Hey folks! No, I haven't ditched Proud of Your Girl, I just hit a bit of writer's block is all. Y'all understand, right? :) I decided to write this after The Cricket Game because I was so disappointed about how they handled Emma, Snow, and David being introduced to all these revelations, namely but not limited to: Emma and Snow's introduction to Belle, Emma's introduction to Ruby being a wolf, and especially David's introduction to Emma's powers. I would like to point out that The Outsider on the other hand, was freaking amazing, but that's beside the point.
Anyway, this is just a bit of my fangirlism rebelling, and how I think some of these moments and conversations might have gone if the writers had thought to actually SHOW them to us! Feel free to point out spelling/grammar mistakes, I didn't check it too carefully.
First up,
Emma and Snow Meet Belle.
"Emma, will you stop giving us that look?" Mary Margaret said under her breath, a ghost of a smile on her face. "We said we were sorry. It won't happen again."
Emma flinched, thinking that her sideways glances at her and David had been discreet, but shot them another one regardless. It was a shy look, a mixture of humiliation, disbelief, and amusement. Humiliation that she had walked in on Mary Margaret and David having flippin' sex, with her son in tow, no less, but thankfully the blessedly naïve little boy hadn't realized what was going on. Disbelief that she had actually walked in on her mother and father having sex. And amusement because, okay, it was kind of funny. And she was surprised by the feeling it caused her, she actually felt like a kid completely grossed out by her parents making out, because truthfully and mercifully, that's all she saw. Yet underneath the embarrassment, and slight revulsion, the part of her that was Mary Margaret's best friend was thrilled that she was finally happy with the man she loved, and the part of her that was a daughter was delighted that she had parents who loved each other so much. It was all very complicated. Like her entire freaking life right now.
"Fine," Emma grumbled in answer. "But somehow I doubt that it won't happen again."
Mary Margaret gave a comical grimace and shared a look with her husband as if, she too, wasn't convinced.
"That what won't happen again?" Henry asked.
"Nothing!" the three adults answered in unison. Henry scowled, but didn't pursue the subject, looking as if he had a feeling he didn't really want to know. Particularly innocent for his age, it didn't change the fact that he was eleven, and would be beginning to understand this stuff more and more. Emma groaned inwardly, realizing for the first time that "the talk" now fell to her. Screw that, she could let David handle it!
The four turned a corner, walking leisurely to Granny's for the welcome home party being hosted there. Emma carried the tacos she and Henry had made after the…incident that morning. She felt surprisingly calm and content, like she hadn't felt in a very long time. She had her family, (her family!) beside her, and was on her way to a party that was half just for her. Normally she didn't relish being the center of attention, but today she found she liked it. She and Henry had caught a glimpse at the decorations earlier that day while out shopping. Emma had laughed outright when she saw the "Welcome Home Mary Margaret" sign from her friend's party after she had been released from jail, with an improvised "and Emma" sign hung below it. All in all, she was just so damn glad to be home. A glance at Mary Margaret's glowing face proved that she felt exactly the same.
Her thoughts were derailed by a loud, frustrated cry.
They all turned and looked across the street toward the old clock tower, where a young woman with wild brown curls was standing on a ladder, trying to hang up a sign above the door that said, "Storybrooke Free Public Library Opening Soon" with difficulty. She growled again in aggravation as the one side of sign slipped.
"That doesn't look like a good idea," Emma said, referring to not only the woman being that high on the ladder, but being also in a dress and high heeled shoes. "What the hell is she thinking?"
Before she knew it, David and Henry were trotting across the street, just as the ladder started wobble. "Belle! Hold on!" David exclaimed.
David reached the bottom of the ladder just in time to keep it from falling. Emma and Mary Margaret came up behind him, and he was treated to a smack from his wife, no doubt thinking that he was looking up the girl's dress. David only gave her a puzzled look, and Emma smirked, reading in his expression that he had no clue what the slap was for.
Emma glanced at Henry, and smacked him. He really was looking up her dress.
"Belle, why don't you come down?" David called. "Let me help you."
"Yeah," Emma agreed. "Wrong shoes for the occasion, lady."
The woman, named Belle apparently, had already righted the sign, so she slowly descended the ladder and turned, revealing a flushed face, dazzling blue eyes, and the most genuine smile Emma thought she'd ever seen. "Thanks David," she said in a lilting accent. "I suppose I shouldn't have tried doing that alone, I just couldn't wait to see it up!"
Both David and Henry seemed to already know her, though Emma had no clue who she was. The boys clearly liked her though.
"You're opening the library," Mary Margaret exclaimed. "I've always wished someone would! It's been closed the whole 28 years!"
Belle grinned at her, then her eyes widened. "Oh! You must be Snow and Emma!" she held out her hand to shake Mary Margaret's. "I've heard so much about you! I'm so happy to finally get the chance to meet you!" she turned to Emma, shaking her hand as well. "Henry has told me all about you!"
"He has?" Emma asked, slightly suspicious as to why her son has been around this stranger.
Belle nodded. "He comes over after school sometimes to teach me to use that…computer thingie in the library. He's such a good teacher! I…hope that's okay."
Emma glanced at David, who smiled and nodded, and trusting his knowledge of this girl, she smiled back at her. "Of course, that's great," it was only after she said it that she wondered why on earth this 20-something year old woman didn't know how to use a computer.
