Emma sat with her back pressed against the hair plastic back on the chair, the chair itself tipped back on it's rear two legs, her feet planted firmly on the bottom bar of the hospital bed, rocking herself slightly as she stared at her father. It had been six weeks since the night of the accident, and while he was now in stable condition - according to the doctors, though Emma wasn't quite sure exactly what that meant, beyond 'not about to die any minute' - he was still unconscious. They'd moved him out of the ICU and into another ward on the opposite side of the hospital, where he shared a room with three other coma patients. Emma had perused all of their files when no one was around, and discovered not a single one of them had been in there less than ten years.

She tried not to think about what that might mean for her father's prognosis.

Every day, while her mother was at work and her brother was at school, Emma would come here, and just sit, and watch him. Sometimes she talked to him, but usually she just watched, and looked for any sign that he was aware of her presence. Any change.

As far as she could tell, no one came to visit any of the other patients. It was none of her business, so she'd never asked any of the nurses who came to check their vitals from time to time where the families these people belonged to were and why they never came by, but she had to wonder if they'd been there so long, they'd simply been forgotten. She'd been coming here and staring at her unresponsive father everyday, for six weeks, and her mother and brother came by daily as well - though neither of them spent as much time as Emma did, since Emma was the only one with no other obligations - but she had to wonder how much longer they'd keep that up.

What would happen the first day that something came up, and they couldn't make it? Would it become a trend? Would they start coming every other day? Then maybe once a week? Once a month? Once a year?

What happened if Emma did go off to school? She'd leave the state, maybe find a job across the country, maybe across the world. Maybe she'd fall in love and get married and start a family of her own and her forever-sleeping father would drift further and further into the recesses of her mind until he became just another body taking up a bed in a hospital in Maine, forgotten by everyone except the nurses who checked his vitals.

She sighed, letting the chair fall forward onto all four feet, and leaning forward, crossing her arms into the edge of the bed and resting her chin on them, near her father's head. She found herself spiralling into these thoughts more and more lately, and her mother thought perhaps she spent a little too much time here. She thought maybe it wasn't good for her, and she needed to find something else to do with her time.

Maybe she was right.

But it had only been six weeks, and Emma wasn't quite ready to abandon the hope that this was just a little hiatus in her father's life - just a short break, so he could convalesce and soon enough he'd wake up and make some joke about how well-rested he felt and they'd all go down to Granny's and celebrate and things would return to normal.

But, maybe he still needed some convincing that it was time to wake up.

"Dad," Emma said, quietly, after several minutes of staring at him silently, watching for any sign of movement in his face from her close-up vantage point; anything, a twitch of an eyelid to signal that he was dreaming, a sniff, a tear. Anything. She'd talked to him several times, but every time it still felt strange, like he was just sleeping and she was disturbing him, or anyone else in the room. "Listen. You've been in here for a while now, and I think it's time to wake up. I know it's probably, like… not easy. It's been a while since you last woke up, I know, but you've gotta try. We kind of need you back at home, you know?"

She paused for a moment, biting her lip and trying to force back tears. She never cried when she was there. She didn't want her father to think she was mourning his loss. She didn't want to let herself think she was.

"Listen… here's the thing. Seth is really, really not handling this well. He's… I don't even know. I think he's traumatized, or something. He's talking about magic, warning me about danger in Storybrooke. He's… I think he's living in some sort of weird fantasy world, as a coping mechanism. He thinks… dad, he thinks we don't belong here. Like, any of us. He keeps promising he'll figure it out and explain everything, but dad… it would just be easier if you'd just wake up, and come home. Let him know that everything is okay and we're all safe and this is just… just a little hurdle, and we Nolans can overcome anything."

Emma watched David's face, looking for any sign that any of this was registering. But if he heard her, or understood, he didn't give her a sign.

Emma sighed again. "Okay, don't wake up then," Emma said, changing her approach. She often also worried that David could hear her, and she was putting way too much pressure on him. She didn't want him to worry about them when he needed his mental energy to recover. "Just… you know… heal, or whatever you need to do. Get better, and then wake up, okay? I'll handle things at home. I'm an adult now. I can do this. I'll talk to Seth, and make him tell me what's going on with him. I can hold it all together, dad, I promise. I can be brave. I'll take care of things, til you get home. But only if you promise to come home."

Emma raised an eyebrow, watching David with the same expectation she always did, as though, this time, she'd finally said the exact right thing to pull him out of it. "How about… say nothing, and... do nothing, just… lay there and keep your eyes closed if you promise to come home." Emma paused, as though she were giving David time to reply. "Okay. Cool. I'll take that as a yes. Good talk. See you tomorrow."

Across town, Regina sat in her vault, staring at the swan pendant in her hand. Six weeks ago, she'd had every intention of getting a new chain for it and giving it back to Emma, and while she still wanted nothing more than to see it around Emma's neck again, her plans had changed when she'd felt that spark of magic. There was no magic in this realm, but she'd discovered that magical objects and potions still worked, and she knew that all of Emma's magic was tethered to that pendant. If she could find a way to access it, she could wake Emma up, and set everything right.

