Vital Signs
Emma sat with Henry in the corridor, hands alternately rubbing at her knees through her jeans and twisting her fingers together. Her gaze darted to Henry whenever he scuffed his sneakers on the floor and interrupted the silence, but she quickly snapped her attention back to the two doors in the opposite wall.
Behind the left one, a nurse and lab tech had disappeared with Jenna, to take her vital signs and perform other tests they said were necessary to evaluate the newborn baby's health. Behind the right hand door, Dr. Whale and another nurse were examining Regina, Jenna's mother.
Trouble was, Emma was Jenna's mother, too, and they were not telling her anything.
Emma shot to her feet at the squalling and banged her way into the left hand room. "What are you doing to her?" she demanded.
In an instant she saw Jenna, naked, on the examination table. The nurse had a steadying hand on the baby's bare chest. Most of Jenna was mottled red and her arms and legs were thrashing. All except the leg being held by the lab tech lifting a vial away from a tiny foot which he held firm.
Jenna continued screaming. Emma glared at the tech. Slowly, like one might with a bomb about to explode, he took a step back and put his hands up in front of himself. "I was… it's ne..ces…blood type. Check for… conditions." His voice quaked more the longer he spoke and the closer Emma stalked.
She shouldered aside the nurse and scooped Jenna into her arms using the blanket that had been spread out beneath her. The baby was shaking; so was Emma.
Taking a deep breath, Emma brushed her lips against Jenna's forehead, then pushed her nose gently into Jenna's cheek. All the while she murmured soft cooing sounds like she'd heard Regina do on the drive over to Storybrooke Hospital.
Gradually Jenna quieted, and her breathing calmed. The alarming blotchy redness subsided and the baby girl's darker skin tone, a heritage from Regina, became apparent once more.
"Love you, Jenna," Emma spoke clearly at last, swaying with the baby in her arms. Jenna's green eyes blinked and Emma shifted one hand free to tuck a stray lock of dark hair from beneath the knitted cap provided by the hospital staff. She then kissed Jenna's forehead again.
At pressure on her arm, Emma turned to find the nurse looking up at her timidly. "What?" she demanded though her voice was soft.
"We still have more tests, Sav—" Emma's glare deepened. "Sheriff," the nurse tried again. Emma's brow smoothed out slightly.
"You promise you won't hurt her again?" Emma asked.
"No doubt she'll cry again. It's all new sensations to her after all, the darling thing," the nurse stated, giving the baby's cheek a rub with her thumb. "Please wait outside?" she asked Emma.
"Be careful with her," Emma insisted though she did slowly put Jenna back on the examination table. She turned to the tech. "You got it?"
"Yes, ma'am, sheriff," he gulped each word, looking wide-eyed and frightened.
Emma started for the door only to hear a woman cry out in pain.
Jerking it open, she flung herself at the next door, wrestling with the knob in her once more shaking hands until it gave way under her demand. The door crashed inward and she glared.
"Get away from her!" Emma asserted. Dr. Whale was restraining Regina with an arm across her chest while a nurse held the woman's leg off the floor. The brunette was yelling at him, "Unhand me, you imbecile!"
Regina she spotted Emma in the doorway and demanded, "Is Jenna all right?"
"Uh? Yeah, yeah." Emma strode forward, slapping the door shut. Regina pulled her foot from the nurse's grip and shoved at Whale. Emma reached her. "You, OK?"
"I heard her crying," Regina said. She was in a hospital gown with the front gaping open. Brown eyes pleaded with her. "Are you sure she's all right?"
Emma took one of Regina's hands and pulled her to her chest then lifted her chin to squarely meet her worried eyes. "I will let nothing happen to her. Or you," she added firmly. She turned to Whale. "Why didn't you let her go?"
"We were in the middle of an exam, Sheriff," he replied. "The patient can't just up and leave."
"She's a brand new mother, you fucking let her do whatever she needs, you got that?" Emma felt Regina's hand flex in her own and squeezed slightly in reassurance.
He glared; she glared. He threw his hands up. "Fine. Whatever. You're doing well, as far as we can tell," he finally said to Regina. "But you have to rest. You can't jump up like that. You're more likely to hurt yourself right now. No matter what's going on with your baby."
Emma felt Regina pull away from her and watched her gather the sides of her gown in the middle of her chest. "You're not OK?" Emma asked, looking between Regina and Whale.
"The birth was a strain," Whale said.
"I know that. I was there. And I've done this once myself," Emma retorted. "What else is wrong with Regina?"
"She's anemic and tired."
"I'll recover. I just need a little time," Regina insisted.
"We're awaiting the results of some labs," Whale said. "Until then, I would really appreciate it if you didn't go jumping off beds and pushing your heart so hard."
Emma looked from Whale to Regina. The woman's throat moved as she swallowed. Apparently she'd already been told of possible test outcomes. "What's wrong with her heart?"
Regina gripped Emma's hand and pushed it away, separating herself from Emma's hold entirely. "Doctor," she warned in a voice that had frozen men in their tracks in another world. Dr. Whale had started to open his mouth; he snapped it shut.
When Emma glared at him though, looking equally capable of evisceration, he spoke non-specifically. "We won't know any more until the test results."
"When will you get those back?"
"Tomorrow."
"All right. Can she go home?"
He looked from Regina to Emma and took a step away, giving them room. "Yes. I'll check on Jenna's tests and see when we can get them both on their way."
He and the nurse left Emma and Regina alone in the room. Regina slid slowly off the examination table and turned her back on Emma. The hospital gown dropped, leaving Emma staring at a gorgeous naked back. Emma stuffed her hands in her pockets and turned away, unsure of what to say in the silence. She heard no more fabric movement and chanced a glance over her shoulder toward the corner where Regina stood.
