A/N: hi guys. I'm back from my holiday in England and am drowning in work after a month's absence. My plan is to update this fic at least weekly. Perhaps more often … but I pledge now that there will be at least one update per week. Hope that's ok! Guesses as to what Henry has welcome - first person who gets it correct can submit a prompt for a one(or more) shot!
The following afternoon Henry and Emma finally left the hospital. Yesterday's rain had left the city grey and dull, a lifeless start to a new year. They walked slowly across the car park, Henry holding tightly to Emma's hand and shuffling along, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Once buckled safely into his seat, they set off the short distance to their flat in Clapham.
Emma had barely tucked Henry into his bed when there was a hammering on the front door. Seconds later, Emma's best friend was bursting into the flat, leaving the blonde standing stock still by open door.
"What happened?" Ruby asked, dyed red hair flying behind her as she rushed towards Henry's bedroom.
"Hi Rubes," Emma said, closing the door and following the ball of energy.
"Not feeling well, my little man?" Ruby asked, sitting on the side of Henry's bed and peering at his pale face.
He shook his head, sniffing slightly.
"Glandular fever," Emma said.
"And they kept him in overnight?" Ruby frowned. "Why?"
Emma glanced at Henry and then nodded her head back towards the living room. Assuring Henry they'd be just outside if he needed anything, the two friends made their way back into the main area of the flat and Emma quickly nipped into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. Once she was settled on the sofa besides Ruby, a hot mug in each of their hands, she began.
"Well, you know I took him to hospital because of his fever," Emma said and Ruby nodded. She had been in the flat when her friend had decided to head to A and E with her son, the temperature too alarming to ignore any longer. "They diagnosed it as glandular fever pretty quickly and did a blood test just to be sure but when the results from that came back the doctor thought something else might be wrong."
"Something else?" Ruby frowned. "What?"
Emma shrugged. "They don't know. They are running tests and they did a spinal tap to check for meningitis but they're not actually sure. Henry's on antibiotics for meningitis already but we won't know the test results until tomorrow morning at the earliest. Doctor Mills is pushing for quick results but the labs can only work as fast as they can."
"Poor Henry," Ruby murmured, sipping her tea. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"I'm ok for now," Emma said. "Killian has said I can take the week off to look after Henry so at least I can be here with him for now. After that, he's happy for me to work from home as well if necessary."
Emma had been relieved but not surprised when her boss had assured her not to hurry back to work before she was able to. She and Killian had met in high school and been firm friends ever since. When the young man opened up an independent publishing house Emma had been his first hire. Although she didn't write herself, the blonde had always had an eye for good literature and had quickly risen to senior editor. The company was only small so Emma's wage wasn't anything impressive but it kept the cupboards stocked and she was squirrelling away enough each month to work towards buying a house in the not too distant future.
"Well, any time you need me to babysit the little man let me know," Ruby said.
"Thanks," Emma said. "I may take you up on that as I have a meeting next week with a new writer I'd really like to attend."
"Name the time and date and I'll make sure Billy does the rota so my shifts ensure I'm free," Ruby said, giving Emma a mock salute. The redhead worked as a mechanic in a specialist car garage, tinkering with high-end sports cars and bikes alongside her boyfriend of three years, Billy.
Emma chuckled lightly and then sighed, flopping back onto the sofa cushions. Ruby placed her empty mug on the table and did the same.
"You ok?" Ruby asked quietly.
"No," came the whispered response. "I'm terrified."
Ruby reached across and squeezed Emma's hand. "They'll find out what's wrong with him soon and he'll be on the mend," she said.
Emma nodded but her expression looked doubtful. She couldn't stop thinking about the fact that the doctors had no family history to go on. Without knowledge of Henry's genetic make-up, she knew the experts were going to have much harder time diagnosing what was causing her son's sickness. She wished she could help them. She wished, not for the first time in her life, she knew who her parents were.
"Have you called Mary and David?" Ruby asked.
"Not yet," Emma said. "I literally just got home."
"I know," Ruby said. "I was waiting for you."
"Stalker," Emma said with a slight smile. Her best friend had moved into the flat opposite when the previous tenant moved out a few years ago. Billy lived there too and Emma had to admit it was great having them both so close by. Even if it did mean Ruby turned up unannounced at all hours of the day and night. Emma suspected that had she not had Henry, she'd have been enjoying the same wild times in her mid-twenties.
Suddenly feeling guilty for thinking of her life without Henry, Emma jumped to her feet and made her way through to her son's bedroom. He had fallen asleep, arms stuck out of the duvet to try and cool himself down. Emma sat down beside him and switched off the bedside lamp, the room now only dimly lit from the small window. She watched him sleep for a while before placing a kiss to his forehead and returning to her friend. Ruby was waiting on the sofa, sensing Emma needed to be alone.
