A/N: hey guys. I did say this was going to be less frequent - work has been crazy. And I'll warn you now, next week is even more manic but I will do my upmost to get you a chapter by next Friday.


Henry had grumbled slightly when Emma had gently broken the news that they had to return to the hospital but had been placated by the knowledge that he no longer had to take the large pills his mother had been serving up. What he didn't understand was that the misdiagnosis of meningitis opened up an infinite realm of other possibilities. He had climbed sleepily into the back of Emma's car, the blonde silently saying prayers of thanks to herself for deciding to keep and maintain the old vehicle. Since moving to London when she was eighteen, she had been debating getting rid of the old Volkswagen Beetle. After all, no one drove in the capital. But she hadn't been able to part with the sunshine yellow bug and it was now proving its worth.

It didn't take long to drive to the hospital in the early afternoon traffic and Emma was soon parking outside. Henry looked up at the vast building as they walked back towards it, seemingly sceptical as to whether the trained professionals inside really would help. After all, last time all they had done was prod needles in his body and given him yucky medicine which made him even more sleepy.

Rather than walking into A and E, the two of them headed to the main admittance area where they could check into the ward. This part of the hospital was quieter and rather less hectic than the emergency department had been. In fact, there was only one other person in the space, a black man staring intently at a computer screen behind the reception, tapping away on the keyboard.

"Hi," Emma said as she approached the main desk. "We were in A and E yesterday but then I got a phone call saying to come here and check my son in. We were told to ask for Doctor Zelena West."

"You don't request doctors," the young man on reception frowned. "This is the NHS, you know. You get whoever is available."

Emma blushed. She hadn't intended to sound entitled in any way. "Sorry," she said hastily. "It was just that Doctor Mills told us to ask for her."

Brown eyes opened. "Regina?" he asked. "She referred you to Doctor West?"

"Yes," Emma said, nodding slowly as she noted how the man's eyes lit up at the mention of Doctor Mills.

"Well then of course I'll go and find her right away for you. Please take a seat with your son and I'll be back in a few minutes."

Stunned by the sudden turn around, Emma led Henry over to some comfortable chairs and allowed him to clamber onto her lap. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and began to suck as he looked around the new environment.

"Henry," Emma scolded, gently pulling his thumb from between his lips.

"But I'm sick," he argued, pouting at his mother's continued attempts to stop his childhood habit.

"Do you want braces?" Emma asked.

The pout continued, the mild threat of years of orthodontist visits doing little to abate his desire to return to his old comfort method, especially now he found himself back in hospital again. But he rested his head on Emma's shoulder instead just as a woman with bright orange hair entered the waiting area followed by the man from reception hurrying along behind her.

"Miss Swan?" asked the woman as she approached the little family.

"Yes," Emma said, unable to get up with Henry in her lap so she stretched out her hand. "Doctor West?"

"Indeed," Doctor West said, shaking Emma's offered hand. "And this must be Henry," she added, crouching down and smiling up into his face, half hidden in Emma's hair.

"Hi," Henry said, shrinking still further into his mother's body.

"Doctor Mills spoke to me this morning and we reviewed your notes. If you'd like to follow me, I can get you checked into the room. Sidney," she said, turning to the man hovering nearby, "can you go and find Nurse Belle please. Regina wanted her on this case too."

The man named Sidney nodded at once and rushed off. Emma briefly wondered whether it was normal for emergency doctors to go to such efforts to make sure patients were seen by specific members of the medical staff but had little time to dwell on that fact before she was following Doctor West through the clean corridors, Henry trotting beside her until they reached the private room.

The decorations in their new room were from Finding Nemo this time and Henry trailed his fingers along Dory's fin as Emma helped him change into the hospital gown. As she worked, Emma answered some basic questions which Doctor West was asking about Henry's health since they had left the hospital the previous day. She then helped her son to climb into the large bed and tucked him in, whereby he looked curiously between the two doctors.

"Am I sick?" he asked bluntly, interrupting Emma's explanation of how Henry had slept the night before.

"Well," Doctor West said, taking the question in her stride. "We know you have a nasty fever called glandular fever but Doctor Mills thought there was something else wrong with you as well so she asked me to find out."

"You're a doctor like Gina?" Henry asked.

