"Regina? Regina?"

Snow's panicked voice was the first thing Regina recognized. Then it was her soft, pudgy hands against her face — their warmth in stark contrast to her own clammy skin.

"There. There….she's coming to," Snow breathed out in audible relief.

Regina opened her eyes slowly, blinking and wincing at the sudden rush of light flooding in. She groaned and recoiled, but Snow's hands held her steady.

"Regina," the younger woman cooed, bringing her hand behind Regina's head and lifting carefully, sliding a pillow beneath her neck.

Only then was Regina aware that there was also a small stack of pillows beneath her feet. They think I passed out. Regina rolled her eyes, but it wasn't half as intimidating now as it normally was.

"Something's wrong," she managed to mutter, closing her eyes and breathing out in an attempt to keep the room from spinning. "Magic," she mumbled, wanting them to understand that this was being done to her. This was not an illness. This was a spell. Or worse.

"David," Snow said nervously, turning over her shoulder. "We have to get her help," she realized aloud — And Regina silently cursed the gods or fate that she was surrounded by such idiots.

David nodded and without wasting another moment, crouched down and hooked his arms beneath Regina's legs and shoulders.

"Can you hold on to me?" he asked, his eyes soft with concern as he looked into Regina's face.

Regina nodded weakly, and slung her arms around his neck — but by the time he was laying her down in the back of the Mercedes, her strength was betraying her once more.

David took the keys and Snow sat in the back with Regina, letting her stepmother's head rest in her lap. Snow was too worried and Regina too weak to stop her — Snow was running her hand over Regina's hair, trying to comfort Regina and calm herself.

When they pulled up to the front of the hospital, a stretcher was already waiting. Regina silently wondered when they'd had the opportunity to make that call out of her earshot, but didn't care enough to pursue the thought. She didn't even have the strength to protest the stretcher.

They wheeled her through the halls and toward the private room that had been prepped — and as she rolled her head to the side, she would swear she saw Zelena, her unmistakable red hair, on a bed, nurses flurrying around her, machines beeping wildly. But that door closed, and Regina faced forward again just in time to see the empty room ahead, waiting for her. The sudden change of view made her nauseous, and again she closed her eyes to stop the room from spinning. And suddenly she was aware that she was alone.

"Snow?" she asked no one in particular, wondering at what point she stopped being at her side. But as soon as she spoke her name, she could hear — even through the doors swinging closed and separating them — Snow's voice calling back to her.

"I'll be right here, Regina."

"Robin."

"We'll call him," Whale's familiar voice entered the room, and he stepped into Regina's line of sight, blue gloved hands held up to maintain sterility.

"But first, we need to take care of you."

The pulsing in her head was replaced with a cool, tingling sensation, and as Regina opened her eyes again, her first thought was of how incredibly fed up she was with loosing consciousness. Worse than a memory curse — because this made her feel weak.

I'm not weak. Her own voice echoed in her memory, shouted inches from her father's face one angry morning in the Enchanted Forest. She sighed and closed her eyes, pushing those memories away — because of all the people she had hurt in her life, she regretted hurting him possibly the most.

She swallowed, and this time instead of tasting copper, she tasted chemicals. She blanched at the unwanted flavor and clicked her tongue in disgust.

"Hey." Snow's voice was light and whispering and Regina could hear the delight in her tone. Before she knew it, Snow was slipping her hand into Regina's, and the former Queen winced — only then realizing she was attached to several IV tubes.

"Henry," Regina spoke, turning to look into Snow White's face, ignoring — but not rejecting — her hand. "Where's Henry."

"Outside. With David," she replied. "You gave us quite a scare."

Regina could hear the genuine worry in the younger woman's voice, and so she chose to ignore how the phrase 'quite a scare' made her sound like a geriatric invalid who'd slipped in the shower.

"What happened?" she asked, still certain that this was magic — that someone had done this to her deliberately.

"We called you…because there was a problem at the hospital. With Zelena," Snow began to explain.

"Zelena did this," Regina deduced quickly and with gritted teeth, sitting up slightly as if she would climb down off this bed and teach her a lesson she wouldn't soon forget.

