Cherry helped Felicity get her dinner plate after getting one for herself.

"Where is Papa?" Felicity looked around for her father.

Forte came in with Belle's hand on his arm. "I'm being held captive... We are required to eat with the others tonight..."

Chip smiled, almost nervously. Gabrielle smiled at Forte, but not overbearingly cheerful. Forte merely glanced at the blonde boy, but kept his eyes a safe distance. Cherry sighed, but saw they couldn't protest, so she set her plate down at a chair that no one else was sitting at. Felicity wasn't sure why her parents were reluctant about sitting with the others and went to join them.

Chip wasn't sure around Maestro Forte. Gabrielle sat down in her normal seat. She couldn't wait to ask Maestro. Belle showed him to a free seat. Adam had an uneasy feeling about the lead musician of the castle being at the diner table, but did his best to show proper manners like a real, professional gentleman. Felicity smiled at the array of food with chicken, mixed vegetables, a honey roll, with creamy and buttery potatoes on her plate. She couldn't wait to enjoy this very elegant dish.

Chip smiled at Felicity. Gabrielle seemed tense with excitement. Adam allowed the others to eat as everyone was seated. Cherry and Forte shared private conversation together while Felicity ate, feeling happy to be eating around and with Chip and Gabrielle for a change. Chip ate happily. Gabrielle ate slowly, and not much. Felicity ate normally compared to her parents. Her father rarely ate now and her mother used to eat all the time and now went to not very much at all.

"Why are they here...?" Adam whispered to Belle, catching a glimpse of the gloomy bunch of the castle.

Gabrielle left her plate, not really hungry anymore.

"For once, it would be nice to have a proper meal together." Belle whispers back.

"Yeah, but with him?" Adam whispered sharply about Forte.

Gabrielle looked at the Maestro waiting for her chance to ask him.

"He is my best friend's husband, be nice Adam" Belle says, still whispering.

"Alright..." Adam sighed a little in defeat. He really did not want to argue with her, he was worried he'd go too far and bring back some painful memories if he did.

Forte finished his chicken servings and wiped his ivory mouth that nearly matched the napkin he was given.

"Want me to get your dishes?" Felicity offered for her parents.

"If you want to, dear..." Cherry half-smiled at her offering.

"M-Maestro?" Gabrielle asks quietly.

Belle smiled.

Forte looked down at the girl. "Oui, child...?"

Cherry wiped her mouth and balled up her napkin after Felicity had left with the dishes already. Adam watched his daughter and 'best friend'. Belle watched too.

"Can you teach me how to play the organ or piano?" Gabrielle asks, closing her eyes so she cpuld ask bravely, she didn't like to ask for favours usually.

Forte blinked. "You... You want lessons...?" he was a little surprised. Usually he gave lessons to those who had nothing better to do like Cherry when she was younger and of course, before he found an instrument he liked on his own, taught Fife before growing fond of his piccolo. He even gave lessons to a very young Adam when he was not being tutored by the others.
Cherry was surprised, but she was so stoic almost all the time, you wouldn't notice it. Belle blinked, surprised.

"Oui Maestro, I want you to teach me, si' vous plais." Gabrielle says softer.

"Erm... Well, if it's alright with your parents..." Forte glanced back at his master and Belle.

Adam hesitated before answering. "If you'd like lessons, honey... I don't see why not..."

Belle smiled and nodded.

Gabrielle smiled. "Merci." she tells them all.

"When would you like to start?" Forte asked.

Cherry looked at Belle and Adam, wondering if they had talked their daughter into taking music lessons as some sort of punishment or consequence of her actions.

"Whenever you are ready, Maestro." Gabrielle says sweetly.

Belle looked surprised a bit.

"How about tomorrow after lunch?" Forte offered out.

Felicity came back with her hands to her sides, her boots squashing again against the cold floor.

Gabrielle nodded. "Thank you." she says and curtsied to him.

Forte cracked a smile at the princess, attempting to be pleased with her decisions. He liked her and all, he was never really one for children before Cherry and Belle came along, finding them to make messes, always wanting to play and do all sorts of unpleasant things.

"Merci, Papa." Felicity smiled at her father.

Adam just hoped his daughter wouldn't regret this with how curious he was of her wanting to do such a thing in her free time when not playing with her friends or studying in her home education fields. Chip blinked. Gabrielle smiled and though excited, kept a calm demeanor.

"I'll see you tomorrow afternoon then..." Forte stood up, which made Cherry do the same as they put each other's hands together.

