Note: Someone wanted to see Belle and Gold have a bit of a fight, and someone else wanted to see Belle/Gold going to Emma for help.

Summary: After an argument over a particularly intimate issue, Belle turns to Emma for consolation and advice.

Devil's Food Cake

"Don't say it."

"It…"

"Don't say it. I know exactly what you're going to say. Don't say it."

"Love, it's ok, it…"

"Just don't. Contrary to popular belief it won't make me feel any better."

"I think…"

"No!"

"Well I've got to say something!"

"No you don't! You don't have to say anything! We're both fucking thinking it!"

Belle folded her arms. "You are too bloody-minded for your own good sometimes. And I am going to say it: I think it's your medication."

Gold looked up at her, one eyebrow raised, clearly not believing her. Belle sighed and drew her knees up under the covers. It had begun four weeks ago. Four weeks ago, Gold had been prescribed a new painkiller to try, fresh out of clinical trials and only recently available. Four weeks ago, they had started to see a dip in their sex life, a dip that had left Gold fractious and irritable, cross with himself for not being able to satisfy his young bride in the bedroom. Belle was not one to believe in coincidences at the best of times, but this one was even more blindingly cause-and-effect than normal.

She knew that he categorically did not want her to say 'don't worry, it happens to everyone', but even Gold, who had been on such a cocktail of pills for the last twelve years, had to accept that lowered sexual drive was one of the known side effects of long-term medication.

"Sweetheart, all that I am asking is that you go to the doctor and get him to switch your prescription again," Belle said. She was both aware and unashamed of the pleading tone in her voice.

"Belle, I can't go to the doctor because of this," Gold growled, indicating his lap.

"Go because of your headaches then; I swear you weren't getting those as often before you started on your new prescription."

Gold shook his head. "I'm not going to talk about this anymore tonight. Good night, Belle."

He turned over onto his side, facing away from her, making it obvious that the conversation was closed. Belle sighed and ran a hand through her hair before leaning back against the bedhead to stare at the ceiling. It was no use, she was going to have to call in the cavalry as she was never going to be able to get through to Gold on her own. The only problem was, she had no idea who else she could turn to for help.

Belle snuggled down in bed beside Gold, lying flat on her back to continue to look at the ceiling. This wasn't something that could be brought up in a casual conversation over tea and cake with the girls. There was a reason why Gold didn't want to go to the doctor about it. The whole situation was very embarrassing for him. But she couldn't just leave it. She was his wife, she was supposed to help him with things like this. They were supposed to help each other. It was no use, staring at the ceiling was not bringing her any answers. Perhaps she would get on better in the morning, with a clearer head. She spooned up behind Gold, wrapping her arms around him and kissing his shoulder, and she felt his hand come down and close over hers.

"I'm sorry sweetheart," he sighed.

Belle didn't respond, save to lace her fingers through Gold's and give a squeeze of reassurance. They would get through this. She wasn't sure how just yet, but they would.

X

Belle didn't look up from staring sadly into the middle distance as Emma put down a cup of coffee in front of her and sat down in the chair opposite.

"You look like you need to talk," Emma said, after a few moments of silence hanging in the air between them. "Come on. Tell Auntie Em."

Belle finally looked up with a sigh and met Emma's open, concerned gaze. It was no real surprise that of the three friends, Emma was the one to fall into the role of Agony Aunt most often. Whilst she was not all that much older than Belle and Ruby, her years of experience being a mother meant she slipped into the role as easily with her contemporaries as she did with Henry.

"It's Gold," Belle began, and Emma gave a knowing nod.

"Did you two have a fight?" she asked.

"Yes. No. Well… Not really. Sort of."

Emma raised one eyebrow and Belle felt herself giving in.

"It wasn't a full-on fight, but we did have a disagreement."

"Thought so. What did he do?"

Belle gave a snort of weak laughter. "I love how you assume it's his fault."

"Belle, I know it's his fault. If it was your fault you'd be at home or over the way trying to fix it."

Belle traced a little pattern through the foam on the top of her coffee with the spoon. "He's just so stubborn."

