Dark Red|| Rumpelstiltskin

Chapter 7

Ouat
Season 1, Episodes 16, 17, 19, 20
Heart of Darkness, Hat Trick, The Return, The Stranger

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It was a bit gloomy outside, the soft pitter patter of the rain hitting the window reflecting Mary Margaret's mood perfectly. She felt miserable, being stuck in this jail cell doing a terrible thing to her psyche. She rolled onto her side, sitting up from her small wooden plank the jail called a cot. The longer she sat in the cell, the more she started to doubt she was ever going to be released. The door creaked open, causing her to look up from the plain tiled flooring and to Emma, who had walked in the room. She held a paper bag and two coffee cups; one hot and one iced, her keys jingling from their spot on her pinky.

"Hey. Breakfast." She said, pushing her hand through the bars to hand her the warm food and iced beverage. It smelled great, like the breakfast sandwich from Granny's and she couldn't wait to dig in. A sandwich from Granny's always bettered her day. "Thanks." She sighed, taking a sip of her coffee. It was made to her liking, vanilla coffee syrup and six sugars, topped with caramel drizzle and banana taffe. As much as she hated to admit it, the only place in town that made her sugar coma coffee was the small bakery that Peter worked at.

The look on Emma's face made her pause on digging into her food, she looked like she wanted to talk about the case and Mary Margaret didn't. There was no way she wanted to talk about how she allegedly murdered a woman, cut out her heart and buried it in her jewelry box at the place where she and a married man like to have their romantic rendezvous; at least not so early in the morning. The clock on the wall read 7 a.m. and she most certainly wanted to at least have until 8 a.m. to herself.

"I know Mr. Gold doesn't want us to talk," she said, drawing a chair to sit in front of the cell. "But I thought you should hear this from me. The test results came back on the heart and the DNA was a match for Kathryn. She is dead. I'm sorry," she paused, her lip quivering. "For a lot of things. But, now that we have proof of the death, we have enough evidence to move forward with a case against you. It's going to happen. You know I do believe you, right?" Emma asked. She was still reeling from the news Richard dropped on her a week before but she didn't believe that Mary Margaret was capable of murder.

Mary Margaret nodded, causing Emma to continue in her words. "All this evidence tells me one thing for certain. That you are being framed, and I think Regina is behind it." The revelation of this new information sent her mind to a whole new set of emotions that she hadn't had in a while; anger. "Then why am I still in this cell? Why don't you confront her?" Her voice was full of everything she was feeling, from anger to disbelief and exhaustion. "Because belief is not proof." The sentence was firm, making Mary Margaret feel as if Emma was toying with her. She had just said that she had to believe her, and now she wouldn't act on her beliefs.

"But, you just said—" Her words were clear, ready to make her point as Emma cut her off. "If I don't do this right, things will end up worse for you. Every time I've gone up against Regina, she's seen it coming, and I've lost." She didn't want Mary Margaret to think she was being a bad friend, but she also had to do this the right way otherwise she might never be able to dig Mary Margaret out of the whole Regina wanted to put her in.

Mary Margaret sighed, a range of emotions washing over her at different speeds and intensities. "So, what makes this time any different?" She sounded exasperated, as if she just wanted to curl up and let the world melt away. "Because she doesn't know I suspect anything." Emma said, her tone announcing her words like she was clever for not voicing her suspicions to Regina. In reality, it was just common sense but Mary Margaret let Emma have her blaze of glory.