Chapter Six
Pissed off was definitely the correct adjective to describe Emma's mood as she arrived back at the hospital.
Pissed off.
Exhausted.
Scared.
Frustrated.
She felt each emotion as itself and yet equally all at the same time. Locating Devereaux and throwing her behind bars hadn't resolved anything as she didn't have the antidote. All of this was just one disturbing game to the raven haired pirate. She hated the thought that they weren't any closer - that they were still at the mercy of this poison.
Exiting the elevator back onto the third floor corridor, the first face she saw was her father's and it was actually a bit of welcome relief. She had felt so guilty leaving Killian here alone, but her family – their family - had stepped in and for that, she was grateful. She felt such a huge burden lifted from her as David wrapped his arms around her and gave her a huge, reassuring hug before ever uttering a word.
"Dad, thank you for coming down here when I called. Sorry if my rambling didn't make much sense. How's Killian?"
"He's obviously still asleep, but I'm so glad you're okay. We've been hoping to hear from you all night."
"I know. I've been a bit preoccupied. Captain Devereaux Sinclair is now locked up in the holding cell but…"
"She didn't have the antidote," David completed her sentence. "I could tell by the look on your face."
"That obvious?" she whispered, feeling more than a bit defeated.
"Guess it's a good thing that Regina's working on the antidote then."
"Is she really? Devereaux was all too happy to inform me that the antidote requires a flower that doesn't grow here, so unless Regina has a private stash somewhere, how am I supposed to believe that she can make it?"
"Because Regina's been at the library all night trying to find a substitute," David told her. "We have to believe that there's one out there."
"You knew about the flower?" Emma scowled.
"We've known Regina for a very long time. Your mother and I would have known if she were trying to keep something from us. She just didn't want to burden you with it because she knew you already had enough to worry about."
Emma sighed and shook her head as she took a step toward Killian's room, but David moved swiftly to block her way, not allowing her to go any further without a warning.
"Emma, before you go in there, we need to talk."
"About what? It's been a long night and my husband needs me to be there for him."
"Yes, he does, but he doesn't need all of this anger right now."
"Anger? I'm not angry, I'm pissed! Pissed at Devereaux Sinclair for ruining a perfectly good day. Pissed at Regina for not telling me the complete truth AGAIN and most importantly – pissed at myself for not being there when he needed me because I was too busy trying to figure out what this thing was!" She pulled the bronze compact that had caused so much difficulty out of her pocket and handed it to David.
"Did you at least establish what it was?" he wondered.
"According to Regina, it's a looking glass. From what I've figured out on my own, it works kind of like a combination of a crystal ball and a mood ring. It showed me images that led me to Killian after Devereaux attacked him and finally to Devereaux herself. I don't really know what makes it work."
David studied the intricate compact for a second then passed it back to Emma. "Think it might be able to lead you to the thimble flower substitute?"
"I suppose it couldn't hurt to try," Emma said, taking back the compact and tapping the release button with her fingernail to open it. She stared down at the reflection of her own bloodshot eyes, but nothing was changing. Maybe she just didn't know what emotion she was supposed to focus on for a flower. "It's not showing me anything, but it draws on emotion, so maybe because it's a thing, not a person, it won't work…"
"Or perhaps you just have too many emotions going on right now," David suggested. "You just need to set all of that aside before you go in there. He needs your strength right now, not all this negativity."
She looked up at David with a sudden trepidation as she snapped the halves of the compact closed. There was something in her father's tone that implied he was avoiding a big part of the story. What had changed in the past few hours?
"What exactly aren't you telling me?" she wondered. "Please tell me that Killian is alright…"
David scrunched his face as he tried to determine the best way to deliver the news. "We had a scare earlier tonight, but for the moment, he's hanging on."
"Hanging on? What kind of scare? What happened?" She wanted to push past him, but David grabbed onto her upper arms and held her back. "Dammit, what don't you want me to know?"
"Emma, just listen – his fever got a bit too high and he started having seizures. Both of the fever and the seizures are under control again, but he was having difficulty breathing, so Whale connected him to a machine that's helping him breathe…"
He couldn't get out the rest of his sentence before his daughter muscled her way out of his grasp and scurried around him, only to freeze as she passed through the doorway and got her first real glimpse of Killian since Whale had sedated him hours earlier. Her knees buckled and she suddenly began to feel faint, but David was right behind her to guide her over to the chair where she collapsed. She hadn't been prepared to see such a drastic change in such a short time - startled by the shocking tidal wave of emotion.
