P.O.V. Change
(30 minutes before)
Mary-Margaret lay in her bed, paying no mind to the gun shots that rang through the street below.
Rumplestiltskin looked out the window next to her bed "Seems our friend Watcher has gotten herself into a spot of trouble"
Mary-Margaret said nothing, she didn't even look out the window.
"Would you like a play-by-play, Mary-Margaret?"
she still said nothing and turned over to face away from him. He sighed loudly and continued to look out the window.
"Come, come Dear Sweet. Let us dance together like we used to!" The voice was obnoxious with a tint of flirt thrown in.
"I'm not interested in doing any sort of twisted tango with you!" she heard Watcher shout back.
There was a clang of metal.
"Here she is Ladies and Gentlemen! The real Sweetheart! Though I find it interesting that you deflected them. You didn't use to care in which direction they flew"
Mary-Margaret was becoming slightly intrigued, but she didn't move from underneath her covers.
There was another clang of metal on metal and the sound of something being thrown somewhere, she didn't notice when Rumplestiltskin told her to stay and not let anyone in or when he puffed away onto the street.
She lay there in silence for another fifteen minutes, remembering and regretting everything that had happened over the past two weeks. She only succeeded in making herself feel sicker than she already felt.
There was a knock on the door, but she didn't feel like getting up to answer it.
There was a pause before the person knocked again, and another pause and another series of knocks.
After the third pause the knocks came continuous and Mary-Margaret was forced to rise from her bed and answer it.
Her bare foot stepped on something in the middle of the floor, something papery, and wondered why it had gone un-noticed until now.
She looked and bent down to pick up an envelope, opening it as she walked to the door.
It was a card. The prewritten wording in the card was a simple 'I'm Sorry' but written underneath in carefully scrawled handwriting were the words 'And I Forgive You'
She would admit she had no clue as to who sent it, she had to verify that it was sent to her, and she wondered what they were forgiving her for.
She opened the door to Watcher, standing in her cute bunny ear jacket looking ready to cry and suddenly everything made sense.
Mary-Margaret was the first to speak, her voice scratchy from being unused "Why are you sorry?"
Watcher looked down as she fidgeted under the other woman's gaze.
"For what my family's done. For making you mad. For not telling you when I found out Regina's my sister"
"And why do you forgive me?" Mary-Margaret asked her scrupulously.
"Because I'm not my sister or my mother"
They stared at each other, each mentally asking themselves if the other would react first. Mary-Margaret was the first to cave and threw her arms around the young one who grasped her desperately.
Mary-Margaret felt relief wash over her. She'd been worried about the girl since she'd seen Regina take her the day Johanna died, the thought of that day making tears spring to her eyes.
Watcher lay her head on Mary-Margaret's and clung to her tighter.
"Watcher? What's wrong?" Watcher twitched as she breathed in "I've never cried. Not in front of anyone...at least I don't think I have"
Mary-Margaret rest a hand on Watcher's head and rest her head on Watchers, giving her a tight squeeze before leading her inside.
"Do you want to lie down?" Mary-Margaret asked her gently.
Watcher nodded "But only if you keep me company"
Mary-Margaret gave her the smallest of smiles and pulled the hood of Watcher's jacket up onto her head "Of course"
Watcher removed her shoes and lay down on the bed, Mary-Margaret sat at the end of the bed staring at the girl for a bit before taking to staring out the window.
Eventually she heard the even breathing that indicated Watcher had fallen asleep and she envied her, her own dreams being plagued by memories of what she had done.
She looked back down at Watcher, wondering how this girl was able to forgive her so easily.
She'd killed her Cora, her mother, and yet she wasn't angry. Whereas Regina was on the war path.
Rumplestiltskin then made a reappearance.
He stopped abruptly when he saw Watcher, but Mary-Margaret gave an indication not to wake her and she held up the card she then realised she'd been holding the whole time.
He plucked it from her fingers and gave it a once over, then placed it on the night stand and moved away to make a call.
He spoke quietly away from the two women but returned a few minutes later, still speaking, but she could tell the conversation was coming to an end.
"Okay" he hung up the phone and addressed Mary-Margaret.
"That was your husband. It seems that Henry convinced Regina to destroy the curse. Which means my services are no longer required. Anyway, you have a new watch dog, that sleeps on the job."
He stared down at Watcher momentarily before turning to leave.
"How do you do it?" Mary-Margaret asked him.
He stopped "Do what?"
"Live with yourself? Knowing all the bad things you've done"
He seemed to think for a second "Well, you tell yourself you did the right thing. And if you say it often enough, one day you might actually believe it"
He made his way to the door, leaving Mary-Margaret to ponder his words.
