Sorry it took me so long to get these up, but no one left me prompts while I was gone and I had a hard time coming up with ideas.
Regina walked into Emma's hospital room carrying her usual bouquet of flowers. Thanks to her, Emma's room looked like a greenhouse. Not that Emma would protest. She loved that Regina cared.
By now, Regina knew that asking how Emma was didn't really do anything. She had given up a long time ago that Emma would ever get better. No matter what the doctors said, it was clear to both Emma and Regina that Emma would never get better.
"Morning," Emma greeted as Regina walked into the room. "You brought daisies this time."
"They looked like a happy flower for such a gloomy day," Regina said, setting them on the table at the end of Emma's bed.
"You know that I have to do this," Emma said. "It isn't going to get better. And I can't live like this."
"Just because you can't move your legs doesn't mean that you can't keep living," Regina said, sitting on the edge of Emma's bed. "We could still be happy."
Emma sighed. "I'm supposed to be the Savior. How can I save people when I can't walk ever again? Besides, it isn't just the walking. We both know that it's spreading."
Regina swallowed the lump in her throat before reaching out to brush some of Emma's hair out of her face. "I know."
A couple months ago, a car had hit Emma in her rush to chase down Pongo. Her spinal cord had been injured, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. But, in doing an examination of her spinal cord, the doctors had also found an aggressive form of leukemia in Emma's bloodstream. There was nothing they could do.
"What does Henry think?" Emma asked.
"That he's going to miss you terribly, but that this is a much more peaceful way to go," Regina said. "He didn't want to be here though."
"I don't blame him," Emma said. "I wouldn't want to sit by my mother's hospital bed and watch her close her eyes and never wake up."
"Don't talk about it like that," Regina said, squeezing her eyes shut to combat the tears gathering in them. "Just don't."
Emma reached over and grabbed Regina's hand, squeezing it as hard as her weakened state would allow her to. "Look at me."
Regina shook her head. If she looked at Emma, she knew that the tears threatening to fall would cascade down her face in a heavy waterfall that would never stop.
"Please," Emma pleaded. "Let me look into your eyes one last time. I need to see the eyes of the woman that I love the most. Just one last time."
Slowly, Regina opened her eyes. She could barely see Emma through the blur of her tears, but registered that Emma had tears falling down too. Neither of them wanted it to end like this.
"I love you," Regina said, sniffing. She wiped at her eyes, trying to clear her vision. She wanted to see Emma.
"I love you too," Emma said. "Come here."
Regina carefully lay down next to Emma, putting her head on Emma's chest. Emma wrapped her arms around Regina, sighing in comfort as she simply enjoyed Regina's presence.
"What am I going to do without you?" Regina whispered. "I can't live without you."
"Yes you can," Emma said. "You'll have Henry, and Henry is half me. It'll be like having me with you. And I'll always be watching over you to make sure that you live. You have a whole life ahead of you. Live it."
"But I don't want a life without you," Regina said.
"Life doesn't always go according to plan," Emma said. "But that doesn't mean that you stop."
Someone knocked softly on the door, and Regina could tell by the frame that it was Whale. He tentatively opened the door, not saying a word as he saw Regina with Emma. "Ready when you are," he said.
Emma nodded, indicating that she was ready. "Will you stay?" she asked Regina.
Regina looked up at her and kissed her gently. "For as long as you want me to."
Regina breathed in the fresh air from the window of her apartment. Well, as fresh of air as New York could have anyway.
After Emma had died, Regina had packed up all of her and Henry's belongings and left town. She had left Emma's belongings in the mansion in case Snow or David wanted anything, except for her signature red jacket and her bug that Regina now was the driver of. Those two things had left with them.
Henry was enjoying life in New York. He went back to Storybrooke on his own every once in awhile just to see his grandparents and old friends, but Regina refused to go back.
That town was a part of her past, and she honestly didn't miss anything in it except for Emma. But like Emma had said, she would be with Regina always. All Regina had to do was live.