Who: Mary Margaret and David. When: Late June. Where: The women's shelter. What: David stops by with tea. Rating/Warning: Low/None. Status: Complete.
David had been giving Mary Margaret some space. The truth was, he thought about her all the time, even when she only existed in dreams. Now that she was actually here it was a lot. He wanted to know everything about her, but he wasn’t sure exactly what was in store for them. They could, at least, be friends if nothing else. Though David would be lying if he said he didn’t see them being a bit truer to their dream-selves.
So after a little bit of a debate with himself, David decided to stop by and see her. He even stopped and got them some tea, because it seemed strange to bring nothing but he didn’t see her being much of a coffee drinker. When he got to the women’s shelter, he felt more nervous than he should have when he asked someone about where she was.
Mary Margaret had also been thinking about David, more since she’d dreamt about him and she also wanted to see him again, but didn’t know if it’d seem stalkerish if she just showed up at the Animal Shelter again. She didn’t know what the dreams meant exactly ands he didn’t want to assume that they meant that they were supposed to be together; after all just because they’d dreamt of each other didn’t mean they actually knew each other.
When David arrived at the shelter, Mary Margaret was actually in her office going over a few things. She was rarely in her office, choosing to instead check on the various residents of the shelter and check on what was going on, but sometimes duty called and she needed to spend some time in her office.
David peered in her door, and he was struck by a memory of one of his dreams, when she was teaching and he showed up at her classroom. Suddenly he felt a bit foolish and presumptuous, but he was already there, so he cleared his throat and smiled as he knocked on the doorframe.
“I hope I’m not interrupting.”
Mary Margaret looked up at the sound of David’s voice, recognizing it right away, “I…hi...no, of course not.” Her lips turned up into a small smile only to vanish almost as quickly as it came, not sure if it’d be weird if she seemed too happy to see David, a man she barely knew, “Come in.” She wasn’t sure if she should stand or remain sitting and in the end, gestured to the chair on the other side of her desk, “Do you want to sit down?”
He smiled when she did, then stopped just as abruptly, uncertain if he did something wrong. Apparently not, though. David stepped into the office and took the seat before handing over the tea. “I, uh, brought you this. I figured you were probably hard at work and could use the boost.”
As he passed the tea over to her, Mary Margaret’s eyes widened slightly and she smiled once again as she took it, “Thank you. That’s really nice of you.” Not only had she not expected David to stop by, but she certainly hadn’t expected him to bring her tea. Still smiling she took a sip and found that it was exactly the way she liked it, “How did you…” She was reminded then that David had had more dreams than she had, which meant that he must know her just a little better than she knew him. It was a strange thing to think, but oddly enough, she wasn’t the least bit weirded out by it.
She apparently answered her own question for him. David gave her a somewhat sheepish smile in response, because, yes, it was entirely from the dreams. He was glad that didn’t seem creepy or anything.
“So …” he said, suddenly unsure of what to say now they were together again. “How have you been?”
Other people might find it creepy, but Mary Margaret found it sweet in a weird way. It meant that he paid attention and usually when a man paid attention to things a woman liked, it meant that they liked them. Then again, in their dreams they were Snow White and Prince Charming, so there really shouldn’t have been a question about how he must have felt, “I’ve been alright. Busy as usual, but good. And how have you been?” She took another sip of her tea, watching David intently.
“That’s good.” David sipped at his own tea, glancing around the office for a moment before resting his gaze back on her. “I’ve been busy, too, actually. Summer always sees a lot of pets being brought in or being adopted.”
“I hope more pets are being adopted than being brought in,” Mary Margaret hated to think about animals being abandoned. She never understood why people didn’t do more research on certain breeds or took the time to make sure that they could handle a pet before adopting. She herself, was still interested, but wanted to make sure that she had the time to devote to a pet before taking that step.
