Beane Odette - Reawakened - A Once Upon A Time Tale

She couldn’t quite laugh it off, though. When she was alone in a booth with her hot chocolate, Mary Margaret’s mood sank down a few more notches as she wondered what life in this town really held for her. How had she gotten to where she was? It was as if her whole history weren’t quite real, even though she was always the first to take responsibility for her actions, for her choices…

— Hello, Ms. Blanchard.

Mary Margaret looked up and was surprised to see Regina standing at her table.

— May I join you for a moment? — Regina asked. — This really won’t take very long. — She slid in across from Mary Margaret. — It’s about my friend. Kathryn.

Regina let this sink in.

Mary Margaret, for her part, tried not to reveal anything. But she knew what was coming and quietly braced herself.

— I didn’t know Mrs. Nolan was your friend, — she said.

— I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but it’s never wise to put ‘home wrecker’ on your resume, Mary Margaret, — Regina said. — Especially in a small town. Things can get very uncomfortable, very quickly.

Eyes wide, Mary Margaret could think of nothing to say.

— Don’t play dumb with me, Miss Blanchard, — Regina said. — David left his wife last night. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?

— No, — she said. — I wouldn’t.

And she thought: He left her?

— I’m sure you wouldn’t — Regina said. — Kathryn is devastated. You and I both know he is a confused man who hasn’t yet remembered who he is. Why don’t you do everyone a favor, go back to your mousy little existence, and give a healing couple the space they deserve?

Not waiting for a response, Regina slid from the booth, straightened her power suit, and strode out of the diner, heels clicking the whole way.

But there was no sign of him. Peace and quiet. Nothing happened. Mary Margaret began to believe it was all finally fading, and that life would move forward, back to normal.

Then on a Wednesday morning, hallway through the day, she looked through the window beside her classroom’s door.

David was outside her classroom, peering in at her, waving for her to come outside.

Her students were all reading silently, and she sighed, stood from her desk, and walked out of the room.

— What are you doing here? — she whispered, not bothering to conceal her anger. — You can’t just come here.

— I can’t stop thinking about you, — he said. — I left Kathryn. I didn’t choose her. I think we should be together. — He spoke directly, deliberately. Mary Margaret was taken aback by his frankness. How had so much happened in so short a time?

— This is crazy, — she said. — You have to go.

— Is it crazy? — he asked. — Don’t you feel it as well? Answer me that.

Mary Margaret could only look back at him.

— Listen, — he said. — You don’t have to decide anything right now. Just meet me tonight. Near the bridge where you found me. If you think this can work, meet me there at nine o’clock. I’ll be waiting. — David smiled. — If you meet me, we’ll just go from there.

Mary Margaret said, — Go.

— Meet me tonight.

— I can’t.

— Just think about it, — David said. — Just think. That’s all I ask.

Against her better judgment, she did think about it. She thought about it that whole day, during class, and she thought about it as she walked from the school to the police station. She asked Emma for her advice, and Emma surprised her by telling her she should go to meet David. It was one thing for him to show up outside of her house; it was another thing entirely to leave Kathryn. That made all the difference, apparently. Emma said he had made a choice; he was committed. Maybe it was time for her to make a choice as well.

— None of it feels based on anything, — Mary Margaret said.

— Yeah, but love never makes sense, — Emma responded. — It’s never based on something. Not on something you can see right away, at least.

— What, then?

— Don't you think, — Emma said, — that hearts can kind of see truth? A little better than eyes?

— I’m surprised to hear you say that, — said Mary Margaret.

— Who said there wasn’t a romantic in me? — Emma said. — Somewhere. Deep down.

— Not me.

Mary Margaret was surprised by her friend’s advice, but in her heart she knew that she wanted to go, she wanted to choose David. She didn’t understand how they’d gotten here quite as fast as they had, but she didn’t care.

The mayor had a meeting that night, and Henry took the opportunity to sneak out and come to Emma and Mary Margaret’s apartment.

At the door, Emma took one look at him and said, — You can’t keep doing this.

— She’s out, — he said. — She won’t be home until like ten!

Emma begrudgingly let him in, knowing that she was close to helpless against him when he got that excited about things. It was only eight o’clock, after all, and Mary Margaret had come in, changed her clothes, spilled her guts, and hurried out an hour ago.

— So, — Emma said, sitting down across from Henry at the table. — What should we do?

— You didn’t let me tell you the end of the story, — Henry said. — About Prince Charming.

— That’s right, I didn’t.

— I know you think it’s stupid, but it’s important, — Henry said. — I saw the way he looked when he was asking about her. And it’s natural!

— Why is that? — Emma said.

— Because of the ring, — Henry said.

— Explain.

— After Charming agreed to stay as Prince Charming, he had to go and say good-bye to his mother for the last time. She knew he was being forced to marry Abigail, and that he believed in true love, so it was his mom who gave him that ring. When she gave it to him, she told him that love always would follow the ring.

— Cute, — Emma said. — He and Snow White fell in love trying to get the ring back.

— Right! — Henry exclaimed. — So it turned out that love did always follow it.

— Kind of, — Emma said. — I guess so. — She did always like that about fairy tales, the way prophecies would end up coming true, but in a way no one ever expected.

— It’s a nice story, — Emma said.

— It’s not a story.

— Fine, — Emma said. — It’s a nice story about something that’s not a story.

— I think next time you see Mary Margaret, — Henry said, — you should look at what she wears around her neck. Before you think you’re so smart.

— Why is that?

— Because she has it, — Henry said. — That’s the ring.

Emma realized she knew what he was talking about — she’d seen the ring on a chain around Mary Margaret’s neck. She hadn’t thought much about it and had never asked her what it was. She’d always just assumed it was a family heirloom.

— So just to get this straight, — Emma said. — Your teacher, who is Snow White, who is also my mother, who has fallen in love with a man with amnesia, who is Prince Charming, is right now wearing a ring around her neck that was, for a time, in the possession of a gang of greedy bridge trolls and which was, before that, stolen by her from Prince Charming who was on his way to give it to King Midas’s daughter, Abigail.

— Who is actually Kathryn, — Henry added.

— Got it, — Emma said. — All cleared up.

Henry nodded.

— Yup. All cleared up.

Mary Margaret went to the toll bridge knowing she was going to get hurt Despite the fact that she’d believed David when he told her about his feelings, the man was flaky somehow, he was… he didn’t know who he was. Not literally, not metaphorically, not any way. Why was she letting herself fall into this?