Chapter fourteen

Whale inspected Regina while her family, excluding Snow, Charming and Tamsin, waited with bated breath behind him.

Turning around he explained, "the machines are somehow keeping her alive."

"How is that possible?" Gold asked with a furrowed brow, as he looked at the heart monitor which seemed convinced that there was a beat to follow.

The doctor shrugged his shoulders and he replied, "I wish I knew." It more than bothered him that it was clearly possible to keep the dead alive in this world, but this was just the ultimate insult to his work. "Did she do anything particular when she removed her heart?" he asked.

Emma shook her head, "it looked completely normal, except…"

Everyone gave her an expectant look and she continued, "when Zelena tried to get to Tamsin after Regina…after she…" letting out a huff in frustration, she got to her point, "when she tried to get to Tamsin, she went flying backwards almost as if something was preventing her from being touched."

"True love," Henry supplied, he knew exactly what Regina's maternal love felt like and he had no doubt that it was strong enough to stop any threat. "She gave up her heart to protect Tamsin and created a kind of barrier, right?"

Rumple and Cora nodded in agreement, "none of this helps with waking her up," Cora finally said after a moment of silence.

Whale looked around at each face and was surprised to see a spark of hope on each of them, especially the two eldest, he was sure that the adults would at least understand the truth behind what had happened.

"She has no heart," he said slowly.

Cora shot the doctor a warning look and he just rolled his eyes and walked out of the room, he could clearly see that they had no intention of listening to him.

"What do we do?" Emma asked in a hollow voice, though she desperately didn't want it to be true, she couldn't help but agree with Whale. She was sure that Regina had taught her the basic rules of magic, having no heart generally meant death, the medicine of this land was probably just giving her the appearance of being alive.

Everyone was silent and Emma fell into the plastic chair, bringing her hand around her girlfriend's unmoving one.

Henry sat next to her and offered a supportive and yet strained smile, it was clear that he was just as upset as his blonde mother.

No one in the room had any idea what they could possibly do to remedy the situation, but they each refused to admit that Regina could actually be dead.

Cora held her granddaughter closer to her body and watched as Rumple fanatically flicked through one of his books.

A heavily pregnant Snow White looked sadly down at the seemingly comatose woman carefully laid on a cot. Her husband placed a hand on her shoulder and offered her a sad smile, he knew she was probably thinking the same thing as he was, what would they tell Emma?

Rumple violently threw the book on the floor and said, "there is no way to cross realms."

"Even if we did, what would Emma be able to do that we couldn't?" Cora sighed.

Snow looked up at her fellow grandmother and saw clear pain behind her eyes. She knew that the woman was refusing to believe that her child was truly dead. She felt sympathy for the woman since she was having a hard enough time without Emma, but at least she knew that she was alive.

"True love can always do something," she tried, which only caused the older woman to roll her eyes.

"But it can't do everything," Cora retorted, allowing the implications to hang in the air.

Snow was about to argue her point, but was interrupted by Rumple, "the Dark Curse," he said as he had a stroke of inspiration.

"What?" Snow sighed.

"If we cast it again, it Storybrooke will exist again and we can send someone to go and get Emma."

"You want to cast the Dark Curse?" Snow asked, "why couldn't we have done this earlier?"

"Because it involves the heart of the one you love most," Rumple sighed.

Cora looked at him critically, "and how do you plan for us to be able to cast it? At the moment, the one we love most has no heart."

Rumple nodded in agreement and said, "that is why we cannot cast it," he then turned to the Charmings who exchanged a worried look.

"No," Snow said instantly.

David brought his arm around her shoulder and brought her closer to him, "it's the only way that Emma will ever meet her daughter and little brother or sister."

Snow's eyes widened as she realised just who he was suggesting should die, and she began to shake her head vigorously, "Emma and our child need you," she argued.

"You have to do this Snow," he said sadly, "everything will be fine."

"She truly is beautiful," Henry Sr. commented as he came up behind his daughter earnestly looking at her child sleeping in the crib.

"I know," the spirit sighed as she tried to touch Tamsin's cheek only to feel nothing under her hand. Blinking away the urge to cry, not that she was sure a ghost could cry, she instead continued to inspect her daughter who somehow looked more like Emma with every passing day.

"They will find a way," he assured.

"Emma only just found out what happened, I don't want her to become as obsessed as I was with Daniel."

"If anyone could find a way, it would be the Charmings," he chuckled.

Regina nodded half-heartedly and continued to watch her child sleep, she just wanted to be able to hold Tamsin, hug Henry, kiss Emma and slap Zelena, but she couldn't do any of that, no one even knew that she was present.

The silence was broken when Charming came running up the stairs, Regina watched as he ran to the crib and took a moment to look at Tamsin.

He quickly sighed and picked her up, "Sorry," he whispered as she began to cry from being woken up, "but your grandmother is in labour."

A/N Hope you guys enjoyed, reviews would be much appreciated :)