A/N: Wow, I was not expecting such a positive response to that last chapter! I'm glad everyone's enjoying this. This chapter is a little less triumphant, but should answer some questions.
"Mom?" Regina almost didn't hear Henry at first. She stood frozen in place, staring at the front doors of the hospital until her eyes began to blur. "Mom?" Henry tried again, slipping his hand into hers. "Don't cry. We've gotta go see Emma."
Regina blinked a few times, managing to fight back the tears. She was not going to show weakness, not here. She squeezed Henry's hand and marched him inside, keeping her head as high as it had been when Whale and the mob had brought her here. She forced herself to look straight ahead, not wanting to catch a glimpse of the doctor out of the corner of her eye, but thankfully he was nowhere in sight.
She didn't have to deal with him or anyone until she turned the corner towards Emma's room and nearly crashed into Charming.
He smiled at Henry, and Regina reminded herself to breathe. If things were bad, he couldn't be smiling, could he? "She's just fine. Go in and see her," he said, and Henry pulled his hand free of Regina's and bounded forwards towards the room.
Regina didn't move. There was no chance that invitation extended to her as well. "What happened?" she asked anyway, her anxiety revealing itself in her voice.
Charming sat down in one of the chairs lining the hall and motioned for her to do the same. "I guess Emma went into the station to take a look at the damage or something, and the fire flared up again. They're saying there must have been some embers that the firefighters missed." Charming smiled reassuringly, and Regina let herself give him a meek smile back. "Emma's perfectly all right. They only brought her here to check for smoke inhalation."
Regina nodded. "Ruby sounded pretty panicked when she called."
"She must have seen when they brought Sidney out."
Regina stiffened at the name. "Sidney?" she asked. Just the idea of him being near Emma sickened her.
"He caught the worst of it," Charming explained. "Really terrible burns. The paramedics said he'll be permanently disfigured."
Regina twisted her fingers together in her lap, not sure how to react. She was caught between fear and relief, the emotions overwhelming. "I need to see Emma," she said, glancing down the hall. "Please."
"I hope you'll come home with us," Mary Margaret said from the chair beside Emma's bed. "I'm sure Regina can take care of herself at this point."
Emma stopped picking at her hospital bracelet – she didn't know why anyone seemed to think it was necessary for her to be in a bed or a hospital gown to begin with – and just stared at her mother for a moment. "It doesn't matter if she can," Emma said. "She shouldn't have to be alone after all she's been through."
"Emma, she's a grown woman."
"Do you have any idea what's happened to her?" Emma practically screeched.
Mary Margaret hesitated for a moment, and that was all Emma needed to see. "I've heard rumors," the brunette said faintly.
"No." Emma lowered her voice, calmer now. "You know because you were there. You were part of it."
Mary Margaret looked stunned, putting on a doe-eyed expression that reminded Emma of how she'd looked a month before when framed for murder. But that look had been real, and this one was different. "I never laid a hand on her."
"You knew where she was and you left her there." Emma shook her head in disbelief. She'd wanted to believe David was the culprit. That Mary Margaret was still her friend, her mother, whatever. "You left her there."
Before Mary Margaret could respond, Henry interrupted them. Emma's mother engaged him with lots of questions, keeping the conversation going in apparent desperation to get Emma to drop the issue. Emma just sat there and seethed. Fed up, she finally got out of bed and pulled her jeans on under the hospital gown and her jacket over it. When she glanced up at the doorway, she was surprised to see Regina standing there.
"You shouldn't be here," she insisted, concern rising to her face. She couldn't even imagine what it must be like for Regina to come back here, to the place where she'd endured so much. It wasn't worth it, especially not when Emma had no good reason to be there herself.
"No, you shouldn't," Mary Margaret chimed in. "Only immediate family is allowed to visit."
Emma choked down her anger, not even deigning to look at Mary Margaret. "You know that's not what I meant," she said, her eyes on Regina's.
Regina nodded. "I know. I figure I owe you after all those hours you spent with me in the hospital."
Emma just stepped forward to meet Regina as the mayor stepped into the room, taking her hand and squeezing it. She didn't want to get into it all here, not in front of Mary Margaret and Henry, but she hoped that her eyes and her touch conveyed everything. That Regina didn't owe her at all, that those days in the hospital had actually been some of the best of Emma's life. "Let's get out of here" was all she said aloud.
"Henry, why don't you go check on Grandpa?" Mary Margaret suggested, and Emma braced herself for whatever would come now that the buffer was gone. "I can't allow you to go home with her," she said, turning back towards the other two women.
"You can't allow me?" Emma rolled her eyes. "You have no say whatsoever in what I do."
"I don't like what this is doing to you. What she is doing to you."
Regina surprised everyone by remaining quiet, so Emma spoke instead. "She hasn't done anything to me."
"Oh, besides keeping you away from your family?" Mary Margaret crossed her arms, taking a few steps closer. "Not to mention the fact that you've been using magic, and now… whatever this is." She tugged Emma's hand free of Regina's.
"You can use magic?" Regina asked softly, ignoring the woman in front of them and turning entirely towards Emma.
"I guess," Emma said reluctantly. She was still reeling from the fact that she'd lit a man on fire, that she'd so nearly killed him. She didn't feel guilty; that was the worst part. Given the chance, she knew she'd do it again. "Let's go home, Regina."
Regina was glad enough to agree, and they gathered Henry and made their way towards the entrance. And then Regina stopped short, Emma running into her and grabbing her by the hips to keep them both upright.
"Oh god," Emma whispered, watching as Doctor Whale crossed in front of them. He didn't speak a word to them, but his eyes lingered on Regina much too long. "I'm going to kill him," she growled, wanting to punch him in the face like she hadn't the day before. But Regina was trembling, so she stayed by her side.
"Just… home." Regina's voice was suddenly hoarse, strained. Emma kept an arm firmly around her waist and ushered both Regina and Henry to the car at a brisk pace. As soon as Regina had her passenger side door closed and locked, she crumbled, sobbing as hard as Emma had ever seen.
"Mom?" Henry asked from the back seat.
"Kid," Emma warned, starting up Regina's car and heading home.
The blindfold came off and Regina blinked a few times, her eyes finally focusing on Whale's face. He yanked down the gag, immediately replacing it with his own lips on hers. The alcohol on his breath was stronger now than it had been the last time he'd come to her.
She managed to wrench away from the kiss. "What do you want?" she asked, uncomfortably close to pleading. "What do I have to do before you'll let me go?"
"You're not going anywhere," he insisted. "Sooner or later, someone is going to kill you. I'm just trying to get the most of these last few hours having you alive."
"Just kill me now," Regina said, surprised at the words coming out of her mouth. Every inch of her hurt. This was the fourth time Whale had come down to see her, and she couldn't take it again. Not the pain and not the indignity. "Why give someone else the satisfaction?"
Whale just leered at her. "Because you haven't given me everything I want, Regina." He grabbed her by the chin to keep her from looking away. "I'm tired of you pretending like you don't care, like you don't even feel what I'm doing to you. I want you to beg me to stop. I want you to scream from the pain."
Regina had done her best to detach when he'd visited before. She was good at it after so many years of marriage, after so many nights in bed with a man she couldn't love. She took in a deep breath, sending a shooting pain through her broken ribs. "Please, Victor." She let go, let the weariness and defeat sound in her voice. "Please. Don't do this again."
She whimpered, actually whimpered, when he forced her down to the ground, the shift in position making everything ache. "Good girl," he purred as he stood up to undress.