“Thankfully it seems pretty even. The sad part is when you get the ones brought in that have been left behind at campsites or things like that.” David looked genuinely upset by the thought, as much as Mary Margaret was. He glanced over at her and put on a slight smile. “Sorry. That … Isn’t really the pleasant conversation I’d been hoping this visit would have.”
It was a pretty depressed conversation, but she didn’t want David to think that he had upset her, “It’s alright. I mean, it’s sad to think of anyone abandoning an animal, but I don’t mind hearing about your job.” She smiled and took a sip of her tea, “But, you must be up to something else aside from work. I mean, not everyone works constantly like me. So, what have you been up to?” She was curious if he’d had any more dreams about them, but at the same time she didn’t want to be spoiled.
“Not a whole lot,” he answered honestly, and with a bit of a laugh. “I mostly just deal with the days as they come.” David shrugged a bit. “Have - Are you dreaming more, lately?” He didn’t know she wanted to ask him the same thing. But he knew that he was a while ahead of her, if she dreamt in the order he did, and a part of him was anxious for her to catch up. A larger part of him was curious about what she thought about them, as a pair, and if that would change when she saw what an idiot his cursed self was.
Mary Margaret wasn’t going to bring up the dreams, but David had asked and she wasn’t about to lie to him. She liked him after all and what good would lying do in the long run? “I have actually. Um, you still hadn’t regained your memory, but you came to me, asking why I hadn’t come back to the hospital,” She glanced down at her cup of tea briefly before looking back up at David, “Then you said you chose me instead of Kathryn, but I felt like it was wrong to date someone who was married then Regina came to me and told me that we didn’t belong together,” She wasn’t sure what she would do if something like that had happened to her in real life, but luckily in the real world, David wasn’t married so she didn’t have to worry about it.
David rubbed the back of his neck. There was a long way to go before she ever got to the redeeming bits, and there was a lot of awful things to come still. “I’m sorry that the David you’ll dream about for a while isn’t exactly the best guy. But he means well.”
“It’s alright. I mean neither of us can really control our dream selves, now can we?” Mary Margaret may not have known what was going to happen in the dreams, but if she was Snow White and David was Prince Charming, then it was likely that things would work out somehow for them somehow, “So, Storybrooke is a lot different than Orange County, huh?”
He looked both amused and relieved as he drank more of his tea. “You know, I used to think that? But I think it’s actually a lot like it. All those people dreaming about other lives and then becoming them. That’s - Pretty much what happens in Storybrooke, don’t you think?”
Mary Margaret set her tea down on the top of her desk as she sat up straighter, “Wait, so in Storybrooke, we eventually remember our fairytale lives?” That would mean that somehow the curse was broken and Mary Margaret wondered how that was possible. “But yeah, I can see how that’d be similar to our real lives.”
“Eventually, yeah. It’s a bit down the road for you, still. But believe me when I say that the troubles don’t end there.” David laughed a bit. “Like I said, it’s all … Really messed up. Never boring, though.”
“Sounds almost exactly like our real life then,” It was a little strange just how close to real life the dreams were. With the exception of being fairytale characters of course, “I’m curious about what else happens, but I wouldn’t ask you to tell me. I don’t want to spoil anything for myself; either good or bad.” No matter what happened in Storybrooke and the Enchanted Forest, Mary Margaret wanted to be surprised.
“Well, if you ever need to talk to someone about what happens, I’m always free.” And he meant it, too. He knew first hand that sometimes, with Storybrooke, you needed to just get all your thoughts on the table. It’d be easier with someone who understood. “Or if you ever just … Want to go for coffee, or something,” David added. He wasn’t quite certain he could ask for a date yet without it seeming too cliche.
Mary Margaret smiled, dropping her gaze to the tea in her hand briefly, willing her cheeks not to flush before looking back up at David, “Thank you, David. I’ll definitely keep that in mind.” It would be nice to talk to someone who had already had the same dreams and knew what it was like and David appeared to be the only one who had the same dreams that she did.