Author's Note: A lot of you have been asking about Mary Margaret and why if she is a match that Regina still went looking for Emma. That question will be answered in this chapter as well as what Henry has and his medical history. All information I am using in this fic comes from the research I've done on children and this specific form of cancer from the internet. If there are mistakes they are mine. Please keep in mind this is also a fic with the undercurrent of magic involved so when a doctor starts talking about a miracle, well he aint kidding.

Thank you all for your support of this story. I appreciate every alert, favorite and review. Let me know what you think so I can improve. :-)

Chapter Six
'Doctors, Hospitals, and Wails'

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Emma shouldn't have been surprised. The Mayor's car was the black Mercedes. Emma wondered if there was no other color that the Mayor liked. Her clothes were one thing, her office a second and now her car? At least the interior was leather. They shared that in common. Except Emma had a sinking suspicion that the Mayor's leather wasn't as thrift shop pleather as Emma's often was. So, maybe they didn't have that in common.

Sinking into the passenger seat Emma kept her hands on her lap waiting for the Mayor to pull away. After an unneeded minute Emma turned to see Regina looking at her. Confused Emma looked out the window before meeting Regina's eyes again, "What?"

"Seatbelt." Regina pointed to the belt and waited impatiently for Emma to put it on.

Emma laughed, until she realized Mayor Mills wasn't going to pull away until she put on her seatbelt. Huh…Emma thought. "Alright, then. You're serious…" Pulling on the safety belt Emma tugged on it as it rested across her chest to show she was wearing it.

Regina took a deep breath to calm down. The last thing she needed to do was upset Ms. Swan. It was obvious the woman had issued with authority. That had been clear in the file Sidney had pulled on Ms. Swan. The woman didn't stay in one place for very long. She had been lucky to catch Ms. Swan in one of her down periods. In the last four years Sidney found the blonde had moved from one place to another every three months or so. Ms. Swan had been in Boston for almost five, thankfully. If Regina wasn't desperate for Ms. Swan's help she might feel bad for disturbing the woman when she had apparently found someplace to be comfortable in.

Emma's laughter pulled Regina's attention away from the road. Staring through the corner of her eyes Regina snipped, "What is so funny?"

"Well, you are actually." Emma chuckled, consumed by her own thoughts.

It was another block before Regina spoke again. The blood vessel in her neck pulsing as the Mayor instinctively flexed and eased her muscles. "What exactly about me is so funny?"

"Calm down Madame Mayor, it's not like you have something on your face." Emma looked away, grinning as Regina swiped nonchalantly at her right cheek—just to make sure she, in fact, did not have something on her face. "Like I said, nothing on your face. You just…" Emma groaned as the car came to a sudden stop. Regina's arm shot out—on instinct—and held Emma back from hitting the dashboard. Not that Emma's seatbelt would have allowed for that. It had already snagged, catching Emma and holding her back against her seat like it was supposed to.

"Wh..aat…was that for!" Emma raged, sure that Regina had done that on purpose.

"Aside from stopping the car short to save that child…" Regina jutted her head to the road where said child was now being held in his mother's arms. In the toddler's arms was a rainbow medium bouncy ball. "…nothing."

Emma blinked and remained silent as the mother came to the window, the boy still held tightly in her arms, even if he seemed a bit heavy for her to lift. He had to be three or four and was stock still, blinking every few seconds. He and the mother's faces were level with Regina's window.

"Oh my…Ma-ma-mayor…hu-hmm…th-thank…" The mother was out of breath and looked like she was about to cry.

"Carla, it's going to be fine. I'm sorry if I scared Charley." Regina looked kingly at the boy in Carla's arms.

"No…maybe…now he'll thing twice about…" Carla swallowed and two tears fell. The woman was obviously in shock. She had almost watched her son get run over by a car. She had raced across the front deck and the lawn but still had only gotten to Charley seconds after the car had stopped inches in front of him.

"Go on back into the house. He's fine. So are you. He'll be fine! Won't you Charley?" The boy blinked three times before nodding his head. He arched his head to look up at his mother and offered her a gap tooth grin.

