He put the damn hat away the second he went into the back room. He'd had two close calls with it between Dove and Henry, he didn't feel like trying his luck a third time.

Then, as Henry did his sweeping and dusting in the front room, he summoned forth the last of the paperwork that needed to be collected for Belle. It was Mr. Gold's will. It needed updating anyway now that everything with Henry had come to light. If he didn't have any kind of magic, it would have taken him a while to rewrite the thing, but now he held his hand out over it and used his magic to seek out all the parts of it that he wanted to change so that Belle and Henry could be included and altered them.

The Dark Ones laughed in his head. It was useless, they argued. Wills were for people who died, and he was immortal.

He didn't care. It was about more than just making sure that his estate was settled if the worst were to happen; it was about visibility. He wanted to file this so that people could see Belle as his heir and Henry as his grandson. It was a stupid mortal tradition; he wholeheartedly agreed with the memories in his head. But it was one that mattered to him in some way. It was something that he knew would matter to Belle. And he wanted to do it properly.

At the end of the day, Belle walked into the shop. He felt her presence just before the bell over the door rang, and he heard her heart startle when she came upon Henry.

"I uh…I didn't expect to see you here," he heard her exclaim as he quickly got the paperwork together and slid it into a drawer for the time being.

"Oh yeah, I work here now," Henry stated just as he made his way to the front of the shop. She was there, still standing by the door, looking awkwardly at the boy in front of her.

"Belle," he called out, drawing her attention to him. "You've come just in time…"

She looked between him and Henry, then back to him again. "I uh…I-I don't understand."

"I have something for you if you'll join me."

Again, her eyes roamed from him to Henry, who had returned to sweeping the floor and then back to him before she moved past Henry and to the curtain that divided the shop in two.

"What's uh…what's going on?" she asked as he led her into the privacy of the offices. He should have known that she wasn't going to let Henry's presence here slide. He'd have some explaining to do on that, for sure. But only after she finished her homework.

"I have paperwork for you."

"Paperwork?" Finally, he pulled out the drawer containing the stack of paper Dove had been busy gathering throughout the day and presented it to her.

"A marriage certificate, some personal titles for you that I suspect you'll like, the deed to the house, the shop, the cabin, the library, and the car. They'll belong to you as well. They simply require a signature."

Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes rounded in shock, and he felt his own heart begin to race. That shock was good, wasn't it? The pleasant kind of shock that came with getting something you wanted? Or was she overwhelmed? He hoped it was the former. Because if it was the latter then things were bound to get worse.

"Ah…" From within the stack, he pulled free the smaller packet he'd been magically changing just to save time. "This one names you as my sole heir. It's not a will! I'd want Henry to have some trinkets, but as far as the town goes, it makes what's mine yours."

At that, she shook her head, sobering. "You're the Dark One. You're immortal. I don't need to be the heir of anything-"

"Immortal doesn't mean that one cannot die-"

"And you don't need to remind me about that because I remember how it felt well enough," she snapped before he could finish his sentence. Ah yes, sometimes the last year felt like it was only a blur, and he'd lost no time at all. But for her, she'd felt every second of that last year in a way he had not. He forgot that it was painful for her in the same way that the years she'd been in the asylum were painful for him.

"No, no, no…" he breathed quickly, eager to move away from the wound he'd unknowingly picked at. "Belle, it's…it's not about that, it's about…it's about Storybrooke, the people in Storybrooke. They should know, I want them to know…" He had to pause once more to remind himself to breathe and think his words through. What exactly was he trying to say with this? "These are things normal people do when they get married and I want there to be no doubt that we are married, no doubt that I trust you with all my life."

That was it. That was what he was trying to tell her. Once this was filed with the town, it would be on the record, now and forever, not just that they had gotten married but that he had shared everything with her, making her his equal in every way he possibly could. That was what he wanted her to take away from it. But he could see that it still didn't sit well with her.

"All right," she sighed. "Show me where to sign, and I'll sign them." She said the words with frustration and maybe even the slightest bit of hostility and resentment. He'd meant for the surprise to be a good one, but now he feared they'd ventured over the line of overwhelming. Perhaps with this last bit, he could make it joyful again.

"Oh, not yet, you can't. You'll need to fill this one out first. It's for your name."

Confusion and panic suddenly lifted from her face as a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, and her heart raced. The name change…that was the one that she'd wanted. So, he handed her the form that Dove had brought to them, and her smile grew as her eyes skimmed over it.

"So, this…this changes my name?"

"Actually, it's a little more than that. It gives you a name," he recorrected, recalling Dove's words. "I did a little digging looking for the paperwork to change a name officially with the town, but I found that there is none for you. You aren't on the town records, considering where you were during the curse…"

"Regina made me truly invisible," she muttered sadly, looking the paper over as the reality of her situation occurred to her.

"And now we can fix it," he insisted, reaching forward and grabbing her hands so that she'd stop looking at the forms and focus on him. This wasn't about the past; it was very much about their present and their future. He wanted her to keep that in her sights. "These papers fix that. You won't be nameless or undocumented anymore. You'll be my wife. The librarian. A full-fledged tax-paying citizen of Storybrooke…which has its advantages and disadvantages, trust me, but the point is that you get to decide what you want, who you want to be. If you want to be Belle Gold or French, or even just Belle. The choice is yours."

