What Was Lost: Part 12
By Arianwen P.F. Everett
When Regina opened her eyes, panic set in. She couldn't feel Daniel's baby inside her anymore. At first she feared the worst, that she'd miscarried, but then she realized that she couldn't feel anything, that her magic wasn't there to feel, and her arm was shackled to the railing of her hospital bed with a pair of handcuffs.
The next emotion she experienced was rage and betrayal. Emma had tricked her into a meeting with Henry, then somehow subdued her, probably with fairy magic, and brought her to the hospital, bound.
As she had begun planning her revenge, the door to her hospital room opened and Regina was confronted by the Blue Fairy and Dr. Whale. The woman stood watching the Evil queen from a few feet away, while Whale approached the bed.
"What happened? What happened to my baby?" Regina demanded an answer in a voice that had once caused a young soldier in her employ to have a stroke where he stood.
"Your baby is fine. You, however, are extremely anemic. The lack of iron threw your electrolytes out of whack as well, which is what made you collapse. We've stabilized you for the time being, and as far as we can tell, the fetus is perfectly fine. No harm done there," Dr. Whale gently detailed, pulling out his pen light to check Regina's pupil response now that she was conscious.
Regina breathed a sigh of relief before pulling on the handcuff that apparently was suppressing her magic and keeping her bound to the hospital bed and turned her eyes towards the Blue Fairy. "I'm assuming this is Sheriff's Swan's doing, well, mostly Sheriff Swan's doing."
"The cuffs are hers; the spell is mine," the Blue Fairy confirmed, her air of superiority insufferable as usual.
"You put a spell on my cuffs? I never gave you permission to do that! Take it off right now or I'll be sending the bill to replace them to your convent," Emma demanded storming into the hospital room, a new cup of coffee in hand. While she respected the Blue Fairy, Graham had taught her the importance of not letting your investigation get corrupted by an outside party with their own agenda. Being the best sheriff she could be was how she honored his memory.
Seeing the rising conflict between the three powerful women in the room, Dr. Whale nodded to his patient, before beating a hasty retreat. If he was needed, he'd be called, beyond that nothing good could come of sticking around.
"Princess, the Queen's magic is too powerful without…"
Emma swallowed her recently discovered irritation with people calling her Princess, and decided to try and explain her decision to the Blue Fairy instead of confronting the powerful woman. "Regina needs her magic to protect herself and her baby. Shortly after the town meeting, I came to realize that I can't protect Regina indefinitely. Heck, I'd already stumbled on a conspiracy to murder her in prison and I hadn't even captured her yet! That's why I conceded to the banishment agreement, and permitted her to remain in the woods this past month. However, Regina won't leave Storybrooke till her baby is born. It's some sort of magical heritage thing for her."
"A heritage soaked in the blood of countless innocents, including that child's father. Her magic is dark magic, taken with the life of an evil sorcerer, five generations ago," the Blue Fairy explained, hoping to help the blonde see that by allowing Regina to pass on magic to her child, she was perpetuating evil.
"No baby is born evil!" Emma insisted, taking two steps towards the Blue Fairy to stand in her person space.
"I fear you have misinterpreted my words, Princess. Yes, the child the Queen carries is as innocent as any other human child, but the 'gift' its mother wishes to bestow upon it would be a curse on us all should she return one day," the Blue Fairy backtracked, making sure Emma understood she was not accusing the child, only the generations of the queen's family who had given into evil over the years.
"So it is a girl. I thought so," Regina shared a smile with Emma, gently patting the firm skin of her abdomen that had yet to begin to round out. She could see Emma was becoming invested in the baby and was already prepared to protect her, most likely for Henry's sake and his image of her as hero. Regina could work with that.
"Yes, it's a girl, but one who will be susceptible to darkness, to evil, if she's born with magic. I agree banishment is the best course of action, but banish the Queen before her child is born," The Blue Fairy explained, not understanding why Princess Emma didn't see the threat.
