The drive to the hospital was silent, as Emma sat and stared out the passenger side window, and Regina kept her eyes fixed on the road ahead. The storm was nearly over, and the rain had slowed to a drizzle, but the roads were slick and deep puddles had formed, and since she'd just had to inform Emma that her father had crashed his truck with her brother in the passenger seat, Regina was a little on edge. All Graham could tell her was that they were both alive, and while Regina had wanted to keep Emma with her at her office until he was able to give more information, Emma insisted that she needed to get to the hospital right away to be with her family.
Regina supposed she shouldn't be surprised, but she also knew there wasn't anything Emma could do at this point, and she worried about how bad the situation might be.
Emma looked at the hospital entrance with trepidation as they pulled into the parking lot.
"I'll go with you," Regina said, unsure of anything else she could possibly do at this point to help ease Emma's fear.
Emma nodded. "I told you something was wrong," she whispered. It was the first thing she'd said at all, since asking Regina to drive her to the hospital, and Regina guessed she'd likely spent that entire drive thinking about how accidents seemed to follow her around. Regina wasn't even sure how she could possibly refute it at this point, since Emma had expressed her feeling that something was wrong, and she couldn't have possibly known what had happened.
"You're not cursed, Emma," Regina said firmly, as she pulled into a parking spot and turned her vehicle off. "It was a bad storm. You saw how quickly the visibility dropped to zero. It was just an accident."
Emma nodded, though she didn't look convinced as she opened her door and drew in a deep breath as she got out of the car. She seemed to be trying to muster up the courage to put on a brave face for when she went inside and found her mother, and Regina wished she could remember now how brave she'd been in her previous life. This Emma could not remember the girl who took a horse from her parents' stables, despite barely knowing how to ride, and rode directly into an active battlefield. Usually, Regina thought it was for the best that Emma didn't remember that time, but right now, she knew Emma could have used a little bit of her former courage.
But she supposed she'd just have to be the brave one, for once. She shut her door and stepped up beside Emma, placing her hand on her back to gently urge her toward the hospital entrance. She watched as Emma hugged her arms tightly around herself, and she wished she'd insisted that Emma put her jacket back on before they'd left the office, though she wasn't sure that it would be any warmer than her tank top, since it was still dripping wet. There was a bit of a chill in the air, but it wasn't anywhere near freezing, and Regina supposed Emma would survive the walk across the parking lot, at least.
"Power's on in here," Emma commented, blinking against the harsh white light inside the hospital entrance.
"The hospital's on a backup generator," Regina explained.
"Oh. Yeah. That makes sense. Machines and stuff," Emma said, and Regina could hear the nervousness in her voice as she led her toward the ICU.
Regina didn't spend much time in this building, but the hospital wasn't big, and Graham had said he was in the ICU waiting room, in case there was news on David, while Mary Margaret waited with Seth. He hadn't been able to elaborate on either of their injuries, but Regina hoped that if Snow wasn't waiting at the ICU, then perhaps Seth wasn't injured too badly, at least. The child had been through enough, even if he didn't remember it, and a lot of it was her fault. David, she was less concerned with, except for to the degree that it affected Emma.
They rounded the corner toward the ICU, and Regina started scanning faces, looking for Graham.
"Oh! Emma!"
Regina heard Snow's voice before she even saw her, but it only took Emma a moment to find her mother in the crowd of people in the ICU waiting room, and take off running the short distance to her mother's waiting arms.
Regina swallowed, steeling herself before making her way over to Snow, as well. She hadn't expected her to be there, and she hadn't prepared herself. In the past two years, she'd seen David frequently, as he'd gotten a job working at the Sheriff's station with Graham, which in effect, made him her employee, but she'd managed to avoid run-ins with Snow for the most part, and she liked it that way. Tonight, however, was a different situation, and it would be avoidable. Oddly, she found a big part of her did not revel in the despair on Snow's face, and she wondered if watching her enemy cry over her daughter's lifeless body in the Enchanted Forest had squashed her need for revenge on the woman. It hadn't been satisfying, and now, Snow wasn't even burdened with the memory, like Regina was.
"Any news?" Regina asked, quietly, as Snow's eyes met hers. Emma's face was buried in her mother's neck, and Snow's arms were tight around her, and Regina was asking much more for Emma's sake, than her own.
