A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed on the last chapter, as always comments and thoughts are much appreciated! xx
Emma was sitting beside Regina, just watching over the other woman as she slept. Her arms felt empty now that Regina was resting against the pillows again, but about half an hour previously the pressure of leaning against Emma had woken Regina up and was irritating her sensitive bruises.
Emma was currently staring at Regina's features. She had noticed something earlier when Regina had woken up for those brief few seconds when she had needed to move; the bruises on Regina's face seemed to have disappeared. They weren't all gone, but unless Emma was remembering wrong, somehow within the last hour the bruises had either faded significantly or Emma was crazy. There was still a small bruise on her cheek but it was faint, and Emma clearly remembered it looking much worse back when they had helped Regina wash up. They had not put anything on it except for Regina's regular moisturizer, and unless somehow Regina had regained her powers during her sleep, no one had used any magic on her either. Emma had been thinking about the bruises while Regina had been sleeping in her arms, she had been feeling badly about them and knew they would bother Regina, so maybe she had been over thinking and had simply imagined them to be worse than what they actually were?
None of it added up, and Emma's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts as she watched over the brunette. She wanted to check the rest of Regina's injuries, just to be sure, but she didn't want to risk disturbing the other woman and waking her up.
"Hey Emma," a soft voice said from the doorway.
Emma turned distractedly, eyes slightly glazed, and saw her parents entering the room. Seeing them both broke her out of her reverie.
"Oh, hey." Emma responded softly, giving a small, tired smile. She pushed the impossible thoughts aside, deciding that she must just be overtired and Regina's injuries were exactly as they were two hours ago.
"I'm happy to see she's getting some rest." Snow said, sitting down on the side of the bed.
"Yeah..." Emma said softly, turning her attention towards Regina again.
"I'll be quick so we don't wake her up, but I just came to say goodbye, " Snow kept her voice down. "I'm going to go into town now to help everyone look for Henry."
Emma's eyes dropped as once again, she felt the sting of guilt. "I wish I could come with you, it kills me not to help."
"I know it does." Snow said gently. "But she needs you more right now."
Emma nodded before blinking back a couple of fresh tears as she placed a gentle hand on Regina's arm.
"Okay," She said quietly, glancing at her mother with a small smile before quickly before looking away again. "Bye. Good luck."
Snow frowned, noticing the tears her daughter had been trying to hide.
"What's wrong Emma?"
"Nothing's wrong."
"No, I know that look, what is it honey?"
Emma gave a tiny eye roll, furiously blinking away the tears. She knew her parents wouldn't stop badgering her about it until she opened up, and so rather than the truth she decided to deflect with something else.
"Regina told me what the wand showed her."
"She did? What was it?"
Emma gave a small sigh, brushing her fingers gently through Regina's hair. She didn't want to have to repeat the whole story right now, but it was better than opening up about her feelings. She recounted everything Regina had told her about Blue's visit as her parents listened patiently. She kept her voice down, and Regina barely stirred the entire time.
"So even though Blue's plans for Regina failed, she still obviously did something to Regina's memories of that day. Her evil plan to erase the Evil Queen from Regina's mind clearly failed, but she basically rewrote what Regina remembered of that visit." Emma finished.
"Wow... Blue is..." Snow began. "She's really not who I thought she was. I know I've said it before but... I just don't know what happened to her. I promise she was never like this back in the Enchanted Forest."
Emma's brow furrowed as she remembered something else Regina had told her, or rather tried to tell her back in that house. "I know Blue's gone psycho but... I'm wondering if maybe it's not her fault?"
"What do you mean?" David asked.
"Well back in that house Regina told me that Blue wasn't herself, at least that's what I think she was trying to tell me. Maybe something is influencing her."
"Maybe," Snow said. "In all honesty I hope so. But either way, Blue needs to be stopped. She was way over the line."
"It's really too bad Regina couldn't have seen what happened after she blacked out." David said, folding his arms.
"Yeah... it makes me nervous that Blue was in here alone." Emma agreed.
"I wonder if Henry remembers anything about Blue visiting that day?"
Emma gave a heavy sigh. She shook her head at a loss. "We can ask him when we find him but I feel like it's something he would have mentioned."
