Regina rubbed her wrists. The skin was raw and a little bruised on each one. She had noticed it earlier when she woke but hadn't said anything. She assumed it was something connected with her being ill.

"Miss Mills if you could lie down," the nurse said.

She did as instructed and the nurse, Regina thought someone called her Lila, handed her the ear plugs. They explained that the ear plugs were a must given the sound the MRI made. Dr. Whale explained the process to her and that it would take 45 minutes to complete. She wasn't sure of the purpose of the scan, but she had agreed to undergo it. She had thought if Whale thought it was important then she should, but now she found she was slightly nervous about it.

They weren't sedating her, Whale saying he needed her brain to be active for it to work right.

She put the ear plugs in and then she felt a strap being pulled over and she bolted up.

"What's that for?" she said.

"A precaution," Lila said. "Some patients try and move around – even involuntarily – which could harm them and mess up the results. This will help."

"This is normal?"

"Completely."

Regina was skeptical, but laid back down. They put two straps over her – one over her legs and one across her arms and midsection. They were latched through plastic hoops, Regina assumed due to the metal restrictions around the machine, which was basically a huge magnet Whale had said.

They moved her into position, and she almost told them to wait as she felt her heart rate increase. Why was she being so nervous, she wondered. She had never had an MRI before so maybe that was it. She took a deep breath just as Whale said it was about to start.

She closed her eyes, hoping she could stay relaxed through the process.

Even through the ear plugs she could hear the machine as it ran. She tried to think about anything but it. Time seemed to slow to a crawl for her. She got tired of consciously keeping her eyes closed so she opened them – something that would not cause any damage she had been told. She didn't plan on keeping them open as it was, but when she opened them she a burst of white light.

"What are we going to do?" she heard a man's voice say. It sounded far away or like she was hearing through water. But it was familiar.

"You mean what am I going to do," a woman's voice answered.

"She'll die. What good is all your magic if you can't save your own daughter?"

Both the voices were familiar, but she couldn't place them. Who were they talking about?

"There is someone I could go see who may be able to help," the woman said.

"Then go. Whoever it is if they can help then we have to do something. I can't lose my baby girl."

"Your baby girl," the woman sneered. "You baby her too much."

"She's just a child. Your child, something you seem to forget."

"I have never forgotten. I push her because she is destined for greatness. If I left it up to you she would be useless."

"As long as she isn't useless to you, you don't really care."

"Careful of your words, my dear," the woman said threateningly. "Now if I am going go I must go now."

She felt someone's hand on her cheek and a kiss placed on her forehead. "You stay strong Regina."

In a panic, Regina began to push against the straps that held her to the table. Her mind was racing. Her mother. That was her mother and father's voices.

She felt hands on her. She couldn't hear anything – not even the machine. She didn't know if was one or off – her eyes sealed shut from fear.

She felt the table move and then felt a stabbing pain in her arm and then her mind felt like it was draining into a deep pool of nothingness.

….

Regina woke – the residual feeling of a dream chasing her into consciousness. She was still in the hospital – the lights were off and it was dark outside. She wondered how long she had been asleep.

She remembered suddenly the MRI – the voices she had heard. She must have fallen asleep while undergoing the MRI, she reasoned. That was the only explanation – it was a dream. She had never been sick as a child, certainly not deathly ill. And even if she had been she doubted she would have gotten a kiss from her mother. Cora didn't know how to show affection.

It was a dream. It had to be.

….

Lila stood next to Dr. Whale's desk. "You should go home," she told him.

"I will," he said. "I want to go over these results one more time. It doesn't make any sense. She didn't just cure those kids; she created the antibody in their blood. We now have a cure if there would be another outbreak. But there are no antibodies in her blood. It's like there was never a virus there at all. If she healed the kids that way, why isn't it the same with her?"

"You said it yourself the virus was never acting the same with her. She shouldn't even have gotten it and then when it mutated, who knows what happened."

"She does. She has to. Don't you see this could be the key to my research? If I can figure how her magic interacted with her cells to heal her it could potentially be the skeleton key to cure any disease – even death itself. And these MRI readings, they aren't the same as her original ones. While not as high or all encompassing as the scans when she was hallucinating, there is still a higher level of brain activity there, and it spiked right before she had her little episode. There is still something going on in her body, and I need to find out what."

…

Regina was thankful to be able to wear normal clothes. The hospital gown look was something she hoped not to be repeating anytime soon. After a long discussion with Dr. Whale that morning she was finally being released. He had wanted her to stay to do more tests, but she turned him down. After the MRI she was ready to go home. She had agreed however to come back weekly for a checkup and blood work for the next month. She figured it was a small price to pay.

She was in the chair trying to figure out the best way to put shoes on with her one hand when there was a knock on the door frame. She looked up expecting to see Henry, who hadn't been real forthcoming on how she was getting home exactly. Instead there was a woman with a small child, no more than four or five.

"Excuse me Mayor Mills," the woman said. "I'm Angie, and this little one is Kelly. You probably don't know who I am …"

"You're the secretary over at the street department."

"Yes," Angie said smiling at her. "Um … my son Jacob, he was one of the kids who got sick."

"I hope he is doing ok."

"Yeah, he is great. He is ready to be outside running around with the rest of the boys his age."

"I am glad to hear it."

"We owe it all to you. If you hadn't saved him and the rest of the kids, well I don't want to think of the alternative," Angie said. "Anyway, um … Kelly here, she was with us in the room with Jacob when you healed him. And she wanted to give you something. Go on honey."

The shy little girl, with her mom right behind her, approached Regina and handed her a homemade card. Regina smiled at her as she took it. The girl had used crayons to draw a hospital bed with a stick figure boy in it, and a stick figure person standing next to the bed touching the boy's head.

Regina opened it up to where the girl had written "thank you" in uneven handwriting.

She smiled at the girl again. "Thank you very much," she said and was surprised when the girl moved forward and hugged her. She hugged the girl back.

"Thank you Mayor Mills," Angie said.

"Regina, just call me Regina."

"Thank you Regina."

Kelly motioned for her mom who bent down as Kelly whispered something in her ear.

"I don't know honey," Angie said.

"What?" Regina asked when she saw Angie look over at her.

"Jacob once broke his leg and he had a cast too. All his friends signed it and Kelly wanted to know if she could sign yours."

"You want to sign my cast?" she asked Kelly who nodded yes. She looked up at Angie, "Maybe at the nurses' station they have a marker or something. I don't mind."

"Ok," Angie said and she ran out and came back quickly with a black marker. Regina held her forearm out for Kelly to sign the cast. Her mom had to help her a little but soon Kelly's name graced her cast.

"Thank you again Regina," Angie said before she ushered Kelly out of the room. Regina looked down at the card again.

"Fan mail?"

She looked up to see Tink standing at the door.

"I don't know about that," Regina said.

"There are a lot of grateful families in this town," Tink said coming into the room. She saw the shoes by the chair and immediately dropped down to help Regina get them on.

"I don't even know what I did," Regina said. "I'm just happy everyone is ok."

Tink stood up, "are you ready to go home?"

"More than ready."

Henry reappeared in the room.

"What's say you and I collect up the flowers and cards and put them in the car before we get your mom in there," Tink said to him.

"Wait, are you my ride home?"

"Yep," Tink said proudly.

"And since when do you drive?"

"I passed my test yesterday," she beamed.