Auditions had gone well. Well, mostly well. Belle had been friendly, but distant, throughout the entire process. Gold had gotten a chance to watch her work with several people, some good, some terrible, but she was always brilliant. Always. Even hours after they started, even when put up against some of the most ridiculous acting he had ever seen. Somehow she remained fresh and excited about the process right up to the end of the day. And there had been many days that he left with a headache and craving something alcoholic to wash the day away.
David Nolan had been hired on to play the part of the fiancé and he had been perfect for the role just as Belle had thought he would be. Ruby had been a different story but there was some sort of spark there, something that Gold had agreed he could work with. Truth be told, she wasn't the best actress. He was sure she was fine for the adult industry, but it would be a struggle to get what he needed out of her. But he was willing to. For Belle's sake more than anything else. The way she had lit up when he agreed to cast Ruby had made it all worth it. Even if all he had gotten was a quick hug and her rushing off with her best friend.
He wished he could say that at the end of each day they went out, went home together, had more than a somewhat friendly conversation. They hadn't been alone together since that day in his office, since she walked out.
He knew she was right, dammit. He knew he wasn't letting her in. But how could he? Why would she want to? Belle was sweet, kind. She was everything he was not. There was a darkness to his soul and a past that was quickly catching up to him. And faster than he'd like.
They had started filming two days ago and so far it seemed like every time he turned around some disaster befell them. At first he was sure most of it was due to their new camera woman. Astrid her name was. She was smart, funny, a little bit ditzy and perhaps the biggest klutz he had ever met in his entire life. He had agreed to keep her on only because she was actually a genius with the camera. Nolan, who she had replaced, had been competent, but Astrid was exactly what they needed. Even if on her first day there she had tripped over a cord and destroyed one of the boom mics.
But slowly he became sure that there was something more sinister going on and the time that he came in to find several cords chewed through and rats loose in the studio he was sure someone had broken in to leave them there. It was exactly the kind of ridiculous sabotage Regina would try.
He was the first into the studio that night as he so often was. It was one of his favorite rituals, really, walking the quiet and nearly dark studio. He walked slowly around the building, the only sound the quiet thud of his cane and the soft sound of his shoes on the laminate flooring. It was a comforting sound, one that reminded him of his many years as a director of his own studio, reminded him of a time when things were good for him, when he was king of his own little world.
He was the king again, though he hardly felt like it. He had been pursuing Regina, but she had gone into hiding. Her small attempts at disrupting the filming had not gone unnoticed. They had not gone unnoticed by Belle either. He was sure of that. Every time there was some small thing that happened, the camera that had a mysterious crack in it, the gels that had gone missing, her big blue eyes turned on him and narrowed slightly. He knew she was waiting for a response, waiting for some indication that he had tracked down Regina and would turn her into the cops.
She still wanted that. He knew that. She wanted him to go through some sort of official channel, report her and let them find her and make her pay. But he knew there would be no proof. Regina was wily, focused when she wanted something. She was her mother's daughter through and through and he shuddered at the thought of having to deal with her again.
It wasn't that he couldn't beat her. He knew he could. He had defeated her at every turn. Even by leaving the field entirely he had beaten her. She was a competitive sort and losing that sense of competition, that driving force behind everything she did, had made it more difficult for her to get ahead. His leaving had undermined her in a way she never could have anticipated.
"Mr. Gold." The soft words startled him out of his reverie and his head shot up, squinting into the half darkness around him.
"Ah, Mr. Nolan. What can I do for you?" The younger man stepped out of the shadows.
"I was…um…just doing the rounds before everyone arrived."
Gold arched one eyebrow, looking at him out of the corner of his eye. "Once a cameraman, always a cameraman?"
"Something like that." David shrugged. "I guess I just always liked this part of the day."
"Odd that you and I should have that in common." He never expected to find common ground with anyone in the studio, frankly, and especially not with the studio's Prince Charming. He was anything but, after all. He certainly wasn't one to rescue fair maidens. In fact, it seemed he chased them off with rather startling ease.
"Yes, well…" David cleared his throat.
"You're really here to talk to me," Gold finished for him.
David turned to him then and his blue eyes were slightly wider than they'd been a moment before. "How did you know that?"
