Hello everyone! Sorry to leave you on a cliffhanger for so long- work has been insane lately. Hope you enjoy finding out what happens next! Please keep reviewing! Let me know if you want to see anything in particular as this story will be over soon.
Minor disclaimer: I am not a doctor and I cannot be trusted to make 100% accurate medical statements. This is fic world and I did my best, I went with what seemed plausible. If you have any issues or know something that can be fixed, don't hesitate to message me and I can fix it!
Emma sat beside Henry in the ambulance and ignored her shaking hands as she looked down at the boy. His lips are blue, she thought, he needs to be warmer...they need to make him warmer. Why aren't they doing anything? The paramedics were speaking to each other in calm but hushed tones despite the blaring siren atop the vehicle, which was all Emma could hear.
She had called Regina immediately after calling the ambulance, but she couldn't recollect how Henry had gotten out of the water. She could remember nothing but Regina's voice, responding in disbelief and eventually, realization of what needed to happen.
She held on to his lifeless hand and felt words coming from her lips, though she wasn't aware of what she said. Then they were at the hospital, received by the doctors eagerly waiting for the ambulance doors to open. They reached as the paramedics gently worked to get Henry out of the ambulance with minimal trauma, and they began to run past her. She barely registered the conversations around her between the paramedics and the two doctors who had come to receive him. One was older, balding, and seemed to have a permanent crease of focus on his forehead, the other looked too young to be a doctor.
"What've we got?" The older man asked.
"12 year old male, fell through the ice at the park, he was submerged for approximately two minutes. Temp was low but we've got him warming and pulse has been shotty and last we checked it was slow but steady…" What was his name? I didn't get that man's name, Emma realized.
"His name is Henry," Emma said weakly. Is anyone listening? "Henry Mills," she added with a bit more strength. She may have been totally out of it but she knew that the only way they would let Regina in there with him is if their surnames matched, and she wasn't about to say his name was Swan. She remembered that from her own time in foster care; sitting in the exam rooms alone because your foster parents needed certain security clearances before they could stay with you, hold your hand, comfort you. She may have broken a rule, or maybe even a law lying about Henry's name, but she wasn't about to stand between Regina and her son. She wasn't absolutely crazy. Even if she felt like his mother, Regina would soon be his mother on paper.
"Let's not tube him yet, we've got weak breath sounds…he's fighting in there. Moving him on my count, one..two…three…" The older doctor seemed to be taking this case while the others followed his lead.
"Can you hear us Henry? I'm Dr. Brady and this is Dr. Ackerman. You have to keep fighting okay? We all want to meet you buddy," The young one chimed in. At least she had heard his name.
"He's going straight to the ICU, is that his mother?" Dr. Ackerman asked.
"I don't know," she responded, "Miss, are you his mother?"
Regina. Regina is his mother. Not me. Where is she? I need her. No, he needs her.
"I…I'm.." She didn't have time to answer when she heard the squeal of tires from the car skidding to a stop in the ambulance bay. The car was barely in park before Regina burst from the driver's seat and ran straight to Henry, tears filling in her eyes at the battered boy before her.
"Oh my god, Henry. No, Henry you have to wake up, do you hear me?" She pleaded.
Dr. Ackerman didn't have the patience his associate had, and asked again, this time directed towards Regina, "Are you his mother? Who is that?" That, meaning Emma.
"Yes, I am his mother," Regina responded impatiently, "She's just his social worker. She's nobody."
"We can only take family, Miss Mills. It's time to move."
And they were gone. Regina ran through the doors following as closely behind as the doctors would allow her and Emma stared as the automatic doors closed once again. She turned to see one of the police officers who had been at the scene holding Lucky closely, and walking towards her as she turned around.
"Miss, you're gonna want to deal with the car before I have to tow it out of here and ticket you."
Apparently the real world didn't wait for anyone. She took the dog into her arms and though they faltered slightly, she shook off the feeling of numbness and repositioned the dog until she could hold him as she started her walk towards the car.
