Summary: Belle and Gold welcome their bundle of joy into the world.

Apple Charlotte

Gold was very glad that he'd cleared his calendar of all court appointments in the week leading up to Belle's due date, as there was no way he'd be able to concentrate on presenting a case to a panel of magistrates when every one of his brain cells was screaming at him that his child's birth was increasingly imminent. Philip, newly qualified and loving it, had been more than happy to take on the extra work, perhaps in an effort to prove himself thoroughly indispensable.

Sadly, charging by the hour meant that Gold did have to do some work if he was to stand any chance of being paid. He was halfway through a routine progress meeting with one of his clients for a long-standing and complicated case – a man contesting his father's will – when he heard a phone ring in the open office outside. He didn't think anything of it until Ashley poked her head around the door.

"Sorry to interrupt, Mr Gold, but I've got your wife on the phone. It's urgent."

Immediately, Gold knew exactly what was happening, and he scrambled up, almost tripping over his own cane in the process. His client gave him a rather perplexed shrug as he left the room to take the call on Ashley's phone, but he gave a good-natured shrug when Ashley offered to get him a cup of tea.

Gold picked up the receiver and took the phone off manual hold.

"Hello, sweetheart."

"Hi." Belle sounded remarkably chirpy, all things considered, but Gold could still detect a trace of fear in her voice. "I'm in labour. My contractions started a couple of hours ago."

Even though he had guessed that this was happening, Gold was still speechless for a minute, to the extent where Belle began asking him if he was ok.

"I'm on my way," he managed, his words a little strangled.

"Don't you dare break the speed limit!"

"Belle, I…"

"Or run any ambers!"

"I promise," Gold agreed. He'd keep to it, but all the same, he couldn't help but wonder. Bae's birth had been lightning quick in comparison with some of the tales of horror that he had heard over the years, and he had the terrible feeling that the genes for that may have come down his side of the family. None of his relatives were particularly famed for hanging around when there was something important waiting for them.

"Gold, I mean it." Belle's voice was stern.

"I promise," Gold repeated. "Oh Belle, I love you."

"I love you too," Belle said, but the last word became a high-pitched keen of pain.

"Belle? Belle? Breathe, sweetheart." Gold's grip on his cane tightened as he listened to Belle's heavy breathing down the phone.

"I'm ok," she panted eventually. "But… hospital does look attractive."

"Ok, I'll see you in a few minutes."

They said their goodbyes and Gold dropped the receiver back into its cradle in something of a daze.

"Belle's in labour, isn't she?"

He looked up to see Ashley standing calmly in his office doorway with one eyebrow raised, handing a cup of tea to Mr Forrest. Gold turned to his client.

"Mr Forrest, I'm afraid we're going to have to cut short this meeting because my wife is having a baby. Could we reschedule for the same time next week? Please do enjoy your tea and help yourself to biscuits, Miss Boyd will show you out."

Mr Forrest smiled and nodded.

"Good luck," he said, as Gold came back into his office and began locking up filing cabinets. "Is it your first?"

Gold politely ignored the question; it would engender too much explanation to say that their child was Belle's first but his second, so he left it unsaid. After shaking hands and exchanging the necessary pleasantries, he left his client in Ashley's capable hands (currently occupied with her biscuit tin) and hurried downstairs as fast as he could.

"Good luck!" Kathryn called after him as he tore through reception past her. "Give Belle my best!"

The drive home seemed to take forever, and it was only his promise to Belle that kept him from putting his foot down. The house was quiet when he got inside, and he called out.

"Belle, love? Where are you?"

"Kitchen," came the muffled reply. Gold limped through to find Belle leaning on the worktop, forehead pillowed on her arms.

"Oh sweetheart."

He came up next to her, slipping his free hand up under the hem of her camisole and rubbing her back. She was still in the pyjamas that he'd left her in bed in earlier. Belle sighed happily at his touch and turned her head to face him.

"I'm exhausted and I haven't even started yet," she whimpered.

"Come here, love." Gold opened his arms and Belle pushed herself off the work surface, hooking her arms around his neck and resting her head against his chest. He kept one hand on her back, rubbing small circles, and the other stroked her hair.

"Have you rung the hospital?" he asked.

Belle nodded.

"They said you should take me in when you got back."

"In that case, let's go."

Belle raised her head a couple of inches and looked at him pointedly.

"You cannot attend the birth of your baby wearing a suit," she said. "I forbid it. I will be wearing my pyjamas. You are not wearing your suit."

Before Gold could make any kind of response, he felt Belle tense in his arms and grasp around for the notebook and pencil on the side where she'd been timing her contractions.

"Let me." He made a note of the time and continued to rub her back, murmuring soothing nonsense until she relaxed a little.

Belle looked up at him, her eyes weary.

"Three hours in and I'm already thinking 'stop, I want to get off!'' Don't tell me, it's too late to back out now."

Gold chuckled.

"I wasn't going to say anything of the sort," he said. "Come on love, let's get you to the hospital and meet our little one."

He pulled out a chair and made to manoeuvre Belle onto it, but she shook her head, instead moving back to the worktop.

