The Nanny Diaries
Summary:
Set in Storybrooke (no curse) Belle, a university student, is asked by Mr Gold to be the nanny for his disabled son. After spending time with Bae, she vows to reconnect a father and son so broken by life's circumstances, and maybe mend her own broken heart in the process.
Author's note:
This fic is a prime example of procrastinating when I should be working on my other story "let me be free", but, you know how it is with plot bunnies, they don't leave you alone! Please review, it's nice to get feedback!
Disclaimer:
I don't own once upon a time or its characters – such a shame!
"So, Miss French, do you have the list of references I requested before this interview?" Mr Gold sat proudly in him armchair in his rather large living room. Miss French, or Belle as everyone else called her, was sitting on the much lower sofa, giving him the advantage of height and therefore scope for intimidation.
"Yes Mr Gold." She responded politely, handing over the document encased in a plastic sleeve. She smiled sweetly at him. Clearly the intimidation route was not going to work very well.
"Hmm, this is impressive." Gold commented as he read over her resume and references. "Tell me, Miss French, why do you believe I should hire you to care for my disabled son?" His cold tone was alarming to Belle, and she was momentarily shocked by the way he spoke about his son. She saw what looked like years of regret in his eyes. She decided to be brave and not look away.
"Mr Gold, I believe I can look after Baelfire with the compassion he needs, I have experience working with children with disabilities and I hope I can make both your lives easier by helping out."
Gold seemed to ponder this for a moment. Truth be told, Belle was the only person who had applied for the live-in nanny position for his ten year old son, and he was exhausted shouldering the responsibility of it all himself. He was also genuinely surprised that the girl had offered to make life easier for them both. It wasn't every day a paid employee showed concern or interest in their employer.
"Now, as for the matter of your duties; Bae is able to shower and dress himself, however I will need you to prepare the meals, shop, cook, run errands, clean the house, take Bae to school and help him with his homework."
"That sounds reasonable." Belle said, still showing no sign of being afraid of Gold or being overwhelmed by the nature of her job description.
"How do you feel you are going to balance everything with your final year of study, taking care of Bae and this house, as well as work Friday and Saturday nights at the diner?"
"I'll do a meal plan for the week and keep on top of the cleaning by doing one area of the house every day; I'll study when Bae's at school and you two will have Friday and Saturday nights without me."
"Very good answer, Miss French. Now you do understand that if working at the diner interferes with your duties here, I will ask you to leave that job as I will be your primary employer." Belle nodded in agreement.
"Well, Miss French, I have one last question. Why would you prefer to spend your university breaks here instead of with your father? I understand he needs your help with the shop?"
Belle shifted slightly uncomfortably in her chair. She wasn't prepared for the personal questions. To stall time she took a sip of water and continued. "Mr Gold, my father does need my help, unfortunately he won't take it, and so until he's ready I can't live with him. I pay for my university fees myself and make no demands on him." She sat up proudly, but Gold noticed she was shaking slightly.
The sounds from the front door broke Belle's attention. Mary Margaret entered, followed by Bae in his wheelchair. "Thank you for dropping Bae home, Ms Blanchard."
"Not a problem Mr Gold" Mary Margaret said politely before she noticed Mr Gold's guest "Oh, Belle! I haven't seen you in three years!" she exclaimed, rushing over to Belle and giving her a hug "I've heard you've been doing so well with your degree, one year left, congratulations!"
"Thanks Mary Margaret. Your new haircut looks amazing. I love you with short hair!"
Mr Gold appeared slightly uncomfortable with the high energy female chat in the room and interrupted "Miss French has agreed to take up the position of our live in Nanny for Baelfire."
"Oh, so this means I have the job?" Belle asked.
"Yes Miss French, I believe you will be more than adequate." Gold smiled.
"That's if you're ok with this, Bae?" Belle turned to the young boy still by the door.
"It's ok, I guess. Anyway, I was going to go into the kitchen and fix a snack." Bae shrugged.
Belle sighed, clearly the boy didn't want her here, and she wasn't quite sure why, but she wanted to find out.
