- Warning: the flashbacks in this chapter may be just a tad more descriptive than this site would probably appreciate. Continue at your own discretion.

Owning Up to Your Faults

(Day 35: Saturday Night)

When Evie hears the knock at the door she stands from her bed and walks over to open it, but she's surprised by who is there, "Fairy Godmother."

She offers an even look, "Evie."

"What are you doing here?"

"Now, Evie," Fairy Godmother tilts her head and raises her eyebrows in question. "I think you know exactly why I'm here. I need to talk to Mal."

"Well, sorry," Evie nods once, "but you can't."

"Evie," the headmistress starts. "You can't protect her over something like this."

Evie widens her eyes and uneasily smiles, "She's asleep."

"She's asleep?" Fairy Godmother questions.

"Yes," Evie confirms before shaking her head. "Ben stole her a very nice heat lamp from the science department, so now she's resting all warm and cozy like."

"Maybe she is," the headmistress accepts. "However, that does not change what happened. I need to speak with her."

Evie looks back into the room and watches as Mal turns over in her sleep, before she returns her attention to the headmistress, "Do you want me to be honest about something?"

Fairy Godmother nods, "That is the principle I am trying to teach. Yes."

Evie carefully steps out into the hallway and closes the door behind her, and she glances at the ground for a moment before informing, "You can't talk to Mal right now, because she's not in her right mind. If you talk to her, then she will only barely make any sense. Perhaps even less so now that she's started to sleep."

"I don't understand," she responds in concern. "Are you telling me that Mal isn't in her right mind because she's asleep, or are you trying to be honest in that she was on something at the time of the incident?"

Evie laughs, "Mal doesn't do drugs. She doesn't have to. Whenever she becomes low on heat she might as well have taken ecstasy with alcohol." Fairy Godmother doesn't speak. "What I'm saying is that Mal isn't in her right mind right now, and therefore it would be unfair to interrogate her and inflict whatever punishment you have planned upon her."

The headmistress is quiet for a second, "I don't inflict punishment. I discipline students for bad behavior. It's my job, and there is a difference."

Evie tenses a smile, "Somehow, right now I fail to see that difference."

Fairy Godmother calmly comments, "I know that you two are friends and that you must have a strong bond." Evie snickers. "However, I am going to need to speak with Mal. If it's not going to be tonight, then it's just going to have to be in the morning. I'd like you to let her know that I'd like to see her in my office as soon as possible."

"I could do that… or I could be loyal and help her the same way that she helped me."

Fairy Godmother purses her lips and strains a smile, "You may think that you're helping each other, but if you really are friends, then you wouldn't be letting each other commit crimes and jeopardize their health."

Evie swallows, "I did try to help her." before she deeply frowns. "She didn't want me."

The headmistress looks over her carefully, "As her friend, it is your job to keep offering her help, even when she doesn't want it or refuses it again and again." It's silent for a moment. "You can either help your friend by having her own up to her mistakes, or I can call her over the intercom and embarrass her. I don't want to, but I will if I'm left with no other options."

"I can tell her," Evie breathes, before she looks at her seriously. "But there's still a fatal flaw in this plan of yours." She pauses. "The Mal you saw tonight is not the same one who will come to you in the morning… There's a good possibility that she won't even remember half of the stuff that went down tonight."

Fairy Godmother nods, "You know her best, and that may be so; however, it's my job to address the situation." She smiles, "Have a nice night, Evie. Make sure Mal comes to see me before noon tomorrow."

"Evie said you wanted to see me," Mal unsurely says after she's invited into the office.

"Yes," the headmistress nods. "Have a seat."

Mal carefully walks over and sits in the wooden chair. She recalls the morning and remembers how Evie hardly spoke to her, looking at her in an unsureness she's never expressed towards her before. She said I had to come here, but she wouldn't say why. "Why am I here?"

Fairy Godmother folds her hands on the desk, "What do you remember from last night?"

"Um," Mal lets out after a moment when she fails to recall anything. "The hot water wasn't hot enough. I talked to Lonnie." She looks up and to the left as she tries to remember, "There was Audrey. I think I talked to Audrey… and then Ben showed up. He was warm. And then Evie took me back upstairs. Ben gave me a heat lamp, and then I kissed him goodnight."

The headmistress takes a composing breath, "You didn't talk to Audrey."

"What are you talking about?" Mal smiles in disbelief. "I remember—"

"You attacked her," Fairy Godmother finishes, and then Mal frowns with widened eyes. "There's no other way to say it, and it's not easy for me to do so, but yes." She looks her in the eyes, "You did attack her."

Mal takes an unsteady breath and breaks herself from the shock, "Ahh. So, uh-um, what's my punishment?"

"Even though you don't remember the incident, I will still have to impose the minimum consequence of a week of in-school-suspension," she answers. "And if Audrey decides to report it, then I will have no choice but to file the complaint to the court."

"The court?" Mal questions.

