Author's note: Here, a longer ch just for you, White Belt Writer :P

Chapter 22

The next twelve hours passed by uneventfully. A steady stream of visitor came through Emma's room. Red, Granny, Archie, even August. There were so many visitors that the nurses had to yell at people to keep their voices down in the waiting area. A huge collection of flowers and cards took up residence on the tables and window sill in Emma's room.

Snow, James, and Henry went home every few hours to shower, sleep, and eat. But Graham stayed at Emma's bedside 24/7, for he couldn't bear to leave her. He had this paranoid feeling that Regina was gonna come back to finish off Emma, and if she did Graham would be ready to fight.

There was a knock on the door, and Graham jumped, startled, for he'd just been about to doze off. He turned around and saw Snow.

"Sorry if I woke you." She frowned at him, taking in his disheveled appearance and red rimmed eyes. "Graham, you can always come back to our place to sleep if you want. You don't need to stay here the whole time."

"I'm fine." He said absently. Then, he noticed that she was carrying a white bundle in her arms. "What's that?"

"This?" Snow looked down as if just noticing it for the first time. "Emma's baby blanket. I thought it'd help her. I know it's silly." She blushed.

"What? No. It's sweet that you care about her so much."

Snow crossed the room to the bed and gently spread the blanket over her daughter's prone body, smoothing out the lumps and brushing stray strands of hair off Emma's forehead. "I've missed out on so much of her life, thanks to Regina. And now this." She sniffled. "You should really get some sleep. Emma wouldn't want you to just sit here the whole time."

"All right." He stood up. "Tell me if anything happens."

Snow nodded. "Of course."

The second Graham was out of the room, Snow started to sob heavily. "He's really scared, Emma. So wake up for him, ok?" Tears roll down her cheeks. "Henry needs you. We all need you. We just got you back..." She trailed off, trying to regain her composure.

Henry went in soon after Snow left. He tentatively approached the bed, tiptoeing as if his footsteps could wake up Emma.

"Mom?" He couldn't help saying it, as if merely saying her name would wake her up. He sat down in the chair next to her bed, the chair that had become Graham's new home.

He didn't really know what to say, so he just clasped her hand in both of his.

"So, I don't know if anyone told you yet, but the Evil Queen did this to you. Not Graham." He said. "Graham loves you."

He sniffled, wiping his nose on his sleeve.

"Mom? Please wake up…" He begged. He knew it was childish and wouldn't really help but he couldn't help it. "Please wake up. There's so much that I wanted to do with you. So much that I wanted to show you about this place." He started to cry, something he hadn't done in ages. "Please, Mommy?" It was a name that he'd never called anyone, not even Regina.

~The New Normal~

Another twenty four hours passed. It had been three days now. Still no sign of waking up. Henry had suggested reading to Emma from his book of fairy tales, but after reading each story three times, they'd deduced that wasn't gonna work. They'd even thought about going to Rumple for help, but then remembered that he'd stolen the last bit of true love's magic and wasn't likely to help them anyway.

Just then, Whale approached them in the waiting room, looking uncomfortable. "Can I speak with you for a sec?"

Graham nodded. He could tell that whatever it was, it wouldn't be good news.

"I'm going to be very honest here. We've been carefully monitoring Emma's brain activity for the past 72 hours, and there has been no change. Currently, a ventilator is breathing for her and because her brain was without oxygen for so long, there's a very good chance she'll never regain consciousness."

Snow's face immediately crumpled up at the sound of his words. She began sobbing quietly into her hands.

"There's more." Whale continued. "Because you're her parents and she's currently incapacitated, you two are her medical proxies. Which means you'll be able to make decisions regarding Emma."

"What do you mean by that?" James asked. Snow was too busy crying to listen.

"Because it's likely that she won't wake up, you can decide to, um, take her off the ventilator or move her to long term care facilities for people in permanent vegetative states." He said, looking around awkwardly.

"No." James and Snow said immediately.

"We're not taking her off the ventilator. Not when there's a chance she could still wake up." Snow added firmly. "We're not giving up on my daughter."

Whale nodded. "All right." He walked away, probably very eager to get away from them.

Henry, who'd just walked in, spoke up. "Is that true? That my mom's not going to wake up?" He asked, suddenly sounding very young.

"Oh, honey, of course that's not true." Snow attempted to comfort her grandson, but her tear streaked face couldn't lie.

"No!" Henry cried his grandparents wrapped him in a tight hug. "Noooooo!"

Graham looked away, anger coursing through him. This was yet another painful reminder of Regina's actions and its repercussions.

Author's note: Again, if the medical info is wrong, not my fault. What, was I gonna actually look up the info? Too much work.