There was a knock at the door and Emma ignored it. She was currently very engaged in learning about the special features of the new blender being featured on TV right now. It has three speed settings with six interchangeable blades. There was another knock and Emma turned up the volume to hear how quickly the blender could pulverize a banana. The front door opened and Emma groaned and burrowed further into the couch; she forgot her friends had spare keys to the house.

Emma hid her face behind a throw pillow as she heard footsteps approach the living room. Another weight settled down on the couch and Emma peeked out to see Mary Margaret peering over at her.

"Hi?"

"Ughhhh." Emma ducked back behind the throw pillow. "I'm hiding. Please go away."

"I would, but I came to check on you, so not gonna happen, sorry."

Emma groaned one more time in protest but sat up on the couch anyway. "What?" She realized she was whining and tried again in a more adult way. "I mean, how are you?"

Mary Margaret smiled indulgently and Emma cringed. "I'm fine, but I'm here to see how you are."

Emma crossed her arms. "I'm great. Everything is great. Why are you asking?"

Mary Margaret's eyebrows lifted in disbelief. "Maybe because you aren't great? Because you had an emotional breakdown the other day that left us all extremely worried about you?"

Emma stood up and started gathering some of her dirty dishes that had accumulated on the coffee table. "Look, I know that didn't look great but it was one moment of weakness. And now I'm moving past it and I'm great." Emma moved away from the couch and headed toward the kitchen, hoping Mary Margaret would drop the subject.

She followed her into the kitchen instead, more dirty dishes in her hands. "I'm glad you're trying to move past it and him but you don't have to do it by yourself." She took the dishes from Emma and started loading the dishwasher. "However, I can't help you, if you refuse to talk to me or avoid me completely." She stopped to glare pointedly at Emma for a moment before moving around the kitchen to collect more of Emma's dirty dishes. "Talk to me, Emma."

Emma crossed her arms as she watched her friend flawlessly transform the kitchen from something resembling a pig sty to a slightly more respectable pig sty. Mary Margaret had started the dishwasher and was sudsing up some pots and pans when Emma realized that she had no choice but to talk to Mary Margaret; she would stay and continue cleaning until she was satisfied.

"Fine, I'm having a hard time with my break up from Killian." Mary Margaret looked over her shoulder at Emma, flashing her a smile of triumph, but wisely knew not to push her luck by responding. "I didn't actually want to break up with Killian. But he hurt me and I felt betrayed when I caught him with Milah. We probably could have moved past it if we had been able to talk to each other. But after he caught me with Neal, neither of us was feeling very trusting or open to a discussion of our feelings. Killian and I have always been alike in that way."

Mary Margaret rinsed off some of the dishes and dried her hands. She pivoted to face Emma and leaned back against the counter. Emma sat at the island on one of the bar stools before continuing. "The night we broke up, I got scared about him breaking up with me. He had every right to and I started overanalyzing everything. I decided to break up with him before he could break up with me. I thought beating him to the punch would make me feel better, like I was in control of something and could do something right. He couldn't hurt me if I hurt him first."

She offered Mary Margaret a wan smile. "But then he wanted to be friends and I didn't want to actually be broken up from him, despite all the residual feelings of betrayal and distrust. Every time I saw him it brought up how much I missed him and hated him at the same time. It was confusing; it is confusing." She clasped her hands together and stared at him. "I thought maybe things were changing. After we established the ground rules for a friendship, there was suddenly nothing confusing for me to puzzle and worry over anymore. I had thought maybe he wanted to get back together."

Emma voice was barely a whisper but she could tell Mary Margaret was hanging on to every word. "I went looking for him the other day. And I found him. Talking to her. It wasn't even anything super incriminating this time, but it was impossible to stop all of the shameful feelings from bubbling back up again. I straight up panicked and that was my moment of weakness." Emma looked up and held Mary Margaret's gaze. "I get now why you were so concerned for me before and I understand now that I can't be friends with Killian. I know that I should avoid all contact with him because it's too painful to be around him right now. It might always be like that."

Emma took a few deep breaths and then said, "Okay, I know you want to hug me, so go ahead." Mary Margaret dashed across the kitchen and hugged Emma fiercely. She hung on tightly for a count of ten-seconds before pulling away. "I know that I will probably thank you for haranguing me into this later, but I feel awful."

Mary Margaret laughed. "I know sweetie, and I'll go ahead tell you you're welcome now so it's less painful for you later." Emma laughed and Mary Margaret tugged her back into the living room and onto the couch. "Okay, now tell me everything that's great about this blender."