"Exactly," Doctor West said, waggling her stethoscope. "But she doesn't work in this part of the hospital much so she wanted me to look after you. Is that ok?"

Henry nodded. "Is Gina going to come and see me too?"

"I'm sure that can be arranged," Doctor West smiled. "And in the meantime, you can call me Zelena. Or Lena, for short if you want."

"Lena and Gina," Henry giggled. "It sounds funny."

Emma and Zelena laughed too, both pleased to see that whatever was wrong with the small boy wasn't completely getting him down. They left him with the television remote to occupy himself so Zelena and Emma could then sit down and all through the doctor's plans, theories, and to give Emma an opportunity to ask questions and offer her own opinion of Doctor West's ideas. Emma was thoroughly impressed with what she heard, even though half of the medical terms meant very little to her. Doctor West explained everything Emma asked for more about and made the blonde relax slightly, knowing her son was in good hands. Just before they were about to return to Henry, Zelena asked Emma if there was anything else she wanted to say.

"Just find out what's wrong," Emma said. "I just … yeah, I can't watch him suffer."

"Do you think he's in pain?" Zelena asked.

Emma glanced at her son. "He keeps mentioning that his body feels achy," she said. "And I know how horrible it is to have a fever. At least he's not throwing up or anything but yeah, I don't think he's comfortable."

"Achy?" Zelena said.

"Yes but Doctor Mills did a test for meningitis and it came back negative."

"I know," Zelena said. "I was with Regina when she got the results. That's why she asked me to take the case."

"You guys are friends?"

"We went through medical school together," Zelena nodded. "I've known her since I was five."

"She said you were the best paediatrician in this hospital."

"She's better, actually," Zelena said. "But she can't take the case with her position in A and E. She wanted to though, I could see it in her eyes. I'm sure she'll come and check on you this evening before her shifts starts."

Emma couldn't help but smile. It felt good to at least have doctors treating Henry who not only cared but were also working together to find out what was wrong.

"So," Emma said. "What do you want to do first?"

"I'm going to put him on a drip again," she said. "We need to get that fever down and his body stronger because the sooner the glandular symptoms fade, the more easily we'll be able to identify what else is going on. And then I want to run a couple more blood tests, if that's ok?"

"Whatever helps,"Emma said. "Just try to limit the number of needles."

Zelena nodded her understanding. "I'll do my best."

Just then, the door opened and a familiar face appeared.

"Hi guys," Belle said. "Remember me?"

Henry nodded and waved and Emma held out her hand for Belle to shake. The nurse received her orders from Zelena and headed off to find everything the doctor needed whilst Emma and Zelena explained what was going to happen to Henry. Belle, Emma discovered, had a calming effect on her son and he barely batted an eyelid when the Australian attached the drip and got him set up on his new IV. She then sat with Emma and Henry for a while, chatting away about this and that whilst Zelena did a brief check up and took some blood samples. Emma knew the woman was just distracting her from the doctor prodding and poking her son but she was grateful nonetheless.


Five hours later and Henry was sleeping, most of his dinner still sitting on his plate, his appetite not yet returned. Emma had barely picked at her own food, sick with worry rather than anything else. Doctor West had stopped by earlier to check on them but there was little they could do before the blood work came back. Emma was just settling into her chair to watch a quiz show on television when there was a knock on the door. She stood to open it, rather than shouting out and waking Henry.

"Doctor Mills," she said, when she saw the figure on the other side of the door. "Hi."

"Hello," Regina said. "How are you?"

"Fine," Emma shrugged.

Regina ignored the fact that the blonde had given her a non-answer. She knew exactly how Emma was. A sick child was every parent's nightmare. In fact, she made a note to herself to stop asking Emma how she was. Terrible, clearly, was the answer. Not that she looked terrible, Regina mused, glancing at the woman before her. A little pale, perhaps, but otherwise in great physical shape.

"Um, Doctor Mills?"

Regina snapped her eyes back to Emma's face, forcing the blush from her cheeks. "Sorry, did you say something?"

"I asked how you were," Emma said.

"Oh, good thanks," Regina said. "I start my shift in half an hour but I wanted to see how the two of you were settling in, if … if that's ok?"

