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Angie is the best beta ever.
Chapter Twelve
Spring break was a blessed reprieve from the chaos of Mary Margaret's daily life, and yet by Tuesday morning she still found herself with the same routine - same early bedtime, same early alarm, same bleary-eyed fumbling for the coffee pot. She'd spent much of the day before catching up on grading and lesson plans, and only had a few more items left on her to-do list before she could fully enjoy her much-needed time off.
But for now, she had time to enjoy her morning, and perched herself by the counter, slowly sipping the steaming mug of coffee in her hands.
Muffled noises trickled down from upstairs, and she looked up to find Graham tiptoeing away from Emma's room, still buttoning his shirt.
She smirked knowingly at him and took another sip of coffee.
He froze. "... Hi."
"Good morning, sunshine," she greeted, eyes alight with mirth. "How did you sleep?"
He blinked at her a few times, trying to process the situation. "Uh-" he stammered, still frozen halfway down the steps. "I'll just …"
She nodded, trying to contain her laughter, as he ran full speed the rest of the way down the stairs and out the door without another word.
There were more rustling sounds from upstairs, and Mary Margaret set about pouring another cup of coffee for her roommate along with a bowl of non-sugary cereal.
Emma emerged a moment later, smoothing her mussed hair on her way down the stairs. "Good morning," she said, unusually awake for this time of day.
"Good morning," Mary Margaret grinned in return. "How did you sleep?"
"Fine," Emma replied, and plopped herself down at the counter, accepting the cereal and coffee.
"Are you sure?" Mary Margaret teased, and handed her a spoon. "I was a little worried when I saw some strange man running down the stairs a moment ago."
Emma glared at her, and took an overly dramatic bite of cereal.
"I thought about calling the police," Mary Margaret continued, giggling a little over the rim of her coffee cup, "but he was wearing a badge and you were upstairs-"
She was cut off by Emma chucking a cheerio at her head. "Shouldn't you be sleeping in?" she complained. "It's spring break."
Mary Margaret laughed. "And miss that priceless walk of shame? Not in a million years."
Emma rolled her eyes, and stirred her cereal thoughtfully, suddenly very quiet.
Mary Margaret frowned and leaned her elbows against the counter. "Hey," she said softly, worried that her teasing had been too much. "I didn't mean to upset you."
"It isn't that," Emma insisted, then looked up from her breakfast. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
"With what?" asked Mary Margaret, and paused to take a long sip of coffee. "You and Graham?"
Emma nodded. "He mentioned that you two … used to …" She paused, giving her friend a pointed look.
"Emma," Mary Margaret sighed and lolled her head forward. "I was seventeen. It was nothing." She grinned then. "And besides, if it really bothered me would I have been playing matchmaker all this time?"
Emma shrugged. "I guess not …"
"Good," said Mary Margaret, refilling her coffee. "Now finish your breakfast and get cleaned up for work. Wouldn't want the deputy having sex hair."
Emma rolled her eyes as Mary Margaret gathered a stack of papers and made her way to her desk. "Yes, Mom," she droned sarcastically.
Mary Margaret had just finished grading the past week's exams, the very last item on her list for the week, and was settling down with a cup of peppermint tea and a dog-eared copy of Pride and Prejudice when there was a knock at her door. She frowned, set aside her book and tea, and got up to answer it. She was surprised to find a sniffling and red-faced Henry on the other side.
"Henry!" she gasped, and ushered him inside, one arm around his shoulders. "Henry, what's wrong? What happened?"
"I'm so sorry," he murmured, and let her lead him over to the couch.
"Sorry for what?" she askedas she plucked some tissues off the end table and offered them to him.
He dabbed at his face. "It's Eva," he explained, voice trembling. "She was singing and flapping around and I thought she wanted to play." He blew his nose into the tissues, loudly and messily. "You know, like we do in class."
"Mhm," Mary Margaret hummed, already seeing where this was going, and internally berating herself for allowing this situation to happen. "And then what happened?"
"I know we aren't supposed to take her out if our parents aren't home," he said. "But she really wanted out and my mom wasn't going to be home for hours."
"So you let her out to play," Mary Margaret said. She briefly considered reminding Henry of the rules and giving him a lesson on responsibility, but decided that the tears and heartache he was experiencing right now were punishment enough. He'd surely learned his lesson. "She got away from you, didn't she?"
"I didn't know the window was open," he explained plaintively. "Or I wouldn't have let her out. I promise."
"I believe you, Henry," she said, stroking the boy's hair. "You made a mistake. We all make mistakes. Didn't you tell me that once?"
He sniffled and nodded up at her. "But my mom," he said, "she's going to be so angry. And the whole class is going to hate me."
"No they won't," she insisted. "I'll talk to your mom, and we'll tell the class the truth. It was an accident." She stood up then, offering the boy her hand. "But first, let's see if I can't track her down, okay? She probably hasn't gone too far."
"Really?"
"Really," she smiled. Henry accepted her hand and she tugged him to his feet. "But first, let's get you home. No use worrying your mother about you missing too." She nudged him in the ribs, earning just a little snort of laughter from him.
Having dropped Henry off at home with explicit instructions to stay there until his mother returned home, Mary Margaret made her way to the one place she'd been avoiding for nearly two months - the animal shelter. She put the car into park and hesitated for a moment, both hands still on the steering wheel as she took deep breaths - inhale; exhale - emotionally preparing herself for seeing David again. He was here; she'd parked just next to his truck.
