Chapter two
Two days, it had been two days since 'the school incident'.
Jefferson was still in the hospital, he had one more day of observation before he would be released into the custody of the Sheriff's Department for prosecution. Emma had thought many times about how she was under no obligation to follow US law. There was no reason why she had to allow Jefferson to continue to live in a six by six cell, she had seen many ways that magic could hurt another person and she had legitimately imagined unleashing some of her magic upon the man who would dare to shoot a mother in front of her son.
However, she knew that it was only her daydreaming. There was no way that she would ever be able to actually bring herself to cause any harm to another person, no matter how much she wanted to. It was one of the more frustrating parts of holding the 'saviour' moniker.
The blonde swallowed hard when she wondered whether anyone would notice if she simply went to the Hatter's room and tore out his heart. She didn't necessarily need to crush it, but having it would mean that she would never need to worry about him hurting someone she cared about again.
Emma quickly blinked out of her thoughts, however, when she felt a sense of guilt overtake her and she looked up from her lap.
She was in the same plastic chair that she had been sat upon since Regina had come out of surgery and she stared at the unconscious woman.
Whale had informed her that they had done all they could and now it was just a matter of waiting to see what would happen. Regina had lost a great deal of blood from the gunshot wound, but the bullet had fortunately just about missed her aorta. There were any number of complications that could occur, apparently the intricate work they had done on her heart left it more than vulnerable and on top of that, he wasn't even sure if she would even wake up. She had lost enough blood to potentially cause brain damage, which would mean that even if her heart miraculously healed, then she might never wake up or she might wake up and not quite be Regina Mills anymore.
The school had yet to actually open again following the 'incident' which is why it annoyed Emma even more that she had been Regina's only visitor.
Her mother had technically visited earlier, but that had only been to ensure that her daughter wasn't starving to death on a waiting chair.
The woman had looked at Regina with a regretful look on her face, but once she was satisfied that Emma had eaten the bearclaw she had brought for her, she had said something about having to go back to Henry.
As far as Emma could tell, her son had been acting normal based upon how he had sounded when she had spoke to him. He had made no attempt to visit his mother using his days off and he hadn't even so much as asked how she was.
Emma had the urge to force the information onto him, but she had decided against this course of action. It was a very complicated situation by all accounts and the last thing that Regina had said certainly wouldn't have helped. The blonde was sure that Henry should have been able to tell that Regina had only said that he wasn't her son so that she could protect him. However, she knew that it was a very traumatic situation and Henry's mind had a tendency to vilify Regina at every possible moment. If those were the last words that he ever heard from Regina, Emma was sure that he may never find it in himself to think of her as anything but the Evil Queen.
"Sheriff Swan," someone said timidly behind her and Emma turned around to look at the nurse. With the exception of using the toilet and getting coffee, Emma hadn't actually left this chair. She was determined that Regina would not be left alone for longer than five minutes. Which meant that when Whale had asked the nurse to get her to leave, she had instantly felt anxious at the thought of asking the very sleep deprived saviour to leave her seat.
"Doctor Whale wants to do some one-to-one observation with Mayor Mills to check her heart function and he asked that no visitors be present during the test," she said.
Emma nodded, "when can I come back?"
"Tomorrow," the nurse replied.
The blonde thought to protest, but it wasn't as though she could spend every night half-dozing on the seat. She would eventually need to go back to the station rather than forwarding emergency cals to her cell phone (not that she had actually received any calls). There was also the Henry-factor, she needed to make sure that he was actually okay as he claimed to be.
"Okay, but please make sure that I'm notified if there are any changes in her condition?" Emma asked rather pleadingly, she knew that she wasn't technically Regina's emergency contact or family member, which meant that she had no right to know to actually know about her condition. However, she felt as though there should be at least one person who actually acted as though they cared about her.
The nurse nodded and the blonde reluctantly stood from her seat. She looked over to Regina's unconscious form and allowed herself a few seconds to take in the sound of the heart monitor and the steady in and out of the ventilator.
All of the wired and may have terrified Emma when she had entered the room, but now they were almost comforting. They meant that Regina was still alive and that she hadn't lost her chance to…well she didn't know what exactly she wanted, but she knew that she wanted Regina to wake up so that she could figure it out.
"Of course," he nurse replied.
Emma looked at Regina for a moment longer, she felt as though there was something she should be doing before leaving. But the prospect of saying 'see you later' in front of the nurse made her feel more than awkward.
It was for this reason that she instead just nodded in the nurse's direction and smiled at Regina before she tiredly dragged herself out of the room.