Emma smiled. "Of course, thank you for coming. And thank you for recommending Doctor West. She's great and Henry really likes her."

"She's the best, I told you," Regina said.

"Actually Doctor West said exactly the same about you," Emma grinned.

Regina rolled her eyes. She and her best friend only ever complimented one another to other people, never face to face. It was nice to be validated, however, although she knew she was a good doctor.

"So, how's Henry?" Regina asked, catching sight of the boy sleeping over his mother's shoulder.

"Same, I guess," Emma said, standing aside so Regina could enter the room. She closed the door and the two of them walked to the bedside, looking down at Henry who lay oblivious to the women watching him. "He sleeps a lot."

"The fever," Regina said quietly. "It's good for him to rest. Don't worry too much about that."

"Oh I'm worrying about everything," Emma scoffed. "Does he have this or that and will the doctors find out in time and what's going to happen if they don't and -."

"Hey," Regina hissed. "Stop that."

Emma looked down at the floor, fingernails digging into her palm. Regina hesitated before reaching out and patting Emma's back comfortingly.

"We're going to find out what's wrong with him, Miss Swan, I promise. Doctor West is the best in this department and if I can help out in any way I can, please let me know. But negative thoughts are not going to help. Henry needs you present and positive right now. Don't let yourself get consumed with thoughts of the worst."

"The worst?" Emma asked, looking up at last with her green eyes filled with tears. "What's the worst?"

Regina bit her lip. "We can't speculate, Miss Swan. Not yet. It won't do anyone any good."

"Cancer?"

"We can't guess at this stage," Regina repeated. "And I'm not Henry's doctor, so you really should be discussing this with Doctor West."

"But you think he might have cancer?" Emma said, stepping away from the bed and beckoning Regina out into the corridor so they could talk without waking Henry. As soon as the door shut behind them, Emma rounded on the doctor. "You think my son has cancer and you didn't tell me?"

Regina held her hands up defensively. "Woah, Miss Swan, I never said that."

"You didn't deny it," Emma snapped.

Regina sighed and gestured for the desperate mother to sit down. Emma threw herself into the hospital chair and folded her arms, hugging herself tightly as she hunched over so it seemed to Regina like the woman was trying to squeeze herself into nonexistence.

"Miss Swan," Regina said gently. "I promise you that as soon as Doctor West knows anything, she will tell you. But until that time, it's really important you don't allow your imagination to run away with you. I'm not able right now to give you the answers you need but I also know that worrying about something which might never come to pass isn't going to help everyone."

"But what if it is," Emma said, her voice barely more than a whisper. "What if it's … cancer."

Regina took a deep breath. "Then we'll deal with it," she said. "Henry is in the best place he can be right now, ok? We're doing all we can for him and as soon as those test results show anything conclusive, we're gong to be working hard to get him better as quickly as possible."

Emma nodded but said nothing. She was exhausted, her mind running wild with scenarios of Henry's sickness as she sat beside the brunette doctor. She knew Doctor Mills was right, she knew she needed to stay positive. But it was much harder to actually do so when she couldn't get away from the thought of Henry having cancer. Cancer. The big C.

"I have to go," Regina said quietly after a while. "My shift starts in a few minutes. Can you say hello to Henry from me when he wakes up?"

"Yeah, sure," Emma said. "Thanks Doctor Mills."

"Call me Regina," the brunette offered.

Emma winced. "I'd rather not."

Eyebrows rose. "Um, ok," Regina said, getting to her feet. "I guess I'll be heading off then."

"No, sorry," Emma said, jumping to her feet and catching Regina's wrist. "I didn't mean I didn't like your name. It's … regal."

Regina couldn't help but laugh. "Thanks."

"I just … getting to know your doctors by their first name, it makes me think we might be here for a while," Emma admitted. "It's scary. If I keep calling you Doctor Mills, perhaps we'll be out of here by tomorrow morning. Stupid theory, I know. But I'm grasping at any shred of hope I can right now."

Regina smiled weakly. "It's not stupid at all," she said. "And I very much hope you prove me right and are out of here tomorrow. Good night, Miss Swan."

She turned and walked down the corridor, clutching her wrist where Emma's hand had clasped her body, the skin tingling with the residual touch. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath as she rounded the corner and headed towards A and E.