"So, what did I miss?" Emma asked, needing to get off the subject of her son's poor health.
"Not much," Ruby said. "Billy was working yesterday, so I was bored but too hungover to really do much even if I had had company. I worked this morning but came home at lunch because the garage was dead."
"Business slow?"
"Nah," Ruby replied. "It was more that no one wants to deal with fixing their cars up on a bank holiday. We'll have people back in tomorrow."
They chatted for another hour or so until they were interrupted by a sniffling Henry emerging from his room, asking for some food. Given that he hadn't eaten anything for almost two days, Emma was ecstatic at the apparent progress and at once whisked her son into the kitchen so they could together decide what their dinner was going to consist of. Ruby let herself out after saying goodbye, reminding Emma that should the blonde need anything, both she and Billy were just across the hall.
Regina stared out of the window of her penthouse, chewing her thumb. She was due in work in little over an hour and she hadn't truly been able to switch off since she had left the hospital eleven hours previous. She had always prided herself on being able to separate herself from her patients. As a paediatrician it was essential for her not to allow her emotions to cloud her professional judgement. Usually she succeeded. But those wide brown eyes of a certain little boy had eventually forced her to take a sleeping tablet to ensure she got enough rest before her following night shift that evening.
The rota was killing her already. Four days of straight night shifts and she had three more left. She had never been good at sleeping during the day but when she didn't sleep, well, that was when mistakes started to happen. She forced herself to move away from dwelling on that subject. But her mind just slipped back onto Henry Swan, conjuring images of his little body wrapped in the hospital blanket.
What could be wrong with him? she thought to herself, wracking her brains to try and list all the possible diagnoses she would have to check for. There were so many, she decided. The symptoms too varied, the family history too sparse. She had no way of narrowing down the search parameters in the vast universe of medical possibilities. She glanced at the clock again. Still forty-five minutes to go.
She returned to staring out of the window, darkness already shrouding the city across which thousands and thousands of lights now glittered. A train rattled past, the sound barely identifiable at the height she now stood. But she could see it pulling in, the vast expanse of tracks which marked Clapham Junction station shimming still from the earlier rain.
To hell with it, she thought, grabbing her handbag, phone and keys. The penthouse door slammed behind her seconds later.
"What are you doing here?" asked Doctor Whale.
"I wanted to chat with you before I took over," Regina explained to her fellow doctor who was perusing an x-ray of what was clearly a three broken ribs.
"About what?"
"Henry Swan," Regina said. "The six year old with glandular fever and those strange blood results yesterday. Did we get the lumbar puncture test back yet?"
"No," Doctor Whale said slowly. "And if we had, I would have notified the mother."
"Of course," Regina said. "I wasn't suggesting otherwise. I was just … curious. I mean, do you have any thoughts about what we could be dealing with?"
Doctor Whale shrugged and slid the x-ray back into its folder. "Meningitis is a good guess," he said, turning to Regina. "Not much we can do before those results come back anyway. That or the kid so we can run more tests. They checked out this afternoon, you know."
"Yeah," Regina nodded. "Well, I guessed they would. Nothing more we can do for them is there."
Doctor Whale frowned at the forlorn tone in Regina's voice. "Hey, we did what we could for him," he said. "We're doing what we can for him. And we're A and E doctors, remember? If this is something more, it's not our place to investigate anyway."
"I know," Regina nodded. "Thanks Victor."
"You're welcome. Now, do you want to go over my notes for patients who are actually here?"
Regina couldn't help but laugh and nodded her agreement to the suggestion. Together, the two doctors set about going over the information for the eleven different unlucky people who had ended up in A and E so far that day whose care was about to be in Regina's hands.
Emma slept badly that night, getting up at least every hour to check Henry. Most of those visits found the boy asleep but at four in the morning she had come across him sat up in bed, crying quietly. She had held him to her chest, cradling hims softly and reassuring him that everything would be alright. He was in pain and uncomfortable and Emma's heart was breaking. There was nothing she could do however, except give him a paracetamol and wait until he had at last fallen asleep once more.
By the time Emma finally gave up on trying to get a good night's sleep it was seven in the morning. Yawning as she flicked on the kettle, she reluctantly pulled out her phone and checked her work emails. There were a few she knew she ought to answer, even though the day was technically a bank holiday and Killian had given her the week off. She set about sending a quick reply to a writer newly signed to the publishing house as she waited for her tea to become ready.
Just as she had pressed send, Henry appeared in the doorway. He had dragged his duvet behind him and was shrouded in a elaborate cape, Batman's printed image downwards so it looked like he was diving headlong into the kitchen floor.
"Hi buddy," Emma said, crouching down to his level so they could hug. "How was your sleep?"
