Note: Thanks, guest reviewers! I am really sorry for the delay in posting this final chapter; it was due to family circumstances beyond my control causing writer's block. I'm very grateful for the little messages of 'where are you, are you ok?' that I've been getting. But it's here now, so enjoy!

Note2: Thank you to my editor/ resident-second-opinion-giver for her help this chapter. You know who you are.

Carrot Cake

Fifteen

Epilogue

One Month Later

"Belle. Belle? Belle!"

Belle, who had been transfixed by the lurid decorations tethered to the roofs of the buildings in town below the castle gardens, finally tore her eyes away from a pot-bellied purple reindeer and glowing blow-up Santa (who should have been waving but whose animatronics were not the best and who thus seemed to be doing something far less innocent) and looked up at Gold. He was watching her with an expression of amusement from outside the taxi, cane hooked over the top of the door for balance and other arm outstretched to hand her out of the vehicle.

"Sorry… It was the Santa on the top of the bed shop." She took his hand and got out of the car.

Gold peered over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's one way of dispensing Christmas cheer, I suppose."

Belle knocked his arm. "You're despicable."

"I know." Gold paid the driver and Belle slipped her arm through his to walk up to the castle, whose festive decorations were far more sedate: softly twinkling icicle lights hanging from the window frames and the bare trees in the grounds.

December had arrived, and with it the charity ball at the castle. For the past two weeks, it had been all Ruby had been able to talk about. She was incredibly excited at the prospect of finally getting to see Archie in a tux ("I love his jumpers, but it'll be nice to see how he scrubs up") and the opportunity to go dress shopping with Belle ("Yes, I know you've already got one, but you can still try them on!" ). Belle herself was more amazed that they'd all managed to get tickets, considering it was on a first-come, first-served basis. She suspected that something had been going on behind the scenes, however, when she had seen Archie come out of the solicitors' building doing a passable impression of the Cheshire Cat, and he had proceeded to come into the café and say, in no uncertain terms, that Cinder-Ruby was definitely going to the ball. Despite being dragged round several department stores by her best friend and seeing some truly lovely dresses on offer, Belle had kept her promise to Ruby – not that she'd actually promised, but it seemed silly not to take her up on her advice – and was wearing her golden gown, its first airing in seven years. Privately, she was amazed that it still fit her, but any misgivings about it were completely dispelled when she'd opened her front door to Gold and had seen his reaction, which consisted of several seconds of speechlessness before giving her a devilish smile and the casual observation of 'I like the colour'. He'd then gone on to tell her that she was incredibly gorgeous, and Belle felt suitably justified in her attire.

Their progress up the drive towards the castle was a slow one.

"If I was in charge, I would forbid people from having gravel drives," Gold muttered, digging his cane between the stones with some vehemence in order to find purchase. Belle could only agree with him; she was having a similar problem with her stilettos. Eventually they made it to the steps and into the warm building, being greeted with the festive scents of mulled wine and gingerbread from the ballroom. Chilled from their brief time outside, Belle made a beeline for the table where the wine was being served. Gold shook his head when offered a glass.

"I'm going to get a proper drink," he said.

"Mulled wine is a proper drink!" Belle protested.

"No, it's not. It's…"

"Don't tell me, it's good red wine spoilt," she said playfully, and took a sip.

"No, it's bad red wine made worse," Gold countered.

"It'll warm you up," Belle wheedled.

"So will a double Scotch," Gold pointed out, "and it'll taste a lot better." He squeezed her arm. "Don't go away, I'll be back in a minute."

Gold disappeared off in the direction of the bar and Belle watched him, looking out for other people she knew and nursing her glass. She squealed as a pair of hands covered her eyes.

"Guess who," said a familiar voice behind her.

"Astrid?"

The hands let go and Belle whirled round to see Astrid grinning at her, Leroy a little way off getting mulled wine.

"What are you doing here? Not that it's not great to see you, but… I thought you were in Kent!"

"We were," Astrid said, "but we can always make a little weekend trip to see old friends. Leroy called in a few favours and here we are." She took her glass off her husband, only to give it back a split second later so that she could hug Belle.

"Didn't want to risk throwing it down your dress," she said sheepishly. "I've already spilt coffee and ketchup on our lovely new carpet."

