The large metal door swung open quietly allowing Belle and Zane entrance into the dingy factory basement, everything was dark, only a few excuses for lightbulbs from which came an almost non-existent orange spark. A foul odour hung in the air like death in a coffin and several old mattresses had been scattered on the dark ground. At least fifteen women were huddled up in corners and on the dirty mattresses wrapped in scraps of clothing, half of them were visibly pregnant.

At first the Sergeant and android had believed their case was a human trafficking issue but after half a week they'd discovered it to be far worse. Every kidnapped woman had been pregnant when taken, they'd not wanted the women, they'd wanted the children. Zane's eyebrows had shot into his hairline when he'd found out just how much people were willing to pay or a healthy newborn.

To the far right of the room was a small door with a tiny window in it, the sound of babies crying drifted through it. The women were clearly scared but they'd spotted Gold's badge hooked onto his belt so hadn't screamed; thankfully. Silently the Sergeant raised a finger to his lips, a quiet order for the women not to make a sound then slowly stepped towards the door with Belle close behind him, gun drawn.

Cautiously Belle and Zane pressed their backs to the wall either side of the door and peeked through the little window, Belle gasped at the sight. Inside they found a row of cribs each with an infant to fill them, Gold could only see two guards but Belle could see a third as well as a middle-aged woman dressed all in red holding one of the children as though it were a monster.

"You go left, I'll go right?" Asked the BLE in a whisper.

Gold nodded and backed up to kick the door in with his synthetic leg, fast and hard was the only way to go about taking out the guards since there wasn't anywhere to hide. Just as planned Gold went left while his partner went right, he shot the taller of the guards in the kneecap, easily ducked the other's punch only to slam his own fist into his throat. Suddenly the man Zane had shot grabbed him and managed to throw him down onto the floor where his gun went skidding towards Belle who had her own problems. The sounds of crying infants echoed around the room violently. Sergeant Gold found himself stunned for a moment but soon managed to throw his head back and smash the tall guard in the nose then scurry out from underneath the man. Back on his feet Zane slammed a foot down onto the attackers back and twisted his arm. The man screamed, screamed like a bunny in a bear trap.

"Dearie, when you see your doctor tell him you have a spiral fracture of the left radius." Growled the Scotsman.

Neither of those men were getting back up. Gold turned back to Belle as he panted, the guard and woman in red lay in agony as well and Belle had the baby cradled in her arms. He stood there stunned for a moment, Belle had a little smile on her face and the baby had already ceased her crying; she really looked like a mother.

"Belle?"

"How could anyone do this to a baby? She's so small and perfect."

Gold knew that in that moment if Belle could have cried she would have.

"To some people greed is more important."

"... We were saving them." Groaned the woman in red, her blonde hair sent everywhere thanks to an angry Belle. "We're the heroes, those babies get families because of us."

"Belle, can you translate fuckwit to English?"

The android said nothing, didn't even seem to hear Zane, she was much too focused on the newborn girl in her arms. Gold didn't push the subject just pulled out his phone and radioed for backup, which he probably should have done before he and Belle had gone in but he didn't want to risk loosing any other children.

A short time later and the factory had been swarmed by police. Belle had been sat in the passenger seat of Zane's beautifully restored Cadillac ever since backup had arrived, she'd not let the baby go either. Before handing the infants over to Child Services police needed to get blood samples in order to match them to their mothers. Belle jolted back to the real world when Gold pulled the passenger door open and crouched down beside Belle and the baby.

"Hey, she's the last one now." He said softly. "Let me get a DNA sample?"

She nodded, Belle knew she couldn't keep her, that was ridiculous, but something in her didn't want to let her go. Slowly Zane revealed a small white object that almost looked like a thick pen, it pricked the baby girl's finger but amazingly she didn't start to cry. Lola Vasquez announced the tiny machine in a female robotic voice.

