Eva walked up the stairs and entered her bedroom and shed her clothes from the previous night. She took a quick shower and looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were still red and she reached into a drawer and grabbed eye drops.
She got dressed as she heard a beep from her driveway. She looked out the window as Chris parked her jeep and waved hi from the driver's seat.
She smiled as she quickly walked downstairs and put on pair of black booties.
she hasn't worn them much is Miami, but loved to wear them on the cool days of Storybrooke.
"I was just gonna take a taxi to work. You didn't have to pick my car up this early." She said as she walked out of her front door.
"I said I was going to pick it up, so I did. I was up early anyways." he said about to get out of the driver's seat.
"No, you drive. I have a headache." she said getting into the passenger's seat.
"Okay. Yeah, sure." he said sitting back down and putting on his seatbelt. She smiled at him and just enjoyed the view as they drove to work.
"Are you okay?" Chris asked as he parked her car.
"Huh? Yeah. Just a bit tired." She said getting out of the car.
"I'm just going to go for a walk before work." Eva said as she walked in the opposite direction.
"Okay. I'll just be in the locker room." he said confused and slightly worried.
"Hey Chris. How many incoming?" Eva greeted Chris as she walked into the locker room and focused on getting a drink of water. He noticed how she had changed into her scrubs.
"Five GSWs and two red-bands, milady." he said making her smirk to herself as she turned back towards him.
"Milady?" she asked amused, but then remembering her old life.
"I was trying to get a little fresh verbiage from across the pond. You know with the new dynamic on alpha team." he said getting up from his seat and talking about Proctor.
"Well in that case, i prefer your most royal, not quite highness, Zambrano." she teased back as she left the room to quickly grab something. Chris just laughed as Serena walked in and began talking to him.
"Hey Eva." Tuck said getting her attention before she walked back in to the room.
"Yeah." She said tuning to face him.
"This came for you. It looks important." He said handing her a white envelope with a wax seal on it.
"Thanks Tuck." she said as he walked away towards the nurse's station.
Eva looked at the envelope and walked back into the lacker room and caught part of a conversation.
"Did you get a look at that scar?" Serena asked Chris.
"What scar?" Eva asked after she put the letter into her locker. She made eye contact with Chris and she smiled at him, but she could tell he was curious.
"He must have had his chest cracked." Chris said as Serena agreed.
There pagers beeped as Proctor entered the room.
"All right, incoming's two minutes out." he said as he led the team out.
They worked together as a patient was rushed in with gunshot wounds. Chris read out the chart he was given by the paramedics for the woman on the gurney.
"My son, Dylan. He's at home with the sitter." the patient said.
"Don't worry. We'll get the babysitter's information and make sure Dylan's taken care of, but right now, we got a sliver of time that'll make a big difference in your recovery, so you need to lay back and we'll make you better." Chris said reassuring the woman.
"Kate Prentice, this is Dr. Eva Zambrano. Now, Dr. Zambrano's going to tell you that she outranks me, but, trust me, I'm a better doctor." he said teasingly. Eva smiled at him knowing that he was just trying to get the patient to not think about her injuries.
"Ready? Let's get her on the table. One, two, three." They lifted her onto the table and began working fast.
"Kate, do you have any medical conditions we should know about?" Eva asked as she checked her blood pressure.
They continued to work fast as they flipped her over and found the bullets entrance. They struggled as they lost her pulse, but thanks to fast acting they managed to recover it and get her stable.
"A 23 year old man should not be going into V-fib from a bullet that's nowhere near her heart, right?" Chris had asked everyone in the room.
At the end of the day, Eva went to her locker. She quickly changed and grabbed her purse from the shelf as the envelope fell out.
Chris reached down to pick it up and looked at it curiously.
"What's this? Looks pretty fancy." he said handing it back to her.
"I'm not sure. Do you need a ride home?" she asked changing the subject and hiding the letter in the bottom of her purse.
"It's fine. Tuck offered me a ride." he said.
"Oh great. That's fine." she said giving a noncommittal smile.
"Me tengo que ir. I have to go." she said quickly, walking away.
Chris stood there for a moment concerned as Tuck entered the room. He zoned out and began thinking.
"You ready to go Dr. C." he said as Chris came back to reality.
