Summary: The entire gang go to the beach.

Note: Someone wanted to see a beach outing, and someone else wanted to see Gold playing with the enormous plush dinosaur.

Strawberry Shortcake

Belle was not expecting a phone call at half-past eight on a Sunday morning, and she wondered aloud who it could be as she reached across Gold for her phone.

"Whoever it is, they can bugger off and call back at a reasonable time of day," Gold grumbled, his words half muffled in the pillow and his eyes still closed.

It was Emma, and immediately Belle's mind was set on edge. It was rare for Emma to ring so early on a weekend.

"Hi Emma, is everything ok?"

"Yep. Everything's fine. Do you want to come to the beach?"

Belle blinked. "Pardon?"

"Do you and Gold want to come to the beach? There's a whole bunch of us going. Me and Graham and Henry, and Ruby and Archie are bringing Connor, and Henry invited Grace, and Grace invited Jeff and Alice, and Granny offered to provide a picnic if she could come too, so it's turned into a bit of a family outing. Do you want to come?"

Belle looked down at Gold, who had readjusted his position snuggled in the covers and was watching her from his nest of pillows with one narrowed eye.

"Would you like to go to the beach with pretty much our entire circle of friends?" she asked him.

Gold raised his visible eyebrow.

"Why?" he grumbled.

"Because it's Sunday, it's perfect beach weather, and it would be nice to spend time with our friends?" Belle suggested.

Gold gave an incomprehensible grunt and brought one hand out of the tangle of sheets to stroke over her swollen belly. "The only place I want to spend today is in this bed, and the only person I want to spend it with is you."

"I'll wear my blue and white bikini top," Belle wheedled. "You can put sun cream on my back. I promise I won't make you go anywhere near the sea; you can stay and guard the picnic with Granny."

"All right, all right." Gold heaved himself into a sitting position and stretched before slipping an arm around Belle and pulling her back against him to nuzzle at her neck. "You had me at bikini."

"Do you mind?" Belle giggled as she tried to bat him away with the hand not holding the phone. "I'm on the phone."

"Hey, it's ok, feel free to make out." Belle got the distinct impression that Emma was smirking on the other end of the phone. "So, we'll see you there in a couple of hours?"

"Count us in," Belle replied, and she paused before adding: "Best get Granny to make extra sandwiches. I have a feeling we might need them."

X

All things considered, it was going remarkably well. As promised, Gold had not been made to go anywhere near the sea. Well, he'd have a job. Sand was even harder to walk on with his cane than gravel was, and that was saying something, so once he was sitting down on the beach, he wasn't moving unless absolutely necessary. He was sitting under a large beach umbrella with all the various bags and baggage that the families had brought with them, watching the others. Granny was asleep in a deckchair beside him; Emma, Graham, Henry and Grace appeared to be having a splash war in the sea; Jefferson and Alice were up on the pier arguing about chocolate sauce on ice-cream; Ruby, Archie and Connor were building a sand castle (well, more like a sand pile), with Pongo's rather dubious help, and Belle…

Belle was paddling in the shallows, and looking like the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, in her blue and white bikini top and long blue skirt (she was very conscious of her thighs and varicose veins, despite the number of times that Gold told her she was still drop dead gorgeous), her hair blowing in the sea breeze.

Gold took a surreptitious picture on his phone for posterity, so that he could always see her looking the way she did at that moment. Presently she turned and waved at him before walking along the beach a little to talk to Ruby, who appeared to be wrestling with Connor. Gold rummaged in the picnic basket for leftovers. Granny had packed enough food to feed a small army, which was really quite advantageous since they were a small army. There was not much left, which might be the reason why Alice and Jefferson had gone to raid the ice-cream van. He lay back and looked up at the parasol above him, munching on a strawberry thoughtfully. It was years since he had been to a beach. They'd come religiously when Bae was younger. His son had loved to swim in the sea and pay football on the sand, and Gold had loved it too. Beach holidays had been a staple part of his life and in recent years he had forgotten the simple pleasures of sun, sea and sand. He was looking forward to rediscovering them in years to come with Belle and their child.

"Please Connor, it's naptime." Ruby was steering her son towards the shade under the beach umbrellas. She looked a little frantic, and Gold surmised that Connor had no intention of taking a nap and this was what she had been wrestling with him about ten minutes prior.

