Chapter Text

Mornings in Storybrooke never changed much, each day a carbon copy of the one before. Dawn broke over the sleepy town just like always, illuminating the broken clock tower over the boarded up library that had stood closed since head librarian Colette French's death 8 years prior. Just like the hands on the clock face, frozen at 8:15 for as long as anyone could remember, the town itself seemed frozen in time. The shops on Main Street opened for the day, workers headed off to the granite quarry and the cannery, and fisherman prepped their boats on the docks.

And every morning at Granny's Diner, Belle would set out the day's pie selections in the glass display case, scrawling the special across a chalkboard reserved for that purpose.

Despite working until midnight, she was up and dressed at the crack of dawn. She trudged to work in the pale morning light, shivering in her thin jacket. Ruby had purchased her a book on pregnancy that she'd hoarded away behind the flour in Granny's kitchen to hide from Gary, and her first quick skim of it had told her that tiredness was a common symptom in the first trimester. But even if she hadn't been pregnant she would have been tired from spending every spare moment at the diner.

The one good side effect of her exhaustion was that it gave her less time to think. She spent the morning numbly going through the motions, her brain barely awake enough to count out appropriate change for her customers let alone focus on the stupid thing she'd done the night before.

And kissing Mr. Gold definitely qualified as a stupid thing. For Christ's sake, the man had broken up with her weeks ago. Now he'd flat out rejected her advances. Any interest he'd had in her had clearly run its course. She just wished he wouldn't run so hot and cold. She never knew where she stood with him. One moment he was flaunting his wife in front of her at the diner and the next he was apologizing and kindly offering her a ride home.

She'd told him the baby wasn't his so he had no obligation to her. Why was he still sniffing around? He didn't want her anymore so what was his goal?

She almost missed the days before they'd succumbed to whatever was between them, back when the lines were clearly drawn. He'd been her friend once and seemingly was no longer. She missed the days when he'd come in to the diner for breakfast or pie and flirt coyly with her. Ruby had overheard an exchange between them once and dropped an entire platter of breakfast specials, incapable of believing Mr. Gold was capable of humorous banter.

If their past couple of interactions at the diner were anything to go by, those days were long gone. From here on out things between them would be stilted and awkward. If she'd just been able to keep it in her pants none of this would have happened.

Belle took a break mid-morning, just leaning against the pantry door for a few moments of respite after the breakfast rush, when a booming voice from the dining room made her stomach curdle.

"Where's my wife?" Gary shouted, strutting in to the diner as if he owned the place. He didn't. Mr. Gold did. But Mr. Gold never barged in and demanded free meals the way Gary did.

Belle rolled her eyes, sending an apologetic look toward Granny and Anton the fry cook before hurrying to head Gary off before he could get into yet another altercation with Ruby. Her friend had her best interest at heart, but she usually only made situations with Gary worse.

"Gary," she exclaimed, rushing forward to steer him toward a table and get him seated. "What are you doing here?"

A quick glance at the clock hung over the diner counter told her the time was 10:37, long after Gary was due at work at the cannery.

"Can't I come by and get a taste of my wife's pie?" Gary asked with a wink.

"Of course," Belle said, her voice placating. "I just meant that usually you're at work this time of day. I didn't expect you."

Gary kicked his feet up on the chair opposite his, making himself at home.

"The foreman was riding my ass again," he said with a wave of his hand. "I told him I was taking a personal day."

Belle's stomach plunged. If Gary was taking days off work it meant he wouldn't be paid for them. He'd be on her for her tips even more than usual.

"Now," Gary said with a wide smile. "I'd like some of that pie, please."

"Of course," Belle nodded. "What kind?"

Gary scratched his chin, looking over at the chalkboard hung over the counter.

"Green with envy peppermint pie," he read off. "Now what do you have to be envious of? You've got the whole package sitting right here." Gary swept his hand down his body as though showcasing the new car grand prize on a television quiz show.

"Can she return to sender?" Ruby quipped, swanning by Gary's table with a scowl. Belle shot her a look, but Gary seemed in too good of a mood to let Ruby's ribbing bother him.

