A/N: Thank you to and MusicLovingPunkAnimeGirl for your reviews of Chapter 35! Getting reviews always makes me smile! Thank you everyone for following along with Sarah and Henry's tale! Things are about to get interesting now that we've thrown August into the mix! Please continue reading, reviewing and enjoying!
Mike the mechanic dropped Henry off early the next morning so that he could get ready for school. Henry was taken aback by the stranger tinkering with a motorcycle outside of his home.
"What are you doing here?" The boy asked immediately, not bothering to go inside.
"Fixing my bike." the stranger told him.
"No, I mean in Storybrooke." Henry sighed.
"Just visiting." The man mumbled.
"What's that." Henry asked pointing to a wooden box that was strapped to the man's motorcycle.
"It's a box." The stranger answered ambiguously.
"What's inside it?" Henry continued to prod. Sarah, who'd been watching their conversation from an upstairs window came racing down the steps to listen more closely.
"Just something I need to do what I came here for." The man replied, growing quickly irritated.
"I thought you were just visiting?" Sarah asked, popping up at Henry's side.
"Doesn't mean I don't have something to do." The man said as the sky erupted with a low rumble. Regina had seen her daughter run down the steps and outside and decided to find out what was so exciting. She stepped out the front door to see her two kids talking to a man that she'd never seen before.
"Henry! Sarah!" she called out to her children and both kids turned their heads in her direction.
"Better get to school." The stranger suggested as he climbed on his motorcycle. "Looks like a storm's coming." With that he started up his bike and sped away.
"Who was that?" The Mayor demanded as she marched over.
"Don't know." Henry shrugged.
The Sheriff sat at the kitchen table eating breakfast while her roommate scrambled around frantically.
"I can't believe I overslept!" Mary Margaret sighed with exasperation.
"It's only seven ten!" Emma said pointing her spoon at the clock that hung on the kitchen wall. "You've got plenty of time to get to school."
"No!" Mary Margaret exclaimed suddenly. "No, I have to be there at seven fifteen!" Emma looked at her friend curiously. "Science fair!" The school teacher fibbed quickly. "I'm helping the kids with their project before school."
"I'm sure if you're five minutes late they'll live." Emma said as she chomped on a spoonful of cereal.
"We're making a volcano!" Mary Margaret announced as if that should explain everything.
"Okay..." Emma replied, confused as her roommate raced out the door with a toothbrush dangling from her mouth.
Mary Margaret arrived at Granny's Diner looking slightly more put together than when she left her apartment moments ago. She sat down at the same table she did every morning, and took out a book she had no intention of reading. At exactly seven fifteen, she hid her face behind the book as David entered the diner. David walked over to the counter and Ruby served him two coffees.
"One cream and sugar, one black!" The waitress smiled as she place two paper cups in front of David.
"Thank you." He smiled as he paid her. "Good morning!" David greeted Mary Margaret, who he spotted the moment he walked into the diner.
"Morning!" She said cheerily, pretending to notice him for the first time.
"I..I should go. I'm going to be late for work." David admitted.
"Oh, the animal shelter right? How's that going?"
"Well, the apes haven't taken over." He joked.
"Yet!" The school teacher laughed.
"Not on my watch!" David laughed too. The pair shared a laugh before he continued out the door. Mary Margaret followed him with her eyes as he met Kathryn at their car. It broke her heart a little to watch David give his wife a coffee and kiss on the cheek.
"This, is making a volcano?" Emma asked, standing behind her friend. She'd suspected that Mary Margaret was up to something more than a science fair this morning when she raced out of the apartment and the Sheriff was going to find out what exactly that was. She followed Mary Margaret the Granny's and entered through the back entrance. When she'd caught sight of her friend, talking with David, it all made sense.
"I was..." Mary Margaret fluttered her eyes as she tried to explain.
"I get it." Emma assured her.
"He comes here every morning at seven fifteen to get coffee." Mary Margaret had to admit that when she said it like that, it sounded almost stalkerish.
