Here We Go Again
Henry's heart monitor beeped consistently while Emma sat as close to his bed as she possibly could, watching every number rise and fall, watching every bleep flash across the screen, watching every shallow breath rise and fall in her son's chest. Regina had made herself a bed on the small couch on the other side of the room shortly after midnight, Emma woke her up shortly after and told her to get home and get some rest. Of course, Emma couldn't sleep. She believed she was destined to never sleep. If it wasn't Regina then it was Henry. It's like her life was on an endless loop, spiraling through her own personal hell. She was tired of her family getting hurt, and she was tired of being in this damn hospital.
Henry had already been taken back for surgery by the time Emma and Regina reached the hospital. He had lost a lot of blood from his broken leg, but they needed to stitch it up and get it all back together before he lost enough to do significant damage. They ended up putting two plates and four screws up his shin bone to keep it together, but after a lot of therapy and healing, Dr. Whale assured Emma that he would be fine in the long run. He might even be able to play basketball again if they were diligent with therapy and rehabilitation. His burns were minor, but they had to remove some melted rubber from his feet, and Emma was advised it would take a week or so before he would feel comfortable walking. The amount of smoke in his lungs was what he was going to struggle with the longest. Shortness of breath, coughing, dizziness, and he would have to be on oxygen for a while, but Dr. Whale assured them they had options for getting him what he needed at home so he didn't have to stay at the hospital. In a word, even though he was going to pull through, Henry was lucky.
August quietly entered the room, two styrofoam cups steaming in his hands. "Need a coffee?" He reached it out to Emma.
She brushed the oily hair out of her face sleepily. "Yes, Thank you." She took it and immediately went back to staring at screens, barely even processing that she took the cup.
August eyed the brunette curled up in a tight ball on the corner couch fast asleep. "Where;s Regina?" He pulled up a second chair on the opposite side of the bed gently giving Henry a once over as he sat. His face was still black from the soot of the fire.
Emma rubbed her sleepy eyes and took a sip of the warm coffee. "I told her she should have gone home to rest." She mumbled.
"At least one of you is sleeping." August sipped his coffee. The blackness rolled down his throat like lava, just like he liked it. "It's good to hear he will be fine." August spoke softly.
Emma dropped her chin on the bed.
"He's going to be fine." August said again, hoping to reassure Emma and reaching over Henry he laid a gentle touch on Emma's hand. He wasn't sure if he was truly trying to convince her or himself.
Emma stared at the cream colored liquid in her cup, swirling it around and watching it spin, then settle back to still. She sighed. She could feel the tears brewing for the millionth time and swallowed hard to keep them down. "I'm tired, August. I can't do this anymore. What kind of short stick did I draw?"
August's expression fell dark. "Emma you didn't draw a short stick, life is just shit sometimes."
"I think shit is an understatement." Emma retorted.
August shook his head. "You have to look at what you do have. Look at what you've overcome. Look what you've managed to do for your family. With Regina, with Henry, with everything else that has gone on in this godforsaken town, you have managed to keep your family together, keep them loved, keep them alive. You can't diminish that. That's so much more than anyone I know can say. That's more than I can say for myself." He stopped.
Emma looked up at him, and could have swore she saw a twinge of regret in his eyes. She felt an urge to ask, realizing she may not know everything she thought she knew about her adopted brother.
"You're stronger than all of us, Emma." He continued as he locked eyes with her.
Henry coughed, and both adults jumped up from their chairs, leaning over him to check on him.
"Henry?" Emma let a couple of tears escape as she brushed the hair from her sons warm and sweaty forehead. "Hey, kid." She whispered and kissed his forehead. Henry's eyes flickered open and he coughed again and managed a whisper.
"Mom?"
"Yeah, sweetheart?" She kissed him again.
After some heavy coughing and allowing Emma to get him some water, Henry managed a small statement through his rough voice. "I messed up."
Emma looked up at August concerned.
"I'll go get Dr. Whale." August left quickly.
"Baby, you didn't mess up. If you weren't there, Mr. Gold may not have gotten out of that fire." Emma explained to him.
"I started the fire." Henry stated admittedly.
Emma looked down at him confused. "What?"
"It was an accident."