"You're never gonna get a man with that attitude," Gary called after her.

"Bold of you to assume I want one!" she called back.

"Bitch," Gary mumbled under his breath and Belle called back his attention before a fight could start. She was planning on going over to Ariel's tonight and she didn't want Gary preemptively banning her from spending time with her friends.

"I'll get you some of that pie," she said, placing a soothing hand on his shoulder.

Once Gary had devoured his slice of peppermint pie, free of charge of course, he wiped his hands on a napkin, crumpling it up in a ball and lobbing it at Belle's back as she waited on another table.

"That was a damn good pie, Belle," he said as she politely excused herself from Dr. Hopper, promising him a refill on his coffee. "You're no Sara Lee, but you're not bad."

"Thanks, Gary," Belle said to the faint praise.

"Well, I'll be off," he said, getting up from the table. "Lots to do."

Beer's not gonna drink itself, Belle thought unkindly.

She walked him to the door of the diner, ready for Gary's oppressive presence to be gone but before he could leave he spun around, grabbing her lightly by the wrist.

"Hey, give me your tips for the morning."

Belle froze. She hadn't had a chance to divide up what she'd give to Gary and what she'd keep for herself yet.

Gary's grip on her wrist grew tighter.

"Belle," he said, pulling her slightly toward him. "Where are the tips?"

She reached into her apron pocket, pulling out the rolled up bills she'd managed to earn that morning and handed them over to Gary.

"Thanks, darling," he said, giving her yet another wide smile. She wanted to knock it off his stupid face. "Now where's my kiss?"

She reached up on her tiptoes, planting a kiss on Gary's cheek and he patted her once on the bottom before leaving the diner.

As soon as he was gone Belle felt she could breathe easier, but her cash for the morning was completely gone. She just hoped she could make up for it at lunch.


That evening found Belle staring down Ariel's antique corkscrew collection next to the glass front cabinet that held her collection of teaspoons. Honestly, she could give Gold a run for his money when it came to hoarding antique junk.

The thought of Gold just made her stomach twist uncomfortably.

As much as she'd tried to put him out of her mind today, as tired as she was, she couldn't stop reliving the moment in his car the night before. She kissed him, and he pushed her away. It shouldn't hurt so badly, not after he'd summarily ended their relationship 2 months prior and had little contact with her since. What had she expected? But her heart was still aching.

She passed her hand over one of Ariel's teacups, hung on little hooks beneath the shelf of corkscrews. An image came to her mind unbidden. Gold's hands gripping her hips, his soft hair tickling the inside of her thighs, his stubble scraping against her most intimate places as she laid across his massive dining room table. She'd been so lost in her pleasure that her hand had knocked her half drunk teacup clear across the dining room. They hadn't noticed until afterward, a chip marring the rim of the cup but it otherwise escaping unscathed. She wondered what he'd done with it, if it had gone back in the cupboard to be used by Milah at a later date. She'd probably toss it in the trash if she noticed the chip. Belle suddenly wished she'd stowed it away in her purse and taken it home, a memento of what it had felt like to be truly happy.

That had been their last night together and the only night they'd ever spent cuddled up in his bed. It was in those stolen moments, in the still darkness listening to Gold's even breathing beside her, the feel of his arms wrapped around her from behind, that Belle first thought this could be something more than two lonely people finding release in each other's arms. For a moment, Belle let herself believe that maybe, just maybe, this was love. She should have known better.

A few days later he'd told her the whole thing had been a bad idea and they needed to stay away from each other. Up until last night, they'd kept that bargain.

And despite all of it, her lips were still stinging from his kiss, her heart still thumping away painfully at the very thought of him.

Belle shuddered, letting her hand drop from the teacup that prompted these recollections. Maybe it was love, but if it was, it was a one-sided thing and Belle had enough disappointment in her life. She needed to move on.

"Belle?" a voice came from behind her. She shook her head, turning to look at Ariel. "Were you listening to me?"