"That's why I wanted to warn you," David said, trying hard to be as reassuring and gentle as possible without sounding condescending.
"Regina said this was a slow moving poison. I didn't think he'd go downhill this quickly," she sighed, summoning the strength to move from the chair to Killian's bedside. She stood over him for a moment, then gently reached out to caress his cheek without disturbing any of the multitude of tubes that were helping to keep him alive. With her right hand, she took ahold of his, drawing his fingers to her own cheekbone. She wanted so much to feel his fingers tighten around hers, but he was so deeply comatose that there would be no response. As she took a seat on the edge of the bed beside the railing, David started to take a step back. "Don't go," she said, stopping him. "I could use the moral support right now."
"I thought you'd want some time alone."
"Not yet," she replied, her voice trembling. "I can't go through this again…"
"And we're not going to," he stated. "Killian's strong and he's got something to hold on to – you. He's fighting it and I know he's going to hang on until Regina gets here with the antidote."
"I sure hope she hurries up," she said, her eyes welling with tears. Her focus kept being pulled back to his face – his typically sparkling sapphire eyes now so tightly closed; his lips being held open by the clear plastic tubing that allowed him to breathe. While still certainly not the worst she'd ever seen him, it was disturbing in its own way. "He doesn't even look like my Killian right now. He looks so…fragile."
"I'm not sure I'd ever use the word fragile to describe Killian Jones. More like determined, persistent and a royal pain in the ass, but certainly, not fragile."
He succeeded in getting her to crack a smile, even if it was only a brief one.
"After all this time, you two still think the same way about each other," she smiled through the tears, but the smile faded as she thought about one sure way to help Killian. "I guess what hurts the most is that I'm sitting here with the knowledge that with one kiss, I could take away all of his pain – free him from the poison and take it on myself. Maybe my savior magic would make me better able to fight the toxin."
"But you can't do it," David stated, knowing exactly why she couldn't even before she said it.
"He'd never forgive me if I did. It would be completely against his wishes, but I just know that if he takes another turn for the worse, I'll do whatever I have to do to buy us more time." David knew exactly what she meant, but remained silent. He also know full well that were he in the same situation, he'd do the same thing.
"Regina, I think I found something!" Belle exclaimed excitedly. After such a very long night of pouring through page after page of botany text and illustrations, she felt she had finally made a breakthrough – a huge breakthrough.
Regina rubbed her bleary eyes as she glanced over at the brittle vellum pages opened in front of Belle.
"I hope you've got something. I'm starting to see double," Regina complained.
"Look at this," Belle said as she pushed the small journal across the table to Regina. "This is the alchemist's journal that I was telling you about earlier. I just found this passage where he writes about visiting a 'land without magic'."
"You have my attention," Regina stated, pushing aside the other volumes before her to focus on the journal. "A land like this one was when we got here?"
Belle nodded, then continued.
"In this entry, he describes collecting a flower he compares to the thimble flower:
'I happened across a lovely little find while exploring the woods by the river – a beautiful, delicate stem of little bells that made me draw comparisons to our land's own thimble flower. The tiny blossoms reminded me of those cup shaped white blooms and based on my experimentation, appear to have similar characteristics to those of the thimble flower, although perhaps a tad more toxic. I've found I've needed far less of the flower to obtain similar results with my potions.'."
Belle stopped reading at the end of that paragraph.
"Does this mystery flower have a name?" Regina asked.
"Not here, but there is a sketch." Belle turned the page to display a charcoal drawing of the plant they sought. "I've seen these before," she stated, pointing to the image.
Regina stared at the drawing for a moment, then had an epiphany.
"So have I," she realized, reaching down to retrieve a book from the floor. She flipped frantically through the pages until she found what she was looking for – a photograph of a floral stem with multiple white blossoms that looked like tiny bells. "This…"
Regina tapped on the photograph as they both read aloud the flower's name.
"Muguet des bois," Belle read the French translation of the name.
"Lily of the valley," Regina echoed as she read the name in English.
"I've seen them growing out in the woods, but only in the spring," Belle said.
"Kind of a problem when its October," Regina sighed, feeling a bit discouraged by this new development. She knew what she needed, but there was no way the pirate would survive until springtime.
Then Belle had a marvelous thought - seeds!
"Seeds!" Belle gushed. "I remember seeing seed packets for these in my father's flower shop. Would seeds work if we can find them?"
Regina thought about the possibility for a moment. "They might," she said. "While I can't just magically conjure up a thimble flower, using magic to speed up the natural growth process of a plant could work. It would still give us the same end product – a natural, living plant."