"I've given up all hope of ever seeing it green again," Leroy sighed. "I've decided that next time, we're either having hard floors or living with dust sheets everywhere all the time."

"I'm not that bad," Astrid protested. "I haven't spilt anything on the bedroom carpet."

"Yet," Leroy muttered darkly. "It's only a matter of time before you have another home-pedicure accident and end up gushing blood all over the place."

"I'm going to assume that I don't want to know." Gold had come back from the bar with his whiskey and slipped his arm around Belle's waist. She laced her fingers through his over the top of his cane, and Astrid smiled.

"I'm glad you're sorted out," she said. "Things were still a bit up in the air when we left. I'm not quite as glad that Ruby phoned us at two o'clock in the morning to tell me, but I'm very happy for you." She touched the drop-shoulder on Belle's dress. "I think you certainly picked the most appropriate colour there."

Belle felt her blush rise, but before she could say anything, she was interrupted by a cry from somewhere in the vicinity of the canapés.

"Belle! Astrid!" Moments later, Ruby skidded up to them, dragging Archie with her. "It's so good to see you!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around Astrid, who reciprocated the action in spite of wine, this time. At least Ruby's dress was bright red so any spillages would be less likely to show. Ruby turned to Belle and gave her dress the once over.

"I'm very impressed; part of me honestly didn't think you'd wear it. I'd had myself half-convinced that you'd have had a crisis of confidence at the last minute and gone out and bought something black and non-descript that made you fade into the background."

"Don't take any notice of her," Gold murmured in Belle's ear. "You could never fade into the background, whatever you were wearing."

The three waitresses continued to talk and bring each other up to date on the events that had transpired in the last month until Astrid spied someone from her old knitting group and pulled Leroy away to say hello, pausing just long enough to thrust her empty wine glass at Archie.

"This is why I don't like wearing a bow tie," Archie moaned. "People mistake me for a waiter."

"I think you look most dashing, Doctor Hopper," Belle said magnanimously.

"See, I told you so." Ruby batted his arm playfully. "You could be a ginger James Bond."

"Ouch," the psychiatrist muttered, rubbing his shoulder where Ruby had hit him.

"Aww, I wasn't that hard, surely." She purred, "shall I kiss it better later?"

Archie blushed, his face as always at odds with his hair. When Ruby had walked into the café one Friday, four days after Alexandra's birth, Belle had been left in no doubt that she and Archie had crossed their bedroom threshold the previous night. ("It would have been absolutely perfect minus being woken up by Pongo licking between my toes this morning," had been the verdict, but from all accounts, that certainly hadn't put her off going back for more.)

"Erm, is that Graham and Emma?" Archie said, quickly changing the subject.

"Where?"

"There."

"I'm looking over there!"

"No, not there, there!"

Belle took the empty wine glasses from Archie and announced, unnecessarily loudly, that she was going for a top-up, but Ruby was so engrossed in trying to find Emma that it was doubtful if the comment even registered.

"At last, a moment to ourselves," Gold sighed as they neared the wine table.

"You don't come to these things for peace and quiet," Belle pointed out. "You come to be sociable and talk to people."

"And get drunk on cheap red wine that's been heated up and had a couple of cinnamon sticks thrown in to try and make it more palatable." Gold wrinkled his nose at the smell. "I'm sociable and I talk to people as my day job, can't I have the weekends to be misanthropic?"

"No," Belle said plainly. Over the past month, she'd seen Gold at work a couple of times, their lunch dates having become a fairly regular fixture. On one occasion, she had ended up making a picnic bench of Gold's desk when his workload had taken an unexpected increase. On the one hand, it hadn't really been the most productive of dates as he'd spent more time talking on the phone or to Sid than he had to her, but she had seen a whole new side to him, the consummate professional who spoke in legal jargon and Latin and still managed to find time to kiss her between calls and bites of sandwich.

"All right then. And I have already seen one and a half of my colleagues, so I had better say hello."

"One and a half?" Belle asked incredulously.

"Fox is propping up the bar, and someone who I think was Dawn just dived under the canapé table when she saw him, but she moved so quickly I couldn't tell if it was her."