Emotional walls in place, she made her way inside as casually as possible, offering a kind smile to a mother and child in the waiting area who were trying to calm their new puppy. She waited at the front desk for a few moments until David peeked out from the back room. As expected, he was surprised to see her.
"Mary Margaret?"
She swallowed over the lump in her throat and took a step closer to the desk, bracing her hands against the edge. "Hi David," she said, forcing a smile. "I - I need your help."
He frowned, suddenly concerned. "Of course," he said. "Anything."
"You remember Eva, right?" she asked, then bit her lip momentarily. "The bird I got? For my class?"
He nodded. "How could I forget?"
How could he forget, indeed. Moreover, how could she forget? If it hadn't been for Eva … "Well," she said, shaking herself to clear the thoughts from her mind, "she's gone … missing. One of my students took her home for break, and she got loose. Has anyone brought her in?"
David knew the animals at the shelter as well as she knew the students in her class. So when his expression darkened, she already knew his answer, even before he took a quick glance at the clipboard in front of him. "No," he said regretfully. "No-one's brought her in yet. I can - call you if you want? If someone finds her."
She nodded. "Please," she said. "Henry thinks everyone is going to hate him."
"Henry's the one she got away from?" David made a sympathetic noise. "Poor kid. I'll keep an eye out for her." He shuffled through some papers behind the desk, and came up with a template for a 'Lost Pet' flyer. "You might want to try making one of these. We can put one up here in the shelter when you're done."
She accepted the paper and looked it over. "Thank you," she said, nodding as she chewed on the side of her thumbnail. "I think I'll do that." She smiled at him, a bit more genuinely this time. It was hard not to when he was looking at her like that. "Please call me if you hear anything," she said and turned to leave.
But she only made a few paces before he'd caught up with her and caught her hand in his own. "Mary Margaret," he said, squeezing her hand as she turned to look at him. "I was wondering if maybe - maybe we could still get that coffee."
She took a deep breath, thinking of Graham's advice, and of Emma's. She thought of Henry's too, and wondered why it seemed so simple to everyone but her. She wanted to take him up on his offer, wanted the life they'd had before, but there was a wall of hurt standing in her way, and an emotional wall of her own beyond even that. "David," she whispered. "I - I really don't have time for this right now, okay?"
He sighed. "Okay," he relented. "Just - let me know if you change your mind?"
She nodded, and reluctantly pulled her hand from his. "I will," she said, and left, not daring to look back.
Luckily, thanks to her class, Mary Margaret had many pictures of Eva to choose from. Unfortunately, her 'Lost Pet' flyer left much to be desired. She really didn't have the money to offer much of a reward, but perhaps the information that she was a class pet would give any would-be rescuers the incentive to turn her in. Satisfied with her handiwork, she was just about to head to the school to make copies when there was a knock at her door.
Henry again, was her first thought, but glancing at her watch she realized Regina was likely home from work already. David was her second, and that thought alone sent a rush of both dread and longing through her simultaneously.
What she hadn't expected when she opened the door was to find a very distraught Regina.
"Regina," she frowned, stepping aside to let her friend inside. "What's wrong?" But she felt the dread settling in the pit of her stomach already; no need for explanation.
"Have you seen Henry?"
Mary Margaret stood stock still for a moment, hand still braced on the edge of the door as she thought of Henry's fixation on heroes and rescuing.
"He wasn't home when I got home from work," the older woman explained. "I thought he might be with Archie, or maybe Emma but neither of them picked up their phones, so … I came here."
Mary Margaret was finding it hard to breathe. "Oh no," she whispered.
Regina's eyes narrowed, and her voice shifted from scared to almost angry. "What is it?"
"Henry," whispered Mary Margaret. "He was here. He'd accidentally let Eva out of her cage, and she flew off." She twisted her ring around her finger, talking faster and faster like a child admitting to breaking her mother's china. "I told him not to worry and that we'd find her. I meant that we'd put up flyers." She emphasized this by holding up the freshly made flyer for Regina to see. "I didn't think he'd mean we should go looking for her."
Regina was quiet for a long moment, and then at last, calmly - too calmly - she asked, "When did you last see him?"
"About three hours ago," Mary Margaret answered, suddenly feeling very small. "I dropped him off at your house and told him not to leave until you got home."
"And you believed him?" Regina demanded, raising her voice. "Him? The boy who stole your credit card to find his goddamn birth mother? And you left him alone? After filling his head with these stupid stories about heroics and princes and princesses finding each other?"
"I - I didn't think-"
"Exactly!" Regina yelled, ripping the paper from the younger woman's hand and throwing it aside. "You didn't think! You never think! God knows where Henry is now, and it's all your fault."
Mary Margaret flinched. It's all my fault. "Regina-"
"Why do you keep doing this to me?" Regina seethed, though her voice was now laced with tears. "First Daniel, now my son?"
It should have been me. Mary Margaret ventured to reach out a hand to lay against her friend's arm. "Regina-"
Regina swatted her hand away taking a step back. "No," she said firmly, and moved back toward the door. "Stay away from me. Stay away from us."
"Regina, please …" Mary Margaret moved to follow her but instead found the door slamming in her face.