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."
"And what if Ben abstains from the crown?"
"Then we teach Abby the same thing. We should be teaching Abby the same things we teach Ben regardless of what titles she's to inherit anyway. There's no reason why we shouldn't."
"Other than the fact that our daughter is one."
"She'll be two in November."
Beast shook his head and gave Belle a look. "You know that's not what I mean. Besides, are you sure about this? We'll be stirring everyone up and the election's right around the corner. So far no one has indicated that they'll run against me but what if looking into the Isle changes that? You're asking me to risk my family's stability for an Island of villains and cut throats."
"...An Isle you would be on yourself if you hadn't been elected High King, Adam!" Belle exclaimed as soon as she regained her power of speech. "Or has false imprisonment and kidnapping become a heroic act now?"
"Belle, I was a child and you're defending villains and cuthroats—!"
"Oh no Adam, you do not get to call children villains and cut throats when you were almost twenty one when you held me prisoner! And I would think that by now you would know me well enough to know that I'll be looking into this matter with or with out you. But it would be nice to know I have my husband's support!"
Beast sighed. "Belle, you know you have my support no matter what. I just...I don't see why we need to risk our stability."
"Adam, if anyone runs against you for wanting to give children a better life, then we'll do all we can to crush them in their tracks," Belle promised. "But this? This isn't the man I married. This is...this is more of the Beast I ran from in the West Wing than the man who surprised me with a library and who read Shakespeare with me."
"Belle..." Beast said softly.
"Just...just think about it Adam," Belle said. "What if that was Ben in Mal's place? Can you honestly say you can picture our sweet, innocent boy trying his hardest to find food that he can eat and not feel your heart rip in two?"
"But why would I need to picture it? Ben's here in Auradon, he won't have to deal with that."
"Because if you do somehow lose the election, Adam, you're going to probably be thrown on the Isle yourself! Aladdin and Eugene might have been pardoned for their crimes but you weren't! And as we've seen, if you're a child to someone of the Isle of the Lost, you might as well have committed a crime yourself."
Beast froze and looked at his wife in shock. "You...you don't think...Belle, sending me to the Isle would be like signing my death certificate. Especially with Gaston there, you know he probably still rants about how he should have 'killed me when he had the chance'. Gods, how I was ever friends with him, I'll never know."
"Because you were both egotistical, selfish, and full of yourself boys most likely," Belle said with a small sigh as she brushed a stray hair out of Beast's eyes. "The only difference is you grew up. Or at least I thought you did. But our five year old son can look at a girl his age who came from the Isle and just see a friend. Whereas you see a threat."
"Belle..."
"Adam, I mean it. It's bigger than the possibility of not being re-elected King. You think Ben will care if he's not Crown Prince? All he'll care about is if he has to give up Flamey or his friends or if he can't see Chip anymore. You think Abby will care if she's not Crown Princess? Abby doesn't even know she is a Crown Princess! If we have to go back to my father's village and live a life there, we can because we'll be fine. But by not agreeing to at least call your council and look into it, you're basically standing by and letting more children die. And then at some point you're going to make it Ben's problem when it should have been solved now."
Beast sighed. "I don't know what you want me to say Belle. It's not like I'm the one making it so that they don't have proper food."
"But you are the one who's finding out about the issue and deciding to stand by and do nothing," Belle told him. "When we married, I told you I'd stay with you for better or worse because I didn't think after the Beast there could be a worse. But clearly I was wrong. And you know what? Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. After all, when I refused to eat dinner with you my first night in the castle, you told me to go ahead and starve."
Beast stepped back as if he'd been struck. "Belle...I...is that what you think I'm capable of?"
"You'd starve a seventeen year old girl who had just lost her freedom and her father in one swoop, Adam. I don't know what you're truly capable of."
"...You know you agreed to the Isle too. You thought it'd be better for the safety of the kingdom if all the villains were rounded up and put on an Island because there'd be less of a chance they'd escape. Even before Fairy Godmother offered her magical barrier."
"And now I realize that was a mistake. One I can't take back but one I can work to correct. For the sake of the children on the Isle. For the sake of my children."
"Our children are fine."
"But they might not be. Because what if another child comes off the Isle and they're not as understanding as Mal is? Or worse, what if they're given a task to destroy Auradon because of all we took from them? You told me once, when we were building the Isle, that our job as King and Queen was to protect Auradon. And that's what we have to do now."
Beast sighed but even he had to admit that Belle was right. That there was nothing that he could do other than call up his council.
"...I'll make the call."
Belle stared at him in shock before a smile grew on her lips. "I knew the man I loved was in there," she said as she gently handed him his phone. "And like I said, if anyone tries to run against you in the election, then just point me at them. You know how I love to research after all and everyone has skeletons in their closet."
Beast chuckled softly as his hand wrapped around his phone. "Belle...what if I am put on the Isle for this? You know Aladdin and Eugene see food poverty as something serious and if this was purposefully done?"
"You're not the one making the order to delay the food though," Belle said gently. "And if you delay, more people will die. That should be the focus of the council meeting. Not the fact that they're villains but the fact that they're people."
"You know Leah won't see it like that."
"Yes well, Leah can go pound grass for all I care."
"Belle!" Beast exclaimed but smiled at his wife's statement.
"What Adam? You heard the thirty minute lecture she gave me when she discovered that Mal was at Ben's party! Thankfully Chip was there to distract her from targeting her ire at Mal."
Beast couldn't help but chuckle slightly at his wife's fury. "You seem worked up over this girl, Belle."
"I know," Belle sighed. "Maybe because...because I can see a bit of myself in her. At least from the standpoint of the town 'weirdo' who didn't fit in. Luckily for Mal though she doesn't have to be the loner I was even if I preferred to be alone, wrapped in my books that made the small village I was in seem almost big."
"I was wondering where I heard that before, Ben had said it the other day," Beast said with a small smile. "Our son's just like you, you know that."
"Well then Abby's just like you," Belle said, returning the smile which only grew as Beast sighed but moved forward with dialing up his council. It wouldn't be solved with a single phone call but it was a start at the very least.
So why couldn't she shake the feeling that the other shoe was about to drop for her family?
No, no, stop that, she thought. You worried that this meeting with Adam was going to go poorly and you were wrong. Sure he was a bit stubborn but what else is new there? Ben gets his stubbornness honestly in that case. And everyone on the council has a heart, even Leah...I mean she cares about Aurora and Audrey at the very least.
"Alright," Beast said with a small sigh and Belle looked over at him. "The council's been called. They'll be waiting in the council room in about fifteen minutes."
"Adam...do you want me there?" Belle asked. Normally she didn't attend the council sessions, if only to spend time with their children and give Mrs. Potts a well needed break from child rearing.
The woman had raised six children as a teapot, she could get all the breaks she wanted. Not that she'd ever ask for one.
"I think that would be best," Beast said, gently taking Belle's hand into his. "After all, you're the one who got the information about the Isle from Mal and Lady Persephone. And yes you told me but I might get a detail wrong. Knowing you and your memory, you could recite what they told you verbatim."
Belle shook her head as a small smile pulled at her lips. "Flattery will get you nowhere Adam, but thank you."
"You know as well as I do that I was speaking the truth," Beast chuckled before lightly kissing her head. The two of them squeezed the other's hand before walking out the door.
Neither of them knowing exactly what life was about to drop on them.