It was the late afternoon on a Sunday, the last day of October. Belle was bringing bundles of candy into the kitchen where her soon-to-be husband sat reading the news on his tablet. She had just arrived back from the store where she bought every type of sweets she could find. Fruity candy, both hard and soft. Tasty stringy taffy and of course, chocolate. She placed all the candy in a large orange and black jack-o- lantern serving bowl as her fiance laughed at her antics.
"Did you buy enough?" Gold quipped, without looking up from his tablet.
"I think so," Belle said, bringing the bowl over to where Gold sat at the table. "Do you think it's enough?"
He looked at the bowl filled to the brim with candy. "I think every child in our neighborhood will be running around with cavities come November 1st."
"Wonderful. It's our civic duty to keep the dentist in business." She pointed out.
"I couldn't agree more," He smirked. "Just make sure you leave a couple of Twix bars for me."
"Hey, get your own. I plan on selling out tonight," Belle said, and Gold chuckled. "And why aren't you in your costume?"
Gold shrugged. "What costume?"
"The one I bought and showed you like a week ago, or have you thrown it out already?"
"Hmmm." Gold thought to himself. "I seem to remember seeing a skeleton costume in the garbage a few days ago."
"Garrett you didn't!" Belle said flabbergasted. "That Jack Skellington costume was supposed to match my Sally costume from 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'."
"Well, in any case, I won't be wearing it. I decided to dress up as the domesticated husband." He said, gesturing to his suit and tie.
Belle giggled. "That's what you went as last year."
"If it's not broken, why fix it?" He told her.
Belle rolled her eyes. "Well at least let me paint your face like a skull."
Gold sighed. "Fine. If you must." He said, giving in. He was always content on pleasing her. No matter how ridiculous he was going to end up looking.
Belle squealed with joy and pulled some face paint out of one of the drawers beside her. Next to the paint were facial brushes. Gold began to regret to agreeing to this when she sauntered over eagerly with a bowl of warm water and black and white face paint.
Belle considered the only appropriate place to sit was on his lap. She wrapped a towel around his neck and dipped the paintbrush into the warm water before dabbing it in the paint. "Now, hold still."
Gold scrunched up his face and closed his eyes, preparing for the sticky wet feeling of the paint. But he had to admit to himself that, it wasn't so bad as he previously imagined. It actually felt kind of nice. Almost like tiny wet kisses from a puppy. He opened his eyes and saw that Belle was concentrating rather hard while painting her masterpiece. Her tongue was poking out past her plump pink lips as she focused on each careful stroke of the brush.
His hands drifted up her thighs and rested on her hips. Belle hadn't noticed that he was staring at her until she begun painting sunken black circles around his eyes. She gazed in them for longer than a moment, failing to realize that she was moving closer and closer to his lips. The first few kisses were delicate, both trying not to mess up the fresh paint job on his face. By the fourth and fifth kiss, things began to get more intense and heated, and Gold's still wet paint smeared against Belle's face. When he looked at the gray mess they were making on each other's faces, he laughed and in turn, made Belle laugh too.
The doorbell rang unexpectedly, jolting the breathless couple from their snogging and possible love making in the kitchen. Gold's arm tightened around his fiancee's waist, preventing her from leaving his lap to answer the door, hoping the intruder at the door would take the hint and leave. Belle smiled and heeded his gesture and stayed in his arms. She deepened her kiss with a soft moan into his mouth while running her fingers through his hair. Gold pulled the knot of her apron, unlacing it until the two ribbons fell to her side.
The doorbell rang again. This time repeatedly in an urgent manner. Gold inwardly cursed that bell and the person who felt it necessary to ring it at this moment. Perhaps they should just let it chime. In a decent amount of time, he could make Belle out scream the annoyance at the door. But instead, he groaned and muttered something under his breath as Belle got up from his lap to answer the door.
"Don't worry. It's probably early tricker treaters." Belle said, grabbing the candy bowl overflowing with an assortment of different chocolate bars from a nearby kitchen cabinet.
"One piece of candy Belle." Gold reminded her.
"Come now, where's your holiday spirit, Garrett?"
