A/N: Woot Woot! Jane and Maura are on their way to Storybrooke! Also Emma and Regina find out more about Henry's condition.
"Huh," Maura voiced a few minutes later, "According to the police databases, their supposed little town called Storybrooke doesn't exist."
"So if Storybrooke doesn't exist," Jane processed, "then where exactly are they taking us?"
"I have no idea," Maura responded, "although I wouldn't say they're taking us anywhere, as they don't actually know we're following them."
"Whatever, you know what I mean," Jane grumbled.
"I'm going to do some more research," Maura informed her. "There is a lot more information available on Emma Swan than there is on Regina Mills, so I think I'll start there. There's not really much on her directly after she was released from prison, but it looks like she did move around a lot. She didn't come back to Boston until 2008 when she started working as a bail bondsman at age twenty-five.
Apparently she continued working here in Boston until she quit her bail bonds job unexpectedly in 2011 just a couple weeks after her twenty-eighth birthday. After that there is no more information about her. She still owns an apartment in Boston though, but is not paying for any utilities or other services. We might be able to call up the manager and see what information he has."
"So I'm going to put out a theory here, and yes Maura, I know you don't like to guess, but do you think it is plausible that her disappearing from Boston in 2011 could be related to her connecting, or reconnecting, with Regina?" Jane asked.
"That actually would make a lot of sense, especially if she moved to Regina's 'town' wherever that may be."
"I wanna know more about Regina Mills," Jane stated, glancing over at Maura, "we should be able to get more information than that she adopted a kid in Boston and is the Mayor of some fictional town. I mean, she had to come from somewhere. Where was she born, where did she go to school, how did she campaign for mayor? There should be accessible records of these things."
"I'm still coming up empty," Maura huffed in frustration. She had been searching all possible databases for at least an hour, even hacking into some of the more off limits ones as Frost had taught her, but still could not find much about the mysterious Regina Mills.
"All information about her relates her back to Storybrooke. Her birth certificate says she was born at Storybrooke General Hospital, her high school diploma says Storybrooke High School, and her law degree apparently came from Storybrooke University. It's all fake. There is no such school as Storybrooke High School or Storybrooke University in state records. I also can't find any hospital records or records of Storybooke General existing. I honestly don't know how she managed to get away with using all of this fake information for so long."
"Here's an important question," Jane butt into her rant, "what is the date on her birth certificate? That might give us a better idea of what was going on around the time of Henry's adoption."
"Well that makes everything even more suspicious. According to the birth certificate we have on file, she was born in 1965 which would put her at thirty-three when she adopted Henry. That still doesn't make any sense to me though. Strangely, while all these records have dates on them, the folder itself was date stamped October 1983. That could either mean there was some major file reorganization in 1983, OR the file on Regina Mills didn't exist at all until 1983, which makes me believe even more strongly that this is all a fake, and rather poorly made, identity."
"So the question is," Jane mused, "what happened in 1983 that caused her to need a new identity?"
"Emma Swan was born in October 1983… that could be important."
"How is it that all our research is just making everything more confusing?" Jane asked in frustration.
"I don't know, but whatever is going on, I don't think we're going to find out much else just from these records. We'll have to wait and see where they lead us. Maybe we can find a more legitimate excuse to approach them, make them answer some questions."
"Yeah I guess we will," Jane mused, "on a more positive note, it looks like they are actually going to Maine." Jane pointed out as they approached the 'Welcome to Maine' sign at the state line.
Emma and Regina rode in silence, Emma doing her best to make good time without being pulled over by a cop, and Regina lost in her own world, memories of her whole life with Henry filling her mind as she tried to focus on all the good memories she had with him, instead of the dread pooling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of what she might find when they finally got to him at Storybrooke's hospital. After two whole hours of silence, they finally crossed the border into Maine.
"Just one more hour until we reach Storybrooke," Emma said encouragingly, reaching over to gently grip Regina's knee. "Just hang in there, everything is going to be ok, I can feel it." Regina's only response was to reach out, covering Emma's hand in her own, and cling onto it in a death grip.
Suddenly a loud buzzing echoed through the silent car as Emma's cell phone vibrated against the plastic cup holder she had thrown it in. She glanced over at Regina.
"Hey can you look and see who it is? It might be my mother with an update about Henry." Regina silently nodded and reached over to grab the still buzzing object. Seeing Mary Margaret's face light up the screen, she immediately hit the talk button, and held the phone up to her ear.
"Snow!" she answered sharply.
"Regina?" came the other woman's surprised reply.
"Yes it's Regina, Emma's driving obviously. What do you want?" Mary Margaret's resigned sigh crackled through the line.
"I just want to update you. Henry got out of surgery about ten minutes ago and –"
"What? Why was he in surgery? Why wasn't I informed of this?" Regina yelped.
"They had to insert some pins into his broken ankle, but –"
"He had a broken ankle? And you failed to mention this the first time you called?" Regina was furious.
"Wait, you didn't know about his broken ankle?" Mary Margaret asked confused.
"No I did not. All you said was that Henry was in a car accident, and that I couldn't talk to him because he wasn't awake. When I asked about his injuries you said he suffered a minor concussion."
