In the end, Arthur decided on a shopping trip for Bae rather than a proper birthday present. Belle wasn't sure if it was just a reaction to her discomfort or if he'd changed his mind, but she didn't think anyone would deny that a toy store shopping spree was a lot more fun for both father and son.
At least he'd had enough foresight to invite her along on this trip to ensure Bae didn't come home with a trombone or perhaps a puppy. As much as she adored Arthur, there were just some things she didn't think she's ever be able to trust him with and this was one of them.
"What about this?" Bae asked, holding up a very large LEGO pirate ship play set.
Arthur glanced over to Belle who nodded quickly.
"I think that looks like a great idea," Arthur said cheerfully.
Belle was sure that Bae must have caught on to their little scheme, but he was at least keeping up the charade that Arthur was the one who was in charge of toy selection. Things were really beginning to come together for them as a family.
After present shopping was completed, they retreated to a cafe for lunch. Bae was excitedly discussing his purchases, pulling different things out to inform his father and mother of the different features of each new toy. He'd gotten a pretty decent haul, all things considered. Belle was a little loathe to consider what Christmas was going to look like with Arthur, and next year she would probably put her foot down and insist on a limit to the presents but this year she'd let him spoil his son. They both really deserved it.
As Bae babbled, she felt a strange sensation, a tickling in the back of her neck. She was being watched, she realized. She glanced over to Arthur to see if he'd felt it, too. He was also alert, looking around subtly as Bae talked. She followed his lead, scanning the room for the threat. She felt Arthur stiffen next to her and looked back at him. He was staring intently to her left and she followed his gaze.
There was a completely nondescript couple sitting there, completely unremarkable except in that the woman was watching her son in a way that set Belle on edge. As she watched them, things began to trigger her memory. Something about the pair was eerily familiar, but she was having a hard time placing the brunette woman and her companion. It wasn't until the stranger's eyes moved over to her and Arthur that Belle realized who it was. It wasn't a stranger: it was Milah.
Belle's blood ran cold at the sight of a woman she last saw at the hearing to revoke her parental rights. Arthur and Milah were staring at each other like cats who'd wandered into the same yard, and even Bae had stopped his chatter to look questioningly at his parents.
"Mom? Dad?" the boy asked. "Is everything okay?"
Everything was most definitely not okay, but Belle could hardly tell her son that. It had been over six years since Bae had seen his birth mother, and Belle wasn't even sure if he'd recognize her anymore. Either way, if a confrontation with Milah was unavoidable then it was definitely something Belle didn't want to have happen in a coffee shop. At the same time, she didn't want to leave a public place.
"Everything's fine, honey," Belle said finally, deciding to redirect him. "So which game do you think is going to be your favorite?"
Bae launched into an explanation of the two video games he'd bought, but she could tell his heart wasn't in it. Her son was clever and he knew something was wrong. Belle was proud of him even as she wished he was just a little younger and a little easier to lie to. She wouldn't be able to protect him for much longer.
"Don't you have a restraining order against her?" Arthur whispered warmly into her hair.
She nodded, smiling at Bae and forcing herself to be interested in anything but the woman who wasn't supposed to be here.
She was hyper aware of her surroundings as Arthur excused himself to the restroom, returning a few moments later slightly more relaxed than before. Once they paid the check and he led them outside, she realized why. There was a police cruiser parked outside the front of the restaurant as they exited. In the end, his precautions had been unnecessary. Neither Milah nor Killian followed them into the street, and no cars followed them home in Gold's Cadillac.
Once they were home, Bae ran up to his room to try out his new games leaving Belle and Arthur to have the uncomfortable talk in the kitchen.
"Weren't they supposed to tell me when she got out of jail?" Belle sputtered, pulling a bottle of wine out and pouring both of them a glass. "Nobody told me anything!"
"You should have gotten a postcard," he said dejectedly.
"Oh, lovely!" she exclaimed. "A little card to tell me my son's chances of getting kidnapped just skyrocketed. How considerate of them."
"I never said it made sense," he replied. "And we're not going to let anything happen to him."
"I know," she said finally, sitting down in a huff. "She can have him over my dead body."
"It's not going to come to that," he said, staring at her intently. "It will absolutely not come to that."
"I'm not going to let her have my son!"
"And I'm telling you," he sounded almost angry now. "That she's not going to get that far. I will not let them near either of you if I have to hire you a team of body guards."
Belle didn't answer him – she couldn't answer him. She knew that he'd try to protect her and she knew he'd die to protect their son; just like she would. It was strangely comforting to know that she didn't have to face this alone, she had another parent to protect her son and a partner to help her do it.
"This may be overstepping," she said finally. "But I need a favor – do you mind sleeping here tonight?"
He blanched at her request, swallowing hard and she felt compelled to continue.
"I just think I'd feel better about everything if we weren't alone tonight," she explained. "Just...safer."
His shoulders sagged at the word safer, and he smiled softly at her.
"Of course I'll stay," he said. "I'll have to go home for a bit to grab a change of clothes, but I'll stay. As long as you want."
"Thank you," she replied. "That means a lot to me."
"This is definitely something you don't have to thank me for," he said decisively, kissing the top of her head comfortingly. "He's my son, too."
"We're going to have to tell him," she sighed. "I don't even know what to say about it. He's been feeling so safe lately, and now I have to take that away from him."
"What we'll tell him is that he has two parents who will do anything to keep him safe, and that he has nothing to fear."
"He has to be afraid, though," she argued. "I can't let him be unprepared."
"No, you're right," Arthur sagged onto a chair next to her. "I've never had to deal with this sort of thing before."
"Me either," she admitted. "At least, not like this. Before when he would go visit her there was nothing I could do about the visits, so we'd go over when to call me and when to call 911 and then after he got back we'd talk about what happened and I'd try to document everything. And he's had the stranger danger talk of course."
"So we're almost there, then," he said. "We just have to tell him she's back."
"He's not going to be okay," Belle replied. "He used to have nightmares about this."
"Well then if I need to find him I'll be sure to check your bed," he said with a half-smile that faded as it seemed to dawn on him what he'd actually said. "Not that...I'll be checking your bed."
It was actually a relief to giggle at his discomfort, and he felt it too, snickering along with her for a few moments.
"We really need to make a better plan for this in the long term," she said as soon as the giggles settled down. "Not that I mind you staying here, but if they try to take him...what are our options with the police?"
"Not great," he admitted. "We can call if we see them too close to him and if we can prove they're a threat we might be able to get the police to patrol the neighborhood, but otherwise our best option is preventing him from being alone."
"Do you think she'd hurt one of us to get to him?"
It was the question that had been dancing at the forefront of her mind since she'd seen Milah at the cafe: were their lives in danger?
"Milah? Probably not, though you know Jones better than I do. And I can't imagine that prison mellowed either of them out."
"That's a good point," she admitted. "When I knew them, they were both far more ambivalent than violent. Are you sure the police won't increase patrols?"
"I only got the one to show up outside the cafe by calling in a favor," he admitted.
She leaned her head against his shoulder gingerly.
"Thanks for doing that," she said honestly. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know yet," he admitted. "But whatever it is we'll do it together."
"We will," she agreed. "That's what family means, isn't it? That we do the hard things together?"
"I still don't know what to tell Bae," he admitted."
"Me either," she conceded. "But we better do it soon. I don't want to put him in danger."
"There's no time like the present," he reminded her. "The longer we wait, the worse it'll get."