Half and Half

Chapter Nine

Belle sighed as she paced the floor of her bedroom, waiting for her husband to arrive. Ben was busy with Chip and Abby was being looked after by Mrs. Potts. Not to mention their young guest Mal was off with Lady Persephone.

For once, they had total privacy for the conversation that was about to happen. A conversation that needed to happen. So why did Belle feel a pit in her stomach?

Was it because she would have to try to convince her stubborn husband that the Isle would need more than the occasional inspectors? Was it because she'd have to convince him to call up his council to look into what was going on with the Isle in the first place?

What am I doing? Belle thought as a knock sounded on the closed door. Am I not the woman who tamed a stubborn beast? Adam will see reason, after all if anyone can sympathize with children being punished with little to no reason it would be him. Right?

"Come in," she called, realizing that she'd never given a response to the knock.

"Belle?" Beast said as he slid into the room and closed the door behind him. "Is everything okay? You sounded tense on the phone."

Belle sighed. "No, Adam, everything's not okay."

"Is it the kids? Chip? Is something happening in Auradon?"

"You could say that," Belle said, though she couldn't help the small smile that pulled at her lips as she heard him ask about Chip. No matter what, he would always think of Chip as part of the family. "I've just learned something rather troubling about the Isle."

"The Isle?" Beast asked, tilting his head. "What could be troubling about it? We send them food after all and it's a prison full of villains. Some things are going to be rather rough there."

"Adam, we might send them food, but according to young Mal and Lady Persephone, it's not arriving the same way as we send it."

"I mean we send it fresh but it's not a quick journey to the Isle. So the bread's a day or two days old, is that really a reason to get worked up?"

Belle shook her head. "Adam...it's not edible."

Beast paused and looked over at Belle, shock visible on his face. "Are you sure?"

"Mal is the daughter of Lord Hades, she's told me that so far 100 people have died since the formation of the Isle," Belle said. While death was a part of life, the number shouldn't be that high in the eight or nine years since the Isle's creation. "And she might be from the Isle, Adam, but she's still a four...no wait, a five year old girl who's had her ankle broken by someone she was supposed to be able to trust. What does she have to gain about lying about the food quality?"

"Stir up dissent in Auradon? Weaken our alliances? Make it possible for Maleficent to escape?" Beast suggested.

Belle shook her head once more. "Adam, if the food wasn't as Mal described, I hardly think Lady Persephone would have agreed with her charge's claim. After all, she lives on the Isle six months out of the year. She's the only one of us here in Auradon who knows the condition of the Isle. Well other than Mal."

"I just don't see how the food can get to be inedible," Beast said as he began to walk around their bedroom. "It's at most a two day boat trip across the Straight of Ursula. And wouldn't we get reports about delays?"

"Would you read them?" Belle asked. "Adam...be honest. If it was a choice between reading reports about the food barge for the Isle being delayed or spending time with our children, which one would you pick?"

Beast sighed. "I mean...we hardly get to see them as is Belle. Of course I'd pick our children."

"And that's why we likely haven't seen any delay reports," Belle said as she walked over and gently rested a hand on Beast's cheek. "I love you and I know you would never want to do any harm to the Isle. The protection of Auradon is important but if Ben's to be King after you, then we need to be teaching him that all of Auradon should be granted aid and resources. The Isle might be a prison but it's a prison under Auradon's banner."