Carla nodded and stepped up onto the curb. Regina waited until they made it into the house before she continued down the road.

"That…" Emma was practically speechless at witnessing Regina interact with that woman and her son. Did the Mayor know everyone's name here in town? Or was this just a coincidence that she'd stopped before killing the child of someone she knew personally?

"That happens around these streets, Ms. Swan. It's why there are more signs warning about children at play here then deer crossings."

Emma nodded, shocked that Regina wasn't even phased by this. Maybe it did happen enough to make her immune to it and why she was driving so slow through the residential area. "I'll be sure to remember that." Especially if it kept her from hitting some small kid on accident.

The silence in the car was deafening. The tension palatable as Regina drove.

"You're a mom." Emma whispered looking away from the street signs passing them by and the houses with the picket fences and green grass front yards.

At a stop sign Regina turned her full attention to Emma waiting for the blonde to elaborate. "Yes, I am a mom, I don't…"

"The seatbelt thing and the soccer mom arm block you did. The way you spoke to that kid, Charley. You're a mom." Emma explained, "It was hard to imagine you as a mom before when you showed up at my door, or even in your office. It…even the pictures only hinted at the fact, that, well that you're a mom."

"Your point?" Regina asked. She'd heard it for years how she didn't seem like the "mom type". She made it a point to be at every bake sale, every school faire, play, recital and even all Henry's intermural soccer games when he was too little to even really kick the ball very far. She had been trying to prove to everyone from the very beginning, from the day she'd been given Henry, that she was his mom. A good mom.

Now here she was sitting with Henry's birth mom and she was the one to common on how mom-ish she was. Emma hadn't even seen her interact with Henry. She just saw what having Henry in her life had helped her become. A better person. A vigilant person and a kinder woman.

Where mom came from, Regina wasn't sure. Then again what authority did Emma have to declare she was mom-like?

Emma shrugged, "I guess I don't have one Mayor."

Regina nodded, happy with the silence that descended over them again.

Emma twisted her shoulder so she could watch out her window. Hopefully she would be able to find the hospital on her own next time. She felt it was safer for both of them if she wasn't trapped in a small space with Regina again. Seeing the six-story building on the left Emma sighed happily.

'We're here, thank god.' Emma jumped up and out of the car as soon as it stopped. If she was stuck in that car with that buzzing silence she was going to start singing and no one wanted that.

Regina grinned internally, 'was it something I said?'

Regina realized as she stepped out of the car, locked the doors, and checked her makeup in the mirror that she hadn't been told why Emma was laughing before. Moving in step with the blonde Regina weighed her options as they neared the front of the hospital. The mechanical doors opened as she thought: 'To ask or not to ask…'

"What was so funny in the car?" Regina asks as she leads Emma into the hospital and immediately down the right hallway to the elevator bay. They pass two guards as they walk by and each nod their head in Regina's direction before walking by them, leaving them be. As soon as they reach the elevators Regina presses the call button and waits for the elevator and for Emma to explain herself.

Emma sighs as she stand to Regina's left. She shifts her weight from one foot to the other awkwardly. "It was the seatbelt thing."

"What about the…'seatbelt thing'?"

"Well it seemed silly. You want one of my organs. Organ donors don't have to be living donors. The need for a seatbelt seemed to—it seemed more of a routine thing then a helpful measure." Emma shook her head and laughed cynically, "It'd have been easier for you to let me go flying out the windshield."

Regina blinked as she twisted her neck to truly look Emma over. Obviously the blonde was misinformed. "Organ donors, living or not, are rare. Only 35% of people waiting for a donor ever get the organ. Car accident victims unlike popular belief are not ideal donors. In 45% of cases the organs are viable and even if they are not everyone is a registered donor. Often times the organs of registered donors and unregistered donors have been damaged in the crash one way or another so it makes some vital organs unviable." Regina looked up at the ding the elevator made and stepped into the elevator. "So, no, it was best that you not go flying through my windshield."