Her soft, milk chocolate colored slender fingers in his spidery, ivory, rough ones. They then walked away from the dinner table together and went to the West Wing together. They were going to talk about this. Felicity smiled hopeful for her friend. Gabrielle smiled happily. Chip looked almost conflicted. Belle gave a little smile.

"Maman says Papa is a tough, but fair teacher..." Felicity advised Gabrielle.

Adam was still curious why Gabrielle wanted to take music lessons.

Gabrielle nodded. "Okay, I can't wait to do it." she says, smiling.

Forte smiled softly at the girl. Gabrielle smiled. Felicity felt very full in her belly, and rolled off the chair, flattening her dress.

Belle looked at Adam. "What is it, love?" She asks quietly.

"I'm not sure if it's a good idea for her to be alone with him..." Adam whispered to his beauty.

Belle looked at him. "Why?" She whispers back.

"You remember what he's done..." Adam said, near rough.

"Yes, but he seems to have changed a little... you think he'd try to use her against us?" Belle says then added sounding amused, though this all was in a whisper.

"I don't know... I'll give him a chance for Gabby's sake though."

Belle smiled and shook her head, amused. Adam looked at her, sensing some amusement in her.

"You worry to much, love." she whispers.

"All right..." Adam sighed, smiling at her gently. He then finished his last bits of chicken with some vegetables and wiped his mouth clean.

Belle smiled, having finished already. Gabrielle looked so excited to be learning from the Maestro. Adam decided to go with Belle to put his dishes up. Belle happily went with Adam.


"Do you want to know anything about Papa?" Felicity asked her excited friend after Chip was asked to help wash dishes with his mother.

"What shouldn't I do?" Gabi asks her friend.

Felicity hummed, thinking what bothered her father. "He really does not like to be criticized... Maman still seems to do it though..."

Gabrielle nodded "Okay... I think it is a maman's ability, they can do that to Papas." she says.

"Papa also does not wish to have ones speaking during a musical piece of his... He tends to flow with his music as Maman would say..." Felicity explained. "She is the same when she is with her poetic writing."

Gabrielle nodded again. "It would be rude to talk then, anyway." she says.

"I think that is about it..." Felicity stated.

"Okay, merci, Lici." Gabrielle says and hugged her friend.

"Soyez le bienvenu." Felicity welcomed her, smiling in the hug, hoping the best for her.

Gabrielle smiled again.

"Also if you were a boy, I would advise you to keep your distance from me the best you could..." Felicity teased the way her father would sometimes go over the top with protecting her.

Gabrielle giggled. "Good job I am a femme then, no?" She asks playfully.

Felicity giggled. "Oui, oui, mon ami!"

Gabrielle giggled softly.

Cherry came by with her bony arms folded. "Flick... Time to wash up..."

Felicity couldn't believe how late it was now. Gabrielle pouted a little. Belle came along to collect Gabrielle for bed.

"Time flies when you're having fun." Cherry told her daughter after picking her up into her arms.

"Aw, Maman, that was not even five minutes!" Felicity cried, but not protesting.

Belle picked up Gabrielle. She gave Cherry a friendly smile. "Good luck..." she says.

Gabrielle may have been good during the day, but it was hard at night with her, it always had been. Felicity went in her room with her mother to get ready for sleeping, even if her parents didn't really sleep. Belle carried Gabrielle off.


However, a few moments later, a child's yell and breaking could be heard. Felicity wore her night dress with socks as she lay awake in her bed. She tried to block out the sounds, thinking they were painful memories and placed a pillow over her head. She was curious, but tried not to get involved. Soft murmurs could be heard, almost as if pleading. The child yells could be heard still.

Mrs. Potts and the other servants looked at each other. Cherry was wielding a candelabra as she wore a long coal-black night gown, looking very serious, drifting from the music room.

"What is it?" Cogsworth grew worried.

"Ze Princess?" Lumiere guessed.

Mrs. Potts sighed softly. "It's sad the poor dear is like an angel in the day, but a ruffian at night." she sighs.

"Reminds me of her father sometimes..." Cogsworth muttered.

Cherry lowered the candelabra. "Is she really that bad?"

As Cherry asked this there was a louder clash yet, and a scream of anger.

Mrs. Potts looked at Cogsworth. "We can't always blame the child," she says. "Who's turn this time to help?" She then asks.

"I did it last time." Lumiere said quickly.

Cherry glanced at the servants and put her dotted cold arms around each other from goosebumps.

"Cerise, why don't you do it?" Forte came behind her, wrapping his tailcoat around her to keep her warm.

Belle came to where they were, looking almost desperate.

"Trouble...?" Cherry asked, leaning her arm and head against the door-frame as Belle came in.

"Go on, help her..." Forte nudged his bride.