Henry stared absently at the worksheets spread out in front of him. He had convinced Mary Margaret that she should give him the homework for the lessons they were missing due to the school's closure. The schoolteacher had been reluctant at first, but she decided that Regina would probably appreciate this more than allowing him to play video games.
As much as Snow had thought that she hated Regina, seeing the resigned look on her face as she lost consciousness from blood loss, had made her see the woman in a different light.
She was sure that the Evil Queen wouldn't have transported herself to the school so that she could stand in front of a gun. In fact, it almost felt like something that the woman who had saved her from an out-of-control horse would have done.
However, these were not thoughts that she felt able to voice just yet, which was why she had granted Henry's request instead of forcing him to talk about his hospitalised mother, even if she did find it strange that he hadn't even asked how she was. He technically didn't even know if she was alive.
The woman continued to watch Henry as he read over his work and she clutched her mug of hot cocoa strongly. She wanted to talk to him, but she had no idea whether it would be a good idea, even if she felt as though the elephant in the room was suffocating her.
However, she was saved from cutting the tension by the sound of the front door opening and closing. Her eyes flew over to the door in surprise since David wasn't supposed to come home until dinner time.
"Emma," she smiled as the blonde walked over to the kitchen counter to sit next to her.
Henry looked over to her, and for a moment, Emma was sure that there was a question on the tip of his tongue, but he didn't actually say anything. He, instead, just studied his mother's face for a moment, as if this would give him all of the answers that he needed before he looked back down to his word without a word.
Emma frowned at him, though she noticed that he didn't appear to actually be focusing on his work. She was sure that he would be listening intently if she started discussing Regina, even if he wasn't willing to admit that he was at least interested in the mayor's condition.
"How is she?" Mary Margaret asked as if on cue. She already knew about Regina's heart and the chance of brain damage, so Emma was quite glad that Henry wouldn't need to hear the specifics. She wasn't sure that she would have allowed him to hear everything, even if he acted remotely interested in the woman who had raised him for ten years.
"The same, she still hasn't woken up," Emma replied and looked over her shoulder at the boy's back. She could tell by the way that his shoulders tensed that he was gripping his pen for all that it was worth. It was so obvious that he wanted to ask more, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. In his mind, Emma Swan was his mother and Regina Mills was just the woman who had to adopt him so that he could bring the saviour to a cursed town. Regina was just the evil mother that he was supposed to have at the beginning of the story, but that didn't explain the relief that he felt when he heard verbal confirmation that she was actually alive, even if she wasn't awake, it felt as though a heavy weight had been lifted from his shoulders.
For the past two days, he had been on pins and needles waiting for someone to say something about the mayor. However, he knew that probably wouldn't happen until Emma came back to the apartment.
The blonde noticed that she had piqued his interest and she smiled slightly. She had been legitimately that he would be too stubborn to admit that he cared about her, but now she was slightly more confident that might stop avoiding the truth soon because it didn't fit into his idea of a 'good story'.
She was about to open her mouth to say something else, but she was cut short by the sound of a sharp knock at the door.
The three Charmings each frowned at the door, they didn't usually get visitors to the loft.
Mary Margaret took the initiative and stood from the stool to walk over to the door and yank it open. The moment the smirking man on the other side appeared. She had the urge to slam the door shut in his face, but managed to resist this urge to do so.
"Mr Gold," the former bandit said tightly, "what can I do for you?"
Emma sighed and stood from the stool so that she could see what was going on, but all she could see was that her mother was very much reluctant to actually let Rumplestiltskin near her daughter and grandson.
"I need to speak with Miss Swan and her son," the man replied, "it is rather important."
Mary Margaret looked over her shoulder and Emma just nodded in permission. She was fairly sure that there was no way that he would be able to make things any worse.
The schoolteacher took a step back to allow the man into the loft.
Emma narrowed her eyes at the stack of papers under his arm and a feeling of foreboding overcame her.
"Mayor Mills asked me to look over these papers before…the incident," Rumple announced as he looked straight over to Henry. He may not care about what happened to Regina, but he certainly cared about his grandson, even if Neal was no longer around, he still wanted to protect Henry, which meant not dropping this bombshell only two days after he had seen the woman shot.
However, by the expression on the boy's face, Mr Gold had the distinct feeling that he wouldn't leave if he asked him to, it was probably something that he should be aware of this anyway, so that he would be able to have his say in the matter.
"Why are you bringing them here?" Emma asked as she eyed them suspiciously.
"Well, Regina would have most likely had this discussion with you herself, but with her…situation, I believe that it would be rather important to deal with the matter before…"
The man trailed off when Emma narrowed her eyes and he shot a look over to Henry. Other than a little clench of his jaw, it didn't appear as though he was affected by their conversation.