"Oh," she exclaimed. "Sorry, I must have spaced out."

"I was just going over the menu for the evening," Ariel said, crossing her small living room to the coffee table and waving a hand over the assortment of food there.

"Ta-da!" she said proudly, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"You didn't have to go to all this trouble," Ruby called from the kitchen where she was pouring white wine. She paused for a moment, glancing at Belle, before going ahead and pouring a third glass. "I could have just brought burgers from Granny's."

Ariel shot her a look. "We come home smelling like burgers from Granny's every day of the week. I wanted something a little special for tonight."

Belle smoothed her hands down her skirt, joining Ariel by the coffee table and looking down at the spread.

"So what's on tap for tonight?" she asked.

"We have fresh salmon and tuna rolls, yellow tail sashimi and this," Ariel said picking up a white plate with several pieces of eel bound to wedges of sticky white rice with strips of seaweed and forcing it under Belle's nose, "is unagi!"

Belle stepped back not trusting her new and extremely potent gag reflux despite the medicine she was taking.

"How can you afford all this fresh fish on diner tips?" she asked.

Ariel shrugged. "My dad pays for my apartment, I'm single and childless, I don't even have a cat. What else do I have to spend my money on?"

Belle shook her head, feeling a twinge of jealousy at her friend's financial freedom.

"Then why don't you leave?" she asked, deadly serious. "If I had that kind of freedom I'd be long gone from here."

"Same," Ruby said, returning to the living room with the glasses of wine and handing them out. "But I can't afford it and I can't leave Granny. I know she masks it well, but she's getting old. She can't run the diner all by herself anymore."

Ariel just shrugged again. "I like it here," she said. "I like you guys and the diner and my apartment. It'd be nice to have someone to share it all with, but I'm in no hurry to leave."

"So we're looking for a local love then," Ruby said, setting her wineglass on the coffee table and scooping up Ariel's laptop from the sofa. "Fiery redhead looking for the spark to stoke her flames"?

"No!" Ariel exclaimed. "I want it to sound earnest, you know? Not like I'm selling something."

"You are selling something, honey," Ruby said, flopping down on a pillow next to the coffee table and pulling up the dating website. "Yourself."

Ariel shrugged, helping herself to some of the sushi.

"Just don't make me sound cheap," she said around a mouthful of salmon roll. "I want to attract a classy guy."

"Then maybe don't talk with your mouth full," Ruby quipped.

Belle sat down on the couch, watching her friends bicker and sip wine. She felt like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders and she couldn't even imbibe.

"Okay, what are your hobbies?" Ruby asked. "You need things that make you sound fun and adventurous. What about rock climbing?"

Ariel frowned. "I've never been rock climbing."

"You should be honest," Belle interjected. "Honesty should be the cornerstone of any relationship. Don't lie to make yourself into something you're not. Lord knows you won't be able to keep that up for a lifetime and you'll only make yourself and the other person miserable."

Ariel looked at her, concern etched across her face. "Are you sure you're okay? You've barely touched the food."

Belle shook her head. Ruby already knew, she might as well tell her other best friend as well.

"No, not really," she said, twirling the still full wineglass around on the coffee table in front of her. "I'm pregnant."

"Oh!" Ariel gasped. If she'd been in a more cheerful mood, Belle would have laughed at the facial journey Ariel went on from an excited smile to confusion to wide-eyed realization. "Oh this is a bad thing isn't it?"

"It's a complicated thing," Belle countered.

"Oh shit!" Ariel exclaimed, jumping up from her perch on the sofa. "You're pregnant and here I am forcing alcohol and raw fish on you! I'm so stupid. What can I get you instead? A coke? No, god dammit the caffeine! Think, Ariel!"

Belle had to chuckle at her friend's outburst.

"It's fine, honey, I'm fine."

"You might be, but this one sure isn't," Ruby said as Ariel set off into the kitchen, digging through her pantry in a fervor. "Sit down before you hurt yourself!"