Belle nodded softly. "Please..." she says softly.

Gabrielle's shout was heard.

"Okay... I'll go..." Cherry put the tailcoat around her securely and went to the direction of Gabrielle's bedroom. She followed the noises, her hearing very sharp, even after all these years. "Gabby?" she knocked on the door a bit before entering, having manners.

"Not going to bed!" Gabrielle shouts.

"Gabrielle..." Cherry nearly snarled and went in the girl's room to settle her down.

Gabrielle glared at her aunt. The room around them was in shambles.

"Child, relax now..." Cherry told her firmly.

"No, I won't... No one can make me or make me go to sleep!" Gabrielle shouts.

"Gabrielle..." Cherry's eyes turned scarlet red, nearly resembling blood.

"No!" Gabrielle yells and flung herself off the bed in fear and a little of the temper.

"Gabrielle, it's time for bed, we're all tired, and you need your rest, you'll value it when you're grown!" Cherry came closer, trying not to get too angry otherwise something would happen to her.

Gabrielle gave a soft keening sound. "No... I don't want to go to bed..." she cries.

Cherry sat on the bed, looking deep into the girl's eyes. "Why don't you want to go to bed?"

Gabrielle's eyes had fear in them, but obviously not fear of Cherry. Surprise flashed through though. "You... want to know?" She asks softly.

Cherry calmed herself and decided to settle herself to listen to what the girl had to say. "I won't tell anyone..."

Gabrielle climbed in the woman's lap. "I used to be a good girl at bedtime, but one night I had such a scary dream that continued even when I woke up... I couldn't move or speak and there was a pressure on my chest... it kept happening, so that's why I don't like going to bed, and no one believed me..." she says softly.

"What kind of dream was it...?" Cherry seemed to voice emotional concern now.

"It was a man and he hated maman and papa... he said he'd destroy them by destroying me... I woke up as his hand pressed against my chest... It felt like he would crush it." she whispers hugging Cherry.

Cherry's eyes widened a bit, but she had a straight face and patted the girl sympathetically. "Do you remember what he looked like...?" she had to wonder who the girl was probably referring to. She felt like she had a few good guesses, but would let the girl answer and get her emotions out. Maybe this is why she was so difficult with getting into bed.

"Uh, black hair, blue eyes... ugly face, though he thought he was beautiful..." Gabrielle says, trying to remember details.

Cherry now put it together. "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that..." she tried to soothe. Sure, she was a mother, but she had been absent for most of her daughter's life that she wasn't qualified as a proper parent at times. "Well, listen to me... He won't hurt you, it was only a dream..."

Gabrielle looked up at her. She gave a slow nod and then held out her pinkie finger. "Promise?" She asks quietly.

Cherry extended her own pinkie. "I promise..." she said, just as quiet, linking their pinkies together.

Gabrielle then unhooked her pinkie and hugged the woman. "Merci, Tante Cherry... I will tidy my room up tomorrow before lunch..." she then promises, heading to settle down.

"Okay... Bon nuit, Gabrielle..." Cherry tucked her back into bed to get warm and comfortable, then started to head back to the others and go to her own room. "Well, I think she's going to be fine now..."

Gabrielle tried to get to sleep.


Mrs. Potts looked up from where she was giving Belle a cup of tea. She looked pleasantly surprised. Belle took a sip of the soothing beverage and looked up at Cherry as she came in.

"She's had nightmares..." Cherry told the mother before going to her bedroom.

Mrs. Potts sighed softly. Belle looked down at her tea. She had known Gabrielle had a nightmare when she was younger but it shouldn't have caused this.

"It was about... Someone we once knew..." Cherry told Belle.

Forte came, like he had expected his wife to come right back after sorting the princess. "Who?" he drawled thickly.

Mrs. Potts looked confused. Belle looked slightly confused too. She was trying to remember though.

"He was in the village," Cherry looked to her husband, but not really looking him in the eye. "You were knocked out by then, he tried to attack the castle because he thought Belle and Maurice were crazy. The girls loved him... Except for Belle, of course."

"Not that vile man!" Cogsworth started to remember.

Belle frowned. "Why would she have a nightmare about him, we never told her about that..." she says.

Cherry shrugged with her hands to her sides. "That's a good question... I wondered that myself..."

"Subconscious torment?" Forte shrugged his own shoulders, even if he didn't know Gaston himself.

Belle frowned. She couldn't think of how the dead man could be terrorizing Gabrielle.

Back in her room Gabrielle had fallen asleep. She was having the dream again though. She whimpered in her sleep.

