Chapter two

The chief of surgery was a small, slender man, with a crooked smile and a limp that should bug the hell out of the orthopedic team. With a name as fancy as Mr. Gold, and an inclination to call everyone "dearie", he managed to look as powerful as he was, and meaner than he probably wanted to let out. Emma didn't utter a word while he showed the hospital grounds to the new class of surgery interns.

She could barely believe she was one of them.

She hoped she didn't look as astonished and dazzled and frightened as her mates, but she guessed she did. They were all wide eyes, whispered curses and clasping hands as they were showed an OR room. A real one, dear God.

In the changing room afterwards, though, the mood changed to an excitement borderline hysterical, and the whispers became conversations, and introductions and shouts from the residents that came in to call up their interns.

"Hi, I'm Dr. August Booth," Emma looked up, mid-way to put on her white coat, to see a hand hanging between her and some guy. "I'm kidding, it's just that I was dying to say that. But you, you know, you can call me August. We're gonna be friends, after all."

"Really?" Emma arched an eyebrow, but shook his hand.

"Yeah, we are together in Dr. Dunbroch's team, we better get each other's back, right?" He turned around to the now almost-empty room. "You, me, Mulan Hua over there, Ruby Lucas, and Killian Jones." He pointed three random people in the room. "You are probably looking at your next best friend, lover, children's godparent and worst enemy right now. Who is which? Well, well, guess we'll find out!"

"Booth, leave her alone," The girl pointed out as Ruby Lucas said, stepping closer. "He made the same speech to each one of us, and I was the first, so I've heard it four times now," She glared at the man. "And that's enough."

"I was just being friendly," He argued.

"And theatrical," mumbled the other female doctor, Hua.

"And most likely correct," chipped in the last one of the crew, Jones.

Booth shrugged with an amused smile.

"Ahm, nice to meet you?" Emma didn't mean for it to sound as a question, but she really wasn't sure about it yet. Of course, they had all probably met before, in the dinner the hospital offered the new class before the beginning of the year. The one Emma couldn't attend because Henry had a burning fever.

"The pleasure is all mine, darling," Killian Jones said with a slick smile, his hand going through his hair.

Yeah, she was pretty sure about who the lover wasn't going to be.

"Booth, Hua, Jones, Lucas, Swan," shouted a voice from the door. They all looked up at the redhead woman in the white coat. "Come with me."

And as they all stumbled through the door to follow the doctor, it dawned on Emma: she had made it. She had made it back to Storybrook Hospital.

~SQ~

"This hospital is chaotical," Katherine complained, putting down her tray and taking a seat by Regina's side.

"Interns first day, what'd you expect?" Ursula pointed out, stealing a cherry tomato from the blonde's plate.

"My favorite day of the year," Mal said with a predatory grin that made Regina roll her eyes.

"I can never decide if your obsession with baby-doctors is sickening or pathetic, dear," She scolded lightly. Mal's gaze shifted from the line of young men near the cafeteria cashier and fixed on the woman in front of her.

"That's because you never fucked one, dear," She replied, and Ursula chuckled.

"I do not see the appeal of inexperienced and puppy-eyed morons, I'm afraid."

"Then tell me again why you married Robin?"

This time Ursula laughed out loud, and even Katherine had to muffle a chuckle, but then added quickly, "Low blow, Mal," and patted Regina's arms, "He doesn't look inexperienced."

There was another round of chuckles, and Regina rolled her eyes, but contained a smirk.

"Any developments, by the way? Did you find out anything?" Ursula asked. Regina looked down to her own plate and pushed an olive around.

"No. I haven't asked, and I…"

"Haven't investigated?" Ursula arched an eyebrow.

"Smart choice, honestly," Mal said, staring at Regina. "There's no good reason to go after this kind of trouble."

"Excuse me?" Katherine interrupted. "You're saying you wouldn't want to know if your husband was cheating on you?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. He's not leaving her, he's not being an ass to her, he's the same as he ever was, what does it matter if he fucks around sometimes?"

"Not everyone can be this cold blooded," Ursula said. "Definitely not her." She waved her hand at Regina.

"Oh, I can be cold, believe me," Regina retorted.

