30 / apple pie / obgyn
maggie frazier is just days away from a mental breakdown, but if you try to talk to her about it she will usher you into her house for tea and one thing will lead to another and you’ll end up talking about your divorce or your kids or your mother-in-law who’s sick and you’ll leave feeling better for having talked to her but will be hit by the sudden realization that you never talked about maggie or her life once.
and that’s exactly how she’d like it to be.
maggie (short for magnolia) is 30 now, but she spent the majority of her life in hickory creek. she was born and raised here and she’s made it her job for the last 30 years to know every single person in town, all 9,973 of them. the only time she’s ever spent away from hickory creek was when she was in college/medical school, but even then she was always close by at the university of connecticut for both undergraduate and medical school.
maggie has always been extremely involved in her community and she loves her hometown so, so dearly. in high school she was That Girl who was seemingly involved with everything at once; she was a three sport athlete, president of the science club, treasurer for the senior class, editor of the yearbook, co-president of the environmental club, tried to volunteer at least 10 hours per week around hickory creek, the list goes on, and on, and on, and on, and that sense of involvement sticks with maggie even now as an adult. hickory creek is her home and she wants to give back to it as much as she has gotten from it, and she loves this place and the people here so much that she would do absolutely anything for them.
she knew from an early age that she wanted to become a doctor and eventually maggie settled on becoming an ob/gyn, in part because she’s a Mega Feminist and proud of it and believes women should have equal access to healthcare opportunities. her absolute dream is to start her own practice designed specifically to provide top quality healthcare (including prenatal care and birth control access) to low income women at affordable prices, and though she isn’t there yet, she’s working on it! she just finished a three year residency with a hospital in a larger town near hickory creek (but close enough where she could commute) and she’s now working as a ob/gyn in hickory creek.
her parents were - are - nagging, perfectionist control freaks, who pushed their (only) daughter in every way they could. they say it’s because they want her to be her very best and maggie believed them, though they haven’t ever stopped pushing. maggie merely got lucky that they had the same aspirations for her that she had for herself (largely, to be a doctor), but that never, ever stopped them from clashing, and that certainly didn’t stop the insecurities that she would never be good enough (for anything and anyone) from growing.
maggie went to the university of connecticut so that she could be close to her parents - who, as endlessly as they frustrate her, she loves dearly - and it was also just a great option. she met her (now ex) husband while they were both undergraduates, and their relationship progressed relatively fast. they got engaged their final year of undergrad, married while they were in medical school, and it was their final year of medical school when maggie discovered she was pregnant with their two children (two twin boys, who maggie loves with all of her heart and soul).
after they graduated from medical school they moved back to hickory creek, because maggie was determined to raise her sons in the same community that helped raise her, they bought a house, maggie began her residency, and a year later she discovered her husband was cheating on her (with a 19 year old college student) and wanted a divorce.
things were moving too fast, he didn’t want such a cookie-cutter life, he hated this town -- these were the only excuses maggie actually heard from him before she tuned him out and signed the divorce papers. he wanted nothing to do with the raising of their children and gave her complete custody, she changed the boys last name to her own (they were only 1 at the time, which helped) and to this day, not a single person on the face of this earth other than maggie and her ex-husband truly know why they got divorced.
she’s too proud to say it out loud - she’s maggie frazier, these things don’t happen to her - and admit what happened, and though lots of people (take her best friend arden alcott, for example, who doesn’t fully know, either) know bits and pieces of the truth, maggie and her ex-husband are the only ones who know he cheated on her.
it’s been two years now and this has been weighing on maggie a lot lately. he moved to new york and lived his Fabulous Bachelor Doctor life and maggie is left with two children, a mortgage she can’t afford, her mother’s constant nagging, a career that isn’t going as planned, and a looming mental breakdown.
this is nowhere near where maggie pictured herself at this point in her life, but it’s what she’s got, and she’s trying to roll with it.
maggie has always been the mom friend - not just of her friend group, but in general - in every sense of the term. hello, this is maggie, and she’s your mom now. she is probably the most caring, selfless person on earth, and that alone will be her downfall. she’s the friendliest person you’ll ever meet, and just a single five minute conversation and you’ll feel like you’ve known her your entire life (though if you’re from hickory creek originally, you probably have). she’s more than just friendly, she’s open and welcoming, and she tries her hardest to be a positive force in everyone’s life.
maggie is the dictionary definition of responsible, and she’s always seemed like she has her life put together. she was the most adult teenager you’ll have ever met and now she’s the most adult adult you’ll ever meet (at least on the surface). she’s wise and always seems to have the perfect solution to everything and is always willing to give advice to anyone who asks for it.
