A Second Chance

(Day 148: Sunday Evening)

"Mal," Ben's eyes widen, as he opens the door and sees her.

"I was going to knock," she excuses.

He shakes his head, "What are you doing here?" before he notices her purple, lacy top and black skirt.

"I want to start going to dinner with you again," Mal insists.

His mouth gapes, "Yeah." He laughs, "Of course." before nodding. "It will be good to have you there."

She hesitates, "Does your father still hate me?"

"My father doesn't like anyone," Ben frowns. "It's nothing…" He wets his lips and shifts his eyes, "It's nothing."

"Nothing personal," Mal finishes. "It doesn't feel that way."

It takes a minute for Ben to admit, "He doesn't like magic. That fairy witch made his life hell." Ben takes her hands, "You just need to get him to see you as you, not your species."

Mal laughs through a nervous grin, "Right. That's all I need to do."

"You'll find a way," Ben reassures, before he moves the curly hair away from her jade green eyes. "You always do."

When Ben and Mal enter the dining room his mother offers a surprised expression, "Mal?" before she stands to her feet.

"Hey," she unsurely smiles, before she guides Ben to the table.

"I wasn't expecting you here."

"I stopped coming because I didn't want to force Ben to speak English, but his English is better now." Mal frowns, "I'm happy to be here."

Belle nods, "And we're happy to have you here." but then her husband groans in discontent. She looks back at Mal and gestures to the chair, "Please. Take a seat."

After they all sit there's a long silence, Mal noticing Belle and Adam giving each other looks, before Ben quietly places the turkey, gravy, and stuffing onto his plate. He points at the black glop, "What's that again?"

His mother glances between it and him, "Black pudding." before he nods and pokes his fork into the slice of turkey. He takes a bite and then lets out a stressed breath, as he feels their stares. He faces his mother, "What is it?"

"It's just," she starts. "It's been a little hard to get you to eat lately."

"Right," Ben recalls, before he sets down the fork. "I don't know why." He lifts a shoulder, "It just felt wrong, I guess." before he shakes his head. "But it's fine now."

"It's fine now?" his father repeats with squinted eyes.

Ben glances down, "I should use the bathroom. Excuse me." before he stands up.

Mal watches as he walks out to the hallway, but when she hears Ben's father angrily question, "What did you do?" she swiftly turns back to him.

"Adam," Belle intervenes. "We don't know that she's done anything."

He turns to her, "You're the most important thing to him, and even you couldn't get him to eat. How could she?"

"She's his girlfriend," she evenly reminds him.

"She's a fairy," he seethes. "This is obviously magic."

Mal shuts her eyes hard and shouts over him, "It wasn't magic." before she opens them and finds the two staring at her. She quietly explains, "He came to me for help… and I gave it to him."

"Mal," Belle breathes. "What did you do?"

She tilts her head to the side in unsureness, "I made him forget about what he is."

"What he is?" Belle repeats.

"About being a beast." Mal's eyes shift, "Being a hybrid."

"You had no right to do that," Adam insists.

"He needed me to do it," she laughs in disbelief. "You should have seen him. He begged me to do it." There's a second of silence, before she whispers, "I think he was thinking about finding another way to get away from it if I didn't do it for him."

"Another way?" Belle questions.

"That he was going to off himself," Mal slowly explains, and her eyes shift. "It wouldn't be the first time."

"What are you talking about?" Adam sternly questions.

Mal faces him, "At the dance. Ben went to the roof and tried to jump." before her eyes shift to Belle. "I saved him… Or, uh, me and Chad saved him." She looks down, "I was taking it personally and probably gave up sooner than I should have."

"God," Belle whispers, and Adam takes her hand.

"But he's fine now," Mal reassures. "He said he was being an imbecile, that he doesn't know how he could have left someone like me." She thinks, "Whatever happened, I think it was just stress, trying to deal with finding out what he was."

"As a new king," Belle mulls over, "he probably wouldn't have had the time to process it properly."

"We need to tell him," Adam decides.

"But he's good now," Mal widens her eyes. "You want to screw that up?" She notices his change of expression and lets out a breath, "Pardon my lack of French."

"He needs to know what he is," Adam insists. "Him forgetting isn't going to change it."

"You think I wanted this?" Mal furiously whispers, before she feels her eyes start to burn. "I am so afraid of what this will do, now that he thinks him and I aren't… the same."

Belle looks over Mal before inputting, "He can't find out on his own again." before she turns towards Adam. "He needs time to process this."

"He can't process it if he can't remember it," his brows furrow.

"But we can help him accept himself before we tell him," Belle says, but her husband merely grumbles. "We need to do it better this time. Mal gave us a second chance, don't you understand? We can tell him that it's okay to be different, teach him that hybrids aren't any different than humans." She nods to Mal, "We could take him to a meeting, have him meet other hybrids under the guise of only wanting to support his girlfriend effectively."

"Absolutely not," Adam disagrees.

She turns back to him and sighs, "We need to do something."

"We're not making this public," he asserts.

"We wouldn't be." Belle attempts to explain, "We'd just be—" before she notices Ben enter the room and silences.

When he sits back down he looks between them, "Did I… Were you talking about something I can't hear?"

Belle turns towards Adam, and he lets out a breath, "Your girlfriend told us what happened at the dance."

Ben's eyes shift down, "Right."

"You should have told us," he evenly opinionates, before Ben meets his eyes with a frown. "Do you even know why you did it?"

Ben observes his father's features, so much like those of that statue which mocks him each day. "I—" A pillar of greatness inscribed with pretty words, depicting just how regal and righteous he was: a savior of them all. Ben opens his mouth to speak, before he glances at Mal and then turns his head back up to his father, "I was tired of living a lie."

His mother inquires, "What do you mean?" but he simply looks down and shrugs a shoulder in response. They sit in silence for a good while, before Ben finishes his plate and she asks, "How would you like to try some pudding?"

Ben eyes the black glop, "I don't know how I feel about that."

Mal thinks up, "I'll try it if you try it."

He turns to her, "Do you even know what's in black pudding?" and she waits for him to answer. "Blood."

"Obviously not that much if a human can have it," she retorts, and when Ben makes a discontent noise she says again, "I'll try it with you."

Ben turns to his mother, "Will you try it?"

She hesitates, "Sorry. I don't have the appetite."

Mal notices his sad expression, "Hey." and when he turns back to her she tries to smile. "I said I'd try it with you."

It takes a moment for Ben to nod, "Yeah. Okay."

Next Up: Carlos's Birthday