Chapter Eight

Two weeks went by, during which they had fallen into a routine. Emma would go and pick up their breakfast and return to the hospital to find that Henry was working on his schoolwork that Mary Margaret dropped off before going to work.

She hadn't intended to avoid her roommate but it was probably for the best.

She wasn't in the right headspace for that after what Jefferson showed her.

While Henry diligently did his work at his mother's bedside, Emma tried to find yet another doctor who would accept Regina's medical records to give their opinion.

Whale had completed any additional tests but they all came to the same conclusion: inconclusive.

They all agreed that there was little that could be done, especially with their unfortunate deadline.

It was the deadline that she and Henry couldn't talk about if they were going to exist in the same room a moment longer.

They were just closing in on Emma shutting down her laptop to get them lunch when a screeching interrupted their routine.

Both Emma and Henry discarded their tasks to shoot to their feet and behold the flatline on the heart monitor.

Emma saw Henry's mouth move in a way that had to mean that he was shouting 'mom' but she couldn't process anything other than the monitor.

In reality, it probably took less than ten seconds for the door to burst open and for nurses and Dr Whale to filter in, armed with a crash cart.

"What's happening to her?!" Henry demanded.

"Get them out of here!" Whale called back with his stethoscope pressed against the mayor's chest. He just started barking orders to those around him as the door closed in their faces.

Henry blinked at the door and dragged a shaking hand through his hair and muttered, "No…mom…"

Emma had to resist copying his action and instead swallowed hard and touched her stomach which was suddenly overcome with nausea. She'd ignored it up until now, but there was definitely already a bump there.

Apparently, it was normal to show earlier in a second pregnancy but right now it was a stark reminder of how ill-equipped she currently was for all of this.

Henry paced back and forth until he burst into tears and said to no one in particular, "My mom can't die, I need her!"

He was about to attempt to open the door and it occurred to Emma that what he would see couldn't make him feel any better. That this was the one time that being close to his mother wouldn't help him.

She was about to reach forward to hold him but the door opened to reveal Dr Whale covered in a thin layer of sweat and a relieved look about him.

He stepped aside to reveal that the heart monitor was again beating steadily and that she was deceptively in the same condition as she had been before.

Emma felt the pressure lift from her chest, but Henry was still visibly shaking.

"She's okay," Whale assured.

"You mean that she's still in a coma and no one will believe that she's under a sleeping curse!" Henry shouted.

Whale exchanged a look with Emma and then suggested, "Henry…perhaps an appointment with Dr Hopper will help with accepting…"

"I will never accept this!"

At that moment a buzzing had Emma pull out her phone to find the email she had been waiting for.

Unfortunately, it contained the same words as all the others 'my deepest apologies' and 'inconclusive' so she shoved the device away and grabbed Henry's shoulder before he could continue his tirade at the doctor.

Her course of action wasn't helping so she figured that she could at least try his way.

"I'll talk to Mr Gold right now kid," she said and he brightened significantly despite Whale's obvious confusion, "How about you sit with your mom while I do that? I'll bring you some lunch after."

"Okay," Henry said eagerly, rushing by the doctor who frowned at Emma.

"I've only got two weeks to convince him it's not a sleeping curse," Emma whispered despite her sudden desire for the owner of a pawn store to be able to explain what so many medical professionals couldn't.

S

Doing as Henry wanted was the only way to get him to accept what was going to happen and Emma was going to make sure of that. Short of Regina miraculously waking up and admitting that she made everything up so that he would no longer think of her as evil.

If that were to happen, however, Emma may actually be forced to believe in magic now that she was apparently scoring extremely high on the coma scale and all brain scans were showing very little activity.

Somehow, the bell over the door sounded apprehensive as it rang out through the shop and Emma held her breath until she reached the counter.

"Ah, Sheriff Swan, I had wondered when you would show up," Mr Gold greeted and Emma would have guessed that he was actually glad to see her.

Emma tapped at the counter strewn with an eclectic array of items that the sheriff couldn't even begin to identify.

"Henry seems to think that you are Rumplestiltskin," Emma said, waiting for a derisive scoff that never came so she finally looked up at the store owner.

"And?" Gold asked.

Emma sighed but replied, "And you think he's right about that?"

He shrugged nonchalantly, "In the same way that you think that your name is Emma, yes. So what is it that you were hoping to achieve with this conversation?"

Emma could have just left right there and dismissed all of this. So what if there was another person who supposedly believed?

Her two-week deadline kept her rooted in place, however.

"I wanted you to tell me that the curse is not real so that I could tell Henry to get some help," Emma almost begged.