"Yeah sure. Thanks for the ride." Chris replied grabbing his bag and following Tuck outside.
In the parking lot Chris noticed Eva's car still in the parking lot. He looked closer and saw Eva reading the letter. She looked devastated, but he didn't know what to do to help. He got into Tuck's car and drove off as he continued to watch her until she was out of view.
Eva read the letter over and over again until she realized that she has been sitting in her car for a long time. She put her keys in and began to drive home.
The letter had been sent from Rumple. He must have used magic to send it to her that fast, but whatever he did, she had got it the next morning.
He had given her a perfect escape. Rumple had managed to reach into the past and recover his ability to foresee the future. He was quick at work and easily figured a perfect time for Eva to fake her death and return to her rightful life as Regina.
Eva parked her car into the driveway and got out. She unlocked her door and made a beeline to her bedroom closet. Inside was the one magical item that had managed to remain the same across the border.
A simple ring that wasn't worth much, but contained a magical property.
The letter explained that she had four months until the perfect accident. Eva would need to wear the ring to keep herself safe, but only appear dead. Then her body could mysteriously disappear with the help of Rumple. Everyone would still remember who she was, but she would no longer be part of the real world. As far as they were concerned she had perished.
Eva held the ring towards her chest. She had been part of this world for 3 years. She had started a new life where she wasn't expected to be anything. No one forced her or manipulated her or made her feel like she wasn't worth anything. She was doing good and saving lives.
The next few day were odd. Eva would still tease Chris and Serena would join in with Tuck and Proctor, but it was out of obligation. She tried too hard to keep things normal, but everyone could tell something was wrong, especially Chris.
He tried to talk to her, but she would change the subject easily. She always had a way of controlling him.
It started getting difficult for people to try to ignore her change in attitude. She stopped hanging out at the bar and her sweet voice loss some of its effectiveness, but the patients didn't notice.
After about two weeks Eva accepted her fate and returned to normal. She tried hard to repress her inner Regina and thoughts about returning. It had worked and soon it was as though nothing had ever happened.
Everyone was relieved that whatever she was internally going through was over. No one faced her about it, but she knew they were all curious.
Eva had packed her things all into boxes knowing that soon none of it would be any use to her. She was content in carrying the ring around so she wouldn't forget it when the day would come.
Four months had almost come and gone. No one knew about what would soon happen and Eva had forced it out of her mind.
After a particularly hard day at work Eva really needed a drink. She sat at the bar as Serena sat on a stool next to her.
"I'll have what she's having." Serena told the bartender after her day with her past flame.
"Hey, nice get on those beta-blockers. I guess your personal life isn't distracting you from work after all." Eva said. Serena smiled at her colleague.
"You know, for the record there was a guy in med school who I was quite stupid over." Serena listen intently as Eva continued, "He proposed. I wavered. Now, he's just the one that got away." Eva mind flashed back. Her's and Regina's memories mixing together. Flashes of Daniel in scrubs. Tears as Eva walked away. She took a long sip from her martini, the ring feeling heavy in her jeans pocket.
"Good ones are hard to find." Serena said.
"True that." Eva said agreeing to Serena. "So, any news from Hunky Reunion Guy?"
"Calling him a pig would be an insult to pigs, who are clean and loyal. And text you back right away." Serena said staring at her phone, "What's another word for jerkface?" she added. Eva laughed as Chris walked up and sat next to her.
"Are you sure you should be drinking like that? You haven't slept in a couple days." he asked.
"I'm Cuban. Enough said." was her response as she took another drink.
"Scotch. The good stuff." he asked the bartender.
"So there was a guy in med school, huh?" Chris said making Eva turn to him in disbelief. She smirked at him.
"The onion peels slowly." she teased.
"I'll wait." he said making Eva's heart flutter.
"It'll just make you cry." She said trying to tease him, but the phrase having a double meaning.
Serena got up to leave after realizing that 'jerkface' hadn't text her back because she had his phone. She walked away with stress written all over face and Chris began to get up as well.
"Where are you going?" Eva asked.
"Come on, you don't want to feed the gossip troll, do you?" he said motioning to a nurse known to spread ridiculous rumours. She had already started a pool on when they were going to get together.
"I don't know." she said mischievously, "Some people say underneath gossip there's a kernel of truth."
