A/N: This is it guys. The final chapter. After this there will be a shorter Epilogue to wrap up the story and then it's done!


Three more times. Three more times he invited people up to the house and allowed them to tromp across his property, enter his house, his sacred sanctuary. Three more times and Belle was absolutely perfect. She was terrified to start with each and every time. But he would watch as she took a few deep breaths, met his eyes for a moment, leaned down to scratch Bandit between the ears.

He watched her release the dog and each time it seemed she did it with a little bit more confidence. The shake to her voice as she spoke was almost gone by the second time and completely gone by the third. By the time she walked out to the field the fourth time, she walked with a confidence in her step that he hadn't seen before.

Or at least, not since she had strode into his life in her high heels and ridiculously short skirt and demanded a job mucking out a sheep barn.

She had completely upended his life. She had brought a sense of contentment he couldn't ever remember having. She had brought…dare he even admit it?...happiness. He returned from errands and felt happy at coming home. His house wasn't the lonely one up on the hill. It was his home. And it was Belle's.

And it was going to be Baedden's, come hell or high water.

He had spoken to so many lawyers in the past few weeks. While Belle had been out on the field practicing, taking care of getting the sheep out to the hill and back in from grazing each day, keeping an eye on Dove, he had been making phone calls and sending letters. Milah had dumped her first lawyers after they told her she didn't have much of a case. With Baedden's making a decision and writing a statement to the court about his wishes, it meant Milah's chances of keeping him were dwindling and dwindling fast.

So she dumped the first lawyers and brought in a team known for harshly prosecuting fathers and digging up any sort of dirt. The fact that he was still single was detrimental to their case, certainly. And his lawyers had been pressuring him to perhaps find someone.

He hadn't told them he had someone.

And he wasn't going to allow the custody case to sway him in such a way. He would win fairly and without dragging Belle down into the muck with him. It was a dirty fight and if he asked her to marry him, and he couldn't say the thought hadn't crossed his mind, it was going to be because he wanted to, not because a bunch of lawyers told him he needed to in order to win his case.

He spoke to Baedden more often these days. His son had introduced him to something called Skype and it was such a relief to see his smiling face on the screen of his computer that he sometimes felt speechless.

When am I coming to live with you? Baedden asked, more often now as things continued to drag on.

Soon, son, soon…And he sent a silent thought to whatever deity might exist to end the whole thing and bring his boy home.

They could be a family. Him and his son and Belle. A proper family. The kind of family he always wanted. With a wife who adored him and a son who loved him and a whole big group of sheepdogs to keep them company.

It was one evening when Belle was out and he was talking to his son that he realized he loved her. He loved her. He wasn't even sure how the thought had come about. One moment his son had been talking about the latest game that had come out that he really wanted and the next he said something about Belle…I can't wait to show Belle!...and he realized, as he felt a strange clenching feeling in the middle of his chest, that he loved her.

Dear God

Thought of marriage, frankly, scared the hell out of him. His first had been so incredibly disastrous and that still hung so far over his head, that the thought of repeating it, of living it all over again, left him with a cold feeling of dread.

"Bae?" he had asked and at the strangely serious tone to his voice, his son had drawn up short. "What do you think of Belle?" The words came out in a rush and he watched as his son shrugged.

"I like her."

"Good," Gold answered, quickly. "Good then. I…"

"Are you gonna ask her to marry you?" His son sounded half curious, half annoyed. And he wasn't sure if he was annoyed at the thought of it or at his father for hesitating over it. But leave the boy to cut right to the heart of the matter.

Was he asking his son's permission?

Maybe so.

"Possibly." Did he want to? Could he put himself through that again? Put his heart and his entire life on the line? Put his son's heart on the line?

"I think you should," Baedden said and there was a grin playing about his lips. Then he watched as he glanced over his shoulder and leaned forward. "I gotta go." A pause, another look. "I love you, Dad."

And then the screen flickered and he was gone. Gold never even had a chance to return the sentiment. But his mind was really too muddled up to do much of anything at the moment.

He loved her, dammit all.

He hadn't realized how deep he was in until he was already drowning. Nowhere to go then but up.