"I'm perceptive, Mr. Nolan." He waved a hand at him. "Out with it then."
It was obvious the man didn't quite know where to start and Gold wasn't even sure what it was he wanted to talk to him about. The obvious was his role in the movie. Nolan still hadn't settle completely into it. He was good, verging on excellent, but it had been a long time since he had been in front of the camera instead of behind it. And Gold knew that there were times he was uncomfortable. The last time he had been in front of the camera he hadn't really been required to act after all.
"It's about Belle…"
"She's off limits."
"I don't mean like that." David looked somewhat horrified and Gold couldn't help the small smirk that crossed his face.
"Oh never fear, dearie. I didn't think you'd meant that." He gave the man a sidelong look. "Besides, I think she's done with the overly tall not quite so bright sorts."
"Hey," David responded with.
"My apologies," Gold murmured.
"Look I'm not interested in her. In case you've forgotten, I'm a married man."
"Right, of course." As if that had ever stopped someone from going after what they wanted before. His wife had cheated on him and ultimately left him for someone else. They hadn't exactly had a happy relationship from the get go, but still. If it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone. He'd seen deliriously happy couples end their marriages just a handful of months after the big day.
"Look, it's just…well…you guys went on that date and all."
"Are we really going to do this?" Gold interrupted him with.
"Yes," David shot back and it might have been the first time he'd seen the man really show a backbone.
"You're not her father."
"I'm well aware of that," David said with a small smile. "We're just worried, is all."
"We?"
"Well, Ruby and I. Leroy. Ariel..."
"Ah yes. It seems the entire studio is aware of our date." He shook his head at that.
"Well, when you…"
"Yes I know. We showed up together, dressed up. It was obvious." He waved a hand in the air at the last. "I'm not so fond of people discussing my love life."
"Do you love her then?"
He felt the air suck out of him for a moment. How could he respond to that? I don't know her well enough, how could I possibly love her, stay out of my damned life. He wanted to tell the man to stuff it, walk away. It was his usual way of reacting to things he found somewhat unpleasant. Say something snarky that pushes the person away and then get out of there. "Yes," he finally said, the word sounding loud to him in the quiet of the room.
He turned and walked away, leaning heavily on his cane as he did so. It felt like he had aged a thousand years. Yes, he loved her. No, he couldn't keep her. They all left him eventually. One way or another. Milah abandoned him for another man. His son…God, his son…Belle didn't even know about him. No one did. Milah had taken off with him when he was just a boy. He had fought long and hard to get some sort of custody but had finally admitted defeat. It was better for the boy if he wasn't being torn apart by constant court battles. He let her win. He still damned himself for that. He let her win and his son was as gone from his life as his wife was. And then there was Cora…well…that one didn't warrant any thinking about. The memories might be over ten years old, but they stung today nearly as much as they did then. Not because he cared for her, but because it had been his downfall.
And Belle? She'd find a reason to leave him too. If only he could manage to keep away from her. He was fairly certain he couldn't and he knew that would cause a whole new downfall of epic proportions.
They were halfway through filming the second scene of the day when it happened. The lights flickered, Belle faltered in the words she was speaking, and Gold called cut. A moment later the entire studio was plunged into darkness.
"Don't move!" Gold's voice carried easily above the sudden outbreak of shouting and everyone immediately quieted down. "Flashlight?"
"It seems we don't have any," came Nolan's rather embarrassed voice.
"We have no flashlights?"
"Well, not here at least," Nolan conceded. "I'm not really sure where we keep them." Belle could almost feel the frustration coming from him, could well imagine him running his fingers through his hair as he did when annoyed.
"Here," she managed to say and pulled her cell phone out. The light was weak but it allowed her to make her way over to Gold. She handed off her cell phone to him and their fingers brushed together briefly. It wasn't much contact, just a tiny touching of their hands, but still she felt the electricity hit her hard.
Their eyes met and his lips quirked in a small half smile. "Thank you, Miss French."
"You're welcome." Her voice was a little softer, a little huskier than it had been a moment before.
"I'll return this to you after I find the flashlights?"
