One week, then two, came and went by quickly. Regina started working full shifts again at the office, and she almost felt like she was her old self again. But every night she'd come home to Emma and they would watch movies or play games together. The mayor noticed Emma would talk about Henry less and less. He was always out somewhere. She stopped asking her questions about him as well. This should be a relief, but it worried Regina a lot. She really didn't know Emma, and this could be the calm before the storm.
"Madame Mayor I needed those tax documents yesterday!" Sidney burst into the office, pacing back and forth. Regina let out a deep breath and rubbed her temples. Her mind was on other things and she couldn't focus. "I'm sorry, Sidney. I'll get them to you as soon as I can." She said through gritted teeth.
Graham came into the room quickly, out of breath. "I need you down at the hospital. Now." He said. Regina immediately stood up and grabbed her coat, following the sheriff out and leaving a rattled Sidney behind. "What is it?" She asked once they were in the car. Graham just shook his head and turned on his lights, stepping on the gas.
The car screeched to a halt in front of the emergency part of the hospital and Graham led the way inside. She stopped as she saw Emma surrounded by doctors and aggressively swinging an IV pole at them. "Miss Swan, please calm down!" Whale tried to grab the object but the blonde took a swing that nearly hit him. "I want to see my son! Where is Henry? You took him!" She screamed.
"Emma!" Regina called out. The woman looked over and when she saw her she immediately dropped the pole and came over, hysterical. "Regina something happened with Henry they brought him here I saw it and now they're lying and won't let me see him!" She panicked. "Emma. Emma calm down." Regina said gently.
"Miss Swan, Henry isn't real. We've never seen your son before." Whale said. "Regina is his mother!" Emma yelled at the doctor. She turned to the mayor and grasped her hands in her own. "Please Regina, tell them. Tell them the truth. Henry brought me here to Storybrooke and he's your son. Please."
Regina looked at the blonde sadly, tears filling her eyes. This was the moment she was dreading. She never should have let her stay or pretended for so long. "Emma he's not real. I don't have any children. You showed up on my doorstep one night and I let you stay because I wanted to help you. I'm sorry."
Emma pulled away from her, tears streaming down her face. "You're lying. He's real. My son is real. He was brought here. You did this. You hurt him. I knew from the minute I saw those bruises that something was wrong. And now he's- you evil bitch!"
The brunette was knocked to the ground and Emma climbed on top of her, nails scratching her face before she wrapped her hands around her throat. Regina clawed at the hands, gasping for air. Graham quickly sprang into action, and with Whales' help they pulled Emma off of her. "I trusted you! You were my friend! I hate you! I hate you!" She screamed over and over. Then she started clutching her stomach and crying out in pain. "It hurts!" She moaned.
Graham helped her up and they watched as Whale stuck a needle into the blonde's arm. Emma went limp, and she was taken to the back room. "Are you alright?" Whale asked, examining Regina. "I'm fine. I knew I shouldn't have let her stay with me. I just- I saw something in her and I thought I could break through that wall." She started to cry, and Graham put his arm around her.
"Madame Mayor." Regina turned to see Gold limp into the hospital. Whale handed her a tissue and she wiped her eyes. "Yes?" She said. "I found a phone number for Neal Cassidy, as well as a location. He is located in Boston." The man handed her a sheet of paper. "Thank you." Regina took out her phone and started to dial the number.
Graham gently grabbed her wrist. "Regina, what are you doing?" He asked. "I'm going to find out who this man is. He may be able to help Emma." She answered. "Even after all of this, you're still determined to help this woman? She's mentally unwell. She tried to hurt you."
She met his eyes, seeing how worried he was. "Maybe, but the time we spent together was real. She's still a person, Graham. She's my friend. I can't just abandon her now." She stepped away and called the number. "Hello?" A man's voice answered. "Is this Neal Cassidy?" The mayor asked. "Who is this?" The man asked, on guard. "My name is Regina Mills, and I'm mayor of Storybrooke. I was hoping you could tell me about a woman named Emma Swan."
"Emma. Is she okay? Where is she?" The man started to panic. "She's here in Storybrooke. She arrived here a couple weeks ago and she has been staying with me ever since. However, we seemed to have an incident with her. She's fine, but she's in the hospital." The mayor listened and was met with silence on the other end. "God, Emma. I can't handle this. Yes, I'm Neal Cassidy." The man seemed to be talking to himself. "Could we meet?" Regina asked. "Alright. If you can make it to Boston, I'll give you an address."
The mayor hung up and went back inside to inform Graham that she was leaving. "I'm coming with you." The sheriff said, following her back to the police cruiser. "No. I need you to stay here and watch Emma. Let me know how she's doing."
Graham slammed on the brakes and pulled the car over. "Damn it, Regina! Do you know how crazy this sounds? You let a stranger into your home, a psychotic woman, despite my pleas. Then you go along with this crazy make believe story of hers, and now even after she attacked you, you want to go meet a grown man by yourself in a city you've hardly been to. If he was affiliated with Miss Swan in any way, he could be mental as well!"
Regina stared out the window, trying to keep her cool. "I appreciate your concern, Sheriff. But in case you weren't aware, I am a grown woman and also the mayor. I need to help Emma. I know it's crazy, but I care about her. Something's wrong inside her head, and I watched her struggle day after day and I couldn't do anything. Please. Just let me do this."
Graham gently turned her head so she was looking into his eyes. Then he leaned forward and ever so gently touched his lips to hers before pulling away. The whole moment lasted seconds, but Regina felt her heart jump nonetheless. "Okay. But you need to promise you will update me every 30 minutes. I don't want to see you get hurt."
