"Emma… there's been an accident…"

The only sound was Emma's phone as it clanged against the floor.

Regina's moves would be a bit jerky from now on, she shouldn't be able to walk again and the most terrifying thing of all was her brain injury. Where her memories stood, they didn't yet know. But best case scenario was she would lose a few memories and not have impulse control.

At the very worst Regina would not be able to retain new memories, she would fail to remember old memories, and become very, very frightened.

The brain is a funny thing, it can heal… given time, but you must wait.

And Emma was ready to wait as long as it took, even if nothing ever came of that waiting.

Emma entered the room with well worn tear tracks down her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around herself tightly to keep it together. Her chest trembling with every breath, nails digging in to keep from crying out.

Her friend lay there, a light scrape on her head – but otherwise perfect. The real problem lay beneath her few hospital blankets.

She could just be sleeping, she could just be drifted off into some happy dream, but somewhere deep down Emma new that sitting here in the ICU was almost a kiss of death. Maybe if she could hold on to Regina, the woman wouldn't slip away… like everything else she loved.