Regina had been drifting in and out of consciousness for a few hours now. Emma had been watching on helplessly, unable to comfort the woman.

She didn't know how to do any of this. She didn't know how to take away hurts. And she really didn't how she was supposed to be coping with the fact that she was just a useless spectator in this horrifying death scene.

Each time Regina called out in her sleep Emma would rest a reassuring hand on her arm, whispering platitudes she wasn't even sure Regina could hear. It was all she could do and it was maddening.

She felt so passive. Give me a monster to fight any day, she thought, anything but this awful waiting.

Emotionally, Emma was exhausted. She was definitely dealing with things far beyond her maturity level. It was confusing, dizzyingly so. Thoughts and feelings were tearing through her like a tornado through a wheat field, churning up and depositing parts of her all over the place.

The cyclical nature of her thoughts were driving her crazy and no matter how hard she tried she couldn't shut them off.

Regina's going to die.

She can't die.

What can I do?

Nothing.

If I do nothing, she'll die.

Regina's going to die.

She can't die.

She can't die!

That last particular thought was echoing the loudest, screaming itself inside her head. The thought of Regina not being a part of hers and Henry's life was making her feel physically ill. And the worst part about it all was that she couldn't say for certain why that was.

Regina was a human being of course, deserving of the same level of compassion she'd show anyone. And she knew that Henry would be devastated if his mother died. But what she felt, the strength of her body's reaction to what was happening went beyond any of that.

If she'd had enough time, she was sure she could start to sort out some of these feelings. But she didn't have enough time, not even close.

So she continued to sit at Regina's bedside and, though it killed her, do nothing.

Some saviour, she thought bitterly.

Regina felt feverish, a haze of heat clouding her mind and issuing chills up and down her already tired and beaten body.

She was vaguely aware of someone else in the room, someone who told her pretty things in soft and gentle tones.

Regina was hurting but this voice made her feel safe and taken care of, as if nothing truly bad could happen to her while those soothing words were wrapping themselves around her. She tried to reach out towards the softness but found that she couldn't move, her arms heavy and laden with the burden of pain.

She tried to speak, to thank the voice for caring, but her tongue too was weighed down and sluggish, unable to curl itself around the words she wanted to say.

What was wrong with her? she wondered. Was she sick?

Regina couldn't remember ever having been sick before. Her mother's magics were always quick to cut off any approaching cough or sniffle. Cora had much more important matters to attend to than the simpering of an ill child and she wouldn't abide by the mess that illness brought.

So if she was sick, Regina reasoned, then that must mean her mother wasn't around. The notion in itself was a source comfort.

But then who was taking care of her?

Her brain struggled against her demand for answers. She felt she should know these things, should understand what was happening to her and know who the voice belonged to. She could feel the knowledge squirming away, lost under the folds of the heavy blanket of fever.

Only flashes came to her. Flashes of tender hands that she felt were safe enough to leave her heart in. She seized upon these memories, sure that they would provide her with the answers she was looking for.

Her digging yielded a name. Of course, she thought. It couldn't be anyone else.

She knew who the voice belonged to now. As if in reward for her struggle, her tongue lodged itself free and spoke his name.

"Daniel."

"Regina?"

At first Emma wasn't sure she'd heard right.

Regina had spoken so softly that is was possible she'd gotten it wrong. She leaned forward and angled her ear closer to the brunette's mouth.

"Regina?" she asked again. "What did you say?"

Regina's eyes flew open then, seeking out Emma. Their eyes locked and a slow, soft smile spread across Regina's face.

Emma had never seen her so open and unguarded. She looked about fifteen years younger.

"Daniel."

This time there was no mistaking it. Regina had said Daniel. She'd looked Emma full in the face and breathed the name of her dead fiance.

Snow had told Emma all about Daniel in the Enchanted Forest. The stable boy who had won Regina's heart only to meet a grisly end by Cora's hands. The love of Regina's life, whose death had ultimately shaped the course of Emma's.

Emma took in Regina's appearance. Her skin was deathly pale, with bright spots of illness flushing her cheeks. Though her eyes were open they were glazed and unfocused. Sweat trickled down her smooth forehead and she shook slightly, as though cold.

The pieces combined to form an unsettling picture.

Regina was hallucinating.

"Daniel, you're here."

Regina's voice was so full of light. It was hard to imagine that she'd ever been so free with her affection but here it was, on display.

Emma felt like she was seeing a side to Regina that few people had ever seen before. She wanted to be honoured but mostly it just made her uncomfortable. These words weren't meant for her and listening to them made her feel guilty. Like a peeping tom, peering through some poor woman's window.

"Regina? It's me...Emma. Do you know where you are?"

"Of course, we're in the stables. But we have to be quick Daniel. Mother will be wondering where I am and I don't want her to know about us. She wouldn't approve."

"No...Regina...I'm not.."

Regina cut off her awkward, fumbling words with a low moan.

"Daniel – I don't feel well. Will you sit with me a minute?"

Her hand stretched out across the bed – reaching for Daniel's.

Emma was so lost. It felt wrong to deceive Regina – like she'd be taking advantage of her somehow. On the other hand Regina didn't have much time left. Who was Emma to deny her a happy ending, even if it was a false one.

She encased Regina's clammy hand with her own.

"Of course I'll sit with you. As long as you'd like. Whatever you need – I'm here."

Regina hummed with pleasure, her eyes sliding shut. Her body was instinctively drawing nearer to Emma's now, the need to be close overwhelming her.

Not close to me, Emma reminded herself. Close to Daniel.

"Thank you," she said gratefully. "It'll just be a moment though, I don't want Mother to come looking for me."

The underlying fear in Regina's words made tears prick in the corners of Emma's eyes. For what felt like the hundredth time she wondered what exactly Cora had done to Regina during her childhood – and then quickly banished the images that suggested an answer. There were some things she didn't want to know and this was definitely one of them.

The urge to protect her son's mother rose fiercely in Emma's chest and she found herself quite naturally reaching out a hand to stroke the hair away from Regina's hot forehead.

"Don't worry about her Regina," she said lightly "Don't worry about anything. I'll take care of you."

"I know you will."

A comfortable silence fell between them, Regina's laboured breathing the only sign that this was anything other than a sweet bedside moment between the two women.

Just when Emma was beginning to think that Regina had drifted off again, an almost childlike question broke the quiet.

"Daniel, am I very sick?"

Emma looked down to see brown eyes, filled with vulnerability, gazing up at her.

"Yes honey, you are. But you're going to be okay."

"Do you promise?"

What was with Regina and extracting impossible promises? Emma thought.

"I promise."

The two conflicting vows she'd made to this woman in the past twenty four hours began waging a war in her heart - another example of how much Regina was capable of effecting her.

"You sleep now sweetheart. You'll feel so much better in the morning."

"Okay," Regina breathed, her body already responding to the gentle suggestion. "I love you Daniel."

"I love you too."

And of all the things Emma had said while impersonating Daniel, this was the one that felt least like a lie.

Since you've all been so fabulous here's a sneak peek - out of the goodness of my heart. Life or Death? You'll know by the end of the next chapter!