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''Mary Margaret, please wake up. Please wake up. You can't leave me! Do you hear me! Don't you dare leaving me! Not again!'' Emma has crawled over to her mother and grasps onto the woman's clothing like that is the only way to keep her mother alive, to bring her back. ''Wake up! Don't leave me!'' she yells again. Her whole body is full of bruises, but that is not why she's aching. No, she's aching because of the deeply rooted fear of losing her mother again.
She finally collapses and buries her tear stained face in Snow's neck. She sobs until her throat hurts. Then there is silence. The physical strength that was needed for Emma to be able to perform magic, together with the emotional pain is too much for her body to bear. She goes into shock. She is just sitting on her hands and knees, staring with an empty glance into the distance. Her brain is completely shut off from the outside world.
''Emma?!'' cries a male voice from the distance.
Footsteps are quickly running up to the blonde, and strong arms are being wrapped around her, but she doesn't notices any of this.
''Emma? Can you hear me? Emma?''
''Mom?'' another voice.
''David I think she went into shock,'' says Neal anxiously.
Charming knelt down next to his wife and now shifts his attention from Snow who is still lying motionless on the ground, to his daughter. ''Emma? Emma, can you hear me? Please say something darling!'' When Snow starts to cough, his eyes shoot back at her.
The brunette coughs up little amounts of blood, but stays unconscious.
''Snow?!'' cries Charming.
Neal feels he's the one who has to be the strongest in this situation. He looks at Henry. ''Can I get the bottle of water you've in your backpack?'' he requests. He tries to look as calm as possible, as the boy looks at the scene like he has seen a ghost. He doesn't want to upset Henry any more than necessary. ''Thank you,'' he says as Henry hands him the bottle of water. He unscrews the cap and pours a little bit of water on his hands before he sprinkles the blonde's head and neck with the cold liquid. ''You've to take your wife to the hospital,'' he says to Charming. ''Henry and I will catch up with you later. We'll take care of Emma, don't worry about that. She'll be fine,'' he quickly adds when he sees the worried expression of the blonde's father. ''Please, go!''
Charming seems to snap out of his frozen position and comes into action. He gently lifts Snow's lifeless body into his arms, casts a last glance to his daughter, and disappears in the darkness of the forest.
Neal is still sitting behind Emma and supports her body from falling down to the ground. He continues to sprinkle the cold water on her face and neck, and repeats her name over and over.
Henry is nailed to the ground, not able to speak or move for that matter.
Slowly, Emma seems to regain consciousness as the empty glance turns into a glance of pain.
''Em?'' Neal asks again. ''Are you back with us?''
The blonde's head slowly turns around and when she sees who's holding her, she doesn't even seem surprised. ''What happened?'' she whispers with a hoarse voice. She notices her son standing behind Neal. '''Hey kid. What are you guys doing here? What happened?'' she asks confused, shooting her eyes from one to the other. She is still quite groggy when she turns back around and stares at the spot where Snow was lying only some minutes ago. It all hits her again. ''Where's Mary Margaret?!'' she cries out when she realizes her mother is missing. ''I've to help her! She's hurt!'' She tries to get up, but her body is too weakened and makes her collapse back to the ground.
''Hey, easy there,'' says Neal in a soothing voice as he catches her before she hits the forest floor. ''Your father took her to the hospital.'' he explains.
''Regina… Cora… Where… God, what did I do?!'' Emma's eyes grow wide in disbelieve and terror as all of the events from earlier that night return to her. She shoots her head from left to right, which only affirms her fearful suspicion, that mother and daughter are gone. Emma wishes it had all been a bad dream. An awful nightmare, but she realizes that all the memories that are surfacing at the moment represent the terrifying truth. ''What did I do?!'' she repeats.
''Ssst, it's okay,'' reassures Neal, as he holds her gently.
''What did I do? What did I do?'' she keeps repeating over and over, with her body swinging forwards and backwards while she has her arms crossed in front of her.
