Belle noticed Gold was less grumpy, he even spent the afternoon playing some old board games with Bae. She also noticed when the next weekend rolled around again, that he was back to his usual hobbling. She had told the man he only needed to ask, so did she really need to remind him? She waited another whole week for Gold to speak up, but he never did. Belle waited for Gold to return on Saturday evening. It was almost dark, and she had a big pot of freshly made soup softly bubbling away on the stove.
"Can I do anything for you, miss French?" Gold asked as he stepped inside and noticed Belle glaring at him with her arms crossed.
"Belle. I would like for you to answer a question for me."
"I am not going to call you anything else, miss French." Gold said and turned around after he shrugged off his coat and hung it up on a peg. "Anything else?" Belle scoffed at that before her face softened a little.
"Why do you keep walking around like this when you are in so much pain?" She softly asked as she took a step towards him, placing her hand on his arm to have his complete attention. "Why did you not ask for the bucket with water like I offered?"
"I appreciate your kindness, but there is no need for you to worry about my wellbeing. You are here for my son, and only for him." Gold said before he stepped past her, disappearing in his study a moment later. Belle stood there for a moment thinking about what the man had said. Why did the man feel the need to hide things for her? She sighed and shook her head before she went to cook dinner. Instead of calling for Baelfire to come, she walked up to his room and knocked before entering.
"Belle?" Bae asked confused when he looked up. "Is dinner ready? I am starving."
"Dinner is ready." Belle nodded.
"Is something wrong?" Bae asked as he pushed himself away from his desk.
"Your father's foot is hurting him again and he does not want me to help him, it seems." Belle said with a shrug.
"Papa will be fine. He is always hurting when it is cold." Bae said, he neither had any idea how to help his papa.
"Let's go and have some dinner, maybe I will think of something." Bae nodded and wheeled himself to the dining room as Belle knocked upon the door of Gold's study. "Dinner is ready." She called through the closed door. Not waiting for a reply, she went to the kitchen and filled three bowls with soup.
"Smells delicious, Belle." Baelfire beamed up. Belle put down the bowls as Gold came in and seated himself. Belle sat down to eat as well. The dinner affair was quiet right until Bae had finished his meal. "Can we all watch a movie together again?"
"Sure, go and pick out a movie." Belle said with a smile and stood to gather up the dishes.
"Please." Bae said, looking at his father with puppy eyes.
"Very well, just give me a moment, I will join you in a minute." Gold said before he stood himself. Bae nodded and got himself settled on the sofa while Belle quickly cleaned up everything. When she entered the living room with the tea tray, she noticed Gold was not there yet. She handed the boy his mug with tea and a biscuit. She gave Bae a wink after she nestled herself in the large wing back chair.
"Have you already picked out something?"
"I did. I want to wait until papa returns." Bae responded as he got the blanket that was in the basket next to the sofa. Gold came in after a few minutes. He raised an eyebrow at Belle sitting in his usual spot before he turned and took the place next to Bae on the sofa. Bae flashed a smirk to Belle before he crawled up against his father. "You can start the movie." He told Belle.
"All right." Belle said and started the movie. She occasionally watched father and son from the corner of her eye and could not help but smile a little when Gold wrapped his arm around Bae, who obviously made himself comfortable. Baelfire was nearly asleep by the time the movie had ended. Gold motioned for Belle to be silent before he carefully moved the boy in his arms. Belle then took the boy from his father, making sure he was all properly dressed and tucked in. She offered Gold a little smile when she found the man lingering in the doorpost, quietly watching them.
"He is all tucked in for the night. If you have nothing else for me to do, I will clean up the living room before I go to bed."
"Have a good night, miss French." Gold said and after the last look at his son, he softly closed the door.
"Belle." Belle called over her shoulder as she went to clean up. When she emerged from the kitchen, Gold was nowhere to be seen, he probably had gone to bed as well.
*BRB*
Gold was not present at breakfast the next morning. Hot water was still in the kettle on the stove, so Belle knew the man was already up and about. She was not on duty today, but she really did not mind spending time with Bae or needed to make breakfast for the boy.
"Where is papa?" Bae asked as soon as he wheeled himself into the dining room and noticed the empty spot at the head of the table.
"I have no idea. Maybe he forgot to do something important." Belle tried to reason. Bae gave a small shrug before he settled for his breakfast. "What do you want to do today, Bae?" Belle asked as she finished her food and settled for sipping her tea.
"Don't know." Bae shrugged. "The trees lost almost all their leaves so I don't think going for a walk will be that pretty anymore."