"So you want me to lie to you? I can if you prefer."

"You're the third person to think this is all real," Emma huffed, close to hanging her head at this point, how was it possible to be this tired?

"And that doesn't convince you?" Gold chuckled, beginning to move things around the counter as if she was losing his interest.

"So that means that you think that Regina is under a sleeping curse?"

"It is my understanding that she ate the same apple that did that to your mother," Gold agreed and Emma had to bite her tongue.

So many people had casually talked about her having a mother which would freak her out even if they were not talking about a fairytale character.

She wasn't here to dispute her parentage though.

"So why is Regina's brain failing? That didn't happen to any version of Snow White!"

The force with which these words left her mouth had Gold give up on his attempt to organise his knick-knacks, "You will come to understand that the answer to most of your questions is magic, without it her body is not preserved while her soul is in the other realm. At least that is what I would have to assume, this must be the first sleeping curse in this realm."

"Okay, let's pretend that makes any sense at all," Emma said, puffing out her cheeks, "How does that explain the advanced directive? She was obviously already sick and…"

"Excellent theory, sheriff," Gold said, pointing at her like he was actually proud, "But I'm afraid that Regina was quite unaware of that document's insertion into her medical records, so it doesn't quite hold up."

"You created the directive?" Emma asked, feeling her last piece of 'evidence' shatter and reform into yet more questions.

Apparently, it was possible to be more tired!

"Yes, and it is airtight," Gold said smugly.

"But…why?"

"If anything were to ever happen to her majesty, I couldn't allow this realm's technology to keep her curse alive with her," Gold explained.

So the curse will break in two weeks no matter what? Popped into Emma's head and she had to clench her fingers on the counter.

Just because Mr Gold was saying this all so calmly, it didn't mean that she had to listen to what he believed to be logical.

There was one thing he could do for her in spite of his crazy notions.

"Regina has two weeks left, you have to retract it for Henry's sake."

Gold shook his head slowly, nearly mockingly, "As much as I enjoy the saviour begging, I cannot wait until you believe. I may just lose my patience."

"Patience for what?"

"My business," Gold replied, with less mirth behind his words.

"Whatever it is, it's worth Regina dying?" Emma bargained.

"She didn't eat the apple for me, her death will not be on my conscience."

"Are you saying it should be on mine?" Emma asked, scandalised.

"You said it, dearie, not me," Rumple laughed, "It is quite understandable that you would be resistant to believe that the Evil Queen is your True Love, that you could be carrying her child. Must be quite the truth to swallow."

Emma stepped away and cradled her stomach protectively before she demanded, "How do you know about the pregnancy?"

"Regina asked for advice on breaking the curse," Gold replied, "I must say, I have known Regina for many years and I have never witnessed that kind of hope from her. Rather ironic that it came from the daughter of her greatest enemy."

Emma took another step back, her mind blank of all but one thought that was suddenly all-consuming, " I need to get out of this town, does Henry have a guardian?"

Gold shrugged again, wholly unconcerned, "I doubt that she thought it necessary while time was not moving, she was never as diligent as I am."

Emma blinked, her incredulous disbelief reaching new levels.

She wasn't prepared to be in this place for much longer, they all needed to figure out their own problems: including Henry.

"I gotta go," she choked, "Just make sure he doesn't end up in the system?"

She didn't stop to make sure that he agreed with her request as she yanked the door open, ready to tear her way to the loft.

S

The break in routine weighed heavily on Emma as her bug cut a swath through Main Street and she steered towards the loft rather than to Granny's to get Henry his lunch.

She tried to push all of this out of her mind as she tore up the stairs and eventually arrived at the room that she hadn't slept in for a fortnight now.

She couldn't be in this town anymore, not when she could feel her circle of sanity shrinking with each passing moment.

She wasn't the right person for any of this.

It didn't matter that she was pretty sure that she would never find out the paternity of her second child if she wasn't in Storybrooke. It didn't matter that she might be the one person in the world that Henry had after the next two weeks were over.

He hadn't needed her for ten years, he could manage if she fled, right?

It was this thought that allowed her to gather all of her things into her box, not even allowing herself a moment to dwell on the baby blanket.

That would lead to a spiral of considering whether her next child was going to be in a similar position in twenty-eight years. She was determined that she wouldn't touch her stomach until she was back home in Boston where she would finally have to figure out her next move.

The first and most important step was to get away from curses and ailing one-night stands and she couldn't bare the thought of dying. Maybe if she wasn't here when Regina Mills passed, then she could pretend that it never actually happened?

Her short-sighted plan was thwarted the moment that her boots hit the bottom step and the front door opened.

