Chapter seven
Snow paced back and forth as she inspected her feverish daughter.
They hadn't long returned from their unwanted trip to the Enchanted Forest and she had been so relieved when she got to see her husband and grandson again, but they hadn't been allowed to stay in this state of happiness for long.
The day after they had come back, Emma had started feeling sick, and now, just four hours after her first sneeze, it appeared as though she was on the brink of death.
Whale had tried to help, but he assured her that there was nothing in this world that it could have been, he had even tried giving the saviour some IV antibiotics in the hopes that it would do something, but she just continued to get worse.
Now she was in some strange place between consciousness and unconsciousness with her parents standing next to her bed worried out of their minds.
"She can't die," Henry sniffled from his position sat on the plastic chair, "she's the saviour, this isn't how the story was supposed to end."
David put his hand on the boy's shoulder and nodded, "none of us want that to happen, Henry, but...we just not sure what there is left to do. Gold refuses to help, and we don't even know what's wrong with her…"
Henry bit his lip and stared at his birth mother's disturbed expression as she fought against the fever.
He had been thinking about a solution for a while, but he had tried to convince himself that there was another way. That Doctor Whale would find out what was wrong with Emma and they would all be able to go home and live happily ever after as a family, but he could hardly deny that there was nothing more the doctor could do.
"I know someone else who might know what this is," he mumbled.
Snow's mouth fell open as she realised exactly who the boy was talking about, she had considered it as well, but she was sure there was nothing she could say to get the Evil Queen to save the saviour.
Henry noticed that she was about to dispute his words, so he just continued, "mom promised me that she would do anything to prove to me that she's changed. If I ask her to help, then she will."
"But you said she's evil…" David frowned.
The brunette nodded slightly, though his expression suggested that he was rather conflicted about whether this was true.
"While Emma and grandma were gone, she did everything that you asked her to. She even absorbed a death curse to save you guys, if she wanted Emma dead, then she's had plenty of opportunities to do it since the curse broke…besides, do we really have any other option?"
Snow let out a deep breath and brought out her phone, handing it to her grandson, she said, "ask her then."
Half an hour later, the three conscious Charmings stared intently at Regina as she inspected the patient.
She had certainly been shocked to get the call from her son, but she had nonetheless rushed over to the hospital to do what he had asked. Of course he didn't know that she was far more invested in the saviour keeping her life than she would admit to anybody at this point.
"I think I know what it is," she announced, "it's a fairly rare infection from the Enchanted Forest, so it stands to reason that Doctor Whale never came across it."
"The why haven't me or David seen it before?" Snow asked rather accusatorily.
"Because," Regina began through gritted teeth, reminding herself that she couldn't very well have tried to hurt Snow White in front of her son, "as I said, Snow, it was fairly rare. The only reason I have seen it before was because one of our servants contracted it. Emma doesn't have the same immunities to the Enchanted Forest as we do…"
The princess narrowed her eyes and considered saying 'and whose fault is that?' before she realised that Regina was here to help her daughter. It was for this reason that she just simply nodded and asked, "is there anything you can do?"
Regina considered this for a moment, before she nodded, "can you guarantee that Emma has magic?"
"I saw it with my own eyes, why?" the other brunette asked with narrowed eyes.
The mayor took a deep breath and prayed that this would work.
She wasn't fond of the idea of revealing that the servant who'd had it had been swiftly replaced by Cora without any care for their well-being. She had tried to convince her father that they should have at least taken him to a healer in the hopes that his last days would be more comfortable, but the nearest town was just too far away for her mother not to notice her insubordination had she taken the trip. Even after all her years as the Evil Queen, this was still something that bothered her deeply, and she guessed that it was because she hadn't yet been evil when she had made the decision to allow that man to die a slow and painful death. She certainly wouldn't be allowing it to happen again, especially not to the woman who she tried to convince herself that she didn't have strong feelings for.
"If my theory is correct, then I should be able to cast a simple charm and her own magic will be able to protect her from the infection. After some time has passed, it should hopefully die and she will be able to leave Storybrooke freely…"
"Should be?" David squeaked, "you mean that there's a chance she won't ever be able to go anywhere without magic?"
"If my estimations are correct, it should only take a few months for her to return to full health…"
"Do it," Henry announced, throughout the entire conversation he had been staring at Emma's heart monitor and her BP had dropped two points, which made his stomach clench. "Please mom?"
Regina's mouth fell open slightly, not that his words affected her decision since she already knew she was going to do this, but it still meant more than she could express that he used the word she hadn't heard him say sincerely in a while.
Nodding, she turned back to face the saviour and held her hovered both hands over her.
Whispering a quick spell, she dropped her hands and looked over to the heart monitor, at the same time as the other three in the room.
They all waited with bated breath, but it didn't take long for her BP to begin to rise.
Henry practically leapt out of his seat and brought his arms around Regina, "you did it!"
The oldest brunette smiled down at him and then looked over at the blonde, who was slowly opening her eyes, seemingly taking her time to adjust to the light in the room.
Once Emma did though, she furrowed her brow at the sight of Henry hugging his other mother, not that it wasn't something she didn't want to see, she had assumed that she would never see it happen.