Snow nodded, her eyes solemn, though bloodshot from crying. "Um," she started, drawing in a deep breath as her voice hitched a little. "Seth is… okay. He's a bit banged up, but nothing too serious. The doctors want him to stay overnight, for observation. They gave him a sedative, to help him calm down, and he's sleeping now."
Regina nodded, finding herself breathing a small sigh of relief.
"And daddy?" Emma asked, her voice a whisper as she lifted her head to look at her mother.
Snow closed her eyes and swallowed hard, and Regina could tell she was trying to fight back tears. "He's, uh… he's still unconscious. They, um, they aren't quite sure yet… how bad his head injury is. He's stabilized, but he may..." Snow paused, drawing in a deep breath and nodding as though she was trying to give herself the encouragement to continue. "He may be in a coma."
"A coma?" Emma repeated, looking at her mother in disbelief. "There's nothing they can do?"
"They don't know yet, Emma. They… they want to prepare us for the worst. And… well, the important thing is that he's alive. He can recover from a coma. People recover from comas. We just have to have faith."
Regina opened her mouth to say something, but found she had nothing to offer. If the curse had gone as planned, he should have already been in a coma, and she knew that he wouldn't wake up until the curse was broken. She also knew she couldn't say a word about any of that.
And she knew the entire reason she had planned to curse David into a coma in the first place was to hurt Snow. She should be happy with how it was unfolding now, but she found she couldn't be. Caring about Emma made it impossible to enjoy Snow's pain, because Snow's pain, inevitably, was also Emma's pain. She couldn't take any joy from Emma's suffering.
"I'm going to stay here tonight, with Seth. The sedative will probably have him out all night, but when it wears off, he can't wake up in a hospital room alone. Especially not after all of this. He's going to need his mother."
Emma nodded quickly, wiping tears from her cheek. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll stay here too."
Snow shook her head. "I already asked about that, and they said the limit is one."
"So you want me to just go home by myself?" Emma asked, looking at her mother with horror at the thought.
Regina found she couldn't even fault Snow for her choice. She knew Emma wasn not in the state of mind to be left alone, but what mother could leave her injured child's bedside in a situation like this?
"No, I'm going to call Granny, and see if you can stay with her and Ruby tonight. And maybe Regina can drive you?" Snow looked up at Regina as she spoke the last part, and Regina couldn't miss the pleading look in her eyes.
"She could just stay with me," Regina suggested.
"Really?" Snow's face registered a look of surprised confusion, and Regina suddenly realized how unexpected the offer must have sounded to her.
"Of course. I have a guest room, and I'm already here. There's no sense in calling around trying to make other arrangements. We can stop by your apartment and Emma can get a change of clothes, and then we'll go back to my house until you come home. If that's alright with you, Emma? I don't want to overstep."
Her head resting on her mother's shoulder, Emma stared across the waiting room for a moment, seeming to weigh her options, before finally nodding. "Yeah, that's okay."
Regina held up the light on her cell phone as she and Emma made their way into the Nolans' loft. The stairway had been lit by emergency floodlights, but it was dark inside the apartment.
"Feels like we're on some sort of covert mission," Emma commented, but Regina could tell that, despite trying to make jokes, her heart really wasn't in it. "I think there's an actual flashlight under the sink."
Emma stumbled her way over to the kitchen as Regina tried to illuminate the space as best she could. After a few moments of rummaging around in the cupboard, Emma produced a much larger utility flashlight and clicked it on.
"Much better," Regina said, turning her phone light off as the larger, brighter flashlight beam made it redundant.
Emma headed toward the stairs to her bedroom, and paused when she reached the bottom step, turning to look back at Regina. "You can come up if you want," she offered. "So you don't have to just stand here in the dark."
Regina nodded, and followed Emma up the stairs, guessing that it was far more likely that Emma just didn't want to be alone than she was worried about Regina standing in the dark kitchen. She stood beside the dresser as Emma pulled open drawers, shoving pajamas and a change of clothes for the morning into her backpack.
"I think that's all I need… oh, wait… toothbrush," Emma said, tossing her backpack onto the dresser in the dark. There was a clatter, as some myriad of objects fell to the floor. "Oh crap."
Regina pulled out her phone and turned the light on again. "Get your toothbrush; I'll get this."
"Thanks," Emma said, turning toward the bathroom.
