AN: Thank you for your patience in the update of this fic. I am also updating my Aladdin and Little Mermaid fics today so those will be out there if you want to see anything other which is Disney. I am also really excited about my new Big Hero 6 fic. Anyway, thank you for choosing to read this chapter 😊

Chapter Eight – Slit the Animal's Throat

After Isabella was in bed, Belle started to pace the hallways. She didn't know what to do. The first thing that she wanted to do was find Gaston and wring his neck and make sure he didn't hurt her treasured ones again. That might be a little too much. Then there was the want to find Adam but she was scared of what might have happened to him. After he had turned into a beast for real, he had wanted to distance himself from his daughter. Belle didn't find that anything but harmful to her daughter.

As she stood there, Cogsworth approached her. "I think that it would be a good idea to go up to the tower," he advised her and Belle nodded. She forced herself to smile through the pain though there was a lot of pain to fight through. She made her way to the tower before she saw blood covering the stones and the door wide open.

She put her hands to her mouth. No. Please, please, don't let this happen.

She looked around. He wasn't dead was he? He couldn't be. He didn't deserve this and she would never get over the pain if he was gone and he had left them. Even if he did look like a Beast, it was the same Adam inside that he had matured into. When he had been cursed the first time, he had been a child and the picture on the wall had been given to him by the enchantress of what he was supposed to look like when the last petal from the rose fell. Why was he going around answering palace doors anyway?

Then there was the feeling of rejection from his parents, the lack of love there. He had had to survive as a child by himself, of course he had built up feelings of self-centeredness and been spoiled. He had to defend himself and the idea of him being neglected made him see his once-childish attitude in a new light.

She looked all over the tower before she was approached by Fifi who looked out the window. "Madame," she curtseyed as she turned her attention to Belle. "I would check the grand dining room," she said and Belle looked at her nervously. "Word is that the Master has been taken there. I trust my light," she said and Belle studied her before nodding.

"Thank you," she told her before rushing off and as she hurried down the steps, almost tripping, her mind turned to horrific images. What had caused all of that blood? Was he able to survive through that? His body was bigger now, did that mean that he had more blood to give before he died? She hoped so. She didn't believe a human could survive that amount of blood loss.

Belle hurried down and opened the door to the room where there were a number of household staff seeing to the beast on the table. "Adam!" Belle gasped as she rushed over to him. She saw the way that his fur and the bandage around his throat was covered with blood and her eyes turned pained. He looked like he had been hunted and then slaughtered. "Adam," she trembled as she wrapped an arm around herself. It was getting harder and harder for her to breathe.

She saw him struggle to breathe and at least she knew that he was alive. This wasn't like when he protected her from the wolves, these injuries wouldn't heal so easily. What had he been thinking? How dare he think that to protect them that he had to leave them!?

"Belle?" Adam whispered with his eyes still closed and Belle walked over to him. She pulled out one of the chairs and knelt on it so that she could touch him as his large body was spread out on the table. She picked up his paw and held it to her cheek. She loved him. Even if he looked this way, she loved him.

"Please don't talk," she whispered as she felt the tears streaming down her face. "If it's painful, please don't talk, save your strength. I'm here," she told him, her hands holding his paw gently but still securely. "I'm here. I love you," she told him and he looked at her with pained eyes. He needed help and she was scared that he might not make it through the night.

"You're s-so beautiful," he told her and Belle shook her head. It wasn't that she didn't believe him. She knew that she was beautiful but she didn't want to hear him obsessing about something as trivial as appearances. He was quite a catch himself and he had been known to be attractive when human. Belle still found him attractive in this condition, she could see through the fur and the larger bones and see the man trapped inside there.

"I'm asking you not to talk, okay?" Belle said. She gently placed his paw on the table and then went to his head, putting his hand through the thick fur near his horn. She knew that he hated this form and how insecure it made him but it didn't matter, this was the way he was when she fell for him.

"You should get some rest," Lumiere told him and Belle nodded.

"I'll stay right beside you," she promised and he looked at her with a weak expression on his face. "I promise, I'll be right here," she said and Adam let his eyes close with Belle watching him. How could one man still remain so insecure and afraid with so many people loving him?

