Thanks for reading and for the lovely comments. Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 9
The apartment fell into a tense silence, its occupants trying desperately to make sense of the situation they suddenly found themselves in.
Belle flicked her gaze between the two men standing in front of her. Father and Son. How the hell had she not realised?! The vast majority of her time over the past few months had been spent in the company of one or the other of them, and yet she hadn't had even the slightest of inklings.
Gold, meanwhile, was staring intently at the floor, waiting for the situation to unfold, for someone to start shouting. He couldn't imagine how either of them might be feeling and, if given the choice to be anywhere else at that moment, he'd certainly have considered it. Why could things never just be good without something bad needing to happen?
Only Sammy the cat seemed oblivious to the tension in the room, making a dash for the dropped cookies. Though he quickly lost interest when the burnt flavour didn't agree with him and decided instead that it was time for a nap on the sofa. He wasn't usually allowed on the sofa, but a quick glance at his owner showed him that she wasn't looking, so he jumped up and made himself comfortable. He had just closed his eyes when a loud noise caused him to jump with fright.
'So let me get this straight,' Neal said, finally breaking the seemingly eternal silence. 'You, my best friend, and you, my father, are screwing?'
'It's more than that,' Gold muttered.
'Oh I'm sorry, you're "in love",' Neal scoffed. 'Give me a break. I'd ditch him if I were you Belle. He'll only fuck it up eventually, like he always does.'
'That's not fair,' Belle replied, trying to stay calm in the face of Neal's anger.
But he ignored her and turned to his father. 'You know she's young enough to be your daughter right?'
'Neal, that's enough!' Belle said sternly. 'Can't we just sit down and talk this through?'
'I don't think I can talk to either of you right now.' And with that he stormed out of the apartment, pulling the door shut behind him with an almighty slam.
'Bae, wait!' Gold called after him and made to follow, but Belle's hand on his arm held him back.
'Give him some time. It's a shock for everyone.'
Gold sighed. Time was something he didn't have. He needed to speak to his son and smooth the situation out before he lost him again. He didn't want the progress they'd made at the cafe to have all been in vain.
But a look into Belle's calming, reassuring eyes told him she was right. There was no point in trying to talk to Neal when he was in that mood.
He released the door handle and walked over to the sofa, head falling into his hands as he sat down. How on earth could things have gone so wrong so quickly?
Once Belle was sure that Gold wouldn't try to chase after his son, she turned her attention to the mess on the kitchen floor, sending the ruined cookies straight to the bin. She then lifted a sleeping Sammy off the sofa and took him to his real bed, before grabbing a bottle of whisky and two glasses and joining her boyfriend on the sofa.
'You ok?' she asked quietly, handing him a generous measure of whisky.
'Not exactly how I imagined this day ending. I just hope I haven't fucked things up again.'
She laid a reassuring hand on his thigh. 'You didn't do anything wrong. Take no notice of him. He was in shock.'
'Wasn't wrong though.'
'Yes, he was. You won't fuck this up and I'm not "ditching" you. Besides, if anyone's to blame, it's me. I can't believe I didn't make the connection sooner. I see you both all the time. I should have worked it out. Then maybe we could have avoided this situation.'
'You are definitely not to blame, so don't beat yourself up over it. You weren't to know. It's not like we're spitting images of one another. We don't even share the same name.'
'I guess.'
Gold turned to gaze out of the window, wondering where his son had gone, but a sudden groan caused his head to snap back round, finding Belle with her head in her hands.
'I've just realised something.'
'What's that?'
'I've kissed your son.'
'You what?!' Gold spluttered.
She raised her head to look at him, face full of anguish. 'It happened like two years ago and it didn't mean anything.'
Oh for fuck's sake, Gold thought to himself as he took a gulp of whisky. This evening is just going from bad to worse! He then refilled his glass and knocked it back in one, desperate to feel the burn of alcohol as it slid down his throat to distract him from the worrying thought that had just entered his mind. That would certainly explain Neal's overreaction earlier.
Growing uncomfortable with Gold's silence Belle tried to explain. 'It was a work Christmas party and we were both completely smashed. I'd recently broken up with Gaston and I wasn't thinking.'
'Did you sleep with him?' Gold muttered hoarsely, fearing her answer.
'No! Of course not. It was one little kiss and nothing more.'
Gold took a deep, shuddering breath and released it slowly through his mouth. 'Fucking hell Belle.'
'I know.'
'No wonder he reacted the way he did.'
'But it didn't mean anything!'
'Maybe not to you…'
'You don't think…? No. No way!'
'Are you sure?'
'Yes, I'm sure,' she said adamantly, but the seed of doubt had been planted and Belle couldn't ignore it. He didn't, did he?
As the evening wore on and they'd calmed down their attentions turned to dinner and Gold told Belle about what had happened in the cafe before things had gone downhill afterwards. They then decided on an early night, Gold needing to get up early the next morning for an overnight business trip to San Francisco.
But try as she might, Belle couldn't get to sleep and it was a couple of hours later that Gold awoke to the feeling of being watched.
He opened his eyes slowly and once they had adjusted to the darkness in the room he noticed Belle leaning on her elbow, looking down at him.
'Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you.'
'S'ok. What's up?' he murmured groggily.
'I'm worried about Neal. I texted him before we went to bed and he still hasn't replied. He always replies.'