Regina crouched down and found that it was an entire shoebox full of items that had been knocked off the dresser and scattered around the floor. It was mostly small trinkets - coins, pebbles, shells - things that Emma must have collected for some reason, though she couldn't guess why. She had almost finished when something caught her eye: just under the dresser, something small and reflective was catching the light from her phone. She reached for it, and, when she saw it in the full light she recognized it right away. It was Emma's swan pendant.
"Thanks," Emma said, causing Regina to jump as she crouched down beside her and grabbed the last handful of things and tossed them into the box, before shutting the lid. "This is all stuff that Seth collected from the beach. He likes to pretend it's buried treasure. But he doesn't want his friends to see it and make fun of him, so he sometimes hides it in my room when they come over."
Emma shone her flashlight onto the lid of the box, and sure enough it was labelled 'treasure chest'.
"Well, it's good that he has a sister he can trust with his secrets. Twelve can be a hard age - stuck between being a child and growing up."
Emma nodded, sniffing as she looked down at the box again.
"He's going to be fine, Emma. He'll come home tomorrow."
"Yeah, I know," Emma said. "What's that?"
"Oh, I found this under your dresser," Regina said, holding the necklace out to Emma. "I assumed it must have fallen off, too."
Emma shook her head. "I… I have no idea where that came from. I've never seen it before."
"It's not yours?" Regina asked, barely able to hide the surprise in her voice. She had never seen Emma wear the pendant in Storybrooke, but she'd also never seen her wear any jewellery and had assumed that it just didn't suit her new personality. She'd wondered about the pendant, but she hadn't really worried about it, since there was no magic here, and that rendered its original purpose useless.
"No," Emma said, though her curiosity was clearly piqued as she took the necklace from Regina's hand. "It's pretty though. But the chain is broken."
"I'm sure it can be fixed," Regina suggested, earning her a curious look from Emma. "If you found who it belongs to, I mean. They could have it fixed"
Emma shrugged. "No one comes in my room but my family. My friends and I don't hang out in here, and I've never seen any of them wear anything like this. Maybe it was mine when I was young and I just forgot about it. You think it can be fixed?"
"Well, if it can't be fixed, the chain can be replaced. I've been meaning to go into Lacey's shop… I could take it with me and see if she has anything that would work?"
Emma smiled. "Yeah, okay. Maybe I might wear it," she said, handing the necklace back to Regina. "Not usually my thing, but I kind of like it."
Regina smiled. "I think it would suit you. But come on, let's get you back to my house so you get some rest. It's been a long night. You must be exhausted."
Regina was correct in her assessment, as Emma nearly fell asleep in the car before they finally pulled up to Regina's house. She blinked her eyes open as the car stopped, and took a moment to reorient herself.
"Looks like the power's back," Emma assessed nodding at the glow emitting from the windows at the entrance of the house.
Regina shook her head. "There's a flood light in the front entryway," she said. "The previous owners had it installed. They said this area is prone to storms."
"Clearly," Emma agreed as she grabbed her backpack and got out of the car. She followed Regina up to the house, and looked around in awe once they got inside.
"You can just leave your boots right here," she said, "and then you really should change into your pajamas and get warmed up."
"I'm not cold anymore," Emma insisted. "My hair's even dry."
"You're not dressed appropriately for how chilly it's gotten. And I'm sure it won't be long before you're crawling into bed anyway. Unless you're hungry? I could make you something."
Emma shook her head. "I don't really have much of an appetite right now. And I am kind of sleepy."
Regina nodded. "That's what I thought. Come on, I'll show you to the guest room."
Emma pulled her flashlight out of her backpack as they headed up the stairs. The floodlights in the entryway were only bright enough to illuminate the lower portion of the stairs, and the hallway at the top was too dark to see anything.
"This way," Regina said, putting her hand lightly on Emma's back to guide her in the right direction. Once they reached the guest room, Regina pointed out the location of the bed and the en suite bathroom, in the glow of Emma's flashlight beam.
"Okay, thanks," Emma said, taking a few steps toward the bathroom, before pausing. "Uh… I'm just gonna go brush my teeth and get changed. Can you, um, just wait here for a minute?"
"Of course," Regina said, smiling, though Emma couldn't actually see her face. She sat down on the bed once Emma had shut the bathroom door, sighing as she leaned her back up against the pillows. This was certainly not how she expected to be spending this evening, but Emma's birthdays did seem to be eventful days for both of them, more often than not.