Belle wondered how much time Dawn spent hiding from her superiors under tables of various descriptions, and wondered if she ought to go and find the young trainee and coax her out with wine and gingerbread, but soon enough she was swept up into the evening; every time she thought that she'd said hello to everyone she knew, another customer would pop up from nowhere, or she'd find herself introduced to one of Gold's clients. More wine, more food, more music from the band on the dais at the far end of the room, occasionally being collared by Ruby, watching August flirting with three women at once, and all the time Gold was looking at her with an expression that turned her stomach in knots, as if he was only just stopping himself from sweeping her out of the ballroom and into bed.

They had not yet crossed their own bedroom threshold, much to Ruby's consternation; although they had come close a week previous on Belle's sofa. Unfortunately, Belle had chosen that moment to lean on the TV remote and they were interrupted by a politician being grilled about a recent sex scandal on Newsnight. By the time they'd finished laughing, the mood had gone. Now, however, as they sat together in one corner by the bar watching the events unfolding, she could tell that it was back, with a vengeance.

The next song was a slow one, achingly slow, the vocals low and bluesy. Belle turned to Gold.

"Dance with me?" she asked playfully.

"Belle… I've got three left feet here. Do you really think that's a good idea?"

"I'm not accepting any excuses," Belle said. "Leave the cane and lean on me instead. Come on." She got up and held her hands out to him. "Please? Just one dance. I love this song! We don't have to move much. Just hold me close and sway a bit. That's all slow dancing is, really."

Gold looked at her.

"I'm not going to be able to get out of this, am I?" Belle shook her head. "All right then. One dance." He grabbed her hands and pulled himself up, and she arranged him in a ballroom hold around her, right hand on her waist, left in her right, and she started to shift her weight in time to the music, taking the odd step between his firmly planted feet. Presently he put her right arm over his shoulder, taking her waist in both hands, pulling her in closer. She raised an eyebrow.

"More stability," he said. "Less likely to fall over on you."

"Of course,"

She rested her chin on his collar bone, peering over his shoulder, and sighed happily, feeling Gold lean into the top of her head and plant a kiss in her hair.

"See," she murmured. "Dancing isn't so bad."

"Depends on the partner."

Belle laughed and continued to observe the room, a sight making her snort.

"What?" Gold asked.

"Ruby's teaching Archie to dance."

"Now this I have to see."

They manoeuvred round a little so that they could both see.

"Actually," Gold continued, "I think Archie's teaching Ruby to dance."

Belle watched her friend for a little while, and the more she observed, the more she concluded that yes, it was Archie who was looking marginally more confident and Ruby who was glancing at her feet every step.

"It appears to be a cross between the rumba and the slow waltz," Gold observed drily, "so one of them must be wrong. Personally, I prefer our method by far."

Belle felt one of his hands slipping lower and lower down her back.

"More stability, less likely to fall over on me?" she asked with as much innocence as she could muster.

"Of course," Gold replied, but he was making no attempt to hide the husky note in his voice.

"Mr Gold, we are in public!" she said with mock indignation as his wandering fingers came to rest on her bottom.

"And?" He kissed her ear, possibly aiming for her cheek and missing. "Everyone's too drunk to notice, and there are people being far more indiscreet than we are."

Well, that was true; Belle had noticed the groping going on in the darker corners of the ballroom.

"You are truly lovely," Gold murmured into her hair. "Have I told you that you look gorgeous in that dress?"

"Yes, you have, but you're quite welcome to tell me as many times as you like."

"You look gorgeous in that dress."

"Thank you."

The song came to a close but neither of them made any indication of moving. Belle nuzzled in against Gold's neck.

"If you go on to say that I'd look even better not in my dress, I may have to get Graham to arrest you for offences against decent pick-up lines," she murmured.

"Wouldn't dream of it, my dear."

The singer was taking a break and the band struck up a very fast tune, so they were forced to move out of the way of the few people who knew how to polka. Surprisingly enough, August was one of them, and Belle had to laugh as he spun past them with his latest partner (the fifth different one that Belle had seen him with during the course of the evening) and she caught the words "Nepal" and "lemurs".

"The crowd is thinning a bit," said Gold, his voice matter-of-fact but his expression suggestive. "I don't think anyone would object if we were to… absent ourselves early."

Belle looked at him, eyes narrowed.

