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Bae comes home from August's or somewhere and walks in on Belle and Arthur cuddling on the sofa. Instead of getting weird about it, he drops his stuff and dives right in for much needed Mom and Dad group cuddles.

A/N: So this is it. The last real chapter. I have an epilogue already written that I'll post in a day or two (along with a few little surprises) but yeah...wow. It's been an adventure, and I'd like to thank everyone who's been here for it!

It had been a rough couple of months, but things for finally starting to settle down for Belle. Arthur's radiation therapy had gone off without a hitch and his last appointment with the oncologist had been nothing but good news. He'd need to keep an eye out for any new lumps, and the doctor wanted him to periodically come in for tests just in case, but all signs were pointing to good news. There were genetic tests that the doctor wanted to do with Bae and his father just to see if there were any genetic markers for cancer, but it was better to know that it was a thing they would need to keep an eye on (and teach Bae to keep an eye on) than to not know and be taken by surprise later. All in all, it had been the very best news she could have reasonably hoped for.

When the test results came back that Arthur was healthy, it felt like a weight she'd barely realized was there had been lifted off of her. It was strange to think about, but Belle didn't want to raise Bae alone anymore. She'd done it for ten years, but somehow having Arthur around the last year...she hadn't realized how badly that both she and Bae missed somebody else being there until he'd appeared and they risked losing him.

The only thing marring Belle's happiness was that, with a clean bill of health, Arthur had no reason to stay in her house anymore. He'd already stayed throughout his treatment and recovery (nearly two months now) and she didn't want him to go anywhere. It had been so nice having somebody to share the burden of maintaining a household with. Bae was picked up and fed even if she needed to work late. There was another person who could help with homework if it was a subject she had a hard time with or if there was cleaning that needed to be done. She had someone to talk to in those quiet hours of the evening between Bae's bedtime and her own. She didn't really want him to leave, but it would have been selfish to ask him to stay.

Arthur's house was simply nicer than hers. It had newer appliances (including a dishwasher that didn't occasionally flood the kitchen, which she had been meaning to have replaced but hadn't gotten around to yet), but also four bedrooms rather than three and the master suite was on the ground floor, so he didn't need to take the stairs and there was a bit more privacy from Bae if they stayed there. Her house was just simply old. Her parents had bought it in the late-70s after getting married, and it hadn't aged well. The longer he stayed, the more the million little things that never quite annoyed her enough to fix started to jump out at her.

But, it was her parents' house and she had raised her son there. She couldn't abandon it, but she couldn't exactly ask Arthur to move in, either. And the more she thought about it, the more she really wanted him to move in. They were good together, and she liked the idea of being a proper family for once. He already paid a substantial portion of their upkeep, anyway, and he'd save so much money by combining households.

So when Bae asked to go to a sleepover after Saturday basketball practice, Belle didn't think too much of it. He was at an age where spending the night away with a friend was a thrilling amount of freedom, and August's father had told her he liked having Bae around because it helped August not focus on missing his mom so much. Belle didn't begrudge either boy the time spent together in the slightest, and especially not since she and Arthur had started dating in earnest. They were never going to have a time of their lives 'before' children, and as much as she loved her son, she really liked having some time to not just be his mom.

"Let's go out," Arthur said when she got back from dropping their son off with his friend.

She looked down at her 'mom' uniform - a tunic with leggings - and tried to imagine what could possess him to even ask that. It had been a long two months, and she'd mostly been looking forward to a quiet night at home.

"Tonight?" she asked, going to hug him and leaning into the good side of his chest enough to let him feel her weight. "I was kind of hoping to take a bath and maybe let you join me if you asked nice."

He groaned pitifully and tipped his head down so his hair brushed hers.

"Please?" he asked. "I'd like to celebrate."

Damn him tugging her heart strings like that. She gave him an overdramatic sigh before disentangling herself.

"Fine," she replied. "But you owe me a bubble bath later."

"I'll be more than happy to pay up," he said, taking her hand and bringing it up to press a kiss against the inside of her wrist. "But first you have to get ready."

She stuck her tongue out at him playfully before taking the stairs to pick out something to wear and do her makeup and hair. She ended up settling on the black dress she'd worn for their first dinner together, since it was either that or the shiny gold one she'd worn for their first date and that one was a little bit too much for what she was fairly certain was going to be a laid back dinner to celebrate his clean bill of health. She would have honestly preferred to have Bae here for that, but they could do something later to include him as well.

Arthur was waiting for her in the living room when she came down, having somehow gotten into a suit and tie without her noticing. He must have changed in the spare bedroom that was technically his even though he hadn't spent a night in it since before the surgery. As soon as he saw her, he got the kind of dumbstruck look on his face that nobody had ever gotten at the sight of her except for him. Maybe it was worth dressing up for dinner just to have him stare at her that way.

