It had been a couple days since their disastrous therapy appointment. By the time Belle had gotten it together enough to leave the restroom, Bae was in his appointment and Arthur was gone. She'd tried a few times to get up the nerve to text him to explain, but honestly what could she say? Sorry for running away before you could spill your heart to me, but I couldn't decide if I'm in love with you or not somehow seemed a little bit too honest for her right now. She'd sent messages informing him of Bae's whereabouts and if anything he needed to know about happened, but his responses had been monosyllabic single word replies for the most part, only once wishing her a good night. They were at a turning point, and Belle had no idea where to go from there.
She'd thrown herself into work, for the most part. If she wasn't with Bae, she was at the shop arranging flowers or working on the books or filling orders or micromanaging in a way she'd always tried not to do. Doing anything besides working led to thinking, thinking lead to overthinking, and Belle wanted nothing more than to forget.
She was elbows deep in an arrangement of calla lilies and irises when she heard the phone ring.
"Anton," she called out. "Can you get that?"
He said something in reply, but she couldn't quite understand him. The ringing stopped, though, so she went back to her arrangement. She was in the process of trimming some of the stems down when she heard Anton calling her from the front.
"Yeah?" she replied, still not quite understanding him.
"I said," he replied, leaning into her little sanctuary from the front with a worried look on his face. "That it's for you. It sounds important."
"Can you take a message?"
"It's the hospital, Belle," he said bluntly. "They won't tell me what's wrong, they'll only speak to you."
She dropped the stem cutter on the floor with a clatter and rushed out to pick up the phone from where it sat on the front counter.
"Hello?" she said into the receiver.
"Is this Belle French?" the voice on the other end asked.
"It is."
"Ms. French, there's been an emergency…"
"Is Bae okay?" she blurted out. Bae had to be okay. He was at school, the school would have contacted her. He had to be okay or…
"Who?"
"Bailey," she hurried to say. "My son. Bailey Gold-French."
"This isn't about your son," the voice explained kindly. "Mr. Arthur Gold has been brought into hospital, and you're listed as his emergency contact…"
"Which hospital?" Belle interrupted, her anxiety skyrocketing again in spite of her relief at Bae's safety. "What's wrong?"
"He's been admitted to Storybrooke General," the voice replied. "He should be okay, but he's heavily sedated and we need someone on hand who can make decisions for him…"
"I'll be right there," she replied firmly, hanging the phone up and going towards the back to get her purse.
"Anton!" she called out, pausing when he poked a head out to look at her. "I have to go. Arthur's been in an accident and he's at the hospital. I'm sorry, I'll be back as soon as I can. Will you be okay by yourself?"
"Yeah, of course," he said, worry evident in his voice. He'd always liked Arthur. "Are you going to get Bae on the way?"
She hadn't thought of that. Bae's school was on the other side of town from the hospital. She'd have to add an extra half hour to the drive to go get her son, but she couldn't stand the idea of him being at school while his father could be dying across town. Someone had to get Bae.
Anton was out of the question, because she needed him here. Ruby worked 12 hour days most of the time with the kids under her care, so Belle knew not to bother her. She'd usually call for Ruby's granny in these situations but the older woman was visiting relatives out of town. That really just left her the one option, and after everything else she hated to do it to any of them, but time was of the essence.
She hated herself a little as she fished her phone out of her purse on her way to the car and dialed George.
The hospital staff was very kind, directing her towards the correct room and only yelling at her a little bit when she immediately sprinted down the hallway towards the elevator. By the time she got to the door of his room she had tears already threatening to overwhelm her. She still had no idea what was wrong. She could lose him, and neither one would ever really know…
He was sitting up in bed and looking out the window when she burst into the room. He looked over to her and almost smiled, before he seemed to remember what had happened and his face settled back into an expression she couldn't quite read.
"Hey," he said softly and, in response, she burst into tears.
"It's okay," he continued, panic seeming to set in at the sight of her. "I'm alright."
"I was so scared," she sobbed, coming to sit in the chair next to his bed. "All they told me was that you'd been admitted and that you were still unconscious."
"It's nothing," he replied. "A little spider bite, that's all. Apparently I'm allergic."
"I told you not to pick them up!" she nearly shrieked. "Just kill them!"
"Well, in the future I'll be taking your advice," he said soothingly. "But this time was an accident. I put my hand into a cupboard without looking first and I cornered him by mistake. I'm sorry I worried you."
"I'm just glad you're okay," she replied earnestly, her tears ebbing. "All I could think was what would happen if you weren't okay."
"You guys would be taken care of," he reassured her. "That was most of the custody agreement in a nutshell."
"Not like that," she said quickly, not wanting him to misunderstand her as she reached out to hold his hand. "I mean what would Bae and I do without you. We're a family now, Arthur. And all that entails. It doesn't work the same without you here."
"Oh," was all he said, looking down to where his hand rested in both of hers. She felt the warring urges to drop it and pretend like she hadn't reached out for him and to hold tighter and not let him go. His eyes flashed back to hers after a long moment and she tried to offer a reassuring smile.
"Bae's going to be so worried," she finally said, not sure why her voice had gotten so husky all of a sudden or why the air felt so thick.
"Bae is coming?" he said suddenly, sitting up a little bit.
"Well, yeah," she replied. "I wasn't sure what was wrong, I didn't want him to miss you."