"You've got this," Gold was saying to her. She was ready to step out onto the field. Any time now. The previous shepherd was just about done, his dog running circles around the sheep, only two in the pen.

"His dog is moving too fast," she murmured.

"Yes." She glanced at Gold for a moment and saw that he was smiling.

"What?"

"You've got this," he repeated.

Things had gone much smoother this time around. Cora had still attempted to intimidate. Belle had still put her in her place. But this time the rebuke was sharper, hotter. It meant more, somehow. And when Cora had insinuated that things would go horribly awry for Belle and that her daughter would win, he had simply stepped between the two and turned away from Cora, successfully herding Belle away from the older woman.

I'm not sheep, Belle had said and Gold had laughed. Actually laughed. People around them turned to watch, eyes wide, eyebrows up. As if they had never heard such a sound coming from him before. And maybe they hadn't. She well remembered the overly serious Gold she had first encountered.

A sound came from the bag slung over Gold's shoulder and his eyes lit up even more. "I have a surprise for you," he murmured, fishing around in his bag. The sound was louder as he pulled his tablet out of the bag and swiped a finger across it.

"Dad!" she heard coming from it. Baedden's excited voice, tinny though it was, came from the tablet. "Did I miss it?"

"Nope, son." She could hear the fondness in his voice. "She's right here."

He turned the tablet so she could see Baedden's face. When hers was in the little picture off to the side, she waved. "Hi Bae!"

"Hi Belle!" he said and waved back. "I wanted to see your big trial!"

Her heart melted just a little bit. "I'm glad you're here for it." And she meant the words, too. She cared about Baedden as if he were her own child. And that surprised her. She'd only known him a handful of days but she knew he was a special kid.

Gold turned the tablet back toward himself.

"Get out there," Gold said and before she could turn away, quickly reached out and gave her a hug. Just one small squeeze. Her eyes searched his face. There was something there, something she hadn't seen before, something tentative and wonderful all at the same time. She smiled, kissed him on the cheek and when he stepped back, she turned and walked purposely onto the field with Bandit.

As she stepped to the post, crook in hand, Bandit in a sit to her left, the sounds of the crowd dimmed around her. She focused on her breathing. One breath. Two. Deep, easy. It steadied her nerves and so when she was given the go ahead to start, she released Bandit with a simple, quiet command.

"Away to me." And Bandit did as she asked, moving counter clockwise away from her, shooting off to her right in a beautiful arc that ended with perfectly lifted sheep. The five sheep that the trial shepherds had separated from the rest made their slow and stately way down toward the first set of drive panels.

She whistled Bandit to slow down, to stop. And the dog listened, coming to halt exactly where she wanted to. The sheep settled and Belle sent Bandit just slightly around the sheep, slow and steady. Gold was right about that much at least. Slow and steady won the trial. There was no need to rush the dog and the sheep. She saw what happened when one rushed them. The dog gets stressed and grabs the sheep. Instant disqualification.

So she couldn't let that happen again. Slow and steady. Slow and steady. The dog moved closer to the sheep and the sheep burst forward, but then Bandit pushed around the outside, stopping the couple who were thinking about making a break for it.

And then the sheep were through it, moving as almost one, with Bandit just slightly behind them. She let out the breath she didn't realize she was holding as all five sheep made it through the drive panels.

Belle was concentrating so hard, she didn't even hear the audience applaud. They were watching, but she wasn't aware of it. She was locked into her own little world. Just her and Bandit and five sheep. She remembered telling Baedden it was a video game with live players and it felt that way. Move the joystick in the right way and the dog would move the sheep where she wanted them to go.

She let Bandit go then, allowed her to drive the sheep straight to her. This was something Bandit knew. Something she was expert at. Trust your dog. Gold had drilled those words into her mind over and over again. Trust her. She knows her job. And she did. The sheep came directly to her in an almost straight line that Bandit only once had to correct.

A whistle and Bandit moved around the sheep. Two sharp whistles and she stopped. The sheep moved off a little bit, but then slowed. Bandit crept up. The sheep were pushed further away, the line to the next set of gates straight on. This was the hard part. Sheepdogs frequently brought sheep directly to their handler. But driving them away, pushing away from the handler where the dog can't see them is the hardest part of a novice course. She had failed here before. It was so easy to fail.