Still naked, the brunette had stopped attempting to dress, leaning hard on a nearby sink counter. Her head was bowed and her shoulders were shaking.
Emma turned quickly and reached out, lifting Regina's chin and tucking the dark head underneath her jaw as she held her tightly. Strongly she stroked the muscled back as the front of her shirt dampened with tears. "I promise I'll help," she said.
Regina pulled away from Emma, and in the brief look from brown eyes, Emma wasn't sure she saw belief in her, but she was determined to prove herself as both another mother to Jenna and a true partner to Regina.
The brunette sat down on a small chair beside the exam table and reached for the small stack of her clothing, a pair of underwear, a bra, and a dark blue shirtdress she had taken to wearing in her last months of pregnancy. Emma dropped to her knees when Regina started to stretch forward in an attempt to put on her underwear but a groan of pain escaped from beneath her bitten lip.
Solicitously Emma slid the underwear over first one foot then the other. Hands fell to her shoulders as her own fingers traced up muscled calves, then over dainty knees, and Regina lifted up so the garment could be pulled over her hips. Emma closed her eyes blocking her gaze from Regina's apex even though behind her eyelids the details from both helping Regina give birth and their intimacies in Neverland played over and over again.
"Bring the baby back in two weeks for a checkup," Dr. Whale said to Regina as she settled into the wheelchair with the help of an orderly. They were going home. The nurse placed Jenna, wrapped in her blanket, in Regina's arms across her lap.
Emma stood off to the side, hands tucked into her back pockets, the eternal sign of the other woman's discomfort and uncertainty in any and all situations. Emma had accepted she was Jenna's other parent and asserted she intended to take care of things, but clearly she didn't want to resume an intimate relationship with Regina. Emma seemed to have an aversion to looking at her. They would be a family, in the way Regina had demanded of them for Henry before Neverland: in name only. Though she wanted to, Regina honestly did not know how to recreate their relationship.
Tired and worn and, now she knew, anemic, Regina felt beaten up by life in a way she hadn't in a great many years. Having Jenna was supposed to be the beginning of her happy ending but, while she loved her daughter, it seemed the rest of the pieces would not so beautifully fall into place. She looked down into Jenna's sleeping face and traced a fingertip longingly over lips shaped just like Emma's.
"We can go. I've got the prescriptions," Emma said abruptly, and Regina's head jerked up to see her waving several pieces of paper as an orderly walked away. "Vitamins for you," Emma said, looking at her. Regina's stomach fluttered in response to something she thought she saw in Emma's eyes before it vanished and Emma strode quickly away into the parking lot.
A few moments later Emma was back, driving the cruiser in which they'd come to the hospital. Henry pushed her wheelchair down the sloping ramp and off the sidewalk.
"Here you go," Emma said, looking up at the mansion from behind the wheel of the sheriff's cruiser. "Henry," she laid an arm over the seat to talk their son in the back. "Would you take Jenna upstairs while I help your mom out?"
"You sure?" he asked.
Stepping out and meeting Henry as he emerged from the backseat on the driver side of the car, Emma responded, "Yeah, you can totally handle the kidlet. I'll be in to check on her. Just put her in the bassinet, 'k?"
Henry went quickly around to the other side, opening the door. Once he was leaning inside, Emma spread her forearms over the roof of the cruiser and followed Henry's progress with Jenna's carrier. He was definitely comfortable with his role of big brother, making Emma sigh softly as she compared his comfort unfavorably with her lack of it. She heard the squeaky sounds of leather and door hinges as Regina tried to move herself from the front passenger seat. Smacking the roof, she hurried around to find Regina straining as she wrestled using the door to get to her feet.
"I gotcha," Emma said. "Hang on." She moved forward, arms out to catch the brunette around the waist.
Regina resisted her touch, but she was clearly tired from the trip and unsteady on her feet, and her hand shook trying to push away Emma's forearm. Emma bit her lip remembering how Regina had pushed her away in Neverland, too. She'd been on the bedroll closest to Regina's since Snow and Charming made it clear they wouldn't have anything to do with her. But Emma had known they needed Regina realistically to get through the shitty situation, so she'd protected her from the others.
Just as she had the first evening in Neverland, Emma threw her arm around Regina's shoulders. Only this time she didn't have a blanket as a buffer. "Come on, you can lay down."
"I'd rather not," Regina protested.
"What do you need?"
"Jenna will need feeding soon. I should go to the nursery."
"I can't carry you up the stairs."
"You don't have to carry me at all," Regina huffed, pushing against Emma with her elbows. "I can use my magic."
"Have you even tried it once since we got back?"
As an answer, Regina snapped her fingers. Nothing happened. She scowled. Emma stepped forward. Regina inched away, still glaring. "I am not an invalid."
"You just had a baby, Regina. It's normal to feel weak and tired."
"I am not weak!" Regina shoved out hard with her fists. She fell back against the rear passenger door when Emma let her go in surprise to rub the certain-to-bruise space in the middle of her sternum.
"No," Emma agreed with a wince, "you're not. I'm sorry I said that."
Regina's mask tried to form. Emma could see the strain in the darkening brown orbs.
"Let me carry you inside?" Pride warred with exhaustion now. She begged, so Regina wouldn't have to. "Please?"
Regina didn't say anything, but the dip of her chin was enough. Emma moved gingerly close, maintaining eye contact, and smiling gently the entire time. Bending her knees she lifted the other woman with one arm behind her back and the other scooping under Regina's knees. Helpfully Regina put her arms loosely around the back of Emma's neck.
Emma squeezed Regina closer. The dark head fell softly against her collarbone. Emma couldn't stop her pinched gasp of pain. Then she held her breath, moving quickly up the walkway.
She probably imagined the lips pressed tenderly to the skin inside her open shirt collar.