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Mary Margaret entered the room with an enormous smile on her face and Grace in the travel chair, Regina’s eyes connected with the baby and sheer joy flashed through the chocolate orbs. Mary Margaret quickly removed Grace from the chair and carried her towards Regina’s waiting arms and delicately laid her down.

“Oh, I’ve missed you,” Regina whispered to the girl who’s eyes swum around the room as she took everything in before focusing on Regina’s face and smiling at her. She looked at Grace and put her arm out for Henry to sit on the bed beside her and looked from one to the other when he did.

“She’s missed you,” Mary Margaret replied, “we all have..”

Regina looked up at her in slight confusion and surprise, while it was true they had pretty much put their differences aside in the name of peace she certainly hadn’t expected any of them to miss her presence.

A tear fell down Mary Margaret’s face, “Regina, thank you so much for bringing Emma back to me,” she swallowed at the emotion.

Regina gave her a small smile and nodded before looking up to where Emma had been standing and then frowning, “where is Emma?”

David frowned and turned around to see an empty space where Emma had been standing and then turned back to face them, “I’ll.. I’ll go look for her..”

Chapter 41

“Emma?” David’s voice echoed through the ladies bathroom, “are you in here?”

Emma held her breath and waited until she heard the door close again and then counted to thirty to be absolutely sure she was alone before she allowed the sobs to take over her body again. She sat on the floor of one of the cubicles hugging her knees to her chest, the kneecaps of her jeans were soaked in tears.

When Henry had sat on the bed beside Regina and looked at Grace in her arms, Emma could see the happy family picture complete. She was convinced that Regina’s love for Henry was stronger than ever, she could see the look in Regina’s eyes that she had seen when she first arrived in Storybrooke and she knew that he time with Henry was coming to an end.

In the back of her mind she knew that the day would come when Henry would leave her, it was inevitable. But she had made the mistake of falling for Grace, the last week and a half with the tiny baby girl had been some of the best times in Emma’s life. Of course at first she was utterly terrified of Grace and was fully expecting to do something wrong, but as time moved on she began to feel more comfortable holding Grace and soon it became natural.

Of course she didn’t let Mary Margaret know and she attempted to share the labour of looking after the baby equally but when it was her turn to take Grace she felt alive and safe. The tiny bundle needed her, Emma was her literally her lifeline and Emma doted on the baby as if Grace were her own child.

Now Emma knew how foolish that was, of course Regina was going to wake up and want her baby back, want her family back. So when she’d seen them together and she felt the familiar grasping cold hand taking control of her chest she knew she had to get out of the room and to somewhere where she could be alone. The second she had stumbled into the toilet cubicle she had sunk to the floor on shaky legs and could feel the panic attack washing over her, tight chest, shortness of breath, cold sweat.

The last ten days had been so hectic and stressful that Emma hadn’t had a chance to let herself fall apart. She had to be there for Grace, for Henry and for Regina. She had constructed a very detailed itinerary that involved providing them all with the care and comfort they needed and it had kept Emma so busy that she hadn’t had the time to think about herself, to think about what would eventually come, to understand that before long she would be alone. Again.

Her phone silently vibrated in her pocket and she took the device out and looked at the screen and smiled at Henry’s beaming face on the screen. She took a deep breath to compose herself before she swiped at the screen with her thumb, “hey, Kid..”

“Hey,” Henry seemed confused, “where are you?”

“I had a call,” she said, “can’t take calls in the hospital..”

“Oh,” Henry said as he realised he was using his phone.

“I’ll be back in soon,” she said in a tone that she hoped was carefree.

“Okay, cool, see you in a bit,” he said as he hung up.

Emma looked at the screen and the background picture of her, Henry and Grace. Mary Margaret had taken it a few days before when they were all at the park and Emma had saved it as her background later that day. Now she looked at it she wondered what the hell she had been thinking, those children belonged to someone else and she was acting like she was a part of that family when she obviously wasn’t. It sent a small shiver through her spine that she had managed to get so caught up in this fake world she had helped create her herself.