''Em. Em, calm down! Look at me. Look at me!'' he demands. He moves himself in front of her and grabs her by her shoulders, forcing the blonde to look up to him. When she does, she doesn't look him right in the eye, but at a rock that's right beside him. But that's good enough for him. At least she has stopped moving, a motion that scared him. He gently brushes some strands of hair from her face before he starts speaking. ''Emma, it will be all right. I promise you. Just calm down okay? Can you tell me what happened?''
''We were just… we were just waiting for that stupid flower to grow, when Regina and Ccc…ora showed up,'' she stutters, almost unable to say the name 'Cora' out loud. A cold shiver is running down her spine.
Henry notices his mother's anxiety and gets over to her, sits down and wraps his arms around her. ''It's okay mom, you don't have to tell us what happened if you're not ready for it.''
''No I… I have to…'' she mumbles.
Neal places his hand on his son's shoulder. ''No, Henry is right Em, you don't have to tell us yet. I'm sorry I asked. I wasn't thinking.''
The three of them sit there in silence. It almost resembles a cozy family picnic, wouldn't it be for the fact that it is the middle of the night. Not a time that families enjoy a lovely picnic in the woods.
When Neal breaks the silence, a beam of sunlight has appeared through the trees, shining a mysterious light on the trio. ''Come on, we need to get you to the hospital.'' It's more of a question in the rhetorical category, but he expects a counteract of some kind from the blonde, like the statement that she is fine, that she doesn't need to go to the hospital or how rude it was of him to just assume things, without even asking her. The stuff she always used to say to him. Cause she wanted to show the world that she can do it all by herself, that she doesn't need help from anyone.
How surprised he is then, when Emma just skips the going-into-discussion part, and even let him help her getting up. She puts one arm on his shoulders for support and he uses his right arm to support her lower back. ''Are you okay to walk like this?'' he asks her.
She nods silently.
''Okay, Henry can you get some petals from the flower?'' he points.
The boy opens the pocket of his jacket and shows his father a dozen of beautiful, bright-red flower petals. ''Already done,'' he says proudly.
''Good job buddy!'' is the cheerful reply.
With a slow pace, the three of them walk back to civilization, pausing occasionally to let Emma catch her breath. When they arrive at the outskirts of the forest, an ambulance is already waiting for them. A paramedic helps Emma get onto the stretcher. ''Your father announced that you needed help,'' he explains to the blonde and her family members. ''We couldn't get further into the woods, so we waited here for you.''
Emma undergoes all the preliminary check-ups passively before she is taken to the hospital.
''I refuse to stay a minute longer in this hell hole!'' screams Belle, or Lacey, as she jumps off the bed. ''Can someone get me my clothes?'' she yells, trying to get the attention of the nurses.
''B… Lacey, please calm down. The doctors said that it was better for you to stay here for one more night. You had a serious accident, not to mention that you weren't fully recovered when you left here in the first place,'' begs Red.
''I don't care. You can't tell me what I can or can't do. I don't even know you!'' She takes off the unflattering hospital gown and throws it on the ground.
Red shakes her head in disbelief and makes her way over to the nurses' station. ''Excuse me?'' she asks to one of the nurses who is looking uninterestingly at the computer screen in front of her.
The woman casts an impudent yawn before she looks up at the brunette. ''Can I help you?'' Her intonation implies that she's clearly not in a very talkative mood.
Red doesn't let this throw her off balance, as she continues. ''Can you please get me the clothes of the woman in room 487?''
The nurse suppresses another yawn of boredom as she looks something up on the computer. ''Her discharge date is tomorrow,'' she states matter of fact.
''I know, but she really refuses to stay here.''
''As the doctor has advised her to stay one night, it is very unwise to go in against his orders.''
The brunette is losing her patience with this stoic persona. ''I'm aware of that, but I'm afraid there's nothing you, nor I can do about her wanting to leave. You obviously haven't met her,'' she adds sarcastically.
