Chapter 4 – Vigil
Henry was like a cat on a hot tin roof.
His mom had been out of surgery for a whole day now and they still wouldn't let him in to see her. She had been in critical condition apparently, not that anyone told him much. They always spoke to Graham and the Sheriff always looked so guilty then tried to put a brave face on for Henry. It didn't really work. Henry might not have Emma's gift for being a human lie detector but he knew enough to know when someone was blowing smoke.
He'd been allowed to look at her through the glass of the intensive care unit last night before Emma had taken him home to try to get him to sleep.
They'd tried to distract him with school but he'd been so out of it that Miss Blanchard had kept him back afterwards. She'd heard about what had happened of course. Everyone had. She'd asked if there was anything she could do and Henry had leapt on it. He'd begged her to bring him to the hospital, she was going to go and visit Prince Charming anyway, right? He could come along, just in case his mom woke up, then he'd leave with Miss Blanchard when she was finished reading to her husband. He'd be as good as gold. He wouldn't be any problem. He'd behave. He'd promised and promised and promised he'd behave if only they'd let him see his mom.
Graham had told Henry that morning that she'd been moved out of intensive care and into a room in a regular ward. She'd woken up once or twice but had been pretty out of it.
Henry had heard the nurses talking. One of the times she had woken up screaming. She had screamed and screamed and only Graham had been able to calm her down enough for them to sedate her.
And Henry, where was he? He was stuck outside. Looking in.
Henry sat in one of the cheap plastic seats in the hallway outside her room, his feet drumming on the floor, his hands clenched on his lap. He looked strung out. The nurses kept staring at him, coming over, offering juice. He thanked them and accepted because that was polite, but even taking a mouthful of it made him feel sick to his stomach.
He kept throwing up. His stomach wouldn't stay still.
He had done this. He had wished it on her. He'd said he'd hated her, that she was the Evil Queen, that she'd soon be defeated. Henry wanted the curse to break, he wanted it almost as much as he wanted his mom to wake up, but not at this cost.
What if that was what it meant?
What if the Evil Queen did have to die for the curse to break?
Had Henry done that? Had bringing Emma here weakened the curse just enough so that people remembered? So that someone might remember enough to try and take revenge.
"Jesus, Henry, what are you doing here?!"
Henry's head snapped up when Graham rounded the bend and called to him. Graham hurried over and crouched down in front of him.
He was clean today of blood and gore. He had gone home to change at some point, his clothes clean if not as neatly pressed as they usually were, his beard looked a little scruffier and his eyes were darkened with lack of sleep but he still looked better than Henry did.
"You look awful."
"Thanks." Henry managed a smile that was more of a grimace.
"Did Emma bring you here?" Graham sounded angry. He'd been angry since the attack.
Good. Henry wanted him angry. He wanted Graham as angry as he felt and he hoped he beat up the guy that had attacked his mom. He hoped he beat him with a stick and tasered him and kicked him until his leg got tired. Then he wanted Graham to switch to his other leg and keep going.
"No. Miss Blanchard did." Henry shook his head. He was mad at Emma too but she and Graham had to work together to catch this new villain that had attacked his mom.
"She left you alone? Here?" Graham's jaw clenched. "No one's let you in?"
Henry shook his head and Graham twisted to glare over at the nurses. They looked hurriedly away from him, sensing a pissed of Sheriff would be giving them a stern talking to later.
"No. Can I? Can I go in now?"
"Aye, 'course you can." Graham stood and settled a steadying hand on Henry's shoulders when he wobbled a little. "You're going to go and guard your mom and I'm going to go and get you something to eat. You're going to eat it and you're going to keep it down, okay?"
"Sure." Henry would have agreed to anything right then, all he could focus on was getting closer to the door which his mom was on the other side of.
"Henry," Graham stopped with his hand on the door handle and waited until Henry looked up at him, "this is not your fault."
Henry stared up at him for a long moment, as if it took time to focus on him.
"Can I see her now?"
"Yeah, come on." Graham gave up on that for now and ushered Henry into the room.
Henry bolted towards the bed and stopped at the foot of it, gripping the frame so tightly his knuckles whitened. His skinny chest heaved as he drank in every detail of her.
