The next morning, Emma stares at her coffee, her phone on the counter next to her.
Henry comes up next to her. "Mom call?"
"What do you think?"
He frowns. "I'm sorry. She didn't respond to me either. Did you get any sleep?"
Emma glances up at him, bags under her eyes, then back to her coffee.
At 8:00 on the dot, a knock sounds on the door. Emma stands up. "Maybe she's talked to Regina."
"Why would she?"
Emma shrugs. "Something weird between them."
Henry rolls his eyes. "You're delusional from lack of sleep."
"And potential heart break," she mumbles as she goes to the door.
Gen scans over Emma when the door opens. "I would say good morning, but I believe you would beg to differ.
"There was a hint of humor there. Careful, you'll break your tough exterior."
Gen simply raises an eyebrow and waits.
Emma sighs and waves her into the apartment. "What do we have to do today?"
"We will be going to a temporary office and discussing the next course of action. Perhaps afterwards you can play twenty questions again."
"Your sass might just break this camel's back, fyi." Emma chugs her coffee and grabs her phone. "Later, kid," she waves as she leaves the apartment.
In the hallway, Emma watches Gen. "Have you talked to Regina?"
"Are you referring to a specific timeframe?" Gen keeps her focus straight ahead.
"Yeah, recently." Emma leans to catch Gen's eyes, but it's not use.
"We have not spoken since Sunday."
"Why not?"
"No reason to."
"But she hired you."
"For you. You are my client and with whom I should be speaking. She is merely paying your fees."
"I could be paying those," Emma says confidently.
Gen turns to look at Emma and smirks. "I'm sure you could, Ms. Swan." She looks back ahead and holds the door open for Emma as they exit.
Emma narrows her eyes at her in passing.
Mary Margaret jolts awake in the chair when Regina's phone dings. She gets up and sees another text from Emma: Gen is practically 6 foot of pure sass. Gonna need to know where you found this woman. So maybe you could be bothered to call or text or anything…
With a sigh, Mary Margaret stands next to Regina. "When you made David promise to keep this from Emma, is this really what you wanted? Do you think it's better for her to be states away thinking you just don't care enough about her to call?"
A nurse enters the room with a bowl of water and a rag. "Good morning."
Mary Margaret smiles. "What's that?"
She holds up the rag. "Just a simple wipe down of her face, neck, arms, and legs. We will have to do a sponge bath tonight if nothing changes."
Mary Margaret steps forward. "I can do it."
The nurse smiles. "If you'd like, that's fine. I'll leave it here." She sets down the bowl and leaves the room.
Ringing out the rag, Mary Margaret looks down on Regina. "I never could have imagined something like this happening, and I'm sure you want nearly anyone other than me at your side, but here I am. We're stuck with each other."
She carefully runs the rag along Regina's bare skin. When she's finished, she hears Regina's phone ding again. She moves to see another message from Emma: Never forget that I love you. No matter what. I just hope that you can still say the same thing.
Mary Margaret shakes her head and looks at Regina. "I can't keep doing this Regina. No one deserves to be treated this way."
She picks up Regina's phone and stares at it. Releasing a deep breath, she holds her finger over Emma's contact. "I'm sorry, Regina. This can't go on."
She presses call and lifts the phone to her ear.
Emma answers immediately. "Regina? Holy shit, where the hell have you been? I've practically been calling you since we landed on Sunday. Couldn't spare a few damn minutes for me until now?"
"Emma," Mary Margaret starts softly.
"Who is this? Mom?"
"Yes, it's me."
"Can you please put Regina on the phone? I really need to talk to her."
"She can't come to the phone, sweetheart."
"What the hell are you talking about? Why are you calling me on here? If she's not going to talk to me, why the fuck would you use her phone? Do you know how damn depressing hearing your voice was? No offense, but you're not the woman I was hoping to hear from. So put Regina on the phone."
Mary Margaret squeezes Regina's hand. "Emma, Regina has not been ignoring you."
"Like hell she hasn't."
"We never made it home from the airport."
The line stays silent for a moment. "What do you mean?" Emma asks slowly.
"Regina passed out. She lost vision in one eye."
"She's blind!"
"Temporarily," Mary Margaret rushes to spit out. "I think."
"So where are you now? What's happening?"
"We are still at the hospital. Your father went back to Storybrooke last night, but I've been here the whole time."
The line goes silent again. Anger starts taking over concern in Emma's voice. "Dad called me from the hospital yesterday?"
"Yes," Mary Margaret confesses.
"He called me simply so that he could lie to me and try to give me some false sense of hope?"
"Regina made him promise not to tell you." She sighs, knowing it's a terrible excuse.
"Are you fucking kidding me, right now? What the hell is wrong with you? With any of you?"
"Regina wanted you to be able to get through your meetings with HR without worrying about her."
"So instead of worrying about her health, which I still was worried about, I got to think she was breaking up with me or didn't actually love me. Gee thanks, assholes. That was so much better than the truth. Put her on the phone."
"Emma, I can't."
"Put Regina on the damn phone. She owes me an explanation."
"She can't give you one."
"Why the fuck not?" Emma yells.
Mary Margaret closes her eyes. "Emma, Regina's in a coma."
She hears a crash from Emma dropping the phone.