'Try not to worry about it sweetheart. I'm sure he'll get in touch when he's ready,' Gold said, eyes falling shut as he slowly drifted off again.
Belle sighed and flopped down onto her pillow. 'I just can't help but feel that I've messed things up for the two of you. If I'd worked it out sooner we could have gone about things differently.'
Gold's eyes fluttered back open once his tired mind had registered her words and he rolled over to face her, wrapping an arm around her waist. 'I thought we agreed that none of this was your fault? Besides, it wouldn't have changed the fact that his best friend is hopelessly in love with his father. He'll just have to deal with it.'
Belle couldn't help but giggle and he squeezed her waist, loving the fact that, despite her worries, he could still get her to laugh.
'Maybe you're right,' she said as she snuggled deeper into his embrace. 'We need to let him come to us.'
'Exactly. Try and get some sleep; it'll all sort itself out.' He confirmed his words with a kiss, one that quickly deepened as Belle's tongue parted his lips and duelled lazily with his own.
'Perhaps he could spend Christmas with us?' she asked hopefully once they'd parted.
'I think it might take a little longer than three weeks for him to feel comfortable enough for that.'
'Next year then?'
'Definitely.'
'I love you,' she said, pressing another kiss to his lips before settling her head on his chest.
'I love you too.'
Belle was so tired the next morning that she hardly registered Gold kissing her goodbye, and then slept right through her alarm, finally arriving at work a good two hours late.
Her plan to slip in unnoticed proved impossible when she exited the elevator and about twenty heads turned in her direction, watching and whispering to each other as she walked across the room to her desk. Putting it down to her unusual tardiness, she tried to ignore the stares and got to work.
A task that was easier said than done, however, with the constant stream of people walking past her desk all morning, some people she'd never even seen before. There was never usually so much activity in her area of the office and she wasn't aware of any new projects that required so much attention.
And where is Neal?! She hadn't seen any sign of him all morning and she was starting to worry.
As the hours dragged by the office seemed to get even busier, to the point where, after rereading the same sentence for the fifth time, Belle gave up and went down to the cafeteria for lunch, spotting her friend Jess at their usual table.
'Hey,' she said brightly as she sat down, but received nothing more than a cold nod in return.
'Everything ok?'
'Yup,' Jess replied curtly.
'How was your weekend?'
'Good.'
Right, that's enough!
'Ok Jess, what the hell is going on here today? Everyone is acting really weird. Including you.'
Her friend finally looked up from her salad. 'I can't believe you didn't tell me! I thought we were friends.'
'Tell you what?' Belle asked, confusion growing.
'That you're sleeping with the boss!' Jess hissed. 'Former boss now I guess.'
Oh.
Oh shit.
Belle felt her stomach drop. Ice cold fear flooded her veins. It hadn't for one second occurred to her that people had found out about her and Gold, that that was why they had been staring at her all morning, whispering behind her back. But now, of course, it made perfect sense.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
'Well?' Jess demanded, breaking Belle's stunned silence.
She initially thought about trying to deny it, to feign innocence. But she knew it wasn't worth it, that people would find out eventually anyway. No, the secret was out and it was time to deal with it.
'Who told you?' she asked, calmly.
'Becky from marketing.'
'Becky as in Becky Graham? Neal Cassidy's girlfriend?' Belle felt like she'd been punched in the stomach.
'Yeah. So it's true then?'
'Well obviously you already thought it was, given your reaction when I sat down,' Belle snapped. 'What did she tell you?'
'Only that you and Mr Gold have been sleeping together for a while now, since before he sold Storybrooke. I don't know where she got it from.'
I do, Belle sighed. There was only one way she could have found out. 'And judging by the mood around here this morning she didn't hold back in telling people.'
'You know what she's like. Can't keep her mouth shut.'
As shock gave way to fury Belle grabbed her food and rose from the table. 'I need to go.'
'Wait!' Jess called after her as she weaved her way through the tables towards the exit. 'You didn't tell me if it's true or not!'
But she didn't receive a response, Belle's sole focus on getting away.
She rushed back to her desk and packed up her belongings. A quick glance over at Neal's desk showed her that he still hadn't bothered to show up. Coward.
She briefly considered hunting Becky Graham down and confronting her, but thought better of it when she saw yet another person stare at her as they walked past. It wasn't worth drawing even more attention to herself at that point.
Fighting off the tears as she tried to ignore the mutterings of her coworkers who no doubt assumed the worst of her, she quickly informed her boss that she was taking a sick day and then left the office.
As she made the half hour walk home she finally had a chance to think. She couldn't believe Neal had done that to her. Did he not even stop for a second to consider how his actions might affect her?! Apparently not! Was he that selfish that he didn't care about her? Belle thought back to Gold questioning whether Neal harboured feelings for her the previous night, but his actions had just confirmed that she was right. He didn't care about her at all.
Now everything was ruined. All her hard work over the years, her well earned promotions, straight down the drain. Just like that. Sure, work hadn't been great recently, but that didn't mean that she didn't care about her job, about her reputation. And the reason she'd been putting up with the extra work and the crappy hours was all in aid of her promotion chances. To gain that experience to help her achieve her dreams. Well… No chance of that happening now. Now her colleagues would just assume she'd slept her way up the company. And the worst thing was, there was nothing she could do about it.
Belle had always prided herself on the control she had over her life, but at that moment, as she wandered the streets of New York and the tears finally started to fall, she'd never felt less in control. And that terrified her.