"Never let it be said that you don't have extremely good ideas, Mr Gold."

"Glad to hear it, Miss French. So, I take it that's a yes to me calling a taxi?"

Belle nodded.

"I'll just tell Ruby and Emma I'm leaving in case they're looking for me later. Actually…" She paused as she scanned the room. "I can't see Emma and Graham anywhere."

"Perhaps they pre-empted my extremely good idea," Gold suggested, getting out his phone. Belle raised an eyebrow and made her way over to Ruby and Archie, who were talking to a couple she didn't recognise and assumed were Archie's friends. She tapped Ruby's shoulder to get her attention.

"We're off," she said. "Could you tell Emma if you see her?"

"Going already?" Ruby protested. "The evening hasn't even degenerated into raucous karaoke yet!"

"It's gone midnight, Ruby."

"But…" Suddenly her friend cottoned on. "Ah, right." She gave a wicked grin. "Well, remember Granny's advice when it comes to men. Never put your mouth…"

Belle interrupted hastily.

"Yes, yes, I remember Granny's advice, and I remember that it's not really the sort that should be repeated in polite company."

"I'll see you on Monday then," Ruby said as Gold joined them. "Enjoy the rest of your night."

Belle rolled her eyes. "Bye, Ruby."

"I'm most intrigued to know Granny's advice," Gold said as they left the ballroom.

"Oh, I'll tell you if I'm required to put it into practice."

"Now I'm even more intrigued."

She looked at him demurely. "We ladies have to keep some secrets, you know."

Gold stopped suddenly and put out his arm to prevent Belle moving any further forward.

"I think we may be in for a little treat, my dear," he whispered. "I would hate to ruin Graham's moment with our untimely interruption when he's probably been building up to it for the last three weeks." He put his arm around her shoulders and they waited in the shadows of the entrance hall. Outside, Emma and Graham were standing alone at the top of the steps down to the drive; Belle craned to hear the words being spoken.

"I know it's generally good form to ask your parents' permission," Graham was saying, "but that's not really applicable here, so I asked Henry, because I thought that he was the most important person in your life. Anyway, if he'd had his way I'd have asked you there and then a fortnight ago, but, well…" He broke off. "I spend my days chasing after dangerous suspects and investigating all shades of crime and I'm scared of saying one sentence."

Emma squeezed his hands. "Just say it. It can't be harder than clearing five six-foot fences in pursuit of an errant drug-dealer."

"Emma, will you marry me?" The sentence came out as if spoken all as one word.

"Of course I will." Emma smiled. "I told you it would be easy."

"Oh, shut up." Graham pulled her in for a kiss, thereby silencing rather effectively her protests at being told to shut up by the man who'd asked her to marry him a mere thirty seconds previously.

"Oh, isn't it sweet?" Belle sighed. "The only thing that would make it more romantic would be if it was snowing."

"Hmm." Gold's reply was non-committal. "I am very happy for them, but we may have to distract them in order to get down the steps."

"Yes, I suppose we are in a worryingly voyeuristic position here. Maybe we can slip past without them noticing?"

Gold had other ideas, putting two fingers in his mouth and wolf-whistling.

"You!" Belle smacked his arm as Emma and Graham sprang apart and looked around for the culprit. Belle waved guiltily.

"Did you see the whole thing?" Graham asked faintly. "Oh my word."

"Congratulations!" Belle said, rushing over and hugging Emma.

"Thank you. But you can't tell anyone - especially not Ruby. I don't know what she'd think if she heard it second hand."

"Of course I won't tell! It's your news, after all." Belle smiled. "I see Henry's been helping you two along your way again."

"He's as bad as Ruby, I swear. I seriously need to keep them apart. Are you leaving already?" Emma asked. Belle nodded, and her friend gave her a knowing look. "Well, have fun. Stay safe."

"Emma!"

"It was a perfectly innocent statement!"

Belle raised an eyebrow but made no further comment on the subject. She and Gold said their goodbyes and left Emma and Graham alone at the top of the steps.

