A/N: Happy New Year everyone, I'm so sorry it has been such a long wait. It's definitely been one heck of a month. Thank you for your patience. The rest of the story has been outlined since at least the summer, now it is just a matter of making the notes into chapters worthy of your eyes! I hope everyone had a good holiday.

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David had arrived back at the house a few minutes previously after a tiring evening in town, and Emma had just finished the phone conversation with Doctor Montgomery, one of the nephrologists at Massachusetts General in Boston. The blonde approached the living room where her parents were having a quiet discussion of their own.

"Oh, hey David." Emma said a little distractedly as she entered the room.

"Hey."

"I didn't hear you come in. How are things in town?"

"They seem to be getting a little better, at least the streets are a bit less chaotic than they were earlier. I still wouldn't risk trying to move Regina though."

Emma sighed bitterly, shaking her head in disappointment at the once peaceful townspeople.

"So what did the doctor say?" Mary Margaret asked.

"She said Regina's condition sounds very serious, which we already knew... but she did say that Regina will probably still be okay for a little while more, but obviously she needs to get to a hospital as soon as possible. Ideally she should be there already."

"And by okay you mean–?" Snow asked, knowing the answer but hoping she was wrong.

"Alive... yeah." Emma clarified. "Doctor Whale was right, it was okay that Regina didn't start dialysis as soon as she got the diagnosis of kidney failure, and she'll be able to survive for a little longer without the treatment. But this doctor hasn't seen Regina and Doctor Whale has. From what he suggested before the curse broke she should have already started by now."

"Did you tell this new doctor that?" David asked.

"Yeah. I thought about not telling her that Regina's already been to a hospital, because obviously she would have questions about why Regina stopped going... but it seemed best to give her as much information as possible. "

"I agree." Mary Margaret said. "Did she have a basic guess of how long Regina has?"

"From what I could tell her she said that her best guess was that Regina has maybe a few days before... well she'll still be alive but..." Emma sighed, not finishing her sentence. "But she also said that I shouldn't base my judgement on that, because she hasn't seen Regina so her assumption could be wrong because every patient is different."

"Does the doctor know that Regina still wants treatment?" David asked. "Or does she think that Regina willingly stopped receiving medical care? I'm just wondering because it might have an impact on the doctor's advice."

"Well I mean I couldn't exactly tell her what happened here, so I kind of made it sound like Regina had decided to you know, let nature take its course. She knows about Regina's suicide attempt so... it wasn't hard for her to believe that Regina could be refusing medical attention. But the way I was able to get information that could help slow down the process was because I told her that I still have doubts about Regina's resolve to die."

Mary Margaret and David shared a sombre look with each other. Mary Margaret stepped closer to him and leaned sideways into his embrace as he wrapped a comforting arm around her.

Emma bit her lip, shaking her head worriedly. "She's not going to last much longer, I've never seen anyone as weak as she is right now."

David nodded. "Well, tomorrow will mark the third day since the curse has broken, maybe everything will have calmed a bit since nothing has happened so far. The town has to see by now that Regina's not a threat to them. The fact that she hasn't tried anything and that we're all standing by her should be proof of that."

"Still we shouldn't assume that things will be easier."

"Did you ask about Regina's fever? Is it normal?" Snow wondered.

"Montgomery said the fever most likely doesn't have anything to do with the kidney failure at all... or the liver damage for that matter. She said that Regina probably just picked up a virus somewhere. She most likely caught it from one of us."

"But none of us are sick." David said.

"That doesn't mean we still couldn't have caught the virus from someone else in town and then brought it in unknowingly." Mary Margaret explained. "A carrier of a virus won't necessarily get sick but they could still pass it on to someone else who does."

"Yeah..." Emma agreed. "Basically Regina's immune system is weakening so she was more easily able to pick up an infection. Dr. Montgomery said the fever itself is probably nothing to worry about, it will go away on its own once it kills the worst of the virus."

"That's something at least."

"Yeah... But if Regina still can't keep any food down by this time tomorrow then it'll really be time to worry. Going more than twenty-four hours without nourishment is harmful to anyone, and it's especially dangerous to someone whose health is as fragile as Regina's. She's sick enough as it is." Emma said.