But not this time. This time she was determined. She took a deep breath and allowed Bandit to drive them forward. She shifted her a few times, a whistle to the left, one to the right, kept the sheep moving in the same forward direction.

The judges were looking at the line of the sheep. A crazy erratic line was worth less than a nice straight line. And so while the line bobbled a little bit, while she had to correct and then correct again a few times, the line was fairly straight.

Just as they got to the drive gates, she watched it all start to fall apart. Bandit moved in too quickly, the sheep started to scatter. Two went through the gates, then a third, but Bandit was losing the other two who were looking more and more likely to bolt. Belle started to feel that familiar feeling of dread.

But then she remembered Gold. And Baedden. And all that he had done for her. She took a deep breath and whistled Bandit into a quick stop before sending her around the straggling sheep and pushing them forward.

And then she almost closed her eyes. She didn't want to see if it all went to hell. And yet she couldn't look away as first one and then finally the second sheep pushed through the drive gates. It was messy. It was absolutely imperfect. But it was beautiful. She had to stop herself from letting out a little squeal. She wasn't don, after all. She had to keep concentrating.

The dogs needed to come around the drive gate and back to her. And they did exactly that, turning as Bandit came around them and pushed them back toward her.

She stepped to the pen. Just a small metal contraption in the middle of the field. But it was the end of the course. Here dog and sheep and handler all came together to finish as one entity. Handler using crook to guide the sheep, dog pushing them forward, and then the gate shuts. And it's all over.

As the sheep got closer, she slowed Bandit and opened the gate. This was a tricky move, the hardest for a novice handler and sometimes it even flummoxed the more advanced handlers. So she took it easy, took the time to try to do it right. She'd rather run out of time for the course than rush this and screw it up.

So she took a deep breath and switched to quite voice commands. She didn't use those very often, the dog often working too far for the voice to carry to her. But here when it was quiet and intimate she was able to speak softly to her, guide her.

"Walk up." Bandit moved forward. "Slow." Long, drawn-out. Speak slowly and the dog will slow. It's as simple as that, Miss French. "Away to me." Bandit moved around the flock, counter clockwise. "Stop." She had Bandit right where she wanted her, the sheep directly between the dog and the pen. If she just moved forward, just a bit, slow and easy. "Walk up." Bandit moved. The sheep moved with her.

And then one at a time, they entered the pen. Belle stood at the gate and watched the first, the second, and then the last three crowd into the little pen. One command to Bandit pulled her back from the sheep and she shut the gate.

For a moment, she just stared at the sheep, turned and watched Bandit. She didn't hear the clapping. She didn't hear Gold's shout. Couldn't hear Baedden's shouting through the tablet. "That'll do," she finally said and walked back toward the gate. Bandit loped alongside her, tongue out, and made a beeline for the tub placed near the entrance.

It was where the dogs could cool off. And as Belle realized she felt warm all over, she almost wished she could join him there.

"Belle!" She looked away from where her dog at long last and blinked hard. Once, twice.

"Tavish." She spoke his name almost in a daze. And then she realized what she had done. "Tavish!" And this time his name was shouted. "We did it!"

She rushed forward, pushing the gate out the way and running straight into his arms. She didn't care who saw them, didn't care what anyone thought. And he wrapped his arms around her as he tugged her in close. "No, you did it."

She pulled away slightly. "It wasn't just me. It was Bandit. And you. You did this. You made this possible."

"Oh Belle," he whispered.

"Dad!" she heard come from the tablet.

"Baedden!" she shouted and pulled the tablet up to where she could see him. His grin was a mile wide.

"Congrats!" the boy shouted. "That was awesome."

"It was, wasn't it?" Gold said and she glanced up at him. His eyes were warm, kind. There was pride there, in the set of his mouth, in the eyes.

"It was," Belle agreed.

"I think Dad has something he wants to ask you," Baedden suddenly said and she didn't think it was possible, but his grin widened even further. "Gotta go!" he shouted and the screen went blank.

"Tavish?" Belle cocked her head slightly to the side as she looked away from the darkened tablet and met his eyes.