"Yes, the court," the headmistress's words strengthen. "What you did could easily be interpreted as assault."

Mal feels her heart rate increase as water intrudes the back of her eyes, "That wasn't my intention."

"It doesn't matter what your intentions were," she negates. "What matters is your actions and how they affect others." Mal keeps her mouth shut and doesn't blink, staring at one spot and one spot only. "I know it might be hard for you, but I need you to put yourself in her shoes." Mal doesn't speak, so the fairy godmother continues. "You pushed her against the wall and held her arms so that she couldn't move." Mal remembers how Hook had restrained her. "And then you told her not to fight, to stay still." She remembers how he had raised her shirt and sports bra over her boobs. "Since she complied, I can only assume you used your hypnotism on her." She recalls how he had groped her and caressed his thumb over her nipple, before he moved his hand down to her pants. "If Ben hadn't showed up when he did I don't know what you would have done, but I can only imagine the worst." She hears the zipper. "Can you imagine what that must have felt like for her?"

Mal moves her eyes an inch to meet the headmistress's, "I understand." and then she feels the blood rush through the veins in her face. It feels as though they may explode, but she still doesn't cry.

"It is my recommendation that you apologize to her, but I fear that you may have gone too far. There's a good chance that what you did may stay with her." She watches the fairy godmother uneasily say, "It's not the kind of thing that's forgotten easily."

"I know."

The headmistress sets a piece of paper out in front of her, "I've already made the arrangements for your suspension. Your room number and instructor are listed." Mal watches herself take the sheet of paper, before she glances from it to the headmistress. "I know you see this as a punishment, but this is as much for your safety as it is for the rest of the school. The less time you spend around others will decrease the chances of any arguments or fights breaking out, therefore increasing safety and productivity. The room you will be staying in during the school day will have no other students. I'm sure you could use the time to think."

"Yes."

The fairy godmother nods, "I know it can't be easy for you to face up to your mistakes, especially one you may not entirely remember, but you have to know that I am proud of how well you're handling this. Owning up to your faults shows maturity." She looks her in the eyes, "That's a good thing."

Mal blinks, "Thank you."

The headmistress slightly smiles in response, "I'm glad we were able to have this little chat. You may leave now."

Mal stands from the chair and slowly makes her way to the door, watching herself turn the knob before entering the hallway. People are staring at her. She knows they are; she can feel them, and she doesn't blame them. She had done a horrible thing, and she knows what the end result would have been. She would have kissed her. She would have kissed her for heat, and that girl wouldn't have been able to stop her, the same way that she was unable to stop Hook. Mal feels the tears come on strong again, but as her breathing has slowed, she feels the tears stop and the blood that had flowed through her face calm. All that is left is the calm.

- There are more chapters for this day, but I thought I should save something to post for tomorrow. You guys are pretty much caught up in what I have written so far.

- I know that it was probably just a rhetorical question, but I'm going to answer it anyway. Thank you Elizabeth Annette for all of the comments you've been leaving. They're always nice to read. As for your (possibly rhetorical) question about if E and Mal's relationship would mean that Mal would be cheating on Ben... it really depends on the people involved in that kind of situation. In real life there are people who are at least somewhat okay with their bisexual partner dating them along with another (think Laneybot and Onision... although, I'm sure there are better examples). While there are other people who are either convinced that someone cannot love more than one person at a time or others who simply don't want to share the person they "own", because lets be real. That's how it works. When you get territorial over someone you're dating it's because you "own" each other. As far as the characters go now... I think we know where Evie stands. At first she seemed to have been a little jealous of Ben, but now I think it's more that she's made an exception for him but however still doesn't like it when Mal gets close to other girls. Now, Mal is interesting. Due to her Dragon nature, I don't think she would mind owning more than one person at a time. So long as she can keep them both happy and keep them from competing against each other, then I don't really see where the issue would lie... just that, you know, it's hard to let the people you love know that one is not of any more value than the other. (Think about it. Parents deal with that kind of problem all the time, making sure that each of their children knows they are loved equally). Now for Ben... he is definitely the wild card in this scenario. How he reacts when he inevitably finds out can either make or break this polyamorous relationship. The thing is that we really don't know how he's going to react. All we know is that Mal and Evie are kind of together and that Carlos and Jay are somewhat together and so maybe on the Isle of the Lost it's more acceptable for people to explore their sexuality or to just "mess around" in general, but that may not be the case where Ben was raised and has always lived. Maybe exploring anything sexual before a certain age is seen as gross or taboo or... just quote "bad" in general. Maybe poligamy isn't even a thing in Auradon or that some types of relationships are actually illegal... or maybe Ben will just make an exception for Mal, whether it be because he convinces himself that Evie is nothing other than just another heat source or that he realizes that Mal and Evie have been together this entire time and yet it has never caused Mal to make him feel any less valued, important, or cared about... We really don't know how he's going to react; all we can do is wait and find out later, although I'd really love to see your guys's predictions on how he may react. Feel free to post your guesses below.