"Can you watch him for five minutes whilst I find the facilities?" Ruby asked. "I'm bursting, Belle's already on her way there and Archie's had to tear off down the beach after Pongo decided to chase someone else's Frisbee."

Gold nodded and Ruby ran off gratefully towards the pier.

"Come on Connor, you stay here with your godpa and have a nap in the shade whilst Mummy and Daddy get themselves sorted out. There might be ice cream if you're good." Connor seemed quite excited at the prospect of ice cream, and Gold patted the towel beside him. Connor took a couple of steps forward and promptly fell over on the uneven beach. "Eh dear..." Gold leaned across and picked him up, setting him on his feet again and brushing off his tiny hands before he could shove a fistful of sand in his mouth. The little boy was obviously rather shocked by his sudden close encounter with the ground, and looked like he was about to burst into tears. "Come here, wee one."

He groped around in the buggy behind him and found the enormous stegosaurus, hiding it behind the picnic basket and making it pop its head up, much to Connor's mirth. After a while of the game, he handed the dinosaur over and Connor threw his arms round it, toppling sideways to curl up next to Gold with a happy sigh. He reached out towards the picnic basket.

"Joo."

Gold handed him the little sip-cup of juice and continued to watch over his godchild. He loved kids. There were no two ways about it. Any misgivings that he might have held about having a baby with Belle had been completely swept away by Connor. The more time he spent with his godson, the more he could not wait to become a parent again, and watch over his own child.

X

Belle looked down at her husband and smiled. Gold had decided to join Connor in naptime and she nudged him with her foot to wake him now that his charge had been returned to his parents.

"Mmph." Gold manoeuvred himself into a sitting position and squinted up at her against the sunlight. "Have I missed much?"

"Erm, Gold?"

Gold looked down to where Connor had been dozing against his shoulder and the trail of drool and fruit juice over his shirt, and he sighed.

"Well, it's all good practice for later." Without any further ceremony he stripped off his shirt and tossed it vaguely in the direction of Belle's handbag before opening his arms for her. Belle settled herself between his legs and gave an appreciative hum as he began to rub suncream into her shoulder blades. She was just on the verge of nodding off herself when she felt a ping at her back and gave a squawk of alarm on realising that Gold had undone her bikini top. It was still secured tightly round her neck and was in no danger of revealing anything but she gave Gold a glare over her shoulder nonetheless.

"Do you mind? We can't all go topless without traumatising small children here!"

Gold just kissed her in response and continued to massage the cream into her skin, obediently doing her up again when he was done.

Belle leaned back against his chest, watching Ruby and Archie and Connor playing in the water and stroking Pongo's velvety ears when he came over for a sniff round.

"This time next year, that'll be us," she said.

"I can't wait," Gold said, resting his chin on the top of her head.

Belle laughed as she felt a strong kick. "Baby can't either." The kicking did not let up and Belle grimaced. "Baby really can't wait," she muttered through gritted teeth, looking on in grim fascination as her tummy moved of its own accord. "She's trying to kick her way out and join in the fun already. Ugh."

She turned over awkwardly, having completely given up any hope of being graceful, and hooked her arms round Gold's neck. He gave her that slightly lopsided little smirk and a second later, she felt the heel of his hand pressing into her back, just where she needed it. At that moment, it was the most wonderful feeling in the world and she wasted no time in letting her husband know that.

"Better than sex?" He quirked an eyebrow.

Belle made a face. This last trimester had made her really, ridiculously horny, having been almost completely off sex for the middle few months. Perhaps her body was reminding her that she wouldn't be able to have any for a while once she gave birth and she needed to get as much in as possible whilst she still could. Thankfully, Gold was more than happy to oblige her cravings, probably secretly ecstatic that he had displaced her previous obsession of golden syrup.

"Not sure," she said. "We might have to do a comparison later."

X

Gold could quite happily have fallen asleep again, once the baby had calmed down and Belle was back sitting in his lap, leaning back against him, but all thoughts of getting another nap were crushed by the arrival of Henry and Grace, at a rate of knots, scrabbling through Jefferson's belongings to emerge victorious with some binoculars, which they focussed on a point halfway down the beach. Or at least, Henry tried to, with little success.

