A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who is still sticking with this story! I'm dreadfully sorry it's taken so long to update. Between the Rumbelle Christmas in July fic which I struggled with and some life things getting in the way, it's been hard to write. But I'm back writing the story and hopefully will have updates more frequently!

The morning after Belle had brought Gold into her room, the morning after she tried to unsuccessfully seduce him, had been awkward to say the least. She had risen first and escaped to the shower before he was even awake. When she had gotten out, he was gone. She had found him downstairs making them a simple breakfast and had watched him somewhat warily, waiting for him to push her away, waiting for him to want to talk about last night.

She had known she was out of line, that she was doing something stupid and rash even while doing it. She didn't need a lecture.

And she didn't get one.

He was kind to her, no harsh words, just small smiles. They tip-toed around each other a bit over the next couple weeks, trying to fall back into a normalcy that Belle appreciated, even if she couldn't quite feel normal. Probably would never feel normal again.

But they at least fell back into their routine, mucking out stalls, training Bandit to herd. Her focus was not extraordinary, but Gold was patient with her and when she would start to cry in the middle of a lesson, he would simply offer to hold her.

The comfort was more than she ever expected.

The lessons had ended after a particularly bad one, when she had yelled at Bandit for doing the wrong thing, when she had ended up a sobbing mess in the mud at the base of the hill. Gold had been taking care of getting the sheep in and Belle was doing little more than helping to keep the stalls cleaned and the sheep fed and watered.

And when she crawled into bed with him every night, afraid of the nightmares, afraid to be alone, when she cried on his chest, he simply held her without saying a word. He stroked her hair and pressed chaste kisses to her cheek and wiped away the tears. He let her sleep in the same bed as him and pressed for nothing more.

And she was pretty sure, in those quiet moments in his arms, when she felt safe and secure, that she was falling in love with him.

Maybe she had been all along. Belle wasn't someone who had ever felt any sort of real attraction to someone she didn't already feel bonded to. And that had crept up on her the more she got to know Gold. It happened almost naturally, that bond and that attraction. But now? Now it was more. She was sure of it.

And there were times she wanted to tell him, times when it was almost on her lips, when she was looking into his eyes and they were soft that she wanted to whisper the words, tell him she thought she might be falling for him.

But she didn't. And so things stayed quiet and content and just a tiny bit awkward. With nothing to focus on but themselves and the dogs, they spent quiet evenings sharing meals and reading while tucked up on the same couch. Occasionally they played games and Belle found out exactly how fierce a competitor Gold could be. Not that it should have surprised her, but he was the only person who had managed to best her at Scrabble and she found she respected him even more for that little surprise.

It was late in the evening a few weeks after her father passed away that Gold sprung a bit of a surprise on her. "Bae's coming to visit next week."

"Bae…"

"Baedden," he amended. "My son."

Belle shook her head, blinked. "Yes, I recall who he is." She offered up at least a slight smile. "I didn't realize he would be visiting."

"Early every summer my ex-wife allows him to come see me." There was a pain there behind the word. "She tosses him on a bus and sends him out here. She and her new beau can go do whatever it is they like to do. I hear he has some sort of yacht."

She hated to hear the bitterness there. From what he told her, their divorce happened ages ago. It seemed he still hung onto so much of the anger and bitter feelings. "Yes well, you have better than a yacht."

"Do I now?" he asked and she was glad to hear a bit of his humor return to his voice.

"Hmmm," she just said and smirked. It felt good to laugh, to tease. They had been too serious of late. Her father's death had cast a pall over not only her life, but his as well. "You have me."

"I see," he responded with and Belle couldn't stop herself from leaning over and kissing him. It was soft, gentle, just a slight brushing together of lips, but it felt natural. It felt right.

"So tell me about your son?"

"I did promise once, didn't I?" He pulled away from her slightly, but she could tell he wanted to speak of him. It had probably been years since he had spoken of the boy to anyone.

"You did."

"Truth be told, I don't know him very well." His eyes met hers for a moment and then slipped away.

"Your wife won't allow much contact." She didn't have to phrase it as a question. "I don't like her much," Belle muttered.

Gold gave a bark of laughter. There was that much at least. "Not many who know her do."

"So why did you…"

"Marry her?" He shook his head at that. "I was young and stupid. But it got me Bae, even if I hardly ever get to see him. Just those couple weeks with him…"

He trailed off there and Belle reached out to touch his hand briefly. "We'll get to know him."

"I do believe if anyone can get him to come out of his shell, it would be you."

"I'll take that as a compliment." She smirked as she spoke the words.

