The next chapter is supposed to be heavy. BUT...I can't, can't, cannot wait to post the one that comes after that! I'm very, very excited to be posting chapter 30! But no comment on the content, so no spoilers!

IF I ever decide to write a love story for Gaston, two things must be clear: 1, no matter how cute Luke Evans is, I refuse to pair him up with Belle! Belle belongs with Adam! I have read some cute Gaston/Belle pairing stories that I'll admit I have enjoyed. But even as sweet as they are, I still have this awkward feeling of them being together. I know that personally, I can't do it. When I read of Adam and Belle together, it all feels absolutely natural to me. So, IF Gaston is to find a girl in my stories, she will have to be someone else.

2 IF Gaston falls truly in love with someone, I cannot write him as the selfish, dastardly, brutish man he was in the movie. He must be different. He must be a man of integrity, like Maurice. I CANNOT watch him harm Maurice the way he did in the movie and feel sorry for him! He was a real monster. So, if he is to be a married man in my book, he will need the characteristics he portrayed in Vlad Tepes. Also, I can't seem to just make him an automatic hero from the start of BATB, because then people will really, really think Belle is crazy not to marry him! Just because two people look good together doesn't mean that it was destined to happen. I like the idea of him learning to be a better person and at least becoming Belle's friend. IF Gaston finds another girl, I want someone that feels easy and perfectly natural to write him with, at least for me.

BTW, if anyone's interested, I've written my first Dracula Untold fanfic! Crazy, I know.


Belle and Adam took a much deserved week-long honeymoon traveling to far off places. They missed their loved ones back at the castle, but they relished in their time alone. The castle didn't feel right without them, and everybody missed them very much.

Gaston was still trying to accept that he wasn't getting out of the dungeon any time soon. He'd known it, but processing it in his mind was the hard part. He was not a free man. He was confined, and that bugged him because he was used to being outdoors and coming and going as he pleased. He longed for his freedom, but he hoped that this hard time would give him peace when it was over. That his conscience would feel wiped clean. That was what he wanted more than anything! Pere Robert had told him that God had forgiven him when he asked for it, but Gaston still had a hard time seeing himself as someone worth caring about in God's eyes. He wondered if his mother was discussing him back and forth up there with her Maker.

Gaston was grateful for company, but he honestly preferred to see Lefou more than his sister. He was thankful that Lissa even wanted to be around him, but her presence always made him feel sad and rotten in the back of his mind. Gaston was slowly beginning to see other truths he hadn't realized before. His passed actions had been more than just trying to have control. Lissa was a lot like Alice, in more ways than one. And when Gaston had returned from the war motherless, he'd subconsciously started controlling Lissa, not aware that in his heart, he was truly punishing his mother for leaving him. And every time Lissa had scolded him or whatever to keep him on track, it had been as if his mother was trying to remind him to do the right thing, even if she wasn't physically there. Gaston suddenly understood now: he did love his sister, dearly, but it began to dawn on him that when he'd found her near dead from the wolves and had held her in his arms trying to keep her from slipping away, it had been almost as if he was holding his mother, this time trying to keep her alive! That was another reason Lissa's whole ordeal with the wolves had shaken him up so badly, more than anyone expected. His mother had visited him in a dream, telling him to his face what he really was, and right after that his sister had almost been eaten alive in front of his very eyes. It had been as if he'd been verbally reprimanded and then given a punishment that was severely misplaced. There were times that he wished he had been attacked by the wolves instead of Lissa. That he wished they had just killed him off.

Before he had been arrested, Gaston had found himself watching Belle and Adam's interactions. Curiosity? Definitely! Jealousy? Eh...a bit, yes. But also, he just plain wanted to know what it was that Belle saw in Adam that she'd never seen in him. He'd been watching the prince closely, evaluating his moves. What dawned on him was that although Adam flirted with her, the prince was at her side when she was happy and sad. He looked out for her needs, not just physical protection but also her emotional well-being. Adam always gave her his 'certain look'. When he walked with Belle hanging onto his arm, his face and attitude didn't say, "Hey, look at me! Look what I won, boys! Finally caught the big one!" Rather, Adam's poise radiated pure joy, saying, "Look at the priceless treasure I've been given! She's wonderful, she is my greatest gift that I don't deserve. But how can I not help but love her?" Adam always looked happy just to be near Belle, just to look at her and know that she was happy. Gaston was ashamed to admit it, but he had always looked at Belle with hungry desire, wanting something from her that he felt she owed him. He'd also always told her what to think of him, instead of trying to learn her true feelings. He'd been pushy, totally stupid, and above all, completely selfish and conceited! Belle was right: he had been boorish...and brainless!


Gaston knew he'd done some horrible things in the past, and in the eyes of God, he had used women for his own pleasure. He was deeply ashamed of it now, but he couldn't undo what he'd already done. What he could do, was do things differently. "I don't deserve love. Anyone's love!" Gaston told himself. It would be a miracle if someday he could ever find true love! But his chances for that was one in a million. He decided to resign himself to the fact that he was unworthy of any woman's hand, and that he would never find someone to love him unconditionally after the things he'd done. He was a criminal, he was a playboy, a predator, a liar, a murderer, a chiseler, now a social outcast, and a hypocrite. He knew in his heart that he would NEVER grant Lissa's hand to a person like that! Not in a million years. And no wise father would either. He was destined to remain a bachelor hunter on this earth. For who could ever learn to love a miserable sinner like him?

Something else he now knew too. All these years, Lissa had been a constant reminder to him that his mother was gone forever. Although he did love his sister and have brotherly, protective, playful affection for her, sadly, Lissa now unintentionally served Gaston as a new reminder, of what a rotten jerk and bonehead he had been. He didn't like to think that way of her, it just happened. She didn't bring up the past very much, trying to bury it and move on. But every time he laid eyes on her, he remembered her painful words when he'd saved her from the wolves, when she'd begged him not to be angry while she was dying before his eyes! He would never forget that horrible moment as long as he breathed. It was engraved in his mind. Gaston should have seen his sister as a reminder now of how changed he was, but though he knew that was true, his depressed feelings kept bringing up that she was here to remind him every day of his black past.