Belle's grin widened, if that was even possible. And Emma found herself being charming by her, despite her oddness. "I'm Belle," she said unnecessarily.
"It's nice to meet you, Belle," Mary Margaret said, confusion written on her face. "But how is this? I've never seen you before," this really surprised Emma, since she was the only one present who had been in Storybrooke, awake, for the whole curse.
Belle's face paled slightly, and her smile faltered. "I…um…"
David intervened. "Belle is Moe's daughter; we met her after you guys left."
Emma's eyebrows shot up. She remembered what Gold was screaming at Moe the night she caught him beating the other man. "It's your fault! You were her father!" she was suddenly very concerned, not only that Moe had potentially hurt his own daughter, but that it mattered so deeply to Mr. Gold, of all people.
A thought was forming in the back of her mind. This wasn't just a woman named Belle, this was the Belle. The Beauty. Though Emma had regrettably not been much interested in fairytales and princesses growing up, she knew all about Beauty and the Beast. Though she'd never tell her mother, Belle had been her favorite. A bookworm like herself, who was unafraid to speak her mind or challenge the Beast. So if this was Beauty…where was her Beast?
Belle looked acutely uncomfortable. "I was kept away," she said flatly, as if she didn't really want to get into it.
"That's one way of putting it."
Emma spun around at the voice, finding Mr. Gold standing not three feet behind her. She hated when he did that.
"You're late!" Belle declared teasingly. "I had to be saved from falling off the ladder by a different hero this time!"
Emma spun back around and stared at her. Did she just tease Mr. Gold? To her shock and horror, she found the young woman's face completely lit up, smiling at Mr. Gold like…like…oh Lord…like Mary Margaret smiled at David.
"I apologize, Dearie," Gold said softly, speaking to Belle in a voice Emma had never heard from him before. It was scarier than his angry voice. "Though I do wish you would stay off of ladders. You may not always have willing men around to catch you!" he chuckled. "Then again, maybe you will."
Belle giggled and moved around Emma to playfully bump Gold with her hip and take his arm.
Oh. God. She was flirting with him! Emma's mouth dropped even farther than it had that morning and looked over at her parents. Mary Margaret was in a similar state of shock, David looked amused, and Henry looked like he thought that all of this was perfectly normal.
"You'll catch flies with your mouths that way, ladies," Gold said, his voice returning to normal. Normal meaning sarcastic and dangerous. Mary Margaret and Emma snapped their mouths shut, and he sneered at them. "Now, if you are all done interrogating Belle here…"
"Rumpel!" Belle admonished. (Rumpel?!) "That was rude! They weren't interrogating me, they were being friendly."
Gold looked thoroughly chastised. Emma couldn't believe her eyes. "Sorry," he mumbled, more to her than anyone else.
"We have to be going, anyway," David said, placing one hand on his wife's back and the other on Emma's arm, as if to steer them away.
"Bye!" Belle exclaimed. "It was great meeting you. I hope to see you all on opening day!"
"Of course," Mary Margaret said, recovering more quickly than Emma. "I can't wait!"
"Bye, Belle!" Henry called over his shoulder.
Emma followed her family, casting glances back at the unusual couple. "Ready for dinner, sweetheart?" Gold said, his eyes loving and gentle.
"Lead the way, Rumpel" Belle replied happily. "You were right, I like Emma and Snow."
"That was…surprising," Mary Margaret said once they were out of earshot. "She's so young and pretty and he's…Rumpelstiltskin."
"He's the Beast," Emma said. "She's the Beauty. I guess if Rumpelstiltskin can double as Hook's crocodile…"
"Everyone deserves True Love," Henry said as if it were so obvious.
David put his arm around his wife. "And he loves her. That much is for sure. He thought she was dead the whole time we were here."
"Where was she?" Emma asked. "She said she was kept away, did her father lock her up or something?"
"I'm not entirely sure," David said. "They've never said exactly where she was all this time. It wasn't with Moe, though. Even Gold knew that. He did however try to push the poor girl over the town line so she would forget all about Gold. The way Gold reacted…his anger was about more than just forgetting him and the injustice of it all. I got the feeling that whatever her false memories contained, they were bad."
"Wow," Mary Margaret muttered. "But she stays with Gold anyway? Does she even know what he is? What he's done?"
"Far as I can tell," David said. "She was angry at him for a while, moved out of his house, they've only just started…dating," he smirked. "He came to me asking for relationship advice."
"He did not!" Mary Margaret exclaimed at the same time Emma loudly declared him a liar.
"He did, asked how Mary Margaret and I make our marriage work. I told him he had to start being honest with her, it seems he's been taking my advice."
They walked the rest of the way to the diner in silence, and Emma tried to take in this information. If someone had told her before that Gold had a girlfriend, she would have been alternately disgusted and disbelieving, and probably would have thought all manner of mean things about a woman who could possible love him. She couldn't help but wonder if they were...nope. Not gonna go there.
But Emma, along with being a human lie detector, prided herself in being a fairly good judge of character, especially in women since all men were initially met with distrust from her no matter what. And, regardless of her taste in men, Emma liked the bubbly, happy-seeming girl.
She wanted to get to know her better, to find out what happened to her these 28 years no one knew she was even alive. And though Emma wasn't convinced everyone deserves to be loved, her childhood adoration for the bookish fairytale character came out, and she found herself happy that Beauty found her Beast.