Emma's eyes fluttered closed, she'd forgotten to factor in her roommate coming home for lunch into her frenzied plans.

Mary Margaret discarded her bag and pile of papers with a gasp, "Oh Emma, It's so good to see you! How's Regina?"

Emma unstuck herself as she opened her eyes, carrying the box to the couch to fill it with her important items strewn across the rest of the loft.

That way, she didn't have to think about the abject dejection with which Snow White had bitten into the poisoned apple handed to her by the Evil Queen.

Despite her understanding of technology, she just couldn't see Mayor Mills and Miss Blanchard taking time out of their days to film that little skit.

Plus, there was the question of what any of them stood to gain from all of that effort.

The only alternative was that it was actually a memory presented by the Mad Hatter. That would make it possible that she was currently in the same room as her mother and that she was in fact carrying the child of a comatose woman.

No, leaving was easier, much easier.

"She's getting worse," Emma replied, violently packing now, "Pretty sure she's going to die."

Just as she reached for a hat that may or may not belong to her, Emma's heart jumped into her throat as a hand circled her forearm and she found Mary Margaret directly next to her.

The schoolteacher moved the box out of Emma's reach and she only had the energy to huff and lean against the back of the couch.

Mary Margaret mirrored the position and replied, "Are you going somewhere?"

Emma dropped her face into her hands, feeling strangely thwarted right now.

She straightened and exploded, "I didn't sign up for this, okay?! I stayed here to make sure that Henry was safe, I can't deal with any of this!"

Emma continued to breathe deeply, even in spite of the hand on her shoulder.

"Emma, calm down," Mary Margaret said softly, "I know that whatever is going on between you and Regina is complicated…"

"You don't know the half of it," Emma scoffed, trying not to recall all of the spots of this loft where she and Regina had made out or how she longed to go back to that day. As odd as it was to think about, the day that Regina revealed the curse to be real actually was a simpler time.

Mary Margaret's hand slipped as Emma's words caught in what could almost be a cry of sorrow and she sidled up closer to her, not daring to go for an actual hug.

"You don't want her to die, right?" Mary Margaret asked gently.

"Of course not! Henry will…"

"You think that this is all about Henry?" Mary Magaret countered.

"It doesn't matter what this is about!" Emma snapped, "Regina flatlined this morning and in a couple of weeks, Whale won't be allowed to do anything to bring her back! The kid is going to be devastated, I already don't know what to do about…you know. I can't be a single mother to one kid, let alone two. I gave Henry up for a reason!"

"So what, you're running?" Mary Margaret challenged to Emma's intense surprise, "Leaving him all alone?"

"I'm sure someone in this town will take him in," Emma shrugged, "Maybe Archie? Or you?! You care about him, right?"

"Of course," she replied with ease, the kind of certainty that incited intense jealousy in the sheriff, "But I am not his mother."

"No, Regina is!" Emma shouted, pushing off the couch to pace away a sudden onslaught of excess energy.

"But you are too," Mary Margaret said, grabbing her upper arm to root her in place, "If Regina…doesn't make it, he will need you. You can't leave."

"I have to," Emma begged, "I can't be in this town anymore."

Mary Margaret sighed and her disappointment made Emma physically want to squirm. Why was it that when she barely knew this woman?!

"At least consider telling him in person before you go? Henry is about to lose one mother for good…"

"He blames me!" Emma argued, "It won't matter that I gave birth to him. He will think that his mom died because I couldn't believe in the curse. Regina told him that it's real. How will I ever convince him that it's not when she's gone?!"

Mary Margaret was momentarily stunned but replied, with that maturity that Emma was so jealous of, "Don't you think it will be worse if you just leave? Please think about talking to him before you disappear from his life forever?"

Emma swallowed as a million counters ran through her mind, mainly around how there was very little that she could offer to the boy, and that he wouldn't get many benefits from seeing her one more time.

Her own promise to come back after talking to Gold also came to her and she realised that her roommate was right.

The young boy was close to falling into a pit of grief, she didn't need to be responsible for sprinkling abandonment issues into that.

Perhaps if she could remember her parents telling her exactly why they had to leave her in that forest, things could have been easier for her?

She could give that closure to her son, right?

"You're right…I'll go and talk to him right now," Emma sighed, but found herself enveloped in a hug before she could rush towards the exit to get it over and done with.

Emma stiffened but, after a couple of seconds, she returned the embrace, albeit without as much passion.

"I'll miss you, Emma," Mary Margaret mumbled, "Call me anytime?"

Emma pulled back and offered the other woman a real smile of gratitude, "I will…Goodbye Mary Margaret…thanks for everything."