"I meant it as one." There was a seriousness to the words that almost took her breath away. Though there was that little niggling thing in that back of her mind that reminded her she had no idea what to do with children of any age. She had been an only child and had moved away from home before any of her few friends had younger siblings. Ones that were young enough to be considered young by Belle at that time at least. She had few friends growing up in the States and certainly no one she was close to who had children.

Frankly, the thought of meeting Gold's ten-year-old son terrified her. But she would have to swallow that bit of terror and not allow him to see that. And so she smiled and took a deep breath and squeezed his hand.

She had to believe it would all go well.

It didn't, of course. At least not at first. The young man who hopped off the bus when they met him at the station was sullen. He had dark unruly hair, eyes not unlike his father's. He was almost too thin, small arms wrapped tightly around his midsection as his eyes scanned the crowd and fell on his father.

Who, Belle noted, was not smiling. He looked grim, very much not the smiling proud father she had seen him be in the last week or so. He told her stories about his boy when they were still together. But he shut down when she asked about the boy now.

"Bae," she heard him say as his son approached.

The boy grimaced. "I hate that name." It took Belle a moment to figure out what the mumbled words were.

"What do you want to be called?" Her voice was soft when she asked the question but the boy's eyes were sharp and his eyebrows drawn low when he turned to meet her eyes.

"Who are you?"

Belle glanced quickly at Gold. They hadn't discussed this. Who was she, exactly? Not quite the help, not quite a girlfriend. She was…something perilously close to both and didn't that just make life a lot more difficult for them?

"I'm…"

"Don't be rude, Bae," Gold cut her off with.

"Neal," he said.

"Pardon?"

"My friends are calling me Neal." He crossed his arms over his chest and glared at his father.

"Whatever for?" Belle wanted to hide in that moment, run somewhere else. This was not going well at all.

"Because I want them to," Baedden…Neal…responded with, challenge in his voice.

"But that's not…"

"Then we'll call you that," Belle interrupted with.

"Who are you?" he asked again.

"Don't be…"

"Rude, I know," Baedden said and rolled his eyes.

"My name is Belle," she finally just said. "I help around your father's farm."

"You?"

She tried not to laugh at the incredulous note to his voice. "I know I don't look like much but I'm sure your father would reassure you that I'm stronger than I look."

"And far more dangerous," he muttered. Belle laughed. Baedden narrowed his eyes on them. "Come now, Baedden."

"Neal," he shot back with.

"Let's get home," Gold said and steered him away from the bus station to where they had parked his truck.

This really did not bode well at all.

The next morning really wasn't much better. Baedden, who insisted they call him Neal, was quiet and moments after eating breakfast, headed into the living room and pulled out a video game from his bag.

"I'm sorry," Gold said to Belle after his son had disappeared.

"Why?"

"I should have warned you." He sounded resigned and she knew he had somehow been hoping that his son would be more open to him, less combative.

She reached out a hand and touched his briefly. "There's nothing to apologize for." He gave her a half smile at the words. "This is your ex-wife's doing, isn't it?"

He was silent for a moment and then his shoulders slumped. "She hated the name. And she hated me. She's made damned sure that Bae won't ever want to come here. And now she's made it so he doesn't even like his own name. She was granted full custody and that still wasn't enough." His fist slammed onto the table, the noise almost deafening in the quiet room.

"Well," Belle said and she hated the way her voice sounded just a little too bright, just a little too much edge to the tone. "I have just the remedy."

Gold raised one eyebrow at her. "Do you now?"

She nodded, bit her lip as she leaned closer to him. "How about we…"

"Miss French, my son is here," he responded with and she let out a laugh.

"Oh not that." She swatted his arm and was happy to see him smile. She couldn't even begin to imagine how frustrating and heartbreaking it must be to be so separated from his son. "We haven't had a lesson in awhile."

He perked up at that. "No," he finally said. "I suppose we haven't." Everything had been put on hold when her father passed away. Maybe it was time to get back. It would provide them both some much-needed distraction.

"Then?"

"What about Bae?" He glanced toward the living room, where Baedden was still on the couch playing his video game.

"He won't even notice." Belle hated to even say that and she hated the way that Gold sighed when she did. But it was the truth. She didn't know ten-year-old boys that well, really, but she knew they could be tied up in a game for hours and not even be aware of the adults in the household.

"Alright," he capitulated. "Let's do this."

The lesson had been going amazingly well. Belle had simply forgotten how nice it was to be out on the field, to watch the grace and beauty of her dog as she made her large outrun, as she gathered up the sheep to move them. It was a dance, a beautiful dance, and it still took her breath away.