"Hey, I'll take the dog back for you." He offered, staying near her, apparently realizing his insensitivity. "Everyone knows where Regina's place is. If you give me a key I'll make sure he's all good and I'll lock up and bring it back to you, okay? Emma, are you alright? What's with your arms?" He asked. She ignored him, and put the car in drive to park it while he stood holding a very confused dog.
Dear God, let him get through this alive. He needs a life with Regina, he deserves one. She parked the car in the visitors lot and removed the key form the ignition with shaking hands. As Regina had said, I'm just his social worker, she remembered. I'm nobody. Even if that's the case, I need to be in there.
She walked in to the emergency room and was always so surprised at the number of people going through something. Every person there was there for a different reason, for a different loved one. Regardless of the fact that Regina had said she was nothing, effectively telling her how she really felt about her, Emma knew she needed to see Henry's eyes open again. She needed to apologize for not being more careful with him. She needed to apologize for getting him hurt. She needed to hold Regina, even if for her own comfort. She sat just outside the ICU after every nurse ignored her request because she had no proof of any relationship to Henry or Regina, even though she knew she had seen at least a few of them at the New Years Eve party the evening before. One of them looked on apologetically because there really was nothing she could do to allow Emma in. But she had agreed to go in and check on Henry herself.
The young nurse returned and sat beside Emma, holding her hands. "He's stable for now, they're doing everything they can, but no, he's not awake yet…Emma, what happened to your hands? Your sleeves are soaked. Are you alright? Have you been checked?"
Emma looked at her hands through the tears and realized her arms were in fact very cold. She was cold everywhere. Combined with the entire front of her body being wet and the shivering she had kept at bay, she tried to speak "…Henry fell through the ice.." She started.
The paramedic she recognized from Henry's ambulance had been sitting nearby and he came over.
"We're all waiting to hear if Henry is okay." He said to Emma. He shifted his focus to the nurse. "When we got there, he wasn't in the water anymore. I thought maybe he had swam out, but her state tells me that she pulled him out. We didn't think to check her, our focus was on saving him. She said she was fine, she said to save him. Is it frostbite?"
"It could be, let's find out okay? Emma, I know you're scared for Henry, but right now we need to take care of you. Okay?"
She nodded dumbly as the pain began to register and the nurse led her to the nearest open exam table.
Regina focused on the green line and the steady beep staring at her from the monitor above Henry as she absentmindedly played with the swan pendant hanging on her neck. She had no idea how much time had passed, but as long as she kept hearing that beep, her boy was alive. Even if he wasn't looking at her or talking with her or laughing with her, he was alive. His colour seemed to be returning and his hand wasn't as cold as it was before.
The doctors had said it was just a waiting game now. Children are resilient, they had said. She kept reminding herself of his strength and his good health. They had said his chances were good, and if the paramedics hadn't gotten him out of the water so quickly, his prognosis may be very different. All she could do was run the facts through her mind. If she went with how she felt, she'd cry for the boy who deserves to be making snow angels with his puppy, not laying in a bed waiting to wake up. She's cry for the boy who took a punch and wanted to take the blame, and the boy who has the hands of an artist and a fighter's heart. She'd cry for the boy who had awful nightmares but kept pushing through and who snuck sips of champagne when he thought she wasn't watching. She'd cry for her son.
She brushed the hair off his forehead as she had wanted to when he was sick but couldn't look at his lifeless form. It wasn't him. She got up and her heels clicked as she paced back and forth. She had the momentary thought that she wished Emma could hold her, but pushed it aside. Emma had called him Henry Mills, she clearly was ready to leave them and continue on with her life.
"…Mom?"
It was so quiet, she wasn't sure she had heard it at all. She stared at him hard and waited. Had she made that up?
