Emma went down to Granny's to get a bite of breakfast. Henry had turned her down not surprisingly. She hadn't slept well at all. Tink's final words kept replaying in her mind. She sat at the counter and ordered a coffee – food suddenly didn't sound appealing.
By the time the coffee arrived so had Killian.
"Morning Swan," he said, sitting down beside her. "I thought you, me, Henry could go for a sail. It might take his mind off of things."
"I don't think that is going to work," she said. "Plus we shouldn't be too far away if the hospital would call."
"Then why don't you see if Snow can watch Henry and we will go out. I saw the look on your face when Whale said it was Marian who was the carrier. Come on, a day away, on the boat, just you and me, it will do you good."
"I can't."
"Swan …"
"Killian, don't. I need to be with Henry right now."
"Fine," he said. "Let me know when you can work me in then."
He left and she just shook her head. She didn't need this on top of everything else. She got her coffee to go and was headed back up stairs. Henry was sitting on the couch playing a video game so she took a seat beside him. He continued to play, not acknowledging her.
"I'm sorry Henry. I am sorry you have to be here instead of being at the hospital with your mom. If it weren't a risk for you to be there, I would take you there in a second to be with her. You know that, right?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"I am trying here kid," she said. "I get it. I messed up big time."
"When she gets out of the hospital I was thinking I should stay with her for a while to make sure she recovers," he said, still not looking at her.
"I am sure she would appreciate that," she said wondering if Henry meant to be there on a more permanent basis or if this was just a reaction to him being mad at her.
"I just lost my dad, I can't lose her too. If she dies though, I don't want to have a funeral. I don't want people saying bad things about her. I don't want people there because no one else but maybe Tink cares about her."
"Hey, you listen to me; she's not going to die. Do you realize how tough Regina is? She's going to get through this."
"What if she doesn't?" he asked looking at her this time. "What if she dies there all alone? She only wanted to be loved, and no one loves her except for me, and I can't even be there to tell her myself."
"She knows you love her," Emma said. "She would never doubt that."
Dr. Whale peered through the microscope. He had only slept a couple of hours – working to find a cure for this fever which now affected close to 30 children. It was an interesting disease from a purely scientific standpoint. From what he had been told the phases each patient went through didn't vary, but the time a patient was in each phase did vary. Regina had hit the chill phase the day before and by this morning he had to order a morphine drip due to the aches she was experiencing.
The children were either in phase one of dehydration and phase two fever. Only one had reached the chill phase and that was only in the last hour. Trying to track the progression of the disease from child to child was near impossible.
But Regina was different from the others, and not just because she was an adult. The children were all lucid, able to talk and answer questions. They were sick no doubt and getting worse, but this disease had hit Regina like a train. Even when she spoke to say she was hot or cold or in pain, it came out as short statements not directed at anyone. She wasn't reacting to any stimuli and seemed to be in a constant state of semi-consciousness.
The scientist in him was fascinated by this disease and what it was doing to her. He had ordered another blood panel from her this morning and was considering a spinal tap since the disease, while caused by a virus he was able to isolate, it had neurological symptoms which suggested a possible connection to the central nervous system.
She had undergone an MRI that morning so he could have a look at her brain. He would do another after the hallucinations started. It would be good test to see which areas of the brain became active at that point. It might also be beneficial to his personal research.
While he would never forgive Regina for bringing him here, he had to admit the scientific research of this world was far superior. Ever since he remembered who he was, he had been reading more and more research about the brain for his own purposes.
Now he had a disease, and a lab rat. He was more than willing to let this disease run its course in Regina.
The medical staff would never question his course of treatment of her and since she had no family, there was no one to stop him.
He had been telling the truth to Emma about keeping Henry away since he was born in this world. There was no reason to take any chances with his health by letting him visit Regina. It just happened to have the added benefit of isolating her more.
Tink could be a problem, but based on how pale she had gotten seeing Regina, he doubted she would be suspicious if he ordered other tests on her.
The kids though, he needed to find away to save them.
But what he was looking at now confirmed what he had thought upon an initial survey of Marian's blood – there were no antibodies. The only thing he could think of was that while she was a carrier, since she didn't have the disease her body hadn't produced any antibodies to combat it. The human body was actually quite resilient. It often found its own defenses against disease. But since she was an adult she wouldn't be susceptible to getting ill therefore her body would have no reason to produce antibodies.
It was puzzling and he knew he was running out of time.
Emma pulled into the hospital lot with her sirens going, but immediately turned them off. There was some sort of disturbance inside, and despite her father saying he could handle it, she knew she had to go. Selfishly, she thought while there maybe she could find out about Regina's condition and then Henry might stop his silent war with her. She was getting no where with him, and had made the mistake of suggesting taking Hook up on his offer to take them out for a ride to take their mind off of things.
That had been a mistake and only seemed to confirm for him that Emma didn't care that Regina was sick. Although he had taken it a step further than that.
"You don't even care that this is all your fault," he had yelled at her before storming off to his room.
She walked into the hospital where several men and women were yelling at each other with her dad in the middle trying to get them to calm down.
"This is your fault," a guy was saying to a woman. "If you hadn't have let him go to that sleepover he wouldn't have gotten this."
"Hey, you don't know that he got it from Billy. Billy could have easily have gotten this from your son. Judging by you, he's probably not the cleanest of kids," another guy yelled back.
They made a grab at each other and Charming stepped in pulling one of them back, but the other was still trying to get to him – through Charming. Emma stepped forward and grabbed him to pull him back.
"Get your hands off my husband," a woman yelled as she tried to intercede. Emma pushed her back lightly but the woman fell backward. The man she was tussling with tried to break free to get to who Emma guessed was his wife, and in the struggle elbowed her under the chin. Emma let go, feeling dazed by it.
"Everyone calm down!" Charming said in a raised voice. "I know this is difficult for you. But you have to calm down. This isn't helping anyone. It doesn't matter where your kids got it, the important thing is that a cure is found."
"Easy for you to say," another man who hadn't been involved in it said. "It's not like your child is in there dying."
"No, his child is the reason we are all here," a woman said.
Everyone seemed to quiet down at once and they were all looking at Emma.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't know."
The woman who she had knocked to the floor on accident was up now, her husband had his arm around her. She walked over to Emma, and even as she saw it coming she made no move to stop it as the slap connected with her face. It didn't hurt, not physically at least. The rest of the parents moved away back to their seats. Even the two families that had been fighting sat together, their argument forgotten in the face of a common enemy.
"Let's get out of here," Charming suggested.
"No," she said. "I have something to do first. Do me a favor, go talk to Henry. He's … he's upset, and nothing I say seems to be coming out right lately."
She didn't wait for a response as she walked past all the accusing eyes in search of Dr. Whale.