"Well, as much as I hate to say it, we did sort of already know that," Emma said. She reached across and took one of Belle's hands. "What's he being so stubborn about that you're staring despondently at your coffee looking for all the world like you're drowning in it?"

Belle looked down at the coffee cup, not able to meet Emma's eyes. Whilst she desperately wanted to vent her frustrations to her friend, she was deeply aware of just how intimate those frustrations were.

"Ok, so it's obviously something sex-related because you've turned as red as a tomato."

Belle looked up, her hands coming up to touch her flushed cheeks. Emma just gave her a smile.

"Belle, we're both liberal-minded adults," she said. "It would take a lot to shock me."

Belle sighed and succinctly relayed her tale, of the new medication, their wavering passion, and Gold's constant irritability about the entire debacle.

"Oh Belle." Emma sighed and patted her friend's hand. "It'll all work out for the best, I'm sure of it. If necessary we'll knock him out, shove him in a sack and dump him in the doctor's office. That would work."

Belle gave a weak laugh at Emma's forthright solution. "I suppose that's one way. I just feel so helpless, because I know that there's nothing I can do. I can't force him to do anything but without wanting to sound selfish, this is affecting both of us. I'm worried about him, Emma."

"Well…" Emma tailed off. "Speak of the devil."

Belle turned to see Gold had just come into the café. He looked tired and worn down, and his hair was mussed from raking his hands through it. He gave Belle a wan smile as Emma went over to make up his order, and Belle sighed, returning her attention to her coffee. She just hoped that Emma had more of an idea of what to do than she did.

X

Emma had often heard Ashley call Gold a terror, but she had never seen that side of him herself. She put this down to the fact that she rarely saw Gold when he was working, and generally only ever saw him when he had Belle with him, and Belle was almost always guaranteed to be able to keep Gold's slightly less sociable traits in check.

This morning, however, Emma was seeing a part of him that she had not wanted to. It was less than twenty-four hours since her conversation with Belle, and it was very clear to see that the problem had not magically solved itself overnight. When he came into the café, he was on his phone, talking in a quiet, menacing hiss that brokered no arguments, so cold it almost lowered the temperature of the café. This was the lawyer speaking, the man who could reduce grown men to tears on the witness stand in the magistrates' court and bleed his opponents dry if he had a mind to. Emma gave an involuntary shiver.

"What?" Gold snapped as he cut off the call with an alarming degree of violence and stowed his phone back in his pocket.

"Nothing," Emma said, dropping a teabag into a takeaway cup and bringing it over to him. "What's got your goat this morning?"

"None of your damn business."

"All right, all right. Have you talked to Belle about it?"

"That's none of you damn business either."

That translated to a resounding 'no' in Emma's mind. Gold snatched up the cup, threw the correct change down on the counter and stormed out of the café again, just as Ruby was coming in to start her shift. The younger woman raised her eyebrows and gave Emma a questioning look. Emma shrugged.

"Trouble in paradise?" Ruby asked once she was behind the counter. Emma shrugged again. Belle had told her about their problems in confidence and although the three women were as thick as thieves, there were some things that needed to be kept to oneself.

Whatever was going on, though, Emma was determined to get to the bottom of it. Belle had asked for her help, at the end of her rope, and Emma was not one to turn down help to a friend in need. When the time came for her to take a break, she wasted no time in grabbing her coat and walking the ten steps over the way to enter the law office.

"Is Gold free?" she asked Kathryn.

"I think so, but I'd advise against seeing him if I were you." Kathryn raised her eyebrows as she clicked a few buttons on her computer to bring up Gold's appointments. "He's been like a bear with a sore head all morning. Killian joked that he needed to get his leg over and Gold nearly took his hand off with a letter opener." She paused. "He's free, no appointments till three o'clock. Want me to warn him that you're coming or do you want it to be a surprise?"

Emma grimaced. "I think a surprise would be more effective."

She made her way up the stairs, waved to Ashley, Alice and Philip and listened at Gold's door for a moment. He was on the phone again and Emma waited until she heard him finish and then walked calmly into his office and sat down in the chair opposite him without being invited, before he'd had chance to put down the phone.