"Vasquez, that's her mother. She's already been carted off to the hospital with the others. Give me the baby, I'll taker her over to the Child Service folks." Zane rose to his feet and Belle slipped out of the car, baby girl still in her arms. He looked at his partner and sighed. "Vaughn really did make you human, didn't he? A mothering instinct is the most human thing in the world. But she needs to go back to her real Mom."

"I know." Sighed Belle. "She's just so perfect."

Reluctantly Belle passed the newborn over to Zane who turned off to the Child Services van. She smiled as her blue orbs tracked him, he looked good with a child in his arms, fatherhood suited him. The whole situation was silly though, Belle was a BLE, an android, a machine, I can't birth children so I should just stop thinking about it. She told herself firmly.

XXXX

Night fell and another shift ended, paperwork was done and filed then Zane drove himself and Belle home in one of their comfortable silences. After beating the shit out of that guard Zane just wanted to slip off into his study and get to fixing that music box from the nineteen hundreds, Belle didn't seem to mind, she planned to vanish off to her room and read one of the books he'd purchased for her from Mister Fielding.

A few hours went by and Gold relaxed a little in the red and wood panelled room, there had always been something almost comforting about repairing antiques. It gave him a sense of peace. To Zane Gold fixing an object made sense, it wasn't convoluted and malevolent like the cases he worked, 'A' to 'B', broken to fixed; it made sense.

He was just about done when Belle knocked faintly on his oak study door, a second later she appeared in the doorway with a smile and dressed in a pale green dress; Gods she was gorgeous.

"Am I bothering you?"

"No, of course not." Gold flashed her a smile. "Come in."

The study was Zane's inner sanctum, his safe place, it was where he and Neal used to sit and sip bourbon and make jokes after a hard case in front of the dark fire. The building was a house but it was that room that made it a home. Belle moved further into the room clearly curious about the intricate music box upside down before him.

"That's beautiful."

"Aye, It'll look even better once I get it working again. Unfortunately my hands are a bit to big."

"Can I help?" The auburn haired android asked almost before Gold had finished his sentence, her eyes brightened. "My hands are smaller."

Normally Zane didn't let people touch any of his antiques – not that anyone was particularly interested in them – but Belle was different, she seemed genuinely curious and eager to learn so he gestured for her to join him behind the desk. Some days he still found himself turning to tell Neal something or filling two tumblers after a case rather than one, every time he did that it was like Neal died all over again. Belle bent down behind him to look over his shoulder and he felt her hair brush against his cheek, she was so close, so close that he got a pretty nice view down her dress, he had to clamp his eyes shut and took a deep breath.

"What do I need to do?"

Stop smelling so fucking good! Gold cleared his throat.

"Em, can you see the gear in the dead centre? See how it's off at an angle?" Belle nodded. "Do you think you can get it straight again without disturbing the gear on top of it?"

"Yeah, I think so."

Belle suddenly pressed herself even closer to the police Sergeant, her breasts to his back. Gold almost couldn't keep his hands steady as he did his best to hold the upper gear still. Belle's expert precision made it easy for her to do as Gold had asked, slow classical music chimed out and Belle burst into smiles.

"Thank you." He managed, she was still so close.

"Do you do a lot of this. Fixing things?"

"Yes, dearie, it's a pastime of mine. Always has been." His accent was thick than usual.

"Anything else I can do to help?"

"Erm, I don't believe so. This is all I had left to do." He forced himself to sit straight and look up at the android. "But there was a reason you came in here, what do you need?"

"Oh right, yeah, I almost forgot. It's late and you still haven't eaten, bourbon isn't a valid substitute." There was a hint of jest in her voice. "So I made you dinner."

Gold's head snapped up at that, only his aunts, Olivia and Charlotte, had cooked for him. No one had bothered since then, he and Neal had just ordered take out.

"You didn't have to." He found himself saying, she was his partner not his personal bot.

"I wanted to." Zane could see in her face that she actually meant that. "To say thank you for letting me live here with you, for treating me like more than just a machine, for letting me be a person... and because if I didn't make sure you ate you wouldn't." Gold smirked at that. "You never eat properly and that pack of chips you ate this morning wasn't very good nutritionally-"

Zane cut her off. "Data, I get it."