After Bae left for the kitchen Mary Margaret piped up "Belle, congratulations on your new job. Bae's lucky to have you. Anyway, I need to get home, I have so much marking to do. Call me, we'll catch up." She nodded towards Mr Gold and headed out the door. Belle stared at the front door, twisting her fingers through her brown curly hair, only to be brought back from her thoughts by Mr Gold Clearing his throat.
"What's the matter, Miss French? You look a wee bit lost."
"Oh, I'm ok. I was just thinking about Baelfire. Does he want me here?"
"What my boy wants and what he needs are two different things." Mr Gold said coldly. "Shall we go over your contract?"
"In a minute. First I want to speak to Bae."
Belle left a rather bewildered looking Mr Gold and entered the kitchen, finding Bae at the counter smearing arrowroot biscuits with peanut butter.
"That's my favourite snack." Belle commented.
"Mine too." Bae answered.
"Mind if I sit with you a minute?"
"Sure. Whatever."
Belle pulled around a kitchen stool so she could sit with Bae closer to his level. "So, I'm guessing by the look on your face this afternoon that your dad didn't tell you he was thinking of hiring a nanny."
"Nope, he didn't. I just wish he told me stuff. I've had a bunch of nannies, and they all leave because they can't stand my dad. Then my dad hires someone else because he can't stand to look after me."
Belle was shocked by this revelation, and that Bae was clearly more wounded than his physical injuries let on. Her heart broke with the thought of such a young boy feeling so broken and unloved.
"It's been like this since the accident, hasn't it?" Belle asked gently.
Bae shifted the biscuits around on his plate "Yes."
"Bae, I know that I'm not perfect and can't always make things better, but I promise that while I'm here, I'll do my best to help."
Bae pushed the plate of biscuits to Belle "Want some?"
"Sure." She said, taking a biscuit and munching on it. "wow, these are as good as I remember!"
"You know something Belle, you're pretty cool. You can stay if you want."
"Thanks, Bae. You know, you're pretty cool too."
Mr Gold entered the kitchen, wondering what could possibly be taking them so long. The green snake of jealousy bit into his heart when he saw the two of them together. Belle was practically a stranger, and she was already winning his son over, the two of them bonding over those awful childish biscuits. He pushed those feelings aside. It was what he did best.
"So Miss French, are you satisfied that my son has your hearty consent to stay here?" He said, leaning on his cane.
"Yes, apparently I'm going to be more than adequate." Belle replied, and Bae giggled.
"Alright, no more biscuits, you'll spoil your dinner." Belle said, keeping the tone light.
"You've been my nanny for like, 30 seconds and you're already telling me what to do?"
"Yep. Get used to it, kiddo." She said, wrapping up the biscuits and rummaging through the cupboards to find a plastic container to put them in.
Bae and his father continued to stare in silence at this new girl who had apparently already made herself at ease with the kitchen and with both of them. They exchanged a look, one that said in an untold way that their lives wouldn't be the same again.
Belle's phone started beeping in her pocket "Oh, my Saturday shift at the diner starts in an hour. I'm going to have to leave soon."
"Alright. I will show you around the rest of the house and where your rooms will be, and you can finally read your contract."
Belle and Mr Gold went upstairs to view the rooms Belle would be staying in, and he did mean rooms. Belle gasped when she saw that her quarters was a large suite with a king size bed, beautiful furniture, bathroom, walk in robe and a small living area with an entertainment unit and a study area.
"But, if this is the master suite, where do you live Mr Gold?"
"My rooms are down the hall in the West Wing . Don't worry, you won't be required to clean my rooms, and yes, they are bigger than yours."
"But, Mr Gold, this isn't a room, it's a whole apartment! Surely there's a smaller room I can stay in." The entire time she was talking she was running her fingers over the bedspread, so eager to launch herself onto it and feel how soft it really was. She refrained from this, not wanting to appear childish in front of her employer.
"Smaller room? Miss French, there is a small guest room downstairs, however there is no space for a study table in there and I won't have all of your paraphernalia lying about the living room."
"Ok, I'll take the apartment, if you insist," Belle replied back in a mocking tone.
"Alright Miss French, now, as you can see here is your contract there is a morality clause. I simply cannot have you running about late at night drinking and partying, and you are certainly not to entertain any young men in this apartment, however private it is."
