Author's Note: Thanks so much for the reviews of the first chapter. I really appreciate the feedback so keep it coming :D Thanks and happy reading!
Chapter 2:
Regina couldn't help but check on Henry every chance she got. Every time she came up with an excuse, "checking on his food", "making sure he had enough blankets", "checking the heart rate monitor and blood pressure", and just "checking in that all was well". Subtlety had never been a forte of hers.
It seems Dr. Nolan had the same idea as she did. They continued to bump into one another as they came and went from the room. Each time they exchange quizzical looks but neither said anything.
When Regina finally got a valid reason to go see the cute blonde mother, she practically had to fight Nolan to be the one to update the patient. She pulled the seniority card without any regret. And now Regina returns to Henry's room. The small boy is fast asleep in his bed. Emma is sitting in the hospital chair that she has since moved closer to Henry's bedside.
"Hello again Miss Swan."
Emma's head snaps around at the sound of Regina's voice.
"The urinalysis and blood tests revealed that Henry had what's called alkalosis, it just means his pH levels were higher than they should be. It's completely treatable and we caught it at the right time. We're given him some supplements to bring it back to normal." Regina makes some notes on Henry's chart. She looks up before she questions, "Were you giving him antacids?"
"Yeah. He was having heartburn. The label said it was fine, I read the whole bottle and did exactly as it said." the poor mother was still a nervous wreck. Regina had to sympathies, she knew that as a parent you could do everything right and still things could go drastically wrong. "I would never hurt him," she added frantically.
"I know dear, you did what any responsible mother would do. He should be just fine once the medication we have him on runs through his system. We're just going to do a potassium test to rule out low potassium, or hypokalemia and we're going to run a test for adrenal disease as a precaution. They should both come back negative and then we'll be able to send him home, fit as a fiddle."
"Okay." Emma let out a deep breath. She ruffles her son's hair with a smile growing faintly on her lips.
Regina smiles at the pair. They're adorable. A part of her wants this so bad, but she knows that it's too far out of reach for her. Maleficent's stance on that matter isn't going to budge. And it would be hard to have a kid when your girlfriend is so adamantly against it. Maybe that just isn't in the cards for her.
"I'll be back later with those results." Mills nods her head as she leaves her patient's room. Just before she finally pass through the doorway, the blonde almost yells, "Thank you doctor Mills."
Turning back Regina's eyes meet with the mother's. She bits her lip to keep from saying something she might regret and instead says, "All in a day's work Miss Swan." She closes the sliding door behind her. She leans against it and sighs.
She hears the sound of Maleficent's heels headed towards her. Regina quickly picks herself up of the wall and straightens out her lab coat. She heads over to the nurses station across from her and pretends to be checking the chart she's holding. Regina immediately picks herself up off the wall and fixes her lab coat.
She can feel the cold presence of Maleficent beside her. The gap between them is too large for them to be a couple. A stranger walking by could easily mistake them for strangers. They're both filling out charts; Maleficent is crawling across them with ease while Regina is tense. She looks up every so often to see if Maleficent might notice her, but she never does.
Another doctor appears on the other side of Regina. He's got a warm grin and messy blonde hair. The gap between him and Regina is much more familiar. He gives her a friendly nudge and just above a whisper he says, "Good morning Mills."
At this Maleficent seems to finally notice Regina. Her writing hand tenses and her head snaps towards the pair. The glare she aims at Regina is flaming. Regina nervously scoots away from the man beside her. Maleficent just shakes her head and walks away with a huff.
Regina watches her as she walks away. She has no idea how she'll ever fix this and with the way Maleficent is acting she's wondering if she even wants to.
The doctor beside her taps the desk to bring her focus back to reality. He's looking at her with a questioning look.
"I take it she didn't take news well." He says. Regina just glares at him in response. He shakes his head smiling as he puts away his chart and grabs a new one.
"Regina you know you don't need to stay with her if she's treating-" Before he can finish his statement Regina cuts him off.
"Dr. Locksley, what part of keep your distance did you not understand?" Her question is abrupt. She faces him, her faces leaving him with enough fears to not be able to answer properly.
"I just thought ... that ... maybe... I..." He trails off.
"Well you thought wrong." She turns on her head and angrily walks away.
This run-in with Robin delays Regina from visiting Emma for a while. She fears that she may see him again if she gets closer to the room. So she stays far, far away. Robin used to be a comforting figure in her life, but now he's no more than an added stress that must be avoided.
Somehow her issue with Robin doesn't stop her from seeing the blonde again. Maybe something greater than them is pulling the two of them together. Or maybe Emma was missing seeing Regina so she tried to find her. Either way she now stood at the vending machine directly in front of her son's doctor.
Regina hadn't even looked up from Henry's file which she held in her hand. She was nervously checking to make sure that Henry was alright when she walked right into the woman she couldn't stop thinking about. Emma stood at the vending machine, she spin around sharply at the contact with Regina.
"Oh. Hey." Emma's voice is full of relief upon seeing Regina, "I thought you'd left or something... we just haven't seen you in a while." She nervously rubs her hand on the back of her neck.
Regina puts on a kind doctor smile, "I do have other patients you know."
