It's a long walk back to the resort, but we find Neal and Killian as soon as we head inside. Both of them are sprawled out on the couches and looking in poor shape, curled up in damp blankets with a feww open cans of fruit between them.
"Killian, what are you doing out of bed?" Requires Regina.
"I was burning up in that little room. Neal was feeling the squeeze too. There's a lot more air in here, aye? We can actually breathe a bit." He answers.
(He knows he's sick? That's … progress, I think. Killian doesn't look any worse, but he doesn't look any better either. Maybe the illness has stalled out for now. But I can't say the same thing for Neal.)
"Are you feeling better now?" She asks.
"Much better. I'm not actually sick, you know, it's just the sun …"
"There's not a lot of sun in your room, Killian." I intervene.
"I'll be fit as a friddle in no time, Emma. We can go swimming again if you want." He say.
His big smile tells me the moment of lucidity has passed, and I sigh. If only we'd managed to find just one more cooler of water, this whole situation would be solved.
"Swimming. My head is swimming …" Says Graham.
"Come on, Graham. Let's go lay down." Reacts the doc.
She guides him to the couch despite all his mumbling, and I see Neal reaching out to one of the cans of fruit with a shaking hand, not quite able to grasp it. I pick it up from the table and put it into his grasp, moving the lid so he can scoop the fruit up and take a bite.
"Thanks, Emma. You're such a great friend, you know? I'm so lucky." Says Neal.
I force a smile to my face and help Neal eat a bit more of the fruit. I wish more than anything that he'd go back to joking about the food – or even teasing me – rather than being this feverish zombie that doesn't know any better.
(It's scary to see someone acting completely different, even if they're technically 'nicer'. I didn't sigh up for a creepy mirror dimension.)
"Come sit down with us, Regina. You look tired too. Nothing wrong with taking a lazy Sunday once in a while." Says Killian.
"I'm fine, Killian. And it's not Sunday." She replies.
Confusion breaks across Killian's face for a moment before he shrugs, letting Regina take his temperature again while he takes the last full can of fruit and start to eat.
(Damn, Regina was right. We're going to run out of fruit pretty fast. August carried the last of the tomatoes back from the patch, but it's not like they're going to grow back every day.)
"Regina, are we going to let everyone stay out here?" I ask.
"If they're more comfortable, than it doesn't matter to me. And everyone will be easier to watch all in one place." She answers.
(At least she responded to me. Maybe I can get somewhere now.)
"Is there any way I can help?" I propose.
"Right now, I need you to let me be the doctor. This isn't what you're trained to do, and I don't have time to give out lessons." She replies.
Regina turns away from me without another word, snuffing out the last hopeful spark I was still clinging to.
(She's barely looking at me at this point. It's like there's twenty walls between us and I can't do anything to tear them down. We can't rely on each other if we don't talk, if Regina doesn't at least consider what I have to say. Goddamn it. How do I get her to open up again?)
Once all of the guys are settled in on the couches and persuaded to eat what fruit we have left, Regina breaks away from them and goes deep into thought. She looks exhausted, and she has to be as thirsty as I am, but we can't stop at this point.
"I can't believe I'm considering this." She says.
"What?"
Regina stops short, as if surprised that she said the words out loud, but relents with a weak grimace.
"There's plenty of plants on this island that might be of some herbal use. I'm pretty sure half of them shouldn't be here, but that really doesn't matter at this point. It's possible something could be made into medicine. Incredibly crude and not half as effective as something you'd buy over the counter, but medicine. I wouldn't think it was worth the time if we weren't in such dire straits. So I'm heading back out. I'll come back when I find something useful."
"You can't go by yourself. Let me come with you." I say.
"No."
(Jeez, she's not even going to entertain the idea? What did I do?)
"It's not safe to go alone, Regina. Those animals are still wild and out there. We don't even know how many of them have been living off that lake. You could really get hurt." I express.
"… Alright. Let's go."
(Okay, that was a lot easier than I expected. I'm not going to look too hard into why.)
