Emma had felt a weird twinge, similar to what she had felt earlier when Gold had upset Regina. She thought about calling her, but then stopped herself. Regina said she was fine last time and she had promised to keep her distance. She needed to give Regina some space. She was fairly certain when she returned Henry on Sunday that Regina will have seen that Emma wasn't going anywhere and that she couldn't let her fear stop her from them exploring a relationship.

She pushed the odd feeling aside and told herself that Regina was fine.

…

Dr. Whale found getting Regina up to the hospital room he had prepared was even easier than he thought. He had his nurse Lila meet him in the hospital garage with a gurney and they got Regina on it and covered up. From there no one questioned them as Lila pushed the gurney through the hospital and into an elevator with him.

They got her into the room and immediately hooked her up to an IV that would feed a powerful sedative into her to keep her unconscious. He didn't need her awake for what he had planned at least not at the beginning.

He had already given her an injection of the Skiver Virus. It should be enough to produce symptoms in a short amount of time. From there they would just have to wait for her to enter the hallucination phase. And as an extra precaution she was hooked up to a modified defibrillator that would keep a small a small electrical charge going through her body that would keep her from being able to use magic.

He knew his plan wasn't foolproof. Eventually someone would discover that Regina was missing and given her popularity among many of the residents now there would be plenty of people willing to look for her.

There was no reason for them to suspect she was there, but Whale wasn't going to take chances either which is why she was hidden away here and if he thought there was a chance this place would be compromised he had a back up plan.

…

Emma felt odd all weekend. She couldn't explain why, but things just felt off. She kept shrugging it off as nerves over seeing Regina today and talking to her. She hoped Regina had taken this time to see that they could do this – they could have a relationship and she could set aside this irrational fear.

She was sure after speaking with her on Friday that Regina was scared of Rumple. She had sensed the fear in her. It didn't fit. Regina would never back down from Gold. Those two seemed to pride themselves on being able to face the other, but ever since Regina had remembered Rumple's part in changing her destiny she was flat out afraid of him.

Emma guessed it was like reliving a childhood trauma. The monster from under the bed was suddenly real to Regina and unlike her; he didn't fear her in the least. She had lost any edge she had.

She had Henry text Regina an hour ago to see if she wanted them to bring dinner with them, but she hadn't texted back. Henry said she was probably busy as she tended to city business on Sunday nights "in order to start the week off right."

Emma said if they needed dinner she could run back out and get some.

They got to the house and Emma was immediately set on edge by the lack of any visible lights being on. She got out of the car with Henry and walked up to the door. Henry had the key, but Emma rang the doorbell. No answer. She didn't bother ringing again as she told Henry to unlock it. They entered and Emma's heart was racing. There were no lights in the house, no sounds.

Emma knew something was wrong even as she called out Regina's name. They searched the entire house – she wasn't there. She called Regina's phone but there was no answer.

…

Emma sat at her desk almost falling asleep. She had been up for two days straight looking for Regina. They had found her phone and car still at the office. Her secretary appeared to have been the last person to see her and that was on Friday. No one had seen her since.

She had called Tink almost immediately thinking Regina might be with her, but that wasn't the case. Tink was actually watching Henry for her so she could devote time to finding Regina.

She was cursing herself for not following up with Regina when she had felt odd Friday. It hadn't been that long after the secretary had left Regina at the office. She had been feeling a connection with Regina but now she couldn't and it was driving her crazy.

She had to find her. They had searched for any clues of her leaving the office but there weren't any. No one had said they had seen her or seen anyone around the office on Friday afternoon.

Her parents, whom she hadn't even told about the whole true love thing, had suggested that maybe Regina had left town. She dismissed that idea immediately as her car was still her, and Emma knew Regina would never leave Henry like that. No, Regina was still in the town, she just needed to figure out where.

While there were no signs of it, this had foul play written all over it. And her number one suspect was Mr. Gold.