Regina reclined at a raised angle on the bed and she looked so tiny. She looked like she was made of porcelain. Her skin was a marble pallor, her eyes smudged with dark, still bruised on one side from the first attack. There was a tube strung across her face and under her nose, but not one down her throat so at least she was breathing okay. There was sticky tabs on her chest to measure her heartbeat and a huge needle taped into the back of her hand. Her other hand was in a cast nearly to the elbow. Bags of stuff hung on poles by the bed, dripping into her.
Henry knew his mom was small. He was ten and he almost reached her shoulder, but she seemed to cast a fifty foot shadow. She was much bigger on the inside. Much fiercer than anyone that small had a right to be.
Today she looked small.
"See?" Graham took Henry's shoulders and drew him a little of a way away from the bed, he picked up the chart hooked there and pointed at a string of numbers. "That's her heart, it's getting better, it's getting stronger. Her blood pressure is normalising," Graham pointed to another string of numbers and then down to the comments at the bottom, "and it says here that her stitches are good and there's no sign of infection."
It said a lot of other stuff that Henry didn't understand. Fracturing of the ribs, dislocation of the glenohumeral joint, fractures of the hamate and triquetrum, piercing of the pericardium and contusions to the wall of the left ventricle and the caudal vena cava.
He would Google it later and know that it meant she had been grabbed so hard her wrist had broken, thrown to the ground with enough force to wrench her shoulder from its socket, stabbed so hard her bones had broken and it was a miracle that the knife had just nicked her heart rather than piercing it.
"So, you're going to sit here, and I'm going for food." Graham toted him over to the chair by the bed and pushed him down into it. "What do you want?"
Henry shrugged.
"Henry…Henry," Graham had to ask again to get the boy to look at him, "I'll fetch you food. What do you want?"
Henry stared at him for a long moment.
"Something from Granny's?" The longer Graham was gone, the longer Henry got to stay with Regina.
Graham smirked. He knew exactly what the boy was thinking. He had known him his whole life after all.
"I'm not going to take you away from her. Obviously trying to distract you with school was a mistake. You can stay right here until she wakes up."
Henry sagged suddenly back into the chair, a long sigh leaking from him. His eyes closed and his lower lip trembled a moment before he got himself under control. Just like his mum. Not as practiced, sure, but so damn proud and never wanting to show weakness.
"So, food?"
"Whatever. I don't care." Henry opened his eyes and they widened when his stomach gave a sudden yowl. "Maybe a lot of it though."
Graham smirked and nodded. Maybe he would go to Granny's.
"Alright, hang in there. Keep an eye on her. I'll be back as soon as I can." Graham reached out and squeezed Henry's shoulder.
Then he left Henry alone with his mother.
Granny's
Graham braced himself for the overwhelming scent of people and food and then pushed into the diner. The bell jangled overhead, heads turned and silence fell.
Graham huffed out a breath.
He ignored everyone and headed straight for the counter.
"Hey." Ruby wasn't her usual overly friendly self when she approached to take his order. She stood and waited for him to respond, not babbling on about this, that and the next thing.
"Hi." Graham shrugged out of the brown leather Sheriff's jacket and slung it over a stool. Graham reeled off the order and Ruby jotted it down hurriedly before spinning away to take it to the kitchen.
Right into the kitchen.
Graham huffed out a breath and pointedly ignored everyone. No one was quite brave enough to broach the subject of the Mayor's health and that suited him just fine.
Granny appeared seconds later and rounded the bar to stand right next to him. She waited with the patience of a continent until he turned to face her and, when she wrapped scarred arms around him, he even allowed himself to lean into it for a moment.
"She'll be fine, lad." Granny held him at arm's length. "We both know she's too damn ornery to let some paltry mugger keep her down."
Graham grimaced a smile and nodded.
"I'm sure she'd appreciate that, coming from you." The lie felt thick and heavy on his tongue but he told it anyway.
Granny and Ruby were two of the few people he could stand for prolonged periods of time. He even allowed them to touch him. Not often and not for long, but it didn't make his skin feel like it was two sizes too small. Must be the wolf in them.
"The hell she would." Granny gave a lopsided smile but she appreciated the sentiment. "How you keeping?"