"You look beautiful," he said earnestly. "Really, breathtaking."

She could feel the blush staining her cheeks already, but somehow it didn't matter. All that mattered was that he was here and he loved her even if she looked goofy as hell blushing like a schoolgirl at him.

"Did I ever tell you I love that tie?" she asked him, reaching out and grabbing hold of it to pull him into a quick kiss before smoothing it back down.

"This one?" he asked, glancing down at himself and seeming to try to figure out the significance of it.

"Yeah," she replied. "You wore it the first time you ever came to dinner, the second day we met. I thought it suited you - it made your eyes look warmer."

"You kissed me," he said with a little half grin. "So I guess you probably didn't need to say much else."

Yeah, she decided as she slipped her arm through his and walked to the car. Dinner might not be a bad choice after all.

He took her to the restaurant they'd had their first official date in, and gotten a bottle of wine before they even got as far as appetizers. Belle wasn't exactly opposed to this plan, and their meal went forward, though she couldn't help noticing that his hands had begun to shake more and more as the evening wore on. Once or twice she'd thought about asking if he was in any pain, but he didn't seem to be hurting and she didn't want to draw attention to it if he was. She trusted him to know his limits, after all.

By the time dessert came (along with a bottle of champagne she'd insisted would be overkill but that he'd ordered anyway), he was a mess.

"Are you okay?" she finally asked, reaching across to press her hand to his forehead. He didn't feel overheated.

"I'm fine," he said quickly, drinking half a glass of wine in one mouthful before turning his attention back towards her. "I do have a confession to make, though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I didn't quite tell you what we were celebrating."

That got her attention. She'd just taken for granted this was because he was feeling better and wanted to go out. There really wasn't anything else to celebrate, except he was shaking uncontrollably and this was their first date restaurant and he had set a little velvet box down on the table in front of her and oh God.

"I know this might seem sudden," he said. "But it's something I've been thinking about for longer than I should probably tell you…"

"Yes," she blurted out quickly, before slapping her hands over her mouth.

He just looked at her in shock for a second before a grin spread across his face.

"You didn't let me finish, sweetheart," he replied. "I have a whole speech prepared."

"I know," she managed to say before all the blood in her body rushed to her face. "I'm so sorry. You can keep going, if you want."

"I'd like to," he said sweetly, reaching out to brush a strand of hair off of her face. "I love you, Belle. I love you for raising Bae so well, and I love you for being kind enough to let me into your lives. I love how you're so strong, but still so gentle. You rescued me when I needed it most - and I don't just mean the last few weeks, because every day since we met you've made me a better man. And I'll never ever be able to make that up to you, but I'd like to spend the rest of my life trying. If you'll have me, anyway."

With that he opened the box, revealing a diamond ring - another of his antiques, but not one she'd ever seen in the shop. This one he must have looked for, just for her.

"Belle French," he said, taking a deep breath. "Will you marry me?"

She felt the tears overwhelm her and she was crying at the table, but she was so damn overcome with joy right then that she couldn't even come up with the words to tell him it was okay and that she was just so happy he'd thought to do this, because it wasn't something she'd expected but couldn't think of anything she'd love more.

"Sweetheart," he said, and she could hear the same emotion that she was already feeling. "I can't put the ring on you until you say yes."

"Yes!" she exclaimed, leaning over the table to kiss him. "Of course I'm going to marry you. There's nobody else I'd rather be with. It's only ever really been you."

It wasn't until she heard the polite applause from the surrounding tables that she realized that their exchange hadn't gone entirely unheard, and then she was blushing again and so was he, but it was all worth it when he pulled the ring out of the box and slid it onto her finger and there was a cheer. She didn't remember a damn thing about dessert besides the weight of the ring on her hand and the way Arthur smiled at her like she was the last woman on Earth.

Bae got home in the early afternoon on Sunday, and Belle still wasn't sure she'd stopped smiling yet. She and Arthur were sitting on the sofa, watching something silly on TV while she was leaning against him with his arm around her. She'd only barely had time to think about how to tell him everything - about how his dad would be moving in and there was going to be a wedding and house renovations and he'd have the entire upstairs all to himself when they were done and how they were all three of them going to be so, so happy - when Bae took one look at her before turning to his dad.

"So she said yes?" Bae asked, smiling in a way she hadn't ever seen before.

"She did," Arthur said from his seat on the sofa and Belle was looking back and forth between them.

"You knew?" she asked her son in shock. "And you didn't say anything?"

"It was a secret," Bae replied.

"I asked him if it would be okay first," Arthur added.

"You're both terrible," she said with as much fake outrage as she could muster.

"Too late now," Bae exclaimed, coming to drop down onto the sofa next to her so she could pull him into a hug. "You're stuck with both of us, right, Dad?"

"You are," Arthur said, pulling her into him so he could hug her and their son as well as possible. "But I promise not to ever let you regret it."