"I'm thirsty," Henry said, ignoring the question.
Emma got a glass of milk for her son and steered him into the living room where he climbed up onto the sofa and she tucked the duvet back around him. He requested toast with Nutella for breakfast. Normally Emma wouldn't allow him to have eaten a chocolate based breakfast when it wasn't a special occasion but he had eaten so little of the pasta she had cooked last night that she was happy to give him anything which would actually pass his lips. She thought he looked thinner, although quickly shook that thought from her head and headed towards the kitchen to make her son his breakfast.
Henry managed to eat almost an entire slice before pushing the plate away, chocolate spread smeared around his mouth and he smiled slightly as Emma took the remaining food back into the kitchen. Staring out of the window, Emma watched the sky lighten over London and glanced at the clock. Almost eight in the morning. She couldn't wait until the dark winter faded away into a distant memory and they could enjoy being outside before and after school again. Just as she was about to return to the living room her mobile began to ring. Emma frowned at the early call from an unknown number but answered it anyway.
"Hello?"
"Hello, is that Miss Swan?" came the voice on the other end.
"Speaking," Emma nodded.
"Miss Swan, it's Regina Mills from King's College Hospital here, how are you?"
"Oh, Doctor Mills," Emma said, heart suddenly beating faster. "I'm fine thanks, you?"
"I'm very well, thank you," Regina replied. "And how is young Henry?"
"He's doing ok," Emma said, moving to the kitchen door so she could peer through it to check her son was still on the sofa watching television. He was. "He ate a little pasta last night and some toast this morning."
"Vegetables and fruit would be better," Regina said. "But at least he's eating."
"There was broccoli with the pasta," Emma defended. "And it was whole grain toast."
"I'm sorry," Regina said. "I didn't mean to imply anything but it is important Henry receives as many vitamins as he can."
"I know," Emma said. There was a slight pause. "Um, are you calling with some results?"
"Oh, yes," Regina said, sounding slightly like she had been jolted out of a reverie. "We got the test from the lumbar puncture back just now and Henry has tested negative for meningitis."
Emma let out a long, low exhale of relief and was immediately filled with a second wave of dread.
"So what is wrong with him?" Emma asked. "If it's not meningitis and it's not only glandular fever, what is it?"
"We still don't know," Regina admitted. "But we have decided it would be in Henry's best interests to return to Kings College as soon as possible, check into the paediatric ward and then my colleagues up there can get to work finding out what's wrong."
"Your colleagues?" Emma said. "So, we'd get a new doctor?"
She didn't know why but suddenly the idea of Henry having a doctor, any doctor, who wasn't Regina Mills was suddenly very unappealing to the blonde.
"I'm afraid I'm based in A and E," Regina said. "But I'd be happy to come up to the ward once Henry's settled in and see how his doctor is getting on."
"No, it's ok," Emma said, knowing she sounded petty kicking up a fuss about something so trivial when all that mattered was the fact that there was going to be someone working out what was wrong with her son. "I'm sure the new doctor will be just as good as you."
"She's fantastic," Regina assured. "In fact, she's a friend of mine and I've specifically requested her for Henry's case. Her name is Zelena West and she's a fellow paediatrician. I think you'll find her quite charming and highly competent."
Emma smiled at that. She didn't think anyone has ever described another human as 'charming' to her before. She found herself wondering what Regina's background was. She came from money, of that Emma was sure due to the way the brunette carried herself and spoke. Well educated, of course, and highly intelligent. The fact that she was a fully qualified paediatrician at such a young age made that evident.
"Miss Swan?"
Her name brought the blonde back down to earth with a bump. "What?"
"Is that ok?" Regina repeated. "For me to refer you to Doctor West?"
"Um, yeah," Emma said. "If that's what you thin is best for Henry."
"I do," Regina said. "Doctor West comes on shift this afternoon so I suggest you come to the hospital any time after two. "Tell her you met me in A and E and she'll see you right away."
"Thank you, Doctor Mills," Emma said. "Thank you very much."
"You're welcome, Miss Swan. "Please send my best wishes to Henry. Oh, and you can stop giving him those meningitis tablets too."
"I figured as much," Emma chuckled.
"Of course, I just thought I'd check. Good luck this afternoon."
"Thank you," Emma said.
With that, the call ended and Emma leaned against the door frame, watching her son who was sipping some milk tentatively. Back to hospital. More tests. More uncertainty. She knew meningitis was serious but at least it was treatable. Now however, they were back to square one with no possible leads as to what Henry might be suffering from. She didn't know how to tell him, what to tell him, how much he was already aware of. Making a mental note to ask this new Doctor West about how to broach the subject with Henry, Emma set about packing an overnight bag for her son. She got the feeling they were not going to find themselves back in the apartment that evening.