Gold chuckled, giving in to his fiancee once again. "Fine. If the children are wearing anything other than someone from the Avengers, they can have two pieces. The Tonys', Thors', and Spidermans' only get one piece of candy."
"Why not? They're superheroes."
"My point exactly. It's Halloween. This holiday is for scares, and there's nothing scary about superheroes."
"Well, I wouldn't say that. The villains are quite scared of the Avengers."
"That may be so, but it's not how it used to be. Whatever happened to when the children dressed up as Dracula, Ghosts, and Ghouls. Zombies. Blood and guts. You know, the real good stuff. Now all I see are Captain Americas'."
"It's just what's popular now. Vampires died when Twilight stop showing in theaters. Zombies are long gone too, ever since the Walking Dead became an adult show." Belle explained.
"Yeah, well, all the originality of Halloween is gone too. How is there anything scary about a bunch of superheroes running around carrying plastic weapons?"
"I think you're missing the point," Belle said, rattling the candy bowl. "If I promise to let our future little one dress up as Dracula, will you let me give the children two candy bars?"
Gold smiled and nodded. That was his only weakness. Anytime she talked about having children with him, Belle always won the negotiation.
The door bell rang again, long and drawn out, like the person glued their finger to the button.
"Just a second," Belle called to the visitors.
"Uh- Belle." He said, pointing to her chin.
She giggled and wiped the splotch of paint off with her apron.
His eyes followed her as she left the kitchen, wondering to himself, how did he get so lucky to find a woman like her, someone who genuinely loved him. His first marriage hadn't been so lucky. It was supposed to last through sickness and health, pain and happiness, but when Gold got into a car wreck with a semi trailer and broke his leg, his ex-wife Cora cracked under the pressure of having a disabled husband.
Cora managed to stay a whole year after the accident, but she refused to take him to his doctor appointments and physical therapy sessions. Soon she even declined to sleep in the same bed with him, like the thought of him touching her body as she slept disgusted her.
Gold wasn't able to work while his leg was incapacitated which left Cora to be the sole bread winner of their household. He still did his part, what little he could do. He received disability payments, and that helped with some of the bills. With a shattered leg and bound to a wheelchair, he made sure their home was tidy, the laundry was taken care of, and that she always came home to a home-cooked meal ready to be eaten with him at the dining table. Unfortunately for Gold, she always had an excuse for not wanting to share dinner with him, some spun tale of how she had already eaten at work or that she was too tired. He ate alone at the table while she watched T.V. in another room far away from him in their house.
Finally, Gold supposed she had enough of being married to a handicapped man and served him divorce papers. She didn't ask for much in the settlement, just the car, and the furniture. Cora even agreed to provide him with a small alimony check, though it was only enough for him to live day by day. He didn't have the energy or the money to fight her, so he gave Cora what she wanted and closed that chapter of his life.
A few months later, Gold was woken up at six in the morning by an alert on his phone. A lump sum of fourteen million dollars was deposited into his account from his accident. It was still way too early to that this was something other than a dream. Gold ignored the text and went back to sleep. When he woke again a few hours later, he checked the message from his dream again and frowned doubtfully at it. Next, he checked the banking app on his phone. He read the number slowly, all eight digits. It was either a heart attack or adrenaline that made him want to jump up from his bed. But the sudden jolt of pain he felt coursing through his leg made him remember that this was a bittersweet victory. So he invested his money into two things: physical therapy and stocks. And within two years he had doubled his money and was able to walk again with the assistance of a cane.
"Garrett!" He heard Belle call from the front door. "Garrett come quickly please."
Gold lunged up, wiping away the smudged paint from his face before grabbing his cane and making his way to the front door. Not before grabbing his pistol that laid in a hidden compartment in one of the kitchen drawers. To him, it sounded like Belle was panicking, and to intruders and Halloween hooligans, a man with a cane might not have looked as intimidating as a man with a cane and a gun. He stuffed the pistol in his back pocket and proceeded to the front door with caution.
In the entrance way stood a man about average height with blue eyes. He was wearing some off-brand cheap leather pirate costume with a silver plastic hook on his left hand. He didn't say anything, just looked Gold from head to shoes in a patronizing fashion.