"Shh, shh" Emma shushed him. "We don't need to talk about that now." She leaned down and pressed her head against his shoulder. "Not now."
Dr. Whale entered the room, followed by August, and behind him, Graham. "Hey, Henry." Dr. Whale started. "I told your mom earlier about what all we did, but I thought I would let you know too. Is that okay?"
Henry nodded his head.
"Good, well as you can see you've broken your leg. We've fixed it, and you should be back to normal in about 6 to 8 months. You'll have to be on oxygen for a while due to smoke inhalation, but that shouldn't be more than a couple weeks..." Dr. Whale continued for a moment, but as he finished up he moved out of the way so that Graham could step up.
"Henry, I think you know why I am here." Graham stepped up closer. "It has come to my attention that you may know how this fire started." He glanced over at Emma, who kept her eyes firmly on Henry. "Can you talk to me about it?"
Henry dropped his head knowingly. "I started the fire." There was a sudden shift in the room. Emma gripped Henry's hand tightly, dropping back into her chair, her head falling heavy on the bed.
"Can you tell me why?" Graham asked him.
Henry locked eyes with his mother, and she mouthed to him. "It's okay."
Before Henry could speak though, August placed a hand on Graham's shoulder and whispered something in his ear.
Graham nodded to August. "Excuse us." Graham walked out with August, leaving only Dr. Whale in the room.
"Well," Whale broke the silence. "I think my work here is done for now. I suggest everyone get some rest, and we should be able to release you all in a day or two. I've instructed the hospital to send you home with a portable oxygen tank, and I'll ask that you use it for the next couple of weeks while your lungs heal. Other than that, your dismissal papers will have all other instructions for your recovery." He smiled, and then retreated out of the room, his white coat following after him like a cape.
"Mom?" Henry coughed.
"Yes, baby?" Her attention rushed back on him and she grabbed a hold of the hand he was holding out to her, kissing his knuckles gently.
He swallowed hard, taking a deep breath of the oxygen stuck up his nose. "I don't know why I did it. I just… got angry."
Emma listened quietly.
"I overheard August while you all were talking downstairs, and I just…" A tear ran down his cheek. Emma squeezed his hand. "I just wanted to scare him is all. Then I knocked down the stupid lamp and…"
"Henry, stop. It's over. There is no use in continuing to talk about it. You're alive and that's all that matters." Emma squeezed his good shoulder.
Henry coughed. "I'm just sorry."
Emma leaned down to his forehead. "I know, baby. It's okay." She kissed him gently, but as his strength depleted again, his eyes closed and his head rolled back on his pillow. Emma took a deep breath, pulling out her phone and sending a quick text for Regina to see in the morning. "Shit." Her battery level blinked red in the corner of her phone. Surely Regina wouldn't need her before the morning when she could get a charger. Her head fell heavy back on the edge of the bed, her eyes heavy, and she allowed the slowly monotonous bleeping from Henry's heart monitor lull her into a light sleep.
—
Regina peeled herself off the couch to her phone pinging on the coffee table next to her. She read Emma's text through blurry eyes.
2:07a.m. Henry woke up. Sorry would have called but my phone is at 3%. See you in the morning.
Regina sprang up and headed for the small bathroom under the stairs near the front door. She flipped the light on and pretending she didn't see her very messy reflection, she turned the water on and waited for it to get warm. As much as had gone on that day, and every day since her accident, Regina's brain was, for the first time in a long time, quiet. It was as if there was so much going on, that she could no longer focus on any one thing to think about and it had all gone dark. She wasn't sure if this was a good or bad thing. She didn't want to be numb to any of it, but she also appreciated the silence for a while.
She splashed her face with warm water a few times, let it run slowly down her cheeks, dripping down her chest under her shirt. Blindly reaching for the towel that hung next to the sink, she dabbed it gently on her face, refocusing her attention on her messy reflection that blankly stared back at her. Her damp hair stuck to the edges of her face, her dark eyes surrounded by bloodshot veins that reached out to every corner. Dark circles had developed under her eyes and she wondered if she'd looked like this for a while or if it was just tonight. She looked terrible. But honestly, who the hell could blame her. She didn't care anymore.
