As two weeks of cohabitation began to turn into three and threatened to turn into four, Belle was becoming antsy. Not that Arthur wasn't a gracious host and always happy to have them, or that his house wasn't bigger than hers or nicer than hers, but her house was hers and she wanted to be at home in her own bed. Here she was still a guest – a loved guest, a guest who was given free reign over the entire house if she wanted, but a guest. This was his home and it was Bae's other home, but her home was a few miles down the road and it was small but it was hers. It was where her father and mother had lived and where she'd raised her son. She couldn't go, though, because it wasn't the safest place for her son to be.
Arthur had a security system with a panic button and lived in a neighborhood that had a gate. More importantly, though, there was a second parent when she was here. She didn't have to hover over her son every minute of every day, because if she wasn't there his father was. There was no way she could have gotten through the threat of Bae's birth mother returning without Arthur but with all signs pointing to Milah being in the area indefinitely they desperately needed to come up with a longer term solution than everyone living together.
Therapy, at least, was helping with all that. Bae had his private sessions, they had family therapy, and Dr. Hopper had gently suggested that perhaps the adults might consider 'couples counseling.' After Arthur had sputtered and babbled for a few minutes and been reassured that it was more like partner's therapy and implied nothing sexual at all they had signed up for a third therapy session. It was pretty intense, but it was helping.
It was after one of their marathon sessions with the doctor that things finally came to a head. They didn't go out much these days, but winter was beginning to bite and Bae needed a new coat (he'd managed to outgrow his old one) so it couldn't be avoided: they had to go shopping. Belle was sure there were military invasions that were planned and carried out with less precision than this trip to the mall. Both adults were on high alert, and even Bae seemed to be feeling the pressure of the occasion, clinging to his mother's side closer than usual.
Picking out and purchasing the coat took a record breaking twenty minutes and then they were out the door and into the parking lot. Belle had a prickly feeling in the back of her neck, and she just wanted to get to the car and go to his house where it was safe, but she wasn't going to get what she wanted. Milah and Jones were waiting by the car.
Bae didn't recognize them right away, thank God, but Belle and Arthur both did. She instinctively pulled Bae tighter to her and Arthur took a half-step in front of them. She felt her son squirming a little with a fear he didn't entirely understand.
"Hello, Milah," Arthur snarled.
Belle grabbed her phone with shaking hands, preparing to dial 9-11 if either one made a move.
Milah ignored Arthur altogether. Instead, she was looking around him at where Belle and Bae stood.
"Is that Bae?" she almost whispered. "He's gotten so big."
She was moving towards Belle and her son, and Belle was itching to call for help against this woman who was moving towards her child, but so far they didn't have any reason to consider them a threat and she was afraid the operator would laugh.
She handed her phone to Bae and pushed him behind her as Milah started to reach for him.
"Don't touch him," Belle said sharply. Arthur was holding his cane like a weapon in front of her, and she was grateful for him being there and on her side.
"Don't you recognize me?" Milah said to Bae with a smile on her face that didn't quite register as being real. "I'm your mom."
Milah's sweater rode up her outstretched arm, and Belle glanced down to see the name 'Bailey' tattooed across the other woman's wrist. She hadn't imagined this other woman having her son's name tattooed on her wrist, and yet here they were. It was almost like a scene from someone else's life, and she couldn't really decide what to feel with the fact that her son's name was emblazoned on this person's body in a crude prison scrawl.
"You can't be here," Belle said as calmly as she could. "You have no right to be here."
"He's my child!" Milah exclaimed sharply. "I have every right to see him."
"Not legally," Arthur said, staring down Jones like they were in a western. "As far as the courts are concerned, you're nobody."
"Milah," Jones finally said. "We've gotta go."
He had his hand on her shoulder and was tugging her arm a little.
"Not without Bae," Milah insisted. "I won't leave him again."
Jones was looking nervously around.
"We can't be here if the cops come, love," he whispered.
Bae had her jacket clenched in his fist and Belle just wanted him away from this so badly she couldn't stand it.
Milah was still reaching towards Bae again and Belle couldn't help reaching out and batting the other woman's hand away from her child. Everything went so fast after that. Milah's eyes grew wide and she lunged for Belle, who shoved her son away right before she felt Milah's fist connect with the side of her head. She saw stars, but heard her son's voice screaming and knew she couldn't afford to be dazed because Bae needed her and she needed to be there for him. When she could make her eyes focus again, she saw Jones sprawled out on the ground in front of Arthur who was still holding his cane and watching the other man intently. Milah was nowhere to be seen, but Bae was safely behind his father and that's all that mattered. She could see the relief in her son's eyes when she smiled at him, and it almost made the pain in her head clear up – almost.
"Bae," Arthur said as levelly as she thought he could possibly have managed in the circumstances. "I need you to call 911, can you do that?"
