Jefferson grabs Fiona's shaking shoulders and looks desperately at Prince Charming who looks just as lost as he does.
"What do we do?!" The blonde woman screams at Regina who has been simply staring at Fiona's shaking body.
"Why are you asking me?" Regina fires back and stands there with an angry look on her face.
"You know the most about magic! There has to be something you can do!" The blonde replies and looks down at the girl under her hands.
"Regina, please!" Jefferson shouts and stares at her with glistening blue eyes.
"I... I don't know what to do!" Regina finally says and throws up her hands in frustration and begins backing away from the group, like she always does. She's always pulling herself away and trying to hide from people. Snow White eventually stands up and begins running over to Regina.
"It's a poison! You've handled poisons before! You just need to stop it from getting to the heart. I think we both know what you need to do." Snow says in a calm voice, as she searches Regina's face for any sign of emotion. A flicker moves through Regina's eyes and she shoves Snow out of the way. She goes forward and kneels down, then reaches her hand into Fiona's chest. Jefferson hand lurches forwards, but Regina smacks it away.
"You need to trust me." she says. Then she rips out Fiona's heart.
"What the hell are you doing!?" Jefferson shouts at Regina, who holds Fiona's beating heart in her right hand.
"If the poison reached her heart than she would have died anyway! This gives us some more time to at least get her to the hospital. We can try to figure out what to do there," Regina says and stands up, gesturing for the Prince, the blonde and Jefferson to get Fiona. Jefferson, whose body is still weakened from the non-stop work he had to for the past three days, slides his arms under her legs but the Prince reaches over and stops him.
"Let me." he says softly and quickly puts his one hand under her knees and the other on her back and lifts her up with one swift movement. Jefferson pulls himself up, trying to ignore the pain in his joints and the overwhelming exhaustion he's feeling. Regina, instead of rushing to the doors like the others, has hesitated and walks over to Jefferson. As always, she wears a look of superiority and an air of cockiness about her, but when she reaches Jeffersons' side, the look of superiority falls. She starts talking to him in a low tone.
"I... I am sor-"
"Don't say anything, Regina. None of this would've happened had it not been for you!" Jefferson says angrily. Regina's eyebrows shoot up and she stands back, crossing her arms over chest.
"How is this in any way my fault?!" she asks him.
"Well, for one, you cursed all of us and sent us to this place. It was you that Ludovine was trying to run from. It's always you, Regina." Jefferson says and then begins pulling himself to the door.
"I saved the girl's life!" Regina shouts after him.
Jefferson stops and glances over his shoulder at the beautiful, Evil Queen. "You ripped her heart out. Is that really saving her or will she just become one of the cold monsters that she's afraid of?" he asks before leaving.
Regina is left alone, with Fiona's beating heart still in her hand. It's getting weaker, she can feel that. She wonders how long it will take for it to stop beating.
Jefferson sits in the waiting room in the hospital, with Grace under his arm. Snow White has Violet in her arms, she even managed to get the baby to fall asleep. Grace has her ears covered because the screaming and fighting of Regina, Dr. Whale and the blonde woman, Emma, can easily be heard through the thin walls. None of them can agree on a solution for the poison traveling through Fiona's system. Prince Charming has been watching Grace and Jefferson and eventually goes into the room and hushes the three fighting adults.
It's almost two hours later when they finally emerge from the room. Emma looks drained, so does Prince Charming. They have almost identical expressions on their faces; clearly father and daughter. Dr. Whale sighs and removes his gloves and looks at Jefferson.
"You can go in... I think we've managed to stabilize the poison. Hopefully it will stay that way." Whale tells him.
"How did you do it?" Jefferson asks.
"Magic," Whale says and rolls his eyes. Everyone is very aware that Whale has started to hate magic with a fiery passion.
Grace has jumped off the chair and has run to the room where Fiona is. Jefferson jumps up to catch up with her, but as he reaches the room he sees a nurse. For a moment he doesn't realize who he's looking at, but then it hits him like a brick wall. He comes to an abrupt stop and stares at her. The nurse flicks her blonde hair off her shoulder and then finally catches his gaze. Her mouth drops open and her eyes widen.
"Jefferson!?" she says.
"Alice." he responds.
Alice... Grace's mother.
Hey guys :) so just a little disclaimer! This Alice is not the Alice from the show "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland." My version of Alice will be older, probably in her late twenties. I'll explain everything in the later chapters ;) hope you liked the chapter!