She heaved a heavy sigh before turning around and pacing the room for a few steps as she tried not to let her sudden anger overwhelm her.

"Emma what is it?" Mary Margaret asked in worry as she read her daughter's emotions.

"It might not have gotten so bad this fast if Regina had been properly taking care of herself in the first place!" Emma responded. "She still hasn't gained back the weight she lost after Henry left. She hardly eats anything, she never exercises, hell she's barely even stepped out of the house since we went to Boston and that was like two months ago! I've tried so hard to get her to come out with me and Henry. She used to every once in a while, but most of the time she just wanted to keep to the house. And the entire past month has basically been a write-off."

David nodded his agreement. "Did you tell the doctor that too?"

Emma nodded. "She said it didn't help. Montgomery has no doubt that Regina is nutrient deficient, and if she does want to survive she's going to have to start getting more energy, and we have to find a way to get some food into her. "

"But what can we do?" Snow asked. "We can't exactly force meals on her when we know there's a good chance it'll make her sick again. It would be cruel to make her suffer even more than she has to."

"Mary Margaret's right." David said. "And if Regina keeps throwing everything up it's only going to hurt her more than if she doesn't eat at all. That's got to be really hard on her system."

"I know..." Emma sighed. "The doctor gave me some suggestions for what Regina might be able to safely eat. We'll try something in the morning, it'll give her stomach some time to recover."

"What kind of tips did she have?"

"Well for one she said we should limit the amount of protein Regina eats."

"How would that help?"

"Umm," Emma pinched the bridge of her nose tiredly as she tried to remember every detail. "It's because when protein is digested, the body releases this thing that's toxic... I think she said ammonia. Yeah that was it. So protein leads to the creation of ammonia, and then the liver is supposed to do its thing and make the ammonia harmless... but Regina's liver is having difficulty doing that and which means it's leading to a build-up. Also, too much protein makes the kidneys work harder as well, which could cause even more damage since Regina's kidneys have already lost most of their function."

"So... less protein," David repeated. "Got it."

"But how will Regina get enough energy if we can't give her anything with protein in it?" Mary Margaret asked.

"Well we can't cut it from her diet completely because like you said, she still needs it," Emma replied. "I wrote down a list of things the doctor recommended that Regina should and shouldn't eat. She said the lower protein diet should help to slow down the kidney deterioration."

Emma could hear her parents continuing to talk as she rested her head in her hands for a moment or two, it had been an excruciatingly long day and she had only slept for about an hour up in Regina's room before the doctor had called.

"Oh, and we can't let her get dehydrated either." Emma interrupted them. "But it's also really important that we don't give her too much water."

"What harm would water do?"

"Because since her kidneys aren't working properly, liquids aren't being flushed from her system as sufficiently as they should be. If she drinks too much she'll retain a lot of it which isn't good."

"How will we know what's too much?"

"Just keep asking her I guess. If she's thirsty we have to let her drink, but we just have to make sure that the right amounts of water are leaving her system before giving her too much more."

"What if she's lying?" Snow said. "I knew for a fact today that she was dehydrated and she told me she wasn't thirsty."

"But she had just been sick, she might have just had an upset stomach." David reasoned.

Emma frowned as she thought about this. Regina was usually good about keeping hydrated. "Maybe she's noticed that something's going wrong when she drinks too much water. We'll just explain all of this to her. She might not know since the last time she saw Dr. Whale she wasn't this bad yet."

"You're right," Mary Margaret said, "or perhaps Dr. Whale did tell her of the dangers after all, maybe that's why she said she wasn't thirsty. Do you think she is afraid of what will happen if she drinks too much water?"

"Could be... But honestly who knows, we'll just have to ask her straight up about it. She's told me a lot but there are still some things she tries to keep from me." Emma shook her head, not understanding why Regina still thought she had to hide certain things. Perhaps it was about still wanting to feel that she had control over her own life. Emma bit her lip, looking up and noticing the drained looks on her parents' faces.

"Guys I know this is a lot... but Regina knows how crucial this is, she'll help us take care of her."

Snow and David nodded softly in agreement.

Emma collapsed into a seat on the couch and buried her face in her hands, sighing heavily. She ran her fingers through her hair and then folded her arms, there was a grim look on her face.