"No," Snow said softly, her free hand moving to Regina's shoulder, half in the hopes of comforting her and half in the hopes of keeping her in her bed.

"No," she continued, "Zelena was rushed to emergency. She was in excruciating pain. They had to sedate her. She's still asleep," Snow explained.

Regina simply stared into Snow's hazel eyes, surprisingly not comforted by the fact that Zelena was in pain, too. She lifted her brow in expectation, hoping to get a little more information out of her.

No such luck.

"What the hell is going on," Regina asked, her voice raised and arms flailing in frustration.

The answer came as Whale pushed through the door with an aggravatingly chipper smile on his face. Regina rolled her eyes and leaned back against her pillow, her sigh conveying utter disgust with the entire situation.

"I'll let him catch you up," Snow said with a squeak and a smile, patting Regina's shoulder as a mother would to a child — and Regina hated it.

"Regina," Whale said with a smile, picking up the chart from the bedside cubby. "Feeling any better?"

"Better is relative. What I'd like are answers," she replied evenly, narrowed eyes following Whale's figure with annoyance.

"Well. Answers…aren't going to be easy," he admitted with a sigh, slapping the chart closed and tucking it beneath his arm, hands clasping in front of his frame.

Regina was more than fed up. She could feel her anger bubbling close to the surface and she shifted uncomfortably in her bed, suddenly very aware that she was in a hospital gown and there would be no quick escape unless she wanted half of Storybrooke to catch sight of her backside.

But before she could open her mouth to demand she be released and her clothes returned to her —-

"You're pregnant."

The nausea she had so assuredly been rid of suddenly returned.

"You're mistaken."

"I'm sure I'm not," Whale laughed, bringing the chart back out from under his arm and flipping it open. "Your blood work is… unmistakable," he assured her.

Regina gripped the handrail to the side of her bed.

"Check again," she said angrily through gritted teeth. "Run it again. I cannot be. I am not."

Recognizing the wild anger in her eyes from darker times when his path crossed with the Queen, Whale nodded and stepped out, his presence quickly replaced with a petite nurse, who reverently asked for Regina's arm, drawing another vile of blood.

Just as she was about to disappear from the room, vile in hand —

"Wait," Regina called, reaching out for her. "The woman in the other room. Zelena," she spoke with question in her voice.

"I'm sorry, I can't give—" she replied, and Regina stopped her again.

"I'm her next of kin," she offered, hoping that would earn her some answers.

Looking over her shoulder to make sure no one was within earshot — because she knew that this was against hospital policy, regardless of next of kin — but also because she knew that Regina was the Queen, and she'd rather not be on her bad side — she stepped closer and spoke quietly.

"She lost the pregnancy," she explained.

Regina felt the blood drain from her face. And nausea. Again.

"When," Regina asked nervously, and sadly — because despite everything, Zelena was her sister, and she was still operating under the assumption that Whale's blood tests were incorrect.

"This afternoon. Around four." she offered. "I'm sorry I have to get this to the lab," she apologized and quickly scampered out of the room.

Four. Regina eyed her coat — this time slung over the arm of the guest chair, along with Snow's purse and the keys to her Mercedes. Her gaze moved to her IV, sizing up the length of the tubes and wondering if she could stretch to reach her coat. But as she sat up to begin her attempt, the muscles in her abdomen clenched and ached — she felt bruised from the inside — and she decided against trying to move again.

Grabbing hold of the call button, Regina pressed it rapidly and with annoyance, lifting her chin up to try and peer over the frosted glass in the room to look out at the nurse's station.

The same, small, mousey nurse poked her head in.

"Yes, Mayor Mills?" she asked softly — sweetly.

Regina's lip curled in disgust at that sweetness. But this was an unfortunate reaction to a situation for which this nurse was not to blame Regina reminded herself, and with an exhale, pursed her lips together briefly to reset her own facial expression.

"Could you give me my phone? It's in the left pocket," she directed, pointing to the coat in the corner.

The nurse obliged, and handed her the phone — then picked up the call button and hung the lead beside the bed once more, hoping that she wouldn't be called back.