Emma huffed a laugh as she blinked at Regina, her mouth hanging open as she watched the Mayor's lip lift into a smirk. Shaking out of her stupor Emma stepped into the elevator. She made sure to stand a few inches away from Regina. Just in case.

'In case what?' Emma asked herself. 'Just in case she has a needle in her purse that she plans to stick in my neck, knock me out, and drag me to an operating room to harvest my organs!' The panicking little voice inside her mind screamed, hyperventilating. Emma gulped and leaned against the wall, the farthest she could get from Regina.

The numbers went by quickly and they were on the sixth floor before anyone could drug or accuse anyone of planning to drug anyone. Regina had to keep back a snicker at Ms. Swan huddled behind her watcher her like a hawk.

The doors of the elevator opened and neither woman moved. Emma waited for Regina to step off first and Regina was waiting for Ms. Swan to disembark first. Regina waves her hand out in front of her as a clear, 'after you'. Emma shakes her head, "No, please I insist, after you."

Regina cocks an eyebrow before stepping out of the elevator. 'Really Ms. Swan…how droll of you.' Once outside she looks behind her to see Emma following dutifully. "Good, follow me this way." Regina leads Emma through an open loft type room. There are seats in one corner and nurses moving between rooms with glass walls. They walk to the back left of the floor where there are two women and one man looking over a sleeping patient's vitals. Regina knocks on the glass and the occupants except for the unconscious man look up.

Dr. Whale says something to the two women before handing them the chart he'd been holding. He steps out of the room and the door closes behind him as he slips his pen into his breast pocket. "Regina," He nodded to the Mayor. "You must be Ms. Swan." Connor extends his hand to the blonde.

Emma looked around the area and was pulled away from her observations by the sound of her name being said. Turning to the doctor she notices M.D. then C. Whale on his lab coat. "Dr. Whale." She grasped his hand and shook it firmly.

He smiled at Emma, glancing at Regina after he'd released the blonde's hand. "Why don't you ladies follow me to my office?" He extended his arm, corralling the two to his office which is directly down the hall from this section of the hospital.

"So, how many people know who I am?" Emma asked under her breath as she leaned towards Regina while they walked to Dr. Whale's office.

"Why, would you rather no one know who you are? Ashame…"

Emma immediately cuts in. She's not ashamed of being Henry's birth mother. "No, I just keep a low profile. I like to know who knows me." And what they know. It was easier to keep herself safe that way. "Why are you trying to put words in my mouth?" Emma hissed, stepping away from Regina so Dr. Whale could unlock the door to his office.

Once at his office, Connor unlocked the door and held it open for both women. His eyes stayed on and followed Emma into the room admiring the hug of her jeans. "Please, take a seat." Connor gestured to the two available seats in front of his desk as he took the seat behind it.

"So Doc," Emma leans forward in her seat right away, "Maybe you can answer some of my questions."

"Sure, of course." Connor leans back in his seat his hands lax on his desk. "What questions do you—"

"What does the kid have?"

Dr. Whale blinked, "I'm sorry, what?"

"Why does the kid…"

"Henry." Regina interrupted.

Emma rolled her eyes, "Why does Henry…need the transplant? What does he have? Illness wise? What organ am I giving up and how do you know I'ma match?"

Connor looked to Regina, confused. "What exactly…" He looked back to Emma, "…do you know, Ms. Swan?" Because it seemed like she didn't know anything at all.

"Besides that without this transplant Henry's going to die? Not much."

Dr. Whale turned accusing eyes back to Regina. For her part Regina put her hands on either arm of the small chair, crossed her legs, and leaned back, uncaring. She was trying to be as imposing as she could be. "There was very little time to explain much of anything, Dr. Whale. So please, be my guest, explain to Ms. Swan everything." Better you than me.

Dr. Whale cleared his throat, knowing the Mayor's tone did not bode well for him. "Right, right. Well…to start." He pulled at his collar a little. "Henry has liver cancer. Rare in children but we found a small tumor on his liver. We did a biopsy of it and found it was malignant. It was cancerous. We started Henry on chemotherapy and then removed it. I diagnosed it as Hepatoblastoma."