They finally got Ariel calmed down after she'd found a box of wheat thins in her pantry and pressed them on Belle. An hour later they had a reasonably well thought out dating profile composed and Ariel sat with her finger poised over the button to click publish.

"Are you sure I should do this?" she asked, looking between her two friends.

"If you don't, I will," Ruby said brazenly, reaching across to hit the button herself. Belle knocked her arm away.

"Just try it," she told Ariel, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do, but stick some bait out there and see if you get any nibbles. There's plenty of fish in the sea and you can always throw back the ones you don't want."

Ariel inclined her head at her. "Thanks for the fish puns," she said before decisively clicking publish. Ariel's new dating profile flared to life on the screen. "Now what?" she asked.

"Now you meet the man of your dreams, of course," Belle said. If only love were that easy.


Belle trudged home that night looking forward to climbing in to bed and falling fast asleep. She had to work the breakfast shift in the morning and she was already running on empty. Her pregnancy book said she should be getting more rest now in the first trimester, not less. But Belle had never done things by the book.

She should have no trouble getting sleep tonight though. Tuesday night meant Gary was down at the Rabbit Hole with the guys, playing pool and getting drunk. It also meant Belle had the apartment to herself and could be sound asleep by the time Gary made it home. Most Tuesdays she'd curl up with a book until she drifted off but tonight she expected to forego the book completely, just slip in to her most comfortable pair of pajamas and go comatose for a few hours.

Her big plans for the evening were abruptly cancelled when she reached the door of her apartment, freezing at the sound of the television on within.

The front door was unlocked and she pushed it open, her stomach sinking at the sight of Gary sprawled across the couch, a beer held loosely in his grip. He looked up at her, his expression annoyed.

"Finally fucking home," he grunted as Belle shut the door behind her, wishing she could bolt away and never return. She should have just slept on Ariel's futon like her friend had offered.

"It's Tuesday," she said dumbly. "Why aren't you out with the guys?"

"Because I wanted to spend some quality time with my wife," he said. "Where were you?"

"I was at Ariel's," she said truthfully, slipping her jacket off her shoulders and tossing it across the back of the sofa.

Gary grunted, turning his attention back to the TV.

"Hope you weren't out spending my money," he said. "You and your lazy ass friends."

Belle bit her tongue, holding back the defense of her friends that wanted to pour forth. It wasn't worth the fight.

"I was just at Ariel's apartment," she said. "No money spent."

She crept past the sofa hoping she could make it to the bedroom without any further discussion. No such luck.

"Good," Gary tossed out. "Because I fucking quit my job."

That brought Belle up short.

"What?" she hissed turning on her heel. "Why would you do that?"

"Because my boss was a dick!" Gary said, taking another mouthful of beer and swallowing it down audibly. "Always riding my ass about every little thing. I didn't need it. I'll find a better job."

"Have you?" Belle asked, walking back in to the living room and standing in front of Gary. "Have you found a new job or did you just up and quit a perfectly good job with no back up?"

Gary's eyes narrowed. "Don't you start nagging me," he said, his tone menacing. "I get enough of that all day I don't need it in my home."

"Gary," Belle cried. "We need that income! I don't make enough to support us both."

"Well maybe you should work harder!" he yelled, throwing his beer across the room with a crash. Belle flinched, staring at the place where the glass bottle had shattered against the living room wall, beer trickling down and staining the carpet.

Gary heaved a sigh. "Now look what you made me do!" he said.

Belle scrambled over to the kitchen, grabbing a dishrag to mop up the beer and collect up the broken glass. A jagged piece of the brown glass dug into her thumb, a drop of blood blooming and dripping down her hand. Belle just stared at it numbly.

"Look, we're going to be fine," Gary said, coming up behind her and placing his big hands on her shoulders. "I've got everything taken care of. I've got money."

"From where?" Belle asked hollowly, still staring at her bloody thumb. "What money?"

"I took out a loan," Gary said simply, dropping his hands from her shoulders and heading in to the kitchen to pull another beer from the fridge.

