retuned to the room with the test kit.
"What?" he asked, his voice hoarse and weak.
"Doctor Mills is here and she needs to talk to you and do a couple of tests," Emma explained, blinking back tears as she saw her son's pale, sweaty face.
"Hi Henry," Regina said. "Remember me?"
"Yeah, Gina," Henry yawned.
"That's right," Regina smiled. "I'm here to ask you a few questions and to try and make you feel better. Is that ok?"
Henry nodded slowly, eyeing the doctor with suspicion. "What's that?" he asked, looking at the lumbar puncture equipment Regina had placed on the end of his bed.
"This is something which is going to help us find out if you're sick," Regina said. "Henry, can you tell me how you feel?"
"Sleepy," Henry said, looking pointedly at his mother.
Despite the situation, the two women couldn't help but chuckle.
"And aside from that, can you describe anything else you're feeling? Any aches or pains?"
"I'm hot," Henry said. "And my body feels tired all the time. My head is heavy too and my neck hurts when I move."
"Any rashes?" Regina asked, now looking at Emma even as she unwrapped the meningitis test kit.
"Not that I've seen," Emma said. "Is it …?"
"Let's do the test and then we can know for sure," Regina said, giving nothing away in her tone. "Henry, I need you to be a big boy and roll onto your side with your back to me. I need to give you a little injection in the bottom of your back so I can test your body, ok?"
Henry's eyes widened as he spotted the needle protruding from the syringe. "No," he said firmly. "That isn't little."
Emma crouched down so she was eye level with her son. "No," she conceded. "It isn't. But Doctor Mills wants to make you better and she needs to test something in your back to do that. And once she knows what is wrong with you, you'll get better. And we want that, right?"
"Yeah," Henry said slowly, still looking between his mother and the needle. "But that will hurt."
"I'm going to give you another tiny injection so you can't feel it at all," Regina assured him.
Henry considered each woman for a while. The stranger, a gentle smile on her face was looking down at him with reassurance and kindness. His mother … he didn't think he'd ever seen his mother look like that before. Her skin was paler than usual and her eyes looked glassy and red around the edges. He thought she might have been crying.
"Ok," he said quietly. "But only if it doesn't hurt."
"I promise," Regina said. "Now if you roll onto your side and look at your mum then I can do this test quickly and you can get back to sleep."
Henry followed the instructions and soon Regina had him curled in the foetal position, his wide brown eyes locked with his mother's worried green ones. Regina glanced at Emma and received the nod of consent. Moving Henry's hospital gown aside, she worked quickly to clean the area at the base of the boy's bony spine and administered the local anaesthetic. She glanced over his skin for rashes as she waited for the drug to take effect. She was relieved to see no external signs of meningitis and soon was lining up the needle to perform the test.
Even though he couldn't feel it, as the needle pierced his skin, Henry began to cry. Regina's hand on his waist steadied his body and didn't allow him to pull away. Emma was whispering nonsense to him, trying to calm him down and distracting him from the dim sensations in his back. The boy trembled beneath Regina's touch as she extracted the cerebrospinal fluid. She worked as quickly as she could but it still took half an hour until she finally moved away.
"Done," she whispered, moving Henry's hospital gown back into place and bagging the test.
"How long until we know?" Emma asked, helping Henry roll onto his still numb back and wiping his tear-streaked face.
"The results take two days," Regina said. "But I'll push them to have them back tomorrow. In the meantime, it is possible to start Henry on the antibiotics even without confirmation if we suspect meningitis is the second illness here."
"And do we suspect that?" Emma asked.
Regina shrugged. "Some symptoms fit, others don't. It's very hard to get an accurate diagnosis when the body is fighting two different viruses or diseases. It sends the results a little loopy, to be honest, and the best we can do is eliminate one after another through tests."
"What would you do? If you were Henry's mother?" Emma asked.
"I'd have him put on a drip for the next twelve hours," Regina said. "And I'd start the meningitis antibiotics now too. But then I'd want to take him home. There's nothing more we can do for him here until the results come back. I suspect you'd both rather be at home than in the hospital, correct?"
"Yes," Emma said. "Yes, that sounds like the best solution. Henry," she said, turning to her son. "Doctor Mills needs to give you a special thing to make you feel better called a drip now."
"Drip?" Henry asked. "Like what a tap does?"
"Exactly," Regina said who had stuck her head out of the door in the meantime and requested an IV set from a passing nurse. "We are going to attach a bag of healthy liquids to a tube and it's going to drip into your body."
"How?" Henry asked suspiciously.
"Though a tiny needle in your hand," Regina explained just as a nurse entered with the equipment she needed.
"Another needle?" Henry frowned, turning to Emma. "Mum, I want to go home. I don't want to stay here any more."
Emma dropped to her knees again and pushed Henry's sweaty hair away from his hot brow. "I know, baby, but we have to make you better. Doctor Mills is going to make you feel much better with her special liquid."
"Through a needle," Henry pouted. "Can't I just drink it?"
"It doesn't work that way, Henry" Regina said softly.
Henry watched as the nurse hung up a clear bag beside his bed, filled with this strange medicine his mother and doctor wanted him to take. He looked back at his mother and caught the sadness etched on her features just before she forced a smile for his benefit.
"Ok," Henry said quietly, holding out his hand.
Regina worked as quickly as she could and within minutes Henry's weak body was hooked up to the bag. He stared at the needle, hidden beneath the tape which entered his body. He couldn't really feel it, he realised as he glanced up at the bag and watched the liquid sliding slowly down the tube until it disappeared inside him.
"So I'll get better now?" he asked, stifling a yawn.
"We hope so," Regina said. "I've got to head off on my rounds now but I'll come back in the morning to see how the night has been. I'd recommend you both get some rest as it's almost two in the morning. Well done, Henry. You were very brave for me and your mum, so thank you."
Henry smiled proudly and waved to Regina with his free hand as the doctor entered the room.
"I like her," he announced to his mother. "Even though she stuck me with three needles."
"She's helping you get better, remember? It's her job," Emma said as she took her seat once more and pulled a spare blanket over her body.
"Yeah, because she's a doctor," Henry said, snuggling back under his own covers and closing his eyes. "Do you like her, Mum?"
"Um, yeah, I suppose," Emma said, thrown by the question. Doctors were doctors, after all. She had never considered whether she 'liked' one or not before. With Henry's last question running through her head, Emma followed her son into sleep.
A/N: A/N: just to say also, I was absolutely blown away by the response to the first chapter, so thank you for your interest and support!