''Of course we cannot force her to stay…''
''Precisely,'' she cuts her off, before she can say anything else. ''So if you can just give me the discharge papers and her cloths? Thank you,'' says Red with a quick nod as she is handed the necessary documents and clothing. She hurries back to the hospital room where Lacey is nowhere in sight. ''Lacey?!'' cries Red as she anxiously looks around. ''Lacey?!''
''Hey, relax, I was just gone to the loo, no need to make a fuzz about that,'' says the woman indifferently as she walks out the bathroom door, still only wearing her lingerie.
A sigh of relief escapes Red's mouth. ''I've your clothes here.'' She points at the plastic bag that she's carrying. ''And you need to sign these documents.''
Lacey quickly signs the documents and pulls on the clothes that are in the bag. ''I look like a big elephant in this horrendous dress,'' she notes as she looks in the bathroom mirror. She's wearing the purple dress, Belle's favorite. ''I can't believe I ever wore this voluntarily.''
''You know what, before we head to the bed and breakfast, we'll just stop by my place and you can have some cloths from me?'' suggests Red.
Lacey inspects the other woman's clothing from top to bottom.
Red is wearing a fashionable red blouse, matching belt, a black leather pants and high heels.
''Nah, I'm not sure if I like your clothing style,'' she bluntly says.
''And thank you for the compliment,'' replies Red. She's still not used to this new version of 'Belle.'
''You're welcome. So can we get out of here now?''
When the two women are in Red's room, she opens her closet door. ''These are all my clothes. Feel free to look around.''
These words are taken up quite literally by Lacey as she almost dives into the closet. ''Nope. No, not this one. Awful. No way…'' it sounds with every piece of clothing she holds in her hand and examines closely before she casually throws it on the bed.
Red observes the spectacle that's unfolding in front of her in great astonishment.
''What's this?'' the other woman asks curiously, as something on the bottom of the closet has drawn her attention. She takes out a plastic bag and holds it under Red's nose.
''That's nothing. Just some old clothing I'm planning to get rid of.'' She hopes that Lacey doesn't open the bag and tries to pull it out of the woman's hand.
But Lacey is faster and turns the bag upside down, resulting in several edgy-looking pieces of clothing dropping to the ground.
The color of Red's cheeks now perfectly matches her name and dyed hair strings.
''This is awesome!'' cries Lacey all excited as she holds up a pair of fishnet tights, a revealing belly button tank top and a very, very short skirt. She holds it all in front of her and twirls around. ''Do you think it would suit me?''
''I'm not sure…''
''Oh, what the hell, I'm just going to try it on.'' She doesn't even wait for an answer, but starts pulling off the purple dress and tries on Red's ensemble. She grabs a pair of wedged heels from the shoe rack in the corner of the room and takes a good look at herself in the mirror. ''Perfect!'' She pulls down the tank top she's wearing just a little more, so that it reveals the upper borders of her bra. ''So, where in this awful boring little town can we go out dancing?'' she asks.
''Lacey I'm not sure if this is such a…''
''Geez, you just sound like a mother! Looking at your hidden clothing in your closet, I bet you weren't always this flawless, so stop acting like a responsible adult and have some fun with me! Please?'' she adds when she sees the embarrassed frown on the other woman's face.
''Fine,'' Red shrugs. ''But are you sure that you don't want to rest a bit? You've gone through a lot.''
''I don't know a better way to heal than to dance it all off, believe me,'' laughs Lacey. ''Come on!'' She makes her way down the stairs.
Red takes a deep breath and follows the other woman to the hallway, when her grandmother is just coming around the corner.
''Ruby! It's bad enough that you like to dress up like a drag queen during Fleet Week, but you can't just force it onto others like that?!'' she scolds.
''Granny, you don't really think that I…''
''No time, we have to go! Nice to meet you Granny! Your granddaughter has a brilliant taste in clothes!'' cries Lacey in passing, while she pulls Red with her out of the door.
They leave Granny standing bewildered in the hallway. What had just happened? ''I'm just getting too old for all this stuff,'' she says to herself as she heads back into the living room.
Say 'hi' to Lacey haha! ;) What do you think of her? And her interaction with Red?
As always, please leave a review :)