NOTE: I do not own OUAT or its characters
"Henry!" she yelled as soon as she came through the door.
"Up here."
She ran up the stairs, called to him again and got to the room at the end of the hall. Upon entering she found Henry on the floor kneeling beside Regina.
"She won't wake up. I called the ambulance."
"I know. I heard the call on the scanner and came back," Emma said kneeling beside her. She felt Regina's head. "She's burning up."
"What's wrong with her?"
"I don't know. Go downstairs. Lead the EMTs up."
Henry ran out the door and Emma shook Regina. "Regina, wake up." She shook her again, but no response. "Regina."
She heard the sirens outside as she looked for any wounds or anything that might explain what was wrong. She saw what looked like a rash on her arm, like she had been scratching it.
The EMTs got there and tried to wake her, but ended up loading her up to take her to the hospital. Emma took Henry with her in her car.
Once there they had to wait in the lobby as they took Regina into the back.
"I came in and she wasn't there. She didn't answer when I yelled for her and so I went upstairs and she was just lying there on the floor and wouldn't wake up," Henry said.
"You did the right thing by calling the ambulance. I am sure Dr. Whale will be able to figure out what is wrong. She'll be ok."
They were waiting for more than an hour before Dr. Whale came out. "How is she?" Henry asked. Dr. Whale looked at Emma. "The mayor is … she's sick, and I don't know what is wrong with her, but I am running some tests. We have hooked up to an IV to help replenish her fluids and to give some antibiotics to help with the fever."
"But she's going to be ok, right?" Henry asked.
"We're going to do our best to take care of her," he said.
Emma knew that not answering a direct question was another way of saying something was wrong. She put her hand on Henry's shoulder.
"Can I see her?" Henry asked.
"Not right now," Dr. Whale said. "You should go home. I will have someone call if there is any change in her condition, but until we isolate what this is, we should play it safe."
"She shouldn't be alone," Henry said.
"We have to let the medical staff do its work," Emma said. "Dr. Whale, call us as soon as you know something."
"I will."
Emma was on the phone with her mom, letting her know about Regina when there was a knock on the door. She opened it to see Hook standing there with a bottle of wine and a smile. "I will have to call you back," she said to her mom.
Hook came in and saw Henry and turned to Emma. "I thought Henry was staying at Regina's."
"Sorry, I meant to call you. Tonight's not good. Regina … she's in the hospital."
"So Henry is here. We can hang together until he goes to sleep.'
"Regina is in the hospital. They don't know what is wrong with her. I don't think tonight is a good time for us to hang out. I need to be with Henry right now."
"Come on Swan," he smiled.
"Killian. I will call you tomorrow."
The next day, Emma was woken by the phone. It was Dr. Whale asking her to come to the hospital as soon as possible.
They were there within the hour – and they weren't the only ones.
The waiting area seemed to be full, but when Emma saw Hook and then Robin and Marian she got a bad feeling. She walked over to Hook. "What are you doing here?"
"Doc had someone track me down and asked me to come in."
She was about to ask more but Dr. Whale came out and asked Emma, Hook and Marian into another room. Robin and Henry accompanied them.
"What's going on?" Emma asked.
"We know what's wrong with Regina and the others."
"Others, what others?"
"Ever since yesterday we've had patients coming in – all with symptoms like Regina's. It wasn't anything I recognized, but one of my nurses did. They all have this rash on different parts of their bodies. It was the rash she recognized. It's from something called Skiver Fever."
"That's not possible," Robin said. "Only kids get it."
"That is what my nurse said, and all the patients who have come in are children with the exception of Regina."
"What is Skiver Fever?" Emma asked.
"It's a disease that typically affects children between the ages of 7 and 16. It starts off as a severe dehydration, followed by fever, chills, aches, and then hallucinations and then the pain gets so bad that their muscles will constrict so severely that their bones can break right before they die. It's some times called bone break fever."
"But there is a cure right?" Emma asked.
From the silence, she knew the answer was no.
"This is a disease from the Enchanted Forest. You three were the last ones there, so I need to test you all to see which one of you is the carrier. Once I discover that, I am hoping since none of you are sick that there may be antibodies in your blood to use for a cure."
Emma asked Robin to watch Henry as the three of them were led to another area for testing. They past by rooms where Emma could see there were children in beds. Whale took a blood sample from each of them, and then kept them waiting – isolated from the rest of the people.
Hook tried speaking to her, but she wasn't paying much attention. She could only hope that she or Hook was the carrier. The other possibility was too much for her to think about. Because if it was Marian, it meant that Emma caused this. She had brought someone who was supposed to be dead forward in time, to another world and if this was the result …
They kept waiting to the point Emma was ready to go hunt down Dr. Whale. When he came in, Emma was prepared for him to say it was her or Hook. But then he looked directly at Marian.