Writing Challenge: Breaking Point, Chapter Eleven (11/12)

Title: Breaking Point
Summary: Emma leaving town was out of the question, and that was perfectly fine with Regina. As a matter of fact, Emma absolutely must stay in Storybrooke for a long, long time. And she knew just how to accomplish that.
Spoilers: Up through 1x19, "The Return."
Characters: Mostly Emma, Regina, and Mary Margaret, with special appearances by Henry, August, Archie, David, and Dr. Whale along the way.
Rating/Warning: PG-13, mostly for language.
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time and its characters were created by Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz and are owned by ABC. I'm just playing in someone else's sandbox. Please don't sue me! You won't get much.
Author's Note: I can't remember if I mentioned it in one of my previous author's notes or not, but Mary Margaret and Emma are the heart of this show for me. If the plotting of the story had allowed for it, I could easily have written the whole twelve chapters with just the two of them. I loved the period of time in the show between Mary Margaret telling Emma Henry thought she was Snow White and Emma telling Mary Margaret that Henry thought she was Emma's mother because I liked Emma knowing Henry's theory re: their connection while Mary Margaret didn't. I played with that a bit here.

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The click-clack of Regina Mills’ heels--a sound Emma couldn’t stand, by the way--had barely faded from the hallway when Emma shot to her feet and headed for the nurse’s station. She asked permission to make a couple of phone calls, and one of the nurses led her to a small table in a corner where she’d have a modicum of privacy. She smiled a thank you and waited for the nurse to return to her desk before picking up the phone.

The first call she placed was to Archie, who confirmed that her doctors had decided to continue her hold for the time being. “I’m sure it’ll only be another twenty-four hours, Emma,” he told her. “I actually recommended you be released today, but they want to observe you a little longer.

She was disappointed and annoyed, of course, but she tried not to let her voice betray her emotions. She thanked him, both for the information and for recommending her release, and said her goodbyes before hanging up.

Her second call was to Mary Margaret’s cell phone. “I know,” the teacher said, her voice filled with sympathy when Emma told her she was stuck in the hospital for at least another night. “They told me when I was there this afternoon.”

“You were here?” Emma frowned, glancing behind her for a wall clock. She must have slept a lot longer than she’d originally thought if the teacher had come by the hospital already.

She could hear the smile in Mary Margaret’s voice. “Yes. You were out cold and actually looked peaceful, so I figured I’d let you sleep.”

“Thanks,” Emma said, although she wished Mary Margaret had woken her. She’d been looking forward to their visit. She had wanted to tell her about Regina’s plan and how she’d figured out that Regina had wanted her locked up for good. She’d wanted to commiserate with someone who would understand.

But mostly, she missed her.

She finally found a clock. It was almost four in the afternoon. Damn, that meant she probably slept straight through August’s visit as well.

“Emma? You still there?”

“Yeah,” Emma said, shaking her head to clear it. “Listen, I just wanted to let you know that I’m getting out of here tomorrow.”

“Did they tell you that?” Mary Margaret asked excitedly.

“No, but I’ve figured out what I have to do.”

There was a hesitation on the line, the space of a heartbeat, and then Mary Margaret said, “What are you talking about?”

Again, Emma peeked over her shoulder. Nobody was around or paying any kind of attention to her at all, but she lowered her voice anyway. “She’s not going to win this time, Mary Margaret. I’ve figured out what I’ve been doing wrong.”

Another brief hesitation. “I’m coming back up there. I don’t like the way you sound.”

“No, no, you don’t need to come up here,” Emma hurriedly interrupted. She actually wouldn’t mind the visit but she could tell that Mary Margaret was worried, and she didn’t want her to worry. “I promise I’m okay.”

“All right,” Mary Margaret replied, although Emma detected uncertainty in her voice.

She cursed under her breath. Why hadn’t she realized how her assertion would sound to someone who didn’t know the whole story? That was something she definitely needed to take into consideration; this little plan she’d come up with in no way included freaking people out with her determination.

“Emma?”

“Sorry, still here.” She idly wondered what Mary Margaret and David thought about having to continually bring her back to reality every time they’d had a conversation with her lately. Had they even noticed? Had they simply attributed it to the meds the hospital had put her on if they had noticed?

Because they couldn’t possibly know what bounced through her head when she spoke to them now: David equals Prince Charming equals father; Mary Margaret equals Snow White equals mother.

It was all just too much. Of course, she would have to deal with it at some point, but she had too many other things going on at the moment to deal with it properly. So she tried to put it out of her mind as much as possible, which worked pretty well until she had to speak to either one of them. Then it smacked her in the face and took her off her game.

This time, she remembered she was still on the phone without Mary Margaret having to prompt her. “I’ll explain everything tomorrow, Mary Margaret, I promise. For now, just …” The rest of the sentence tumbled out of her mouth before she could think better of it. “I need you to believe in me.”

