If I Could

{91} - Staying Power

Chapter dedicated to @jade1295 x

guys stay tuned because my new fanfic will be published soon!!

Ben Hardy may have a daughter now, but that doesn't mean he likes the psychiatric hospital's pediatric section much. It's full of Disney wall stickers, and even though the children there luckily are not as sick as they could be, it's still not the place where they should be. If anything, Charlotte's arrival has made him feel more conscious about his job, and it occurs to him that he could take the time to spend some time with the children at the hospital. Fatherhood has made of Ben Hardy a new man.

Speaking of Charlotte, Ben never expected to love her this much. He obviously never expected not to feel anything for her, but the love for one's child is really as strong as everyone says it is and more. She was sixteen days old, but he had only seen her once. He wanted to hold her again, know what she looked like now, take a hundred pictures of her cute little face. Belle often called him to tell him about her, but it wasn't enough. It was cruel to find out how much he could miss a human being this way. Thankfully he was set to see Belle at the hospital that day, and that gave him hope to find a way to meet with his adorable little baby.

"And then the giant said: "If you don't want to be eaten—," Ben pauses, he had kept his own promise and went to spend some time with the kids in the hospital. "—you should take your medicine!".

All the kids frown in a childish way, slumping on their chair. But Ben's not affected, he was expecting those kind of responses.

"Doc, that's boring!", a boy with bowl-cut hair protests.

"Yeah! Why would a giant tell us to eat weird pills?", a girl adds.

"Doc, doc," a girl who seems to be around seven years old pats on Ben's knee. "Is that girl Freddie Mercury's daughter?", she asks innocently, pointing to Belle, who had been watching him from the doorframe all this time.

Ben turns around and sees Belle, who looked as lovely as ever. "Yeah, she is, how do you know?", Ben cheerfully asks the little girl.

"My mum told me who she was," the girl smiles at Roger Taylor's wife and she does the same.

Ben turns to look at Belle, and smiles wider than he originally intends to. These days, he realises Belle just means so much more to him — before, she was just an intern at the hospital. Now, she's the mother of his only child.

Belle smiles at Ben as he walks towards her. "I'd say you'd be more suitable being a kindergarten teacher."

Ben frowns in a funny way, faking an insulted look. "All the days of my youth spent on medical school for this," he rolls his eyes playfully. "Anyways, how are you?".

"How am I?", Belle repeats with a tone of incredulity of her voice, as if the question had been an inappropiate one. "You know the reason why I'm here and you still ask me how I am?".

Ben shakes his head and smiles faintly. Belle was there to know whether or not her performance as an intern had been good enough for her to continue working there. It was a big deal for her, who couldn't sleep properly days leading up to that day. This opportunity meant so many things for her career as a future psychiatrist and her destiny all lied on Ben's hands.

"Ah, you have nothing to worry about," Ben briefly places his hand on Belle's left shoulder as a sign of reassurement. "I'm gonna keep you here."

"Really?", Belle's eyes light up with joy, struggling to express how relieved she is.

"Yeah, it's only fair to keep you in the staff. Even with all that you have been through these past few months, your staying power has been great and you've done a brilliant job." Ben had taken this decision not only because of who Belle was, but because of her skills as well. All personal feelings put aside, she was a highly dedicated psychotherapist whom Ben knew had a bright future as a psychiatrist. She had built a place in the entire staff's good books in such a short amount of time and everyone knew of the good things she was capable of achieving.