"I've got a fifteen year old female with severe stab wounds in the legs, arms, and upper torso! Blood type A positive! Someone get ready for an immediate blood transfusion!"

Lynnetta Mary Anne Mills felt sick with every movement. She had felt sick in the car. She had felt sick when Graham had picked her up and ran into the hospital with her. She had felt sick when she was laid down on a moving bed and was strapped in. She felt dizzy with all of the noise. There were doctors and nurses flurrying around her, and the things they were saying made less and less sense. The only face she saw consistently was the huntsman's, and he was running beside her in the bed. She felt jostled. Like a rag doll. She found herself struggling to breathe. She was all but slammed into the wall in the bed. Things were shoved onto her fingers, and her clothes were pulled off, including the 'bandages' she had made herself. She saw figures in white, grey, and blue fluttering around her. She saw the huntsman and heard him trying to explain the situation and where she was injured. She was getting dizzier. She started coughing. Her throat felt raw, and dry. She could have sworn she tasted blood, but she wasn't sure what she felt anymore. All she knew was that the world around her was shifting, and it was terrifying. Everything hurt. It all still hurt. Her mind was spinning. She tried to focus. Focus. Anything.

Her mind went to her mother.

She didn't see the mayor. She saw the queen. In a long, dark red gown, that was fitted perfectly and was accented by gold and black embroidery. She was wearing the crown, and her dark hair would have been almost as long as her dress if it were not tied up in a sleek, very high ponytail. In her hand was a pen that looked like growing ivy up and down a tower. She was writing something, but Lynn couldn't see what it was. She then saw a little girl, who was happily running into the room and grabbing onto the queen's dress from around the legs. The queen startled and dropped her pen. She started laughing, and ruffled the little girl's hair before pulling her up into her lap. She started to brush through the little girl's hair with her fingers, and she smoothed out the little girl's own gown. The little girl giggled, titling her head backwards to look at the queen. Her green eyes were wide, and she was quite young, but those were the only differences between the queen and the little girl. The little girl. The queen's daughter. Herself. How old was she? Was this a memory? Had she always known this? Had she always remembered this? Or was this a dream, the good dream to end the nightmare. She would wake up in bed, screaming for her mother, who would come, and comfort her. That would be it. This wasn't real, none of it could be –

"We don't have enough blood in staff for a full transfusion, we can do a partial until –"

Needles started to be stuck into her skin. She wasn't sure if she screamed, of if she even could.

"What's her blood type?" A calmer and cold voice asked. "I might be able to help."

"A positive –"

"I'm A positive, take it!" The voice came closer. "You can do it now while you prepare what you have."

The voice drew closer and then a face. The huntsman's had long since left her field of vision. The face was one she was unsure if she recognised. The face remained in her field of vision but the person to whom it belonged sat down beside her. Needles kept pressing in and out of her skin. Everything hurt. A few more faces started to come into view. She saw needles start to press in and out of her skin near her shoulders. She felt sick. She wasn't sure what she felt, or, at least, wasn't sure what everything was. She heard the voices around her continue but they were too many and not entirely close enough. She could hear the voice of the woman who had been staring down at her. She heard her talk about blood, and people around her taking it. They said they were taking it, that it would be transfused. Transfused. The word – like so many – was becoming harder and harder to make sense of. What the hell did any of it – Her mind started reeling again. The voice was closer again. She didn't know how much time was passing if any. But, eventually, needles stopped around her shoulders and seemingly migrated to her arms. She wasn't sure what was happening to her legs anymore, but assumed they were being pierced in and out of too. The face came back into view again. It seemed familiar, so familiar, to the point where it felt like it could be family. Aged. Red hair, that appeared to be natural and aged as the woman's face. She was not her mother. She was not Chloe, or Sherry, but then…

"Baby fight," The voice said, a hint of menace to it. "Prove yourself and push through."

"Cor…" Lynn only knew she had spoken because of how gritty her throat felt. "Cor..a –"

"Thank you for your help, but we need to keep this clear –"

"Of course, I'll leave."