“Believe in you for what?”

Emma closed her eyes and nervously chewed on her lower lip. She didn’t really know why she’d said it but now that it was out there, she was anxious for Mary Margaret’s answer. “Just in general.”

She responded immediately. “Of course I believe in you.”

Emma’s heart soared. For some reason, hearing those words from Mary Margaret filled her with a sense of pride. “Thank you,” she murmured, letting out a breath of relief, one she hadn’t even been aware that she was holding.

“You’re welcome, I guess, although I still have no real idea what’s going on.”

“I’ll explain it all tomorrow,” Emma assured her.

“I’m holding you to that, Emma.”

Spoken like a true mother. Tears brimmed in Emma’s eyes and she ended the call quickly before Mary Margaret could hear how choked up her voice had become. What the hell was wrong with her lately? She’d cried more in the last three damn days than she had in the last three freakin’ years.

Whatever. She could deal with the emotional fallout later, after she got out of this little Regina-caused mess. Right now, she needed to start phase one of her battle plan.

-----

For the next twenty-four hours, Emma Swan was the most well-behaved psych patient Storybrooke General had ever seen.

She forced down her meals even though she wasn’t particularly hungry. She talked to her doctors when they asked, told them everything they wanted to hear and nothing they didn’t. She went to sleep without a fight and discovered that she slept so much better without the stupid sedative. The nightmares still came, of course, but allowing herself the proper distance from the dreams before going back to sleep ensured that they didn’t continue. She was cooperative, kind, pleasant, and polite, which was something of a miracle considering her patience with the whole damn situation had run out days ago.

Her persistence paid off. During her visit with Mary Margaret that afternoon, Dr. Whale entered the room to tell her that he had started processing her discharge papers. “A condition of your release is follow-up appointments with Dr. Hopper,” he told her, marking notes in her chart as he spoke. “We’ve scheduled you one for tomorrow afternoon at two, and you and he can decide on a schedule from there.”

“Thank you,” Emma said, although she didn’t feel at all grateful. She had to attend actual therapy sessions with Archie now? Oh, Regina was going to pay so hard for this.

Dr. Whale smiled at her. “You’re welcome. I’ll be back with your papers in a few, and then you’ll be all set to go.”

After he left the room, Emma and Mary Margaret shared a smile. “Told you I’d be getting out of here today,” Emma teased.

Mary Margaret held up a black overnight bag containing a change of clothes for her roommate. “And I told you I believed in you.”

With a touched smile, Emma took the duffel from Mary Margaret, set it down on the bed, and dug out the clothes. Then she excused herself to change in the bathroom while Mary Margaret set to work packing up the few personal items in the room.

There were the books she’d brought Emma to help ease her boredom. And here was the teddy bear that Henry had insisted on buying her from the gift shop even though he thought it was silly and he was pretty sure Emma would think it was silly. (She had, but she’d also thought it was sweet.)

And here was … “Hey, Emma? Is this deck of cards yours?”

“Oh, yeah,” Emma called back from the bathroom. “David brought me those. He figured I was bored.”

“David came to see you?”

“Yeah,” she answered. A moment later, she grinned. The mixture of emotions in Mary Margaret’s voice had given her an idea.

Emma emerged from the tiny bathroom feeling completely refreshed. Words could not express how wonderful it felt to be wearing her familiar jeans and loose top again. Hospital-issue scrubs were comfy, sure, but comfort was pretty much the only thing they had going for them. They were shapeless, drab, and annoying to wear for days on end. She’d also run a brush through her hair, restoring some of its bounce, and even put on some lip gloss.

She felt human again.

She opened her mouth to say as much to Mary Margaret, but the words died in her throat once she got a good look at what the teacher had been doing while she was making herself presentable. “You know,” she said with a teasing lilt in her voice, “cleaning the room behind me is kind of redundant, considering they have to give the room a thorough cleaning after we leave.”

Mary Margaret turned to face her, blinked, and then gave her an embarrassed smile. “Sorry. Nervous habit. I’m pretty sure I packed up everything of yours, though.”

“Thank you, Mary Margaret.”

At first, Mary Margaret thought she was thanking her for packing her things for her. Only after spying the pain in her eyes did she understand that Emma was thanking her for everything she’d done over the last few days. “You’re welcome, Emma,” she replied, her voice gentle.

“I know I have some explaining to do--”

The teacher held up a hand, cutting off Emma’s explanation before she could even get out one word of it. “Not here and not now. There’ll be time later tonight. Besides, I don’t want the two of us to be upset for your surprise.”

“Surprise?” Emma asked, raising her eyebrows. “What surprise?”

“Well, if I told you, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now, would it?”

“Hey, that’s not fair!”

Mary Margaret gave her a sly grin. Emma couldn’t help herself; she grinned back. “You know what, Emma?” Mary Margaret said as she slung the duffel bag over her shoulder. “It really is great to see you smile again.”