"Ga – Garrett, do you know this man?" Belle asked, seemingly bothered by the strange man at the door.
"No. I don't believe I had the pleasure to make his acquaintance." He told her, before addressing the man dressed like a pirate that stood, blocking his doorway. "Is there something we can do for you, matey?"
"Are you Garrett Gold?" He asked.
"I am."
"You're a hard man to find." The man said before looking beyond Gold and Belle and into their home. "Nice digs you got here. May we come in?"
"We?" Gold asked, failing to notice the child hiding behind the man's leg. "As a matter of fact, I do mind." He said, reaching into the candy bowl Belle was holding, trying to hand the man a chocolate bar for the child.
"You have the wrong idea, matey. We're not here for candy." The man said folding his arms across his chest.
"Then perhaps you would like to state your business before we call the police." Gold said, reaching into his back pocket and taking his pistol off its safety lock.
The man laughed harmlessly. "There's no need to involve the cops. I just wanted to return your bast- er- I mean, son." He said, shoving the child into the house and next to Belle.
"What the hell do you think you're doing. I don't have a son." Gold stuck his arm out, backing Belle away from the door. "Go call the police."
"Wait. What's with all this police business? I'm doing you a favor. I'm reuniting father with son."
"I just told you I don't have a son. What part don't you understand?"
The man took a step back and nodded his head to another who seemed to be leaning with her back against the side of their house, just out of the eye sight of Gold and Belle. She was wearing a high rise leather skirt that showed her legs covered with torn black fishnet stockings. Her fire red blouse (if one could really call it a blouse and not a clasp of fabric) was only a low-cut top, bearing her black push-up bra. The red pumps she wore were torn and smudged from overuse. Her whole attire was something Belle wouldn't be caught dead wearing, let alone standing next to a child. The brunette woman looked Gold up and down, chewing her gum loudly before pushing her tongue out in the pink gum and blowing a bubble.
"Yep, that's him." She said, popping her gum irritatingly. "I remember the cane."
"Well, it looks like we finally found our guy. Took us a few years to track ya' down." The man said stepping forward again, wrapping his arm around the woman's waist as she steadily popped and blew bubbles with her gum. "You remember Milah, don't you? She told me she'd made you a very happy man that night."
Belle waited for Gold to yell at them to get off their doorstep and slam the door in their faces, but he didn't, he just stood there, pale as a ghost, like a past demon had come back to haunt him.
"Is this your wife?" The man said, reaching out a finger to stroke Belle's face. "She's a pretty one."
Gold snatched his hand away. "Don't you ever put your filthy hands on her!" He said, letting go of the man's wrist roughly. "What is it that you want?"
"Nothing at all. We just wanted to get this kid out of our hair." The man said as Milah glared at Belle popping her chewing gum more vigorously. "A whore house isn't the place for a three-year-old."
"Watch what you say in front of my fiancee," Gold threatened, through gritted teeth. "Or I'll make you regret every word."
Belle's heart dropped. She looked down at the child who was standing next to her, trying not to make eye contact with the strange man, Garrett, or even her. The young boy seemed to only stare at the woman, who Belle took to be the child's mother. And if what the man was saying was true, then Garrett was his father.
"Look here Gold. We did our good deed for you. We took care of your little runt for three years. Now it's time for you to take care of the rest." the man said, throwing a small bag into the couple's house. "I'm actually being nice here. What I could do is make you pay for all the damn money I lost while Milah was pregnant with this bastard, but I'm not. Just take the fucking kid."
"Come on Killian. You promised me we could go to Granny's before the party starts and I'm starving." Milah reminded the man, before walking down the small set of stairs on the porch.
Killian leaned in close to Gold. "The next time you shoot your little pea shooter into one of my girls, do us both a favor, and make sure she's on the pill." He said before smugly walking off.
That sent Gold's blood to boil. If he were any less of a man, he would have beat the man bloody with his cane. But he didn't want his future wife to see that side of him, or scared the child that lingered by the door close to Belle.
Belle gave Gold a disappointed look than a sympathetic one to the child before stepping out the door. "Hey, wait!" she shouted just as Killian and Milah were entering their car. "What's his name?"