She pulled Emma's swan necklace out of her pocket as she heard the water running in the bathroom sink, and noticed something peculiar. She wasn't sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her in the dark, but she could swear the pendant seemed to be glowing.
"That's odd," she breathed to herself, running her thumb over the top surface, and jumping in surprise as she felt a spark emit from the metal. Her eyes darted to the window as she saw a soft light now streaming in from outside. She put the necklace back in her pocket and got up to investigate.
"What's going on?" Emma said, emerging from the bathroom in plaid flannel pajama pants and a grey jersey knit top.
"Power's back," Regina said, with a small smile, nodding toward the street light outside.
"Finally."
"Mm-hmm, come on, let's get you into bed," Regina said, turning to head back over to the other side of the room. She flicked on the lamp on the nightstand as Emma turned off her flashlight and made her way over to the other side of the bed and pulled the covers back.
"Sorry you had such an awful birthday," Regina said, sitting down on the edge of the bed once Emma had gotten in. She reached over to tuck the comforter around her as Emma's eyes began to droop a little. She pushed some stray hairs from Emma's forehead as Emma looked up at her.
"Yeah. It wasn't the best," Emma agreed, blinking up at her a few times, and Regina could tell that the emotional toll of the evening was catching up to her, and she was exhausted. "But… talking to you, in office, before all this stuff happened… that was kind of nice."
Regina gave her a small smile. "It was. But now you should really get some sleep. Things will look a little better in the morning. And my room's right across the hall, if you need anything in the night."
"Wait, Regina…" Emma started, but then just sighed as she seemed to think better of whatever she was about to ask for.
"Do you want me to stay with you a little longer?" Regina suggested.
Emma nodded. "Yeah. I just… I just don't want to be alone with my thoughts right now. I can't stop… I can't stop worrying."
"That's understandable," Regina said, laying down, on her side, on top of the comforter, and facing Emma. "I'll lay with you until you fall asleep."
"Can you tell me a story?"
Regina let out a small laugh. "Like a bedtime story?"
Emma shrugged. "Any story. Something to distract me. I won't be able to sleep if I can't shut my brain off."
"Alright," Regina agreed, looking at Emma's face, illuminated in the dim light from the lamp on the nightstand behind Regina. "I don't know if I know any stories, but maybe I can make one up for you?"
"That's fine. It doesn't even have to be good. Just as long as you keep talking."
Regina smiled. "Okay, here goes… Once upon a time, in a far away land, there lived a beautiful princess. She was adored by many, and brave, and good, and kind. She might have made a wonderful wife to a prince, and even a marvelous ruler one day, if not for one thing: this princess had the misfortune of capturing the interest of a disgraced former queen, who wanted her all to herself."
Regina watched the confused look on Emma's face, and knew that she was at least paying attention, and hoped it was working to get her mind off of her father and brother. So she continued.
"You see, this princess was special. She was the product of her parents' true love, and that made her very powerful, though she didn't know it yet. Well, she probably never knew, but, we'll get to that. The queen wanted to cast a dark curse that would destroy the lives of everyone in the kingdom, and in order to be successful, she would have to get the princess out of the way."
"Former," Emma whispered, as her eyelids began to droop.
"What?"
"You said she was a former queen."
"Right. She was. But she still thought of herself as a queen, because… well, I suppose because that was all she had for so long, and if she let it go, she'd be nothing. She had no one left who truly cared about her and she was lonely. And desperate."
"Did she have her heart broken, too?" Emma asked, her eyes falling shut and her voice so quiet now that Regina knew it would only be moments until she fell asleep.
"She did. A long time ago. But that's not what this story is about. This story happened much later. Because, as it turned out, the queen - the former queen - found she was unwilling to cast the curse, despite the great sacrifices she'd made for it. You see, the princess was the only person who would be able to break the curse, and when she did, the queen would lose everything. But, the queen convinced herself that if she didn't cast the curse, then the princess could never grow up to be the savior, and she'd never have to worry about her curse being broken."
"But she wouldn't… even… mmm," Emma muttered, and Regina smiled, reaching over to push some stray hair back from her cheek.
