Half and Half

Chapter Four

"I'm terribly sorry but do you mind repeating that?"

Persephone sighed as Belle stared at her in shock. Mal had been set up in a guest room almost as soon as Belle had seen her, saying it would likely be more comfortable than just sitting in the hospital provided wheelchair for however long the meeting was.

Meaning it was just the two adults in the room which allowed Persephone the chance to tell Belle all that had happened without needing to watch her language around Mal. Yes there was still the need to be diplomatic but Persephone could allow a bit of her anger to seep through.

"You have the registry, you can see that Maleficent has had a child." Persephone said.

"I know that part," Belle said. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she had a child with Hades."

"And what's so confusing about that?" Persephone asked, feeling more than slightly defensive for her husband's sake. Even if she didn't like the idea of Hades having a child with another woman, he was still someone who was perfectly acceptable to father a child.

After all, people let Zeus father a child and no one batted an eye there.

Belle shook her head. "According to records, Lord Hades was the most faithful of the Big Three before he was sent to the Isle," she explained. "The idea that he would cheat...well like I said, it's hard to wrap my brain around it."

Oh...Persephone thought. That makes more sense actually. I knew Belle of all people wouldn't insult a God to his spouse's face. For someone without a royal background, she has certainly mastered the art of diplomacy.

"Hades and I haven't really talked about the cause of his...indiscretion," Persephone said. "But I know it doesn't matter. Mal is Hades' daughter, who her mother is only matters in that it allowed Mal the chance to be born."

Belle nodded and picked up the folder that Persephone had brought with her. "I glanced over the report from the doctors that they had sent before you arrived," she said, gesturing to the tablet on her desk. "Especially the report from the Baymax robot who scanned young Mal. They're concerned about how the ankle grew to be broken, as it looked as if it had been purposefully inflicted."

"I haven't been able to get much in terms of details from Mal as to how she broke her ankle," Persephone said. "However...knowing what I know about Maleficent, it wouldn't surprise me if she had inflicted that on Mal purposefully."

Belle sighed. "I'll need to speak to Mal to know for sure but Baymax's scans are showing things like malnutrition, healed injuries, scars..."

"If you scanned anyone from the Isle, you'd get the same results," Persephone said and Belle looked at her in shock. "What? Your highness, you can't honestly expect anyone to have decent nutrition from the food that's sent over. I'm surprised you're not getting reports on the quality of the food for that matter."

"What do you mean?" Belle asked, her eyes growing wide at the thought. "We check the freshness of the food with every donation that comes from the food drive."

Persephone sighed. "Your highness, I can only attest to what I've seen in the six months that I live on the Isle but I can assure you that none of the food the Isle receives is fresh. But that will be a topic for another meeting. I wanted to talk to you today to see about filing for custody of Mal."

"You...you want to adopt Mal?"

"That's right."

Belle sighed. "I can understand feeling a kinship to her, Lady Persephone, but as far as the registry is concerned—."