To Rikku Shinra (which I meant to put on the last chapter but then I didn't then I deleted the document then three hours later I remembered. Sorry) : Oh I'm so delighted to hear that! Thank you for letting me know what you think! And thank you for reading and loving these snippets! Here's to many more!
Happy Reading! :D
Summary: Gaston and Belle meet their first grandchild.. but not without some problems.
Number of years married: 25
Sons: 5
Daughters: 4
Grandchildren: 1
~:~ Peter ~:~
Louisa gripped Nathaniel's hand tightly as they both sat patiently waiting for his parents' approval of their new son Peter.
She knew her husband had eight other siblings, one of which had just turned three and was currently trying get Leo, her brother, to look at a drawing she made. But Louisa was the second youngest in her family. The youngest was Leo who was sixteen.
It's not that she didn't approve of Nathaniel's siblings or his parents' plain love amd admiration for one another...
She tensed when her son started to make a fuss. She sat forward to take him from Belle but the woman didn't hand him over. She tried not to grow impatient and needy.
Nathaniel kept his arm around her as if she were to forcefully take the child from his parents. "They know what they're doing," he whispered gently.
Of course she knew that! But even that reassurance wouldn't calm her. "But he's been making such a fuss lately and it's hard to quiet him- I just don't want him to start screaming as he has been-"
"Shh," he soothed. He gave a nod toward his parents.
She looked back to see Gaston holding her fussy baby. Her breath hitched. She knew he was a kind man.. but he was first a gruff hunter. She was uncomfortable. "His cries are getting louder. He needs me-"
"Louisa, Louisa. He's alright," he tried gently. He knew where her attitude was headed and he hoped she wouldn't make a scene.
"How can you be so calm?" she hissed with a fierce glare.
He squeezed her hand. "Because by being the oldest, I have inadvertently been volunteered to help care for them starting with Thomas when they were infants. You know this, dear."
But she frowned and spoke against her husband. "Monsieur Gaston, may I have my son?"
The hunter looked up at the very formal name but obliged. He stood and placed the whimpering baby back in her arms. He sat beside Belle again, taking up her hand and placing a small kiss on her palm.
Nathaniel watched his wife get up and leave the room in haste. He noticed she seemed to be comforting herself more than Peter. He glanced at his parents - apology must have shown on his face because his father spoke.
"It's natural for her to feel overprotective of her child," he smiled.
He let out a hesitant laugh at that. "Glad you're so understanding." He cringed as it sounded self-pitying.
Belle sat forward. "What is it like at her parents'? Are they sour towards her? Towards your son?"
Nathaniel knew he had said too much. "No, no. They're fine- wonderful, even."
"Does she not approve that you have a sister who is nearly his age?" Gaston wondered none too lightly.
He wished he hadn't been so open with his parents. "No, no. She's fine with it- wonderful about it." He met his father's unconvinced gaze and then it all came pouring out. "She's overwhelmed with everything and I can't calm her. I tell her I have experience in caring for babies and she becomes angry with me like she should know before me and that I should do is go to work and not be around my son. I spoke to Captain Alois and he said her mother was the same way. That he was hardly present during his children's upbringing."
"Captain Alois is a very proud man," Gaston spoke. "Shame he wasn't proud enough to choose a better wife- ow!" he grunted as Belle sharply elbowed his side.
Nathaniel continued, "I don't want to be like that. I love her but-"
He cut him off with a stern tone. "Don't. You love her. You keep loving her. You work it out amongst yourselves."
"She doesn't listen to me!" he snapped suddenly.
Belle took that as her cue to leave. She squeezed Gaston's hand then scooped Elle from her perch on Leo, saving the young man from his prison sentence by the toddler. "Let's go look for Auntie Louisa, shall we darling?" she suggested bubbly to her daughter.
She stepped out onto the porch and spotted Louisa standing under the tree still trying to soothe Peter. She looked at the young woman - she could easily tell she was just a few days away from losing her sanity.
"Hello," she greeted softly.
Louisa looked over her shoulder and gave Belle a stiff smile. "I'm fine, Madame," she brushed off. "So is Peter. He's just not had his nap today."
Elle squirmed and she set her down. "Of course, Louisa. I wasn't going to inquire. You should know everything that's going on with your child. I understand." She sat on the ground in the shade and leaned against a stone.
"I quite forgot what it was like to have a child that small," she mused aloud. "It was bittersweet to hold him, but I know he'll be deeply loved by both his parents."
Louisa frowned. "Forgive me, Madame, but isn't she-" She pointed to Elle. "- three years old?"
Belle laughed lightly and watched her little girl pick her way through the garden. "She is. So you think I should not be so emotional over it?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, well, uhm, no I uh-" the woman stuttered.