"Who's picking him up?"
It was on the tip of her tongue to respond, but she was interrupted by Bae bursting into the room the same way she had earlier and flinging himself onto his father's bed. Arthur seemed a little surprised by the force of the child landing on him, but he had Bae in his arms and held tight almost immediately. It only took a second for her to realize that Bae was sobbing into his father's chest, at which point her every instinct screamed to comfort him.
Arthur was shushing his son already, holding the boy tight and seemingly just barely keeping himself from tears at the sight. There wasn't quite enough room for Belle to join them (not that it would have even been a little appropriate for her to do so) but even so, she had a hand on Bae's back and was rubbing up and down in little circles as her son just wept openly on his father.
"I was so scared," Bae finally sobbed into his dad's chest. "I can't lose you, too."
If anything, that statement renewed his parents' comfort of him. Arthur was holding him tighter and Belle leaned over to hug him as well as she could from her position on the outside.
"I'm alright," Arthur was whispering. "I had an allergic reaction to a little spider bite. But I'm okay, the doctor gave me some medicine and I'm completely okay."
"Are you sure?" Bae sniffled a little bit.
"Yeah," Arthur replied, tears still glistening in his eyes as he held up his bandaged hand. "See? All good. I just have to make sure not to poke at anymore spiders and I'll be perfectly fine."
Bae nodded, but didn't release himself from his father's lap and Arthur didn't make any move to move the boy, either. Belle petted her son's hair, silently offering support. It felt a little strange to be the outsider parent now, but she was just relieved that Arthur was okay and that Bae was finally expressing some emotions. She glanced up to see if Arthur had made the same connection she had, only to find him staring intently at the door with a strange look on his face.
She turned and saw George standing awkwardly outside the room. Belle couldn't believe she'd forgotten him in all the confusion, but he caught her eye and gave a half smile before leaning through the open door just a bit.
"Hey, how ya feeling?" George said to Arthur.
"Better," Arthur said stiffly, glancing down at Bae. "Much better. Thank you."
"Good, I'm glad to hear it," George looked around the room quickly before finally looking back at Belle. "Can we talk outside for a second?"
"Yeah," she said quickly. "Sure. I'll be right back."
"I won't keep her too long," George promised, ducking back into the hallway.
Belle glanced back at her little family before following him out of the room.
"Hey, so I'm gonna go," George said as soon as she was out of sight of the other two.
"Yeah, sure," she replied. "That's a good idea, we'll probably be here awhile longer. I'll call you later, alright?"
"No," he said quickly, shaking his head a little. "That's not what I meant. I mean...you should be there, not with me."
"I don't understand."
"You don't have to lie to me," he said a little sadly. "I've known you a long time, remember? Belle, I can't be the reason your son's family isn't whole. I wouldn't have ever asked you out if I'd known how you felt, you know. I just want you and Bae to be happy."
"That's – that's not what…" she tried to think of what to say, but couldn't. Somehow, being confronted about her situation like this made the whole thing so much more real. It wasn't something she could ignore anymore.
"I've never seen you look at a person the way you were looking at him," George explained softly. "Not me, not anybody. It's okay, it happens. I'm just happy you guys found each other."
"I'm sorry," she said finally, deflating a little. "I didn't mean for things to happen like this at all."
"I understand," he replied. "I do, believe it or not. I knew this was a long shot to begin with. We weren't really that great when we were together, were we?"
"We tried."
"We did," he agreed. "I wish I'd been able to be the person you needed back then. But I wasn't, and that's on me. But do me the favor of not pretending like what I saw in that room wasn't real. I'm not who you need, but I think maybe he is."
"You can't know that," she whispered back. "I don't know that."
"You're right," he agreed. "I don't. I just know that I'd hate to see you risk losing everything because you're afraid of losing everything, you know?"
"And if it doesn't work?"
"Then it didn't work," he said with a smile. "Lots of things don't work, but that doesn't mean you don't try. Hey, if I can do it so can you."
She didn't answer him right away, just gave herself a minute to let his words sink in. He was right – she knew he was right. She'd been scared and she was letting that control her. She didn't want to be scared anymore.
"I'll see you around, okay?" he said, leaning in and kissing her gently on the cheek. "Thanks for the second chance, Belle."
"Thank you for the advice," she said with as much gratitude as she could manage. "I'm glad we ran into each other again."
"I am too," he replied. "I really am."
She watched his retreating form for a minute before gathering her thoughts and reentering the room. Bae seemed to have calmed down a little in her absence, and was currently sitting on the side of his dad's bed and chatting about school.
"Hey," Arthur said when he saw her. "Where's George?"
"He's gone," she replied. "We um, I'll explain later. But he's gone now."
"Oh, that's too bad," Arthur said without quite as much enthusiasm as she thought he meant. "I was hoping to thank him for getting Bae for us."
"I'm sure he'd have appreciated that," she replied, returning to her seat. "Did I miss anything interesting?"
While Bae explained their conversation, Belle felt her mind wander. She was still so confused, and this was neither the time nor the place to sort herself out, but just knowing where she was had given her strength. This was her family, and she would fight for them – but they would fight for her, too. She still didn't know what to tell Arthur, or when the time would be right, but at least now she knew where they were going and for the first time in a long time she felt completely at peace.
George had been right, this was exactly where she belonged.