"Emma what is it?" Mary Margaret asked. "Is there something else?"

Emma warily looked up at her, at this point all she wanted was to go back upstairs and sleep the rest of the night away. "Yeah... there is."

"Well what is it?" Mary Margaret pressed when her daughter failed to elaborate.

Emma sighed again. "Montgomery says that if Regina's illness goes untreated much longer, she's likely to develop a brain condition called Uremic Encep... enecph... ugh, hold on." Emma pulled a notepad out of her pocket. "Encephalopathy. Sorry, it was a lot of information at once. But basically since Regina's body isn't properly removing the toxins from her blood, they're building up in her bloodstream and as a result Regina's slowly being poisoned."

David folded his arms. "Did she tell you anything else about it? What exactly will it mean for Regina?"

"Exactly what it sounds like. Montgomery said that Regina's episode today, you know, asking for her dad and stuff, may have been caused by her high fever, but it might also have been the early stages of this encheph thing. She said the symptoms can be anything from sleep pattern changes, confusion, forgetfulness, trouble concentrating and... I think the phrase she used was mental fogginess. And Regina's been showing signs of all of these things. The symptoms are discreet but they're there. Even with what I told her about Regina, Montgomery said she would have to see her to know for sure, but she said if it is this brain condition then it's only going to get worse."

"Is it treatable?" Snow asked.

"Yeah. But there's only so much they'll be able to do if we wait too long."

"Then I truly hope it was the fever talking today." Snow said, there was a horrible feeling in her stomach.

"Me too... Although I'm worried that it may already have started, just because of everything that's been going on with her lately... and there was even a moment when Regina seemed a little out of sorts tonight after our argument. It's nothing bad, but she just seems to react to things differently than she used to."

"She could have just been upset."

"Yeah maybe. But she also didn't think it was important to tell me that the protection spell around the house is faulty. If anyone had come here looking for vengeance today she could have been badly hurt, or killed. Henry too. I'm not so sure that her judgement is at its sharpest right now."

"What are you talking about?" David asked.

"The spell Mother Superior used. Apparently it wouldn't keep a snail out let alone an entire angry mob."

"Why would Blue do something like that?" Snow looked hurt.

"Why not come when we call her?" Emma shrugged. "I think it's fair to assume that she's not going to be of any more assistance to us."

David sighed, shaking his head. "But if what you say about Regina's judgement is true, how are we going to be able to trust her about her dietary needs? We know she's already lied to Snow; she'll probably do it again."

Emma waved an exhausted hand over her eyes. "Look, I never said any of this was going to be easy. But hopefully we'll get her out of Storybrooke within the next few days and she'll have professional care. In the meantime we just have to make sure she knows how important it is to help us look after her. All we can do right now is our best."

Emma glanced at the clock. "I'm going to go upstairs and see if Regina's still awake, if anyone has a right to hear what the doctor said it's her. Night guys."

"Okay. Goodnight Emma." Mary Margaret rubbed Emma's arm as the blonde passed her to go upstairs.

"Have a good sleep. We'll be down here if you need us." David said.

Emma gave him a thankful wave over her shoulder before disappearing into the hallway.

Once Emma was gone, Mary Margaret gave David a sad smile. "I'm glad Emma was able to talk to that doctor. We just don't have the necessary experience to take care of Regina on our own."

"Hopefully things really will die down by tomorrow." He said.

"It's hard to say," Mary Margaret frowned. "Did you get a chance to talk to Gold tonight?"

David rubbed his forehead at the memory. "Yeah I did. He doesn't want anything to do with her. Did you know Regina locked up the woman he loved for the past twenty-eight years?"

"What?!"

David nodded. "Her name is Belle. Apparently she's been in the asylum this whole time. Someone released her after the curse was broken and she found her way back to him. You can imagine what his feelings towards Regina are like right now."

Mary Margaret breathed a frustrated sigh. Sometimes it was easy to forget that the Regina upstairs was the same woman as the Evil Queen. "I guess we're on our own then. Again. Do we have to worry about him now too?"

"He didn't give any indication that he's planning on coming after Regina. I think he believes what she's going through is punishment enough. But I also know that it's never wise to assume one knows what Rumplestiltskin's true motives are."