A/N: I hate bad internet connections. That is all.
The voices sounded distant, muffled, as if from very far away.
"But you've already read this one to me. I want you to read a new book."
"Well we didn't bring any more books with us so you can either have Thomas the Tank Engine, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, or Harry the Dirty Dog."
There was a deliberating pause.
"Harry, please."
"Ok then. Come and sit on my lap and then you can look at the pictures too." A shuffling of paper reached disoriented ears. "Do you want to hold the book?"
"Yes."
"Once upon a time …"
"Any movement at all? Eyes opening? Fingers twitching?" A deep, male voice asked.
"No." The answer sounded despondent.
"Well nothing has changed on the machines. Her breathing sounds stronger and her heart rate is still steady. The swelling of the brain has reduced considerably. I'm afraid all you can do now is wait and hope."
"OK. Thanks Doc."
Footsteps retreated and a long sigh could be heard as the woman took her seat beside the bed once more.
"I'm bored."
"Five more minutes and then we'll go to the park."
"Can I watch TV until then?"
"Yes but keep the volume low."
"Why?"
"Because we don't want to wake the patient do we?"
"No." The little boy sounded serious. "Can I sit on the bed again?"
"Yes, but be careful not to touch any of the tubes or wires like you did last time."
The bed dipped softly as a lightweight person was placed upon the blankets. The clicking of a remote and the low hum of the television filled the room.
Regina tried to open her eyes so she could watch too. But her lids were too heavy.
"Emma, you need sleep."
"I'm fine, August, really."
"You're not fine," the man replied. "Come on. Go home now, take a shower and I'll sit with Regina while you're gone."
"What if she wakes up?"
"Then I'll be here to tell her you'll be back in just a few minutes. You need to look after yourself too, Ems. It's been over a week and you've barely left her side."
"Is Henry at home?"
"It's Thursday, he's at play group," her friend reminded him.
"Right." Emma sounded confused. "Then I'll go home, shower, get changed, pick him up and we can both come back."
"Are you sure it's a good idea for him to spend so much time here?"
"He loves her too. He wants to be here when she wakes up."
"And what if she doesn't?"
Emma didn't answer the question but a sob echoed around the room, stifled quickly by a shaking hand.
Her throat felt like sandpaper. She swallowed thickly, wincing at the pain. Her nose felt strange, like there was something inside her nostrils. She wrinkled it and recognised the sensation of a breathing tube through which she could smell the unmistakable scent of disinfectant and cleaning products. Her head throbbed, like she'd been hit in the temple with a baseball bat, and there was something tight over her ears, pinning them to her scalp. Her arms and legs felt heavy, lying limply on a soft, unfamiliar mattress. With great effort, Regina opened her eyes.
The room was dark, a narrow strip of light from the door opposite casting a faint glow over everything before her. She blinked, trying to focus, as the methodical beep of hospital apparatus registered in her foggy brain. Turning her head to one side, she squinted to make out the numbers on the heart monitor machine. Her neck felt stiff with the effort but she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the steady pulse line.
Something tensed slightly against Regina's stomach and she gasped with shock, looking down her body and frowning at the bandaged forearm which was resting just below her breasts, fingers digging slightly into her skin. Turning her head the other way, she raised her eyebrows as her gaze fell on the sleeping face beside her. Emma was curled into her side, holding herself close against her previously unconscious girlfriend. Her hair fanned out over their shared pillow, the blonde strands positively radiant in the dim light of the room. Regina smiled before she brought her own hand up to lace between Emma's now relaxed fingers, allowing her eyes to slip closed once more as she did so.
Emma lay still as consciousness slowly returned to her. She had become used to sleeping on the narrow bed beside Regina but it wasn't exactly comfortable and she never slept for more than a few hours at a time. She yawned and groggily opened her eyes.