"Mom? Regina, is that you?" his voice was weak and his eyes were closed but she had undoubtedly heard his voice. A sob worked its way through her as she collapsed in the chair beside his bed, resting her head near his hand.
"Oh Henry, it's so good to hear your voice. You had me so worried." She felt his weak hand awkwardly touch her head.
"It's okay now." He said drowsily. She got up and kissed his cheek, not caring if he cared at all. He didn't. In fact, he kind of liked it. This is what having a mother felt like. The familiar smell of her perfume washed over his senses as she reached for the call button to alert the doctors that he has woken up. She tucked him into the many blankets even tighter.
"You called me 'mom'," She said with a watery laugh.
"That's because you're my mom. Aren't you? Is that okay? I want you to be my mom. I don't want to leave." He said.
"I will never get tired of hearing it, Henry. It's perfect. You're not going anywhere." She smiled.
As his strength grew, he opened his eyes a bit more, and one person's absence was ever present. "Where's Emma?"
As if on cue, the doctor walked through the door hurriedly.
"Mr. White, I see you have joined us. It's good to see you, son." He added.
He looked through all of his vitals making quick notes in Henry's chart and eventually turned his attention to Regina.
"This is a really happy time, and this is a really complicated situation, but since I am aware of the faults in our system, I'm going to let you stay in Mr. White's room, Miss Mills." Regina's stomach sank…she hadn't noticed the use of Henry's actual surname. "I have to say, though, it was pretty quick thinking to use your surname to ensure you had access to your son." She was relieved that the doctor saw it as they did, but she was still slightly shaken up at the thought of being asked to leave his room when he only just woke up. Then again, the use of her surname hadn't been her idea.
"If I'm being honest with you, doctor, I'm not the one who said Henry was a Mills, even if I intend to make it that way as soon as possible."
A nurse that Regina had recognized as one doing rounds on the floor entered the room.
"Actually Miss Mills, I couldn't help but overhear, you should know that Emma Swan was the one who said Henry was a Mills. And not because she was trying to get rid of him or you. She said Henry was Henry Mills so you could get into the room because she knew you wouldn't be able to sit out in the waiting room without 'breaking shit until they let you in', or forcing your way through. Those were her words obviously. She also said that she loves you both and that you needed each other. She's currently a patient under my care and you should know that under even the smallest dose of morphine, she is talking like it's her last confession."
"…Emma is a patient? What happened?" Regina felt a chill come over her. Even if she tried to ignore the love she had for the blonde she knew it would probably never leave, even if the blonde left her.
"She saved me," Henry cut in, realization coming over him in waves. "Emma saved me. When I fell through the ice she got me out and called 911 and covered me up. She laid with me to make me warmer. What happened to her, is she okay? She was in the ambulance with me, she was fine, what happened?"
The nurse looked from Henry's wild eyes to Regina's dread-filled ones. She gulped and continued. "She's fine. The nerves in her arms and hands had some damage from residual frost-bite and the shock and adrenaline she felt prevented her from feeling any of the pain until she was sitting down waiting to hear about you. Well she wasn't really sitting so much as pacing and demanding, though she did say please. Her injuries are consistent with what we think is what happened, which is that she essentially reached her entire upper body in the water to pull you out, and then when she warmed you, she took on a lot of the cold that you were carrying."
Regina's head was spinning. She had been so focused on Henry's state that she had completely ignored Emma. She had said she was just his social worker…she had called her nothing. Clearly, Emma was everything. Regina had perpetuated every insecurity Emma had about their relationship and she threw it in her face. She had sacrificed her own desire to stay with him because she knew Regina would need to be beside him. Emma had saved her son's life and now she sat alone in a hospital room wondering if Henry was even alive. When Regina had wondered that it was excruciating, and she could only imagine how Emma felt.
"Mom, you need to go to her, now." Henry said. He had another one of those moments where he seemed a lot older than the 12 years he was. "Leave me here. I'm fine. The call button is right here. If I need anything I'll call the nurses, okay. Please, you have to go to her."