The problem was, she had no idea how.

She sighed, leaning on her elbows and holding the pendant up in front of her eyes and studying it further. For all her years of practicing magic, for all that she'd learned, how was it that she couldn't figure this out? And it wasn't as though she had anyone she could ask. Rumple wasn't about to help her - and she wasn't even convinced he was in any frame of mind to offer useful advice, even if he wanted to - and the fairies had no memory of magic, not that they would help her if they did. Maleficent would have memories of the Enchanted Forest, which would be helpful, if she weren't a dragon.

Then it hit her. She'd never actually checked in on Maleficent, down below the library. The curse was meant to trap her in whatever form she was in, but Regina had no way of knowing what form that might be, fifteen years later. It occurred to her that she may have been trapped in her human form, though if she was, there was also a good chance she'd starved or frozen to death by now. She couldn't exactly hibernate as a human.

She chewed on her lip, wondering what were the odds that Maleficent might help her, even if she were still there, and alive. They hadn't exactly parted on the best terms when Regina had stolen the dark curse from her, and she couldn't imagine two years of underground captivity had softened her at all. And, if she were in dragon form, Regina would be roasted on the spot before she could even figure out how to get her to transform back.

Either way, she couldn't get down there alone, and she wasn't sure exactly who she could convince to help her. It was useless to think about options that were impossible.

She stood, placing the pendant back in the small metal box she'd been storing it in, and placed the box back on the shelf. She had a town council meeting to get to, and she supposed the rest of this would have to wait until later. It wasn't like she was getting anywhere with it today anyway.

After leaving the hospital, Emma had gotten in her Bug and driven across Storybrooke to the town hall. Taking legal possession of her car had been bittersweet, since her dad hadn't been there to see her officially become a car owner, but she still enjoyed the freedom of having a vehicle. She hadn't actually left Storybrooke in it yet, even for a day trip, but it was exciting to know she could. Without school, or a job, or a romantic attachment, she felt freer than she'd ever felt before. She could go anywhere and do anything she wanted.

So she went to Regina's office.

And now she sat facing Regina's desk, staring at the mayor's empty chair, as she idly spun the little scroll Seth had found on the pristine desktop, like a spinning top. She still had no idea what it was, but she carried it with her often, and played with it when she was bored. There was something peculiar about it, and she still felt like it was important, but she couldn't guess why that could be.

She supposed it might just be because they'd found it the same day Seth came home, and her brain had placed some sort of undue importance on a useless object, but still, it felt like it mattered. And since Seth had been rambling on for weeks now about magic and curses and all sorts of fairy tales, she supposed she'd also internalized some of that, and turned this little object into some sort of strange adventure, even if it was only in her own mind.

She'd wanted to come by and talk to Regina today - another habit she'd picked up recently, along with visiting David at the hospital, was showing up unexpectedly at Regina's office nearly every day, and Regina never seemed to mind the intrusion - but she'd shown up only to discover she was in the middle of a town meeting. Emma had considered just going home, but Regina's receptionist had let her in, as nearly everyone at the office had gotten used to her being around and used to Regina not minding her presence, and so Emma sat, entertaining herself, while she waited for the meeting to end.

She wasn't sure that it was necessarily normal to be spending so much time with the mayor, but she found she preferred spending time with her over spending time with her friends, and most of her friends were either in school, or working, anyway. Besides, if she didn't come here after leaving the hospital, she knew she'd probably just spend twice as long each day talking to her unconscious father, and she was sure everyone would likely agree that talking to someone who could actually talk back was probably better for her.

"What are you doing?"

Emma jumped as she heard the sense of urgency in Regina's voice, and spun around in her chair to face the mayor, who was approaching the desk quickly, her face registering a look of panic. "Oh, I just… I wanted to come by and see you."

Regina shook her head quickly, and Emma could see that she was focused not on her, but on the little scroll she'd let fall onto the desktop in her surprise. "No. What are you doing with that?"

"Uh…" Emma said, glancing at the scroll in confusion.

"It's not a toy," Regina scolded, as she snatched it up, holding on to it tightly as she made her way to the other side of her desk to sit in her own chair.

"Wait. You know what it is?" Emma asked, her interest piqued.

Regina gaped at her for a second. "No, but… well it looks valuable, doesn't it? It's probably not a toy. Certainly not a spinning top."

Emma cocked her head to the side, observing Regina with curiosity. "But... you don't know what it is."

"No."

"Then give it back," Emma challenged. She didn't particularly care if she actually got it back; she was now far more interested in Regina's response. The mayor fascinated her, and Emma felt a strange desire to know her. She was drawn to her like a magnet, and though she couldn't understand why, it made everything Regina said or did so unbelievably interesting to Emma.

Regina opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again, opening her hand instead and looking down at the scroll, apparently debating what she should do with it. "Where did you get it?" She asked, finally.

Emma shrugged. "Seth found it."