The brunette reached a hand up to stroke his face before softly returning a kiss. "I promise."
He held her gaze for a few seconds longer before starting the car again and driving her home. An hour later she was packed and headed on the road. When she arrived in Boston she checked into the hotel she had booked a room at and called Neal. "You made it. I'll meet you in 30 minutes at Render Coffee."
Soon, she was walking into the coffee shop. She suddenly realized she had no idea what this man looked like. "Regina Mills?" A man that looked to be about Emma's age approached her. "Neal Cassidy." He held out his hand and she shook it before following him to a table. "At least this place isn't some hole in the wall." The mayor thought to herself. "I ordered chai tea. I hope you don't mind, it's my favorite thing here."
"Not at all. I'm not a big coffee drinker myself." Regina answered as a waitress came over with their drinks. "So, Emma. Is she okay?" The man leaned forward anxiously. "For now she is. How did you know her?" Regina asked. "We were in the same foster home together for awhile. The foster parents were abusive, so we both escaped and set out on our own. Seeing as we were almost 18, the law didn't really try to stop us."
Regina nodded, patiently waiting for him to continue. "We started dating, and we both got jobs as bail bonds people. The year after that was great. We were in love, we made good money, lived in a good neighborhood. We had finally made it." He paused to take another drink of his tea. "Emma says that she got arrested for a crime she didn't commit. I assume you were the man that framed her?" Regina interjected.
Neal stared at her for a second, confused. "She told you that? That's all wrong. Did she- did she mention anything about a baby?"
"That's actually the reason she came to Storybrooke. She said she had given her son Henry up for adoption since she was so young. She had told me that I adopted him and he showed her how to find our town." The mayor set the grey and red scarf she had swiped from Emma's room on the table.
Neal started to cry and he picked the scarf up carefully. "Emma got pregnant a year after we started dating. We were both really happy to start a family and so we started buying baby things to get ready. We found out we were going to have a boy. But one night Emma woke up with really bad pains in her stomach. I took her to the hospital and it turns out she lost the baby."
Regina could feel her own eyes filling with tears, and she quickly wiped them away. "This was going to be his first baby blanket. It was mine but Emma loved it so I gave it to her." He wiped his eyes and set the scarf down. "Was Henry the name you had picked out?" Regina asked, her voice shaking. Neal nodded, closing his eyes.
Now tears were falling down her face, and she couldn't do anything to stop them. "Emma didn't accept that our son was gone. At first I thought she was just depressed. She spent a lot of time in the nursery we set up, rocking with this scarf in her arms. But then she started talking about him as if he was really here, like she could see him. She would come home with new baby clothes and toys."
"Poor Emma. I can't imagine the pain she must have gone through." Regina thought, her heart breaking. "I suggested she go see a counselor and get some help. She wouldn't listen to me. Every time I would try to tell her Henry wasn't real, she would get upset and yell at me. Sometimes she would even get violent. So I took her to the hospital, and they recommended she be moved into a mental facility. So I took her. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do but I did it because I loved her. I still do."
Regina reached her hand out and grasped his. "I am so sorry." She said. He gently squeezed her hand, trying to regain his composure. "I wasn't ever able to visit Emma because I wasn't considered family but when I learned she got out I started looking for her, hoping she was okay."
"How did she find me? How did she find Storybrooke?" Regina asked. Neal shook his head. "We talked about going to Storybrooke way back when we were in the foster system. We thought it sounded like a good place to settle down. It was a small town; we could start over. Emma must have got it in her head that she gave our baby up for adoption and thought Storybrooke is the place he would be. She was never in jail. She was in the mental institution for a year. I've been looking for her the past 9 years."
"But how did she find me? She knew who I was. She knew where I lived." Regina said, disturbed. "Emma had a talent for finding people. She must have researched Storybrooke and found you. You said you were the mayor, right?"
Regina nodded. "It makes sense Emma would pick the most important person in town. Look, I'm sorry for whatever she did to cause you trouble. She would never hurt anyone and she's a great woman, she just- something snapped inside her head and now she doesn't know what's real anymore."
"I let her stay with me for the past couple weeks. I was hoping to help her, but she attacked me one day. She thought I hurt him. She's in the hospital right now so she can't hurt herself or anyone else. I thought I could help her accept that he wasn't real, but I just made matters worse. For her and myself. I got to know this woman, she became my friend. And now because of me she's hit rock bottom."
"Could I come back with you and see her? It's just I've been looking for so long I can't just turn away. I love her."
"Of course." Regina answered. Soon, the two of them were headed out of Boston back to Storybrooke. They stopped at the hospital, and Neal followed her in. "How is she?" The mayor asked Whale. "We have her restrained and sedated, but she's awake." He led the two into the back. "Are you okay?" Graham asks, following behind them. "I'm alright." Regina took his hand. Whale stopped in front of a room. Regina went in with Neal behind her.
Emma's eyes lit up when she saw the brunette, but when she saw Neal her face darkened. "What is he doing here?" She demanded. "I found him and he told me everything, Emma." Regina said gently. "Emma- "Neal stepped forward. "Get away from me!" She yelled at him. "Emma, he's here to help." Graham said. "He locked me up and abandoned me! He didn't care about me or Henry!" Emma screamed, tears filling her eyes.
"Emma, I love you. I only put you in that hospital because I didn't know what else to do. Our son died but yet you kept acting like he wasn't gone."
"Shut up. I hate you!" The blonde started sobbing, and Regina felt her heart break. "I lost my baby. I wasn't able to save him." She cried. Neal loosened the restraints and held Emma in his arms as she clung to him. Regina stepped out with Graham to give the two some privacy, needing a break herself.