Emma nodded suddenly having trouble swallowing. "How…uh how old?"

"He was six." Regina informed Ms. Swan, looking at the wall behind Connor's head rather than the woman sitting beside her. It was hard enough hearing Connor talk about this. It was like it was all happening right in front of her all over again.

Waking Henry up one morning for school and hearing him moan as he rolled around in bed complaining of a back ache, and an upset stomach. She had thought he just wanted to get out of going to school because he had a spelling test that he was nervous about. However she'd sat on the edge of the bed, touched his head to placate her own worry and his acting only to feel a fever. She asked him where his back hurt and where his stomach hurt. He was sore to the slightest touch on his stomach and said his lower back hurt. She let him stay home and called in sick for the day. She took his temperature and made him toast for his upset stomach. She laid with him in the living room watching his favorite cartoons as he snuggled with Mr. Brownie. Not an hour after eating it he'd gotten sick. She called his pediatrician and he told her that the stomach flu was going around and that it was probably just a 24 hour bug. He told her not to even bother coming in.

When the 24 hour bug didn't go away for 48 hours and Henry complained of more pain she took him to the hospital. Dr. Whale had been about to send Henry home when he did an exam of Henry's stomach and found it bloated and hard to the touch. He had an ultrasound done and a CAT scan. Four hours later he came back as Regina sat in Henry's bed with him reading him the book he had to read for homework. Dr. Whale had pulled her out of the room to tell her that they'd found a tumor on the scans. Regina can remember feeling like she was going to be sick at the word tumor. Dr. Whale said they needed to do a biopsy, and she had never expected it to come back cancerous. Never had she thought fate would be that cruel. She had looked into the room at Henry holding Mr. Brownie and reading the book to the stuffed bear in her absence and cursed Fate for being so cruel.

"Six…" Emma breathed blinking, unbelieving. "What…why do you still need me?"

"Uhmm…" Dr. Whale sighed, telling all of this to one distraught woman was one thing. Telling it to another was something new altogether. "We watched him for several months very closely. There were no signs of the tumor and he wasn't feeling ill. He was in what we call remission because two years later we found another tumor on a different portion of his liver. This one was a bit larger. We did another biopsy of course and then used chemo therapy to try and shrink it before we operated. We also took a bit of his liver out with the surgery as well. He was fine for a few months but when we tested the portion of the liver we had taken out we found cancerous cells in the tissue of the liver." Dr. Whale looked away nervously, playing with the folder on his desk for a moment, opening it and closing it. "I had been wrong. I diagnosed Henry with Hepatoblastoma when he actually had Hepatocellular carcinoma."

"What's the difference?" Emma asked, she could hardly even pronounce these words let alone wrap her mind around the fact that her kid HAD these cancers.

"Hepatocellular carcinoma is a rare disease but it's the most common primary cancer of the liver in children. It's when cancerous cells are found in the very tissue of a child's liver. It's usually found in children between the ages of one and fifteen. It usually presents itself around the child's twelfth birthday. So in theory we were lucky that we caught it so quickly. The only reason we did was because of the tumor pressing on Henry's stomach causing him a great deal of pain. But I had thought it to be hepatoblastoma because it only presented as a cancerous tumor. It is also more responsive to chemotherapy and surgery. Hepatocellular carcinoma is not. There wasn't anything to suggest that it went farther than the single tumor. At least not at that time. Not with the results we got back from the CBC, ultrasound, biopsy."

Regina still couldn't look at Connor or Ms. Swan. She was too busy grasping the arms of the chair until her knuckles turned white. She had been ready to murder the 'good doctor' when he told her that he had misdiagnosed her son. If they had known from the beginning that they were facing hepatocellular carcinoma they would have been looking for a donor sooner, doing more extensive chemotherapy—even though chemotherapy was not known to work well for this particular disease.