The point was well received. The tension in her shoulders dissolved immediately, and a smile spread quickly over her face before she nodded eagerly. "Gold!" she declared, reaching out to throw her arms around his neck. "I choose to be Belle Gold now and for as long as we both live."

Her point was well-received, too. He kissed her before she laid her head on his shoulder, and he found that he was the one beaming. It was a long and beautiful life they were bound to have together as The Golds. Fuck, he couldn't wait to get home and start it. What time was it? Could they get away?

"We should go. You have homework."

"You only want to go home to watch me do homework?" she questioned suspiciously

Siren. He didn't care which last name she took, just so long as she always remained his own personal Tempress.

"I did assume there would be some amount of celebration included in that."

"Celebration? What exactly did you have in mind for that?"

He hadn't thought of it until now, but suddenly, his mind was imagining a great many things that they could-

"Grandpa?"

Well, that was a word that apparently had the ability to make him feel like he'd just stepped into a very cold shower.

Belle spun around at his voice, her cheeks reddening with guilt like they were the teenagers and Henry was the adult who had just caught them in a dangerous position. Hell, he felt it right up until he reminded him that he was the adult, and he could have sworn he'd told Henry to stay out of the backroom. He'd completely forgotten the boy was there. And given their history, he was lucky a little charged innuendo was all he'd walked in on.

"I'm done sweeping. What do you want me to do next?"

"Henry, you can go now. I'm closing the shop for the night," he commented as Belle made herself busy gathering up the paperwork he'd given to her.

"Okay, perfect, so I'll just…I'll just come back this next weekend and…sweep some more, I guess."

"And?"

"And…and I won't touch anything, and I won't go in the back room," he parroted appropriately…from the back room. However, now that he looked him over, he saw that the toes of his sneakers didn't actually breach the threshold of the back room. Interesting. He'd followed the law to the letter, if not the spirit. He'd found the loophole. Was that pride he felt swelling in his chest right now? Was he actually more than excited to find a bit of family resemblance in the boy?

"Excellent," he smiled before glancing down at those sneakers again and feeling his joy dry up at the sight of them. Perhaps a little bit more family resemblance would be welcome if he was going to be hanging around here. "And one last thing, Henry! No one representing this shop comes to work dressed like that. Next time, it's a suit and tie, or there will be no job at all."

The curiosity on Henry's face dissolved into shock. Neither the good kind nor the overwhelmed kind. "What?! But…but I'm a kid! I'm going to be sweeping and stuff! I don't even know how to tie a tie!"

"Then I guess you'll have to learn between then and now. As long as you work here, you represent this shop and this family, my family." The Gold Family, which seemed to be growing by the minute. "So next time, it'll be a suit and tie, or you can find somewhere else to do work."

"What?! But…really?!" Henry exclaimed, his gaze drifting off of him and landing somewhere over his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Henry," Belle smiled sympathetically. "Rules are rules."

Henry let out a sigh of frustration, and he had to suddenly hold himself back from magically sending the boy out of the room and taking his wife to their bedroom that very second. He hadn't expected Henry to look to Belle to help him. And he hadn't expected that Belle would agree with him on the matter! What a pair they were turning into already!

"Okay, fine!" Henry conceded. "I'll…I'll see you this weekend."

Henry set the broom aside, and he moved to the threshold to watch him shuffle through the store in defeat.

"Was that really called for?" Belle questioned over his shoulder the second the bell chimed his exit.

"Absolutely. No employer in the world would accept anyone walking into work dressed like that. I'm teaching him valuable life lessons."

Life lessons that his father should have been here to teach. Instead, all he had was his grandfather. It was his duty, in a way.

"He's just a boy, your grandson."

"All the more reason for him to look the part when he's in my shop."

"Haven't you ever heard that you'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar?"

"I have…" But as he turned to find her standing behind him, looking him over with a chastising gaze, he felt a rush of gratitude that, despite her obvious feelings on the subject, she'd allowed him the freedom to make his own decisions when it came to Henry in his shop—just as he'd afforded her the decision of choosing her own name. Belle Gold…where were they before Henry had interrupted?

He slid his hands back around her waist and pulled her closer. "I'm the vinegar, and in times like these, I've no doubt you've become the honey, Mrs. Gold."

He suppressed a grin as that brought a whole new host of naughty things to his mind. Getting through with dinner and her homework would take some extra patience tonight.

I still love this chapter. Even from Gold's perspective it's just cute. I like the face that he's trying to make things right by taking note of something Belle wants, it's that kind of attention to detail that has always make Rumple shine. However there is that sour taste in the back of the mouth because we do know that this is also done to make up for something he is currently doing, Belle just doesn't know it.

Thank you Grace5231973 and Rsbeall12 for you reviews on the last chapter. I'm sorry this is getting out a little later than usual, but I am ever so grateful that you give me mercy when I'm on vacation. Until tomorrow when we start 4x05, Peace and Happy Reading!