Once Upon a Time in Storybrooke - OUAT DR

Chapter 13 - Bad Reputation

A few days after Valentine's Day I was heading to Granny's when I noticed August and Emma talking out front. I decided to hang back and let them talk, only going in once she'd gone inside and August had driven away. I joined Emma and Mary Margaret for breakfast, just catching the end of their talk. Mary Margaret had called and asked us to come and talk.

She finally admitted to seeing David. Emma and I both told her we were aware – it wasn't very hard to tell. When Mary Margaret finally asked how and Emma explained her reasoning, I admitted to having seen them kiss outside Granny's once and put two and two together. She asked why we hadn't said anything and we both quipped at the same time "I'm not your mother" to which Mary Margaret joked that, according to Henry, she was Emma's. We both explained that we figured she would tell us when she felt the time was right.

That's when she told us that David was telling Kathryn everything - today.

Ruby came over then and we ordered, and honestly I was grateful for the brief interlude so I could get my thoughts together. I was surprised she had held out this long on telling us, and couldn't decide if I was impressed or a little upset she didn't trust us enough to tell us sooner. We ate and talked a bit more before going our separate ways for the day – Mary to school, Emma to the sheriff's station, and me to the Daily Mirror.

As I scanned my box of newspapers for the day I couldn't help but think about Mary Margaret's words about her being Emma's mom, according to Henry. The casual way we all talked about the obviously-not-real curse.

Emma texted and let me know she would be getting a drink with August after work so she couldn't hang out, but I should go to the loft and have dinner with Mary Margaret, just in case the David-Kathryn talk didn't go well.

By the time school had let out, the gossip was all over the office – the school teacher Miss Blanchard had been the other woman in an affair with David Nolan, his wife Kathryn Nolan showing up to the school and confronting her in front of everybody.

I left the office and went to where I knew her car was parked to try and see how she was doing. I noticed the red paint on her car before I noticed David trying to scrub it off. Mary Margaret showed up right before I got there and I hung back to let her talk to him. Once he'd walked off I went over to her and hugged her tightly, told her not to worry about her car or anything else right now. We walked back to the loft and silently made dinner together. I asked if she wanted me to leave and she told me no. I asked if she wanted to talk about it but she wasn't ready yet, so I let it go.

I offered what comfort and reassurance I could but knew it could never be enough. I'd been in a similar position before, blinded by "love," and he'd lied to me too. He hadn't been married, but they'd been engaged, and it was one of the many reasons I'd moved out of Seattle when I did. My reputation had been assassinated. I headed home once their kitchen was cleaned and I knew she was going to get sleep. I went back to her car and continued the scrubbing David had begun, getting most of the red paint off the car.  Once I was done I couldn't help feeling guilty with every step I took away from her loft and toward my apartment, despite the work I'd done on her car. It didn't feel like enough.

I slept fitfully all night, worrying about how the next day was going to go for Mary Margaret. After getting ready and heading downstairs to grab the daily papers I was relieved to not find a single word about the school teacher caught in an affair with a married man. Surprising, given how tempting the story was, and the multiple eye-witness accounts of Kathryn's slap to Mary Margaret in the school hallway yesterday.

I had just left the library after dropping off the papers in the dispenser outside the closed-down building when I noticed Emma standing by her bug. I walked over and saw that she'd found something in the gutter by her car. She noticed me then and showed me the storybook – it had washed up by her car, maybe from the rain last night, maybe it fell off the trash truck on the way to the dump. Either way, we were both extremely glad to see the book safe and undamaged so she could return it to Henry. I asked if she was going to wait until Regina finally let her see him again but she said no, deciding to take it to him while he was at school before he got picked up.

As soon as work was over, I headed back over to Mary Margaret's and realized she hadn't gone to school that day but stayed home sick. I messaged Emma and she headed over not long after. We asked Mary Margaret if she was ready to talk about it yet but she said no, but she also didn't want us to leave. Emma and I both found a place on the bed and laid down – just being – in an effort to comfort our friend in the only way we really could.

Internally I was pissed at David, imagining the things I would say to him the next time I saw him. I think I was most mad that he had put my friend in this position, ruined her reputation, and broken her heart - treated her so carelessly. I had never seen Mary Margaret so down and unhappy and it hurt to see.

I wished there was more we could do, but I knew there wasn't. After a time we convinced Mary to eat and fed her a cup of tea before she crawled back into bed. Once we were sure she was going to go to sleep, I decided to head back to my place to crawl into my own bed and drift off to sleep.