The inevitable conclusion was, you never did get over it. There was no way to live with yourself afterwards.
She looked out the window for ten minutes before getting off the bed, taking care not to wake the sleeping Watcher, threw on a coat and a pair of flats and left the Loft.
Fifteen minutes later she was at Regina's door knocking loudly.
Regina answered looking shocked and confused when she saw her standing there "You!"
Mary-Margaret approached her slowly, tears stinging her eyes.
"Kill me" she said plainly.
Regina stared at her then scoffed in confusion "What?"
Her face fell as she realised that this was serious.
"Regina, we have been fighting for so long. It's cost us so much, it has to end before anyone else dies. So, please, just do it!"
Regina nodded lightly in agreement and swallowed, Mary-Margaret held her arms out in defeat.
Regina smirked "Henry would never forgive me"
Mary-Margaret shook her head and lowered her arms, but Regina continued
"But d'you know what my problem is? I never learn from my mistakes"
Regina's hand plunged into Mary-Margaret's chest, the familiar squishing sound of a heart being removed reverberated through the air as well as Mary-Margaret's pained yell.
Regina pulled the heart from Mary-Margaret's chest forcefully and looking into it, gasped in surprise.
Mary-Margaret stared at her thumping heart, now in The hands of The Evil Queen Regina.
"Huh"
A smile graced Regina's features, a look of satisfaction in her eye that Mary-Margaret had never seen before.
"What?" Mary-Margaret asked, her breath coming out in rasping pants and her tears finally falling from her eyes.
Regina looked her in the eye and turned the shining heart to face its owner.
Buried in the centre of the red was a black spot. Regina pointed to the spot as it thumped along with the heart.
"Do you see that?"
"What did you do to it?"
"Oh, I didn't do that"
She feigned sadness and pointed to Mary-Margaret "You did it"
Mary-Margaret raised her eyes to look at Regina, desperation filling her face.
"You darkened yourself"
"No! No! No!" she didn't want to believe it, she shook her head rapidly not wanting to believe it.
"Yes. And once you blacken your heart, it only grows darker, and darker"
Genuine sadness flitted through Regina's eyes "Trust me, I know"
"So crush it. Do it, crush it. Get it over with." Mary-Margaret pleaded.
Regina did nothing but stare at her calmly before twisted glee erupted over her face "And put you out of your misery?"
More tears fell from Mary-Margaret.
"I don't need to destroy you. You're doing it to yourself. And along the way, you'll bring down that perfect little family you fought so hard to reunite. And then Henry will be mine"
"Please kill me" Mary-Margaret whispered desperately.
Regina smiled triumphantly as Mary-Margaret sobbed.
"Please, just kill me"
"You see? I can have everything" there was evident joy in Regina's words.
There was another squish and a gasp of pain as Regina replaced Mary-Margaret's heart.
Mary-Margaret leaned over Regina's arm, which was still in her chest, and Regina whispered to her "Thanks to you"
She then let go and removed her hand, her happiness fading and becoming disgust "Now, get off my porch!"
Mary-Margaret inhaled and grunted in pain as the door was slammed in her face.
She stumbled away from the door and fell into the hedge trying to catch her breath as a car drove off quickly down the street.
She wondered if Cora had it right, by removing her heart. When Regina had been handling it just then, the pain and emotions that she had been feeling these past days had been lessened, and It didn't feel so bad.
She had grown accustomed to not feeling during the few minutes her heart had not been in her body.
So she wasn't appreciative with the wave of emotion that had come with the heart being put back.
She entered her Loft sadly, removed her coat and turned to the kitchen quickly when she heard noises.
"I knew you'd be back"
Watcher placed two mugs down on the island and poured boiling water from the kettle into each "How d'you take your tea?"
Watcher moved to the fridge as Mary-Margaret sat on one of the seats.
"By the way, you live"
Mary-Margaret stared at her in confusion "Huh?"
Watcher started adding sugar to her tea "You live, you move forward. That's how you live with yourself. You never forget and you never make the same mistake twice. Unless it's in your job description to kill"
Watcher said this last part in bitterness but Mary-Margaret understood what she was telling her.
"It's hot, but do drink it" Watcher said as she added milk to her own mug.
Mary-Margaret did as she was told, after blowing on for a few minutes, and felt her anxiety stricken nerves calm some.
"Did you just put eight teaspoons of sugar in your tea?" Mary-Margaret directed at Watcher, who only shrugged and replied cheekily
"Why do you think I'm so sweet?"
Mary-Margaret gave a short laugh and smiled at the girl, who smiled at her and continued to drink her tea in silence.