…

…

Belle heard the chime of the clock on the wall signaling that it was two in the morning and she felt her cheek hit the table. She paused as it finally connected to her that one moment she had her cheek on Adam's body and now it wasn't there anymore. Her heart started to pound faster. He wasn't gone, was he? He couldn't be gone!

She looked up and saw that Adam was human again but the bandage wasn't covering his throat anymore and he wasn't wearing any clothes, naked and shivering, uncovered on the table. She didn't know what had happened but of course there had to be some type of supernatural reason for this.

"Sweetheart," she whispered as she placed her hand on his back and he looked at her as he woke. His body was cold and he needed help. "Can we get a doctor in here!" she called out and he turned to her, his eyes showing that he was weakening. He had tried to end his life and now he was finding that he had nearly been successful at it.

"He-Hey," he struggled to say and Belle looked at the clock on the wall. She was fearful of what seeing his human side meant. Was this the reward that he received now that his life was drawing to a close. Belle didn't want to believe that to be the case.

"You just rest," she advised as she heard the medical staff enter and them talking about how much easier it was to help him when he was human. Belle held onto his hand. She was getting more concerned that he was in a human form again. When he had slept before she had told him that she loved him, he had always been a beast. Even when he was no longer awake, he had retained his form but now….

"I don't want you to leave me," she told him as she placed a hand on his cheek. "You have to fight, Adam, or I won't forgive you for leaving me." Adam blinked but saw the passion, determination, and most of all affection for him in her eyes. He nodded before remaining silent, trying to keep control of his breathing. He grabbed her hand and held it tight and she squeezed it back. The doctors were managing to treat him and Belle saw the clothes that he wore in his beast form on the table next to him. More than likely, he'd turn back, but she wanted to save him and human anatomy was easier for the doctors to follow.

"I won't leave you, okay?" Belle asked as she kissed his cheek again and Adam went to sleep.

"He'll be okay," one of the housemaids told her, her father being a pharmacist. Belle nodded as she looked upon her husband. Whether man or beast, her feelings remained the same. She just needed him to be alive.

…..

…..

It was at four in the morning that Adam's body returned to that of his beast form and Belle saw that his breaths were significantly less shallow and that he seemed to have more color to his fur. He was healing. She brushed his cheek again feeling exhausted and overwhelmed.

"I don't really get it," she heard Fifi at the doorway and her eyes travelled over to the once-feather duster. "You look at him in the same way no matter which form. This is what I imagine Lumiere and I to feel but is that wrong, or is it not?" she asked and Belle shook her head. It wasn't wrong.

"I think love is funny like that," she commented before bowing her head, feeling rather sleepy but she would wait until Adam was said to be able to move again. "I don't see Adam in different forms, I just know that I love him and I rely on that love to keep me moving," she saw Adam move his head in his sleep and she kissed his cheek.

"Isn't he the first man that you loved?" Fifi asked and Belle nodded.

"It doesn't matter whether you love one person or more than one in your life," she tried to advise. "I had many of the boys in the town try to take me on romantic trips with them. However, I was not attracted to them. They were dull boys and Adam is a man. I find that having things in common with him is most important. No other man has ever taken to reading like Adam has."

"So, if he remains like this?" Fifi asked and Belle saw Adam's eyes open as he blinked up at the ceiling. Belle nodded to the maid and then went to her husband, gently caressing his cheek. She smiled at him lovingly. It didn't matter that the world considered him a monster because she didn't. She pressed her cheek to his chest and breathed out slowly.

"I love you," she said and he put a paw on her back.

"I promised to fight for you before," he said and Belle nodded. "I need to figure a lot of stuff out, I don't know if I can continue like this," he said with complete honesty and Belle sighed as she swept her fingers down the side of his face.

"We'll figure it out together," she told him, "and that is a promise that I'll keep to you," she lifted her head and then laughed as she went to retrieve his clothes. "You want to put your pants back on?" she asked as she handed them to him and Adam looked down.

"You okay helping me with my tail?" he asked and Belle beamed at him.

"Of course, i am"

End of Chapter Eight

Thank you for reading, reviews are appreciated

Thank you to roxas gx and Rushw0rk for their reviews

Wow, okay first of all I just had an image of Beast pirouetting on ice skates flash into my head, so where the heck did THAT come from!? But that would be fun to write an after the story fic with Belle cursed and Adam loving her