Bae nodded and began dialing his mother's phone with shaking fingers. She rushed over to where the two of them stood and took the phone from her son. He didn't need to be responsible for any of this, it was the grown ups' responsibility. It was the work of a few moments to give the information to the operator, and even though it felt like ages before the police arrived with an ambulance in tow, when she hung up her phone said she'd only been on the line for twenty minutes.
She'd never been so happy to see the police in her life, although she got to be examined by the EMTs along with Killian (who, it turned out, Arthur had hit over the head with his cane when the other man tried to grab Bae) before her statement was taken. She was apparently going to have a pretty nice black eye, but aside from that was given a clear bill of health.
"Belle?" a familiar voice came from behind her.
She turned around to see a face she hadn't really thought about in a decade.
"George!" she exclaimed, relief flooding her. "What are you doing here?"
George McNabb was her college sweetheart and ex-fiance. They'd broken up around the time she got Bae because he wasn't quite ready for parenting yet and she was. She hadn't really minded – it had been a pretty good excuse to end a relationship she wasn't entirely sure she'd wanted in the first place – and the two had parted on decent terms. It was just good to see a friendly face in all of this.
"I'm a deputy," he explained, pointing to the little badge on his chest. "How have you been?"
"Good," she replied. "I mean, aside from this."
"Yeah, I gathered that much," he said as he flipped through his notes. "So what exactly happened?"
She related everything to him from the time she first heard Milah was out of prison, though her eyes kept roaming over to where her son stood with his father. Both were watching her intently as well.
"So that's Bae?" he said with a little smile on his face after she was finally done giving her statement. "He's gotten so big."
"Yeah," she replied. "That's his dad with him."
"You got married?"
"Oh, no," she said almost too quickly. "It's his biological dad. He didn't know about Bae until recently. We share custody."
"That's so great," George added. "I'm glad things are going well for you. Well, aside from the black eye anyway."
"I'm actually pretty happy about that," Belle admitted. "I'm pretty sure we can get a restraining order now. So you might be seeing a lot more of me."
"I'd like that," he replied before catching himself. "Uh, can I meet them? I haven't seen Bae since he was a baby, I mean. I'm just kind of curious how your son turned out is all. If you're okay with that. If you're not, that's cool too."
"No, that would be fine," she said, waving her son over. Bae ran to her and threw his arms around her and pressed his face into her side like he had as a much smaller child when he was scared. Arthur wasn't too far behind, eying George suspiciously.
"Mom I was so worried," Bae practically sobbed. "I'm so glad you're okay."
"I'm fine," she reassured him. "Just a little bruise is all. But I want you to meet someone. This is my old friend Deputy McNabb. We were friends when you were a baby."
"Hey Buddy," George said cheerfully, extending his hand for Bae to shake. "Oh man, last time I saw you I could fit you between my hand and my elbow."
If Arthur had been eying George suspiciously before, now he looked positively mutinous and while Bae was polite enough to shake the deputy's hand he seemed pretty confused at this person who remembered him as an infant but who he'd never heard of before.
"And this is Bae's father Arthur," Belle continued. "Arthur, this is George McNabb."
Arthur and George shook hands politely but Belle still didn't think he liked the idea of any other people from their pasts showing up with Milah still on the loose (at least with Killian currently in the back of a police cruiser Belle felt a lot better about their odds of keeping Bae away from his biological mother).
"Belle, are you almost done?" Arthur said pointedly. "I think it would be for the best if we got home."
"Yeah, sure," she said. "I think we're about done, right?"
She glanced over to George who flipped his notebook closed quickly.
"Totally, yeah," he replied. "I just have a couple more things but it shouldn't take more than a few minutes."
"We'll wait by the car," Arthur said, walking away with his hand on his son's shoulder and a last backwards glance towards Belle before her attention returned to the deputy she'd almost married.
"They're usually more polite," she apologized. "It's just been a trying few weeks."
"I bet," George said with a good-natured smile. "I'm really glad we ran into each other, though. Even if it had to be like this."
"It was nice to see a friendly face," she admitted. "It's been really hard lately and I don't know if I could have handled a stranger."
"If anything else happens, just give me a call," he said, pulling out a business card and scrawling something across it. "My cell is on the back, and I mean it. Call me whenever if anything goes bad, okay?"
"I will," she promised, taking the card and putting it in her pocket. "Thank you so much."
"Hey, it's no big deal. Maybe if I'd been a little more mature back then none of this would be a problem, right?"
"If you'd been ready to be a dad back then," she said. "I'm still not sure I was really ready to be a wife. I think it was for the best."
"Maybe," he agreed. "But either way..." he took a deep breath. "I'd like to get coffee sometime if you would. Just to catch up, no ulterior motives or anything. Just coffee."