"That's fine. I don't drink and I don't have a boyfriend or any intention of having one."
"That doesn't leave much room for a life for someone so young." Gold tapped his chin thoughtfully.
"It's alright, Mr Gold, I don't really need a life, I'll just be happy to be working."
Gold cleared his throat "Your salary will be $700 a week, as well as access to a debit card that will have $400 per week added to the account for groceries, incidentals and other things Bae needs."
Belle stopped running her fingers along the bedspread and stood up quickly. "Mr Gold, that's far too much, I was expecting about half of that."
"Miss French, are you aware that during a job interview you are supposed to negotiate with your employer? I've yet to meet anyone who wants to negotiate down as much as you do. Besides, given your working hours you would still be working for less than $10 an hour."
"I'm sorry, Mr Gold. I didn't grow up around a lot of money, so anything you would have offered would have sounded like a lot."
"So you're fine with the terms of your contract?"
"Yes. Very. Bae is a sweet kid, and this apartment and the salary are very generous."
"Yes, he does seem quite taken with you already. Anyway Miss French, I do not want you to be late for your shift. Shall you come back tomorrow afternoon to move your things in?"
"That sounds wonderful. I can be here by about two O'clock, which will give me a chance to pack my things."
Belle signed her contract and then hurried down the stairs much faster than Gold could on his cane. She wished Bae goodbye, and skipped out the door. As she dressed for her shift a Granny's, she felt almost dizzy with the thought of the apartment she was going to live in and a salary higher than she ever dreamed of. She might actually be able to start paying off her student debts, buy a new laptop and perhaps save some money in the process. Currently, her bank account contained a mere four hundred dollars and her student loans rivalled a small mortgage. Her car and laptop were dying and she had about three good outfits, and that included her 'good' target jeans and the purple blouse she paid two dollars for at goodwill that she had worn to her interview that afternoon.
She arrived at Granny's with five minutes to spare, so she donned her apron and began to refill the sugar, salt and ketchup containers. She had to remember to call it ketchup to the patrons at the diner; they all looked at her strangely when she offered them tomato sauce, insisting that they didn't order spaghetti. Americans didn't always understand Australian slang.
She was about halfway through her prep tasks when Ruby flounced in, wearing a dangerously short red vinyl dress and black lace up knee high boots.
"I want to thank you again for taking the Friday and Saturday shifts here Belle, it's given me my life back."
"Glad I can help. Granny's a great boss." Belle replied.
Ruby rolled her eyes "Yea, but you're not related to her. She totally freaked about my outfit tonight."
"Well, in her defence, it is a little short, and by a little, I mean very." Belle giggled.
"Come on, this will pay dividends in free drinks twice what it cost me." Ruby stood back, pushing up her cleavage to she could appear at full advantage.
"Nice to see I didn't waste my breath ranting about that ridiculous outfit." Granny came out of the back kitchen area with her notepad in hand, eyeing Ruby through her little spectacles that sat on the end of her nose.
"Yep, good thing." Ruby Huffed, ignoring her grandmother "Hey Belle, we should do something tomorrow, I should be awake by noon."
"You'll be up before that, I need you for the breakfast shift tomorrow. Ashleigh has a cold." Granny chimed in
Ruby huffed and turned to Belle "Raincheck?"
"I'm going to need a raincheck anyway, I've accepted the job to be Bae's nanny, so I'm moving into Gold's house tomorrow."
Ruby and her grandmother continued to stare, just a little speechless.
"Belle, are you sure that's such a good idea?" Granny prompted.
"Yea, Gold's scary, and caring for Bae will be full-on." Ruby added.
"Guys, I appreciate the concern, but I'll be fine. I need the money to finish my degree and Bae is a wonderful kid. Besides, I can handle Gold."
"I'll bet you can, are you going to counteract his evilness with sunshine, puppies and rainbows? Because I can tell you now, he'll burn you out." Ruby said sarcastically.
"He can try." Belle returned with equal sarcasm.
"Alright, it's your life. See you all I'm going to blow off some steam." With that Ruby flounced off, leaving Belle and Granny with the Saturday night crowd.