Suddenly, behind her, she heard a creak from the floor in the living room. It was long and drawn out and as she turned to stare out of the bathroom, the house quickly retreated back to silence. Her heart was pounding in her ears as she stared into the foyer and she hesitated before poking her head out to examine the living room. Nothing.
She took a deep breath, figuring she imagined the noise and she was just worked up from the adrenaline of the night and scaring herself. Houses make noise. Maybe it was just settling. She hung the towel back up on the rack, and as she retreated out the door into the foyer, a tall, dark, very largely built man stood before her. His black clothing covered everything but his neck and head, and before she could even get a scream out, he backhanded her across the cheek and laid her out on the floor, completely knocked out.
Emma woke from her nap shortly after dosing off and decided she needed a break from staring at computer screens for a minute. She wondered where Graham and August had wandered off to, but most importantly, who drank all of her coffee. She yawned and stretched, exposing a tiny sliver of her stomach and a cool air bit at her skin. She shivered instantly. Neither Graham nor August seemed to be anywhere close so she approached the nurses station just around the corner A young girl sat transfixed to her phone and loud rock music blaring from her headphones. "Hey there." Emma startled her.
"Shit!" She jumped pulling an earbud out of her ear, and nearly falling out of her chair. "You scared me!" She panted.
Emma chuckled. "I'm so sorry. I just wanted to see if I could borrow a phone. Mine died." She admitted.
The nurse rolled over to the other side of the counter and motioned for Emma to follow her and the nurse plopped a heavy desk phone up on the counter.
She quickly dialed Regina's cell phone number, but after a few rings it just went to voicemail. She hung up and called the house phone, but still no luck. She hung up the phone and decided she'd try again a little later. She must be asleep.
Emma wandered the halls, getting some circulation moving through her legs, and trying to clear her head and head for the coffee station. She hated hospitals and hated how comfortable she was getting in this one. She knew where everything was around here. She knew where to get coffee, food, and she even knew where to get clean sheets if she needed to and knew the people who cleaned the rooms on a first name basis. During the many nights she stayed awake, waiting for Regina to wake up, they were sometimes her only visitors. Sometimes they would say nothing, sometimes they would talk. It was nice to know that every now and then she wasn't alone.
Tonight however, she felt alone. She stopped for a moment and leaned up against one of the walls and wondered what her and Henry's life would have been like if they never moved here. Maybe she would have gotten a job in the city, found a nice husband and lived the life she was "supposed" to live. Would Henry have played basketball? Maybe not. She would have never met Regina. Never opened herself up again to that part of her life that she tried to leave behind when she married Henry's father. She would have hid behind the walls and societal norms and put a smile on her face despite her true feelings. Would her life be as miserable as it was now? Could she have truly been happy in that life? Would it have made her feel these things? Lost. Hopeless. Not in control of anything. August's words kept echoing in her head. You have managed to keep your family together, keep them loved, keep them alive. He wasn't wrong. But it didn't help her feel better in the slightest. It didn't take away the fact that she hadn't really kept her family safe.
August and Graham pulled up one behind the other at the sheriff's station and quickly headed inside.
"Even if what your saying is true, you have no evidence. Do you have something with Daniel's name on it, or Gold's name? Paperwork? Hard evidence? August, there just isn't much I can do if you don't have that." Graham huffed down the hallway into his office, August quickly protesting on his heels.
"Graham, it's Emma and Regina! You know Gold is a dirty son-of-a-bitch." August tried. "Just think about it. It all makes sense."
Graham smirked. "Last time I checked, it wasn't against the law to be a son-of-a-bitch, and last time I checked you have to have evidence to prove anything. No judge on this earth would touch this case if it got that far. I have nothing to arrest him on."
August grunted in frustration. "Seriously? Fraud, money laundering, murder, attempted murder? I can keep the list going."
"August for the last time, YOU HAVE NO PROOF!" Graham shouted and threw his hat down on his desk, slamming his fist down on top of a stack of papers in clear frustration.
August stopped arguing. "Look man, help out okay? I've got something here. You know it. You know this town better than anyone. Someone is taking advantage of those army boys and it's starting to leak into your town. What happens when someone else turns up missing? Turns up dead?"
Graham slumped down in his chair, at a loss of what thread to follow.