"And how do you suggest I do that? You know as well as I do that what's left of the curse will only permit Regina to leave if she does so willingly, and she's intent on seeing that baby born in Storybrooke," Emma rebutted, exasperated that the fairy-turned-woman didn't realize that she'd spent weeks mulling over their options from every angle, and had come to the conclusion that this was the only solution available that wouldn't end in violence or death. Truth was, if it were possible to expel Regina now, Emma would happily do so, but from what Emma understood, her mother and Regina had fixed their agreement so that neither could break it without magical consequences befalling them. Emma still didn't trust magic, even good magic, and she hated to think what could happen to her family if she even tried to find a way to run Regina out of town before their deal was done.
"I'll speak with the other Fairies. There has to be another alternative," the Blue Fairy stated, realizing that the sheriff was right, but still hoping to find a loophole somewhere. Containing dark magic was her sworn duty, regardless of what world it resided in.
"I'd be grateful for your assistance in finding one because I've drawn a blank here. Now, the cuffs, please," Emma reminded diplomatically. As sheriff it was important for her to maintain good relationships with the respected members of the town and nobody pulled more moral weight than the Blue Fairy.
Removing a small blue wand from her sweater pocket, the fairy tapped the handcuffs, and suddenly the world came alive again to Regina. Her baby was fine, and as overjoyed to sense her mother's presence as she was to sense her. Taking a few calming breaths, Regina used her magic to unlock the handcuffs and sit up straighter in the hospital bed. Menacingly boring her eyes into the Blue Fairy, she hissed out. "I'll return your own advice to me once, if I were you, I'd find a place to hide."
Holding the Queen's eyes, the Blue Fairy slowly walked out of the room, knowing she could be of no use, now that the queen had regained her magic. Emma Swan had no idea what she was playing with. Now she really did need to speak with her sister fairies and get their counsel on what to do next.
Once the fairy had left her room, Regina turned towards Emma and her eyes melted from threatening to remorseful. "Henry, is he okay? I didn't mean to scare him like that. I swear."
"He's fine. He knows you were sick and couldn't help it," Emma soothed awkwardly. She wasn't used to be the shoulder others cried upon, especially a person like Regina.
"Why can't I just make him happy for once? He was having fun! I know he was!" Regina shouted in frustration. Even little victories with her son seemed beyond her reach now.
"You heard Dr. Whale; your body chemistry went nuts. You're pregnant. It happens. Henry understands," Emma replied, not wanting Regina's confusion to get amped on her hormones.
"So he knows I'm pregnant?" Regina asked, trying to keep her voice neutral, yet hopeful that she didn't have to be the one who had to tell Henry. She knew that if Emma or Snow told him, he'd take the news well. This didn't mean he wouldn't have mixed feelings, but he wouldn't jump to the conclusion that this was some sort of evil plot on her part. If they'd told Henry, then maybe she had a shot at getting her son comfortable with the idea of a sister. If she did the telling, he'd run as fast as he could from both her and the baby.
"He was panicking as we followed the ambulance here. I had to tell him something or he would have gone out of his mind with worry," Emma explained, hoping Regina didn't see her revealing her pregnancy as a theft of her moment in the sun. Like her mother, Emma no longer wanted to fight with Regina.
"It's alright, Miss Swan. What's important to me now is how he took the news. How does he feel about… all this," Regina finished, placing a hand over her stomach as she contemplated the totality of this child in relation to her life.
Emma smiled, remembering the bug-eyed look on Henry's face when she'd told him the news. "He's psyched. He even called the baby his 'sister or brother'! And speak of the devil!"
What Regina had ever done to earn this next blessing, she couldn't say, but at just that moment, Henry strolled into her hospital room carrying a yellow frosted cupcake and wearing an oversized blue t-shirt that read 'World's Greatest Brother-to-Be', and Regina broke down in tears from the pure joy of the moment. "Nurse Delaney gave me this t-shirt. She said it was hospital policy to hand them out to expectant siblings. She also gave me a birthday cupcake because it's her birthday and they had a lot of cupcakes left over. Emma let me get a cookie earlier, so I thought maybe you and the baby might like it, you know, to regain your strength."