"The shop won't be open for a few more hours though."
"Since when do I need for a shop to be open?" With a wave of her hand and a swirl of purple smoke, Regina brought herself and Belle to the floral shop. Outside, the first traces of morning were beginning to appear over the horizon, but it was still quite dark in the shop. Knowing that at least twelve hours had already passed, Regina wasn't about to play by the established rules.
"Clearly we're doing things your way," Belle said as she searched for the light switch.
"My way's quicker," Regina made her point as Belle located the switch and flipped on the lights. "Now, do you remember where you saw those seeds?"
"Over here," Belle replied, pointing off to their left where there was a small display of house plants and a round metal rack of seed packages. She wasted no time searching through the variety of seed packets while Regina watched impatiently. "Here! We've got one!"
She handed the package of lily of the valley seeds to Regina.
"We need something to plant them in," Regina said, pulling a potted house plant from a nearby shelf. She yanked the existing greenery out of the soil, then tore open the seed packet and sprinkled every seed into the pot. Covering them with a thin layer of potting soil, she then held her hand hovering above the pot until the soil began to glow a bright sunny yellow hue.
Regina smiled as a tiny sprout pushed its way through the dirt then grew upward in a deep forest green spike. When at last it reached its desired height, the pointed emerald outer leaves unfurled to reveal the dainty sprig of bells hidden beneath.
"It's beautiful," Belle exclaimed.
Regina plucked the stem of blossoms from amongst the leaves, twirling it between her fingertips.
"And it does look remarkably like a thimble flower. Now, let's hope that alchemist was correct because I've got an antidote to brew. Thank you for all of your help tonight. I don't know if I would have found that journal on my own."
"You're welcome. I just hope it will help whomever needs it."
"So do I," Regina said under her breath, "or there's going to be hell to pay…" She had said it before, but it bore repeating.
Mentally unable to sleep and way too wound up with nervous energy to sit still, Emma found herself pacing absentmindedly at the foot of the hospital bed. Pausing only a moment to notice that the sun had risen, she glanced up at the clock on the wall which confirmed it was a little after seven AM.
She thought about how much had changed in just a little over twelve hours, but right now all she could focus on was that it was just too quiet. David had wandered off to find them both some coffee and now she was alone to contend with the seemingly too silent room - only in reality, it wasn't that quiet at all. She could hear every beep, every click, every hiss from the plethora of machines and monitors and as soon as she realized she was hearing them all at once again, she immediately resumed her pacing. The sound of her own footsteps became calming as they drowned out all of the unnatural noises that served as a constant reminder of where they were. She barely spoke to the nurses who were wandering in and out keeping a close watch on his vital signs as his temperature inched up a bit - though not yet back into the dangerous zone. It just felt like much more than a few hours had passed since she'd arrived back to the hospital.
"You know you're going to wear a hole through the floor," David stated, handing her a Styrofoam cup filled with what appeared to be coffee, although it didn't exactly have the right aroma. "It smells a bit like a swamp, but it packs a punch."
"Thanks," she replied, wrapping her hands around the cup and finally settling back down into the chair. "Do you think he knows we're here? He looks peaceful enough, but I just wonder what's going on inside his head."
"Having been through a sleeping curse, I know I experienced some really weird, vivid dreams, but I don't know if these drugs that Whale gave him would have that same effect."
"You remember what you dreamt while you were under the sleeping curse?"
"Some…well, most. It was a pretty intense experience. Considering what Killian has already been through, I really hope he's not experiencing any of what I did."
"I just want this to be over. I want to bring him home and get on with our lives – at least until the next inevitable crisis strikes this town. Is it really too much to ask?"
"No, it isn't," David replied, resting a comforting hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Why don't I go see if I can find us some breakfast? I think we could both use to eat something."
"I'm not really hungry, but thanks anyway."
"You can't survive on just coffee – or whatever that stuff is."
"Thank you for being the overprotective dad, but really, I'm fine," she smiled, right before their father-daughter moment was interrupted by a voice in the hallway. It was Regina who was clearly upset that she wasn't being allowed to get any closer to Killian's room since she wasn't immediate family.
"I'll take care of this," David said, stepping out into the corridor. "Its alright," he said to the nurse. "We've actually been expecting her." The nurse then quickly apologized and returned to her desk.
"Thank you," Regina said. "It's been a really long night. My temper's a little short."
"It's been a long night for all of us," David reminded her.
