The Coward's Daughter [An OUAT Fanfic]

Late Night Visit

Y/N hadn't been able to go back to the hospital until it was quite late. She'd had to stay and watch the kids until everyone was picked up by their parent, then she'd had to grade a massive stack of tests, then she had to gas up her car and scarf down a fast dinner before she could collect her missing jacket.

By the time she pulled up to Storybrooke Hospital it was already dark outside. When she entered the dimly lit hospital she found Dr. Whale standing by the front desk, flipping through a clipboard of papers. When the doors shut behind her with a click, the blond doctor looked up and smiled at her.

"Miss Gold! Always lovely to see you." Y/N subtly rolled her eyes, of all the men in town only Dr. Whale was even slightly flirtatious towards her. Though that didn't make her feel special what-so-ever, the man was a practically a serial-dater. Nevertheless, she smiled and greeted him.

"Evening Dr. Whale. I left my jacket in the coma ward this morning, is it alright if I go grab it?"
He set down the clipboard and swaggered towards her.

"Yeah sure thing, I'll even walk you there. Easy to get lost." The pair walked down the halls, the doctor cracking jokes and complementing Y/N the entire way, before he told her, "Y'know it's not too late to get a medical degree, we'd love to have Storybrooke High School's former valedictorian on our staff."

"Thank you Dr. Whale but my first love will always be chemistry."

"Speaking of chemistry I've been wondering if-"

"Dr. Whale!" A woman's voice suddenly screamed out as footsteps echoed through the tiled halls. "Dr. Whale something happened!" Mary Margaret charged towards them, a look of panicked excitement on her face.

"What? What's happened?" Dr. Whale asked, much to Y/N's relief seeming to forget their original conversation.

"John Doe! I think he might be waking up!"

The three of the rushed through the dark halls to the coma wing. Where patients lied as still as dolls underneath the glow of the moon.

Dr. Whale made his way to the room at the end of the hall where the John Doe resided and opened the door.

"He grabbed my hand!" Mary Margaret exclaimed.

Whale stepped inside, checking the monitors, before turning to Mary Margaret.

"Everything's steady. Same as it's always been. What were you doing in here?" He asked.

Y/N wanted to know the same thing. Mary Margaret folded her hands nervously.

"Oh, I was just reading him... a story." She stammered.

"Well perhaps you dozed off, imagined it."

"No, I didn't imagine it." Mary told him, still smiling.

"Sometimes there are minor fluctuations in readings maybe you heard something and misunderstood?" Y/N quietly walked out of the room and looked around outside for her jacket. "Look why don't you go home and get some rest? If anything changes I'll call you okay?"

Y/N found her jacket and attempted to put it on, but it slipped from her hands and fell underneath the table.

She crouched down and grabbed at it, squinting in the dark trying to see it. She reached for it as  Mary Margaret's stomping footsteps echoed through the ward. As she lay under the table she heard the sound of a celephone being dialed, and the nervous voice of Dr. Whale.

"It's Dr. Whale. You told me to call you if there was ever a change in the John Doe. Somethings happened." Y/N felt the leather fabric of her jacket and dragged it out. "One of our volunteers said he grabbed her, there was a slight fluctuation in brain activity."

Y/N slowly and quietly slipped out of the room, wondering who was on the other line. Before she slipped out the side door and made her way back to the car. As she drove home she couldn't help but wonder, why was Mary Margaret reading a story to a John Doe so late at night?