paradiceseeker said:

I think this would be later in the timeline. Something minor happens to Belle's home. Nothing that would destroy it or their belongings, but something that would make Belle and Bae have to move out for a week or two. After the week, Belle and Bae aren't eager to move back.

One night at Belle's would turn into a week and a half of both Belle and Bae sleeping over at his house. Not that Arthur really minded (or, indeed, disliked) having them both at hand constantly, he just wished the circumstances leading to it had been difference.

After they had told Bae his biological mom was out of prison, he'd been perfectly fine...until around one in the morning when he woke up crying and ended up spending the rest of the night in his mother's bed. Not that Belle would admit to it, but Arthur was pretty sure she preferred that to having him in his own bed. He liked the idea of Bae not being alone at night, but he hated being far enough away from them that he wouldn't have any real hope of protecting them.

In the morning, they'd made a plan. Belle took Bae to school so as to warn the staff of what was going on. Arthur went to his shop with the expectation that he'd pick their son up later (Bae wasn't to go anyplace without a parent present). That all blew right to Hell before three.

The only reason he'd even bothered to open the shop at all that day was because Bae had to go to school and they wouldn't let Arthur physically sit in the class with him. He was about to begin closing when the bell rang above the door and Milah waltzed back into his life.

She was thinner than he remembered, although prison could probably do that to you. Her hair, which had once been long and wavy was now cut to shoulder length and hung limp around her face. She was beautiful when he'd known her, and you could still see that woman inside of her, but this was a woman who'd had a much harder life than his ex-wife had been accustomed to.

"Hello, Arthur," she said, sweeter than he remembered her ever sounding except in the early days of their marriage. "It's been a long time."

"Yes it has," he snapped. "But not long enough."

"Is it really going to be like that?" she replied. "After all these years, you're just going to kick me out again?"

"I never 'kicked you out,' Milah," he said. "You ran off with your boyfriend. How is dear Killian these days, by the way?"

She had the good grace at least to look shamed by his comment, but not to leave.

"Killian is fine," she said, averting her eyes. "But we'd both be better with our son back."

And there it was, the real reason for her visit.

"He's not your son," Arthur said as calmly as he could manage. "And he's certainly not Killian's. I took a paternity test, Milah."

She didn't even argue. He'd wanted to be able to argue about this, because he was still livid about it. Damn her.

"I figured you may have," she admitted, coming to stand in front of him. "I'm sorry, Arthur. I wasn't thinking straight at the time. You know that."

"And that's supposed to make me want to help you get Bae back?" he nearly laughed at the absurdity of it. "You're literally admitting to me that you were a terrible mother to him."

"I wasn't always!" she replied. "I tried my damn hardest for him! And it wasn't easy doing it alone, you know."

"Alone?" he exclaimed (bordered on yelling). "You weren't alone. You and Killian were together the entire time, Milah! And I only wasn't there because you left me and lied about him not being my son, but please, do continue to tell me how you were the victim in all this."

"You're still the same," she huffed. "Can't you forgive me? For Bae's sake, at least. He needs his parents."

"He has his parents," he snapped. "And you're not one of them."

"I am his mother!"

"Belle is his mother," he replied sharply. "Belle raised him alone, not you. She was younger than you and had no family or help and she raised him. You lost all right to call yourself his mother a long time ago."

"So you're alright with our son being raised by a stranger?"

"I'm alright with my son being raised by his mother," he corrected her. "Belle and I share custody and we're his legal parents."

She visibly recoiled at this news.

"Are you sleeping with her?" she shrieked.

"What the hell business would it be of yours if I were?" he replied, before thinking better of it. "I'm not, incidentally, but as far as the courts are concerned you are nothing to any of us anymore."

She was agitated now, scratching her lower arms through the sleeves of her sweater as she looked around the room, a habit he remembered from the last months of their relationship when things had already been spiraling out of control.

"Get out, Milah," he said finally. "I'm closing early today. And don't come back."

"No," she whined as he tried to maneuver her towards the door. "You can't kick me out. I want to see him, Arthur. That's all. I just want to see my son."

"Well fortunately for him he's not your son," Arthur shot back. "You're in absolutely no condition to see him and it would just upset him to see you."

"I have to see him!" she shrieked. "You can't keep him from me forever! I'm his mother! I carried him for nine months!"

"I'm calling the police," Arthur finally replied, moving towards the phone. She was irrational and erratic and beyond being reasoned with.

He got as far as dialing 9-1 before he heard the door slam and she was gone. He let out a long sigh, making sure to double check the alarm system and remove the handgun he kept under the counter before he locked up. He didn't like the idea of having a gun in the house with Bae, but he liked the idea of Milah or Jones breaking in and taking it even less.

He made it to Bae's school in record time, waiting patiently in the car line to retrieve his son.

"How was your day?" he asked Bae by way of conversation as they pulled back out into the road and turned towards the flower shop.

