Once Upon a Time in Storybrooke - OUAT DR

Chapter 18 - Joining the Family Business

After my talk with the Office Manager and learning of my new position and what it would entail, I had mixed emotions on whether this change in position was truly a positive or not. The transition to working at the Sheriff's Department started immediately, but I didn't have much I needed to bring with me. The Office Manager told me to take an inventory sheet and make a list of everything I would need and they would submit the request to the city on my behalf to ensure I'd have everything I needed.

On the one hand, it would be a lot of fun getting to spend my days just hanging out with Emma - who had quickly become my best friend here in the small town and may actually be my twin.  The downside? I had to report on the Mary Margaret Blanchard Murder Trial. Only the official stuff, nothing I may overhear while in the office, of course. It had been unanimously agreed that I was the only one capable of covering the story given my newness to the town. Since Sidney Glass's illegal use of sources, the Daily Mirror wanted to be sure there was an official liaison between the Sheriff's Office and the city so everyone could get accurate and unbiased information.

I still had to deliver papers every morning. The papers for the day had Mary Margaret on the front page, with the headline HEARTLESS. I rolled my eyes but delivered them to the dispensers before grabbing breakfast and coffee for us all and heading to the sheriff's station.

When I got there, I told Emma and she smiled, admitting she was glad it was me they had chosen and that they'd honored her request that it be me. She showed me to an office where I could set up shop and I gave her and Mary Margaret their coffees and choice of donuts for breakfast. Emma also handed me an official police walkie-talkie – I may not be a deputy, but I was the office manager and official liaison to keep the police force and the paper accountable - which meant I got a direct line to all the official police chatter. 

As we ate Mary Margaret caught me up on where David stood in all this – having come and talked with her, saying that he didn't believe her and had asked if she'd done it, if she'd really killed Kathryn. I already hadn't been David's biggest fan, but that was just low. How anyone could believe Mary Margaret was capable of murder, well, it was just preposterous, and I told her as such.

I was getting settled into my new office when Mr. Gold came by to talk strategy with his client. He asked if I would give them some privacy and I decided to go into my office, closing the door so I couldn't hear them. I was organizing file cabinets and noticed when Sidney Glass entered the station, the windows in my glass office gave me easy views of the front doors and everyone who may enter. Emma rushed over to him and they had a hushed conversation as he handed her a vase filled with flowers.

Suspicious. I was immediately wary of Sidney and why he was there. I went to my office door and opened it up, and upon seeing me, Sidney quickly left. I asked Emma what that was all about but Mary Margaret spoke up about being willing to talk to the DA and my suspicions on Sidney Glass were put on the back burner.

As if on cue the DA and Regina both walked into the Sheriff's Station. 

I was given permission to listen to the interview with Emma and Regina, keeping notes on everything as they talked. The DA tried to bait Mary Margaret in their talks and she fell right into it, (although her statement was clearly not meant to be taken seriously). She had let him rile her up and played right into his trap.

After the interview was over Emma asked if I would hold down the fort while she went to clear her head. Mary Margaret and I talked for a while before I decided to organize the Sheriff's Office. Emma was a great sheriff, but she had followed her predecessor concerning office cleanliness and organization - meaning there wasn't any. I busied myself with decluttering and organizing as I waited for Emma to get back.

She returned late but not empty-handed. No, she was excited. She told me she found what she needed to prove Mary Margaret's innocence and was getting a warrant to pursue the new lead. I tried to press her for more details and was surprised when she pulled me into her office to tell me what she found – a broken shovel piece by the Toll Bridge where the jewelry box had been buried and a broken shovel in Regina's garage. I asked her if I wanted to know how she knew Regina had a broken shovel in her garage but she told me it was better I not know.

I noticed the flowers in the vase then and asked why Sidney had brought her flowers since we hadn't had a chance to talk about his showing up here earlier thanks to the DA waltzing in, but she just brushed it off saying he was trying to be nice. She told me I could go ahead and go home for the night; we wouldn't have a warrant until tomorrow morning.

The next morning, I stayed at the sheriff's station while Emma went to serve the warrant to Regina, keeping Mary Margaret company. I received a very angry call from Emma explaining that the shovel she had found the night before? Gone, nowhere to be seen. Regina had somehow known she was coming and what she was looking for. The only other person who knew, besides me, was August. She was on the way to Granny's to confront him now, not even considering that I could have been the one to betray her (which I didn't, and I wouldn't, but just the fact she didn't even think of it just shows how much we trust one another).

I hadn't known August had been with her – how much had he told her? Had he been talking about their supposed relation to one another? Emma didn't show any signs that he had been speaking with her about our supposed past. 

She hung up and asked if I could break the news to Mary Margaret.

Having to face Mary Margaret at that moment was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to do. Her face crumpled and she asked for privacy while she processed the news so I left, my heart heavy. My friend was being set up for a horrible, horrific, violent crime she was not guilty of and there was nothing we could do to save her.

And I still had to report on all the official findings for the paper tomorrow, even though I knew they were lies.

I was there when the police came to take Mary Margaret away, but didn't overhear Emma and Gold's conversation as I saw them exchanging words across the room. Whatever it had been, it pushed Emma over the edge. She tossed the vase Sidney had given her against the filing cabinets, shattering it once everyone had left. I ran in and she picked up something out of the shattered ceramic, water, and flowers. I asked her what it was and she told me it was a bug – Sidney Glass had put a fucking bug in the flowers he had brought her. (Not a creepy crawly bug but a listening device bug).

I cast her a long, knowing look but didn't say what I desperately wanted to – instead, I asked what she was going to do now.

Her first move? Bag up the bug as evidence and find August to apologize. She asked if I'd stay here so she wouldn't have to lock the building and I told her sure and she ran off. It wasn't too much longer, as I sat at my desk running my fingers through my hair having to write all of the day's official findings when a call on the radio came on – Kathryn was found in the parking lot of Granny's Diner – Alive.