"He just… found it," Regina said, skepticism in her voice.

Emma shrugged again, more deliberately this time. "Yeah. I guess so. It was in his treasure box. He said he's never seen it before, but how else would it have gotten there? He must have forgotten."

"And you don't know what it is?" Regina asked, her eyes imploring Emma's, as though she were looking for a specific answer, though Emma had no idea what that answer might be.

She shook her head. "No. But yeah, it looks valuable, so I've been holding on to it."

"It looks valuable so you've been treating it carelessly," Regina corrected.

"I… why do you care? Maybe it's not even valuable. Maybe it's nothing."

"Have you opened it?"

Emma shook her head. "No. I don't even know if it does open. I mean, it looks like it does, but I can't figure it out."

Regina nodded absently, turning the scroll over in her hand.

"Maybe you should take it to Lacey's shop?" Emma suggested, and Regina's head snapped up in surprise.

"What?"

"Well, I mean… you said you were going to take that necklace we found there, right? To see if she has a chain for it? She has all sorts of weird antique stuff in there… maybe she might know something about it? Or, at least she might know if it's possibly valuable, or important, or something?"

"You think it's important?" Regina pressed.

Emma looked at her with mild bewilderment. She wasn't sure exactly what was going on, but she was pretty sure there was something Regina wasn't telling her. "I don't know. Maybe?"

After observing the scroll for a few more moments, Regina finally nodded. "I'll take it to Lacey," she said, nodding decisively as though it were her idea in the first place.

"Okay, cool…"

Regina looked up again, and met Emma's eyes, looking at her as though she were just seeing her for the first time since she'd walked in. She shook her head, as though she were trying to clear her thoughts. "Sorry, Emma. My head's been in meetings all day, and I'm a little frazzled. You came by to see me?"

Emma nodded, and sank back into her chair. "Yeah, I was bored, and… I don't know, I just wanted to come by and talk to you. But if you're busy, I can-"

"No!" Regina said, smiling as she cut Emma off. "I'm not busy. Well, I was, but I'm not now. No more meetings, so I'm all yours."

"You don't have other work to do?"

"Nothing that can't wait."

"Okay, cool," Emma said, relaxing a bit.

"So what did you want to talk about?" Regina asked, raising an eyebrow.

Emma gaped at her for a moment. She'd just said she'd wanted to come by and talk to her, but now, for the life of her, she couldn't think of a single thing to say. Nothing really happened in her life anymore, and though she was sure if she told Regina she was just lonely and bored and needed human interaction, it would be fine, but she didn't want to come across as desperate for attention. So she said the first thing that came to her mind. "I have to go to Boston."

"Boston?" Regina repeated.

"Yeah," Emma said, nodding. She'd known she needed to go to Boston for a while now, but she'd never really thought to bring it up. "There's some paperwork I have to sign at the school, since I won't be staying at their residence. I don't know. They said I can't do it over the phone, even though I already withdrew from the program. So I have to go to Boston, I guess."

"Oh." Regina nodded. "When are you going?"

Emma shrugged. "The deadline is next Tuesday, or they're going to charge me one semester's worth of residence fees, so maybe this weekend, I guess? I don't know. I've been putting it off because I don't want to drive there alone. I've never even left Storybrooke."

"Your mother wouldn't go with you?"

"She would," Emma started, with a sigh, "but then Seth would also have to come. And it's a four hour drive. Each way. And then however long it will take to do everything, and who knows how long that will take, probably all day, so we'll probably end up having to stay overnight and then that's two whole days we're out of Storybrooke and no one will be here to go see my dad, and he might think we forgot about him, and-"

"Emma," Regina stopped. "Take a breath."

Emma nodded, and paused to breathe. She hadn't realized how much the prospect of going to Boston had been terrifying her until she'd started talking, but now her heart was racing and she was wondering if maybe paying a semester's worth of fees for a room she wouldn't be staying in wasn't all that bad, because a two day trip out of town seemed impossible right now.

"Yeah, it's fine. I'm fine. It's fine. I'll just go to Boston and it'll be fine," Emma said, nodding decisively, more for Regina's sake than her own, since she was not convinced.

"I could go with you."

Emma's eyes shot up to meet Regina's, in surprise. "You want to come with me? To Boston."

Regina nodded. "Sure, why not? You know I don't do anything on my weekends."

"Right, but… Boston. You heard the part where it's a four hour drive, right? Each way?"

Regina smiled. "Yes, I know where Boston is. We can leave in the morning, you can sign whatever you need to sign, and we can go get dinner, stay at a hotel, and come home the next day. It'll be a road trip. It could be nice to get away from Storybrooke for a night. It would do you some good, I think."

Emma smiled, in spite of herself. "You wanna have like a girls' getaway weekend with me?"

"Of course I would."

Emma nodded, considering it. "I mean, I'm sure my mom would rather stay here, and she'll feel better if I'm not going alone."

"Well then it's settled."

"Yeah, cool," Emma said, smiling again. "It'll be fun."