"So you'll come to the dining room and eat rather than making me put it in the fridge?"

"You went to all that trouble for me, I could hardly refuse. And I am hungry."

Gold rose to his feet and followed Belle through the house to his dining room where he found she'd even gone to the trouble of setting the table for him. The room smelt utterly wonderful and he sat himself down at the head of the table while Belle busied herself with serving, turned out dinner was tomato soup. He liked it, simple and screamed home cooking.

"I didn't even know I had enough in the fridge to make anything. Especially soup."

"Only just but I would suggest grocery shopping." She smiled and sat down beside him as he started to eat. "I can put in an order if you'd like, just tell me what you want."

"This is really good." He told her honestly.

Gold had never even thought that an android could cook but Belle had outdone herself. The meal was undeniably excellent but the fact she just sat there with a smile and watched him eat was rather unnerving, and it gave him the urge to fill the silence.

"... Can you eat?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Belle suddenly looked very awkward. "Is me watching you irritating? I'm sorry, I'll go plug myself in."

She moved to stand up but Zane quickly held out his hand to keep her in place.

"That's not what I meant, Belle. Can you eat?"

"Oh," She seemed to perk up at that. "em, yes. I can taste and decide if I like something or not."

"And what, everything you eat is collected in a neat little bale?" He was teasing her so she just smiled at him with that unimpressed look of hers.

"Not exactly. I essentially have a removable stomach, but that's probably not the best topic of conversation while you're eating."

Zane couldn't help but agree with that and helped himself to another spoonful of soup.

"Do you like to eat? You can join me if you like, you did make it after all."

No one had ever asked Belle that before, no one had ever cared enough to ask and the android grinned ear to ear. Zane Gold just kept amazing her.

"You don't mind?"

"Of course not. You live here now so we can eat together if you like?"

Gold watched Belle pad out of the room and returned a few moments later with a steaming bowl of soup, there was something strangely domestic about the whole thing.

"This really is very good." He told her feeling the need to fill the quiet again, odd, he didn't usually suffer from pressure of speech. "Cooking wasn't a skill I'd ever attributed to androids. Seems I was wrong though."

The two chit-chatted as they ate and Zane really couldn't remember the last time he'd dined with someone. Their conversation drifted between several topics, some more important that others until eventually they stumbled onto Belle's work before the orders to deactivate the BLE androids came through.

"Who was your human officer before me?" He asked once his bowl had all but been licked clean.

Belle paused as though remembering something painful and Gold regretted asking.

"Her name was Colette French. We were in the Avonlea District, she was like a mother to me." She smiled fondly.

"So you're Belle French then." It wasn't a question but he quickly ground to a halt as the name run a bell. "Colette French, I know that name." Sudden realisation washed over him. "... She died in the raid I lead. I killed your mother."

"It wasn't your fault, Zane. A lot of officers died in that raid and not one of them was your fault." There was a sadness in her eyes and Gold hated himself for putting it there. "I've seen the footage. There were so many people, smoke, bullets, you couldn't have changed anything, Zane."

"Doesn't matter." She hated the self-loathing in his voice. "I was in charge so I'm responsible for the deaths. I've seen that footage too but I don't remember it. I don't remember Neal getting hit, the camera footage only shows him going down and me dragging him behind a car, the MX that left us was destroyed, not even Jefferson could retrieve the data files."

Belle reached her hand across the table and gave his a little squeeze, it was clear he wasn't used to being comforted but he didn't push her hand away.

"I know you can't remember so I went through all the available files looking for something you hadn't seen but everything has your ID stamp."

She looked apologetic, why does she look apologetic?

"That's very kind, thank you Belle, but I've seen all there is to see. Neal getting hit, the MX leaving, me getting my leg blown off by a sticky grenade." Gold sighed. "It looks like I'm dead for a moment... maybe that would have been better."