"Sitting's uncomfortable," she grumbled. "Baby's so low now it feels like I'm squashing her head."

Gold curled one arm around Belle's stomach.

"Be good in there," he told his child. "Don't give your ma hell, ok? Do we have an agreement? I really should get it in writing and ratified by one of my colleagues, but you're still a bit young yet to hold a pen, let alone read a contract."

Belle gave a weak laugh, and, satisfied that he'd cheered her up somewhat, Gold moved away to change and collect Belle's hospital bag from the nursery.

They'd decided on yellow in the end, as they didn't know if they were having a boy or a girl, and in the late morning sunshine, the room lit up. It gave him pause to think that the next time he set foot in this room, it would have an occupant.

Gold picked up a plush bear, a gift from godmother-to-be Ruby, and tucked it into the top of the overnight bag, head poking out. Belle was waiting for him in the hall when he came back down the stairs and she smiled when she saw the little bear.

They left the house as a couple, and they would be returning to it as a family.

X

The drive to the hospital took twenty minutes, and Gold was quite glad that they hadn't encountered any more red lights on the way when Belle's waters broke whilst they were standing at the maternity unit reception desk. It was not that he had been particularly worried for his car seats, it was the blind fear and mortification in his poor wife's face.

"It looks you got here right on time," the midwife assigned to Belle said, having taken everything in her stride, lead them away to an empty room and examined her charge. "I shouldn't imagine it'll be long now. You're already six centimetres dilated, nearly seven."

"No, no, I'm not ready," Belle said, and for the first time she seemed to sound genuinely scared of what was to come. She grabbed Gold's hand and squeezed as another contraction began. "I can't do this, I'm not ready!"

"You can do this," Gold said, focussing on the dull ache in his knee from sitting in an awkward position rather than the vice-like crushing grip on his hand. "You'll get through this with no trouble, because you're my brave, beautiful, clever Belle, you can do anything, and you're going to be a brilliant mum. Trust me. I'm a lawyer."

Belle laughed and gradually loosened her grip as the contraction subsided.

"You're the one who got me in this state," she pointed out. "I wouldn't trust you as far as I could spit."

She turned over with a little difficulty until she was back on her knees, leaning on the headboard. It seemed to be the position that was the most comfortable for her, and it meant that Gold could perch on the edge of the bed and still massage her back if she wanted.

"Considering how organised we are," he began, "you'd have thought we'd have come to a decision about names by now."

"Baby's two days early," Belle said. "Who knows? Maybe we'd have reached a conclusion tomorrow."

They still hadn't decided an hour later, when the midwife told Belle that she was fully dilated and she should push on the next contraction.

Gold came to the conclusion that he had never heard Belle swear quite so violently, and he was fairly certain that she had invented half a dictionary of new curses. It broke his heart to know that Belle was hurting so much, and he was on the verge of suing the midwives if they didn't her more pain relief Right Now This Minute, until the rational part of his brain reminded him that Belle didn't want an epidural, and if she wanted any more drugs, she'd ask for them.

Still the rational part of his brain had a hard time maintaining control later, when the midwives began to look worried, and the gynaecologist was called in.

Belle's labour was stalling and the baby was in danger of becoming distressed. They were prepared to let labour progress naturally for another half an hour but then…

Belle shook her head, not letting them get out the rest of the words. She grabbed Gold's hand.

"You told me I could do it," she cried, sobbing into his wrist. "You told me I could do it! But I'm so, so tired!"

"I know, sweetheart, I know. But you're doing great, you can do this, I know you can."

He knew what they needed to do to get things moving again. Simple gravity would be their best help; the weight of the baby's head pressing against the cervix triggered contractions.

"Come on sweetheart. You need to get up, that'll make things easier."

"I can't…"

"Yes you can. Come on, lean on me, I've got you." He bent, bracing himself against the bed so that Belle could put her arms around his neck and he could pull her up onto her knees and take the majority of her weight. She rested her head on his shoulder and Gold could hear her snuffles of pain and utter frustration next to his ear.

He closed his eyes, winging up a prayer to whichever deity happened to be up there at the moment that everything would be all right. He couldn't move, his balance was precarious enough as it was; he could only hold Belle and hope.

Five minutes later, he breathed a sigh of relief as the midwife spoke again.

"Ok, Belle, Baby's coming down beautifully now, you obviously just needed a helping hand from gravity. Another push and we should see the head."

Gold gave an involuntarily yelp as Belle bit down hard on his shoulder and pushed.

"Excellent, Baby's crowning now. Two more pushes. Come on Belle, your baby's nearly here. You can do it."

Belle gave a final howl that seemed to fill the room and echo around it.

There was a moment of silence, and then the screaming of a healthy baby. Belle laughed next to Gold's neck when she heard the sound.

"Boy or girl?" she asked. Gold peered over Belle's shoulder at their baby and smiled before pressing a kiss into her messy curls.

"She's a girl."

He felt Belle's smile against his skin. "Told you so."

X

Charlotte Miriam Gold was the spitting image of her mother. Gold looked down at his two sleeping girls, noting the similarities between them. Charlotte was safely tucked into Belle's arms, and her blue eyes fluttered open when he touched the downy hair on top of her head.