The face smiled at her and then disappeared almost as quickly as it came.

"Who brought her in?"

"I did!" The huntsman's voice drew closer again, and he sounded like he was running. "She –"

"They're stitching her up and starting the transfusion! You were trying to explain what happened to her?"

"I don't quite know, you'll have to ask her."

"Tell us what you do know."

"From what I understand, she snuck out late at night and drove to see some friends. Possibly to take drugs, drink. I don't know. But they attacked her."

"Attacked her how? The wounds are very severe, and –"

"I think they stabbed her," The huntsman's voice wavered. "But maybe she was shot? I don't quite know, all I know is that it's, as you said, severe."

"Who were these people she was meeting?"

"Friends."

"You said that, but we need –"

"I don't have names!"

"Sir –"

"You need to call her mother as soon as you get that transfusion started! She's a minor, and –"

"Who's her mother?"

"The mayor. Regina Eveline Mills."

Silence. At least, from their voices. All around her, things were still…

"Oxygen!"

Something got pressed into her face. Things continued to get stuck in and on her. Then, the world went dark.

"Watch her vitals while you do that! Keep an eye on her, she could be just passed out or she may be entering a coma!"

"The latter is most likely!"

"Former must be kept in mind!"

"Someone find her mother!"

The Storybrooke Mayor's office was usually a well organised, minimalistic space, it was currently awry. Completely and utterly awry.

Regina was not sure how long she had spent running around town to try and figure out where the hell her sheriff was, but she did know she had eventually gone home and put on clothes for the day. Henry was sitting in a chair in the corner of the office, his legs pulled up to his chest. Regina took a glance at the time. 8:12AM. How long had Lynn been gone, by now? Where was she? Who was she with? Was she safe? Was she – no. She would not let herself believe her daughter could be dead. She couldn't be. She had to be alive. The question was: where? She had been tearing through every document she could find, piles upon piles of documents to be refiled pooling around her. For once, she did not care about that. Addresses, phone numbers. Half of them were disconnected. Others were old and no longer belonged to the people they supposedly did. She just about screamed. It was too much. It was all too much. This could not be happening, not again. It was worse, this time. If Lynn left willingly, which she apparently had, she would have been home before anyone noticed she was gone, or, at least, very shortly after. That had not happened. Something must have been done to her. What was that? Where was that? And why the fuck could she not find the one person in town who was supposed to do anything and everything she asked whenever she asked? Then, her eyes fell on a sticky note she had left on her desk. The phone numbers of two people she hated, but who might hold the key to her daughter's location.

There had been dead, radio silence on a car like Ruby's being reported stolen. This was the only other solution that made sense.

She reached for her mobile in her pockets and did not find it. It was not in her purse either.

She all but ran to her desk, sat down.

All but ripped the sticky note up so she could read it better.

All but tore her office's landline phone off the hook.

All but punched in the first number to dial, ready to do the same for the second.

She heard it ring. Once. Twice. Then a click. A click she had not expected. It was followed by a voice she hated, and that she knew hated hers too.

"Who's this?"

"I don't have time to play games, Leah. Lynn is gone, and I have no idea where she is but she appears to have left of her own accord. Is she –"

"Sounds to me like she finally realised what a terrible parent you are and fled."

"No. And I don't have time to play these games with you, Leah. I don't want to. I want to know where my daughter is, and that she is safe so I can come and get her. Is she with you and your husband and daughter?"

Silence. Regina waited, willing herself to not start swearing at Leah. She glanced to Henry, who came over to and hugged her, clinging onto her. He started to cry. She knew she was starting to as well. Muffled voices came on the other end of the line.

"…They already burned their clothes. I'm having the car cleaned by our staff today, and then professionally tomorrow."

"I'm on the phone, Stefan."

Regina felt about ready to faint.

They knew.

How? Lynn, she –

"Is my daughter," Regina hissed. "With you?"