She knew Gold was one of the last to see her and he had upset her even though Regina said he was there only for city business. Emma had learned otherwise when she confronted him.

"Where is she?" Emma had asked as she entered the shop.

"Where is she, who?" he responded.

"Regina."

"I have no idea where our esteemed mayor is."

"What's going on?" Belle asked.

"Regina is missing."

"And you think I had something to do with it?"

"Yes."

"Sorry sheriff, but I am afraid you will have to look elsewhere for your villain."

"You were one of the last people to see her on Friday and she told me that you upset her."

"Regina and I have a long complicated history."

"Yes, starting with you cursing her in order to take away her destiny."

He considered her a moment. "She told you about that?"

"She did."

"Then let me tell you what I told her on Friday. I have no reason to go after Regina provided she leaves me and Belle alone. But the moment she does all bets are off. Regina has not done anything to me or Belle so I have no reason to do anything to her. Now I am gathering from your reaction that this goes a little beyond your sheriff duties," he said. "Am I right?"

"If I find out you had anything to do with her disappearance …"

"You'll do nothing because you can't do anything Sheriff Swan. Your magic is nothing to me, even less than Regina's magic. Now leave while I am still in a good mood. Perhaps you can find your true love if you stop wasting your time here."

"This isn't over."

"Yes I am afraid it is."

Emma turned and stormed out but Belle caught up to her at the corner.

"Emma, I don't know what is going on, but I assure you he has nothing to do with it."

"For your sake I hope so."

"What he said in there about true love …"

"She and I only just found out. I haven't even told my parents yet so I would appreciate it if you didn't say anything. We kissed and it broke a curse, a curse that your husband and Cora placed on Regina when she was a child. It altered her destiny and led her on the path to being the Evil Queen. I don't know why he did it, although I have a pretty good guess. He manipulated Regina every step of the way. But I meant what I said in there, if he has done anything with her I will end him."

"He didn't, I swear Emma he hasn't done anything with her."

Emma was still skeptical though. They had searched the town with the help of volunteers – many of whom were the parents of the children Regina had saved. Ruby and Robin led teams into the forest but they came up empty as well.

She had tried concentrating, hoping she could feel Regina again, but nothing worked. Regina had said their connection had to be magical, but Emma was at a loss as to how to activate it or boost it or do anything.

She knew only one thing – she needed Regina to be ok.

…

Whale checked Regina's vital signs. Even asleep she had continued along the phases of the disease and was now based on her unconscious movements feeling the chills. They had her deeply sedated but it hadn't prevented her from moving around or even crying out occasionally. But there had been no detectable sign of magic which meant the low level current they were running through her was working.

She would be hallucinating soon and that is when his real work could begin.

He had spent all his spare time up there with her taking readings and preparing for the hallucinations. But he had other patients to see and had even volunteered to go on one of the searches in the forest looking for the missing mayor. He needed to make people see there was no reason to suspect him. He was merely worried about a patient – a budding friend. Still he had avoided Emma as much as possible.

She knew Regina had called him because of her phone records and he had told her the truth – Regina was having a panic attack and called him. She questioned him about the panic attack and when it happened and seemed sad that Regina had called him about it. But she hadn't asked him any questions that would suggest she believed he had anything to do with it.

All in all he felt things were quite going his way.

Lila had been nervous about the whole thing, but he had reassured her as well. She wanted revenge against Regina and that was her only motivation. She was more interested in that than the science that he was trying to explore. But Whale was totally focused. He needed to see the scans of Regina's brain in the midst of the hallucinations. His only concern was that he would have to keep her sedated during the MRI and during it he couldn't run the electrical current through her. Still he figured the sedation wouldn't skew the scans too much and since she would be tightly secured the entire time her magic wouldn't be an issue.

He wondered not for the first time what she hallucinated about. During her original illness she would mutter things but it wasn't clear. He could only imagine with the life she led that her mind would have plenty of fodder to throw back at her.

And he got a front row seat to watch.