Cherry then went in her bedroom with Forte and told him about how horrible the man was in the village. Mentioning how he wanted to have six or seven sons with Belle. As much as Forte didn't like Belle at first, he was outright disgusted by Gaston's wishes and felt the man was more of a pathetic excuse of a man than to be treated like a god among the village folk.


Belle would go consult with her husband first. Adam was staring out the window and looking at the glittering stars in the sky, just thinking, even if to some was thought of to be a dangerous past time.

Belle came to where he was. "Adam, I've just heard something..." she says.

Adam turned, very concerned. "What is it?"

Belle looked at him. "Gabi has been dreaming of Gaston..." she says softly.

"Gaston..." Adam murmured. Little did Belle and Cherry know that he knew Gaston even before the angry mob came to the castle to kill him as a beast. "I remember him..."

Belle hugged him. "How could she be dreaming of him?" She asks.

Adam sighed in the hug. "I don't know..."

Belle looked up at him.

"We better get ourselves and Maestro to keep a close eye on her." Adam suggested.

Belle nodded.

"I'm not sure how she could dream about him though... That's an interesting question..." Adam tried to find out how they could solve this problem for their little one.

Belle nodded softly. Adam noticed that there weren't cries into the night anymore, at least not now. Belle hugged her husband gently.


Gabrielle whimpered again. "No..." she gasps, sounding like she would be about to choke.

Fife decided to hurry inside the girl's room to soothe and calm her, this sounded terrible. He saw she was asleep, but must have been having a night terror than any other nightmare. He rushed to her bed and gently shook her to wake her up. "Hey, hey, hey..." he called, raising his voice, only a little. "Gabby, wake up!"

Gabrielle did awaken, but seemed like she was struggling to remember how to breathe.

"It's okay... Just breathe..." Fife tried his best to calm the girl down. He had never seen her like this before.

After a few more seconds, Gabrielle started to breathe again and cried, clinging to Fife.

Fife held Gabrielle close, patting her back. "It's okay..." he soothed.

"H-He was choking me again..." the young girl sobbed.

"Who?" Fife asked, not having been around when Cherry announced the source of the girl's nightmares.

"The man... the one who wants to destroy maman and papa..." Gabrielle says. Soon though she was settled down enough to be made proper sense of.

Fife tried to think back to what she was meaning. Since Gabrielle didn't know Forte before the enchantment was lifted, she probably meant that boorish man, Gaston. "How long have you had these dreams?" he couldn't help but ask, glad she was slowly calming down.

"Since i was littler... I stopped wanting to sleep after the first time." she says quietly. She sniffed. "I'm sorry I was a bad girl..." she then finishes.

"It's okay... It's understandable, but it was just a dream, I promise..." Fife soothed. "Why don't I give you something to probably help you sleep?"

Seeing he was about to leave Gabi clung to his sleeve. "Non, don't leave!" she cries.

Fife was surprised, but assumed that she was a little too shaken up from her nightmare to be alone. "Okay, I won't... Would you like me to stay with you until you fall asleep again?"

Gabrielle looked up at him. "C-Can you stay tonight?" She asks, it was childish innocence so he could tell she didn't have any of 'those' feelings yet.

Fife smiled a little friendly. "Sure... Just be sure to make room." he chuckled, a little humoring for her to soothe her fears.

Gabrielle scooted over and looked at him.

Fife made himself comfortable alongside her bed and kept them both comfortable and safe in the girl's bed. "Better?"

Gabrielle clung to him the way only a child could. She nodded softly and closed her eyes. Though she looked wary. Fife smiled and found himself drifting off to sleep himself. Hopefully there would be no more nightmares for the evening. Soon both were asleep.


Belle had convinced Adam to come check on Gabi with her before they went to bed themselves. Adam nodded, it would be a good idea. He quietly walked with Belle to their daughter's bedroom, hoping she was going to be alright for the evening. Belle opened the door carefully and quietly. She then looked both shocked and like she found something adorable. Adam came to look with her and also found the display to be adorable. He smiled and kept quiet, he was also very happy that Gabrielle was now sleeping peacefully.

Belle shut the door. "I think it'll be okay tonight." she says.

Adam nodded, then went back to their bedroom with her. "Thank goodness..." he was relieved his little girl was going to be fine now.

Belle nodded and smiled slightly. Adam took Belle to their bed and they decided to get some rest for the night, now they could since Gabrielle wasn't keeping mostly everyone awake with her painful screaming or crying.


A/N: For those who are wondering how Adam knows about Gaston before he sends an angry mob after the village, that is taken from this novel i bought from Walmart the other day called The Beast Within based on the Disney Beauty & the Beast story and it shows when the Beast was human, he was actually friends with Gaston, shocking, is it not?