Esme bolted herself awake at the sound of the fog horn alarm she had set for weekdays and her sudden movement also woke both of her brothers, who were sprawled across the pillow bed they had made in the lounge. Esme immediately stood up and trudged to the kitchen to get the boys their cereal and orange juice but the lounge saw no signs of life; the boys simply rolled over before falling back asleep. Esme looked over the counter into room where her brothers were fast asleep and simply laughed; they didn't actually go to sleep until around 2 o'clock in the morning, so getting them up at 6 to go to school was unlikely. Maybe a day off wouldn't be the worst thing? After-all, they would want to see Robin and, if she was honest, Esme wasn't particularly looking forward to coming home to an empty house after her long talk with him about what he remembered and where they stood. Yesterday, it all seemed so exciting, finally getting to talk about what he remembered; did he know who castle curse or why? But today, it all seemed scary; what if she didn't want to actually know the answers?

"Sissy?" Roland asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning as he shuffled into the kitchen. He immediately sat at the dining table which Esme took as a sign he was getting used to the routine she had worked hard to establish; she gave him breakfast then he had to go and get ready for school.

"Hey, my little knight! How are you this morning?" she said, as she set down his cereal and juice and kissed him on his head.

"Me and Henry don't have to go to school today, right?" he said, resting his head on Esme's arm as she reached to out his spoon down beside him.

"Haha! And why would that be?" Esme asked, freeing her arm from his grip before sitting down beside him at the table.

"Because you love us," Henry joked, putting his arms around her neck and squeezing her way too tight.

"Oh!" she said, tapping Henry's arms off her before laughing and telling him to grab his cereal and orange juice off the counter. "Well much as that may be true, that's not the reason I don't think you should go to school for the day."

"Wait, seriously? We don't have to go?" Henry said, quite clearly elated.

"Yeah seriously. I think you guys both need some down time. It's been a tough few weeks. So we are gonna go into town, get both of you a haircut (because you look like hippies), get some new clothes and then Snow and Charming are gonna take you to do whatever you want. Sound okay?"

"The hospital?" Henry asked.

"Umm…Once i'm finished talking with Robin then yes. I will come and get you and we will head to the hospital."

"Awesome! So what you wanna do with Grandma and Grandpa?" Henry asked Roland.

"Ummm the park!" Roland said and so began the discussion of their day. While they were talking, Esme began to tidy up the kitchen and lounge, she rang Snow and Charming and then told the boys to go get ready. When they went upstairs, she sat down, drank her coffee and wondered. She wondered about where they went from here. Once Robin and Regina were well enough, then what happened? Would they want her to stay? Would they pretend to be one big happy family or would she ruin the family they had already built for themselves? She was constantly worried about things these days, so she wasn't exactly annoyed that her thought process was ruined by the phone ringing but before she got the chance to answer it, Henry did.

"Hello? Umm, sure. Is everything okay? Is it my mom? Sure, here she is," he said to the man on the phone. He handed the phone to Esme and whispered "It's the hospital."

Esme took the phone and talked to the doctor.

"Hello?"

"Esmerelda? It's Doctor Whale here. We have some news regarding Regina."

"Oh? Okay..?"

"I'm afraid she has deteriorated."

"Deteriorated? Wh-what do you mean?" Esme said. She slowly began to walk away from Henry, hoping that he didn't hear, but he followed her, clearly concerned about his mom.

"She had an…episode in the early hours of this morning."

"What? Episode? What does that mean?"

"I'm afraid her head pain returned last night, with increased severity, and her recovery has been….. slower than we would like."

"Oh. Umm.. Well, what does all of this mean for her?" Esme said, smiling at Henry reassuringly even though her heart was beating so harshly, she thought it would beat out of her chest.

"It means… it means that if she doesn't wake up soon, she may not recover. At least not fully."

"I'm on my way," she said and she hung up the phone before Doctor Whale could say anything else that she didn't want to hear.

"What's happening?" Henry said. Esme looked at him, this scared little man, and she couldn't think of one word to comfort him. Not one. She was overwhelmed by this desire to protect him, protect him from the truth his mom could well stay the way she is for years but she also wanted to be honest with him. He was smart and mature and eloquent; she knew he could handle it but she didn't want him to have to.

"What's happening?" Henry asked.

"Umm, nothing. Roland! Come on, we're leaving now!" Esme shouted up the stairs, as she could hear him scurrying around upstairs.

"Ez, please," Henry implored, well aware that the phone call was not nothing.

"Henry, it was noth-"

'Don't lie to me! Okay? She's my mom!" Henry said, an awful lot sharper than he had intended. He didn't need protecting, he thought. What he needed was to help his mom and he couldn't do that if Esme was treating him like he was Roland's age. He saw the surprised look on Esme's face and felt guilty, he knew she was only trying to do what was right, but she needed to understand that he didn't want to be shielded; he wanted to be told the truth. However, apparently him losing his temper worked.

"Okay," Esme said, pointing for Henry to take a seat. Once she sat opposite him, she took his hand and began to explain.

"The doctor said that your mom had, what he called, an episode last night. Her head pain came back but it was worse this time an-"

"Worse? How?"

"I don't know, sweetie. But she didn't recover from this one as well as she usually does."

"Is she okay?"

"Doctor Whale said she has deteriorated. I don't know in which ways she has deteriorated but thats what i'm going to find out." With that, Esme stopped and looked at Henry, trying to assess whether or not he understood what was happening.