"She wouldn't have had the curse at all?" she guessed, as she continued to run her fingers through Emma's hair. She'd forgotten how much she'd missed that. For her part, Emma didn't answer, or even seem to register that Regina had asked her anything, so Regina guessed it was safe to assume she had fallen asleep mid-sentence.
"No, she wouldn't have," Regina answered anyway, her voice softer now, as she continued to tell the story, finding that once she started admitting long-buried truths, it was hard to stop. "She only wanted to cast it to hurt her enemies - the princess's parents - but she thought perhaps she could hurt them another way, and she plotted to kill the princess instead. But she never… well, she convinced herself she never got the chance, and that's why she hadn't done it yet. But did have the chance, once, and she let it slip away. She never understood why, until now."
Regina sighed, imagining what would have become of her if she'd pulled Emma through the mirror that evening, so many years ago, and actually followed through. She supposed she wouldn't have any idea what she would have missed out on, but for the first time, she wondered what would have become of her life after that? She'd have her revenge, and nothing else to live for. What would have been the point?
"The queen grew fond of the princess," Regina continued. In her sleep, Emma looked just how Regina had always remembered her, and she let herself pretend that she was baring her soul to her little swan, to make her finally understand. "And she imagined a future for them, together, ruling the kingdom and… maybe finding happiness. The queen imagined that maybe the princess would even fall in love with her, even though she had the blackest soul in all the realms, and her princess was pure and good. She thought… she thought perhaps she could corrupt the princess, and lead her, too, down this path of darkness, and she'd never have to be alone again. Such a cruel fate, but… well, the queen had grown accustomed to only caring about herself."
Regina blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall. "But the queen couldn't hold on to her little swan. There was a war breaking out, and not one, but two kingdoms wanted to bring about the demise of the queen. You see, the reason she could cast a curse is because she had strong, dark magic, and she was feared, by everyone, for a very long time. But, her own army had gotten much smaller over the years, and the queen was losing her touch. Perhaps… perhaps she was too distracted by her newfound quest to keep the princess by her side, and she let her guard down. And she paid dearly for it."
"Her magic was stolen from her, and she was defenseless. She knew that death was imminent, and she was ready. Afterall, what was left for her in this life if she couldn't be with the only person she cared about? And so, when the door to her chambers was thrust open at the first light of dawn, and her mortal enemy, the princess's mother, strode in, wielding a sword and looking frenzied, the queen knew that was the end. And she was ready to accept her fate."
"But then, something unexpected happened. The princess's father entered the room behind his wife, and in his arms, was the princess. She was just…" Regina let out a heavy sigh, remembering how Emma looked that morning, and she couldn't help the silent tears making their way down her cheek now. "She was lifeless, just kind of hanging, limply, from her father's arms, and I… her father placed her on the chaise and her parents pleaded with the queen to save her. And it wasn't that they trusted her, and it wasn't that they no longer wanted her dead, it was just that they knew, deep down, that the princess was the only person the queen truly cared for, and that the queen was the only person who could save her."
Regina sniffed, running her shaky hand through Emma's hair again. "But, she didn't have her magic. There was nothing she could do, but then… well, I suppose I should have mentioned that the princess had magic, too. And the queen had tethered it to a necklace that she never took off. Actually, she couldn't take it off, not so long as the queen had her magic. But the necklace… the queen saw that it was glowing with a white light. And she didn't know if the princess's parents couldn't see it, or if they just didn't notice, but she knew… that was the very last trace of the princess's magical essence. Her life force. She wasn't breathing, but she wasn't gone just yet. And while the queen didn't have her own magic anymore, she also knew that there was a type of magic that was so powerful that anyone could possess it, in the right circumstance. And it was a longshot, because she didn't know if the princess felt the same, but she knew she had to try, because… well, true love's kiss is the most powerful magic that exists."
"Did it work?"
Regina's breath hitched in her throat at the unexpected sound of Emma's voice. "I thought you were asleep."
"I want to know how the story ends," Emma said, her eyes still closed and her voice a slow, whispered drawl, and Regina knew she was somewhere on the cusp of asleep and awake, and probably wouldn't actually remember any of this in the morning.
"Yes, it worked," Regina said, closing her eyes to prevent anymore tears from escaping, lest Emma actually fully wake up and see.
"And they lived…" Emma's voice trailed off into a sleepy sigh.
"Happily ever after? Well, we'll just have to wait and see."