"I will definitely drink to that." he said sitting back down. Eva and Chris tapped their glasses and both took a sip, both snickering to each other.
The next morning Eva woke up in a tangle of sheets. Her vision was blurred as a man walked in. She sat up and tried to focus her eye sight on him.
"Coffee?" Chris asked sheepishly as Eva let herself fall back into a mess of pillows.
"So no?" he asked taking a travel cup out of the holder and putting the rest down. Eva's hand shot up in the air as her head moved up from her position. He handed her a cup as she sat back up and used the duvet to cover herself.
"Thanks… What happened?" she asked taking a sip and pushing her hair out of her face. Chris looked at her face in the sun's morning glow.
"I can honestly say that I don't know. I think we had a competition on who could drink the most and…" he trailed off as his eyebrows furrowed trying to think about last night's activities.
"Competition. Sounds like me." she said laughing into her cup. Eva looked at the clock on the wall. It was only 5:06.
"Wait, what day is it?" she said suddenly. Her face in sudden realization.
"Umm, the 11th. Why?" he said confused as she got up, the duvet still securely around her body as she collected her clothes from the ground.
"Dios mio. I have to get going." Eva said as she rushed into the bathroom and left only minutes later fully dressed.
"Eva, wait." he said following her down the hallway.
"Bye, Chris." she said stopping at the door. She reached in her pocket and put a ring before leaving him with one more look.
"Eva! You forgot your sweater." he said, but she had closed the door, leaving Chris standing in the hall with boxers and her blue sweater in his hands.
A little less than two hours later Chris strolled into the locker room with Eva's sweater tucked into his book bag. He had a big smile that morning and felt amazing.
He noticed that Eva wasn't there yet. They usually arrived at the same time. Serena was settled on the couch trying to get Proctor to play a game on her phone and Tuck was at the nurses station talking to the gossip troll.
"Has anyone seen Eva?" he asked.
"I don't know? Shouldn't we be asking you where she is. We all heard the rumour that you guys left together." Serena said putting her phone in her pocket and standing up. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a look.
"I don't know what you're talking about." he said looking like a 5 year old who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
He opened his locker and took his clothes into the bathroom. He changed into his scrubs and flopped down onto the couch with a bagel in his hand.
"We have an incoming in 10 minutes. Car pile up." Tuck said walking into the locker room and grabbing a bottle of water.
"Dr. Zambrano hasn't made it here, yet." Proctor said drinking his cup of herbal tea.
"I guess we'll have to manage without her." Serena said as she put her lanyard around her neck and grabbed her stethoscope.
"Call down to the blood bank and make sure we're stocked up on 0 neg. Call down to ER and ask if they can control the back flow." Proctor said as the all got up. Their pagers began to beep.
"4 minutes out." Tuck called out as he left the room.
Chris and Serena waited at the van pulled up and the doors opened.
"Female. 30 years old. Massive lacerations on the abdomen. Head trauma. She's conscious, but a bit loopy."
"Does she have a name?" Chris asked as he walked forward.
"Not sure. Couldn't find her ID in the wreckage." the paramedic said giving Chris the chart.
"Oh my god!" Serena said dropping her stethoscope on the ground. Her eyes were dead in shock.
"Serena? What…" Chris began to say, but stopped mid sentence.
They both started in shock before jumping into action.
"Check her BP. Come on, Eva. Be strong." Chris said, his voice cracking. They pulled her into a room and lifted her off of the gurney and onto the table.
Eva tried to take her mask off. The ring on her finger shining under the lamp.
"Eva, please keep the mask on." Chris said trying to get her to calm down, but she kept on trying to pull it off. Eventually they let her take it off for a few seconds. A tear dripped down her cheek.
"Te quiero pase lo que pase." Eva said, repeating the words even as the mask was placed back over her mouth. Serena tried not to cry, but her face was becoming red.
They cut her shirt open and stared at the large gash across her stomach.
Proctor helped to try to stabilize her, but her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Chris' hands began to shake as Eva began to flat line.
They couldn't change her fate.
A/N
I'm so sorry for being horrible at posting. I just haven't been feeling really creative and I went on a week long trip with friends and couldn't get myself to write between trips to the beach, hot tub night, campfires and etc. I was a very fun and much needed trip.
You are all amazing so here is chapter 2 as well!