Mashing the buttons frantically, Regina pushed her way through the menu, until she reached "Calls". The call from Snow was timestamped at 4:45. Regina breathed out as she set the phone down in her lap, her eyes falling closed. She didn't believe in coincidences.

She did believe in magic.

Bringing her hand to her abdomen once again, Regina slid an open palm over her middle. The thinness of the hospital gown hid very little. Just below her navel, there was a distinct bulge. Years of strict exercise regiments and kale salads and no sweets — the diet of a Queen, Cora had taught her — afforded her a flat belly. There was no explanation for this, she realized, her eyes locked in confusion and shock and awe and fear on her own frame.

Whale walked in briskly, making Regina jump in her place, pulling her hand nervously away from her belly. "Two for two, your Majesty," he announced in the brash, crude manner that only Whale could.

"You're pregnant," he added after an uncomfortable silence.

Still, nothing.

"About…fourteen weeks it would seem."

Nothing.

Regina was succeeding in the otherwise-impossible. Whale was growing skittish and uncomfortable, transforming before her eyes from a carefree bumbling know-it-all Doctor to a sheepish, confused mad-scientist.

"Seems….Congratulations are in order."

Silence.

He took in a breath, his eyes going slightly wider. "I'm…going to let your family in, so you can share the —"

"No." She cut him off.

No. No, because what would she say? What would she tell them? And who would she tell? The potion she had taken was fool-proof. There was no undoing it. So, even if by some miracle (no, not miracle — magic) she were pregnant, it surely wouldn't last. She would lose it. As she lost everything else in life she cared about the most.

"No," she heard herself say again, her eyes going glassy with tears, confusion threatening to overwhelm her. She turned her head to avoid eye contact with Whale, but instead, caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. She barely recognized herself.

She looked small, disheveled and pale. Without makeup and lipstick, and the clean cuts of her tailored designer suits, she'd lost that commanding presence she prided herself on. Biting her lip, she tucked a lock of ebony hair behind her ear nervously, and looked away. Because now she looked more like the little girl who'd been bent to her mother's will all those years ago, rather than the monarch who instilled fear in her subjects.

"Snow," she corrected herself, turning back to look at Whale. "Snow," she said again, as if convincing herself that this was correct — this was who she wanted with her.

Whale nodded, and left the room in silence.

It was only a few moments before Snow entered, unable to hide the joy in her eyes from being selected by Regina — because even now, there was a part of her that still desired Regina's love and approval over anything else. But that light in her eyes was quickly dulled and replaced with confusion — because Regina was hanging onto the edge of the bed, trying to get up, and she looked smaller than she knew her to be.

"..'Gina, what are you doing?" she asked in a hurried whisper, rushing to her side, offering her hand for support.

"I'm going home," Regina replied gruffly, stepping away from the bed and away from Snow's help — but she recoiled, caught by the shortness of the IV tubes. "Damnit," she breathed out, beginning to tug at the pic line just below her knuckles.

"Oh…Regina…no, don't," Snow begged, seeing what she was doing — she didn't think she should be leaving, but more than that, the very thought of Regina detaching herself from those tubes made her queasy.

"Come on, let me help you," she offered, and she meant help her back into bed. She could feel Regina resisting, but they both knew she was in no position to do so. And Snow couldn't help but smile, because the Regina she had seen earlier terrified her. The Regina who was succumbing to the physical, when she seemed so much bigger than life. This Regina, fighting help and fighting comfort because accepting it means she's lacking something — this Regina she knew and loved.

Regina reluctantly got into bed, only because she realized that going home wouldn't solve anything. Because walking outside of this room meant walking into a crowd of questioning faces and sympathetic stares. And that was worse.

She swallowed hard and covered the sides of her face with her hands, trying to decide what to do next. Snow's hand moved to her back, rubbing in soothing circles, and Regina knew she had to say something.

"Zelena lost the baby," she finally said, choosing to start there because somehow that was easier — but also, if she let herself believe what seemed to be happening, that was the starting point.

"Oh.. Regina, I —," Snow began, confused but sympathetic, and she would have offered more comfort, but she could see Regina squirming and she knew more was coming.

"Zelena lost the baby and…. I'm pregnant," she whispered, finally turning to look into Snow's eyes.