"Yes, well…" He glanced down at his feet for a moment and then looked up.

"Great job Belle!" came the voice from behind her.

"Nolan," Gold muttered.

"Thank you." She accepted the hug he offered and then hugged Mary Margaret as she came up behind him. "I still can't believe…"

"You had a good teacher," David said, reaching out to clap Gold on the shoulder.

Gold glared at David for a moment before speaking. "Yes, well, about that…" She watched as he gave a strange gesture to David and the other man shook his head.

"So is there going to be a next trial?" David asked.

"I don't know," Belle answered. She hadn't thought past this first one. She was only at the novice level. The extreme novice level at that, new dog, new handler. There was still a lot to learn, still so much Gold could teach her. If he were willing.

"Yes, yes, there will be other trials." Gold's voice was dry, almost annoyed.

"Only if you want to keep training me." She said the words with a wink and was happy to see him grin. There was a time when his sense of humor was sorely lacking, when any attempt at saying something funny was met with stony silence.

"Yes, well, about that…"

"Oh I think he'll keep training you," David chimed in with and she was surprised to hear Gold heave a huge sigh.

"Mr. Nolan," he said and the words were short, punctuated. "Could you please give Belle and I a little time." He made a sharp motion with his hand and David stopped, gave him a look.

And then grinned. "Of course." He moved off, tugging Mary Margaret along with him and whispering something in her ear. Belle heard her say Oh and then nothing else as they rushed off, laughing.

"I thought he'd never leave," Gold muttered.

"Is there something wrong?" She felt a small bit of dread roiling around in her stomach. Everything was going so well. With Gold, with his son, with the herding and Bandit and everything.

"What?" A furrow appeared between his brows. "No." He shook his head. "Nothing is wrong. At least, I don't think anything is wrong." He gave her an assessing look. "I suppose it could be. Possibly. Soon."

Belle reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. "Tavish…"

"Right." She watched him swallow hard. "I didn't want to do this here. I wanted to wait until we had a quiet moment at home or at a restaurant or someplace. I had grand ideas in my head but then, well, Baedden. And so here I am."

"Here you are…"

"Belle, when you arrived on my doorstep and demanded a job, I was completely closed off. Not just to you, but to everything. To friendship. To love. To having any relationship with my son. I was a shell of a human being."

"Tavish," she started to say.

He held up a hand. "Just let me finish?" At her nod, he continued. "I was going through the motions, expecting that to be enough. But then this woman, this crazy woman in 4-inch heels and an impossibly short skirt pounded on my door and told me I had to hire her. And I did. Out of spite. Never expecting her to open my heart, to repair the relationship with my son. To repair me." He put a hand over his heart. "My life is better and more complete than it ever has been before. And it's all because of you, Belle."

She watched him for a moment then let out a gasp. "What are you saying?" There was a strange sort of urgency behind the words.

"I love you, Belle."

She felt her insides melt, felt the tears hot in the corners of her eyes. "Oh Tavish, I love you so much." And then she was in his arms, his mouth on hers, his hands in her hair.

When they broke apart, he pulled her in tight to him. "Belle," he said and his voice cracked on the single syllable of her name. "I don't want to lose you."

"You're not going to," she whispered against his neck. "Never."

"Then marry me." The words came out on a rush and she pulled back, searched his eyes. "I don't have a ring." He gave her a self-deprecating smile. "I wasn't going to do this here. But I'm yours. If you'll have me."

He let the words hang and she broke out into a huge grin. "Yes." She pulled away for a moment and then hugged him again, her hands going up to tangle in his hair. "Yes, of course yes."

They kissed again and she didn't even care if they had an audience, didn't care that she heard David Nolan shout something like It's about time from across the way somewhere.

When they broke apart she reached up and put her hand on the side of his face and smiled. "I think we should go tell Baedden."

Gold nodded, his nose crinkling a little. "I'm sure he's dying to know your answer." She linked arms with him as she laughed. She hadn't felt this free, this happy in a long time.

Together, she and Gold, along with Bandit, made their way back to his truck, ready to head home. Truly her home now. And she wasn't sure she could have imagined anything better.