Caught in the Grey (15/?)
"Stay with me," Emma mumbled drowsily as she wrapped a long arm around Regina's waist from behind, fitting herself flush against the brunette's back.
"Gladly," Regina replied as she settled comfortably into the blonde's embrace and slipped into a light sleep.
They had a couple hours until dinner after all and wouldn't be missed until then
Faint footsteps shuffling across the bare floor and the quiet click of a shutting door broke through the sleep-induced fog that filled Regina's mind as she gradually pulled herself back into the waking world. A drowsy warmth weighed down her slender limbs, drawing her back towards slumber, but it was impossible to ignore her parched throat and the unpleasant, metallic taste lingering on her tongue that only comes from sleeping too little… or too long.
Why even bother with naps when all they do is make me feel worse than before? he idly wondered before an image of smooth skin topped by golden curls resting peacefully beside her flashed across her mind.
Right… Well, there is that, she conceded with a yawn as she rolled over onto her side in a vain attempted to escape the encroaching sunlight shining behind her still closed eyes.
A sharp pinch to the back of her left hand jerked her abruptly out of the pleasant haze she'd been enjoying.
Oww… fu…
"…ck," she finished aloud as she bolted up to examine the injured appendage only to find a long IV needled taped to it.
Following the thin trickle of blood caused by the sudden pull, her eyes tracked the line attached to the needle down her wrist, across starched white sheets, and up a long pole until it ended in a clear, plastic bag half drained of its contents.
Rosewood she recognized as the rest of the room came into view.
Dropping her head with a resigned sigh, shoulder-length brown locks muffled the depressingly-familiar sounds around her -hushed voices echoing through the hallway, the steady beep emanating from the heart monitor on her right- blocking out this damnable world for just a few more precious seconds and allowing Regina a moment to swallow down her sharp disappointment.
An entir month ad passed since she'd visited this nightmare. At first, she'd feared its lack of existence nearly as much as she'd feared the possibility that it was real, but as the days, then weeks, had passed her hope for returning back to her normal life had grown and she was able to push aside her complicated feelings for Cameron and focus on her family. The young doctor was only a figment of her imagination based on her very real, very loving girlfriend after all, she had reasoned.
Now that she once again found herself in this… alternate reality, every doubt and fear she'd been able to quell came rushing back. Bitter tears gathered and spilled from the corners of her eyes as these feelings were compounded by the guilt that settled heavily in the pit of her stomach at the small amount of joy and excitement the thought of seeing Cameron again brought to her heart.
"So glad to see you're awake, Ms. Mills," she flinched as the unexpectedly chipper voice interrupted her maudlin thoughts.
Hastily wiping away the last of her tears with a final sniffle, Regina schooled her features into the stoic mask of superiority and indifference that she'd spent thirty-plus years perfecting and faced a tall, pixie-cut blonde nurse whose nametag read "Maddy". She vaguely recognized the woman, but couldn't recall ever interacting with her before.
"How are you feeling this afternoon?" she asked as she pulled the brunette's chart from the end of the bed and began making notes in it.
Why do they always start with that ridiculous question? egina thought, running a tense hand through slightly greasy locks in frustration.
Biting back her initial response -one that questioned the woman's intelligence and brought up the possibility of inbreeding with in her family- she mumbled, "I've been better,"
She knew well enough by now that things moved a lot quicker in this place if she just answered their questions. Preferably slowly and with as few multi-syllabic words as possible.
"Well, the good news is everything looks pretty good and once Dr. Wyatt gets in we should be able to release you back to the ward rather quickly. I know Dr. Cameron will be glad to hear you're awake, too. She's been so worried since you were brought in."
"Worried?" Regina asked in surprise.
Why in any gods' name would Cameron be worried about her?
"Oh my yes," Maddy quickly replied, looking up from the chart in her hands. "She hovered over Dr. Chopra's shoulder as he ran the initial tests. One of the charge nurses had to ban her from the ward after she demanded they run the tests a third time. She's had us calling with hourly updates whenever she's in the office and every two at night when she's home ever since."
"Every night? How long have I been out?" Regina asked but the chatty nurse, who looked and acted as if she'd just recently graduated from high school, never broke her stride as she continued yammering on, apparently not hearing the brunette's questions.
"She even left strict instructions to call her directly if your condition changed even the slightest. I've got to remember to call her now that you're up," she said more to herself. "Anyways… She seems to think it was her fault for some reason. Not that she actually said as much to me, mind you. I got that from one of the other nurses who got it from someone else that overheard her talking to Angelique. It makes sense, though, cause I've never seen her so anxious the entire last three years I've worked here. Then again, maybe she just hasn't had a patient pass out on her before. Oh dear, you're bleeding a little there. Let me just go get something to take care of that. Don't go anywhere now."
Mind still reeling from the verbal whirlwind that had just assaulted her, Regina could only watch on in a daze as the young nurse scampered across the infirmary to gather the necessary supplies. One piece of information stood out from the deluge, though; Cameron had been worried abou her She'd even been kicked out for being underfoot then insisted on hourly updates o he condition.
The younger woman had seemed so calm and collected, ever the professional, in their last session that Regina thought she'd been the only one still reeling from their kiss. Maybe that hadn't been the case at all.
Pushing aside the warm, tingly feeling that was welling up inside her chest, Regina repeated her earlier question before Maddy could go off on another tangent.
"You said 'every night', meaning more than one. How long was I out?"
