A shorter update. Sorry it took a while, lifes been hectic! Thanks again to everyone that's been a supporter of this story thus far!

"You'll be alright, Mills. Just take it easy, okay?"

"I was well aware of the fact that I'm fine, Whale. No need to remind me." She brushed herself off as she got up. Her footing felt unsteady, and she knew she must look like hell, but she didn't have to look at a mirror in that case.

"Must I remind you that you came to see me?"

"At the request of my coworker."

He sighed and sat down. She was more than ready to leave, but obviously he wasn't.

"You do realize that all of this is serious, right? It's nothing to play around with."

"Yes, well. Unlike some, I don't let it affect my overall existence."

"But it will, Mills. And you know it will. And it will affect your career, and your son-"

"It's already done plenty of that, Whale."

Long nights of Henry sitting outside of her door after a moment of panic, trying to scamper back to his room before she noticed he was there. Of course, she always did. She could hear his back rubbing against the door or wall. She could hear him whispering muttered prayers when they hadn't gone to church in ages. And every time she heard him, her heart broke, because she hadn't wanted that for her son, she hadn't wanted a kid that took care of her while she should be doing that for him.

"All I'm saying is that things change. And they will continue to change. The scarring in your lungs is there forever, Regina. It isn't going to fix itself."

"I'm well aware, Whale."

"Then you know what I know. You need to take better care of yourself. Even with Henry in the hospital."

She walked out of the room, then. She'd heard it all before, and she knew that it was true. There was no denying, despite the fact that she had spent so many days with Daniel telling him not to worry about it, that it was fine, that there was nothing that she couldn't handle alone let alone with another person.

It was easier to just walk to the hospital room and not think about it, not think about having to tell Henry what had happened. It was easier to pray that he wouldn't notice what he always noticed, how pale she looked, how unsteady her gait was. It was easier to hope that he wouldn't hear a soft wheeze and assume the worst.

She had assumed that Kathryn and Henry would be back to playing that damned game. The one he'd talked about for months on end and she'd ended up getting for him, if only because he was so excited for it and she couldn't imagine seeing the disappointment on his face when his birthday came and it wasn't there. However, Kathryn had drifted to sleep some time in between her leave. Henry was reading his comics to…Emma, it seemed, who had stopped in at some point.

She looked up when she noticed the presence in the room and smiled.

"Hey. How are you doing?"

Regina had to resist the urge to tell her, because for some god forsaken reason Miss Swan had managed to crawl far enough into her head that Regina was willing to tell her such facts about herself. She didn't know why. When her guard had been down, it had been unnaturally easy to tell her little facts, snippets about herself. It had almost been natural. Now, even though she had the urge to tell her things, she could suppress it. It was strange, the sort of thing that only one person had managed to do so easily, without any effort.

And Regina didn't know if she liked it.

The idea that anyone could get into her head was an idea she didn't like to ponder on, because in her mind, her head was a scary place. Perhaps it was the fact that Miss Swan's was likely as terrifying. She couldn't imagine the landscapes of the young girls brain. How they must twist and turn, how they must shift! From what she'd heard thus far from the girl and from what she knew of her history, she could assume the worst.

Emma likely had done the same for her, so she felt little guilt.

"I'm fine, Miss Swan. "

"Mom!"

Her attention was brought to her boy, who was looking at her cautiously. Of course he knew that something was wrong, it wasn't as if Kathryn had been subtle in telling her to go get checked out. She had all but threatened her boss, and it had worked for the most part. Regina wasn't really all that scared of what Kathryn could do to her, but she was afraid of what Kathryn had warned her about.

What happens when you collapse in front of Henry and he doesn't know what to do? What then?

"Henry," she said, smiling at him and sitting on his bed. Cupping his chin, an instinct that she'd had for him since he was a little boy, she examined him. He looked good, for the shape he'd been in before. Healthy, even, except for the light scarring that would likely be there for a good portion of his life. "How are you, my prince?"