Thinking of Emma's future marriage made Belle think of her own divorce. Things were moving in the right direction, however slowly. Whilst both Spencer and Gold had assured her that it was a lengthy process and the delays were all par for the course, and even though Gary had shown no signs of putting up a fight, Belle couldn't help but worry each time another day went by without a word. Gold had said that he would give her any advice she wanted in a professional capacity, but he wouldn't force it on her if she didn't want it.

("Just be there," had been Belle's reply. "Just be on the other end of the phone if I want to moan about it all.")

He had given his word and stuck to it. When Belle had had to make the unavoidable journey north to sign the necessary paperwork and meet her lawyer face to face at the end of November, Gold had gone with her for moral support (and to drive her quicker than she could make the train journey). It had been during this trip that he had first met Moe, purely by accident.

But that was a story for another time. At that moment, she was wearing her lucky knickers and Gold's fingertips were dancing up and down her arm where he held her into his side, and she was imagining those fingertips dancing elsewhere, and…

She shivered involuntarily. Gold sighed and released her, and the sudden rush of cold air where his body had been made her tremble again. He handed her his cane.

"Hold that." He pulled off his jacket and indicated for her to turn her back to him so he could put it on her instead, rubbing her upper arms. "I'll never understand how two people can go to the same place, one with naked arms and the other with two layers of sleeves."

"I've got a shawl!" Belle protested.

"It was hardly doing a very good job of keeping you warm, though." He slipped his arms round her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. "So, to return to the world of really bad pick-up lines, your place or mine?"

"You know, I could really use another guided tour of your house. Particularly upstairs." Belle said lightly. "I can't for the life of me remember how it looks."

Actually, that was half-true. She could remember the contents, but the layout was fuzzy. The first time that Belle had seen inside Gold's home, she'd been transfixed by the sheer amount of stuff that he'd somehow fitted into it. For a scary moment, she had thought that there was some weight behind Ruby's obsessive-compulsive hoarder warning. But once she'd started asking about the stories behind the items, she'd been fascinated. She'd been a little ashamed of how small and empty her own little flat looked in comparison, but Gold had been equally dumbstruck by her number of books.

("Normally the first thing that everyone asks is if I've read them all," Belle had said, to which Gold had replied that he liked to think he knew her well enough to know the answer would be yes.)

Belle closed her eyes, pushing the thoughts aside as a kiss to her neck brought her back to the present.

"Hmm. If you can't remember how it looks at all, I might need to make the tour rather in-depth, then," Gold mused. "Possibly to the extent of staying in one room for a rather prolonged period of time."

"Sounds like an excellent idea to me," Belle agreed, feeling one hand roam lower again and squeeze the curve of her hip through the layers of silken gown.

"Perhaps I could have a guided tour of something else in return," he growled. His accent had been getting progressively thicker over the last few minutes and Belle had to smile at his gradual loss of control.

"Guided?" She raised an eyebrow. "I thought men hated getting directions."

"Are you kidding?" Gold punctuated his words with kisses. "It means we don't have to spend too much time thinking. We're men; our brains can only be in one place at a time. And mine's not really in a thinking place right now."

"But when you're driving…"

"Yes, well, driving is different. But tonight, I am not driving. So, Miss French…" She could barely make out his final words through the brogue. "Feel free to direct me."

Belle twisted in Gold's arms to kiss him. Above them, back in the ballroom, the increasingly drunken revellers had begun a warbled chorus of 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day', seemingly to the tune of 'Silent Night'. Belle ignored them in favour of far more pressing matters, but she could hear the crunch of wheels on the gravel drive and knew that the arrival of the taxi would soon force the moment to be postponed. Idly she thought of the notebook stuffed in her satchel, untouched since the Sunday that Gold had first asked her out. Emma was right; the past few weeks had proven that reality was really nothing like fantasy.

Reality was far better.

The End

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank in advance any guest reviewers, and say another thank you to everyone for your support and reviews and favouriting and alerting throughout this fic.

This is the end of 'Carrot Cake', but it may not be the end for this AU. If people are interested, I am more than willing to start a sequel of sorts, which would be a fic of one-shots detailing more moments in Belle and Gold's romance. (And perhaps the odd one in Ruby and Archie's and Emma and Graham's as well. Hell, I can even throw in Regina and Sid if you want!)

I am definitely amenable to suggestions so if there is something you'd especially like to see, then drop me a review or PM.

Till next time! WI x