A/N Had a burst of inspiration and got this written in about an hour so hopefully this is satisfying for now! A big thank you to the people who keep reviewing, and an even bigger thank you to my best friend Genevieve who has been helping me through the whole story, but especially this chapter. I'm not sure how much of the story is left, so please let me know if there's anything you want to see and what you think :)

Regina paced back and forth in the waiting room, anxiously waiting for the doctor to update her on Emma's condition. Remarkably, Regina herself had just needed a few stitches on the forehead and would be incredibly sore for the next few days, but Emma had taken the full force of the impact.

Once the doctors had taken care of Regina, she was able to take Emma's phone and call Ruby, but couldn't give her any information yet.

I should have been looking, Regina thought to herself. This is my fault. If I had just seen the red light-

With a choked sob, Regina collapsed into one of the chairs, putting her head in her hands.

If anything happens to her I'll never forgive myself…

"Ms. Mills?" a voice said, breaking Regina out of her thoughts.

Regina jumped up, seeing the doctor in front of her.

"Is she okay?" Regina rushed out. "She's okay right? She's going to be fine?"

The doctor sighed, "Unfortunately there was a lot of damage. The right side of her body was smashed, resulting in a breakage in both her arm and leg. There was some internal bleeding, but luckily we were able to stop it. Her brain also doesn't appear to have any swelling, but we're not sure when she's going to wake up. After a trauma like this the brain usually shuts down to protect the body from the extreme amount of pain it's going through."

"But… she's going to wake up, right?" Regina asked, voice breaking on the last word.

"There's a strong chance she will wake up, yes," the doctor replied diplomatically. "But only time will tell."

As another sob broke free from Regina, the doctor put a hand on her shoulder in brief comfort.

"I'm sorry," he said. "The nurses are moving her from the ICU into a room now so you can go sit with her. You just have to have faith in her now."

Regina nodded, "Thank you."

A nurse came and led Regina to Emma's temporary room. As she walked into the doorway she had to stop herself from collapsing again.

Emma was barely recognizable. Her face was marred with bruises and cuts, and the entire right side of her body was wrapped in bandages. The only thing that seemed safe was her hair.

Regina let out an unbelieving laugh. Of course her perfect princess hair would be fine.

She slowly made her way to the bed, and pulled a chair up close. She looked up at the nurse still in the room.

"Is it… Can I touch her?" she asked hesitantly.

The nurse gave her a sympathetic smile. "Of course you can, honey. If you hold her and talk to you she'll be sure to hear you and make her way back. People in love will always find their way back to each other."

Tears welled up in Regina's eyes again. Love… it was too soon for love. Yet, she certainly felt it. The fear she felt tonight at the thought of losing Emma was too much to bear, and she knew now she could never let her go.

The nurse patted Regina's shoulder before leaving the room and quietly shutting the door behind her.

Regina reached over and grabbed Emma's hand, gently interlacing their fingers.

"You have to wake up Emma," she whispered. "I'm sorry that I yelled at you, and I'm sorry that I got us into that crash. I'll do anything to make it up to you. I'll tell you what my mother was talking about… it doesn't even seem important anymore."

She let out a dark chuckle, "I'm sure my mother will be happy to hear about this. Two loves gone tragically wrong… Please, don't prove her right. Please just wake up for me, Emma. I… I lo-"

Regina's words were cut off as the door to the room burst open. Ruby ran in with a sleepy looking little boy on her hip. He opened his eyes, familiar green eyes… Was that-?

"Mommy!" the little boy yelled, confirming Regina's sudden suspicions.

"Emma! Oh my God, Emma!" Ruby exclaimed, rushing over to the bed. She looked over to Regina, where tearstains were clearly evident. "Is she okay? What happened?"

Regina hastily wiped her eyes, looking at the little boy once more before focusing her attention on Ruby.

"We were driving home… I didn't think about the snow. We were arguing, and I missed the red light and I should have been looking but I wasn't, and oh God, I'm so sorry," Regina blurted out, tears coming once more. "I'm so so sorry, this was all my fault."

Ruby could see the anguish in Regina's face, the regret, and the… love. She reached out and took Regina's free hand, giving it a squeeze.

"Regina, don't worry about it. Emma's going to be okay, right?" she asked, her own eyes welling up.

Regina nodded shakily, "The doctor said she should be fine. He said that when people go through this much trauma their brains basically shut down so the pain doesn't overwhelm them. He said she should be waking up…"

The two women looked at Emma, hoping beyond belief that she would be waking up soon.

A small voice piped up, clearly scared. "Mommy's gonna be okay? Mommy's hurt?"

Ruby turned her attention back to Henry, cupping his face with her hands gently. "Mommy's gonna be just fine. She got in a little accident, so she looks kind of scary now, right?"

Henry nodded, his eyes straying from Ruby's briefly to look back at his mother.

"Hey," Ruby said gently, turning his attention back to her. "Mommy looks a little scary, but she's still Mommy under there, okay? And she's gonna need a lot of love from you when she wakes up."