She was pleased with that. She had been afraid learning the technical aspects of it all would somehow ruin the joy she had first had when watching Gold work with Taz. But it hadn't. If anything, it had made it even more a joy. She was no longer the wallflower, watching from the outside, she was now a part of the dance, able to lose herself in it as she and her dog worked together to achieve a common goal.

"Catch her," Gold said. "Watch. She's about to bolt to the other side and she'll drive them right past the gates."

Belle didn't acknowledge him, just did as he told her. She could see what he meant and that was quite the improvement over where she had been some time ago. Her whistle reigned Bandit's enthusiasm in, caused her to stop and drop where she was. The sheep slowed. The dog watched. And then Belle released her with a long, slow whistle. Not too fast, not too slow.

Bandit moved with a lithe grace, darting around to the other side and forcing the sheep back toward the space between the drive gates.

And then one went through.

And another.

Then a moment to hold her breath, a moment to pause Bandit and hope and pray, and then they all went through.

"Yes!" Belle shouted. She couldn't even reign in her enthusiasm and leaned over to hug Gold.

He embraced her, but only briefly. "Miss French," he said, the word almost growled at her.

"Are we back to that then?"

"It seems you've forgotten something," he went on with, not acknowledging her question. She leaned back a little and looked up at him, pleased to see that there was a small smirk on his face, a little glint in his eyes.

"Have I now?" she whispered.

"You have," he said as he leaned down close to her, lips almost meeting hers.

She closed her eyes, ready, willing.

And was surprised when he suddenly leapt back and pulled her with him. Her eyes flew open as the sheep trotted by, Bandit at their heels.

She groaned.

Gold smirked.

"Bandit, that'll do," she called out and the dog immediately ran to her side while the sheep continued on their wayward trek toward the barn.

"Always," Gold said and there was great amusement in his voice. "Always, call your dog off at the end."

Belle let out another groan as Gold stepped away from her.

"What's going on here?" Baedden was standing behind them and his look, far from being simple childish curiosity, was assessing. She suspected he was as intelligent as his father, that hidden somewhere behind his annoyance and aloofness was a great intellect. And probably a heart as scarred as his father's.

"He's teaching me how to herd," Belle responded with. His father didn't seem to be able to get the words out.

Baedden's eyes only flicked to her briefly before settling on his father. "You never taught me to herd." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"You're only here for two weeks," Gold pointed out. Reasonable she supposed but the look on Baedden's face told her it was clearly not the right answer.

"Do you want to learn some herding stuff?" Belle asked.

Baedden looked back and forth between them and she could see the indecision. Say he was interested and he blows his cover of being an aloof pre-teen with a chip on his shoulder. Say he's not and he'll never quite come to understand his father and things will stay at the status quo.

Belle stepped forward, leaned closer to him. "It's fun."

"Really?" he asked.

"It is. It's like a real live video game. Only instead of a joystick, you have a whistle. And instead of some pixels on a screen you have a living breathing creature who desperately wants to please you and do the right thing. And you get to decide how the game is played." She leaned back then and glanced at Gold. He was staring at her, eyes wide, mouth slightly open.

"Yeah," Baedden finally managed to say. "Sure. We could do that."

Belle had to bite back laughter. Somehow he managed to make it sound like it was no big deal, even though she could see the interest, that little spark of excitement in his dark eyes.

"Tomorrow then?" Gold finally said and his voice seemed a little strained, his eyes still wide.

"Sure thing," Baedden said and turned, shuffling back off to the house.

Belle reached over and squeezed Gold's hand briefly before following. Somehow she had a feeling he might need a little time to himself after that little conversation.

"How did you do it?"

He didn't even bother to knock. Maybe he should have, but it was his library after all and while Belle had often taken to spending time there, it was still a room in his house. Even if a little part of him felt guilty for invading her space.

"Do?" she said, glancing up at him from the book she was reading.

"My son." Somehow she had managed to not only get him interested in herding, but actually get him to spend time with his father. This wasn't how his visits normally went. The usual pattern was quiet dinners, his son watching a movie or playing videogames, and the rift continuing to grow. They rarely talked on the phone now and every single day, Gold felt the knife twist in deeper. There would come a time that his son would no longer even bother to talk to him. He'd turn eighteen and head out into the world and not give his father another thought.

And it shouldn't be that way, dammit. It shouldn't. Because he loved the boy with everything he was. He was the center of his universe, even if he barely knew him. Even if he was down to the one two-week visit and a couple phone calls a year in which Gold did all the talking and Baedden did nothing more than grunt a few times.