"There's one thing I don't quite understand though... I thought the vision scared Regina," Snow said, "isn't that why she asked you to kill her?" She dropped her voice to a whisper even though Regina was still asleep. "I mean, yes it's horrible what almost happened to her but why would that memory upset her on that kind of level?"
"No it wasn't the memory that drove her to that..." Emma sighed. "What the wand showed her was only a small part of it. She wanted it all to end before that. Keep in mind that she'd just been tortured. When she asked me to do that it had literally been minutes since someone had tried to rape her. They were hurting her the entire time she was missing; I guess the vision was just the final straw."
"But why?" David asked. "Blue's plan failed. Her memories are fine."
"It's because it reminded her that even though we found her she's still not safe, and that means Henry's not safe, and neither are we." Emma said.
Snow's expression changed at that.
"She doesn't want us to get hurt protecting her." Emma explained gently.
Snow's eyes softened as she looked over at the sleeping woman.
David folded his arms, sighing as he too looked to Regina. "A lot has certainly changed since our days in the Enchanted Forest." He said.
"We're her family now, and we can't let her give up." Emma said. "She thinks we would be better off without her but it's not true. If we let her stay here, if we let her die, nothing's ever going to be the same again. And Henry... I don't even want to think about how hard he would take it."
At that, Snow and David shared a look with each other.
"What?" Emma asked cautiously.
"Speaking of Henry..." David said.
"What did you find out?" Emma asked, almost dreading the answer.
"That's just it, we still don't know where Henry is." Snow replied sadly. "Kathryn, Ruby, Granny and the dwarves have been looking for him but so far nothing."
"Your mother and I were talking about it downstairs, it might be time to start considering our options." David said.
"What does that mean?" Emma asked, not liking the sound of it.
"It means," David sighed, passing a hand over his face tiredly. "It means we might want to start thinking about having you take Regina to Boston without Henry."
"What?! No, are you crazy?"
"Look at her, she's bruised all over," Snow said in exasperation. "She has so many injuries and that's only what we can see."
David nodded with a grave expression. "Inside is far worse, she should have been in the hospital way before now, and we don't know how much time she has left. For all we know she might not even make it through the night."
"David," Snow scolded.
"But it's true. We don't know how long she has, and there's nothing more we can do to help her here."
Emma's eyes were round with emotion. "But she would never leave without him." She said in a small voice.
"If she wants to live she might not have a choice. We can continue looking for Henry once you're both safely out of town, but Emma she's running out of time."
Emma sighed. "I'm sure Henry hasn't gone far... We should wait for him. You don't understand; part of the reason she doesn't want to leave Storybrooke is because she wants to protect Henry. She doesn't want to put him in danger when we leave town."
"Well then maybe not having him with you is the better option. If you do end up facing an attack he can't get hurt if he's not with you."
Emma shook her head, looking at the brunette again. "Guys she's never going to go for this. I get what you're saying, I really do, but there's no way we're going to convince her to leave without him. And not to mention I wouldn't be able to stand worrying about him the entire time we're gone."
"When we find him you can drive back up here and get him. The townspeople probably won't bother you if they know Regina's already in Boston. There would be no point to them stopping you and Henry from leaving because it was Regina they wanted to keep here in the first place."
"I don't know..." Emma said. "I mean, I can run it by her but I'm pretty sure I already know what her answer will be." She held her breath for a few moments, trying to come up with a way to deal with this. "Look, before we say anything let's just give it a little while to see if Henry turns up. Okay?"
David nodded in agreement, looking to Snow.
She smiled in response. "I'll do my best to find him."
"Thank you..." Emma shook her head. "As much as I hope someone didn't take him, I really hope he didn't just run off on his own. He had to have known what the consequences would be for his mom, especially because of the last time he pulled a stunt like that."
"Well to be fair I don't think Henry knows we've already found Regina." David reasoned. "And we shouldn't be blaming him. If someone really has kidnapped him it's not his fault. He needs our help."
"I didn't mean–" Emma began, feeling sick with herself. She gave another heavy sigh, closing her eyes. "I know... I'm just stressed. I'm really worried about him. And I just keep thinking that if only he were here we could have left already. We could already be outside of town and then all of us would be safe right now."
"He'll be okay." Snow said, holding her daughter's hand comfortingly. "I'll call you as soon as I know anything alright?"
"Thank you." Emma said quietly, turning her attention towards Regina again.
