Belle and Adam had spent a great time looking at the pictures of their son in the photo album she had brought with her from London. She shared some funny stories with him about baby Gideon being slightly obsessed in pulling Ruby's fake coloured strips of hair from her head, the time he got lost at Hyde Park and almost scared her to death at age of four and how he was excited to get started with school. All those memories made her nostalgic, but they brought such a sadness to Adam's eyes, that she excused herself from the living room and went back to the kitchen to wash the dishes and clean the breakfast table. The work was almost finished when the two brothers came back from their run, tired and sweaty.
"Hey, you had a good time?" She asked, smiling at them as she stretched herself in an attempt to reach her tall son's cheek and kiss it, but she was too small and the boy had to bend to allow her to do so.
"Sort of." Gideon answered quickly, making his way to the second floor.
Neal's eyes followed his half-brother, until he disappeared from his sight and his attention went back to Belle. "He is not much of a talkative person, right?"
"Actually, he is." She sighed, thinking about how many times Gideon and her had lost themselves in long conversations about the most diverse subjects: books, life, love, just everything and sometimes even nothing. "I'm sorry he is just a little upset right now."
"I see. But he was actually better today." Neal told her with a smile, playing with the watch in his wrist. "I'll go take a bath."
"Alright, just hurry, because we've been planning to do some shopping today."
His jaw dropped. "I'm sorry, you convinced my father to do shopping in Brighton?"
"I did." Belle said, proudly.
"Oh, I need to take pictures of this to send Emma! She will laugh out loud." He muttered, already planning in filming the whole day with his phone's camera. "See you in a while."
Covering her mouth with a hand to muffle her laugh, Belle went back to the living room, where Adam was still sat at the large couch, looking transfixed at the photo album until he heard her steps and lifted his face to follow Belle with his eyes while she walked towards him to take the empty seat by his side.
"Are they back?" He questioned, probably having heard the boys' voices coming from the kitchen.
"Yeah."
"Thank you for this, sweetheart." Gold smiled, pointing at the album with a slight movement of his head, the tip of his fingers tracing the stamps of the cover. "I really appreciated seeing each one of those photos."
A strange agony took place in Belle's heart, because everything seemed so wrong that she suddenly wanted to cry. Things weren't supposed to be like this and she wasn't supposed to be showing him pictures of their son's childhood, because he should have been there. He should be in those pictures and in their lives, so Gideon wouldn't be feeling like was being forced to be nice with the man who never really was a father to him.
"You know what I am thinking about right now?" Belle asked, eager to change the subject of their conversation and dissipate the toxic thoughts in her mind. "Ice cream. Now that we are here, I just need it."
"I'll gladly take you anywhere you want to go today." Adam replied, placing the album on the small centre table, so he could take her hand in his own, his palm covering hers completely and his soft grip making her hear race.
Just like this, she felt like she was nineteen again, naïve and foolishly in love with someone she knew that he shouldn't be fancying over. She was his Belle again, and all the tough years she spent alone in the same city they met, raising the child he had no idea they've done, disappeared. She was young and fearless once more. And she had no idea of what she was doing, when her other hand slipped to his thigh.
"I have a long list, if you don't mind." Belle said.
Gold didn't know what he was doing too, but finding his way back to her seemed so simple and easy at that moment, when she was so close to him in that couch, a hand dangerously set on his thigh and the other one, wrapped beneath his, that it could easily be years ago. He touched her neck, watching her eyes close as he palmed it, rubbing his thumb against her soft skin.
"I don't." The words came easy as he leaned in.
Everything happened simultaneously slow and fast. Gold's face approached Belle's, so hesitantly as both of them were a little afraid and unprepared for this that their lips didn't got to touch, because someone walked inside the room and they jumped away from each other.
"Mother you - " Gideon started, but them his eyes fell on them and an angry expression crossed his face. "Where the hell is Neal?"
"Upstairs, darling." Belle replied, cheeks flushed and glance dropped to the floor.
"Right, I need to kill him."
By the moment his words made sense on her mind, Belle stood up and followed him through the house. "Gideon Aiden French, come back here!"
"No! I need to speak to him."
"Gid, stop, you are not like this!" She yelled, getting to grab his arm when they were at the second floor. "You are a loving boy."
"He abandoned you! And now he was just about to - " Gideon couldn't even complete the phrase, it was too disgusting for him.
Belle felt her whole face get red with shame. What was she thinking? Probably nothing, she thought, because she was completely out of her mind and it seems Jefferson was right all the time. She didn't need to fell for Adam all over again, because she had never get over him, but now she had just lost herself for a brief instant and caused more troubles with her son.
"Nothing was going to happen!" Belle affirmed.
"I am sorry." A voice behind her said.
Eyes widening, Belle reached to help Gold stand on his feet, because he was leaning against the walls to keep himself from falling since he apparently had climbed up the stairs without the cane, that wasn't in sight.
"Adam, where is your cane?" She asked, worriedly. "Your leg!"
"I am, I truly am son!" Gold continued, not paying any attention to her. "I was a coward. That's what you want to hear? Because that's the truth!"
"I - " Gideon tried to start, but he didn't find the words to continue, so Adam did it for him.
"If I could change this I would make sure that I would have been here for you." The lines on his face showed such a sadness as he looked at Gideon's expressionless visage, that Belle felt her eyes burn with unshed tears. "Forgive me. I've lost as much as you did and this time I'll never get back."
The silence got them and Gideon kept staring at his father, but not as angrily as he did before, now he had nothing to show, but confused eyes, filled of mixed feelings.
"Say something." Belle shout out at her son.
"I wanted a father." Gideon muttered, weakly. "I always did."