"No, honey, you can't. You can act indifferent when you think this will be the most hurtful thing, and you can be a bit cruel, if truly pissed off. But cold? No way. You are a fucking volcano most of the time," She replied. There was a brief round of nods that left Regina astounded.

"Have you moved to psychiatry while I wasn't watching?" Regina's voice sounded bitter than she had meant to.

"What makes it curious as to why she haven't exploded yet," Katherine added, ignoring Regina's comment completely.

"Afraid to deal with it, if it's real," Mal said.

"Forgive or not to forgive, that is the question," Katherine went on.

"Or she's afraid she'll choose the other, should she makes him choose," Ursula pointed out.

"Can you all stop talking about me and my marriage as if I'm not here?" Regina barked, glaring at them all. Around the hospital - and honestly, around the world - that glare would shut people up immediately, have them apologizing, stuttering, and put the fear of god in them. But it rarely worked with those three.

They had been friends for too long now.

"Too close to home, huh?" Ursula arched an eyebrow.

"Honey, listen to me," Mal extended a hand and pressed Regina's arm slightly. Her eyes were calm and caring as she bore them into her friend's. "Fuck a young, brawny, crazy-to-please intern and call it a draw."

"Honestly," Regina hissed, taking her arm away and getting up. "I don't know why I hang out with you."

"Because nobody else will hang out with you, Evil Queen," Ursula replied as she turned her back to them and walked away.

~SQ~

"Hey, kid," Emma murmured into the phone as the key entered her doorlock.

"Mom! How was it? You saved many lives? You saw a heart yet?" Henry's voice echoed through the speaker, coming all the way from Portland, under roads and fields, to make her heart ache with his absence.

"Oh yeah, I had one bleeding heart in my bare hands, thumping in my fingers while with the other I tried to untangle miles of swollen bowels, and could use nothing but my spit and a mint to sterilize the wound," She said while opening her fridge and taking out old chinese delivery boxes. She sniffed inside one and decided to risk it.

"That was kind of gross," Henry chimed back, and she could hear the smile on his voice. "But I'm proud of the effort."

"Thanks, kid."

"So it sucked, huh?"

"No, I guess it was ok. It'll just take some time for me to get some action. I'm still learning, you know?"

"Yeah, but you're happy, right?"

"Yeah, sure. I miss you, though," She said in a lower tone. That was really an understatement, but she didn't mean to upset Henry with this.

"I miss you too, mom."

"Anyway," She managed to swallow the lump in her throat. "How was your day?"

"It was cool. Dad showed me the best ice cream shop in New England. It has so many flavors! Can we go there when you come visit? You will love pistachio ice cream. It's green! And mom,…"

Henry had taken flight, and Emma had to pretty much only hum and agree for the next fifteen minutes, most of them with yakisoba in her mouth. Listening to Henry's voice was good, though a little painful. And god, was she tired. She could barely keep up with the conversation. He sounded happy, and that shouldn't make her bitter. It wouldn't. Except that it did, a little. Of course she wanted him to be happy, but part of her was expecting him to not adapt so fast to a new, bigger town. To a different house. To a different parent around.

Maybe, if Henry couldn't adapt, they'd have to work out another agreement. One in which he wouldn't be so far away from her.

But God, was she tired. After forty-eight hours on call, barely sleeping, barely eating, her nerves on end, she had no capacity to look after her kid. And that took its toll on her conscience too. She was giving up so much for this. For forty-eight hours of picking up Lego pieces from poop and having drunk people vomiting on her.

"Ok, mom, I have to go now," Henry said at last, bringing her back to the moment.

"Oh, alright, kid. Sleep tight. And… don't eat any Legos."

"You're getting weirder every day, you know?"

Emma grinned into the phone. "Bye, kid. I love you."

"Love you too," He whispered, and Emma closed her eyes and swore to herself it would all be worth it.

~SQ~

Emma cursed as the bus turned right. When she entered her bug that morning, the thing just wouldn't start. She lost almost half an hour trying to make it work, to no avail. Then she was forced to take the bus instead, to her deep regret. The dollars she saved from a cab would make her very, very late to work, and it was not like getting late was understandable in the hospital, especially if you were an intern.

