What A Tangled Web You Weave

Chapter 3 I Know Something You Don't Know

Blaire

For whatever reason, that picture of David holding me as a baby, had been on my mind since I woke up and I just felt...different. I couldn't explain it. As I walked down the stairs, I could hear shuffling in the kitchen. The house was otherwise quiet. I slowly poked my head into the kitchen to see David standing over the stove starting breakfast. He must have sensed he was being watched and turned his head to look at me.
"You're up early, I didn't expect to see you this morning after being up so late." He smiled.
"Yeah..." Was all I could manage to say. I glanced down at the badge resting on his hip along with the gun in the holster. "Working today?" I asked quietly. He nodded.
"Mmhm." He said. "What are your plans for the day?"
"Nothing yet." I said and shrugged.
"I'm sure you'll find something. There's plenty to do around here." David said. "I know Mary-Margaret and Emma are going shopping later for school stuff and groceries. maybe you could go with them." David suggested.
I nodded.

I stood there for a couple minutes, not really sure what to do or say. I wasn't good at small talk, or apologies, which I even though I apologized last night for exploding on him...I still felt like I owed the man something. Last night, after seeing that picture, and learning that my dad might have been involved in some questionable things here before taking me and my mom and ditching town, I felt like maybe I didn't know my Dad as much as I thought and it was a scary feeling for me because my Dad was always my best friend. Although David and my Dad were polar opposites, I felt like perhaps if I spent a little more time with David, I'd know the person my Dad was.

"You want to help and start the eggs?" David asked, breaking my train of thought.
"Um...sure." I said and walked further into the kitchen to the eggs, and the glass bowl sitting on the counter.
"Just scrambled eggs today, nothing fancy unless you like your eggs a certain way." David said.
"Mostly just in cake." I mumbled. I didn't think he heard me but he laughed and it was alarming. My Dad's Vocal tone was slightly different from Davids. Where as David was more soft spoken, my dad had a more gruff tone to his voice but their laugh, like their faces was identical and for a split second, it was a sunday morning back home at the table passing the comics from the paper back and forth across the table while inhaling half a box of fruity pebbles listening to my dad read the comics out loud in funny voices and then laughing, because I'd laugh so hard milk would come out my nose.

I felt a sting in my eyes, as tears threatened to fall. I shook them back and cleared my throat.
"You alright?" David asked.
"Yeah.." I said and nodded and looked down at the eggs and the empty bowl. "So...scrambled." I said.
David glanced at me. "Just break about 8 of those eggs into the bowl and take the fork, and scramble them up." He instructed. His tone wasn't condescending, or annoyed, like I half expected for some reason. He didn't question, the fact that a 17 year old had no clue how to scramble an egg, he just went with it and that was comforting.
"Okay." I nodded and opened the eggs and started doing as he said.

It was quiet between the two of us but a lot was being said without either of us speaking, or so it felt to me. There seemed to be a silent understanding.
"Okay, so just pour those eggs into this pan." David instructed. I picked up the bowl and slowly poured them into the pan, and he started stirring them right off the bat.
"The trick is, you want to cook them slowly on a low heat. Keeps them fluffy, and keeps them from over cooking." He said.
"Okay." I nodded and he passed the spatula to me so I could keep working on them.
"I take it you're not a big breakfast person." He smiled.
I shrugged.
"More so I have poor time management skills in the morning during school, and I tried to stay quiet in the mornings during summer break because my mom worked overnight as a nurse so she'd sleep in the day. Usually by the time I'd get up my dad was on his way out for his day job breakfast is kind of a to go thing in my house."
"I can understand that. It gets a little chaotic in the mornings here during the school year. Once you see your Aunt throw a toasted pop tart at Emma as she's barely making it out the door on time you'll see her in a whole new light." David smirked. I couldn't stop the snort laugh before it came out, or the smile that followed.

"Smells good." Emma yawned as she walked into the kitchen.
"It will be done in a couple minutes, can you set the table?" David asked Emma. Emma nodded and went to work setting the table, and getting what she could ready. It wasn't long before Mary-Margaret had joined us too.