Monday, September 18th, 1989

     His breath was slow and even. I inhaled and exhaled as quiet as possible so his breathing would be the only sound in the room. My walls were illuminated with the morning sun and yet he slept, his bare chest raising up and down, his firm arms calm at his sides. Soon we both would be starting our days, but all I could do was sit in bed and look at Graham’s peaceful face. How was I so lucky to have ripped the heart out of such a beautiful man?

     He inhaled deeply and stretched his arms. One hand came down and scratched the dark stubble on his cheek. He turned his brown eyes to me.

     “How long have you been sitting there?”

     “I don’t know.”

     Graham lifted his head to look at my clock. I put a hand on his chest and pushed him back down into the sheets.

     “You’re not leaving yet.”

     He smiled and moved his warms legs beneath me. He sat up and pushed himself closer. His warm legs were soon beneath me, and their coarse hair was welcome against my skin.

     “No, I’m not.”

     Much of my day was spent like most of my Mondays have been. I can’t believe I’ve been monitoring the schools for over a year, not just because that’s how much time has gone by but also that the schools could still turn up things that might offend me. Last Monday, the high school drama club wanted to put on a musical called “Brigadoon”. After renting the video, I cancelled the show, kept the video and fired the drama teacher. There have been so many things I’ve had to put a stop to. Any idea that involves leaving Storybrooke—like varsity sports teams or field trips—I immediately turn down. It’s easy to get enough people on my side for this. All that’s needed is to suggest what kind of expense such a trip would cost for the town or question if our teaching staff is up to watching so many of the town’s children. The one thing I haven’t been able to do is remove the school libraries. I keep getting reminded by everyone that it’s not possible for the students to learn without books. So to compromise, I’m simply going through every single book in all of our school libraries. I can’t trust anyone else to do this—I certainly don’t want another Vivian to deal with. These libraries aren’t nearly as large as the shuttered up town library, but this is will still take a while.

     Reading books in the town library certainly prepared me for this. I know what to look for. The books that stay are the ones that reinforce life in this world. Even some of the literature is acceptable. There are these stories in the elementary library called “fairy tales” that almost had me worried. One was even titled “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”, but it got our history all wrong. The fact that this world is aware of us is interesting, however.

     There’s still no sign of Vivian’s book. I’d wondered if Mary Margaret did get it but accidentally gave it to the school library, but no evidence of that, so far.

     That evening I stopped at the hospital to check in on David and Belle. Both were perfectly silent. It must have been volunteer night at Storybrooke General; I saw probably ten women wearing volunteer stickers on their blouses. Even still, Mary Margaret was the only one I saw actually doing anything. While she was approaching patients, the other women continued to walk past me down the hall. I wondered whether they were going to get their instructions when I froze. Coming right for me was Kathryn! We both stopped as the other women walked on. Her eyes grew wide and I suspected she didn’t want to see me there.

     “Kathryn, what are you doing here?”

     “I’m—volunteering.” She pointed to the sticker on her chest like she just remembered it was there.

     Straight ahead of her, where I had just come from, was the hall that led to David. Kathryn discovering him and all the questions that might follow was something I wasn’t prepared to deal with.

     “No you’re not!” I grabbed her shoulders, turned her around and walked her to the exit.  “You’re better than this. Do you know how many of Dr. Whale’s ‘volunteers’ I see in Mr. Clark’s pharmacy?”

     “It’s okay, Regina. Dr. Whale isn’t—“ Kathryn pushed her feet to the floor to stop. Her sneakers squeaked against the linoleum floor, but I was persistent and we walked out.

     “I don’t care what his sterilized hands are or aren’t doing.” The doors opened for us. Once we were outside in the crisp night air, I took my hands off her shoulders. “You’re staying away from him. Come on, I’ll take you to dinner.”

     Kathryn was silent for all of dinner. I wasn’t used to her being upset with me. Finally, when it was time for pie, I broke the silence and asked her why she wanted to volunteer for Dr. Whale.

     “It’s been a while since David left me and I’m just trying to move on.” She cut through her blueberry pie with her fork.

     “I could set you up on a date. Sidney’s available.”

     “You don’t need to fix me up with anyone, Regina, but thank you.” She took a drink from her glass of milk to wash the pie down.  “Besides, Sidney wouldn’t be interested in me.” She shot me a knowing smile.

     It was my turn to look down at my plate and play with my food. The apples in my slice were very soft. “Fair enough.” I took a bite.

     “You’re lucky to have Graham, but it’s too bad the two of you have to keep quiet about things.”

     So she did know about us. “We decided it was best.”

     “You both did, or just you?”

     “It would have created a conflict of interest and one of us would have to leave our position.” I put my fork down and it clinked on the plate. “I’m sorry I stopped you from volunteering. If you really want, I can arrange for a date between you and Dr. Whale.”

     “Please don’t.” Kathryn shook her head and smiled before she got up from the table and left.