"Give me some time to figure this out. I just need a few favors" August pushed one final time.
Graham thought for a moment before he stood back up, grabbing his hat and headed for the door. "I need to clear my head."
August looked at him confused. "But…"
Graham stopped him. "I need… to clear my head." His eyes darted toward his computer and after placing his hat gently back on his head, he dipped out of the office, leaving August alone.
August poked his head out of Graham's office and watched Graham's shadow head out the front door with no one else in sight. He shut the door quickly and sat down at Graham's desk and went to work. August needed to find something on Daniel, or Gold, something that connected the two and the money.
Daniel's bank statements were surprisingly clean, which worried August. Nothing was more impossible to trace than cash money, especially if it hadn't been taken out of the bank in large chunks. He went back to years of bank statements and couldn't find any lump sums of money dumped into his account. He sat back confused, then in a sudden pang of curiosity, he searched for Regina's bank accounts. Surely she would have noticed something like fifty thousand dollars deposited into her account. Nothing.
"Fuck." He scrolled down the list of names, and suddenly found one that looked weird. It was an account under Regina's maiden name. In his experience, people normally change their name on their bank accounts to their married name, not keep an old one or open a new one. August clicked on it, and his eyes grew twice their normal size. He quickly hit the print button and waited impatiently for the printer to get out all the pages.
Once he had grabbed what he needed off the printer, he headed out to his car, hoping to go talk to Regina about this account. There was no trace as to who opened the account on the records he pulled up, but he would have to wait until morning to go to the bank and check with one of the tellers.
His engine revved and as his engine turned over and revved up, his police scanner immediately began chattering chaotically. August furrowed his brows and turned it up.
"Dispatch to 987 we have a 10-71, I repeat, a 10-71. Please respond."
"987 to Dispatch, what's the location of that 10-71?"
August's heart plummeted to his chest as the dispatcher read off Emma and Regina's address. He ripped his phone from his pocket and dialed Emma's number only for it to go straight to voicemail. "FUCK!"
He ripped his car into the hospital parking lot, listening to the police scanner the whole trip. He had already coordinated with Graham for him to get to the house while August retrieved Emma from the hospital. There was no news on if anyone was injured in the shooting or what was happening inside or outside the house. He left the car running and after fighting with his seatbelt he took off into the building.
"Emma!" He yelled out immediately as he rushed off the elevator. Before he could get to Henry's room, Emma poked her head out to greet him with a worried look on her face,
"August? What's wrong?"
He huffed, catching his breath. "You have to come with me. Something… something is happening at the house. Regina."
Before August could truly catch his breath they were down in the car and speeding down toward home. Emma listened closely to the radio chatter. It was sporadic, and at this point wasn't giving her any new information. "Come on August, go faster."
August skidded around the last corner of their neighborhood to see the view of cop cars that surrounded the front of Emma and Regina's house. The lights were blinding in the dark midnight sky, and Emma had a sudden flashback of when she responded to Regina's call about Daniel tearing up the house. She put it out of her mind quickly though as she weaved her way through the neighbors who had crowded the sidewalk, ignoring their gossiping whispers.
When she reached the yellow tape, she instinctively ducked her head underneath it, her view quickly being cut off by a large police officer.
"I'm sorry ma'am, you can't go beyond the tape."
"That's my house, get out of my way." She pushed past him and jogged closer. Her heart pumped loudly in her chest. The whole town was out here to watch the scene. "Regina?" Emma yelled out, assuming for her own sanity that Regina was out of the house and safely placed in one of the cop cars. She peaked into one, two, three of them. "Regina?" She hollowed out again, cupping her hands in one of the dark windows trying to see some kind of shadow.
"Emma!"
She turned to find Graham jogging toward her, August catching up to her from behind as well.
"Graham, where's Regina? Which car is she in?" Emma asked innocently.
Graham stayed silent, his eyes falling slightly.
"Which car is she in?" Emma asked again, more serious this time.
Graham took a deep breath and without taking his eyes off her, he said, "She's in the house."
Emma shook her head in confusion. "In that house?" She pointed behind her at the house that a shooting had been reported at. Her house. Where her and Regina lived. With Henry. Where they had memories built. A family built.
