The Coward's Daughter [An OUAT Fanfic]

A Happy Ending?

The trip back to the hospital passed in a blur, a bumpy ambulance ride, John Doe being sped through the hospital on a stretcher, nurses pushing him into a small room. Before Henry, Emma, Y/N, Graham and Mary Margaret were shut out, left to look onward at the mysterious patient.

The group watched as medical staff crowded around him, their fingers flying as they attached IVs and applied bandages.

Y/N gripped Henry's shoulder, trying to reassure him, when suddenly a woman rushed to the door, her blonde hair flying behind her.

"David!" She cried as pushed open the doors, "David!"

"Ma'm you can't be in here." Doctor Whale said sternly as the doors shut.

The woman was in her thirties, with long blond hair and a black blazer. She rushed to John Doe's bedside, stroking his face delicately, before Doctor Whale began to push her out off the room.

"Who is that?" Mary Margaret asked concernedly, before an all too familiar voice answered from behind them.

"His wife." Regina Mills said, a smirk plain on her face under the dim glow of the hospital lights. "His name is David Nolan. And that's his wife, Katheryn. And the joy on her face, it's put me in quite the forgiving mood." She looked at Emma, who was slouched in a waiting room armchair.
She then looked to her son, her eyebrows raised. "We'll talk about your insubordination later. Do you know what in subordination means?" He shook his head. "It means you're grounded."

Henry mimicked Emma in slumping into a chair, before Kathryn exited the ward, with a radiant smile. She immediately turned to Mary Margaret.

"Thank you." Kathryn grinned. "Thank you for finding my David."

"Um, I don't— I don't understand. You didn't know he was here in town?"

"A few years ago," Katheryn explained, "David and I were... not getting along. It was my fault, I know that now. I was difficult and unsupportive. I told him if he didn't like things he could leave and he did. And I didn't stop him, it was the worst decision I ever made." Kathryn's eyes dimmed, she crossed her arms to her chest.

"You didn't look for him?" Emma asked.

"I assumed he'd left town. All this time. Now I know why I never heard from him, now I get to do what I've wanted to do forever. Say 'i'm sorry'." Katheryn smiled again, "Now we get a second chance!"

"That's wonderful." Mary Margaret told her softly, though her eyes told a different truth. Doctor Whale entered the waiting room, all heads turned to him expectingly.

"Well, it's something of a miracle. Physically he's on the mend but his memory is another issue. It may take time, if at all."

"What brought him back?" Asked Mary Margaret.

"That's the thing. There's no explanation, something just clicked in him."

"He just got up and decided to go for a stroll?" Emma asked sarcastically.

"He woke up, he was delirious. His first instinct was to go... find something I guess."

"Someone." Henry piped up from his chair in the corner.

There was a tense silence before Kathryn asked Dr. Whale,

"Can I see him?"

"Yeah, of course." The doctor answered casually. Mrs. Nolan went into her husband's hospital room giddy with excitement.

"Henry, let's go." Regina commanded, and her son rose up from his chair and walked towards her.

"Wait! My backpack." The boy exclaimed, heading back to his chair near the pair of teachers.

He picked up the beat-up green backpack before whispering to Mary Margaret just loudly enough for Y/N to make out what he was saying.

"Don't believe them, you're the one he was looking for."

"Henry-" Mary Margaret began.

"He was going to the troll bridge. It's like the end of the story."

"Henry, he was going there because it was the last thing I read to him."

"No. It's because you belong together."

"Henry." Regina called out.

Y/N reached for Henry's backpack and helped him put it on, trying to get him home quickly and avoid irritating his mother any further.

"I'll see you in class next week Henry, get some rest okay?" She smiled.

Henry hustled out of the room with his mother trailing close behind, her stilettos echoing off the tile.

As the pair of the walked out, she noticed Emma get a sudden look of realization, before the bail bonds person ran out of the room, following Regina and Henry.

Y/N didn't follow, instead she stood with Mary Margaret, as they both watched the husband and wife reunite. The two embraced as David Nolan still lay on the hospital bed. Y/N noticed Mary Margaret getting misty-eyed, watching them together.

Y/N fiddled with the small gold ring that hung on her necklace, before she turned to Mary Margaret.

"Wow." Y/N said to her co-worker, "I hope I'll be married to someone who loves me that much that someday."