Emma swallowed hard. Just like Gold, she knew that Henry most likely would not be leaving the room, but she had a distinctly awful feeling that she knew what Gold was about to give them.
"What is it?" Mary Margaret asked when no one made any attempt to speak.
Rumple blew out a breath and walked over to the blonde woman stood protectively by her son.
He handed the first stack of papers over to the saviour and her brows pinched together as she read the first few lines.
"Adoption Dissolution…" Henry read aloud and Emma looked at him in surprise. In her concentration, she hadn't realised that the boy had stood up to peer at the papers.
Mary Margaret's eyebrows shot up at the words and Emma's mouth fell slightly open. Henry's expression, on the other hand, was just blank.
"The contract stipulates that all parental rights will be transferred to you, Miss Swan," Gold explained and then handed her another contract, "and if you sign this, Henry's surname will legally become Swan."
Emma stared at the forms, which already had Regina's signature at the bottom. Her mind was going in overdrive as she worked through what all this meant.
From a logistical point of view, it made complete sense.
Henry hadn't spent a single moment with his 'legal' mother in six months and if the unthinkable did happen to Regina, signing these forms would probably make things easier for Henry from a legal standpoint. Especially if he ever wanted to do anything outside of Storybrooke. She wasn't exactly sure whether the state recognised 'Henry Daniel Mills' as a registered person, since she was pretty certain that no one else in this town were actually registered as American citizens.
It was one of the the questions that she had thought about asking Regina when she had imagined that they could potentially be friends.
However, the thought that Regina could have ever relinquished her parental rights over Henry just didn't feel like something that the Regina she knew would do. Then again, the former Evil Queen had already proved that she was willing to do anything to ensure the boy's safety, so it stood to reason that she would be willing to give away the last thing she had in order to make him happy.
When no one said anything, Gold announced, "I believe this was the main reason that she arranged a meeting with you so hastily…"
Emma's throat constricted at the thought of how that meeting would have gone, she was almost certain that the resigned expression Regina would have been most likely been wearing could've broken the saviour and then she would've have spent the rest of day stressing about telling Henry.
Despite this fear, when she finally looked down to Henry, he looked only a little fazed. The blonde had been certain that she would've at least seen anger flash in his eyes, especially since the circumstances were now much worse than they had been before. However, she kind of hoped that was why he didn't looked too bothered. Maybe he only needed time to come to terms with what had happened at the school and then he would be able to process everything at once. It would certainly help when Regina woke up, since he would be able to actually talk to her and see that she had lied to Jefferson. Of course, her claim that he wasn't her son wasn't being helped by the contract that stated that he no longer was.
"You just need to sign both contracts and I will ensure that they are notarised," Gold said.
Emma started shaking her head. There was no way that she wanted to sign either of these forms. It wasn't as though she didn't want Henry to be her son legally, but she always thought that it would have ended up more in a situation where both she and Regina were his mothers.
Before she could say that she wouldn't be signing, Henry leaned over to the table and grabbed his pen and handed it to Emma without a word.
The blonde looked at him cautiously and he just nodded at her in encouragement.
Emma opened and closed her mouth a few times before she looked over to Mr Gold and said, "I think that we have some things to talk about as a family."
The store owner just rolled his eyes. He had hoped that he would walk away from the apartment with the papers signed since he had no idea that any of the Charmings actually cared about Regina (though he had his suspicions that Henry would one day realise just how much he actually loved the woman). He certainly wouldn't have imagined that the saviour would have passed this opportunity since it would just make everything easier for everyone involved, unless of course, Emma wanted Regina in her life, even if she hadn't shown any indication before the school incident.
The man just nodded and began walking towards the door, "please bring the contracts to my store when you decide."
With that he let himself out and a silence fell over the apartment.
Emma and Mary Margaret exchanged a cautious look as Henry gathered up his worksheets.
"You should just sign it," he shrugged, though it didn't escape either of their notice that he wasn't looking at them, "I'm going to study upstairs."
Jefferson slowly opened his eyes and took a moment to scan the room before his eyes fell onto his arms. One was hung in a sling whilst the other was cuffed to the railing of the bed. He experimentally pulled his arm up and his head fell back against the pillow with a heavy sigh when the chain pulled taut.
"You'll pull your stitches if you slam your shoulder like that," someone tutted.
Jefferson opened his eyes again and narrowed his eyes at the doctor who was standing by his IV bag. Whale closed the hatch below it and smirked before he said, "I decided to lower the morphine, you should probably get used the pain before you go to prison."