"We can still go for a walk if you like that. We can also see if there is a nice movie in the theatre, or we can go and craft something."
"Can we bake cookies?" Bae asked after a moment.
"I will go and check the pantry if we have everything here." Belle said with a little smile before she got up.
"I want to make Empire biscuits." Bae said as he followed her into the kitchen.
"I don't think I ever made Empire biscuits before." Belle said, looking at Bae. "What do we need to make them?"
"Well, we just make biscuits and then stick two together with a layer of jam in between. I am sure papa will love them as well. We used to make them together all the time before the accident."
"All right, let's go and make some biscuits after I cleaned up the kitchen." Belle got out all three cooking books she could find. "Go and see if you can find them anywhere in these." She told Bae and put the books down on the kitchen table. When she had cleaned up everything, she got out some cookie cutters and other utilities she knew they needed.
"Here it is!" Bae happily exclaimed, almost making Belle drop the bag of flour she had in her hands.
"All right, what else do we need?" Belle asked and gathered everything they needed before she and Bae set out to make the dough. Soon they had the first load of dough circles baking in the oven. The second load of biscuits were reserved for the odd shapes Bae liked to make.
"I can't wait to have one." Bae said as he watched the biscuits through the window of the oven.
"Well, we need to wait until they cool down before we can apply the jam." Belle reasoned. "So, we better have some lunch first."
"Can't I have a biscuit for lunch?" Bae asked as he sat up and turned to Belle.
"Not unless you want your father to behead me for feeding you biscuits instead of lunch." Belle said with a wink.
"I'll defend you. You know no one can withstand my puppy eyes." Bae cheekily told her before he wheeled himself into the dining room, waiting for Belle to bring out the baskets. She once again wondered where Gold was, even though they were a bit earlier with lunch than usual. "Do you think we can bring papa some biscuits when we have finished?" Bae asked halfway through his sandwich.
"I am sure he will love them." Belle nodded and left the baskets out when they returned to the kitchen to finish the first batch of biscuits. They either applied a thick layer of strawberry or apricot jam on the biscuits, reserving the hazelnut and chocolate paste for several biscuits of the second load. She cleaned up when they waited for the second batch to cool down. In the end, they had two plates full of delicious biscuits, already tested by the looks of the crumbs on Bae's face.
"Go and clean yourself up, then I will go and see if your father wants to come and join us for some biscuits and tea."
"Yes, Belle." Bae replied and wiped his hands and face on a washcloth. She ruffled Bae's curls before she went to look for Gold.
To Belle's surprise, she found Gold sitting in front of the fireplace in his usual spot. He had his feet elevated on a small stool and a book in his hands. Even more surprising was that Belle had never seen the man dress so casual. Instead of wearing his usual leather shoes, the man only had thick woollen socks on his feet and a very dark green sweater instead of his suit jacket. Neither was there a tie in sight.
"Can I do something for you, Dearie?" Gold asked as he looked up from the book.
"Tea and a freshly baked biscuit?" Belle offered, quickly recovering.
"That sounds like a good idea." Belle nodded and returned to the kitchen.
"Bae!" She scolded, finding the boy halfway through a biscuit. "Why don't you arrange a plate of biscuits that will go with the tea?" She asked as she put up water to make tea. Bae shot her a grin and finished his biscuit before taking a third plate and putting some biscuits on there. Once the tea tray was ready, Belle and Bae went to the living room.
"Hi papa!" Bae happily greeted as he followed Belle before parking himself at the other side of the saloon table. "You have to taste the biscuits Belle and I baked. They are really good!"
"By the sound of it, you had already more than enough biscuits for today." Gold said with a raised eyebrow before he put a marker in the book and put it aside.
"You should not spoil your appetite for dinner." Belle chimed in as well. She handed both men one of the cups before offering Gold the plate of biscuits.
"Thank you." Gold said as he picked a biscuit with apricot jam. Belle took one with chocolate spread before she sat back, munching on her biscuit.
"Do you like them?" Bae asked as soon as Gold up the last bite in his mouth. He calmly finished his bite and washed it away with a sip of tea.
"It has been a long time since I had these. They still taste as I remember." Bae beamed at the praise. After a while, Gold even had a second biscuit as Bae happily chatted about everything and nothing even continued when Gold stood to cook dinner.
"You had way too many biscuits." Belle shook her head in amusement before she stood and went to set the table, and box the biscuits so Bae could not simply sneak out a couple.
A/N Please Read and Review! I hope you liked this chapter, please let me know!