"So then how did you found out it was this Hepo-celular carcous-onoma…"

"Hepa-ta-cellular car-sin-oma." Regina annunciated for Ms. Swan.

"During one of one of Henry's check-ups we found that the tumors had spread to another part of his liver. Chemotherapy wasn't giving us the results we were hoping for. He cleared his throat, "After another surgery to remove the tumor on his liver it was decided that…"

Emma looked between Dr. Whale and Regina, "That…what? What?"

"There was nothing they could do. The cancer had metastasized, it had spread to his abdomen and they feared it would reach his lungs in a few weeks' time." Regina answered, her eyes distant. "They used the word…" Regina felt a blockage fill her throat that she forced away. "..the word."

"Terminal" Dr. Whale supplied, seeing Regina's hardship. "We tried to get Regina to accept that there was nothing else we could do…"

Emma turned to Regina and saw how tense she was, the muscle in her neck tight as the view bulged. "If-if he's…if there's nothing that can be done then…" why am I here?

"Oh no, he's in critical condition right now but there is hope."

Emma spun her head back to Dr. Whale. "How!" With all they were telling her, Henry had no chance in hell, but now he did? How? By what miracle?

"The chemo, extensive and a first attempt at a liver transplant. The tumors were removed and he was doing well with the transplant."

"But the cancerous cells had spread…" Emma whispered out of breathe as she leaned back in her seat. It was like riding a roller coaster with all these ups and downs.

"We used concentrated radiation with the chemotherapy and, honestly? It was a miracle it worked."

Then Emma realized something. "First attempt at a transplant."

Connor nodded his head sadly, "He rejected it. The immunosuppressant didn't work. After three weeks he was showing signs of rejection. He rejected the partial transplant just two and a half weeks ago. Without another transplant he'll die. He has half a liver, which would be enough for someone who wasn't as susceptible to infection as he is right now and the fact is he needs another liver all together. We plan to take the remaining part of his liver out completely and give him half of…well yours."

Emma shook, nodded, and rolled her head around unsure what to do or say to this. "The match for the first transplant, they couldn't do it again so you went looking for me and the kid's…"

"Henry!" Regina bit out, tired of Emma referring to Henry as 'kid'. He had a name! She would not allow Emma to distance herself from Henry by not saying his name. She would say his name and know it and accept that she was now his only hope. It was the only way to ensure she did not run away. She could not skirt this particular responsibility. Regina would not let her.

"…father." Emma figured that out without their assistance. If they had just done the transplant a month and a half ago the other person's liver wouldn't have regenerated enough to be viable to give a full half. Emma wondered why they simply didn't just take Henry's liver out to begin with if it was so malignant. "How'd you get into my records? How do you know if I'm a match?"

Dr. Whale seemed uncomfortable and was busy looking at his desk instead of Emma's eyes. Seeing he wasn't going to answer Emma turned to Regina. "Well…?"

"I had a…friend…hack into your medical files. I found that in your, stay in—"

"Yeah…" Emma bit out. She knew where she was 'staying' where she would have gotten medical records from.

"You'd been injured."

Emma shuddered, yes she'd been injured. She'd gotten a shiv to her chest. Thankfully nothing major had been nicked. It was also right before she was released and right before she'd had Henry. She had to be given suppressants to keep her from going into labor during the traumatic experience. Emma didn't like to think about her time behind bars. Especially when she knew that attach had been orchestrated from the outside. It was why she was always on the move.

"You got my records from then, wonderful. So you can get closed adoption files AND adolescent criminal records."

"Criminal?" Dr. Whale asked, shocked.

"Juvie, Doctor. Wrongly convicted."

Emma was surprised to find the Mayor defending her, in a way at least. 'Where were you when I was facing those charges?'

"Oh my apologies." He didn't seem very apologetic if Emma really thought about it. But at least now he wasn't looking at her breasts when he thought she wasn't looking.

"Yeah, that's why the files were sealed." That wasn't actually true. They were sealed because she served her time and was released. It was just a dig at the nosy Mayor. Who shouldn't have gone digging where she wasn't supposed to, to begin with!