Regina's face wasn't in focus at first, so close was it to her own. Suddenly, Emma's eyebrows shot up her forehead as she stared open mouthed at the serene face of her girlfriend turned unmistakably towards her. She went to reach out and touch the soft cheek but stilled her movement as soon as she realised Regina's fingers were threaded between her own. Had she done that herself during the night? Or had Regina finally woken up?
"Regina?" Emma whispered, her breath hitting the brunette's face lightly.
"Mmmmm," came the reply, a slight frown on her forehead as the older woman also began to wake up.
"Regina!" Emma cried out, wrapping her arm around the paramedic and pulling her into a tight embrace.
"Omph!" the brunette said, her voice cracked and hoarse, as strong arms encircled her weakened frame.
"You're awake," Emma said, pulling back with tear filled eyes to at last look upon those chocolate orbs she had missed so much.
Emma's heart swelled with love and relief and she leaned forward and pressed a firm kiss to the chapped lips before her.
"I'm awake," Regina said with a small smile when they broke apart. "What happened?" Her memory of the events leading up to her being in the hospital was patchy to say the least.
"I'll explain everything in a moment but right now I'm getting you a doctor," Emma said, sliding off the bed and rushing out into the corridor to find a member of staff.
Regina watched her go, her eyes struggling to adjust to the bright lights outside her room. Seconds later, Emma returned with a kindly looking male doctor who proceeded to check her vitals, ask her questions about what she remembered prior to the incident (relatively little) and booked her in for a CT scan to check her brain swelling later in the morning. The doctor then listened to her lungs, informing Regina as he did so that she had suffered severe smoke inhalation and had been on a breathing machine for several days whilst the inflamed tissue healed itself. Satisfied with what he heard, the doctor made a note on his chart, nodded to Emma and left the two women alone once more.
"What happened?" Regina asked again.
"You and Whale were called to Whale's father's house at the start of the shift," Emma began. "Do you remember meeting William, his brother?"
"Yes, I think so. He was in a bedroom downstairs," Regina said, reaching her hand up to rub her forehead which was aching slightly. She frowned when her hand came into contact with a bandage.
"Well it seems that Mr Whale called the ambulance because William was in severe pain. You guys arrived and from what Whale said, there was nothing you could really do to help."
"No, there wasn't. Whale felt completely helpless and his father was angry with him. How is Victor?" Regina asked, realising the man must have been in the fire with her.
"He's unharmed and coping as well as can be expected," Emma said with a grim look on her face. "Anyway, it appears Mr Whale started the fire, in some fucked up attempt to put his disabled son out of his misery."
"What?" Regina gasped. "Please tell me we saved William."
"You got him out of his bedroom," Emma said. "But then Mr Whale attacked both of you in the kitchen. From the positions in which we found you we think you two were trying to get out the back door. But Whale's father gave you such a knock to the head you fell to the floor and suffered a brain bleed when your skull hit the tiles. Whale went down too and it appears by that time the fire trucks had arrived, so Whale Senior carried William upstairs to wait for the fire to spread."
"They died?"
Emma nodded, reaching for Regina's hand and squeezing softly. "Yes, I'm sorry. After we got you and Whale out we did go back in and swept the upstairs but by the time we reached the bedroom where he had locked them both, they were already dead."
Regina felt a tear roll down her cheek. Emma leaned in and softly wiped it away with the pad of her thumb.
"What happened to your arm?" Regina asked, noticing the bandage again as the blonde pulled away.
"Getting out of the house wasn't exactly simple," Emma explained. "By the time we'd checked the upstairs the ground floor was an inferno. Gold ordered us out but the ceiling began to collapse on us just as we reached the foot of the staircase. A piece of falling wood lodged itself down my sleeve. The skin was scalded but it's not too bad. I was lucky really."
"Lucky compared to who?" Regina asked, her tone apprehensive as to what came next.
"Jones' glove came off when he was trying to lift a fallen beam out of our way. His hand was completely burned by more falling embers and the doctors had no choice but to amputate it to stop the spread of infection."