"Oh for crying out loud, you're hopeless." Grace grabbed Belle's handbag, the picnic hamper, and Ruby's holdall, and began constructing a makeshift fort that she and Henry then crouched behind. The two kids couldn't have been more conspicuous if they'd tried, but Gold let them have their moment, smiling as they bickered over the binoculars. He rested his chin on Belle's shoulder, watching the progress of Jefferson and Alice along the beach in a slightly more subtle manner. He would admit, despite not being an overly romantic soul (here he knew Belle would beg to differ), that they did make a sweet couple, holding hands in their matching sand-stained shorts, Alice's kaftan billowing slightly in the breeze. Presently they stopped by the water's edge.

"Do you think he's going to propose?" Belle asked, tilting her head on one side, her hair tickling Gold's nose as she did.

Henry and Grace looked at each other, their grins reaching Cheshire Cat proportions. Of course they thought Jefferson was going to propose. Grace grabbed the binoculars out of Henry's hands and crouched behind the bag-fort again, peering over the top and refocussing the binoculars to better see her father and possibly-soon-to-be-stepmother.

The couple stayed standing by the sea for a long time, still holding hands. By this time, Emma and Graham had also come over and were jostling for space behind the bag fort, along with Pongo who seemed intent on licking Emma's ankles, and Granny was sitting up in her deckchair, shielding her eyes with her cake decorating magazine as she too craned to see what was going on at the other end of the beach.

"A fiver says he proposes," Emma said.

"You're on," muttered Graham. He glanced behind him to Gold and Belle. "Actually, on second thoughts, maybe not. You two have precedent for accidentally witnessing proposals."

"It's not our fault if people decide to ask other people to marry them when we're in the vicinity." Belle shrugged and popped a strawberry in her mouth. "What can I say? Maybe we're a good luck charm."

It was at that point that Jefferson went down on one knee.

"Yes!" Emma exclaimed. "Called it!"

Henry and Grace high-fived. Graham handed over a fiver to his wife with a groan.

"Keep it down!" Granny hissed from her deckchair. "You don't want them to know they've got an audience before she's said yes!"

The attention returned to the couple by the water. Jefferson had since got back up and he and Alice were wrapped in a close embrace.

"I think she said yes," Grace said conversationally.

"Can we be sure, though?" Emma asked. "There could be another five quid in it if she does."

"What?" Graham yelped. "I never agreed to that!"

Presently, Jeff and Alice kissed, a kiss that was definitely one shared by a newly-engaged couple. Grace gave a whoop of joy and scrambled to her feet.

"Congratulations!" she yelled to her father. To their credit, Jefferson and Alice did not make any indication of knowing they'd had an audience other than to give the spectators a thumbs up, neither party breaking from their kiss.

"Hmm."

Ruby, Archie and Connor had returned to the group, and Ruby was regarding Emma with an expression of intrigue. The young blonde looked up from scratching Pongo between the ears and raised one eyebrow on seeing her friend with her head on one side.

"What?"

"Nothing." Ruby smiled benignly and turned to Archie. "Pongo's been very attentive to Emma and Belle today, hasn't he, Archie?"

"Indeed he has," Archie agreed.

"It's just like he was to me when I was expecting Connor," Ruby continued. "Now, as blooming and full of a baby as Belle is, I can understand his interest in her. His fascination with Emma, however, intrigues me."

Gold saw the moment that Emma's face paled.

"Oh God, you don't think…" She glanced down at her stomach. "That's not possible."

"Well, technically…" Graham began. "But I won't go into the details in polite company," he added quickly after Emma shot him a glare.

"But I'd know!" Emma said. "There are certain… symptoms!"

Ruby shrugged. "Pongo's got a very sensitive nose. Perfectly plausible he'd know before you would."

Emma glanced with horror to Henry, who was beaming.

"If it's a girl, can we call her Xena?" he asked.

Emma stayed silent for a long time, and when she did speak, the only word to come out of her mouth was 'cripes'.

Graham rescued the situation, pulling Emma into his arms and planting a soft kiss on her cheek. "Personally, hun, I'll trust a Clear Blue over a Dalmatian any day. And no, Henry, we are not naming your sister Xena."

"But why not? All right, how about Natasha?"

"We are not naming your sister after Black Widow!"

"But what's wrong with being named after a superhero?"

Belle leaned back against Gold's chest and looked up at him. Her eyes were obscured behind her sunglasses but Gold knew that they would be smiling with amusement.

"Aren't you glad we decided to come?" she asked.

"Very glad," Gold replied, before giving her a heartfelt, if upside-down, kiss.