She nodded, unable to form words for the moment
"Mr. Nolan, if you'll join me?" Belle knew it wasn't exactly an invitation, and was amused to see the other man rush to his side. Even Gold seemed faintly amused at it, a smirk forming on his face for just a moment.
He handed off the phone to Nolan and started to turn away to follow the other man, but paused. There wasn't much she could see of him in the half light from the phone, but still she noticed the intensity in his expression. They had been at odds since their last conversation, things cooled slightly yet still with an indelible attraction that she found hard to deny.
She certainly found it hard to deny now, when he leaned close and his lips came near her ears. "Twenty minutes, Miss French. Meet me in my office."
She nodded. He was the boss after all, though she knew she wanted to meet him there. For whatever reason. Even if he only returned her phone to her, even if he wanted to discuss her acting choices, even if it were nothing more than thank you very much and have a nice night. She wanted to go.
"Of course," she responded with. And then he disappeared into the darkness, only the phone lighting his way allowing her to see him at all as he walked off.
Belle had spent the twenty minutes between Gold's walking off and going to his office helping to pass out the handful of flashlights and making the call to the electrical company to find out what was going on. There were no outages in the area and it seemed like they were the only ones off the grid. She suspected that was the case and even worse, she had a feeling it was that Regina woman again.
Nothing had been said about her since that fateful day in Gold's office, but she had seen the look on his face after each mishap. His eyes would narrow, a muscle would twitch in his cheek and he would turn and walk out, each step heavy and faltering.
She didn't know if he was even doing anything about it. So far most of the mishaps had been relatively minor. But this one? It actually had been dangerous for cast and crew and disrupted filming for a significant period of time. The cast had been sent home and only a bare bones crew was retained in case the power came back up and the computerized equipment had to be checked for issues. Power surges could be dangerous to such equipment, causing components to melt and fuse.
She patted Leroy on the shoulder as she stepped by and he nodded at her. He'd keep things in line while Gold was occupied with…well…whatever Gold was occupied with.
"Go get him, sister," Leroy murmured and Belle just smiled at him. He was perceptive, perhaps even more so now that he seemed to have found some sort of something with new camerawoman Astrid. Oh sure, Leroy thought he was being sneaky about it, but Belle had seen the looks the two had exchanged. There was something there and she felt happy for the gruff older man. He deserved a bit of love in his life.
When she arrived at Gold's door, she took a deep breath and knocked softly. He opened the door almost instantly and she was surprised to find him stripped down to his shirt with his tie missing. He looked relaxed and while he seemed to eye her somewhat warily as he waved her into the room, she felt like he was more himself than he had been since their argument.
Looking around the room, she let out a small gasp. "Is all of this for me?" The desk had been cleared and what she realized was a white towel place across it. Candles decorated each side, giving the darkened room a sort of hazy, romantic feel.
"Well, it's not much…"
"But it is." They had barely spoken. She wasn't even sure if he still wanted to pursue anything with him. "Candles…and is that dinner?"
He gave a small self-deprecating smile. "Well, it's pizza. Cold pizza, actually."
She laughed. "I don't care if we have to pick off mold. I'm famished."
"Then please, have a seat." He stepped toward the desk and pulled out the chair with the hand not holding his cane, waving her toward the seat.
"My my such a gentleman," she murmured as she took her seat on the opposite side of his desk. She noticed he had pulled her chair up close to his, a little like they used to sit, back when they were first working on the script and cast listing.
He sat next to her and produced the bottle of wine he had hidden. Wine. Pizza. She couldn't even figure out where this was coming from exactly, but she was willing to play along. Pouring the wine into a red plastic cup, all she was sure he could find in the rather low-class break room in their studio, he handed it to her. They briefly touched their glasses together and Belle allowed herself a small laugh.
For a moment, there was complete silence as they sipped their wine and snagged pieces of cold pizza. Then finally he spoke. "Ruairidh."
"Pardon me?" Belle cocked her head slightly to the side. The way he said it sent a slight shiver up her spine, the rolled "r," the way his tongue flipped over the last bit. Roo-ree. He said it again and Belle shook her head. "Is that some Scottish toast?"
"My name." His voice was quiet as he spoke.
"Your name." She smiled. Finally.