"Righhht," Mary Margaret responded, realization donning on her. "And at that point of the conversation, you interrupted me to yell about how incompetent and irresponsible I was to let something like this happen on my watch and then you proceeded to hang up. I never got the chance to fully explain his condition.
The concussion was actually very minor. The worst of his injuries was the broken ankle, which as I already said he needed surgery for. They sedated him for the pain on scene, and then ran a bunch of tests before taking him to surgery. I would have called you before the surgery, but I figured you would be driving, and I didn't want to unnecessarily worry you until I knew how the surgery went."
"Well you still should have informed us!" Regina shouted in frustration, "Even if we were driving, obviously one of us could have answered the phone!"
"You know what Regina, I'm sorry. I know you probably hate it that I am the one who is here with Henry and not you, but you need to pull yourself together and stop taking out your fear and anger on me. Things have been extremely hectic, as David and I are not only trying to keep track of Henry and his condition, but are also trying to run an investigation to find the driver of the other vehicle. It was a hit and run, no witnesses, so it's been a bit of a difficult investigation, although now Henry is out of surgery we should be able to get a description from him if he remembers.
But that really is all beside the point. The real reason I called you was to let you know that Henry is out of surgery and is awake," she emphasized the word, in an attempt to get through to Regina, who she knew could very possible be tuning out everything she was saying. "And he's been asking for you, so if you are willing, I'm going to give him the phone."
"He's awake?" Regina cried out in relief, feeling tears leap into her eyes once more.
"Yes, he's awake. He wants to speak to you."
"Yes! Put him on the phone!" she exclaimed, and then as an after thought whispered, "thank you Snow." It was rather hesitant, and she was still angry at Snow's obvious incompetence, but it was an olive branch all the same. Mary Margaret just sighed in relief, knowing Regina did not want a response to that, before handing over the phone to Henry who was sitting propped up in his hospital bed, bandaged ankle held up by a strange contraption of slings to keep it elevated.
"Hi Mom!" he greeted her cheerily.
"Oh Henry, Thank God!" Regina whimpered, before dissolving into sobs once more.
Emma, who had been listening in on Regina's half of the conversation, was now eyeing her with relief. She held out her hand to Regina, hinting to her to hand over the cell phone. Regina, realizing she wasn't going to get words out any time soon, reluctantly handed over the device. Shifting her eyes back to the road, Emma expertly hit the speakerphone button before greeting Henry.
"Hey kid!," she said as cheerfully as possible, "I heard you got in a bit of an accident. How're you holding up?"
"Oh, hey Ma!," came his happy reply, "I'm fine actually. Just a bit of a headache. Although I'm sure when the pain meds start wearing off my ankle will hurt like a bi – "
"HENRY!" Regina scolded through her tears, shooting a glare at Emma as though Henry's language was her fault. Admittedly it might be, but Emma was not going to take responsibility that easily.
"Sorry Mom!" Henry replied unapologetically, "Hey Ma, you should have warned me you guys were on speaker phone. Anyways, is Mom ok? It sounded like she was crying when she answered the phone." When Regina only managed a sniff in response, Emma answered her son.
"She's fine Henry. Better now that we've been able to talk to you. We've just been really worried. We didn't really get much of the story about what happened so it's been hard for us to anticipate how serious your injuries were, and you know your Mom hates it when you're hurt."
"Oh," he said, sounded a little ashamed, "I'm sorry for worrying you. I promise it won't happen again."
"Henry," Emma sighed, "you can't promise that. It was an accident, it wasn't your fault. At least from the sounds of it." Then after a pause she continued, "I hear they're investigating the other vehicle. Can you tell me exactly what happened? I'll probably be taking over the investigation for David once we get there."
"Uhhh yeah, sure," said Henry uncertainly. He wasn't sure whether or not he was actually going to be in trouble for this, but decided that didn't really matter at the moment, so he continued,
"I was driving home from the Tillman's, because we had study group, and I had a solid green arrow to turn left from Main onto Mifflin, so I turned. Only there was another car coming down Main in the opposite direction. I saw them, but I assumed they were going to stop because I had a green light, but they didn't I guess. I don't really know what happened except that one minute they were driving up to the intersection, and next thing I know the bug was rolling. I think the car was blue… I didn't get a license plate number though, sorry."
"It's ok Kid, I don't' expect you to be in full on detective mode when you're in the middle of an accident. We'll work on getting a better vehicle description out of you when we get there. For now, I just want you to rest ok?"
"Ok," Henry replied, "and Mom?" he addressed Regina directly.
"Yes Henry," Regina managed to answer.
"You can stop crying now. I'm perfectly fine, and you'll be here in no time. I promise you can smother me with as many hugs and kisses as you like when you see me," he said, amusement dancing in his voice.
"Thank you my little Prince," Regina sighed, letting herself smile for the first time in over two hours.
"Alright, well I should probably get going. David and Ruby want to ask me some questions about the crash, and then Dr. Whale says I need to take a nap because apparently having surgery is exhausting for the human body. You two drive safely, and don't speed!" he scolded before softening his tone. "I love you both, and I can't wait for you to get back."
"We love you too Henry," Regina responded before Henry said a quick "bye", and the line went dead.