"I thought I was too old to have any more children and then one day, well," she smiled to herself. "One day that was not the case."
The sound of a cabbage squishing in the dirt caught both women's attention. Louisa gave a short and scandalized gasp. Had she or any of her brothers and sister been caught doing that, they would have been sent to work in the stables for punishment. She looked to Belle who seemed like this was not the first time someone had done that.
"I swear, sometimes.. that man," she huffed goodnaturedly. "She must do everything her papa does. I'm very lucky he doesn't sing that song of his anymore.. She'd repeat it!"
"Your- your husband so carelessly steps on your produce?" Louisa feared she would start hyperventilating with such news.
Belle shrugged. "I believe he only does it when I'm around. It's more of an old joke than purposely destroying the cabbages. But Elle's seen him too many times and now-" She caught her daughter as she jumped and landed solidly against her. "She does it herself. Always has to be watched when she's outside, otherwise..." she laughed.
Louisa joined her mother-in-law on the ground. Peter was still putting up a fight.
"May I?" Belle asked, gesturing to the baby.
"I'd rather you not," she winced. She held Peter tightly as if Belle would take him by force.
Elle scampered away again and went to stir up more trouble.
"Forgive me, Louisa, but is your mother staying with you?" she tried to ask innocently. "I know if my Julia were to have a child of her own, I'd stay with her for a few months, you know, to show her the ropes of motherhood."
The young woman grew cold. "It's none of your business."
She pursed her lips. "Listen, Louisa. Gaston and I adore you and we see you as our own daughter. If you ever need help-"
Louisa scoffed sharply. "I am Peter's mother, not you. I should know how to care for him."
Belle watched Elle climb the steps and push the front door open.. then she was off again no doubt to her father.
She sighed. "I never knew my mother. I hadn't really thought about raising kids.. I was more worried if their father would approve. We weren't getting along well even though he was adamant he loved me. But I wondered if he would grow to resent me.
"I wondered if I were to bear a child, would he despise it if it were any less perfect than he? If it were girl? Would he be cruel and heartless? I had heard the stories of his father... Would the apple not fall so far from the tree?
"I told him I was with child and he surprised me. He was so happy..." She smiled fondly at the memory. "I'd never seen him so happy. And a weight was lifted for a while.
"Then a new fear rose as my time grew near." She fidgeted her hemline. "I worried that he wouldn't be a father to our kids. I feared he was going to leave me to raise them while he spent his days in the tavern because raising children was woman's work.
"Oh but he was enraptured by our son, Louisa. So smitten." She closed her eyes thinking if she could remember that day, she could wake up and her little Nathie would still be in her arms, not all grown up. "We hardly had any sleep that night. We were too in love with him to need any.
"In the middle of the night, I told him he didn't have to stay up. That I would take care of the baby-" A laugh cut her off. "He told me it was I who needed rest. That he would be with Nathie, caring for him.
"Oh, Louisa, I cried and cried. Here was this man I had treated and kept treating so unfairly but yet, he did everything he could to be a good husband and father.
"We learned together. We learned how to care and raise our kids. He had been an only child, his mother miscarried a baby girl when he was ten. He seldom speaks about his mother. She died when he was off to war. Papa could only give us so much advice. The rest we had to figure out ourselves.
"And when Nathaniel was five, we had Thomas. We didn't want our children to be dependent and know little of how to care for one another. So we had him help out a bit and from there and each child after, he learned how to care for infants and toddlers. Everyone did."
She looked at her daughter-in-law. "He doesn't mean to know more than you. Yes, you are Peter's mother but he is Peter's father. Raising a child is like marriage, Louisa, it takes working together. And no one expects it to be perfect."
Peter was still crying. And Louisa tearfully handed him over to Belle. "If- if your offer still stands, I'd like for you to stay with us for a bit."
Belle smiled.
"You ladies need any help?" Gaston asked from the porch.
"He's still being fussy, my love," Belle sighed. Then she gave him a grin. "Want to have a go?"
He matched her grin and soon lifted the unhappy boy from her.
Belle watched knowingly and Louisa watched with awe as Peter's cries slowly ceased to soft whimpers.
"Mon-Monsieur Gaston, would you be interested in staying with us for a few weeks... you know, helping out?" Louisa asked.
Belle feigned hurt. "I thought it was settled I'd go?"
Louisa gave a small and shy glance.
"I am only teasing, love. I think Gaston would be a better choice too."
Belle's words, man, I have no idea where they came from...
Sorry if Louisa seemed bitchy. I pictured her coming from a more well-off family. And whose parents weren't so in love as Gaston and Belle.