Moving away from her grip, Adam opened his arms to his son, asking silently for a hug that the boy would have denied a thousand times if he didn't look so fragile and small as he did right now. Gideon bent to let his father fold his arms around him, a sob escaping his throat when he finally got to hold his boy. It was the first time in their lives that they hugged each other, the very first time that teenager boy known the warmth of a fatherly affection.
"Whoa, should I get the camera now?" Neal asked, coming from the third floor to see that scene, his eyes widening in surprise.
Belle waved a hand for him, pointing at the living room. "I think they need a moment alone."
Following her, Neal and Belle sneaked out, leaving Gideon and Gold still awkwardly embraced. A whimper of pain came from Adam and the boy pulled away, looking down at him, completely aware of his father's grip in his arm, that hadn't loosened even a bit.
"What is it?"
"My leg." Gold explained. "It hurts."
Guiding him to the stair case, the boy pointed at the steps. "Here sit."
With some effort, Adam sat as he suggested, stretching his bad leg, so the aching ankle could hurt so much and cause him such a terrible affliction. He breathed out a little relieved that his pain was decreasing, but still concerned that even after hugging him, Gideon looked bothered.
"You are still angry." Adam bounced. "I can see it."
"Sixteen years, you know?" The boy answered, taking a seat by his side. "When every other boy had a father, you just weren't there."
"If Belle had told me - "
"No! Don't you even start to try putting the blame on her right now. Yeah, she never told you, but as much of a bastard as you were with her, you couldn't expect my mother to just come begging you to take care of your own child." Gideon shoot, before inhaling deeply, trying to calm himself down again. "We both know that she is not this kind of woman."
"You're right, saying that is unfair. But I want your forgiveness."
"I don't know if there is a thing that you could that would make me feel better." Gideon confessed. "You want my forgiveness? Don't broke my mother's heart again. That's all I ask, and I'll try to be less rude."
"I have never intended to break anyone's heart, not your mother's and certainly not yours." Gold said, wanting more than anything to be able to place a hand on his son's shoulder, smoothing his tensed muscles, but he wasn't sure of how the boy could react to this, so he kept tipping his fingers together in an anxious habit. "Gideon, I've made the wrong the choice long ago, but I don't want to lose any more time. I want to be in your life."
Chuckling, he said: "I'm sixteen. The time for most father and son things is over."
"I am totally sure that we can find something to do together." Adam insisted.
He could even watch Star Wars all over again if that was what would make his son happy, because fixing things wouldn't be easy, but he was willing to try everything. The child he had seen in the photos earlier, didn't exist anymore and the only option he had was to make amends to that harshly teenager, whose lack of a fatherly figure had made such a big impact.
"Well, I'm not sure if I want to." Gideon shrugged, not looking at him.
"I thought you said that you wanted a father."
"Back then, when I was a child." The boy said in a bitterful voice. "I've lived a whole life without you, what difference would it make now to have you around?"
"Family it's what make us who we are." Gold replied. "You may think that I have nothing to offer you, but I can guarantee that I can prove you wrong."
"Alright, you can try it, then." Gideon agreed. "But, I just need to say that I am definitelly not into that parent shared custodity some people do, so don't you think that as a lawyer you'll get to make me go to Scotland every weekend or so, because this is never going to happen."
"Ok." Adam nodded, but then, something occured to him. He never had the intention of forcing the boy to start making him visits, but he loved Scotland, was completely passionated about Glasgow and wanted to share it with him. "Gideon?"
"Yes?"
"I would like to take you there. Not legally and for every weekend as you suggested, but maybe for a visit. There is a lot of places I wish to show you."
"Let's not push this." The boy said, but immediatly added: "I'm not saying that this is never going to happen."
"Just think about this."
Nodding, Gideon rose from the step were they were, starting to make his way to his room, when he suddenly stopped, turning back to face his face.
"Gold?" He called. "One last thing. I told you about my mother's heart, but I also expect you to keep your hands off her or this is never going to work."
He got inside the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind him and Gold stood up, groaning with the pain in his knee and using the handrail to keep himself up as he slowly went downstairs.
"Adam!" Belle called when she saw him, rushing to help the man to walk to one of the chairs by the breakfast table, irritated that he was being so stupid in keeping walking without any support. "God, do you want to fall from the stairs? Take the damn cane!"
"I forgot about it, sweetheart." Adam mumbled, under a difficult breath.
"What Gideon said?" Belle asked, sitting on the empty chair by his side and massaging his hurt knee.
"He is very overprotective about you."
"I am sorry about that, but I haven't dated that much since I got pregnant and had him, but even when I did, it was very hard to keep a relationship for long when you have a son complaining and scaring your suitors." Belle gave him a little sided smile. "It's been just us his whole life and I think that he feels that he was to protect me somehow."
Gold fixed his gaze on her, so beautiful and relaxed, definitely not deserving a crippled old man. He wasn't going to turn his back on his son, but had no right to interfere in her life now.
"Yeah, but he was right, I was about to do something stupid when he entered the living room." Adam sighed. "I'm grateful that he interrupted us."
Pain passed through her face as she took her hand away from his knee, standing up. "Then, so do I."
"Belle - " he tried to say, because he didn't want her to spent the rest of the weekend avoiding him, he just wanted her to see that they were about to make a mistake and Gideon was right, she shouldn't have her heart broken by him again.
"We came here so you could get to know your son a little bit, and that's what we are going to do." She said, as harsh as her boy use to sound. "I'll just get my purse so we can go to the pier."
He watched her climb the stairs and Neal appeared by the kitchen's door, muttering: "Always saying the wrong thing, huh?"