"Don't say that!" She yelled without really meaning to. "That could never have been better, Zane. Never. I know it took Neal, that wasn't fair but without you being here now-" Belle paused to take a breath, not because she needed to breath – even though breathing did regulate her internal systems – but because she needed to calm herself. "You've saved so many people since coming back to work... you saved me too."

Gold just stared at her with confusion.

"You were assigned to me, I didn't save you."

"Yes you did, Zane." Chocolate orbs watched as she rose from her chair beside him and bent to kiss his cheek. "You're a good man Zane Gold, braver than you think you are. You're my hero."

He could feel her temperature regulating breathes on his neck and ear and just as she pulled away their eyes locked, stunning azure against whiskey brown. He'd never been anyone's hero before, never been anyone's anything beyond pain in the ass. Belle was so beautiful, not just life-like but utterly stunning as though carved by the Gods themselves. And then their lips met, gently at first, just a soft brushing of lips; a tease more than anything else. Soon though Gold found himself with a lap full of Belle and his hands steadying her, she was so warm and real, he'd never felt such a need for anyone before, man or woman. Belle's mouth opened to him and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue into the wet heat of her mouth, she tasted divine... and then it all flooded back to him and Zane pushed her back a little to separate them.

Her eyes fell. "Is it because I'm an android?"

"What?" Gold was genuinely surprised by her question. "No! I just... are you sure about this? You're not a sex bot, you don't have to. Not because I let you stay here or... or because you think I saved you."

"Oh you stupid man!" Zane raised an eyebrow at that, he'd literally got no idea what was going on any longer. "Is it so hard to believe I actually like you?"

"No one likes me, dearie."

"Isn't that my choice?"

She smiled, her hands rested against his chest. Belle didn't wait for an answer she just pulled him to her by the lapels of his waistcoat and crashed their lips together once more. He tasted like tea and the tomato soup she'd lovingly made for him. Suddenly Zane rose to his feet with her still in his arms and Belle wrapped her legs around his waist – it still amazed Zane at how light she actually was – he carried her up the stairs and threw Belle down on his bed where she bounced softly.

The Sergeant took a moment to just look at Belle, at her beauty. Chestnut colored hair like cape around her angelic face, skin so soft and supple that it was purer than snow. Eyes bluer than any ocean and filled with an indescribable spark, she's perfect. Belle smiled up at him as her delicate hands ran teasingly over her body, daring him into another display of dominance.

Gold opened the buttons of his dark waistcoat as he knelt on the bed leaning over her, their bodies so close that he could feel her generator vibrating in her chest. His large hands came to lift her pale green dress up over her head only to throw it off to a corner as though it offended him. Zane caressed her body with nips and sucks, marking her porcelain skin with tiny purple bruises – or at least he hoped they'd leave some mark - hands running up her flanks before reaching behind her back to open her bra and pull it off, she's going to be the death of me, he settled his hands on her hips. Belle parted her legs letting him settle between while she tugged his waistcoat off then nimbly unfastened the buttons of his shirt and pushed it down his shoulders; he cast it off much the same as he had with her dress.

"You're beautiful." He told her truthfully before taking a nipple into his mouth; she moaned and threw her head back.

Zane slipped his hand down her smooth stomach to her clit, fingers teasing her wet sex.

"Zane!"

She moaned loudly, fingers snaking into his magnificent hair and gripped so tight it hurt. That sound, that delectable sound, made him surge with primal pride, a growl that rumbled through his chest and into Belle's own. Slowly Gold slipped the sinfully lacy lilac panties down her supple thighs leaving the goddess naked before him. The Sergeant slipped down her body leaving delicate kisses in his wake as talented fingers circled her needy core, the grip she had on his hair only grew tighter, bordering on the boundary between pain and pleasure. His fingers moved within her, mapping the beauty from the inside with nothing but touch. Zane could feel her walls start to quiver, she was close and he didn't even have the brain power to question how an android felt like that. Gold wasn't known to be a kind man so he stopped and eyed her teasingly before pressing a gentle kiss to her inner thigh. When his mouth finally touched her Belle all but purred in delight, arms wrapped around her legs and a talented tongue set to work. Gold's mouth was perfect and she felt her orgasm start to build rapidly, no man had ever made her feel this before, his tongue circled her sex before dipping into her. Belle couldn't speak, couldn't think. Her hips bucked without her consent, hands keeping him in place.