"Tired." Graham lifted a shoulder in a shrug.
"The boy?"
"Worse. This is lunch for him."
"Ye shouldn't have sent him to school."
"We thought it would distract him."
"You and Emma? With the parenting skills of a buzzard between ye? I'll bet that'll go down a treat when her ladyship comes round."
"So long as she's alive to yell at me, that's fine." That miasma of emotions that he didn't want to list beat at him again and it was only Granny's steadying hand on his arm that stopped him from howling in an attempt to get it out.
"She'll be alright. You need a hand with anything, you know who to ask." Granny gave him a warning look to not take her up on it at his peril. He was actually incredibly glad that she'd offered to help.
He knew they all would but Granny was one of the few people he actually trusted to genuinely mean it. She might not like Regina –at all- but Granny was a roll-the-sleeves-back-and-get-stuck-in type. She'd do what she had to do. She'd do what she felt was right.
The moment between them was broken when the doorbell jangled again and Leroy stomped his way in. One of the dwarves, Grumpy if Regina's intelligence reports back in the Enchanted Forest or Henry's book were to be believed.
"Hey, Sheriff, she dead yet?"
Graham reacted entirely without thought. Something screamed in him and he just moved without meaning to.
His badge plinked across the bar when he tore it from his waistcoat and tossed it away. Granny's hand gripping his sleeve didn't even register. The widening of Grumpy's eyes told him that his expression must have made it clear how he felt about the dwarf right then.
Graham threw him out the door. Clean out the door.
He didn't even open it first.
Glass exploded everywhere, Ruby shrieked from behind the bar, a chorus of gasps rang out and Graham snarled low and intent. His boots crunched into glass shards when he stepped out of the doorframe where a glass window had been a second before and he stood on the porch of the diner, glaring down at Grumpy.
He had thrown him out the window in the door, over the porch and bypassed the steps completely to land in a crumpled heap on the path leading to the sidewalk.
The dwarf was winded, his pride had taken a beating, but he was otherwise unharmed. He coughed and wheezed, trying to remember how to breathe with rhythm again. He stared up at Graham like he had never seen him before…or like he remembered seeing the Sheriff like that once upon a time…
"Get out of here before I arrest your sorry arse." Graham growled.
"For what?" Grumpy wheezed.
"Anything I want." Graham's voice was as sharp as the glass beneath his boots and Grumpy took the hint, scrambling away and limping off down the street.
Graham's chest heaved and he staggered when something burst in it. His hand went to his sternum and he blinked hard, his eyes watering with the feeling. Something powerful and warm and all consuming. Incredibly, Graham smiled.
Regina was awake.
He didn't know how he knew, he just did.
Graham turned back to the diner and stepped through the broken door again. His eyes landed on Granny first, her brows raised her mouth half open in shock.
"I'll pay for the door."
"Damn right you will." Granny recovered herself quickly.
"Is that order ready?" Graham moved back to the bar, pinning his badge back on, picking up his jacket and slinging it on.
"Here." Ruby spoke weakly, holding out a paper bag that smelled delicious and a cup holder with two huge cups in it.
"Thanks." Graham dug into his pocket for some cash and stopped when Granny just shoved the bag into his hand, stuffed the cupholder into the other and herded him towards the door.
"Just get. Get before my charitable feelings disappear." She pointlessly opened the shattered door and pushed him out onto the steps.
"I really will pay for it." Graham turned back to her.
"I know, but I'm pretty mad at ye just now so you better get before I throw you out."
Graham nodded, smiling again, and then hurried down the steps and back towards the squad car. He was so happy because of the alien feeling in his chest that he was halfway towards the hospital before he thought to question it.
The Hospital
Regina awoke like a swimmer from the deep. She seemed to come from so far down in the black. Struggling up through the molasses of drugs and into the waking world. She was fairly out of it, she knew that much. She felt like she'd downed a half of her cider on an empty stomach. Her eyelids seemed to be as heavy as garage doors and it took her several moments of bleary fluttering to finally get them to cooperate. Even then her vision was out of focus for long blinking seconds until she finally managed to get one thing to resolve into a sharpened image.
Henry.
