Gold stepped out of the car onto the black tar of the parking lot. He could see the park from where they were and the banner, strung between two trees, that said "Law Society Charity Picnic and Soccer Tournament."

His mouth gave a brief twist. He'd gone back to work and had tried a few major cases since he'd been shot, but he'd not been to any law conferences or big events since. People knew what had happened to him of course, the law society papers and professional grapevine made sure of that, but he hadn't actually been seen by most of them.

Suddenly, he was acutely aware of every new scar on his body standing out uncomfortably in high relief. His right leg, in its thick new athletic brace suddenly felt like it was made of brick. He touched the palms of his hand to the hot metal of the car door behind him, trying to get a grip on himself, but his cruel mind only flashed back to another day in another parking lot and the same feel of hot metal under his hands as he slipped down this very car door, lying on the ground in shock, staring at the jagged edges of bone protruding from his leg, wondering where Belle was and if she was alive before he blacked out…

Belle looked at Gold. His eyes were fixed on the innocuous black tar of the parking lot in front of him, but she quickly realized that wasn't what he was seeing. His breath was coming in shallow gasps now, his mouth twisting into a much different expression to the one he'd worn mere moments before, laughing and joking with her about his backwards soccer jersey in the car. Now he was someplace else entirely.

"Ian? Ian? Ian what's going on?" Belle's voice came to Gold from far far away.

Belle was okay, he quickly remembered, with a flood of relief. Belle had survived. And not only Belle, Gold amended, he, Ian Gold was here too. He'd survived and found love and found his son and his grandson on top of that. He, Ian Gold was doing okay.

Belle's hand was reaching out to him, he saw now. He gripped it as he took a shaky breath, feeling reality return to him. "I'm okay," he said as much to himself as to her.

Belle put her arm around him. "Are you sure, Ian? What's wrong?"

"The car— parking lot- flashbacks, you know."

She nodded. She knew what it felt like. "You're all right. Just keep telling yourself that. That's what works for me, remembering that you're here now. We both are," she said softly.

He sighed. He never thought it'd be so hard just to get across a parking lot and that a person could feel so afraid of absolutely nothing. He felt so weak and ashamed.

"Belle, do you think it's kind of cowardly, you know…to be afraid…that people will… that they'll…" he waved his hand vaguely, not wanting to finish the sentence, to admit all the ways his mind could think of to finish that sentence: stare, laugh, think I look weird when I run and a half dozen other things that had him frozen to his spot by the car as if he'd grown roots.

"I don't think it's cowardly at all, but it's not true, what you're thinking. They're your friends—"

"Competitors," he said bitterly.

"Mostly friends," she said. "You don't see it, but lots of people like you. They care about you."

He laughed. "Don't you believe it. Bloody lawyers."

"Look, if they don't they're fucking idiots, okay? Anyway, you have to see them sometime, Ian."

"No I don't. Not really. I could hide in the trunk."

"What?"

"Like that vampire guy in Forever Knight."

"Seriously Ian, I don't think there are airholes."

"Nobody would be the wiser."

"Really? Not even them?" Belle jerked her head at two forms coming across the parking lot towards them, one big, one small.

"Dad! Belle!" shouted Neal. "I thought that was your car!"

"Gran'pa Crocodile! They have hot dogs!" cried Killian and reached for Gold's hand.

Without thinking Gold took Killian's hand and let the small boy pull him away from the side of the car, moving across the parking lot to the park at last, with Neal and Belle close at his heels.

As soon as his feet touched the grass with Killian at his side he felt better, more like himself. Somehow he was no longer afraid. Belle and Neal and Killian were there. It didn't matter what anyone else thought, he realized. Only them. Let everyone else say whatever they want.