"Yes. I think you can see why I don't tell it to anyone." Another self-deprecating laugh. "It's even worse if you write it out." He pulled a pen out of his desk and quickly jotted the word down.
"Wow. That doesn't even look like the spoken version."
He gave a short laugh. "Unpronounceable and Scottish, that's what my mother was looking for apparently."
"To counteract your last name?" It seemed obvious. If she were proud of her Scottish heritage she would well imagine her wanting to retain something of that with her child.
"It's the only thing she left me." The words were whispered.
"You didn't know your mother?" She had barely known hers, truth be told, and the older she got the more the memories faded.
"She died soon after I was born, the rigor of childbirth too much for her apparently." His voice was dark when he spoke and she saw something there, a vulnerability she hadn't expected. He took a deep breath, went on. "I barely knew my father, either. He left me with my aunts when I was only eight."
"My mother died when I was five," she responded in sympathy. Though she had her father growing up she had been all too aware that there was no female in her life that she could turn to. Her father had been an only child. There were no aunts. No cousins. She had been adrift in a world of men and while she never felt completely bereft, there had been many a night when she had cried herself to sleep for lack of a woman to talk to about things going on in her life.
He gave her a soft smile. "It seems we have something in common after all."
"I suspect we have more in common than you might think."
He nodded. "I suppose that could be the case."
She reached out a hand and touched his, surprised when he turned his hand over and entwined their fingers. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"About my parents?" He sounded surprised at the suggestion.
"No. Though if you want to…"
"I don't," he answered quickly.
"Right." They fell into silence for a moment and Belle inwardly cringed. Could nothing be easy between them? Their relationship, such as it was, had started with rudeness and attitude and now seemed to be left with awkward pauses and half-started conversations.
"You want to know about Regina," he interrupted her thoughts with.
"Yes, but I know…"
"No, I'll talk about her. At least a little," he added with a small smirk. "Regina has always been more ambitious than she is intelligent. She's the type of person who addresses things with brute force instead of finesse."
"And she's a director?" There was a bit of surprise in her voice, though really she knew there were directors out there like that. Albert King had been a little like that, certainly no finesse and seemingly little understanding of the sensitivities of those he hired.
"She'd like to think she is. So far she hasn't been as successful as she'd like. I've lost track of her career," he admitted. "After I closed my studio, she disappeared and I haven't heard a thing out of her since then."
"She wanted your studio." It was more a statement than a question. The way he spoke of her was that of rivals, clearly rivals who would do anything to take each other down. And she didn't think Gold was innocent in any of this.
He looked impressed as he leaned back a bit. "How did you know that?"
The worried crease between his eyes made her laugh a little. "Just a good guess, apparently. Did you close your studio down because of her?"
His eyes shifted to the side. "Not exactly."
"You did." She didn't know why the thought horrified her. He left the whole business behind because…some woman wanted to take it over.
"No," was all he said and she could see him go tight-lipped again, could see the way his eyes shuttered suddenly. She had pushed too far too fast. He was willing to come only so far and she couldn't drag him further along. She didn't want to drag him along, she realized. She wanted him to come willingly, to tell her about his life because he wanted to, because he wanted to let her inside. At least a little.
"I see."
He let out a sigh. "I know you don't."
"No, I don't. What is it about this woman? What hold does she have over you?" He gave no response and she shook her head. "You have to let me in sometime."
When he looked at her, his eyes were as open and honest as she'd seen them. "I'm trying."
She gave him a small smile. "I know you are. That's all I ask. Sometime you'll tell me all?"
He nodded and she scooted closer, reaching out to wrap her arms around him. He froze for a moment before responding in kind and holding her close. "So you'll give me another chance?"
She pulled back from him, reached up and framed his face with her hands. "Never doubt my power of forgiveness for a minute." That finally got a smile, a real smile, from him.
They ate the rest of their meal in a somewhat more comfortable silence, occasionally punctuated by their comments on the production, on the cast. She purposely avoided bringing up the subject of Regina and the disasters that had been happening.
When she left later that evening, she felt better about where things were than she had before. He had kissed her softly, a promise of more to come she was sure, and had allowed her to slip out after agreeing to another date at the end of the week.
Perhaps this date would not end with disaster.