It wasn't fair.

Of course, the one lesson he had taken away from his father was that life wasn't fair. Well, laddie, things don't always go your way. And they didn't. With little more than those words to impart, his father had disappeared, never to be seen nor heard from again. He had left in the dead of night, all records of him vanishing into the ether, like he had simply never existed.

Belle was watching him, no doubt watching the emotions play across his face as he struggled to speak to her on this subject.

Finally she answered him and there was a small, almost sad, smile on her face and her eyes looked slightly watery. "He seemed interested." Gold nodded at that. So simple. That was it? He seemed interested and so she invited him along. "He's a good kid, Tavish."

He gave a small bark of laughter, cold, dark. "I wouldn't know."

She shook her head. "He is. I can tell. But there's a…" She paused there, waving one hand in the air. "A vulnerability there? I think that's the word I'm looking for. He loves but doesn't know how to love. I think he wants to know you."

"You think." His voice was dry when he responded, the words flat and empty. Belle had a huge heart, that much he had figured out. A huge heart that wanted to welcome everyone into it, even a cantankerous old git like him. He supposed that meant welcoming his son in as well.

She stood then and put her hand over his. "I do." She cocked her head to the side and his eyes slid away from hers. "Sincerely. Look how quick he was to jump on learning something from you."

When he was able to look back to her, he noticed the soft smile, her little nod of encouragement. "You really do think he wants to know me, don't you?"

Her smile widened just a little bit. "I do. Honestly."

He leaned down and kissed her, soft and chaste. He didn't dare do more, wasn't sure he could handle more at that moment. But that was enough. A connection, solid and real. "Then I guess I have a lesson to plan."

The last was said with a small grin and Belle squeezed his hands once before releasing him. "I suppose you do."

He took his leave of her then, his heart a little lighter than when he had walked into the room. His son wanted a chance. Maybe. At least he was giving him some chance to connect with him. He never quite expected it to be sheepdogs, but he supposed that was fitting. His attempts to connect over videogames and sports had fallen flat.

More than flat, really.

His son had looked at him like he had two heads and his ex-wife had called after he returned home to laugh at him. Laugh. She never called to check and make sure Baedden was fine while visiting. She never called to find out if there was anything she needed to know had happened. She never even let Baedden call him. But she did enjoy taunting him for his failures, reminding him that he was no real father. The court had ordered these two weeks of visitation and that was the only reason Milah let the boy go.

Not that he ever quite got the sense she cared about the boy. Well, not as deeply as Gold at least. He was a means to an end, a way to make him pay. Her verbal lashings had been all but halted when she had moved across the country, but Baedden was a way to keep Gold under her thumb. Taunts and insults and just a little bit of glee and she could have him fall all over again. Reminders that he was a failure…as a husband, as a lover, as a father. He was often surprised she didn't take out ads in the paper proclaiming his many failures.

Your father was right about you. You are worthless…

He wondered often why she had married him in the first place. Perhaps he was simply someone she could step all over and she enjoyed that power.

He was thankful that she had asked for a divorce. It was perhaps the one bright spot of his life, ending that relationship and getting away from her. She thought she was taking him further down and maybe she had for a time. But looking back, seeing what had become of his life, he was better now than he was then.

Perhaps even better now that he had Belle in his life. He still couldn't quite fathom what was going on there. Every day he spent with her, he realized he wanted to spend more with her. More days, more time. He drove past the local flower shop and contemplated buying her roses. He fell asleep thinking about her smile and woke from dreams in which he took her in every possible position in every possible place in the house. Some that made him blush mightily and some that made him rush to the bathroom and throw cold water on his face, and more than some that had him taking himself in hand and finishing what his dream self had started.

But every time they took a step forward, his brain put the brakes on, doubts screaming inside his head.

She'll leave you, old man. They all do.

Do you really think such a lovely woman could love you?

You're worthless now…lame, friendless, just a man who would fall to dust if she didn't prop you up.

Her sunny smiles told him it wasn't so. But he knew. He knew otherwise. Because how could it end any other way? Everyone left him. His father, his wife, his son. How could he believe Belle would be any different?

But oh, in the meantime, while he had her, he was going to hold to her as tight as he could, try to make things good and stable and wonderful for her until that fateful day.

He fell into bed that night determined to be everything Belle and his son would want, knowing damn well he'd fail in the long run. But at least the effort could be made. At least he could try to be the man they deserved. He might fail, but trying was certainly better than the alternative.

And maybe, when the time came for Belle to leave, she would at least look kindly upon him and their time together.