she keeps a number of different journals for a number of different things, color codes everything, is generally the most organized person on the face of the planet, is one of those people who seems to be good at every single thing she does and is currently managing to hold her life together by a very thin thread.
it isn’t that maggie’s in a horrible place right now - she’s got the sort of stable life she dreamed of, more or less - but she’s been really mentally fragile since her husband left and she hasn’t talked about it with anyone. maggie has a hard time opening up to people - even those closest to her - and she doesn’t articulate her feelings well. and she always feels as if other people’s problems are so much more important than hers. she needs to take care of other people first and then herself, but the problem is that she never actually gets around to taking care of herself. and it feels silly, because it’s been two years, and he has clearly moved on, and she is moving on with her life, but she, herself cannot move on. she’s trying to force herself to by not dealing with it. it’s going wonderfully.
maggie is, above all things, selfless. she will drop any and everything to help people, and she doesn’t ask for anything in return (maybe a hug). she loves taking care of people and it is where she feels the most natural and most at home. when her life is a mess - like it is now - she compulsively takes care of people. she wants to help as many people in her life in as many ways possible: it gives her life purpose and she just loves everyone around her so much and she wants them to know it.
maggie, in spite of all of her Super-Woman-Care-For-Everyone-Do-Everything-Well-Super-Mom-Ness isn’t perfect, and the Super-Woman act is taking a clear toll on her. she tries to do everything for everyone all at once and she runs herself thin, and normally she can manage the stress and the burnout, but it’s starting to become too much. she doesn’t ever allow herself to be imperfect - she has carefully squeezed any imperfections out of her life - but she is and she knows it (though she tries not to let anybody else).
she’s judgmental and competitive and stubborn and emotional and all of the things that make people human that she suppresses in part to maintain the image that she’s living her best life and is 100% Happy All The Time. it’s hard for anyone to say that they actually know maggie because she hides the non-superwoman, non-everybody’s-mom part of herself so well, and she doesn’t like to open up to people, and on some level has issues trusting others. as open and welcoming as she is, maggie is relatively closed off, too.
but even given all of that, maggie is friendly and optimistic, and she tries her absolute hardest to be a bright spot in everyone’s lives. that’s why she’ll have plenty of friends of all sorts and all ages. maggie tries her hardest to know every single person in hickory creek, and may even be your doctor now! she’s super open, friendly and welcoming, and can hold a conversation with a brick wall. she is a golden retriever personified: excitable, optimistic, gets excited when you ask to go on walks. even with all of the stress it can cause, maggie absolutely loves being the Mom Friend and she loves taking care of people, so please, let her take care of you. she’s fiercely loyal and protective to those she cares about - which is everyone - and she really just wants to help. she just wants everyone to feel as comfortable around her as possible, and wants to be the sort of shoulder they can lean on if they ever need anything. maggie doesn’t expect that in return and she doesn’t even want that in return, necessarily.
this is why it can be hard to get to know her: you’ll know super woman mom maggie, who will lend you a tent because your daughter wants to go camping in your back yard, or who will bake you your favorite type of baked good in bulk for your birthday, and who will invite you over to drink wine and watch gilmore girls reruns, but maggie never, ever, lets that facade fall, and even those who are closest to her she doesn’t let see the most intimate parts of her life. maggie is an odd person where you can have known her for her entire life and feel like you’re best friends but still feel like you don’t know her at all. she considers all of her friends close friends, but her life never seems important enough to actually bother with.
maggie likely won’t have too many enemies but that’s not to say they won’t exist. she is hyper competitive, though it is hard to actually bring out that part in her (but once you do, she can’t really turn it off). even though she can seem like the nicest person on earth she’s judgmental as hell and there seems to be something selfish about her obsessive need to take care of everybody. she is by no means perfect, despite the facade she tries to present, and there are surely a number of people who can see right through her.
as far as lovers go, things are complicated. maggie hasn’t had too many serious relationships outside of her ex-husband, and well, that turned out poorly. this is super open, and i may post a request for the ex or someone new later on, but maggie is open to plotting as well! people who had crushes on her in high school/college (since she went to college nearby), people who have crushes on her now, just give me whatever you can think of! maggie can be really clueless and is really bad at picking up on hints/romantic clues. she’s also always considered herself too busy for relationships and especially now so, but anything can happen (and it’s ironic because she prides herself on being a matchmaker and on giving solid romantic advice, oops).