"Good evening, little pumpkin," he said. "It's nice to finally meet you. Now, I need you to promise not to be too hard on Ma and Daddy, ok? You've been brilliant for the last nine months, can you keep it up for another eighteen years?"

Charlotte blinked slowly.

"Can we shake on it?" Gold held out his little finger to Charlotte's tiny palm and her fist closed around it automatically.

"Do you want to hold her?"

Gold looked up to see Belle smiling at him sleepily.

"You haven't really had as much chance to hold her," she continued. "She's your daughter as much as mine."

Gold picked up Charlotte and tucked her in close. Belle watched them.

"I keep expecting you to start singing Gaelic lullabies," she said. "Don't pretend you weren't practising whilst you and Archie were decorating the nursery."

"I was doing nothing of the sort."

Belle raised an eyebrow."

"Well," Gold leaned back in his chair to get comfortable with Charlotte. "Maybe a bit."

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about. I love it when you speak Gaelic."

"Belle, you can't understand a word I'm saying. I can't understand a word I'm saying, for that matter. The only person who understands is over four hundred miles away."

"It still sounds nice. Please love, sing Auld Lang Syne in Gaelic for your girls."

Gold glanced over at the door to Belle's room.

"Not while I've got a rapt audience."

Ruby was peering through the little glass panel in the door and she waved frantically on catching Belle and Gold's attention. Belle gestured for her to come in and she rushed inside, Archie following at a slightly more sedate pace with Connor balanced on his hip.

"Oh, she's so cute!" Ruby gushed, cooing over Charlotte in her father's arms before giving Belle a hug. "How are you?"

"Knackered." Belle yawned. "But happy. She's worth every minute of it all."

"I know, you forget all the pain as soon as you hold them."

As if on cue, Connor wriggled in Archie's arms, wanting to be put down. He pointed excitedly at the envelope in Ruby's hand as she passed it to Belle.

"Cat!" he said proudly.

"No darling, that's a card, not a cat," Ruby said. "Cats have four paws and go mew, don't they?"

"Have you decided on a name?" Archie asked Belle, grabbing the back of Connor's dungarees before he could run headlong into the bedframe and knock himself out.

"Charlotte Miriam."

"Well, the Charlotte is obviously after Charlotte Brontë." Ruby grinned. "We can never forget that Jane Eyre's your favourite book, can we?"

Belle laughed. "Of course not. And Miriam after Gold's mum."

Ruby continued to fuss over her godchild, and Connor toddled over to investigate.

"Cat!" he exclaimed again, but quickly lost interest in the new arrival and started playing with his plastic triceratops instead (the giant plush stegosaurus had been deemed too large to bring to the hospital), making it fly around the room and climb up Gold's chair.

"You'll be being used as a climbing frame before you know it," Ruby observed. "Congratulations, you two. I'm so happy for you."

"Yes, congratulations… No Connor, don't send Topsy up your godpa's leg, I don't think he wants a dinosaur on his lap." Archie scooped up Connor and Topsy just as Charlotte began to cry. The sound startled the little boy and he too began to grizzle.

"Oh dear," said Ruby. "I think it's dinner time." She disentangled her fingers from Charlotte's before giving Belle a final hug and Gold a peck on the cheek, and she went over to take Connor from Archie so that he too could give his well wishes.

"Best of luck to you both," he said. "If you need any help, Ruby still has all her parenting books. You're welcome to borrow them, read them and then throw them against the wall saying that they're useless."

"They are useless," Ruby said, having succeeded in getting Connor to quiet down by bopping him on the nose with the triceratops until he started giggling. "Just trust your instincts. Unless they're telling you that your baby wants a bacon sandwich, in which case they might be sending you mixed messages."

Ruby, Archie and Connor said their goodbyes, and left the new parents in peace.

"I think she is hungry," Belle said, and she pushed the straps of her camisole down off her shoulders before holding out her arms for her daughter. She gave Gold a wry smile as she got comfortable with Charlotte against her chest and offered the baby her breast; Charlotte immediately stopped crying and suckled greedily.

"I know you're enjoying the view," Belle said, "but my boobs are strictly off limits at the moment."

"Look, but don't touch."

"Precisely. Oh, come here." Belle nudged the pillows behind her with her elbow indicating for Gold to join her on the bed, and she leaned back against him. Gold put his arm around her.

"Did I bite you?" Belle asked. "I seem to remember getting a mouthful of your shirt at one point."

"Yes, yes you did,"

"Sorry."

"You were giving birth," Gold said. "You're excused pretty much anything."

Belle looked up at him.

"I love you," she said. "I love you, and I love you, Charlotte, and I'm incredibly tired and incredibly happy right now."

"I love you both too."

Gold kissed Belle's temple, enjoying the way she snuggled against him instinctively, and he stroked Charlotte's soft cheek. They were a family, and he couldn't be happier.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the last cupcake. I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed baking them. It's been a blast, but I think that this is a good time to leave Belle and Gold to their own devices as they continue on their journey together with their new arrival.