Regina's tortured body felt better than even morphine could hope to make it for one blinding instant. That way she felt every time she saw him. Before she thought about how much he hated her, or the lies she'd told him or the damage she'd done to everyone that he'd never forgive her for. Before she remembered that she'd lost him months ago.
Henry practically flew out of the seat he was hunched in and bounded into the side of the bed, gripping the metal frame that prevented her from falling out until his hands were lurid white with pressure.
"Mom." His voice was hoarse, his eyes wide and wet and she frowned at that.
He looked awful, her little boy, what had they been doing to him?
"Hen…" Regina wheezed the first time and he hurried to pick up a cup of water with a straw in it for her. She drank carefully, her tongue feeling like fur covered lead, and tried again with a weary smile. "Henry."
"Mom, you're awake." Henry beamed at her, clutching the cup of water in trembling hands.
He sniffed suddenly, his chin quivering, and blinked a lot.
"Oh, baby." Regina tried to lean towards him and blanched when pain sliced into her middle even through the haze of drugs. She sat back real quick but managed to lift her arms. "Come here."
Henry hesitated a moment, but only a moment, before looking down at the gate on the side of the bed. He couldn't immediately see how to lower it so he stood on the chair again and used it as a step to clamber over.
He was incredibly careful, moving around her like she was made of glass, and tucked himself into the narrow space afforded for him at her side. He curled beside her, his head resting on her upper arm and it wasn't until she lifted her other arm to comb his hair back out of his tearful eyes that she noticed it was in a cast.
"Oh." Regina blinked at the white plaster encasing her hand from knuckle to almost her elbow.
Ah, that was right, Graham had broken her wrist when he had thrown her. Her shoulder ached too much to hold her arm up and she carefully rested it against her stomach, moving it hurriedly when the wound in her middle screamed through the morphine again.
Regina absently curled her good arm around Henry's head and tangled those fingers in his hair instead. She turned her head and pressed a kiss to his forehead.
"Honey, you look awful."
Henry choked a laugh, snuggling as close as he dared to her.
"I'm so sorry." He spoke on a rush, the words jumbling from him so fast it took her a moment to translate.
"Sorry for what?" Regina frowned, her drugged brain not up to much right then.
"For making this happen." Henry's voice cracked.
"What?" Regina croaked, her own throat not up to matching the incredulity she felt.
"I wished it on you. You were right, every time I…"
"Oh, sweetheart, no." Regina hugged him as close as she could. "No. A bad man did this to me. Not you. This could never be your fault. You hear me? It was absolutely not your fault."
"But…"
"I mean it, Henry. No." Regina's voice became firmer when she had to rise to the challenge to comfort him. "Alright?"
He was quiet for long moments.
"Alright?" She jostled him a little.
"Alright." He whispered.
"Good." Regina sagged back into the pillows, suddenly exhausted. She stared up at the ceiling. Everything was hazy and she felt absolutely shit face wasted.
Morphine was good stuff.
"You need anything?" Henry kept his voice low.
"Just for you to stay there." Regina murmured, her eyes fluttering closed. Her fingers still steadily combing his hair let him know she hadn't succumbed to sleep again. "Stay right there, baby boy."
"I'm not a baby."
She huffed a breath in the shape of a chuckle.
"You'll always be my baby."
Henry would have bristled at that just two days previous but now it was a whole 'nuther ball game. Someone had tried to kill his mom. He hadn't realised until the moment he'd found out how much he didn't want to lose her. She was his mom. Yeah, she might be the Evil Queen too, but she was still his mom and he absolutely did NOT want her dead.
"Are you really going to be okay?" His voice sounded far smaller than he'd have liked.
"I would never leave you." Regina gave him a brief squeeze by way of comfort but he could tell the effort cost her.
Henry ached that he couldn't hold her back. That she was too hurt to even get a hug.
So he wriggled as close as he dared, rested his head against her cheek, and tumbled readily into sleep.
Later…
Graham ambled through the corridors of the hospital, winding his way to Regina's room, deep in thought.
What the hell had that been? That warm and fuzzy feeling?
Graham didn't think he'd EVER felt like that, even back when he'd had his whole heart and before he'd ever met Regina.