She then turned stiffly and looked over at her parents, offering them a weak smile, she said in a hoarse voice, "okay, so maybe it wasn't 'just a cold'."
Snow and David laughed despite all of the worry they had been feeling over the past day, and Emma shot a covert smile over to Regina.
With Henry's acceptance of the brunette, she couldn't help the feeling that this illness may have been the best thing that ever happened to her.
"She had a seizure? But I thought this was just a simple car accident case," House pondered mockingly.
All three of his fellows rolled their eyes in response, and he just shook his head, "I can't believe I hired three people with no sense of humour."
"A seizure could easily be the result of brain damage," Foreman said, ignoring his boss's previous comment.
"The MRI showed no signs of damage," Chase countered, "she could easily have a medical condition and have been a car accident."
"And the only symptom of this 'medical condition' is one seizure? It seems more likely that the seizure was the result of a speeding car crashing into her."
"You say that she only has one symptom, but how about standing in the way of a speeding car?" House said while tapping the whiteboard pen against his lips.
Chase let out a huff and replied, "you think that her having the courage to save a child is a symptom?"
"I think that being that moronic is a symptom, there could have already been something wrong with her brain…"
"How is not wanting to see a little boy being hit by a car moronic?" Foreman sighed.
House was about to make a retort before he furrowed his brow and looked over to the one person who had yet to contribute, "don't you have anything to say?"
Cameron looked up from her notes and shook her head.
She had honestly only been half listening since she was fairly that anything they could offer would be wrong. There was one person who she thought might have the answers they needed, but she had yet to find a way to convince her boss and co-workers that she needed to go back and talk with Regina.
House cocked his head at her expression. It was somewhere between calm and shock, but it was nothing like how she had looked earlier when he had read out everything he had found about Emma Swan. He couldn't help the feeling that in the hours since he had seen her last, she had found out something new. But if it was something about their patient, he was sure she would have told him, unless it wasn't relevant to the case.
"I don't think that saving a little kid is a symptom and I figured you already knew I felt that way. I didn't see much point in contributing," she shrugged.
House narrowed his eyes and continued to inspect her, before he said, "so it isn't a symptom, you think that there are people out there who would just put their lives in danger for no reason?"
"You think that every firefighter, member of the police force and solider have something wrong with their brains?"
"No, I think that they want to be recognised for what they do, otherwise, why would it be necessary to honour them?" House asked.
"Because they're heroes and they deserve it?" Chase suggested.
"Was that a question?" the older doctor smirked.
The blond rolled his eyes and said, "why are we even talking about his when our patient needs us to figure out what's wrong with her? Hee BP is in the toilet and I'm not sure how many more times we can use the paddles on her…"
"That is why we're having this conversation; how else will we find out if she had a brain tumour."
Cameron rolled her eyes, wishing that she could tell him that the older version of herself saved the child because she was always destined to be a hero, a destiny that she hadn't quite registered would be her future. But she knew that explanation would probably just make House send her to the psyche ward, so instead she said, "Chase has a point, we honour heroes because they deserve it and we should be focusing on something that will actually help her."
"Or, we have heroes because we honour them….do you honestly believe that she would have saved that boy if she hadn't thought that his mother would have been oh so grateful?" House shot back.
"What does this have to be with this being a symptom?" Foreman asked with an exasperated sigh.
"We're questioning the state of the human psyche, is that not much more interesting than talking about a case?" House asked with a smirk.
"It would be an interesting conversation if we weren't responsible for someone who is about to die if we continue it," Chase said.
House rolled his eyes and looked over to the board with hardly anything written upon it, "do any of you have any suggestions?"
They each looked down at the chart and the blond doctor said, "it doesn't help that we don't have a genetic history…"
"This case wouldn't be half as interesting if we had a genetic history," House scoffed.
Cameron just shook her head and said, "do you think it's genetic?"
"You know, it could just be epilepsy, we don't have a full history…" Foreman pondered.
"You think she has epilepsy and her girlfriend didn't know about it?" Cameron asked doubtfully.
"Everybody lies," her boss replied before Foreman could.
"How did we go from being a hero is a symptom to lying about epilepsy?" the brunette asked with an exasperated sigh, "why don't you just admit that you have no idea what's wrong with her?"
All of the men in the room each exchanged a look, before Foreman asked, "do you have a theory?"
"Nope, but I would rather be observing the patient and see if she has anymore symptoms than wait for us to come up with some 'genius' idea which will turn out to be incorrect."
House tilted his head and inspected her, he could have sworn that there was something different about her since the arrival of their patient, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"Well then go forth and observe," he said after a moment.
Cameron smiled slightly at him, even if he had been a complete and utter jerk throughout this entire process, at least he could be decent sometimes.
"We'll stay here while you go and stare at an unconscious woman," he continued.
The brunette rolled her eyes and rose from her seat, of course he couldn't have just been nice for a moment, but it didn't matter since she got what she wanted.
A/N Sorry this took so long, but I hope you enjoyed XD
Next chapter should be a lot sooner :)
