Armor
Summary: Where did Emma's red leather jacket come from? MM & Emma address it.
Disclaimer: Of course I own nothing. I'm simply playing a bit. Spoilers through the end of season one, kind of. I just want to give a fair warning.
The actual canon storyline on this story is a little fuzzy. It takes place before "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" but after Emma moves in with Mary Margaret. There's no pairing here, just a simple explanation/psychological exploration of Emma's red leather jacket.
To the average observer, a red leather jacket would be just that: a red leather jacket. Even if that leather jacket happened to fit a person like she was born to wear it. Even if the jacket allowed that person to fight personal demons and slay dragons…
Mary Margaret had always wondered about the jacket. How Emma had come to possess it and if the other woman truly realized how much of an effect it had on her personality. When Emma put on her red leather jacket, her actions seemed that more definitive, as if it supplied her with confidence she didn't know she lacked. It made her stand straighter, finding safety and security in the comfortable red armor.
Emma was a very guarded person; it didn't take much to notice that. Obviously, Emma had had a rough life, being shuffled callously through the foster system, coupled with the neglect and psychological scars the young woman had suffered when learning that she had been rejected by a parent and left on the side of the road. Love, true love, was not something she had experienced much, perhaps ever. Unfortunately, Emma had probably loved as a child does: freely and expecting only to be loved in return. Somewhere along the way, Emma had learned the hard way to guard her heart against hope, love and trust, turning her cynical. The younger woman in question would say she was a realist who didn't believe in happy endings or fairy tales; that the world was a cold place that offered no protection.
Which brought Mary Margaret back to the leather jacket. It was so much a part of Emma and so very clearly was all that Emma perceived she needed for protection. Mary Margaret was determined to show Emma that she did not need protection from everyone; that she could trust someone. Mary Margaret did not know why this concept was so important to her; only that there was an inner prompting that couldn't be denied. Mary Margaret decided to ask Emma about the jacket.
Mary Margaret sat at the kitchen table, eating the chicken casserole she had prepared earlier that evening. She watched Emma, perched as she always was, with one hip on the counter, balancing her plate of chicken casserole and glass of water. Emma seemed poised on the verge of flight. Mary Margaret wasn't sure if Emma would answer her question about the jacket's origin but "nothing ventured, nothing gained," was a saying that applied well here.
"Hey, Emma…I was wondering where you got your leather jacket?" Mary Margaret asked, nonchalantly. Emma glanced at the article of clothing, hung up on the back of the chair opposite Mary Margaret.
"Why? Thinking of stepping into some leather yourself?" Emma asked, jokingly.
Mary Margaret smiled. "Sure. Why not?"
Emma's smile left her face and she turned serious. She was so quiet that Mary Margaret was afraid she'd hit a landmine in Emma's life.
"Well…a few years ago, after searching for…after searching for, well, my birth parents, and not finding them, a friend of mine suggested that I actually search for someone who could be found and who could give me a nice pay-off. That's when I started my bail bonds business," Emma began, her eyes slightly unfocused, remembering those first rocky bonds.
"I remember one of the bailiffs and another bonds guy, this jackass called 'Hefty' giving me a hard time about not taking the bonds of 'the real bad guys.' Hefty said it didn't matter anyway, because I didn't look like a cop or a bail bonds man." Emma made a face, showing what she thought of that.
"Anyway, I got the message: I didn't look like I had any authority, being myself. I decided that if I was going to continue in the business I had to at least create the air of authority." Emma was quiet. "I…I'm not sure why a red leather jacket granted me that quality but…it seemed to work. The 'real bad guys' got the message that I was not someone to screw with. In fact, before I came to Storybrooke, I had quite the reputation for being tough, but fair. One guy actually thanked me for being kind when I brought him in." Emma chuckled at the memory.
"I bought that jacket with some of the money I made off of my first fugitive arrest. I've had it ever since," she said, looking at it fondly. Emma shrugged dismissively, suddenly self-conscious. "Whatever. It's just a jacket."
Emma walked over to the sink and rinsed off her dishes before leaving them in the sink. Clearly, this was the signal that the conversation was over.
It may have been "just a jacket" to some people, but the red leather jacket was Emma's armor both in her personal and professional life. Mary Margaret had just witnessed a crack in Emma's personal armor. Just as leather will crack if left untreated, Mary Margaret was determined to help crack the walls around Emma's heart, to let love and trust in once more.
I hope you liked it. Normally, I write much longer pieces that never seem to get finished, which is why they aren't published here. (That and I used to publish under a different name…anyway.) If ya liked it, awesome, please tell me why. If ya didn't…let me know why. Thanks for reading. P.s. this was prompted by the pic of Emma in leather armor from ABC's season 2 cast photos. Notice what's hanging on the back wall?