"Right, yeah, of course..." Emma's voice trails off. She reaches down to grab the Cheetos from the opening at the bottom of the vending machine. There is a silent pause and Emma resorts back to rubbing her neck nervously "So how'd Henry's tests go?" She looks at the papers in Regina's hands, "Are those his results?"
"Yes, they are in fact." Regina is momentarily distracted by the blonde's biceps that are artfully exposed by her tank top.
Emma waits a moment for her to continue. When she realizes that Regina's mind is elsewhere -oblivious of course to exactly where that is- she asks, "What do they say?"
Regina flusters with the file for a brief moment. She then composes herself and answers, "All the tests appear to be in order. He was negative for low potassium, hypokalemia and adrenal disease. We should be able to get you both out of her by this afternoon."
Emma lets out a deep relaxing breath. An enormous weight has been lifted off her shoulders. She's so happy that she extends her arms and gives Regina a hug. Regina tenses slightly at the contact and attempts to place her hands on the blonde's back to return the hug. Emma can smell Regina's green apple shampoo, it's so entrancing that she forgets to end the hug quickly. It's Regina who breaks the hug when she hears the familiar sound of clicking heels headed in their direction. She attempts to regain her composure and force out, "You should go tell Henry the good news."
"Right, yeah." Emma's cheeks turn a light shade of pink. She begins walking back to Henry's room. Before she gets two steps away she turns back to face Regina, "Thanks again, Dr. Mills."
Regina is painfully aware that Maleficent is standing behind her and watching her every move. She avoids eye contact with Emma and curtly nods in acknowledgement.
"Well she's cute why don't you sleep with her too?" Maleficent's anger is palpable even with her back turned.
"Mal..." Regina calls after her, a part of her is scared to face Maleficent but she knows they need to talk.
"What Regina? Are you going to give me some excuse? About how I was cold and distant so you needed comfort?" Maleficent's eyebrows were raised and her eyes were burning holes into Regina's. They were finally getting it all out on the table and it didn't matter that they were drawing a small audience, luckily Regina notices Emma isn't part of it.
"Was I supposed to ignore that you slept with De vil?" Regina takes a step towards Maleficent who stumbles backwards at the aggressiveness of her words. Maleficent mutters "what... how did you-", but Regina doesn't give her the opportunity to speak. "Do you think I'm oblivious? The first time I just ignored it but after it kept happening I couldn't stop thinking about it. And then you spent the weekend with her for an out of town conference... At least I was honest with you, and it was once, and cut short because I was scared to hurt you like you hurt me." Maleficent is left gaping at Regina.
"I don't know what to..." Maleficent trails off. She's used to the upper hand but with her secret out on the table there's nothing she can do, no way to defend herself.
"Maleficent let's face the truth, we were never going to last. We were over the moment I told you I wanted kids and you fled to De vil." She knew it didn't excuse what she had done, the truth was both of them had wronged the other, and Regina knew that.
"We could work on it"
"We aren't going to change. Mal we're different people, we want different things ... And maybe we... well maybe there shouldn't be a we anymore." Tears were starting to form in Regina's eyes, she couldn't help it even if she was controlling the situation. This break up was hurting her too, even if she knew it was what's best.
The statement is like a slap in the face for Maleficent. Even though they both knew it was coming long ago, having it happen for real was completely different. Maleficent mutters an I suppose you're right and she walks off with her eyes focused on the ground. Their relationship had been toxic from the beginning, but it had always been easier to stay together and be miserable than to try and find someone else. They were both lonely people who had a knack for treating other people horribly, they had thought that made them the perfect match. Perhaps what they truly needed was not someone like them, but someone completely opposite.
Regina decides to return the file in hand since she's already informed the patient's mother. She keeps a low profile, not wanting to encourage any of the hospital gossip. On her walk back to the nurse's station she crosses paths with Robin again. He nods towards her but kindly doesn't say a word. She knows this is what she asked of him, but she feels so lonely.
She's just lost her girlfriend and she missed her best friend. The guy she could talk to about anything. He was the only one who understood her. She wanted to cry on his shoulder about her break up. She wanted to hear him make some joke about how she could ease the pain with her new patient's mother. Instead of that much needed evening with him, when her shift ended she headed down to the bar to ease the pain of her loneliness.
The bar was filled with the usual crowd. Doctor off call playing darts. Nurses sitting in booths. She saw Nolan sitting with the other pediatric residence and debated joining them. She knew of course that she shouldn't and that they probably wouldn't want her there, most all of them hated her except Nolan. And she didn't want them to see her like this. She decided to take a seat at the bar.
The warm feeling of alcohol was exactly what Regina had needed. She looked up at the clock it read 12:00. She wondered if this was a safe time to go home. Maleficent might still be there. Regina decided that she could face Maleficent like an adult. Besides it was her condo to begin with and she wasn't just going to sleep at some hotel instead.
It turned out she wouldn't run into Maleficent that night. When she entered her condo she noticed a note. Maleficent had scrawled, I'll be staying at Cruella's indefinitely.
Regina crumpled up the note and slammed her fist against the counter, finally letting out her tears. She went to her liquor cabinet to find that extra bit of alcohol warmth to forget that she would once again be alone indefinitely.