It had been such a bursting swell of emotion. It had broken over him like a wave. All-encompassing and completely immersive. For a moment, just a second, everything had seemed right and he'd forgotten everything else. It was a sanctuary in the terrible world he had found himself in.
Then it had been gone.
Graham had puzzled it out on the way over, caught between mulling it over and wanting to hurry back, because he knew Regina was awake. In his blood and his bones he knew she was awake.
Which came with that horrible grab-bag of emotions on its heels. He felt half crazed just at the prospect of seeing her again. She might have attempted to return his heart to him, but she held the cards now. A few choice words from her, an accusation there, a little hint for where to look for evidence, to have a good look at that knife that had so well ventilated her midsection…she'd land him in jail and come across as the saintly survivor.
On the other hand, he was glad she was alive. He'd known her for most of his life, been tangled with her for just as long. Foolishly, stupidly, darkly, perhaps, but they were joined all the same. She was a fixture now, a part of him and he of her…was he ready to cut that out of him?
Or was this all just crazy? Had she completely broken him after all those years and he really didn't know the difference between right and wrong? Was he so completely her pet that she had convinced him that her pleasure was worth anything –any degradation, any pain, any horror- on his part?
Was he better off just pulling himself up by his bootstraps, marching into that hospital room and finishing what he had started?
Graham arrived at Regina's room before he reached any kind of conclusion to any of his queries.
Well, he might not know what to do about Regina, but he did know what to do about the hungry little boy he'd left by her side.
Graham pushed open the door with one shoulder and swung his way into the private room. He twitched in surprise when he saw Henry absent from the chair he had left him in. It was quickly quelled by locating him in the bed tucked into his mother's side. Graham's eyes hungrily drank in every detail of the scene and all the air rushed out of his lungs when he tracked his gaze up to her face and found her eyes open, staring back into his.
He stood there, like that, frozen in the doorway, for what felt like hours.
Regina blinked languidly at him, her fingers combing idly through Henry's hair as he slept.
Graham finally sucked in a breath and pushed his way entirely into the room. He stood there, in the middle of the room, drinks in one hand, food in the other, and watched her watch him.
He felt everything.
Another flashfire of emotion so powerful it nearly knocked him off his feet. Something hot and lurid purple burst in his head, followed by a streak of pallid yellow fear veined with pulsing green terror.
It was her. It was coming from Regina. Graham could only stare at her. That cool, impassive mask never changed. He could see and hear the kick her heart gave at the sight of him and he could feel that she felt something –felt a lot- for him…and not all of it hatred.
It was violent and powerful, this feeling in his chest roiling like a snake in a bag, but it wasn't hate. There was fear, but not really of him or what he had done. Pain, a lot of pain, not all of it physical but –underneath all that, deep, deep, down- was a small kernel of peace. Right down in the foundations of her, a little piece of calm that kept her functioning. Up until recently it had been Henry, but there was new scar tissue there, the boy had torn himself from deep within her by setting off on his quest.
She was feeling better though, better than she had in such a long time and it was because…because of Graham.
Graham blinked when he realised what sacrificing half his heart had gained him. He could feel what she felt. See past the façade, see the truth of her, she'd never be able to lie to him again.
Which was exactly why he would never tell her.
Regina knew nothing about half his heart being in her chest. She knew nothing of what he had done to save her life. As far as she was concerned, he was healthy and whole again. He had managed to resuscitate her and dragged her to the hospital where Whale had saved her life. That was what she believed had happened…and she would continue to believe it if Graham had anything to say about it.
And he was staring at her and it was beginning to make her nervous.
"It's good to see you awake." Graham dredged the words from somewhere.
Regina tilted her head and had the energy for a sardonic arch of an eyebrow.
Graham deliberately looked at Henry and she gave a subtle nod. As always, she could at least be trusted to do what she believed was best for Henry.
"It's good to be awake."
"We'll have to talk." Graham carefully approached her and circled around to set the food down on the raised table that spanned the bed.
"Now?"
"Later is fine…but it will need to be soon. Questions are being asked." Most stridently by Emma who wouldn't buy the whole phantom attacker unless Regina and Graham had their story straight.
Luckily for them all, it had rained that night. Torrential Maine weather pouring over the town and washing away any evidence that could be found outside. Not that there was any, but now it didn't have to be fabricated.