"Hardly," Leah coldly replied. "I actually have no idea where she is."

"Is that so?"

"It is, your majesty. Is that what you've been waiting for me to call you for all these years?"

"Henry, go."

The eight year old stared at his mother in confusion, unable to hear any voice but hers.

"Now," Regina said, her voice shaking. "I don't want you to hear what I'm about to say. Go home, and stay there until I come to see you or call home. Don't let anyone in. Only leave if you're unsafe. Please."

Henry hesitated but nodded. "I love you, mom," He said quietly.

Regina blinked back tears. "I love you too," She whispered.

He ran out of the room.

One minute.

Another.

Another.

Another.

Another.

Another.

Another.

"What," Regina finally said, nothing but pure hatred entering her voice. "Are you talking about?"

"During one of our talks a few years ago, you dryly told me that I ought to be calling you 'your majesty' because you are, to quote, 'the Queen Of Misthaven' when I insisted you address me by my formal title, as Dr. Watson, PhD. After your daughter had first punched mine, my husband and I began to try and figure out who you are. We came up empty handed. We poured millions into that. Then, your daughter first came to sleep over at our home, and told my daughter that your family is in Witness Protection. We looked into that, and it appeared legitimate. Almost too legitimate."

Regina shook, worse than she had in years.

"Then, I remembered my daughter had called you the evil queen. I won't give away our secrets, because I know you won't give away yours. But the final piece for me was that I recalled you had once said the world would burn if we chose her. I had no idea where that memory came from, or what it could pertain to until my daughter flippantly recalled what had caused her first fight with Lynn. The world would burn if we chose her. You said that to us when –"

"I can promise you one thing," Regina had said, standing up from the table where she, Leah, Stefan, George, and Midas had been sat. "The world will burn if you choose her."

"You were talking about your step daughter, Snow White. You cursed my daughter, Aurora, as a baby because Stefan and I expressed our condolences and love for Snow. You are a murderer," Leah's voice became more forceful. "You are the evil queen. Everything fell into place for why Lynn started that fight after we realised the truth."

"What did you to do my daughter?" Regina snapped. "I don't care what you think of me for what I did then or have since, if you did anything to my daughter, I will use the laws of this land to ensure you all pay for it. There is not a judge in the country that would deny me at least a restraining order against you if –"

"Aurora and her friend did what they pleased with Lynn," Leah said angrily. "She won't ever have to worry again."

The line went silent. Regina slammed the phone back into the hook, and let out a scream, this time one that was angry. She also started to sob, burying her face in her hands.

"I hope I'm not intruding, Madame Mayor."

Regina looked up, suddenly, and, her chest rising and falling heavily, she met Sidney's gaze. He merely looked caught between confusion and concern.

"How long have you been there?"

"Just a minute. All I heard was you screaming, and, to be frank, I was concerned you were being attacked."

"This is not funny, Sidney."

"I know. I heard you've been looking for your daughter. She was found, but she's in the hospital. She was attacked, if what I heard is –"

"Why did you not interrupt me?" Regina stood up suddenly, snatching up her purse, and storming past him. "You could have done anything but just wait there like an idiot!"

The reporter took a moment to recompose himself, and then, eventually, shook his head.

The mayor could be a bitch in the best of times.

It was no surprise to him that she seemed almost monstrous in the worst of times.

Replies To Reviews:

barrattajennifer: Leah and Stefan just had to see a side of 'the evil queen' they never had before, and that in and of itself is a sign of just how deep things run both from their past life and into the present.

jasouatfan: i won't tell ALL but i will say that Gold was not concerned about Lynn so much as he was terrified of Regina in that moment; essentially, he realised that he was not the puppet master he always thought he was and THIS was what finally pushed him into remembering the past.

Sammii16: it was a stressful few chapters! sorry about this one going up a little later than the others - i was on holiday over the weekend and just finished this one on the plane! just got home, so i'm posting now! as always, thanks so much for the love and support!