"Agreed," Emma spoke up, having made her way into the doorway, her ire focused directly at Regina. "A long night I spent hunting down a pirate who didn't have the antidote but who happily revealed a little bit of information that you omitted earlier – the fact that the flower needed to make the antidote doesn't grow in Storybrooke. Why did you lie to me about being able to make the antidote when you knew about that damned flower?"
Regina sighed while thinking of a response, trying to avoid looking directly at Emma.
"I didn't completely lie. I could make the antidote. I just needed to find a replacement flower – one that I spent all night flipping through dusty, musty books to find. And I found it…" She proudly held up a tiny glass vial containing a fine, pale blue powder.
"You found a substitute for the thimble flower? There really is one?" David asked.
"Actually, it was Belle who found it – a lily of the valley. But there's only one way to find out if it will work…," Regina used the vial to gesture toward the room where Killian lay.
"What the hell are we waiting for then?" Emma asked, stepping aside so that Regina could enter the room, but no sooner had Regina looked inside, she knew they had a problem. She paused in front of the glass wall for a second, unsure of how exactly to proceed. She hadn't expected that Killian would have a machine helping him breathe so soon. Devereaux Sinclair must have come across a particularly potent batch of widowsbane.
"We've got a small problem," Regina began, "or maybe a big problem depending on how you look at it…"
"What kind of problem?" David wondered.
Regina turned to meet David eye to eye, almost afraid to face Emma with what she was about to say.
"The antidote has to be administered in the same manner that the poison was – meaning he has to inhale it."
"What?" Emma couldn't believe what she was hearing. After all of this, they were still hitting a proverbial brick wall?
Regina shook her head. "I had no way of knowing that it would affect his breathing so quickly," she said. "I certainly didn't expect to come back after a few hours to find him breathing through a plastic tube."
"Inhaling the powder is the only way to give him the antidote?" Emma queried, not sure if she could take any more bad news today.
"Unfortunately, yes," Regina stated. "If he's not able to breathe on his own, we definitely have a problem."
"Okay," David spoke up, hoping to defuse the tension. "I think we need to get a professional opinion here. Whale said last night that they brought in the machine because Killian was having trouble breathing – not that he'd stopped breathing altogether. Let's get Whale down here and find out if he thinks there's a chance he could still breathe on his own – at least long enough to inhale that stuff."
"Go have him paged," Emma agreed. "We'll see what he has to say and if it isn't promising, I'm going to go to Plan B."
David knew precisely what she meant but chose not to comment as he made his way over to the nurses' station. There would be no arguing with her if it came down to Plan B.
"You have a Plan B?" Regina wondered.
"Yes," Emma stated. "I'll do what I have to do." Regina then realized where she was going with this.
"You're not planning to kiss him and poison yourself, are you?"
"I said I'll do whatever I have to do and I meant that. I'm not letting him die again, not like this."
"Are you out of your mind again? You have no idea how this poison would affect you."
"At least if I take on the poison, I can still breathe to inhale the antidote."
"It doesn't work like that. For all you know, you could end up not being able to breathe at all. Not to mention that you'd be receiving the poison in a different manner than he did. That would change how the antidote functions."
"So I'm supposed to do nothing? I'm sorry, Regina, I can't stand here and not try."
"It's too big a risk."
"So then Killian's expendable, is that what you mean?"
"That's not what I said and that's not what I meant…"
"Ladies!" David intervened before their argument got any more heated. "Dr. Whale is on his way. Why don't we all go take a walk so that everyone can calm down? We're all tired and stressed out but no one's doing anybody any good by shouting at each other!"
"I believe I heard my name mentioned," Whale said as he rounded the corner. "I could hear you halfway down the hallway. Now, is there a reason for all of this racket?"
"I've got the antidote for the poison, but we don't have a way to administer it at the moment," Regina explained.
"So you were able to make the antidote?" Whale asked.
"Yes, but as long as that machine is breathing for him, we have a problem. There's no way for him to inhale the powder," Regina stated.
"Is Killian able to breathe on his own at all?" Emma asked.
"Possibly," Whale replied, momentarily raising her hopes, "but there's no guarantee that he'd be able to take a deep enough breath to inhale anything heavier than air."
"Can we at least try?" Emma pleaded.
"You're his wife. With your consent, I can try removing the breathing tube. I'm not making any promises and I'm letting you know right now that if anything goes awry, my patient's welfare comes first."
"I wouldn't expect anything less," Emma stated.
"Then if all of you could wait out here for a few minutes so I can run some tests, we'll soon have our answer as to whether this is going to work." Whale then motioned for one of the nurses at the desk to join him as he walked into Killian's room and once again drew the privacy curtain.