Henry's lip started to quiver a little. "But why isn't she awake now? It's Christmas, she should be awake!"

Ruby sighed, running her hands through Henry's hair. "I know buddy. She'll wake up soon, I promise." She kissed his forehead, and then closed her eyes, sending up a prayer for that to be true.

Regina watched this interaction with fascination. This boy was clearly Emma's, but she imagined Ruby was like a parent to him as well with the completely maternal way she was acting towards him. This must have been what Emma was hiding, although Regina couldn't imagine why Emma would hide it from her. She knew that Regina wanted to be a teacher—she loved kids.

Ruby looked over at Regina and could practically see the thoughts running through her head. Henry, noticing his godmother's distraction, also looked over and finally noticed there was another person in the room besides his mother.

"Aunt Ruby?" he whispered, although it was loud enough for Regina to hear him clearly. "Who is that lady holding Mommy's hand?"

Ruby chuckled a watery laugh. She turned Henry around in her lap so he was facing Regina.

"Henry, this is Mommy's new friend Regina. Can you say hi?" Ruby prompted.

Henry burrowed into Ruby a little bit, but offered up a shy smile and a soft, "Hi."

Regina smiled immediately back. Along with his eyes that she had noticed before, his dimples were all Emma. "It's nice to meet you Henry," she told him in a gentle voice.

"You're Mommy's new friend?" he asked. When Regina nodded he continued, "Do you love her?" in an innocent voice.

Ruby choked in surprise, but didn't discourage the question, curious to hear the answer herself.

Regina stayed quiet for a second, but finally answered.

"I do," she whispered looking over to Emma as her hand absentmindedly stroked Emma's.

The room was silent for a minute, but then Ruby spoke up again. "I'm gonna go find a doctor and see about bringing cots or something in here so we can all stay. Henry, will you be okay staying here with Regina?" she asked, making eye contact briefly with Regina to see her nod in affirmation that that was okay.

After Henry nodded as well, she carefully transferred him to Regina's lap and left the room.

As Henry got situated, Regina noticed that there was a cast on his arm as well. "Did you hurt yourself too, Henry?" she asked.

He looked up at her with his big green eyes and nodded, still too shy to really say anything.

"Well, I'm sure once your Mommy wakes up you guys can get matching stickers for your casts. How does that sound?"

Henry smiled widely, showing off his dimples once again. "Yeah!" he said, cheering up a little bit.

Regina smiled back, and got more comfortable in the chair, preparing to keep Henry distracted until he hopefully fell asleep.

Black. That was all Emma could see around her. It was all consuming, suffocating, and she couldn't figure a way to get out of it. Her body felt weightless, and she couldn't figure out which way was up or down.

As she stayed there, in this place that wasn't really a place, flashes started to come to her.

A smile, and a hand held out to shake hers. "Neal," the voice said…

The voice was familiar now, as were the hands wrapped around her waist. Love. She was feeling love for the first time, and she wasn't ever going to let it go…

Now she was late, and she was feeling panicked. This wasn't part of the plan; she was too young for a kid…

"What do you mean you're leaving? You promised you would stay…"

Heartbreak, for the first time. Ruby's voice in her ear, telling her everything would be okay…

Pain. All she could feel was pain. Her body felt like it was being ripped from the inside out, the only anchor being Ruby's hand wrapped tightly around her own. Ruby's voice encouraging her that she could do this…

Relief. A cry. The most beautiful cry in the world…

"It's a boy, Emma! You did it."…

A new weight in her arms. A baby. Her baby. The new light of her life…

A smile, showing off dimples that belonged to her. A first laugh… first steps…

"Hi!" a first word that was not "mama," but still a reason to be proud of her son…

Getting accepted into college. Moving in with Ruby. Watching Henry grow up together. Making art. Making Henry art. Christmases, birthdays, Halloween…

The memories were coming faster and faster, and a warm feeling was starting to envelope Emma, making her sleepy. She wanted more of that feeling… she needed to be closer to it…

Eyes. Green eyes. Her son's eyes.

Another set of eyes. The most beautiful pair of eyes she's ever seen. Love, expressed in those eyes… she had to get back to them.

Regina! Emma snapped into awareness, the warm feeling fading. The accident; they had been in an accident. And now she had to get back to her son and Ruby, and more importantly, she had to get back to Regina….

Regina opened her eyes, forgetting for a minute where she was. She felt a weight on her lap and looked down, seeing Henry, sound asleep. Across the bed was Ruby, curled up in a chair and also asleep.

Looking around for the source of what woke her up, her eyes landed on Emma. Was she?

"Emma?" she asked quietly, leaning closer to her girlfriend. "Emma, can you hear me?"

Emma? Emma, can you hear me?

Emma could hear Regina's voice. It was getting closer… she just had to…

Suddenly, Emma's eyes blinked open for a second and closed. Then opened again, looking from side to side before finally locking onto Regina's.

….

Regina.