He fussed slightly, but it wasn't as much as he would have done only two months ago. Pulling away, muttering that she was embarrassing him. Instead, he looked her in the eyes and she saw something that she'd hoped to never, ever see. Worry.

"I'm fine. I'm great. What happened, Mom?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Emma fidgeting nervously. Regina wondered vaguely if Emma had mentioned anything to him, if she was guilty of that much. A part of her flashed with anger, but then there was Henry, his eyes wide.

"It was nothing, Henry. Just a bit of an episode."

"Was it because of me?"

And of all the things he could have said, that hit her the hardest. How many times as a child had she asked if the way that her mother treated her was because of her? How many times had her father reassured her that it wasn't? And how many times had she doubted his every word? Every time, no doubt.

"No, mi hijo. Not because of you at all. It just happens sometimes. You know that."

He looked up at Emma for reassurance, and for a moment she thought it a test from the universe. Emma could throw her under a bus, quick and easy. It would be as simple as planting a seed of doubt into his head. She watched for Emma's response, her reaction. Gauged it with the same critical eye that she would use on a patient.

"It just happens sometimes, kid. Honestly. It has nothing to do with you."

So calm, so collected. So easy to talk to a child for not having one of her own. Regina could almost marvel in that, if there wasn't so much at stake. Emma Swan could have taken her conversation down right then and there.

He relaxed immediately, nodding.

"We're reading Spiderman. I'm trying to teach Emma about him, but all she knows about is the new movies. Which is ridiculous, right Mom?"

She faked horror and looked over at Emma.

"Nothing but the movies? Blasphemy."

Emma relaxed in that moment, a wide grin spreading on her face. "I mean, come on. Who needs to read when you have the movies?"

"They're totally different!" Henry defended.

"With great power comes great responsibility. That's the only line I need to know."

"No, no, no! There's so much more to it than that, Emma!"

And perhaps that was Emma's in to their conversation, her easy to grab onto topic. Because she floated so easily on learning things that were obviously foreign to her, things that she hadn't touched as a child. Regina could relate. Her mother had never been keen on the idea of her delving into the world of fantasy. Her father had had a large collection, though he claimed he'd thought they would gain monetary value over time. He'd even given Daniel a few issues while he'd been overseas, though she didn't know how much he'd read them. He'd reassured her that he had, but she wasn't sure how much time there was to be spent reading.

For a moment, speaking with the two of them, it seemed normal. Like they were friends.

"Hey, Mom? I'm kinda tired."

The declaration came out of nowhere, but when she looked at him he was barely keeping his eyes open.

"Of course you are. Sleep, Hijo. You need your rest."

"Kathryn said you were gonna go out tonight. Are you?"

She hesitated, because her actual plan had involved going home and sleeping. That had been changed rather rapidly, of course, but it was still a matter of what had been said.

"Probably not. I'll just stick around here."

"You should go out…Have fun…"

There he was again, trying to take care of her, and though a part of her was grateful, it was much smaller than the part of her that felt guilty. Like she should be here, taking care of him instead.

"Where would I rather be than here?"

"People…They don't like hospitals, Mom. They aren't fun."

She chuckled and brushed some hair from his face.

"What do you propose I do then, Henry?"

"You could go teach Emma more comic book stuff…Then you can impress me when you guys get back."

She glanced at Emma, who was as stiff as a rod at this point, as though waiting for Regina to dismiss her and tell her to go on with her day. She felt no need to do anything of the sort. If anything, it was a rather amusing idea.

"Yes?"

"Yeah…It'll be fun, right?"

He was asleep before she could answer, his body totally relaxing into the bed. A soft snore reminded her that this was still Henry, that he was okay again.

There was silence again, but the silence had evolved with time. Perhaps it had evolved in the small amount of time that Swan had spent in her house. Suddenly, it was not awkward, it was not waiting for dismissal, it was the comfortable silence that she shared with her partners. Perhaps Swan had evolved to that level. Perhaps not. But it had become apparent that, at the very least, neither wished for confrontation tonight.

"Well, Miss Swan. What do you say? How about we go improve your comic book knowledge?"