A/N Title taken from the song by Suzanne Vega. I always felt it sounded a little bit like Sally and Patrick in the early seasons. Set after episode 3x6. Enjoy.
Maggie May
She had been so sure, so determined, and now she was broken. Tears slipped down her cheeks, hot and bitter, splashing onto her dress with a crack like a whip. Alone, alone, alone.
The pizza had been abandoned when she couldn't swallow past the lump in her throat; when it tasted of nothing but the salt and sogginess of her tears. Pathetic, pathetic, pathetic. Pizza for one.
She would calm a moment, bring herself under control and then would come a fresh wave of shame and humiliation, burning her hotter each time as she remembered, or imagined, new details. The pity on everyone's faces; the sickening, disgusting pity. She was Sally Harper. She felt indignant and proud for a second and then crumpled again. Stupid Sally Harper. Who fell in love with a man like Patrick Maitland? Who would be so foolish? The man was not capable of feeling in that way about a woman...and yet she had hoped, she had dreamed, even as she had refused to let herself be another video tape, another loved and then forgot. Yet here she was. Unloved, unloved, unloved.
She could have coped with the pity, with the shame and humiliation if not for his face. His stupid face. She loved looking at his face; the way he smiled and laughed with her, the way he looked at her, all wiped out in that moment of frozen horror? Bewilderment? Fear? Confusion? As he sat and said nothing.
The knock on the door was an unwelcome interruption of her misery and self-loathing.
"Go away," she bellowed through her tears but Susan was already in the living room, an arm around her friend's shoulders.
"You left me a spare key, remember?"
She handed her friend another tissue and a fresh wave of tears came.
"Is it possible to die from embarrassment?" she gulped and Susan gave her a sympathetic look.
"It's up there with dying from a broken heart."
Sally buried her face in her hands.
"You didn't happen to bring..."
Susan was already opening the bottle of wine and pouring them both a generous glass.
"What are friends for?" she smiled, before the smile faded and she continued seriously. "Just give him time Sally. Who knows? He certainly felt threatened enough to tell his girlfriend a stupid lie. Just see."
"Don't give me false hope Susan. I've already been too stupid." She gulped a little but her tears were already drumming out a new beat. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.