So that just left the blood in Graham's house. Splashed liberally over his bedroom floor, dripped and pattered along the hallway and spattered over the front steps and the interior of his truck.
Emma had studied all of it and Graham had been glad to see that she had very little idea as to what she was actually looking at. She didn't seem to notice that the blood only seemed to lead one way. Surely it would have spatter going in both directions if Regina had staggered into Graham's bedroom for aid? There was no other way it could have happened, after all. Regina must have dragged herself all the way into his bedroom because that was the only way all that blood could have gotten in there.
Of course, Graham had panicked a little, which was why there was so much blood pooled there. Then he had been overcome with gallantry and scooped up the little Mayor, toting her out to his truck and driving bravely to the hospital with her.
Graham's stomach twisted at the thought but he shoved that down.
Of course, there was the question as to why Regina hadn't just hammered on the door? How had she even gotten in? There was no sign of forced entry, not that a woman in danger of rapidly bleeding out would have been able to force the door. Even if she hadn't been a mere five-four and petite with it.
Simple. She had a key. She knew Graham was a heavy sleeper and he often didn't hear her when she knocked…it had become habit to invite herself in.
Which was utter bollocks, of course.
Regina hadn't come to him. He'd been at her beck and call and that had ever been the case. Of course, for the last twenty eight years, he'd liked it that way.
"I'll bet." Regina's rasping voice brought his attention back to her and he automatically moved to take the cup of water and the straw from the bedside table. He tended to her, letting her drink and then setting it aside.
He had completed the action without thought just as she had accepted it without the paranoia of poisoning that had accompanied her every other morsel back in the Enchanted Forest.
Graham wondered if she even realised that she trusted him so completely.
"Don't think about it right now. When you can breathe without the aid of drugs to dull the crippling pain, then we can revisit that night. Until then…I'll keep it at bay." Graham watched her face. Watched the way her impassive almost contemptuous expression belied the feelings he could feel seeping from her heart into his.
She liked that he wanted to protect her.
Graham found himself smiling and she frowned at him, confused. He felt a frisson of fear go through her, convinced that he was about to do something heinous to her. Annoyance hot on its heels when her thrumming panic was translated into a staccato bleeping from the machines she was hooked up to.
"Do you think you can eat?"
Regina brightened a little.
"What did you bring?"
"Chili cheeseburgers, fries, coleslaw…" Graham dug through the bags, laying the takeout boxes onto the table. "Milkshake, coffee…there's some green stuff that they always use to make the meal look bigger…"
"Salad garnish, dear." Regina absently corrected him, measuring the gratification of the greasy meal over the probably likelihood that she wouldn't be able to keep such rich food down.
Then again, the last time she'd been on this many drugs, it had been laudanum. Morphine's older and much less refined cousin. She might be able to eat a little without immediately seeing it again.
"I can go and find some toast if you'd prefer." Graham offered after a minute.
"I'm fine. You eat first." Regina dismissed it and turned her attention back to Henry. "Sweetheart? Wake up, Graham has brought you lunch."
Henry grumbled and snuggled closer for a moment. When Regina smiled at the movement, her expression –for once- completely matched the blast of feeling that rocketed through her.
"Come on, chili cheeseburger, your favourite."
Henry blearily opened one eye.
"No pickles?"
"I would never dare." Graham said solemnly and wheeled the table up the bed, closer to the boy.
Henry sat up slowly, as if he'd been in the same position for years. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stared sightlessly at the food for a moment. Regina rested her good hand against his back, rubbing small circles there, and gentled him back into the real world.
Her poor little boy. She'd put him through the wringer with this stunt of hers.
She had known better, known that Graham would kill her the first opportunity he got. That he'd bottled it at the last instant was something she hadn't foreseen. Neither had she seen how harshly it would have affected Henry. Looking at him now, it became nearly impossible to believe that she had ever thought he didn't care at all for her. How could she have missed it so completely? He loved her still…and she had nearly ripped that away from him.
She had always been cruel and selfish, always, but she had promised herself that she would never be that way with Henry.
Another promise broken. Was she even surprised anymore?
Henry twisted to look down at her and she found a smile from somewhere for him.
"How you feeling?"
