Gravity
"Mary-Margaret, hi-"whatever his next words were going to be they are interrupted by her hand slapping him hard, across the face. It's lucky they are alone in the break room other-wise she would have been hauled up to their captain by now.
Her face is full of anger and crystalline tears are streaming down her face, he has to block her next blows, holding her arms in as gentle a vice grip as he can manage catching her off-guard.
"Okay, I'm willing to forget that just happened, but I swear to god if you try that again, I'll drag you to Humbert myself." He tried to stay calm and measured but, the threat is clear and she relaxes but, is still boiling inside.
"Let me go." she breathes, through gritted teeth.
"No," David states firmly, shifting when she tries to wriggle out of his hold hands now firmly around her waist, she is flush against him, her ID badge shining from the sun fragmenting through the thirty year old blinds. He's got her beat and she knows it.
He looks directly into her hazel green with flecks of grey eyes and sighs. "Why are you angry?"
He repeats himself but, softens his tone. "Mary-Margaret, why are you angry with me?"
"You know better. You are a decorated officer." she barks, not caring who hears. "He was a drug lord who wouldn't have thought twice about putting a bullet in your head and you still went in un-armed!"
He shudders at the image she had been bound and gagged, writhing helplessly for him to run.
"He would have killed you." David almost cries at the thought.
"If I hadn't gone in, he was going to kill you and make me watch."
It's only been a day, how she is even at work is a testament to how strong she is. How brave. It's why he did it.
"Then I would have died doing my job."
It feels like another blow. Like, she had sucker-punched him in the heart and watched it shatter.
He knows the risks it is after all, what they signed up for. To protect and serve, it's what they trained for, all those hours at the academy, the blood, sweat and tears were all for this.
"You should have left me, you should trusted that they would have done all they possibly could to get me out."
The anger rages, but, this time it's inside him. "They weren't going to be fast enough,"
"You don't know that!"
"I don't know that? They were going to negotiate. Negotiate with a man who rapes and butchers drug-addicted women for sport."
"When he touched you," The words are full of tear-jerking emotion. "I wanted to rip him apart."
Her face contorts, "And how do you think I felt when I saw you?"
"I was screaming through the tape. I was screaming through the tape and you wouldn't- you wouldn't leave." she sobs.
He releases her, to gently wipe away her tears. "There's no way. You're my partner, my best-friend… Mary-Margaret-."
"Please don't say it."
"Charming, please, don't say it." she is begging him now but, cannot tear herself away.
"I'm in love with you. I'm in love with you Mary-Margaret Blanchard." It is a relief for him to finally say what he has felt in his heart for the last three years but, for her, it means something, sacrifice.
"Please say something."
She takes a breath and takes a few steps back, further and further until her back hits the door.
David walks towards her with purpose, until there is no distance between them. She can smell his skin, the dash of cologne. It's her favourite scent.
"You can't run from this. I know you love me too."
"David, please don't make this any harder than it has to be."
"It doesn't have to be hard at all." He whispers beautifully, lips almost grazing her ear before his attention is back on her.
"I love you, you love me-"
"We're a happy family." she sings, she sings the lyrics her parents used to sing to her in an effort to distract herself.
But, that just reminds her of the love they have and what she could have too.
He smiles radiantly, "We are, we could be, all you have to say is yes."
"But, our work-"
"Half the people at our station are married to each other. You know he doesn't care."
"That's true!"
"My god, she laughs!"
"Hey!" Mary-Margaret quirks, but, he strokes her face and she tries not to buckle.
"Please, just tell me."
So she does, in the only way she can by kissing him, over and over and over again until she can't feel her lips.
They manage to keep it professional for the rest of the day, stealing glances here and there, but, as soon as they are in his apartment, they are free.
They laugh and he lifts her up in euphoria.
"MMMA!"she exclaims, peppering kiss after kiss on his lips until they build into a rhythm.
She locks her legs and arms around him, feeling all that he feels and more. But, abruptly he changes the pace, it's too fast.
"David," Mary-Margaret gasps eyes lovingly glazed as he lingers on her cheeks, one and then another, they are warm and rosy full of the rush of blood. She is alive and in his arms and he'll be damned if he doesn't show her what that means.
"I nearly lost you. I nearly lost the love of my life."
A lump forms in her throat and he rests them against the cream wall that she had often teased him about.
"What's wrong with my wallpaper?" His hands were on his hips faux-defensively. A glint formed in her eye and she bit back a laugh, "Nothing!"
"Snow…" He warned, using the nickname she let slip.
"I told you that in confidence!" she giggled, her parents called her that, Snow White and now he would. Snow and Charming forever.
"You insult a man's taste in wall-paper and you wanna talk about confidence!" He pretended to sob.
She wiped away a non-existent tear and smiled. "I just think you should fill it, you have all this space! You should fill it with pictures."
"Memories." He loved how beautiful and passionate she was and then suddenly she would retreat before he could kiss those lips.
"That's what I'd do, if I were you."
"Hey." Her soft voice brings him back. "Hmm. Penny for your thoughts?"
David kisses her slowly, enjoying how their lips link before he scoops her up again, her long legs so easily led as he begins to walk them towards the couch.
"I love you."
It warms her heart every-time. "I love you. David, so much."
Butterfly kisses, he's placing warm butterfly kisses down her toned stomach. Her uniform is strewn all over the floor, both their badges and guns in a draw with the safety on.
David is shirtless, but, still annoyingly, in possession of his pants.
"Charming, Charming this isn't fair."
"You went to work in black lace. Black lace." David gasps, as if she had deliberately thought about it this morning, which she hadn't, she just wanted to get back to work.
"Is that a crime? Officer Nolan?" she batted her eyelashes and went doe eyed when he returned to her.
"Oh no!"
"In fact, I'd say, It is actively encouraged."
She laughs later, when they are beneath the sheets, completely bare and blissfully.
"What?" The smile on David's face is mesmerising.
"Kathryn, she said you- forget it! It's stupid."
"Nothing you say is stupid." "MA! Tell me."
"Okay,"
"At the academy, before she dropped out, she told me you were into guys."
"She said what? I mean, I think everybody deserves love but, I'm not-"David backtracks nervously before she silences him with a brief kiss.
"I know."
"She did it to throw me off, she knew I liked you and then she met Frederick…"
"I wish you'd told me."
"I wish I had too. But, I don't regret what we just did."
"I never will."
He kisses her one last time and then stretches to open a draw in the bedside table and pull out a silver framed photo-graph.
It's of them, taken a month ago after a day goofing around in the park, they look like a couple. Happy, in love.
She gasps, "I love this picture! Charming."
"I know exactly where it's gonna go."
"Yeah you do."