Belle could hear a mumble that sounded like the woman said "Who cares," followed by laughter as the pair drove off in their car. The boy watched as the car left until it was no longer visible, and his sad brown eyes stared off into the distance. Belle pulled the child inside the house and placed him on the sofa and handed him a candy bar. He didn't say anything or eat it. He only stared at it like he had no idea what it was.
Gold walked off. Paying no mind to the kid that sat frightened in his living room. It wasn't his child, and he wasn't going to get attached to it by talking to it and trying to cheer it up. He had to nip this in the bud before this child jeopardized everything that was finally going right in his life.
"Garrett please, please tell me what's going on," Belle begged him, but he'd continued to walk off. "Where are you going?"
"To find a phone." He said.
"A phone? Who are you going to call?" Belle asked, following behind him.
Gold took his cell phone off its charging dock and began to look up any type of child services number. The first idea that came to mind was CPS.
"Garrett hang up the phone. It's a Sunday evening. Nobody will answer," she said. "Garrett we need to talk about this."
Gold sighed and pressed the red End button on his phone, hanging up the call. "There's nothing to talk about. Tomorrow when the child services are available, this problem will just be a distant memory."
"But what if he is your son?" Belle asked the question he was trying to avoid.
"She was a prostitute, Belle. That boy's father could be any man within the 100-yards block of our neighborhood." He said, instantly regretted saying it loud enough for the child to hear.
"Then did you have sex with that woman?" Belle asked, but Gold ignored her and didn't answer. He didn't cheat on Belle, but his one night stand three years ago with a prostitute wasn't something he was proud to admit to.
Belle took his silence for an answer. He did sleep with that woman. The child was three, and he and Belle met two years ago. So she knew he wasn't unfaithful to her. She also knew about the dark place he was in after his first marriage failed.
"Garrett, I'm not mad. I just want to talk about this. And if we don't, how are we ever going to figure out how to fix this." Belle explained.
Gold sighed, she was right, it was just that he didn't want to be reminded of that awful night three years ago, and that's what the boy was, a reminder of his mistake for falling for another woman who had no intentions of loving him, the same mistake he made with Cora.
A few months after stumbling into his vast amount of money, he fell into another type of depression. The saying was true. Money couldn't buy happiness. He wasn't making any progress in his physical therapy, although he was able to walk with a cane, his leg still pained him so that only a few steps would leave him writhing in pain. He stopped taking his painkillers and began drinking to numb the pain in his bummed leg and his mind. He regretted doing that because the next day, after the alcohol had worn off, he still had the pain and felt more pitiful about himself than before.
One night, he had finished off his last bottle of scotch, but he was nowhere as drunk as he wanted to be and all the stores were closed. He phoned a cab to have him taken to the nearest bar so he could waddle in a large glass of shame. The closest bar happened to be located inside Granny's Bed and Breakfast. It was good enough because riding too long in a car made his leg ache. He took his seat at the bar and ordered a glass of the bar's top shelf and told the bartender to keep them coming.
After his second round, he noticed a woman staring at him from the other side of the bar. She smiled at him and gave him a small wave, a few wiggle of her fingers. He smiled back and told the bartender that her next drink was on him. It was the first time in months since any woman looked at him, let alone smiled.
He paid for her next two drinks as they stole secret glances at each other. Before long, the woman seemed to have gathered enough courage to approach him.
"Thank you for the drinks sir-." She said, sitting next to him.
"Garrett."
She smiled. "Thank you, Garrett."
"You're very welcome-."
"Milah."
"So Milah, are you here on vacation or business?" He asked, curious about why she was staying in a hotel.
"Business." She confirmed.
"Thought so. Storybrooke isn't the most luxurious vacationing spot." He said, making the woman giggle. "So what kind of business do you do?"
"I'm in the business of providing pleasure to my clients."
"Ahh, a travel agent." He said mistakenly. "How's business?"
Milah chuckled before taking a sip of her drink. "Business is booming."
"Makes sense. A lot of people love to travel." Gold said. "Where are most people traveling to these days."
"South." She said in a provocative tone.
"I would love to go south, where the climate is warm. The Maine weather isn't too agreeing in the winter time."