"Oh let me check," the bubbly nurse said as she set aside the materials she'd fetched in order to flip through Regina's chart once more. "I've been on vacation for the last two weeks with my fiancé and just returned this morning so I'm still playing catch up. It says here… that you were admitted on Monday afternoon and it's a little after eight this morning so… just under five days."
"Five days?!" Regina asked incredulously.
She'd have been less surprised if the woman had said she'd been out of it for a month. After all, that was how long she'd spent in Fairytale Land.
At least she was finally able to answer one of the thousand questions she had; time definitely moved at a different rate here. Good to know, but it didn't exactly help clarify which world was real or what was still trapping her in between the two.
"Yes ma'am," the nurse replied, bringing her back to the matter at hand, "but your vitals are strong and all your tests came back clear of any abnormalities which is great. Dr. Chopra will still want to check you out himself in a few days just to make sure nothing changes by then, but I wouldn't worry if I were you. You're in perfect physical health."
"Does my chart also say when I was admitted?" Regina asked, ignoring the slight emphasis the annoying nurse put on 'physical'.
"Umm… yes. It says original admittance date was just over six weeks ago on September thirteenth."
Doing the mental math, while Maddy finally attended to her bleeding hand, Regina figured she'd been in Rosewood for roughly forty-five days. Subtract the days she'd spent passed out after her transfer and this latest unconscious episode and it came down to thirty-six days spent awake and lucid at Rosewood.
As cut off from the outside world as the patients here were, all the days tended to blur together, so that after a couple weeks it became nearly impossible to distinguish one from the other. Realizing this fairly early on, Regina had taken to marking the inside of her closet door -one never could be too careful after all- as each morning dawned. At last count, the day she'd collapsed, she was at thirty-one days from the first time she'd awoken in the infirmary.
Time here is linear she realized.
"Hey, Maddy. Have you seen Wyatt around anywhere? I need these papers for Mr. Clarkson signed," a deep voice called from the door and both women turned towards the new comer.
"Oh, hey Gary. No I haven't," Maddy answered as he made his way towards them.
Regina's eyes flitted over the square jaw covered by a trim beard the same color as his sandy hair, right down to the streaks of grey speckled throughout, and the long scar just over his right eyebrow.
Galion?
Hazel eyes, ones she'd looked into a hundred times before, meet hers and in the split second that they held, a flood of memories came rushing back.
Gali… 'Gary' was a new orderly on the ward having just transferred in the morning of Regina's latest excursion to the infirmary. He'd been introduced during the morning group session and had actually been the one to escort her to Cameron's office that afternoon.
Scanning back over her time spent in Fairytale Land, the small portion she could actually remember in relation to the years spent there, not once could she recall every seeing Galion before he'd come to check on her after her mad dash to Henry's chamber.
For the first time since this whole ordeal began, Regina acknowledged the distinct possibility that maybe Fairytale Land wasn't real after all.
Across town, the lithe figure of Alison Cameron sat curled up on her couch watching Saturday morning cartoons. Their mindless humor-truly subpar to that of the classics-was about the only thing that could distract her from the ever-present guilt that had been following her around for nearly a week. Even her runs had lost their effectiveness at clearing her mind after two days and she hadn't ventured out for anything else except work since.
As another day passed without Regina waking, Cameron's nerves frayed a little more. She rarely had cause to question her methods, but that was all she seemed to be doing since the brunette had come under her care.
The ringing of her cell phone carried over the din of oddly colored kids doing gods know what and she quickly snatched it up without bothering to check the caller ID. None of her friends would call her before noon on the weekend, so that only left one option… work.
"Cameron," she answered tersely, fully expecting to hear the same phrase she'd heard for that last five days, 'No change'.
Sinking back into the sofa, she listened as the woman on the other end of the line informed her that Regina had awoken a couple of hours ago, was lucid, and didn't seem to be suffering from any memory loss or other ill effects from her time spent unconscious.
"So Wyatt ran blood work again, right? ... And they're clear? ... Excellent! Thank you so much for calling Maddy," she enthused. "Send my love to Spencer and tell Jen I appreciate her double-checking the tests before releasing Re… Ms. Mills for me. …. Thanks again. Bye."
Palpable relief spread through her body at the good news, alleviating the tension in her shoulders and the knot in her stomach. She felt lighter than she had in quite a while, long before Regina even entered her life in fact.
Unwilling to waste this buoyant happiness, she decided to go for a run before returning to tackle the chores she'd been neglecting all week. Even the thought of tedious cleaning couldn't bring her down when she realized she'd be able to see Regina with her own two eyes again in just two days' time.
Chapter 16
A/N Yay! Two chapters in two weeks. I think (fingers crossed) that my writer's block has finally abated. One can only hope. I realize the chapters have been short with not a whole helluva lot going on, but they are important. It's basically build up to the next chapter that should prove to be a little more intense with more revealing stuff going on. Unless I think of more filler to drag it out, but that would just be cruel and I woul neve do something like that :D Thanks to everyone who commented on the last chapter. If it's a significant comment, *cough* ariestess *cough* morthel *cough* , I usually reply and if I haven't... My bad. I got kinda distracted this week with stuff but I will be getting around to that though. Cause I really do appreciate all your comments and want to make sure you guys know that. I also appreciate when people favorite/follow me or any of my stories. Makes me feel special! So thanks for that too! Hope you have an excellent day/night/week. Luv you all!