The Mad Hatter frowned and shifted in his bed. The morphine was certainly still in his system since he couldn't really feel anything, but the thought of the painkillers wearing off was rather terrifying.
Jefferson opened his mouth to say something, but only a small croak came out. The chain on his handcuffs went taut again when he tried to raise his hand to his throat and he closed his eyes in frustration.
Whale walked forward and grabbed the cup of water with a straw sat in it and held it to Jefferson's face. The man in the bed opened his eyes and then narrowed them at the man; however, he found that he couldn't resist and he began to hungrily drinking the ice-cold water hungrily. Finally, he seemed to decide that he could probably talk now and he leaned backed and looked at the man expectantly. He could tell by the expression on his face that there was something he wanted aside from taking his morphine away.
"You wanted to ruin Regina's life but all you have achieved is putting her in a coma and getting the saviour to realise that she has feelings for her. I don't really think that is exactly the revenge you were going for," Whale explained.
Jefferson frowned at the determination on Frankenstein's face. The fact was, there wasn't much planning that went into his 'revenge' plan. He had kind of just snapped during another breakfast alone without his daughter. If he had thought it through, he probably would have realised that Regina had pretty much already lost Henry and that it would have made much more sense to just go straight to Town Hall rather than waving a gun in an assembly that his daughter was attending. In that moment, his still-groggy mind realised that he had most likely already lost Grace and freedom in one fell swoop. It was for this reason that he couldn't help but think that whatever Whale was planning would be better than just going to prison whilst Regina would probably wake up and get her happy ending. Plus, he had the sneaking suspicion that he would be getting the maximum punishment for his crime if the sheriff had anything to do with it.
"And how do you suppose that I get the 'revenge I was hoping for'?" Jefferson asked with his voice still cracking slightly.
Whale reached into his pocket and pulled out a phial of bright green liquid and Jefferson's eyebrows shot up.
"Science has never particularly worked out in my favour so I decided to start looking more into magic after the curse broke. Of course, I can't cast my own spells, but you don't have be a wizard to make a poison that will replicate the effects of a Death Curse," the doctor said as he inspected his own creation. He was rather proud of it considering how long her had spent studying and preparing it so that it would do exactly what he wanted it to do.
After everything had calmed down, he felt as though he was the only one still outraged by what Regina had done to everyone in this town.
She had torn them away from their lives so that they could live in a little, boring (with the exception of the occasional crisis) town and she made them live the same day over and over again for close to three decades. He didn't feel as that she should be allowed to just carry on being mayor of the people she had cursed. At the same time, however, he didn't feel that simply throwing her into prison would suffice and trying to hurt her himself would only result in him losing his freedom as well.
When he heard about the 'school incident' he knew that an opportunity had finally presented itself. It wasn't as though he could just do something during the surgery. The room was full of people who would have known if he hadn't done absolutely everything he could have to save the mayor. He certainly didn't want to deal with a pissed off saviour who would most likely do everything she could to find out if something happened.
This way, he had the perfect man to take the blame. No one would believe the Mad Hatter if he ever did decided to rat him out, it was the perfect plan.
"I'll let you go and you inject Regina with this while I hold a staff meeting. There will be no one in the hallways and Emma has been instructed not to return until I finish some 'one-to-one heart monitoring'" Whale explained and used his index finger to emphasise the last words, "you slip out and return to Wonderland or whatever," he added as he reached down to the personal effects Emma had asked them to take and he tossed the hat onto the bed.
Jefferson eyed the hat distrustfully, "if I inject Regina with a Death Curse, the heart monitors will alert the whole hospital to my presence."
"Equipment fails all the time, I'll just say that the mayor should have allocated more money to our budget," Whale shrugged, "by the time a nurse comes to do the observations, she'll already be gone and it will be too late to start CPR."
The patient frowned, "I still don't understand…how would just killing Regina be good revenge for you?"
"That's the best part," Whale laughed, almost gleefully, "She won't just be dead, this will keep her body just alive enough so that she appears dead but her soul would never be able to move on. Her spirit would be trapped in Storybrooke and she would have to watch those she loves be happy without her."
Jefferson quirked an eyebrow at the doctor, he was seriously beginning to question whether morphine caused hallucinations.
"Spirits?" he asked.
"Believe me or not, but the fact is that I am offering you a chance at freedom. Say no and I will let the sheriff take you tomorrow, say yes and you will be free and be able to live with the knowledge that Regina Mills wills will be miserable for the rest of eternity."
Jefferson just frowned and Whale rolled his eyes.
"The staff meeting is in two hours, the morphine should have completely worn off. I'll get your answer then."
A/N I would love to hear what you thought, reviews really do help me with productivity lol