Emma heard high heels on the tiled floor of the hospital and wondered if they had given her so many drugs she was hallucinating the sound of Regina walking. She wondered even more when Regina appeared in her doorway. Her eyes had no makeup left on them and her face was red from crying, and Emma's stomach clenched at how beautiful the woman still was.
"Regina…" Emma tried to speak, but Regina walked to her bed and knew that no words could fill the need she had. As she looked down at the blonde, Regina took what was probably her only opportunity and attached her lips to Emma's desperately. Her tears fell freely as she barely moved away.
"Emma I don't know how to express how sorry I am for what I said, and how I acted."
Emma looked at the broken woman above her and wiped the tears from her face. Though Emma had been prepared to leave knowing the two people she loved were happy, she knew now that she couldn't leave.
"Regina.. Henry… is he-"
"No, no. Emma, you saved him. He's awake. And he asked for you. And I owe you a thousand apologies. I should have had faith in you, in us. I shouldn't have blamed you and acted so impatiently. I shouldn't have called you nothing Emma, you're not nothing. You're everything." The desperation in her voice was matched by Emma's grip on her face, as strong as it could be considering her condition.
This time, Emma pulled Regina's mouth to hers. "He's awake," she sighed, smiling into Regina's lips. She was crazy to think she could have gone without kissing this woman. She had never felt such relief in her entire life. And surprising both of them, Emma started laughing. "Oh I'm so happy he's awake Regina. You came in here crying and I was so worried that wasn't the case."
"Emma Swan are you actually laughing right now? You realize the weight of this situation, don't you?" Regina felt her lips twitch. She would not under any circumstances laugh right now.
"I do, and that's why I'm so happy!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah, that, or they've been generous on the morphine." Regina rolled her eyes as Emma finally settled down.
"Maybe a bit of both," Emma sighed.
"Emma, can you forgive the way I acted, what I said?" Regina asked, suddenly serious.
Emma took her hands in her own. "Of course I can, Regina. You were terrified. And technically you were right. I'm only his social worker right now, but since I love him, that's going to need to change soon. And Regina, I love you. I was making it so complicated but it's clearer now than ever that you deserve to hear that phrase every moment I think it. I'm so in love with you it overwhelms me. And if you'll have me in your life, I'll be here. I love you for how strongly you love Henry, and for the way you cook, and the moods you have, and the history. For so many huge things, and things as small as the face you're giving me right now."
"That's because I'm wondering how strong the medication you're on is." Regina smirked.
"Medication aside, I've never meant anything how I mean this, Regina. Nothing has ever been clearer to me. I want you and Henry, I need you. I don't know how we're going to make this work in terms of your adoption…someone called me today saying shit about how it's a conflict of interest and-"
"And we'll figure it out, Emma. Because I love you too. And so does Henry. And our son needs both of his parents." Regina kissed Emma again, and smirked when she registered that that quickening beeping she heard was Emma's heart monitor. "Guess we should stop and take it easy." Emma's brow furrowed, and Regina laughed, stroking the blonde silk from Emma's face. "Someone could walk in at any moment, and your heart monitor is giving you away, dear. We'll sort all of this out when you're feeling better. Neither of you are going anywhere." Emma could see the determination in Regina's eyes.
"Can you just say it one more time?" She asked, looking slightly loopy again.
"Your heart monitor is giving you away?" Regina asked coyly. At Emma's face, she tried again. "Someone is going to walk in?" Emma scoffed and Regina laughed. She understood the light feeling Emma had been feeling. She felt it now too, without the assistance of morphine. "Emma Swan, I love you too. Our son needs you, and I need you, so you need to get better so you can use those hands the ways I know you can." She winked and couldn't be happier to see Emma's classic smirk gracing her mouth once again.
TBC – It's almost over, but there are still a few loose ends to tie up.
Until next time!