Mary Margaret had tried to stay awake in order to question Emma upon her return. She ended up falling asleep on the couch. Strange dreams plagued her throughout the night. Dreams of living in the woods as a bandit, of running from soldiers dressed in black, of Ruby dressed in a bright red cloak and turning into a wolf, and of stealing diamonds from David.
Little did she know that the rest of the town experienced the same things. Jimminy dreamt of being a cricket that flew around giving advice to people. Granny of living in a cabin in the woods with Ruby and having a mean shot with a crossbow. Lacey of being trapped in a castle. Leroy and the other dwarves of mining.
Everybody all dreaming of little pieces of their past lives. The dreams so vivid that they woke up disoriented and confused.
The worst though was Graham who woke up convinced his heart had been stolen.
Mary Margaret saw him that morning on her way to Granny's. She watched the man stumble off towards the woods. Briefly she thought to chase after him, but she was hoping to find Emma or Ruby at the diner. Neither were there. Ashley had taken Ruby's shift last minute.
"Ruby was down earlier grabbing breakfast to go," the young blonde told her when MM's coffee was ready.
It had bothered her, the whole situation. Not because Emma was gay and in hindsight she realized that it was kind of obvious, if the leather jackets and motorcycle were anything to go by. No she was bothered because Emma hadn't told her and she had to find out so abruptly. She was hurt that Emma hadn't told her during any of their girl nights. Of course she didn't really have a right to be. It wasn't like they had known each other for very long, but she couldn't get over that feeling.
She'd to wait for Emma to get home later tonight to talk to her about her date with Ruby. It obviously had gone well if this morning was anything to go by.
She was exhausted when she walked through the door to her and MM's apartment. Graham had some sort of mental break. She had shown up at the station only find it locked up and deserted. Tracking the Sheriff through the forest and to the cemetery had been difficult.
Regina had been there, at the cemetery, visiting her father. Of course Graham started shouting something about the Evil Queen stealing his heart and wanting it back.
Just the whole thing was strange and cemented that Henry's fairy tales were real and Regina was the EQ. This realization started a heated argument between the two. There was no way she would have thought a little scuffle with Regina would lead them towards being sort of friends, or at least on their way to being friends.
Who knew all the Mayor needed was a good fist to the face to get her to loosen up a bit. If the curse were to break people would shit bricks over Savior and Evil Queen being all BFF with each other.
They'd taken Graham to the hospital where he would reside until he either got all of his memories back or stayed in his psychosis. It was strange to see the Mayor actually seem upset about the Sheriff's state. Maybe she was just upset about loosing her boy toy though. The two got their faces and hands checked out while they were there. No major damage; they'd both just be sporting black eyes for a while.
The last thing she wanted at the end of a really long day/night was MM. MM who flipped on the lights like she was a teenager who was coming home drunk from a party she wasn't supposed to go to.
"Hey," she grunted. Maybe she should have gone back to Ruby's. That was probably too much too soon. They had spent most of their day in bed, after all and it was only their first date.
MM was silent for a long moment before she blurted out, "you're gay."
"Yup."
"You didn't tell me."
"Nope, I'm going to bed."
"You went on a date with Ruby."
Emma sighed, "yes. It was nice. We went to the fair."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Uhmm it's personal?" She just wanted to go to bed. The morning would be a better time to process her blooming romance with Rubes and her weird maybe friends in the future thing with the Mayor. "Look, I'm sorry that you're upset about this, but no offense or anything I couldn't be sure how you'd react. Since you're not throwing holy water on me I'm assuming you're just mad I didn't tell you. So thanks for not being a homophobe or something."
"Oh..." MM didn't really know what to say about that. "Ok, I'm sorry too. It's not... we haven't really known each other for very long. Maybe I'm just embarrassed for trying to set you up with this towns male suitors."
She chuckled, "goodnight MM."
"Goodnight Emma."
"Hey Rubes," she cradled her phone in bed.
"Hey lemur," Ruby smiled on the other end of the phone. She had thought that Emma would try to play this whole thing cool and not call her for a few days. "Something up?"
"Yes and no," debating whether or not to her. Rubes would find out eventually, "Graham's in the hospital."
"What? Why?"
"He had some sort of mental break. Woke up this morning convince someone had stolen his heart and not in that cheesy romcom way, like a someone reached their hand into his chest and snatched it way."
Ruby was silent for a long moment, "will he be okay?"
"I don't know. Regina was there and I might have punched her in the face."
"You what!? Oh my God she's going to kill you. You have to leave town. This is terrible, why would you do that? You can't go to jail. I'd only ever see you through glass. There's a cabin in the woods you have to go there no..."
"Ruby!" she interrupted her rambling. "It's fine, I actually think Madam Mayor and I might be friends now." The line stayed silent for a few minutes. "Uh, Ruby?"
"Friends with the mayor? You're friends with the Mayor because you punched her?"
She scratched the back of her neck, "well actually she punched me first."
"She what!? Oh my God I'm going to kill her. Are you okay? She didn't break anything did she..."
"Ruby!" she cut the poor girl off before she could start rambling again. "I'm fine, she's fine, we're all fine. Both of us will probably sport us some matching black eyes. No big deal. Beside it's my fault, I took our little insulting match too far."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah Rubes I'm sure. I'll come by first thing in the morning and you can play nurse." Wow picturing Ruby in a little slutty nurse costume was a fantasy she didn't know she would ever have.
"Emma?" Nothing. She was too busy picturing Ruby taking care of her. "Em!?" Still nothing. "Stop picturing me in one of those slutty Halloween costumes."
"What? I wasn't."
"Uh huh. You better come by in the morning and I'll see about that costume."
"Really?" she questioned to late. The waitress had already hung up. "Evil," she muttered before drifting off to sleep with a smile on her face.
A/N: I don't really like this chapter. Mostly just a set up ch and me messing around with the timeline. I don't really like MM or Snow but I'm trying not to hate on her (too much). I personally find her extremely annoying so it will probably reflect it my writing. Sorry about the minimum RedSwan in this ch. And yes I am going to make Emma and Regina Bff's. I can't help it SQ seems to pop up in all my writing, even in some of my original works. Next ch. there will be SQ BFF scene. Also Ruby has a little freak out. So you get both.
Oh and if anybody has any ideas for who to pair Regina with I'm all ears. I've never shipped her with anybody other than Emma and maybe that spoon. Or I can leave her single with her TL as Henry.
Also up to readers is to kill Graham or not kill Graham.
I'm really happy that people seem to like this. I had been extremely anxious about posting any of my writing. So thank you for following and favoriting? (Favoring it? I could have sworn that was correct but that little red line is driving me crazy) and for reviewing.