"It was fine," the boy said with a little shrug of his shoulders. "We read some of Bridge to Terabithia and then I had a quiz in math."

"That's good," Arthur said distractedly. "How did you do?"

"I did alright I guess," Bae replied, staring out the window.

Neither one of them was particularly invested in this conversation at all, but neither one was willing to admit that.

"How are your friends?" Arthur tried. "Emma, and Nick, and Ava, and...August, was it?"

"They're fine," Bae replied.

Thankfully, Belle's job wasn't too far from the school so he didn't have to try to come up with any other discussion topics before they were both safely ensconced in the florists.

"Hey!" Belle said with a big relieved smile on her face as soon as she saw the both of them. Bringing Bae by after school hadn't been part of their original plan, but it had been a good change just to see her looking like that.

"Hi Mom!" Bae said cheerfully, before catching a glance of his mother's assistant manager in the back arranging flowers. "Hi Uncle Tiny!"

"Hello Bae," Anton called out, coming into the front to say hello and receive a hug from the boy. "How've you been? I haven't seen you since summer! Look at you, you're going to be bigger than me soon!"

Anton was fussing over Bae and insisting on measuring the boy before guiding him into the back room to sit on a stool and tell his uncle all about the family vacation they'd been on. Not that Arthur necessarily wanted to be rid of his son, but he was exceedingly grateful in this instance because the entire point of this outing was to warn Belle about Milah.

He'd been rehearsing what to tell her the entire car trip from his shop, but all those carefully crafted words evaporated at her warm smile.

"I want you and Bae to live with me," he blurted out. "While Milah is around, I mean. Not...permanently. Although if you wanted to I wouldn't – Milah came to see me today. She wants him back."

Belle paled visibly, but the fear he'd expected washed quickly across her face and was instead replaced with a look of pure determination.

"She's not getting him," Belle replied icily. "She can want him all she likes, but she is absolutely not going to get him."

"So you'll stay?"

"Of course," she said simply. "Your place has a better security system and a lot more room."

He felt his face go completely slack. He'd anticipated her to argue, or put up at least a token resistance. This was a welcome, but unlooked for, change.

"Right," he replied, at a loss for how to proceed. "Do you mind if Bae and I stay here, then? We can all go pack your things when you're done with work and make it a proper move. I don't want you alone any more than I want him alone."

"I can take care of myself," she said with a sly smile as she went back to her inventory. "But thank you for caring."

"No," he said sharper than he meant to, grabbing her arm before he realized what he was doing. "Belle, I'm serious. She's angry that you took him from her, and angry that I won't help her get him back. And she's using again. It's not safe."

"How do you know she's using?" Belle said breathlessly. "Can we use it to get her parole revoked?"

"I don't know," he corrected. "I just know how junkies act when they're using. If she's not using yet, she will be. The most I can do is ask her parole officer to bring her in for testing, but I don't know how much weight that will hold."

"And you think she might hurt me?"

"I think," he began, taking a deep breath before continuing. "I think to her, the only thing standing between her and getting Bae back is you. If you weren't in the picture, she'd be his only mother."

"But what about you?" she replied. "You're his parent, too."

"I don't count," he said with whatever smile he could muster. "I've never counted."

"Yes you do," she said quickly, returning his smile. "You matter to us."

His mouth went dry, and he wanted to answer her but what did you say to that? What could he possibly say to her that would communicate the gravity of what she was telling him? So instead he quietly stepped away and let her go back to her work.

Later that evening after Bae was settled into his room at Arthur's house and Belle had chosen a guest room for herself, after dinner and homework – even after Bae's bedtime – Arthur realized that this would be different than vacation had been. Vacation had been a neutral territory, but this was his home. This was Belle curled up on his sofa and looking so much like she belonged that it made his heart ache.

She was going over the books for the florist and he was going over some correspondence about a mid-century writing desk he hoped to acquire from a private collection and it felt so...right. They weren't paying any attention to each other at all (or hadn't been before he started staring), but if anything that was even more special. It was its own kind of acceptance. She was comfortable enough with his presence that it in no way affected her ability to go about her day to day life.

He liked this. It had been so long since someone was comfortable enough with him that it was nothing special to be in her nightgown and a bathrobe and look over documents in front of him. When she eventually – inevitably – caught on that he was staring at her, she didn't even flinch. She smiled at him, and smiled wider when he smiled back, before a yawn interrupted.

"I should probably go to sleep," she said sheepishly. "I've been working on this all week. The books got a little bit off while I was away and the numbers are just getting blurry at this point."

He couldn't speak around the lump in his throat, so he just nodded as she gathered her papers together and set them on the side table that her purse was now resting on as though it had always belonged there.

"Goodnight, Arthur," she said, kissing his cheek softly and making her way upstairs.

He hated Milah for threatening this tentative happiness they had found, but he thanked his lucky stars that he was here now and could protect them in whatever way was available to him.