Inhumane working hours and little to no sleep were no excuses, so car trouble? Emma scoffed, yeah, like that would fly.

She got up to leave and just get a freaking cab already when the bus came abruptly to a halt on a curve, and it all started to play in slow-motion as the bus overturned. The woman with a yellow dress; the kid with a dirty mouth; the man carrying a broomstick. Who the hell carries a broomstick on a bus? She managed to grab a pole to avoid falling and banging her head, instead falling hard on her knees, but avoiding anything else major. As soon as she regained balance, she made sense of the symphony of screams and cries resonating. Emma looked frantically around, and saw a scene that could easily be from a movie.

Her instincts kicked in and in no time she was moving around, ordering people to stay down, don't move! The kid was fine, it seemed like just a bump on the head, but surely it would be best to go to the hospital and get a head CT just in case. No, this seems like just a scraped elbow, it's not broken. Yes mam, I'm sorry, your ankle does look broken, try to stay still. You, call 911!

And then her eyes zeroed in at a bleeding man that got the shorter end of the stick. Pun intended. She hushed beside him.

"Clear the way, I'm a doctor!" She yelled through the agitated people that didn't got hurt and was now surrounding the man.

There was a log, like a stake, impaled on his chest. What the actual fuck! Was this vampire hunting season or something?

And then she remembered.

"Who the hell carries a broomstick on a bus?" She repeated out loud, looking at the poor guy stabbed in the chest.

"Sir," She started, trying to be as assuring as she could. "Sir, I'm a doctor, are you with me?"

He clearly was with her, if his screams were something to go by, and then he desperately looked down at his chest, his hands grabbing the broken stick of the broom.

"Oh, my God! OH MY GOD! Take it off, take it off me!"

"Sir!" Emma said louder, "Don't move! Don't remove the-"

"TAKE IT OFF!" A high scream cut the air as the stupid, stupid guy removed the piece of wood from his chest.

"Fuck!" Emma exclaimed, as she unshouldered her bag to unpeel her coat and try to make pressure to the now gigantic wound. He had managed to rip even more skin, and was bleeding so profusely, soon her coat was soaked, blood completely wetting her hands.

"I need another coat!" She yelled to the shocked crowd. "And someone call 911 already!"

Soon enough she had a lot of clothes on the wound, that showed no sign to stanch. The man was dangerously white.

"No, no, sir, you have to stay with me!" He looked at Emma with wide eyes, but they were as unfocused as someone who was about to lose conscience would be.

"For Christ's sake!" She groaned as the man passed out, both from the blood loss and from the pain. She looked down at the crimson mess, and made up her mind. She had to stick her hand inside. There was no other fucking way. The wood had probably lacerated some major artery, and Emma would have to make pressure inside.

"Does someone have- Oh, forget it." Obviously, no one would happen to have some rubber gloves around, and Emma pondered for a second, then briefly let go of the wound to grab the first thing she thought would help to prevent infections. A condom.

Yeah, she thought bitterly as she fucking dressed the condom on her hand, what a fucking brilliant idea.

And then she dug in. Well, two of her fingers did.

She managed to find the source of bleeding. Was it the coronary artery? It couldn't possibly be the aorta, or he'd be dead by now. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck.

Emma leaned in to check and yes, she let out a relieved sigh, he was breathing. Shallowly, but he was breathing.

"Where is that ambulance?" She yelled again.

~SQ~

"Are you wearing a condom on your hand?" One of the paramedics asked with amusement, when they were (finally) at the ambulance and on their way to the hospital.

"Yes," Emma said through gritted teeth, a little annoyed. She turned to look at the other paramedic, young and wide-eyed, staring at her fingers inside the man's chest "Are you okay there?"

"Thomas here is in his second day on the job. Didn't see this much action in college, did you?"

"Shut up, Leroy." The man whipped his head to look to the other side, his cheeks turning red.

"At least now you have that healthy complexion on your face. Thought you were about to pass out."

The young man groaned, "Ugh, shut up, Leroy!"

The sentence was barely finished and the ambulance came to a halt, the men got up in a hurry, and Emma spotted the Trauma team ready to jump into action.

