The room that Regina was wheeled into wasn't large enough for the doctor and Emma to be comfortable so, at his request, Emma waited outside to give him the space that he needed to stitch Regina's head back up and watched quietly as the brunette was wheeled into x-ray some time later to check the leg that had been causing her to wince every time she moved it.
Emma was leaning against the vending machine, hoping that staring at chocolate would somehow take her mind off the sick feeling of guilt in her gut, when a hand tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around to see Lily, holding out a coffee. She took it wearily. Despite what Lily had said when the ambulance had arrived, Emma hadn't really expected her to follow through and come to the hospital with them. She'd expected her to be halfway back to Storybrooke by now, not that she had worried too much about that, her mind focused solely on the injured brunette being wheeled about by doctors. So it took her a moment to get the question out, "What are you doing here?"
"I don't know." Lily shrugged.
"What do you mean you don't know?" Emma pushed.
"I'm sorry, Emma." Lily muttered as she took a seat in the chairs in the waiting area.
"What for? Going on a crazy murderous rampage towards my parents or driving like a maniac, making me chase you and nearly fucking kill my…. my-"
"Your what?
Emma glared at her as she sat down next to her.
"I'm sorry for all of it." Lily sighed. "When you crashed and I thought you might be hurt I realised that I'd done it again. Even when I decide to just give into the darkness, it goes wrong in ways I can't anticipate, the wrong people always end up getting hurt."
"There's no right way to hurt anyone." Emma reprimanded.
"Sure." Lily scoffed. "The point is I never wanted to hurt you. Or your… friend. How is she?"
"She's okay. Stitched up. She's in x-ray now. Anyway, that's as much my fault as yours. She told me to slow down, but I didn't listen." Her voice caught on the last word.
Lily nodded but said nothing, awkwardly deciding to look at her toes instead.
"So you're not going to run off on me again and try to kill my parents?" Emma asked.
"I guess not." She mumbled, quietly. "It'll only backfire on me somehow. I want to come back with you though, I want to learn more about where I came from, and if you refuse I promise I'll find my way into your 'magic' town eventually… Somehow." Lily trailed off, before snapping, "Don't think I won't give your parents a piece of my mind while I'm there, they should know what they've done, understand the consequences."
"I agree with that at least."
"I'm sorry for more than just this, you know." Lily mumbled.
Emma stared straight ahead, reluctant to let old memories resurface.
"I'm sorry for screwing up your happiness. I'm sorry for always screwing up everything, for not just being there for you in the way that you needed me to be. I did love you. You should know that. I just didn't know how to show it."
Emma wiped a stray tear from her cheek. "I loved you, too. You were the first person I ever loved."
"And I hurt you." Lily stated, grimly.
"Yes. But we both know the truth now. We both know that this darkness isn't all you. So, I'm over it. I'm not going to hold any of it over your head anymore. Since I found out…. About the darkness in you, coming from me… I've realised that I'm over it. Yes, it hurt, but you're whole life has been governed by this evil thing that didn't belong to you in the first place. How can I hold you accountable anymore? I want to help you, Lily. I want to take you back with us, with you on our side. Introduce you to your mom."
"My mom…" Lily sighed, looking down at her hands in her lap.
Emma placed a hand over hers and nodded knowingly, "I get it. You know better than anyone that I know how complicated stuff like this is."
"Does she even want to meet me?" Lily asked, her eyes suddenly wide, teary and vulnerable. A far cry from a dragon, Emma thought.
"So much. She's the reason we're here. She called and asked us to find you. She's not able to leave the town, otherwise, trust me, she would have found you years ago." Emma reassured her.
"Why can't she leave?"
"That's…" Emma sighed, she didn't want to put Regina in Lily's bad books just yet if she could help it, "a long story that I'm sure she'll be happy to tell you herself."
"Right."
"There's something else, too." Emma said.
"Yeah?"
"It's kinda complicated, so I'll give you the details during the long drive back we're going to have. But basically, the darkness you contain, the darkness that came from me, it's useful. You see, there's this author. He's been manipulating our stories all this time. It was him who manipulated my parents into putting my darkness inside you."
"Don't think you can make me hate them any less." Lily cut in.
"I wasn't defending them." Emma said, sincerely. "I'm just telling you as it is. This author was trapped inside the book as punishment for changing fate, and the Dark One-"
"Rumplestiltskin?"
"Yeah, him. He's been trying to free the author, he's hoping to get him to rewrite a happy ending for him. He's pretty relentless, roughed Regina up really bad not long ago." Emma paused before continuing, allowing herself a moment to get the image of Regina's torn back and bruised neck out of her mind. "But to get what he wants, he needs the book that the author's trapped in, a way to get the author out, and…. Dark Saviour blood."
"Dark Saviour blood?" Lily repeated, wrinkling her nose. "He wants your blood?"
"Not exactly. You're right that I'm the Saviour. But I'm not dark, so my blood won't do. However…."
"I have some of your darkness." Lily said with realisation. "He wants my blood."
"We don't think he's figured that out yet, he was actually just trying to turn me dark, and then he was going to take my blood."
"But that didn't work?"
"No." Emma stated. "And we have the book, a way to get the author out, and now perhaps, we have you on our side?"
"So if I give you some of my blood…"
"We'll have almost everything we need."
"Almost?"
"Rumplestiltskin, or Gold, as he goes by, has the quill that the author will need to write with. Once we've got that, we can rewrite the story. We can give Regina a happy ending. We can-"
"Force him to give me back my happy ending." Lily finished for her, eyes gleaming.