Snow stood up and went to David, sharing a kiss with him and then an embrace.
"I love you Charming," she whispered, closing her eyes.
"I love you too. Be safe." David replied softly.
"I won't do anything you wouldn't do." Snow lightly teased, causing David to smile and kiss her again.
Emma, whose focus had moved back to them, quickly looked away when they both turned in her direction. A tear had escaped her lashes and was rolling down her cheek and she didn't want them to see it.
"Bye Emma." Snow said.
"Yeah. Bye, good luck." Emma said a little dismissively, trying to hide her emotions.
"Emma..." Snow said, feeling her heart break as she noticed the tear.
"I'm fine," Emma said, forcing a small smile and glancing quickly in her mother's direction. "Just bring Henry home okay?" She said, trying to sound as fine as she claimed to be. She reached for Regina's hand, refusing to look back another time.
Snow smiled sadly, sharing a look with David. "I'll keep in touch." She repeated, before sharing another hug with her husband and then leaving the room.
David sat down on the bed where Snow had been, waiting for Emma to say something. She could feel him watching her but she didn't acknowledge him. She knew he was just worried about her, but the attention wasn't going to do anything for her emotions. She was worried, and so tired. It had her on edge, and the last thing she wanted to do was to break down during a time when she needed to be at her strongest.
"Emma are you sure you're alright?" He asked after a few seconds.
"I already said I'm fine." She replied quickly.
"Are you sure? Because if you stare at Regina any harder you're going to burn a hole straight through her." David quipped, but the light in his eyes vanished when his daughter didn't respond. "What's wrong? Is it Henry?"
"Yeah..." Emma responded, biting her lip. As she continued to watch Regina sleeping, she breathed a heavy sigh. "No." She corrected herself. "I mean yes I'm worried about Henry but..." She trailed off, not finishing her sentence.
"Regina?" David guessed.
Emma nodded.
"What about her? You're afraid she'll choose not to leave Storybrooke?"
"Well yeah but... It's not just that.."
"What do you mean?"
"It's... I don't know... Every time she falls asleep, it's like... I'm afraid she won't wake up again."
"Why?" David asked gently.
"You know, because of what the doctor said."
David's brow furrowed for a moment before a look of understanding hit him. "You mean about the coma thing."
Emma nodded. "I'm scared she's going to fall asleep, and slip away without any warning. I'm afraid she might just, I don't know... drift away without ever saying goodbye to any of us."
"Emma that's not going to happen."
"You don't know that."
"Yes I do. She'll stay with us, I know she will."
Emma tiredly gave him a look. "I'm sorry weren't you the one who literally just said she might die today?" She accused.
"All I meant was that we can't know what's going to happen or when it will happen, and so we need to act while we still can. I believe we need to move faster if we want to save her but I also believe that if we do that, she is going to pull through this. She's the Evil Queen after all, nothing's ever stopped her before so why should now be any different?" David said with a kind smile, not meaning it as an insult.
Emma closed her eyes, leaning tiredly back against the headboard. "She may still be the queen... but she's not evil. She was never evil."
David gave a small nod, feeling bad for his remark at a time like this. "I know how close you and Regina have become, and I know how much you care about her. I know this is hard but don't worry, we'll be able to convince her to go to Boston. And if we can't, I have no doubts that Henry will be able to."
"Henry will be able to, yeah..." Emma agreed sleepily. "Henry..." She repeated, and within seconds, she had fallen back to sleep.
David stayed for a few minutes, wishing he and Snow could help their daughter take Henry and Regina to Boston too. Emma had been pushing herself too hard lately. He knew she didn't have a choice, but it was taking its toll on her. He got up to pull a blanket over Emma, but as he did he noticed something about Regina that he hadn't seen before. The brunette was lying on her side but David still had a relatively good view of her face. Unless he was mistaken, the injuries that had been there seemed to have decreased significantly. Maybe the worst of it was hidden on the side of her face that was pressed into the pillow, or perhaps it was because he had last seen her at the worst of it. There might have just been dirt and blood on her face when he had last seen her and it had been washed off during her bath. He decided that must be what had happened, since it would have been impossible for the bruises he had thought she'd had to have healed so quickly.
A/N: Thank you for reading, please review. I promise the next chapter has more answers xx