"Male, 35 years old. Stab wound to the chest, medial to the left nipple. He's in hypovolemic shock, one unit of O-neg administered." Emma said before any of the paramedics could.

"Are you a doctor or a paramedic?" Leroy grumbled by her side, but added nothing more to the information she gave.

"We'll take it from here, thank you, Leroy." The head of Trauma got a firm hold on the dolly.

"Yeah, bye, Charming, bye Dr. Condom!" The paramedic screamed behind as they rolled into the hospital.

"Page cardio and get an OR right now! Let's assess what we can do before they're here."

It was just when they got to the emergency room that Dr. Nolan acknowledged Emma.

"You are one of the new interns, aren't you?" He turned to the nurse. "I'm not loving this BP, push one of epi and hang another O-Neg."

Emma looked at him with surprise. He moved swiftly with assured hands and had a calming voice, unlike most of the Trauma surgeons she'd seen before. 'Charming', had said the paramedic? Anyway, that was not the source of her disbelief, but rather the fact that he knew she worked there. In one week, she had received suspicious, who-the-fuck-are-you eyes from almost anyone (the lady in the cafeteria had refused to give her the staff discount twice already, only caving when Emma showed her the ID).

"Yeah. , surgery intern."

He didn't look up, but his tone was gentle enough when he started. "Dr. Swan, I'm curious, is that a-"

"Condom? Yeah." She tried not to roll her eyes, but honestly, she was afraid it would start to become a thing.

"That clarifies 'Dr. Condom' from Leroy," He chuckled good-naturally.

Emma almost groaned. Yeah, that would surely be a thing.

"Dr. Swan, I understand your intentions with the condom," He started, his eyes and hands never leaving the unconscious man in front of them. "But in Trauma you'll learn that the first thing you should do is to avoid further damage to the patient. The time you lost putting it on could be crucial to his life. Sterile objects and environment comes later in extreme emergency cases."

"I know," She was fast to reassure. "I tried to stanch the wound first with clothes, but it wasn't too effective; I made a quick judgment call to use my hand instead, and from what I could gather it wouldn't interfere in the procedure the time I lost, and was the best for both the patient and my security."

David seemed to consider that for a moment. "In that case, good call, Dr. Swan. You might as well have saved his life."

"That is yet to see, Dr. Nolan." A brunette doctor entered the ER, her voice and presence all but very commanding. Emma did spot two nurses and the resident casting down their eyes as she walked in.

The blonde blinked as the doctor came close, attention focused on the stats and then on the man. She could barely see past the woman's cheek and hair, but she seemed so, so familiar…

"Good to see you, Dr. Mills," For the first time, Dr. Nolan seemed annoyed.

Dr. Mills. Emma's eyes almost bulged out as realization dawned on her. It couldn't be. Could it?

Yes, it most certainly could be, Emma concluded when the doctor's eyes bored on hers. The woman that pretty much inspired Emma to change her life hadn't changed much herself in those years.

"And who are you? And more importantly – why do you have your fingers deep on that man's chest?"

Emma blinked. Apparently, Dr. Mills hadn't changed much on the outside only, because gone were the kind eyes and smile, replaced by firmly pressed together lips and cold brown orbs staring back at her.

Emma must have taken too long to answer, because one impatient eyebrow was raised at her, then she rushed, "I'm a doctor here, I-"

"Actually, I don't really care. We must take him to the OR in this instant. If you remove your hand now he'll bleed out to death by the time we get there. Do try not to move too much, dear."

And then they were running there before Emma could take offence on the condescension on Dr. Mills voice.

~SQ~

As the doctors and nurses scrubbed in, Emma put on what sterilized clothes she could without moving, and excitement started to bustle inside of her. That was it. What she'd been waiting for. Be a real part of a surgery. Learn and maybe even make a procedure, a move. Well, she deserved, right?!

When they were all about to start, Dr. Mills addressed Emma again, "You said you are a doctor."

"Yes, I'm a surgery intern, Em-"

"I'll have to go blind; can you tell me anything useful?" The cardiothoracic surgeon interrupted her.

"I- um. Sure, I have two of my fingers near the left ventricle, I'm assuming pressing some ramification of the left anterior descending artery, but I can't be sure."