Oh God, he just asked her on a date. There was a part of her that was screaming no. This was exactly how she'd almost married him last time, because coffee had progressed to dinner had progressed to staying over had progressed to an engagement. And she had enough going on that she honestly hadn't missed him. But at the same time, she was clearly missing something and at least George was safe. She never had to wonder where she stood with him, he never really pressured her for anything, and she did like him. Maybe getting back out there would be good for her.
"I have a lot going on right now," she finally said. "It's not a great time."
"That's fine," he said just as cheerfully as he'd been before. "Just let me know if you change your mind. No pressure or anything, you know. I just always felt bad about how things with us went down."
"I will," she promised. "Let you know, I mean. And there's nothing to feel bad about, you know. It was as much my choice as it was yours and I made the right one."
"He's a really good kid," George replied. "And it's uncanny how much like you he looks."
"He's a great kid," Belle corrected him. "And I've never regretted a minute of it."
The car ride home was quiet. Belle sat in the backseat with Bae, which wasn't extremely conducive to conversation but Arthur didn't care. He was glad the boy wouldn't be alone. This had been the worst day he could remember having. They'd all known it was only a matter of time before Milah made a move for Bae, but that didn't make it any easier on anybody. He'd been so terrified seeing the two of them, and when Milah hit Belle it had all been like a scene out of one of his nightmares. Belle had shoved Bae towards him and he'd had barely enough time to get the boy safely behind himself before Jones panicked and tried to grab the child so they could run. It was lucky that he'd been so fixated on Bae that he hadn't noticed Arthur's cane until it connected with his head. At least Milah had the good sense to run off after that, but he knew it was only a temporary reprieve. She'd be back as soon as she could figure out some other way of grabbing his son.
Surprisingly, once they got home Bae ran upstairs and locked himself in his room rather than lurking near his mother like Arthur had expected him to. He suspected her getting hit had taken a toll on the boy, and he'd see if he couldn't suss that out later. For now, he had other questions to ask of Belle that couldn't be asked in front of theirs son.
"So that was the infamous George, was it?" he blurted out before she even had time to sit down.
"Yeah," she admitted. "That's my ex-fiance."
"He held Bae when he was a baby," he said. It wasn't even a question. The man had admitted to it right there, and Arthur knew that it was a petty thing to be angry over but he couldn't help being indignant anyway.
"I guess so," she said with a shrug. "It was a long time ago."
"You guess so?" he repeatedly shrilly. "Exactly how many people did you just hand him off to? Did the mailman hold him? Cashiers at the grocery store?"
"Why are you angry about this?"
Because he was jealous and terrified and he'd come so close to losing them today.
"I just think I should know what influences my son was exposed to."
"So you're worried a sheriff's deputy he hasn't seen since he was six months old was a bad influence on him?"
"Clearly there's something wrong with him," Arthur shot back. "Or else he wouldn't be your ex."
"He wasn't ready to be a dad," she replied. "At least not to someone else's child."
Well there it was, the man was clearly an idiot. Who wouldn't want Belle and Bae? Now he felt entirely justified in not liking him.
"I was twenty-three and he was twenty-four," she continued as though reading his thoughts. "He was hardly an ogre."
"Did you love him?"
"That's really not your business," she sounded affronted. "And even if it was, it was ten years ago! Don't you think we have more important things to worry about right now? Like your ex-wife?"
She was right. Dammit, she was completely right. This wasn't even what he was angry about. He didn't know why he was so furious, and he definitely didn't want to be.
"We'll get a restraining order in the morning when the court opens," he said as calmly as he could manage. "If she comes within a hundred yards of us I'll have her arrested."
He just really hoped he could talk Belle into staying home with him and holding Bae out of school. He was pretty sure he could keep Bae home, but Belle was never quite as easy.
"That's a good start," she replied, still visibly annoyed with him but willing to deal with it.
"I still can't figure out what she's after, though," he admitted. "She has to know she won't get any child support if she kidnaps him."
"She loves him," Belle said softly. "She has his name tattooed on her wrist. You don't do that for child support money."
He sunk into a chair, exhaling sharply at the thought. Love hadn't even crossed his mind as a motivation, he barely remembered Milah having the ability to love.
"I'll keep you both safe," he promised. "She won't get him."
"I know," she said with a little smile. "You stepped in front of us in the parking lot."
"I didn't want them to come near either of you."
"You protected Bae," she replied. "That's the important part."
"You're both important."
"And so are you," she said. "But we're also both a little on edge I think. I'm going to go upstairs and talk to Bae. I think you should probably join us."
"I will," he said softly. "Just...give me a minute?"
She nodded before walking out of the room. He heard her on the stairs, going to find their son to reassure him of how very safe he was. Arthur would need to go up himself in a minute to reiterate the point, but first he put his face in his hands and cried over how close he'd come to losing his entire family this afternoon because he couldn't do that in front of his son.