"Better." Lies. "Eat something, sweetheart."
"You want some?" Henry folded his legs neatly and pulled his Styrofoam carton closer.
"I don't think that's a good idea. Go ahead." She managed another smile and tried to sit up straighter, wincing when pain ravaged her.
"Here." Graham was suddenly there, leaning closer and sliding his arms around her waist gently. Regina wound her arms about his neck after a moment of hesitation and Graham scooted her higher up the bed to make room for Henry. When Graham released her, both of them a little uncomfortable with the familiarity that shouldn't be there anymore, Regina cast a glance over at Henry and stilled when she found him watching them both carefully.
Henry munched a few French fries, watching with an unblinking stare and Regina cleared her throat. Considering what to say.
"I'm cool with it."
Regina blinked at the boy.
"You and Graham." Henry shrugged. "You never needed to hide it from me. I'm not jealous or anything."
Regina pressed her lips together and hummed in the back of her throat.
"Good." Graham flopped down onto the chair and dug into his own sack of lunch. The curse might be –well- a curse, but chili cheeseburgers from Granny's were very nearly worth it. "Because I'm not going anywhere."
"Really?" Regina arched a brow at him, her tone dangerous.
"Really." Graham nodded, his mouth full of burger. "Someone is going to have to look after you. Unless you want Henry taking time off school?"
Regina's jaw clenched.
"I don't need help."
"Aye, just you wait until you try to get dressed without tearing your stitches. Then we'll see who's so independent." Graham snorted and sipped his coffee.
Regina opened her mouth to tell him where to get off but Henry silenced her with a pleading look.
"Mom, please?"
"Henry…"
"Will you please let someone help you? Just this once? I'm not big enough to do it myself." He wrinkled his nose. "Besides, I don't think you want me dressing you."
Regina's mouth twitched, fighting down a smile despite herself.
"I'd pick horrible clothes." Henry assured her.
Regina heaved a sigh and winced when her wound tugged. She tapped the clicker with her finger and the morphine drip gave a little hiss as a dose was administered.
"I still don't like it."
Graham? Help her? She knew the Sheriff wanted to do nothing of the kind. He wanted her where he could keep an eye on her.
Now that he was whole again and had his will, now that he knew about the curse, she was certain he was going to throw his lot in with the Charmings and do everything he could do bring about her downfall. She didn't know if he would reveal to Henry that he knew that the curse was real, but she was certain he was going to help the boy with his plot to break it.
Fantastic.
She had already proved she couldn't kill him. Hell, she hadn't even been able to help him without nearly getting killed herself. She felt like she'd been sawn in half and, besides, he was bigger, stronger and faster than she…she was losing. She was losing and there was nothing that she could do about it.
Still, there is a difference between choosing to surrender and being conquered. Right then, it was a difference that Regina clung to.
"Alright, you can help me."
"My eternal gratitude." Graham gave a mocking half bow in his seat and then went back to shovelling food in his mouth. It was the first proper meal he'd had in days. "I'll pack some things and move them over to your house this afternoon."
"You'll what?" Regina's voice would have given polar bears chills.
"Graham would have to stay with us." Henry licked at a blob of sauce in the corner of his mouth. "What if he had to get you a glass of water or something in the night? Or you fell over? You're tiny for a grown up but I'm still not big enough to lift you." Henry's tone was admonishing.
"I am not tiny."
"Practically pocket sized, darlin'." Graham smirked and drank his coffee. "I could lift you with one arm. You are a little half pint of Mayor, you are."
Regina sank deeper into the bed, half in defeat and half in sulk, and glared sluggishly at him. Wow, that morphine was fast acting.
Graham watched her succumb to it and noticed that it was becoming easier to put the brave face on for Henry now that he was more certain that Regina was actually going to survive his attempt at murdering her.
This was hellish, from every angle it was an awful situation, but there was no reason not to enjoy this kind of suffering from her. She'd be under his control. Reliant on him. It would be nice to have the tables turned on her and even better to have her where he could keep an eye on her.
Graham had no idea how much power she actually had over the town, though it certainly no longer extended over the Sheriff's department, but in the coming days and weeks, he was going to make it his mission to find out.
Oh yes, Regina Mills was stuck with him.