Dr. Mills nodded, "Now carefully remove your fingers, then you can leave, dear."

Emma was sure she didn't understand all too well.

"What?"

"Remove your fingers," The attending repeated blankly, "Carefully."

Emma did that, still a little confused. She saved the man, she wanted to see her efforts didn't go to waste. Surely, she earned that, right?

It was a little bit of a mess after that. Regina dug in immediately, working magic at a speed and assuredness Emma hadn't seen before. So she stood there, watching, amazed.

The spell was soon broken when she felt an elbow just under her chest.

"What the-" Regina turned her head for a moment. "What are you still doing here?"

"I'm watching?" Emma said, taking a step back as fuming brown eyes stared her down.

"Doctor, you did your part. Now, leave."

"Dr. Mills, I'm sorry, I'll be out of your way."

"Yes, you will, the door is on your right, doctor."

"Can't I at least watch?"

"But of course, we have a fine wall of glass outside from where you can observe everything."

"But he's my patient!" Emma knew better than to argue with an attending. She really knew better, but she had for more than an hour her hand inside of a man, damn, she almost couldn't feel her fingers anymore. She fucking deserved to see it through!

A vein started to pop on the attending's forehead.

"And this is my OR. Now get out!" The surgeon hissed at her, all livid eyes and a dangerous expression on her face.

Emma swallowed back a retort and marched out of the room.

After that, her day pretty much continued to suck. She had been right. Somehow everybody found out she was the woman that got to the hospital wearing a condom on the hand that was dug inside a chest wound. "Dr. Condom" so obviously became a thing, and the other interns couldn't seem to recall her real name anymore. She even thought she heard Dr. Merida Dunbroch, her assigned resident, call her that once.

When it was time to leave the hospital, Emma sighed in relief.

Emma was almost out of the door of the hospital when a voice stopped her.

"Dr. Swan."

She hadn't heard much of that voice in the last ten years. But Emma felt like she'd recognize it anywhere now, judging by the events of that day only.

She closed her eyes and counted to ten before turning. When had the other doctor figured out her name? How much trouble did she put herself into?

"Dr. Mills," She said with a curt nod, her irritation bubbling on the surface, eager to make an appearance. "Is there anything I can do for you?" Still, she tried to avoid being harsh. Too harsh, anyway.

"Yes," The woman approached, purse in hand and dressed like she was ready to go home too. "You can never question my authority again, and never repeat what you did today on the OR. Never."

Emma pressed her lips in a thin line as the doctor continued.

"Or I'll make sure you won't see the inside of one for a long, long time."

Really, she tried to remain impassive, but soon her eyes were narrowing and her cheeks were burning. That arrogant, damned woman- was now threatening her, after everything she'd been through to get where she was- just, - ugh!

"You will come to realize I'm not someone you want to cross, Dr. Swan," She proceeded on her power speech or whatever, and all Emma could do to not snap at her was stare.

So, she stared at the regal posture of the woman, how her hair was shorter and her features sharper. She stared at her hand where there was a ring - was the crazy in love paramedic waiting her back home? She stared at her stilettos and at the impatient eyebrow raised at her for the second time. She stared and wondered where that caring, full of joy surgery intern went to give place to the cut-throat surgeon.

"Are we clear, Dr. Swan?" Dr. Mills pressed.

"Cristal, Dr. Mills," She replied surly, instead of using the very colorful vocabulary she was now thinking.

"Good." A predatory, not friendly at all smile stretched across the woman's face.

Emma then resumed her way out of the hospital, giving her all to prevent her hands to close into fists and her mouth to say something that would piss off the doctor even more. It was just so me to piss off the Head of Cardio on her first week, harming her career on the process.

"And Dr. Swan?"

She stopped, but didn't turn again as Dr. Mills managed to threaten her once more.

"I'd be careful if I were on your shoes, because I'll be personally watching you from now on."

~SQ~

Hey!

I want to thank you guys for the response this fic got! And to warn you that this has 0% of medical accuracy, and 100% of google research and cool terms from medical shows, so…

To answer some of you: no, Emma did not abandon Henry, and - spoiler alert - yes, Daniel is dead. But come on, that one was a given!

Hope to see you all soon!