The night continued as their awkward small talk turned into an informal conversation. Gold noticed she seemed as desperate as he was, and her humor was dry and interlaced with sexual innuendos. Besides that, she seemed really nice, and she was very pretty. As the bartender kept the drinks coming, Gold's inhibitions began to drop, and he gave into the woman's subtle seduction. Smiling and laughing at all his funny quips, rubbing her hand up and down his thigh, so close to his cock that he could feel the warmth from her hand.
The woman reached behind the bar while the bartender wasn't looking and took a bottle of wine. "Wanna come back to my room?"
Even though Gold had no idea who this woman was, he was too captivated by her. It had been months since any woman had shown him as much attention as Milah did. Fighting through the pain in his leg, he followed Milah to her room.
It started in the elevator, kissing and tugging at each other's clothes. Gold had never been with a woman so reckless and so immodest before in his life. She seemed to not even care about getting caught for their indecent behavior leading to the room. Once they were in her room, his leg pained him so much, but he tried his best to ignore it and focus on the woman who was dead set on having sex with him.
In a few hours, they finished, and Milah didn't stick around in bed to cuddle with him. She showered and got redressed quicker than Gold's ever seen any woman do.
"How was it for you?" He asked, wondering why she was in such a rush to get away from him.
"It was good," She said, putting on her necklace. "but it's still three hundred dollars."
"Excuse me?"
"Three hundred." She said again, stepping into her shoes.
"Three hundred for what?"
"For the sex. A hundred for every hour. We went 30 minutes over my fee, and I usually charge for another full hour. But since you're crippled, I won't charge you the other hundred."
"Wait, I have to pay you?" Gold asked, completely unaware of what she was saying.
"Yeah, that's how these things work. Or haven't you ever been with a prostitute?"
Gold shook his head no. Of course, he knew what a prostitute was, but he had never seen one in person, let alone have intercourse with one.
"I'll explain it slowly for you then. We have sex, you pay me, and then you leave." She said slowly and condescendingly like he was a child. "We've fucked, now comes the part where you pay me and then leave."
"I'm not paying you. I didn't even know you were a prostitute-"
"Look, you better pay me, or you will have to answer to my guy Killian downstairs. Or did you want two broken legs?" She said, and Gold reached for his wallet and handed her three crisp one-hundred dollar bills.
He couldn't believe what just happened. He never wanted a prostitute, just a woman who could look past his disability and like him regardless. But that was too much of a perfect picture for him. He felt like he deserved this, he was a failure in his first marriage, so of course, all his following relationships would be unsuccessful too.
After telling Belle the story, she had a look of understanding, but there was still some doubtfulness lingering in her blue eyes. Or was it regret. He rather not find out, so he turned away from her gaze.
"I didn't know she was a prostitute. I swear Belle. I would never do something so disgusting."
"I believe you."
"You do?"
"I do. It- it's just that that woman was a working girl. Did you get-"
"I did," Answering before she could finish, leaving her less time to worry about transmitted diseases. "I went to a clinic the very next day, and everything came back negative."
Belle gave a sigh of relief. "That's good. So is there any way he could be your son."
"I suppose, but knowing what she is, I wouldn't jump to that conclusion." He said before putting his face into his hands. "If I had known what she was, I would have used protection that night. Hell, I wasn't even expecting to have sex with anyone that night. I mean, what woman would even want me?"
"I want you." She told him, taking Gold by the hand. "And if he is truly your son we can figure something out."
"Belle, I don't deserve you. How can you be so perfect, and so forgiving to me?"
"It's because I love you, and what you did before I met you won't change that."
"I love you too."
"So can we figure this out together?" Belle asked, pulling his face to meet her eyes.
They were always filled with so much optimism. How was she able to find anything good about the situation they were in? From the moment he met her, he only wanted Belle to be the woman to give him a child. He turned away from those hopeful blue eyes. He couldn't look in them. He let those eyes down.
"Hey, look at me. You don't have to deal with your problems alone like you did before, I'm with you one hundred percent. Whatever you decide to do, I'm here with you."
When he looked back at her, there wasn't an ounce of disappointment there. He felt so lucky to have finally found someone like her.