"Are you sure she is ok?" Emma asked.
"She will be fine yes," Dr. Whale said giving Regina look meant to ask, 'what is she even doing here.'
"Thank you, doctor," Regina said. "I am sorry they had to call you in late like this. I am sure another of the doctors could have handled it."
"It's Victor and nonsense," he said. "You are my patient and the staff is under my orders to call me if you come in no matter what the hour is. No doctor sees you but me. You went through a recent medical scare and it's my job to see you through it to the end."
This time Emma gave Regina a look meant to convey her annoyance at the doctor. She stood next to the chair Henry was sitting in. She had arrived at the mansion and had rang the bell and then pounded on the door until Henry answered. She had asked where Regina was, moving all the way up the stair to her room with Henry on her heels only to find she wasn't there. They went back down and found Regina on the floor just waking up.
Emma insisted on taking her to the hospital, despite Regina's assurance that she was fine. Once there, they had to wait until Dr. Whale arrived, which annoyed Emma – a fact she pretty much let the night nurses know.
Regina had herself discharged, even though Dr. Whale told her that it would ok if she stayed overnight – the one thing Emma did seem to agree with – and they could run more tests in the morning just in case. Regina politely refused reminding them both that she had yet another doctor's appointment soon where she would hopefully be getting the sling off. If there were any further issues she said she would address them at that time.
Of course saying that got her a lecture from Whale – who again was backed up by Emma – than any issues should be dealt with immediately if they arose.
They got in the car, Henry half-asleep in the back seat before they got their seat belts latched.
Emma started the car and looked at Regina, "maybe it wouldn't hurt if you spent the night at the hospital."
"You heard him, I am fine. I just had a panic attack," she said.
"You don't have panic attacks."
"Which makes it distressing, but not life-threatening."
"I just want to make sure you are ok," she said. "Do you want to tell me what set the panic attack off?"
"I had a nightmare," she said softly.
Emma didn't say anything at first. "Why were you downstairs though, on the floor?"
Regina looked out the window as the quiet town moved beyond the pane of glass. Sometimes she forgot that this town existed because of her, because of her own need to get revenge. Other times she couldn't forget that fact.
She remembered back in Neverland where she boldly told Pan that she had no regrets. She had none because it brought her Henry. She glanced in the back at him now. She couldn't regret the things that brought her, her son.
But lately – not lately, since she started having these memories of being sick and being "cured" – she had been re-examining her life. She couldn't help but wonder if her original destiny would have brought her the kind of happiness where she would never had to worry about regrets. Had that really been stolen from her?
The other thing she realized was that you can miss something that was never yours to begin with. She felt it every day now; she missed that destiny that was supposed to have been hers, but she never got to experience.
This latest memory though, it felt like it had stripped her bare in a way she couldn't turn back from. Rumple knew she had a true love and he had simply said that person needed to be eliminated. Daniel, she thought. He didn't die because Snow told her mother about him. He died because he had loved her and that didn't fit into the destiny that Cora and Rumple wanted her to have.
It made sense that Cora would want a destiny that involved power and royalty for Regina. It was all she ever talked about.
But what were Rumple's motivations? Had he known even when she was that young that she would be needed to cast his curse? Had he foreseen it and placed her on this new path just for her to get him here to this world to find his son?
She felt like her whole life was a lie.
When Regina didn't answer her question Emma got a little concerned. She watched as the other woman stared out the window, lost in thought. She wondered if she should do something, put a comforting hand on her or just tell her it was all going to be ok. She did neither; too unsure of what would be the right thing to do.
She had panicked when she had woken and felt Regina's distress. Her mind never questioned that she was actually feeling what Regina was feeling. She merely felt it and knew where she needed to be.
Running up the stairs to Regina's bedroom, all she knew was that she needed to find her, see her, and know she was ok. Her heart felt constricted when she saw Regina was not in her room and it felt like someone was squeezing it from the inside when she saw Regina on the floor downstairs.
It was like seeing her in the stable that night. And she actually found she wanted to hold Regina in her arms and make sure she was ok, but of course she hadn't.
They got back to the mansion and Emma went inside with them, making sure Henry got back into bed. She walked back downstairs and saw Regina holding a book in her hand. Emma realized that it had been there on the floor earlier with Regina.
"What is that?"
"Another of my mother's spellbooks," she said. "She had collected many of them over the years. Always in search of more power."
She put the book in a small cabinet with others and locked it.
"What does one of your mother's spellbooks have to do with your nightmare? And don't say nothing."
Regina proceeded to tell her about finding the notation in the book earlier, and then told her about the nightmare. Emma came closer to her as she described how much fear she felt from being in that room with Rumple. She told her how she had woken and come down here to check the book after recognizing what the notations were because of the dream.
The emotions of it were threatening to over take her again, and Emma stepped in taking her hand at first and then pulling her in for a hug careful not to press into her because of her arm. "It's ok," she said softly. "We will figure this out. Together."
Regina pulled back slightly, but she was still in Emma's arms staring directly into her eyes. "How did you know? How did you know to come here when I …?"
"I don't know how, I just knew," she said.
This time she didn't wait for Regina. This time she instigated the kiss.
Their lips touched and Emma knew immediately that this woman was indeed her true love. They were slow kisses, kisses meant to convey the simple message of love.
Regina was the first to stop. She looked at Emma.
"You are … that night at the stables, you were …"
"I was the one you kissed."
"That's not possible," Regina said moving back.
"I know it seems crazy, I mean it's you and me, but you know it also kind of makes a bit of crazy sense. We're Henry's parents and you know we already fight like a married couple."
"You have to stay away from me," Regina said trying to walk around her but Emma stopped her.
"Wait," Emma said. "You can't just tell me to stay away from you a second after you find out I am your true love."
"It's because you are my true love that I am telling you to stay away," Regina said. "You should have resisted whatever urge you had to come to the stables that night. You should have let me die."
"How can you say that?"
"Because … because my true loves die."