So close. Just a little bit more. Just a little...

"Oh God!"

She gasped desperately, the sound of ecstasy racing through him and filling Zane with an animal-like pride. He watched with a grin as her her mouth hung open in a silent moan. Gods she's beautiful.

"Zane, I need you. Please." She pleaded, hands clawing at him until the older man consented to being pulled back up her breathtaking body for a deep and passion filled kiss.

How could he ever say no to her? He couldn't deny the needy goddess before him. At almost lightning speed the older man shredded himself of his remaining clothing, uncaring that the expensive tailored fabric had just slumped to the floor in a pile and pulled Belle down the bed to him by the backs of her knees. There was that dominant side she loved so much, a little spark that revealed just how powerful he truly was.

This wasn't about making love, not entirely anyway, it was about need, passion, fire and want, all the sinful desires that tasted so sweet and quickly became addictive. With one last gaze into her magical blue orbs Gold gripped her hips tightly and slammed into her; Belle moaned. His thrusts weren't gentle, they were hard and deep, powerful and quickly began to rip away her ability to speak or think in anything other than whimpers and gasps. Her yellow painted fingers reached up to grip the solid wooden frame of his bed when he took one of her rosy nipples back into his mouth.

Their bodies met in a perfect rhythm; delicate but overflowing with heated passion. Belle's tongue made its way into Gold's mouth readily as they became one, mapping out his mouth desperately, raking her tongue across his teeth causing his thrusts to become erratic for a second or two. Belle was dangling on the very edge, looking down into the euphoric depths below with her darling partner not far behind her, she wiggled her hips in just the right way, teasing, and send him into a primal rut, thrusting like his life depended on it. It was then that the auburn haired beauty grew needier and Gold flipped them, his long and talented fingers gripped her hips leaving tiny little dents over her synthetic porcelain skin, puling her down onto him, impaling her. Belle leaned down to kiss him again, gasping at the new angle and the way her kissed nipples grazed against his smooth chest.

It was then that she could take it no longer and plunged into the smouldering waters of bliss and euphoria her body clamped down around the Sergeant as she rode her orgasm, pulling him over the edge and into climax with her.

"Zane!"

She screamed out his name, back arching into his touch. Finally Belle collapsed against Gold's surprisingly strong chest, happy and warm.

He lay there panting for a time with Belle rested against him, her temperature regulating breaths just as normal as they always were. It had been a long time for Gold but he didn't remember sex ever having been that good. Sweat had gathered in little beads on his forehead wetting the greying hair at his temples as he stared up at the ceiling.

"I can see why your model was used as a sex bot." He breathed.

From anyone else Belle would have found that insulting but from Zane it was just another one of his quips, there was no malice to it.

"I had no idea I could feel that." She told him truthfully. "I've never activated my sexuality program before."

"I didn't realised you'd be able to cum."

"It's not the same as when human girls do, I don't tingle or anything. In fact I got more pleasure from the fact you were enjoying yourself." Belle rolled over to face him, her hand rested against his chest. "It's like... It's like when my battery is almost entirely flat and I plug myself into a charging station, like I'm alive. That's the only way I can think of to describe it and even that isn't right."

"You don't have to explain to me, Belle." He'd intended to say more but a yawn cut him off.

"Could I stay with you until you fall asleep?" She asked softly. "I'll need to charge before tomorrow but I'd like to stay here with you a little while longer."

"Of course you can, Sweetheart, you can stay as long as you like."

Gold pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead then closed his eyes and let sleep take him.