Anonymous said:

I'm gonna go ahead and officially prompt for TAV, Gold dreaming or daydreaming (or however you want to do it) about being there with Belle while Bae was still a baby. Angst it. ANGST IT.

Arthur wasn't even sure what to tell Bae, and neither was Belle. Neither one wanted to hide what was going on from him, but they wanted to make sure that they knew more about his treatment and prognosis before they said too much about it, as well. Bae was willing to accept Belle's excuse that his father would be staying for a few days while he had new carpet put in (which was not entirely inaccurate) and had barely blinked at this sudden change in their living arrangement.

Belle had been right. Trying to vanish out of their lives had been too little too late. There was no sparing Bae from any of this anymore. He felt like an ass. He'd missed the first ten years of his son's life and had shown up just in time to cause the boy nothing but heartache. It was hard not to believe Bae wouldn't have been better off if he'd never even known that he'd ever had a father, because then he wouldn't have been faced with losing both of his birth parents in the same year. Of course, without Arthur's intervention Milah may very well have have succeeded in taking Bae from Belle. Perhaps it was worth his life just to ensure that they remained together.

They had somehow gotten through dinner, although Arthur couldn't remember what they discussed. He was just so busy watching his son. Ten years. He'd lost ten years of this child's life. Bae had been five miles from his house for ten years, and somehow he'd never known. He'd probably even seen the two of them around, seen them at the grocery store or the gas station. He couldn't remember it, but it was entirely likely. What would his life have been like had he realized who they were to him ten years ago?

It wasn't hard to imagine a life with Belle when Bae was a baby - the hard thing was knowing that it wouldn't ever happen. He had missed getting to see his son grow and learn. Bae hadn't taken his first towards his father, his parents hadn't playfully teased each other over whether he said mama or dada first. And now that their family was finally complete, Arthur wasn't sure how much longer he'd be with them.

Neither Arthur nor Belle even pretended to each other that he was going to spend the night in the guest bedroom that night. He dressed in pajamas and prepared for bed before knocking on her door. She let him in without a word and before he knew it, he was kissing her hard on the lips. He was so scared, and he just wanted to lose himself in her arms for a little while.

Belle didn't question him when they collapsed into her bed in a tangle of arms and legs and lips. She didn't seem surprised at all when he stopped kissing her once they were ensconced in her sheets, or that he just wanted to look at her and stroke her hair and forget the world for a little while longer.

They didn't make love that night, instead they lay in bed wrapped in each other's arms until neither one could keep their eyes open anymore.

Arthur wasn't sure who woke up first the next morning, but both of them were already awake when Belle's alarm clock went off to alert her that it was time to get ready for work. He was curled around her with his arms wrapped around her, the same way he'd fallen asleep the night before. Apparently neither of them had fallen into a deep enough sleep to move in the night.

"Do you want me to stay home today?" she asked him after she shut off the alarm. "I can, you know."

He did, but he didn't at the same time. He wanted to go on pretending like nothing had changed and he hadn't had this diagnosis. He wanted to wrap himself up in her and cry it out. It wasn't fair. None of it was fair.

"It's fine," he said at last. "I have a doctor's appointment today anyway. We'll be discussing my treatment options and prognosis in more depth."

He had been supposed to discuss this with the doctor when he was given the diagnosis, but had been completely incapable of focusing to the point that the doctor finally told him to come back the next day. That was probably a good sign, to be honest - that things were at a point that the doctor felt comfortable putting things off another day.

"Are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" she asked again, and he wasn't sure. He wanted her with him all the time. He wanted to not be sick. He wanted this to all be a bad dream.

"You have work," he replied. "I'll let you know what happens tonight."

"We're going to have to tell Bae tonight," she said, stretching a little bit and rolling out of his arms. "God, I had wanted to tell him about us dating soon. I don't know what to do about it now, if we should put it off or what."

"Speaking of that," he replied. "I should probably be getting back to my room before he wakes up. We can talk more about this later."

"You're right," she said, offering him her hand to help him stand. "I'll call and make an appointment for all of us with Dr. Hopper this week."

She held his hand as they walked to her bedroom door, and poked her head out into the hallway to check for their son.

"Alright," she said. "The coast is clear."

He stepped into the hallway, and Belle grabbed him again to give him a quick kiss on the lips.

"I will come with you if you want me there," she said, resting her hands on his chest. "I don't want you to go through all this by yourself. You have us now, both of us."

He couldn't help himself, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the top of her head.

"Good morning," he heard from behind him and froze.

Belle had stiffened but made absolutely no move to extract herself from his arms, not that it would have done much good as Bae walked past them towards the bathroom. The boy paused and looked over at his parents for a second.

"What's for breakfast?" he asked his parents.

"I'll make pancakes," Arthur volunteered, feeling Belle shaking a little bit with laughter as Bae nodded and walked into the bathroom.

"I guess that solves one problem," she choked out, obviously trying to speak around laughter. "That's really not how I'd planned on him finding out."

"He took it well," Arthur replied.

"He did," she agreed. "That's good to know."

"It is," he said, finally releasing her. "I guess I should probably go make breakfast."

"Probably," she replied. "Bae has about an hour before we have to leave."

He nodded and turned to walk towards the stairs, bracing himself before turning around to face her again.

"I think I would like you to come with me," he said to her. "If it won't be too much trouble."

She nodded and smiled at him sweetly before shutting the door to her bedroom.

Bae was downstairs before Belle and he hopped up onto one of the barstools at the breakfast bar while Arthur cooked. Arthur could sense his son wanting to ask about what he'd witnessed that morning. He should probably have some prepared speech for the boy, some way of reassuring Bae that his life wouldn't be changing substantially and that he was always going to be the center of the entire world. He didn't have those words, though, and didn't know how to introduce the topic.

"Are you and Mom dating?" Bae said after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"Yeah," Arthur replied. "We are."

There was silence for a little while as he set a stack of pancakes onto a plate and place it in front of his son.

"Are you going to be okay with that?" Arthur asked as Bae poured syrup over his plate.

"I guess so," Bae said with a shrug. "It really doesn't make much difference, does it? You already spend a lot of time over here."

"I guess not," Arthur replied. "But we both want you to be comfortable, so if you have any problems you know you can talk to one of us, okay?"

"Alright," Bae said, taking a bite of his food. "Can I have a glass of milk?"

"Sure," he said, getting a glass down and retrieving the milk from the fridge as Belle came into the room.

"Good morning," she said cheerfully, leaning down to kiss Bae on the top of the head. "Breakfast smells good."

"It's very good," Arthur reassured her, offering her a plate. "Help yourself."

He watched both of them as they ate. He wanted to ask after her plans for the day, but Bae couldn't know they were going to the doctor yet. Arthur still wasn't sure what they were going to tell him, or when. He hated keeping secrets from his son like this, but after everything that had happened this past year with his birth mother...it was not going to be a pleasant conversation.

They would tell Bae, he promised himself. As soon as he knew the prognosis and the treatment Bae would be involved every single step of the way. He'd let his son come to treatments if he wanted to, he'd be as honest as he possibly could be. No matter what happened, he wouldn't let this sneak up on his son. He would do whatever possible to make this as easy for Bae to deal with as possible, because the thought of everything that his son had been forced to work through this year was astounding.

His family was worth fighting for, he decided. And he would fight for them every single step of the way.