Belle followed him, dropping the broken glass into the trashcan and wrapping the dishtowel around her bloody hand. She felt like a chunk of ice had just slid down her throat, settling in her stomach and freezing her from the inside out.

"Who did you take out a loan with, Gary?" she asked, already fearing the answer. "We don't have any collateral to put up with the bank. Who did you go to?"

"Mr. Gold," Gary said with a shrug, confirming Belle's worst fears.

What must he think of her? She'd nearly thrown herself at him the night before and now he probably thought it was all to secure a loan. He must think she's the lowest sort of opportunist.

"For how much?" she demanded. "How much do we owe him?"

"Ten thousand," Gary said, as if that wasn't an insurmountable amount of money for them.

"Ten thousand dollars!" she exclaimed. "How…how are we supposed to ever pay that back? Why did you take out so much?"

"Well I needed some way to pay the bills," Gary scoffed. "I quit my job nearly two months ago."

Belle needed to sit down.

"You mean we've been living off of a loan for the past two months?" she nearly screeched. "What have you been doing all day when you were supposed to be at work?"

"Why are you freaking out?" Gary asked. "We'll pay him back when I get my new job. It's not a big deal."

"What job?" Belle demanded. "You don't have a job, Gary. I make peanuts at the diner. We're going to be indebted to Mr. Gold forever!"

"Why do you care so much about Mr. Gold?" Gary asked, his eyes narrowing. "Why the fuck are you concerned with him?"

"Because he owns our entire lives! He owns this apartment, he owns whatever you put up as collateral for the loan, we owe him more than we can ever repay! How is that not a big deal to you?"

"Don't question me!" Gary roared. "I do what I have to for you, Belle, to keep a roof over your head and what do I get in return? Your nagging and your damn questions!"

Belle backed away. She hadn't seen Gary this upset in a while.

"I'm sorry," she said on instinct.

"Fuck your sorry," he continued. Gary grabbed her by the wrist, throwing her away from him until she came into hard contact with the kitchen counter. "I do everything for you and I get no appreciation!"

He pinned her against the counter, his face right up in hers, his lips pulled back in a snarl.

"Why do you do shit like this, Belle?" he yelled. "Why do you make me feel like such a failure?"

"You're not a failure," she said, shaking her head. "Please, Gary."

One of Gary's hands came up to rest against her throat heavily and Belle froze, too scared to even breathe.

"Why do you do this?" he repeated, his face feral. His hand tightened around her throat and something in Belle snapped.

"Please!" she screamed. "I'm pregnant!"

Gary dropped his hand from around her throat.

"What?"

"I'm pregnant," she said again, still frozen in her place against the counter. "I was going to tell you. I only just found out."

Gary's chest was heaving as he shook his head.

"Pregnant?" he repeated. "We're gonna have a baby?"

Belle nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks. She didn't want to tell him like this. She didn't want to tell him at all. But if it stayed his hand, it was worth it. She had someone else to protect now.

"Shit, Belle," he said, rubbing his hands on the legs of his jeans. "Little Gary Junior! We're having a baby!"

It was horrifying, watching how quickly Gary could swing from one extreme emotion to the next. His rage was suddenly replaced by exuberance. After a moment he realized Belle was still pressed back against the counter and he grabbed her hands.

"Oh, baby, come on, sit down," he said, leading her to the sofa and getting her settled.

She was shaking, words escaping her. All she could do was follow Gary and hope the monster didn't come out again.

"It's alright, baby," he said stroking a hand against her hair. "I just get so angry sometimes. But I don't want you to worry about anything. I'm gonna get a new job. Tomorrow I'll go ask around town. I'll find something."

Belle still couldn't find her voice, just sitting there in shock as Gary pulled her toward him, cradling her against his shoulder.

"This will all work out fine," he cooed, his hand going to caress her still flat stomach. "We're gonna be together forever, just you, me and this baby. You'll see."

"Forever," Belle croaked out, one last tear escaping and running down her cheek.

She had to escape, for herself and her baby. But Gary's grip on her had never felt tighter.