"We're not going to hurt him, though. Okay?"
"Emma, he's part of the reason your parents did what they did. You can't expect me to-"
"Please, just try and hold off some of that darkness until we get what we want? I'm not exactly planning to be on friendly terms with the author, either. But that doesn't mean I'm happy with hurting him."
Lily seemed to swallow some of her rage, bitterly, and shook her head to clear it. "Whatever." She mumbled, then looked to the wall behind Emma, seemingly deep in thought. "It seems like it would be… I don't know, fake somehow. Manipulated happy endings, I mean."
"Your whole life was derailed because of the author, he manipulated what was meant to be. Your fate was altered. I wouldn't consider it 'fake' to return your life to how it could have been. To how it should have been."
Lily smiled tightly and shrugged. "I haven't exactly got anything to lose."
Thankfully, Regina's x-rays came back all clear, her head injury the only major damage. Her leg was just badly bruised. Emma insisted on waiting in the room with Regina this time, as the doctor explained about concussion dangers, holding tightly onto Regina's hand the entire time. The moment he finished his lecture and left the room, Lily stormed in.
"Come on, we gotta get out of here." She said, hurriedly.
"What? No, the doctor said they wanted to keep her in for observation." Emma argued.
"If we wait around any longer, the cops will get here and want to question us about the accident. What exactly do you plan on telling them?" Lily asked with raised eyebrows.
"I don't care, we'll think of something, we'll-"
"Emma, she's right. We haven't got the time to get in trouble for reckless driving. Not to mention, they saw the old bruising around my neck and despite my right to silence, they're pretty determined to get me to admit that I'm being abused. So please, let's go." Regina said as she sat up.
"Regina, lie back down!"
"Oh, shut up, Swan. I'm fine." Regina insisted as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed. "Can you pass me that bag over there? I don't know why they insisted on removing my clothes."
"They only did what they needed to to make sure you're alright, Regina." Emma grumbled as she rolled her eyes and passed the plastic bag of clothes to the brunette.
"Well it would have been nice if they'd taken my word for it. This thing smells." She wrinkled her nose and looked distastefully down at the gown she'd been given to wear. "Turn around." She said.
"Huh?"
"Turn around, both of you. Let me have a little dignity, at least."
They complied and Emma winced as she listened to Regina struggle with the clothes. "Are you sure you don't want-?"
"I'm sure." Regina said, tightly.
She knew that the older woman wasn't one to easily accept help, so Emma had to grit her teeth and listen to a few more grunts of pain before she was finally finished. Regina rose from the bed unsteadily and glared Emma down when she moved forward to help.
Suddenly, an enquiring voice came from behind them as a nurse poked her head around the door. "Miss Mills, I've just come to check that you're- Oh, where are you off to?"
When Regina didn't answer quickly enough, Emma said, "I was just going to help her to the bathroom." She gripped Regina's arm, happy for an excuse to support the woman who was clearly feeling dizzy.
"Okay, be careful." The nurse smiled. "It's just down the hall." She pointed off to the right and Emma smiled politely back at her. "I'll be back to check on you a bit later, then."
"Thanks." Lily said. The moment the nurse was gone, she grabbed the car keys she'd stolen from them. "Now, let's get out of here. We've got an asshole to take down."
The drive back was torturously slow, offering plenty of time to think about the imminent danger that they were about to put themselves in. It took the first two hours just to explain everything to Lily. Although she'd figured out a lot by herself, there was still much that she didn't know, and a few things she'd gotten wrong. Just discussing their lives over the last few years was enough to make Regina's head spin again as she realised just how much they'd all gone through. It was a miracle they'd even made it this far.
"How soon d'you think it'll take Gold to figure out that you guys have come back?" Lily asked, from the backseat.
"Doesn't matter, I've got a way to keep him on his leash for a while." Regina said with a knowing smile.
"I don't know if I'm okay with this, Regina."
"Okay with what?" Lily asked.
"Belle, the girl who owns his metaphorical heart. I'm going to take her actual heart." Regina smiled. "See how he likes feeling helpless, for a change."
"Right, but you don't need to hurt her, okay?" Emma said. "We're just holding her in case he figures out that we're back, and we let her go the moment we've got the quill."
"Sure." Regina mumbled, unconvincingly.
Emma decided to let it slide for the moment and rolled her eyes, mumbling quietly to herself about the unpredictability of her two allies, before turning back to the road.
"And how are we getting this quill?" Lily asked.
"With this." Regina reached into her pocket and pulled out Zelena's necklace. "It allows the wearer to disguise themselves as anybody. One of us will disguise ourselves as-"
"I'll disguise myself-" Emma cut in.
Regina threw her a glare and continued, "One of us will disguise ourselves as Maleficent…. As your mother. She was working with Gold for a while and she's continued to do so despite being on our side, so he won't suspect anything. That way we can steal it."
"Why can't my mom just steal the quill herself? If she's on your side?"
"She's our backup." Emma said, simply.
At Lily's confused expression, Regina rolled her eyes and explained. "Let's say your mother attempts to take the quill and gets caught. Gold will know that she's working against him. Whereas, if one of us gets caught stealing the quill, whilst disguised as Maleficent, he'll realise that it's not really her and he'll remain unaware of our spy on the inside. We'll have another chance, should we need it."
"I figure that if any of you get caught, it's pretty much game over." Lily shrugged.
"It's not game over until we say it is, dear." Regina smiled.