DISCLAIMER:: do not own
A/N:: first of all, i want to thank NadezhdaSt for continually giving me reviews that make me smile as well as being the only one to pick up on who Bae is. he wasn't really a significant character but i thought at least a few more people would remember him. and all ye of little faith... nowhere in chapter 20 did it ever say WHO was forcing emma to marry, just goes to show what a little manipulation of words can make people assume *grins*. i will answer all questions soon. rumpelstiltskin will make an appearence soon, as well as henry, but also keep in mind, with the exception of regina, no one remembers the curse and therefore no one remembers henry.
SWAN QUEEN SWAN QUEEN SWAN QUEEN
"It's sweet of you to look after her."
Regina looked up from her chair by the bed. She hadn't moved since they'd carried Emma in here the previous day. She had alternated between lying next to the comatose woman on the bed when no one else was around and containing herself to an ornate chair placed by the bed when others were nearby. She didn't want King James to kick her out for laying in bed with his engaged daughter.
Snow White came into the room. "Thank you, for what you've done for her."
"I'd do anything for her. She's done so much for me. I just hope I've done enough." Regina brushed aside a strand of hair from Emma's face. Even like this, she was beautiful. Regina felt a pang of sadness. She'd lost so much already. First, she'd had to give up her son to save him from the curse. It still hurt her to think of him, to try and picture his face. Now, just as she'd found Emma, seen that the blonde still remembered their time together, still loved her, she might lose her again... It was cruel, and unfair. "Thank you, for letting me stay by her side. I know it must not have been easy for you."
Snow White inclined her head as a way of you're welcome and went to the opposite side of the bed. "How do you know Emma?"
Regina's head shot up. Did she just hear that correctly? "Excuse me?"
Snow White's brow furrowed. "I'm sorry. It's just… Emma doesn't have many friends. Sometimes she goes out riding all day, but she's never mentioned meeting anyone of significance on her rides. Not until Bae."
Regina couldn't believe her ears. "You don't know me?"
Snow White looked utterly stumped. "No, I'm sorry. If we've met before I'm afraid I don't remember."
"You don't remember your father's second wife?"
Snow White looked at her as if she were crazy. "My father never remarried after my mother died. He sought the hand of a young woman, but her heart belonged to someone else." Snow White studied her. She did look familiar, but if she had met her before, it had been long ago. "What's your name?"
Regina glanced at Emma. "Regina. Emma and I… she's my best friend."
Snow White's smile was back. "I shall have a room prepared for you Lady Regina."
Regina shook her head. "I don't want to leave her."
Snow White nodded. "How about if I have the parlor set up for you? It's just through that door there. You'll be close enough to be here at a moment's notice."
Regina slowly nodded. She glanced suspiciously at Snow White. "Why are you being so kind to me?"
Snow White smiled at the girl on the bed. "Shortly after Emma was born she crawled into this enchanted wardrobe. It… sent her somewhere. She just came back to us very recently. I may not know you, but Emma does and anything she holds dear will be treated with the utmost respect here." She moved away from the bed. "I'll have your room set up straight away, as well as a bath drawn and some new clothes set out; that dress must be tiresome."
Regina still didn't quite understand what was happening. "Thank you."
Snow White inclined her head and departed.
SWAN QUEEN SWAN QUEEN SWAN QUEEN
"Have you captured the man who did this?" Regina examined the wound. It wasn't healing as well as she'd hoped it would.
James looked down at his daughter sadly and shook his head. "The guards searched everywhere but it seems as if he used some magic to escape."
"Why would anyone want Emma dead? Or I guess I should be asking myself why anyone would want me dead." She could think of a million reasons and twice as many suspects. That arrow had been meant for her, of that she had very little doubt.
"Some of our people aren't happy with her choice of husband."
Regina started to choke and James looked at her with concern. "Are you alright?"
She took a deep breath to gain her composure and nodded. "Emma chose to marry?"
James nodded. "Snow and I thought it was much too soon, that it was first love run away with her senses, but she was adamant. Baelfire was her true love and she must marry him before the next turn of the moon." He shrugged sheepishly. "I love her… how could I refuse her request?"
Regina frowned. Baelfire. She'd never heard of him before. "What kingdom is he from?"
James shook his head. "He's no prince except in title. He isn't even a lord. He's merely a common man, but so was I once upon a time. But still, the people are not as happy with her selection as we had hoped. He comes from a, let's say... less than savory lineage."
It didn't make any sense. Emma didn't love Bae, Regina had read it in every expression, every gesture. She had thought Emma was being forced into the betrothal, but she knew James wasn't lying. Like Snow before him, he didn't remember her either. He'd told much the same story. Emma had crawled into the wardrobe and been lost, only to reappear as the thirty year old now lying on the bed. It was almost as if… Regina herself had never existed.
Regina felt Emma's forehead and it gave her pause. "She's running a fever."
"What does that mean?" James stepped closer to the bed, eager to be of help.
"Hopefully, it's an infection."
"Hopefully?"
Regina frowned. "Believe me, sire, that's preferable to the alternative. Help me get her out of this."
She'd had her ruined dress from the ball removed immediately once she'd been brought to the bed so the wound could be covered with a poultice, but they'd dressed her in a cotton night dress to retain her modesty.
James hesitated, but one glare from Regina obviously clarified the depth of urgency. He helped her remove the night dress, then turned immediately away.
"Go get Snow White, someone female. I need help and I can't have you turning away every five seconds."
He ran from the room. It seemed like an eternity before she came in with two servant girls, though it had probably been less than a minute.
Regina turned to the servant girls. "I need hot towels, water, both cold and hot. Down in the garden… do you know what an Isic Berry is?… I need that as well as the night flower, a mortar and pestle, some fresh linen strips too. Go!" The girls scrambled away as fast as their legs would carry them.
"What's going on? Is she alright?" Snow White was beside Regina.
"I need you to start a fire."
Snow White just stared down at Emma.
"Snow!"
Finally, she moved.
"I need to reopen her wound. There may be an infection." No need to worry them if that's all it was.
She worked tirelessly for nearly an hour, magically exploring the wound for any signs of infection. She found none. She repaired everything she'd done and then crushed the berries and flower petals into the most potent salve she knew. She spread it on the linen strips and wrapped the wounds back up. Once she was done she ordered the servant girls away. Washing her hands in the basin of cold water the girls had brought up, she stared sadly at Snow White.
"Is it bad?"
Regina grabbed the hidden dagger from her boot and grabbed Emma's right arm. She pierced the soft white flesh of her forearm, digging down until the tip nicked open one of her veins. A dark, almost midnight blue liquid trickled out. Regina staunched the bleeding with one of the hot towels.
"You have to find the person who shot her."
Snow White frowned. "We're searching everywhere. We have half the guards on it."
"Put all the guards on it!"
"What's wrong with her?"
Regina looked down at Emma. "The arrow was poisoned. If we don't find him and find out what poison he used... I'm not sure I'll be able to save her."