"Unscheduled appointment," she said, then shook her head. "You have got to get your act together. You have a beautiful wife who is at the end of her tether and so worried about you, and quite frankly, you're being an arse. This morning just cements it. What's the problem, Gold? What is so awful that you can't tell Belle? Because whatever it is, she needs to know."

Gold sighed.

"She already knows. She already knows I'm old and crippled and falling to pieces and she's far too good for me."

Emma exhaled slowly.

"Gold, please tell Belle what's going on. Or if you don't want to tell Belle, tell me. If you don't want to tell me, then tell Jefferson, or Archie, or anyone, just please talk to someone. What's changed in four weeks? What's changed overnight? I swear you weren't this wound up yesterday, however irritable you might have been. Somehow I think this goes deeper than a dead bedroom. Yes, Belle told me. She's worried about you. I don't think I can stress that enough. She's not worried about being satisfied in bed, Gold, she's worried about your health."

There was silence for a long time. Gold stared out of the window, pointedly not meeting Emma's gaze.

"Please Gold," Emma coaxed. "Whatever this is, Belle is my friend and I want to make sure she's happy, and you are my friend as well and I want to make sure that you're happy too."

Gold finally looked at her with sad eyes.

"I took Belle's advice," he said eventually. "I went to the doctor this morning and he took me off my… problematic meds. But there's nothing else he can give me instead. I have arthritis in my knee, Emma, ever since I broke it. If it continues to get worse, which it will, I'll need a full knee replacement."

Emma blinked.

"Is that it?" she asked.

"What do you mean 'is that it'?" Gold snapped. "Isn't that enough?"

"Gold, how is knee replacement surgery such a terrible thing? If it will make your life easier, then how can it be so bad?"

"I'm old enough, I don't need to feel any older!"

Emma raised her eyes to heaven and leaned back in her chair, counting to ten. Belle was not lying when she said that Gold was stubborn, and Emma was not lying when she agreed. If there was one thing that could be said for Gold and Belle's compatibility, it was that they were both tenacious to the point of exasperation if they wanted to be.

"Gold, this operation won't be because you're old, it'll be because you've had a broken knee. People younger than you have knee replacements because of breaks and break-related arthritis."

Gold was silent for a long time, then nodded.

"I suppose you're right."

"So stop acting like an arse and apologise to Belle." Emma paused. "How long will it take the medication to get out of your system?"

Gold counted on his fingers. "Two weeks, give or take. Call it three to be on the safe side."

"Right. Here's what you do. You wait three weeks for your meds to get out of your system. You book a nice little hotel on the Cotswolds for you and Belle. You both leave your phones at home and you have a weekend away. And if all you do in that hotel bed is sleep, then that's fine, and if you never leave the room, then that's fine too. Just take a weekend to make it up to Belle and indulge yourself. No stressing about anything, no worrying about operations, no pressure. Just enjoy being together. You've only been married three months. Graham and I have been married over a year and we're still milking the honeymoon period for all it's worth."

Gold raised one weary eyebrow.

"I'm not quite sure I needed to know that, but thanks for the advice."

"I mean it." Emma folded her arms. "You need to apologise to Belle. Big time."

"I know." Gold sighed. "Looks like I'll be taking a trip to see Mary Margaret before I go home tonight."

Emma grinned. "That's the spirit."

Finally, Gold gave a weak smile.

"Thanks, Emma. I'm sorry for earlier."

She saluted and got up to go back to the café.

"Well, you know. Rescuing my friends' marriages is all in a day's work."

X

Emma looked up as Belle rushed into the café, her cheeks flushed red and her eyes bright.

"I can't stop, I'm already running late," she said. "I just wanted to come and say thank you."

Emma was completely uncomprehending for a moment, then realised that it was three weeks since her conversation with Gold, and if Belle's appearance was anything to go by, her advice had done the trick.

"My pleasure," she said with a bow.

Belle grinned. "Oh no, I rather think it was ours."