"So you don't want me to see her?" Henry asked, appearing a lot calmer than Esme thought he would be.

"Not right now no. I would like you and Roland to go on with the day as planned but you're right. She is your mom. It's up to you."

"I want to see her." Henry said definitively, which was exactly what Esme was worried about. She didn't know what to expect when she got to Regina, she had a lot to deal with with Robin and Robin was probably distraught to begin with; all of this was enough to deal with without trying to protect Henry. But she had asked him, and he told her what he wanted so that's what she had to do and she knew that, she just didn't like it. She and Henry dropped a very excited Roland off at the Charming's house and then headed to the hospital. On the way, Henry asked Esme what Robin remembered.

"Oh. Umm he said he remembers me as a baby. He said i was wrapped in a little pink blanket and-" But Esme stopped explaining. Somehow, this all felt odd.

"That's great! Does he know anything else?"

"No, I think his memories are coming back gradually instead of all at once."

"So what causes the pain?"

"I don't know squirt. The curse that was placed on them would have taken immense power, power I can't even comprehend."

"Why?"

"Because to make two people forget the people they love entirely is one thing, but to then erase their daughter from their memories is another. It may have caused actual, physical damage to their brain and reworking all of that may be the cause of the pain? I dunno, i'm new to the seer world," she joked. Henry laughed at her joke but turned solemn when the hospital came into view. Esme put her arm around his shoulder and kept it there until they walked in, unsure what they were walking in to. As they walked in, they saw Robin sat in a chair, holding Regina's hand to his mouth and memorising every inch of her face. Both Esme and Henry walked slowly and tentatively into the room in which Regina lay still, with the silence only interrupted by the beeping of the machines. Robin looked up at them and tried to stand up, but was too weak to complete the action.

"No, no sit down," Esme said, putting her hand on his shoulder, which he immediately took. Esme watched as Henry sat on the right hand side of the bed and looked with horror at the frail victim she now was; a look Esme wished she hadn't seen cross his face.

"How is she?" Esme asked quietly, hoping that Henry wouldn't hear.

"Her pain is worse and it's happening more often," Robin explained, returning her whisper.

"Why can't they do for her what they did for you?" Henry asked almost angrily, startling both Esme and Robin.

"Henry-" Esme said, standing up to comfort and confront him but he wasn't having any of it.

"Henry what?! Why is he awake and my mom isn't!" Henry fumed, although the moment he saw the hurt that crossed Robins face for a split second, he immediately felt awful.

"Robin i'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"It's fine. If it helps, I wish it was her that was awake too," Robin said, smiling at Henry and returning Regina's hand to his lips. Esme watched in shock at the confrontation; she saw that Robin genuinely wasn't angry but Henry was. He was trying to hide it but he was annoyed, and Esme couldn't blame him, so she wasn't surprised when he continued to ask questions.

"But seriously, how is it that you are up and awake and my mom isn't?"

"I don't know kiddo. The last thing I remember was having the head pain, seeing Regina and then I work up to Esme-"

"Wait…That's it!" Esme exclaimed, but her triumphant mood was dampened by the confused glares that she received from both Henry and Robin.

"I was holding your hand. When you started waking up, I was holding your hand and I… I think I saw what you saw an-"

"You what?" Henry asked, hoping she was going where he thought she was going with this conversation.

"The memory you had, it was of you and Regina in a meadow wasn't it?" Esme asked a very confused Robin.

"Wh- How could you possibly know that?" Robin said, with confusion and a little fear darting through his eyes.

"I told you, i saw it. I think i maybe channeled you." Esme explained.

"What? How?" Henry asked.

"I dunno really. Most witches channel things like the elements to gain more power, but i have heard of some that can channel people. If i somehow channelled you, because i'm a seer, as opposed to harnessing your power, i maybe harnessed your pain-"

"So dividing the pain between two people made it bearable and he woke up!" Henry said, so elated that Esme felt guilty; what if she was wrong and she had got his hopes up?

"Now Henry, i dunno if that actually happened or how i-"

"But there's a chance right?"

Esme paused before nodding and looked at Robin. He looked at Regina, then Henry and turned to Esme.

"Please try. What were you doing when you… channeled me?"

"That's the thing, i didn't mean to channel you and I was never taught how to do it, so i don't exactly know. I just really wanted to talk to you, and to do that, i needed you to wake up."

"Then do that," Robin said. Esme met the hope in his eyes with skepticism in hers but he gave her a pleading look, and after seeing the same look on Henry's face, she did as she was told.

Esme took Regina's hands in hers, closed her eyes and focussed. She focussed on all of the questions she wanted to ask. What did she first think of Esme when she saw her? What happened that made someone take her away? Who made her forget her baby? The hundreds of questions Esme wanted answered raced through her head before Esme realised she was sure Regina had some too. 'What kind of questions do you want to ask me?', Esme asked silently, as if Regina could hear her and so began her silent conversation with her mother. 'I promise i will answer them, you just need to wake up" she thought. 'Henry needs you, Regina. I need you. I'm struggling and i could really use your help. I need you to teach me magic, help me control it, develop it-' Esme said in her own head, hoping that Regina could somehow hear her. She continued this conversation until she felt her head go fuzzy. So fuzzy, she felt Robins hand's around her waist before she felt the sturdiness of the chair beneath her, and before long, she returned to the darkness that had engulfed her just one night ago.