"For him and his wife."
"I know, I know, I know!" The school teacher held her hands up in admission. "I just like to...come here to see him."
"So you're a stalker?" Emma asked with her signature one-eyebrow-raised look.
"Not not really!" Mary Margaret countered. "Maybe a little bit. I mean, it's not like I'm following him. I just know that he spends his mornings with Kathryn, gets coffee, then drives to the animal shelter to start his work at seven thirty and then, he's home around five."
"Oh, is that all?" Emma laughed.
"Thursdays they pick up Chinese for dinner." She admitted, embarrassed. "I can't get him out of my head."
"I know." Emma told her with genuine sympathy. "Maybe the first step is not showing up here tomorrow."
"Love's the worst." Mary Margaret said softly. "I wish there was a magic cure."
Later that same morning, Mary Margaret still had plenty of time before she had to be off to school, so she decided to pick up a few things at Mr. Clark's store. The sky was dark and the weather looked like it would only worsen, so she decided to purchase a flashlight, some spare batteries and a few other things that would be helpful during a storm. Preoccupied with her thoughts, Mary Margaret accidentally bumped into someone as she strolled down the aisle.
"I'm so sorry!" She apologized immediately to whoever it was, though she nearly regretted it when she saw that it was Kathryn.
"It's fine don't worry about it." Kathryn assured her as she bent down to pick up her items.
"I wasn't looking!" Mary Margaret admitted fretfully as she reached down to help her.
"Clearly." Regina snarled from further down the aisle. Mary Margaret groaned internally. She hadn't seen the Mayor standing there until she spoke, and now she was doubly embarrassed.
"Oh is this yours?" Kathryn asked, holding out a chocolate bar.
"Um yes, thank you." Mary Margaret nodded distractedly as she spotted a long pink box. "This must be yours." She said awkwardly holding out a package for a pregnancy test. "Good luck."
"Thank you!" Kathryn smiled as she placed the last of her items in her basket and walked away.
"I trust you'll be discrete?" Regina asked as Mary Margaret rose to her feet. "Their lives are their business, not yours."
After school, Mary Margaret decided to talk a walk through the woods the think. She was deep into the forest when she heard a soft cooing noise coming from a slope on the edge of her path. Walking carefully towards the noise, she soon came upon a dove that had managed to trap itself is some plastic netting.
"Oh hey," She whispered trying to untangle the helpless bird. "How did you manage to get yourself...Come on, it's going to be okay." Once the bird was free Mary Margaret took him it to the animal shelter to be examined by the town vet.
"Well, the good news is, no broken bones. She was just a little dehydrated. But I got her some fluids and she should be just fine." The Veterinarian said with a smile.
"And the bad news?" Mary Margaret asked, peeking at David, who was standing by the Vet's side, from the corner of her eyes.
"Well, this is a North Atlantic dove." The doctor explained. "It's a migratory species. Very unique among American Doves. They tend to form strong, monogamous bonds, meaning..."
"If I don't get her back to her flock, she'll be alone forever." I can releate. Mary Margaret thought sadly as she looked down at the dove.
"Well, it's a long shot," The vet admitted. "But the alternative is, she'll heal, but she won't be happy here."
"I'll take my chances." Mary Margaret said. She was determined to get the dove back to its family. She was trying to think of the perfect place to bring her as the doctor put the dove in a cadge. "Thank you, Doctor."
"You're welcome. Good luck, please excuse me." He said as left for his office in the back of the shelter. Mary Margaret took the cage off the counter and went to leave, but David stopper her.
"Marry Margaret, there's a storm coming. You really shouldn't go out there."
"Well, the storm's coming tomorrow." She reminded him. "If I wait, she couldn't be lost forever! Completely alone! No one deserves that."
"Then let me drive you." David suggested.
"I don't need your help, David I'll be fine." The school teacher was smiling, but David couldn't shake the feeling that she was mad at him for some reason.