Graham nodded and glanced at August for reassurance. "We think whoever is in there has her hostage."
Emma's face grew a hot red, her blue eyes turning dark in the flashing lights around them. "Get me in that house, Graham. I'm going to fucking finish this." She turned on her heels but was instantly caught by a heavy hand on her arm.
"Emma, you can't be serious. Whoever is in there has a gun, and has used it. We don't know how many are inside…"
"Stop!" She yelled and ripped her arm away. "Find me a way into that house and save your breath. I'm officially pissed off and I'm going to go in there and get Regina."
August chimed in trying to talk some sense into her. "Emma, come on. You can't just walk through the front door. They'll kill you. You don't even know..."
Emma spun around with a piercing look that August had never seen before and it cut him off mid sentence. "I don't even know what, August? That Regina might be held hostage? That my son is in the hospital? That Regina might be… dead?" She hesitated ever so slightly as she gulped down a swell of tears. "You don't get to tell me what I fucking don't know, August. Graham!" She shouted, her eyes not wavering from August. "Get me in that house… now."
Graham turned to talk in his radio, trying to gather positions of his other officers and whether or not they had any visuals on anyone in the house. Each one turned up negative. He glanced back at Emma, helpless at the moment as his officers worked their way around the house. All he could do was wait.
August and Emma continued their stare off until August finally gave up and clenched his fists. His eyes fell to the ground. "You're right."
Emma's tension eased but her eyes stayed glued on him.
"You're right, okay. You've always been right. Maybe we don't know as much about each other as we thought. Maybe…" August froze suddenly as a idea clouded over his face.
Emma furrowed her eyebrows. "What is it?"
"Henry's window." He took off around the side of the house, and Emma was quick on her heels remembering also that Henry's bedroom window should still be open from him sneaking out.
"Shit, hey!" Graham shouted after them, but they were long gone. He got on his radio quickly notifying everyone that they needed to find a way into the house immediately.
Emma ran around the back of the house and peeked her head around the side wall, making sure no one was in the backyard. To her luck, her back porch was empty. She got one foot around the corner when her whole body was pulled back and slammed against the brick.
August covered her mouth and whispered aggressively. "Emma, you need to go back... OW!" He ripped his hand back, a bite mark appearing on the inside of his middle finger. Emma tried again around the building but August reacted quickly again, pulling her back.
"Emma I can't do this right now. Let me do this. I can't have you getting hurt." August pleaded with her to go back to Graham
"August, STOP!" Emma shoved him back, her attention now fully on him. "August, I'm fucking tired of this. I want my life back. I thought about what you said, and you know what, it doesn't matter what I've done for my family if I can't stop all this shit from happening in the first place. I'm over it. The woman I love is in that house, and I'm going to fucking get her out and end this. So you can either help me, or I swear to God August I will kick your ass right here!"
August thought for a moment, and then in a quick decision, he stepped in front of Emma and peeked around the corner of the building then back at her. "Just don't get yourself killed alright? Wait here." She started to give him another speech, but he pulled his hand up to her mouth again, but suddenly remembered he didn't want to get bit again so he pulled back almost instantly. "I promise I'll be back. I just need to see what we are dealing with before we go up. I'll be right back." Then he disappeared around the corner of the house.
He quietly tiptoed up the porch steps, trying to avoid the light coming through the windows from the living room, and peeked into the back porch window. The shades were drawn and he could clearly see bodies in the living room. With a sigh of relief, he saw Regina was alive but tied to one of the dining room chairs in the middle of the room with two men standing over her on guard, and a third sitting on the couch smoking a cigarette. He hustled back over to the side of the house to Emma.
"Three men in the living room. That's all I could see." August relayed what he saw.
"And?" Emma coaxed him.
"Oh, and Regina is alive."
Emma could have swore she heard a faint chuckled from August and she punched him in the shoulder. "You're such a dick!"
August turned his attention to the open window above them, the light still on and the window half open, just the way they left it earlier that night. It seemed so long ago from now that he busted through Henry's door.
August stepped up on the edge of the porch railing and was just tall enough to pull himself up on the roof. He helped Emma up and they carefully pulled their way up the steep roof to Henry's room. "We're coming Regina."