She received a watery smile in return as she pulled the box towards herself, deciding that she could do a quick audit of it before actually driving out of town. Right now, she had to focus on what she was going to say to her son.

She reached her car and stuffed the box into the back in a motion that she had completed so many times over the course of her life, but unlike those times, her tires were now screeching to promptly get her the hell out of there right now.

She had a stop to make before she could even think about whether crossing the town line was liable to cause another car accident.

As she manoeuvred the halls of Storybrooke General, she ran through her script, something that she had done more than a few times since that day in jail. She would tell her well-adjusted kid that she gave him up so that he could have his best chance and that she certainly wasn't it.

Things were significantly more complicated now, but she would just have to detail to him the reasons that she couldn't help him anymore. That he needed professional help more than some fabricated saviour who didn't have the ability to bring his mom back.

Of course, she would have to consider what she would do if he asked about his impending sibling.

If he asked, she couldn't just flippantly tell him that she couldn't keep them either, because she wasn't quite sure that was true. That would be a breeding ground for psychological issues, wouldn't it?

Deciding that she couldn't address issues that hadn't come up yet, she instead focused on getting to the room where she would embark on the most difficult conversation of her life.

When did it become her responsibility to make sure that another human wouldn't be screwed up forever?

Henry's voice filtered through to her as she cracked the door to find that he had either finished or abandoned his schoolwork. Instead, he had his storybook laid out on his lap from which he was reading aloud:

"Cinderella asked Rumplestiltskin to sign a new contract for her pretend second child so that the heroes could make use of the concealed squid ink and render the Dark One powerless and immobile…"

Emma pushed the door the rest of the way to get his attention before he went on to the next paragraph.

"If your mom's really the Evil Queen, she wouldn't like that book, right?" Emma asked with a nervous laugh as she made sure that Regina was in fact still asleep and not about to save her from this.

"I chose a story she wasn't in," Henry replied, snapping the book harshly, "She never met Cinderella."

"Of course not, that would be silly," Emma sighed, draping herself onto the chair and refusing to look at Regina.

She couldn't handle imagining her anger at what she was preparing to say to her son. Now that she was faced with him, though, she didn't see how she would be able to actually go through with this.

How could she go back to pretending that he didn't exist?

His slumping shoulders cut at her resolve as he asked, "Mr Gold didn't convince you, did he?"

"He tried," Emma replied, "I'm sorry, Henry….but maybe you should talk to Archie? You know, before…"

"Don't need to," Henry shot back, "mom did the right thing, that means that she will get her happy ending but the save will come at the last second like in all of these stories. I have faith that my mom will be fine."

Emma ran her tongue over her dry lips and allowed her eyes to roam over the mayor who had been in the same position for so long, but the ticking of the clock at their back was like successive blows.

It made her realise just how alone he was going to be very soon and she knew that she couldn't allow that to happen.

She had to make sure that he had someone. Her son deserved a few more weeks of her time, didn't he?

She could only handle leaving if she knew that he was in a good place, so she let go of all thoughts of the town line and Boston, at least for now.

"You hungry?" Emma asked, reaching into her pocket to produce some dollar bills.

Henry shrugged and accepted the money, "I guess I am," he mumbled.

"Okay, go grab something. I'll sit with your mom," she offered, hoping that her words sounded half as sure as Mary Margaret's were. When did she start modelling her parenting style on the way that her roommate spoke to an adult of the same age?

Henry habitually pressed a kiss to Regina's forehead, waiting the extra second that it took to make sure that it didn't qualify as an act of True Love before he left to do as instructed.

Emma eyed the storybook he left behind before turning back to Regina and she broke her biggest rule for the day. She touched her stomach as a ridiculous thought occurred to her, so she opened her mouth as if her stream of consciousness would distract from it:

"He needs you, you know?" she thought aloud, "If this is some trick to get me to leave…it's getting pretty convoluted….but if you really did this on purpose because you think that this baby is yours then that's…well it's more than Neal would have done. If you wanted to be together, you could have just asked instead of bringing up all of the curse stuff…"

The heart monitor was Emma's only response and she had to resist the strong urge to growl like Regina was choosing to remain in this condition.

Emma huffed and glanced over her shoulder to make sure that the door was firmly closed and that there would be no witnesses to what she was about to do.

She reached forward to pull a few strands of hair, sure to take from the follicle as she said, "Maybe if I prove the kid wrong, he can accept…whatever is happening to you?"

She used her free hand to cradle Regina's cheek without thinking about what the action meant.

The DNA would give her incontrovertible proof that this town was filled with crazy people, but was that really what she wanted.