"Point taken." Regina forfeited, for now. "Are there any other questions you would like answered?"

"Yeah, who was the person who gave up their liver the first time around? How are they doing? What exactly is going to happen after you take half my liver? What's the recovery time? Instructions and all that?"

"Why would you want to know who was the first donor?" Regina asked, looking sideways at Ms. Swan.

"Oh, I don't know because whoever it is gave up part of their organ to save m…your kid?" Emma replied, the 'duh' intoned.

"Those records are private. I'm sorry to say that I…"

"Oh please, if you won't tell me I'm sure if I go around asking someone around this town is going to give up the information. With the way everyone watches everyone else and gossips? The whole town has to know. So what's the harm in telling me in person now instead of me asking—"

"Her name is Ms. Blanchard." Regina gave, just to make her stop talking. "Mary Margaret Blanchard. She would be Henry's fourth grade school teacher if he attended the private school here in town."

"He's not going to school."

"No, obviously he cannot handle that, Ms. Swan. He has been home schooled for the last two years. It was…un-conducive to his recovery to be in school around sick children while his immune system was compromised."

"Right, right, so about that procedure and recover-hey wait a second…" Emma holds up her hand, "Mary Margaret? Short black hair, pale white skin? Kinda reserved and quiet?"

Regina's eyes widened, "Yes, how did you…?" Her brow furrowed.

"Met her this morning at Granny's Diner." Emma leaned back in her seat and stuck her hands into her jacket. "Small world."

"Small town," Dr. Whale supplied. The comment earned him a grin from Emma and a scowl from Regina.

"Quite…" Regina looked at Dr. Whale and noticed he was a bit nervous, more so than he had been a moment before. "I believe Ms. Swan asked about the procedure and the recovery time."

"Well there are still a few tests that we're going to have to run. I'm also going to have to ask you some questions, personal in nature, and once I've determined if it's best for everyone involved we'll schedule the surgery."

Regina glared. She didn't like the sound of 'best for everyone involved' and the way he stressed this fact.

"Great, so what kind of tests you gonna run doc? No time to be wasting, right?"

"No, no there isn't." Regina smiled at that, watching as Ms. Swan stood from her seat and waited for Dr. Whale to do the same. It comforted her to see how eager Ms. Swan suddenly was to get everything done that she needed to get done to help Henry. She stood up as well and followed the two out of the office.

"Regina, if you'd like you can go home and see Henry and then come back. These tests will most likely take up the rest of the afternoon."

Regina looked between Connor and Emma before nodding. She looked at her watch and saw it was nearly eleven. She promised Henry that she would be back for lunch today. She had been planning on bringing Connor along with her as well as Graham. Now, it seemed like she wouldn't need to bring the good doctor around. There might be hope left to cling to after all.

"Very well. Call my cell when you've finished. I will pick Ms. Swan up then."

"I can just call a cab or something." Emma offered, really not feeling like going anywhere in a car with Regina again.

"Nonsense. I will need to be here to review the results of the exams anyway so it will be no problem for me to drive you back to Granny's."

"Honestly Mayor I can just—"

Regina left no room for argument, "I will be back here after the exams and that is final Ms. Swan."

Emma pulled her hands up in surrender. "Alright, see you then. Tell the kid…"

"What, tell Henry what, Ms. Swan?"

Emma shrugged, shrinking away at the ferocity of the woman in front of her. "Nothing, never mind."

Regina nodded pleased with that answer. She would not tell Henry anything Ms. Swan had to say. Not yet. "Call me when she is finished."

Dr. Whale offered a smile and a curt nod, "Of course."

Looking Ms. Swan over once more Regina turned and left the two standing in the hallway. She had a standing lunch date with her son to get to.

Emma and Dr. Whale both watched Regina leave. Once she was around a corner and they could no longer see her Emma turned to the good doctor. "So, we doing this or not?"

"Yes, yes, follow me."

End Chapter Six

So, what'd you think?