Regina didn't know what to say. All this pain, all this loss, stemming from the grief and guilt of one man. Her memories of Mr Whale had begun to sharpen and she remembered the dead, cold look in his eyes as he observed his crippled son. William may have been in agony but to start a fire, endangering so many people and killing his own son in the process, Regina was sure she would never be able to stand his reasoning.
"Whale's father killed his brother," Regina said slowly. "Can I see Whale? Is he ok?"
She didn't know exactly what she wanted to say to her partner but she knew she needed to see him. They had been in that fire together after all, a vague memory of Whale pulling her from the burning room swam forward as she remembered more and more of the day in question.
"He's been discharged from the hospital," Emma said, "but he's still on leave so I can text him if you want, ask him to come in some time this afternoon."
"Why aren't you at work?" Regina said, frowning suddenly.
"I had some vacation time I needed to use up," the blonde shrugged.
"Some vacation," Regina said sarcastically, glancing around the hospital room.
"I wasn't going to leave you," Emma said. "And I wasn't going to give up on you."
"How long was I unconscious?" Regina asked.
"Ten days," Emma told her. "The first few you were in a medically induced coma after they operated to stop the brain bleed, hence the bandage. You came off the breathing machine pretty soon after that. And then we were just waiting."
"Henry was here too?"
"Yes," Emma nodded.
"I think heard you."
"What?"
"At times, I could hear things. I tried to speak, tried to open my eyes but I guess my body just wasn't ready."
"Well I'm glad you're ready now," Emma smiled. "I missed you so much, Regina."
"I missed you too," the brunette smiled before raising her hand and stifling a yawn.
"You need to rest," Emma said, standing up and rearranging the blankets covering her girlfriend.
"Stay with me?" Regina asked.
"Of course," Emma nodded, leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to Regina's forehead, just below the bandage. "Let me just nip outside and call August to let him know you're awake and to ask him to bring Henry down after lunch. I'll phone Gold too."
"Does everyone know about us now?" Regina asked, snuggling further down under her blankets.
"Yeah," Emma nodded.
"And Gold?"
"Wants to talk to us when we're both back on shift so please feel free to take your sweet ass time getting better now I know you're not gonna die and leave me alone."
"I'd never leave you, Emma," Regina murmured just before her eyes slipped closed and a calm sleep washed over her.
A/N: I'm so sorry about the delay and the cliffhanger - it wasn't my intention, I swear. My damn internet has been off for over a week and I've been using my phone as a hotspot to get stuff off my computer and onto my phone so I can upload it. But anyone who's ever tried to upload and edit chapters on on your phone will know what a challenge this is. But hopefully the internet is fixed now and the last few chapters will be up before Christmas - that's a promise!
In anticipation of responses to the way this storyline ended, I shall offer an explanation/reasoning now: In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the doctor who created the monster (in this case Victor Whale) returns from a trip to discover the monster (Frankenstein aka Whale Senior) has murdered his brother (William Whale). So in my defence, that's why they died. And in another part of the story, Frankenstein sets fire to a cottage which is where I got that idea from. I hope that made sense to you - I didn't want to make it sad but I also didn't want Firehouse 7 to rescue people on every call out because, sadly, life just doesn't work that way. Oh and I'm not a doctor but I hope the medical stuff made sense and was believable.
And sorry for the angst but of course I wasn't going to kill Regina off! Nor Emma - although I decided to injure her a little. Oh and I don't like Hook's character on OUaT so I decided to remove his hand just because I could!
Sorry for the super long note at the end. I can promise more happiness and sunshine and loving in the last few chapters. I write day-to-day so I'm not sure how many are left but I don't expect to go over the 40 chapter mark …
Big love to you all - reviews make my heart sing (I get around to answering most of them eventually!). And follows on twitter make me smile even wider - SwanQueenUKFF.