Beauty and Beast Inc

Chapter 15

We walked back up the stairs and I smelled spices and heard the sounds of the kitchenware being tossed around. I looked at the clock and was shocked to see I had spent hours in the basement looking at the paintings.

"What's Mrs. Potts doing?" I asked trying to look into the kitchen but Elias pulled me aside.

"Cooking for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Its a big event for her," he answered as he pulled me down the hall to his office. However before we got there, Codsworth popped his head out of a doorway and smiled at me.

"Miss Belle, Mrs. Potts has requested we visit the store. She's running low on ingredients," he gave me a look and I took a deep breath. Codsworth was going to take me to see my father, not go to the store.

"Of course, let me go get my coat," I answered, walking away from Elias. I gave him a smile and a wave and he just nodded back, watching us go. 

I grabbed my coat and wallet and followed Codsworth out the car where we climbed in wordlessly. "So you found the art?" he asked me as we pulled onto the main road.

I nodded. "It's beautiful, I don't know why he doesn't hang it up."

Codsworth sighed as we merged into the holiday traffic. "It reminds him of a happier time he'd rather not remember. He bought a lot of that art with a, uh, a friend of his that is no longer in his life."

I turned to look at Codsworth. "He mentioned this friend, who were they?"

He sighed and scratched his head, debating something. "He had a fiance for a while, and then his father died and the relationship just didn't last on her end. She cheated on him."

"Oh my god..." I whispered, shaking my head. I could just imagine Elias's reaction to that. He must have been so shocked he was calm, and then just blew up into a terrifying rage once he got away from everyone, if he even made it that far. "Where is she now?" I asked. 

"Married some snooty British lord or something like that. Far away from here is all I care about. She wrecked what was left of that poor boy's heart." Codsworth turned down the street where the hospital was and I sighed.

"People are terrible," I said cynically as we pulled in front of the hospital doors.

Codsworth stopped the car and looked at me. "People aren't good or bad Belle, they just make right and wrong decisions."

I shrugged as I pushed open the door but I knew he was right. Some people just made more bad choices than others.

I made my way up to my father's hospital room and laughed when I saw him dressed in a red smock covered in Christmas trees with striped green socks.

"Good news today Miss, we got some brain waves when we played some music for him," the doctor told me, looking down at his clipboard.

"What kind of music?" I asked, curious but very happy he seemed to be showing improvements.
  
The doctor chuckled. "Frank Sinatra."

I smiled and gave a nod. Of course, it was Frankie, that was the music my mom always sang around the house when she was pregnant with me. And he was the singer of their wedding song. It made me smile thinking about how his brain had registered those notes and chords and associated them with all the happy times he had in his life when that music played.

I squeezed his hand and looked out the window at the snow flurries and patted my wallet in my pocket when I got an idea in my head.

"Excuse me, nurse? Could you tell me where the nearest art gallery is?"

I met Codsworth outside the hospital with a small package and a few bags under my arms.
  
"What in the world have you got there?" he asked, helping me put the bags in the trunk.

"My Christmas shopping. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, I needed to get gifts," I answered nonchalantly as I got into the warm car.

"Belle you didn't have to get anyone a present," he said as he pulled away towards home.

"Yes I did," I told him with a finality that didn't offer me another response until we got home and he helped me smuggle the packages into my room.

I laid everything out according to person, as I had bought two gifts for each, including Lumiere who I was told would be here tomorrow and Christmas Day, but right now he was overseeing the company while Elias took some time off that I felt was gently nudged by the gentlemen that had been in his office all those weeks ago.

After putting it all away I made my way down to the kitchen where Mrs. Potts let me put one foot in the kitchen before handing me Elias's tea tray before pushing me out of the room. Laughing, I carried it into his office where he sat typing quickly on his laptop. I made the cup quietly and poured one for myself, before settling on the couch by the raging fire with a book in my hand.

After about thirty minutes with Elias typing furiously on his computer and making some very brief phone calls, I heard his chair scrape back and his feet pad across the floor towards me.
"What are you reading?" he asked, sitting beside me.

I looked up, a blush filling my cheeks. "Um, it's kind of a story for little kids but I just love reading it."

He chuckled. "I can see that from the cover that's falling apart. So what's it about?" he settled into the couch, arm draped across the back, body angled towards me to give me his full attention.

I smiled shyly. "Well, it's about a girl that travels from her small hometown and goes to all these far off places where she meets this Prince in disguise. There are all these daring sword fights and magic spells, but she doesn't actually discover that it's him until the end," I answered, smiling at the book. I looked up at him and gave a nervous laugh. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Will you read it to me? The book, can I hear some of it?" he asked, picking up his teacup and taking a sip.

"Uh, sure. I'll start from the beginning," I flipped back to the first page and drew my feet under my legs. Elias shifted so he was sitting closer beside me and could see over my shoulder at the pages of the book, where the pages before each chapter had an illustration on it. "Once upon a time, in a tiny little village..." I started and just kept reading. I didn't notice the sun setting outside or Elias's arm behind me on the couch as I flipped page after page. When I got to my favorite part in the book, the part that made me cry every time, I took a deep breath and my voice cracked as I kept going. Elias squeezed my shoulder and I quickly wiped away a tear as I kept going and finished with the happily ever after.

"That was a wonderful book," Elias said as I closed the cover. I thought I saw someone jump out of the doorway when I looked up but whoever it was, was gone too soon for me to notice.

"I know it's unrealistic and meant for twelve-year-olds but I think there's something incredible in the fact it shows you that you can go do whatever you want and never to judge someone by how they appear on the outside," I noted as I stretched and my gaze landed on the clock.
  
"Oh my goodness! Oh, we've missed dinner!" I jumped up and Elias grabbed my arm.

"You go into that kitchen be prepared to have your head chopped off by Mrs. Potts. Trust me," he said and I paused.

"So? What about food?" I asked, crossing my arms.

He stood with a mischievous smile on his face. "Grab your coat, we're going out."

We meet in the front hall twenty minutes later and out into the cold. We drove in silence to a little restaurant on the edge of Brooklyn, right before you drove over the bridge. We got a window seat with a beautiful view of the sparkling lights on the bridge and the choppy water of the river below. I was a little surprised that the restaurant was French. And I don't mean just the food, everything was in french from the menu to the language spoken by the staff and I doubted how much English the waiters actually spoke when they sat us down with our menu's.

"A french restaurant? Really?" I asked with a chuckle as my eyes scanned the menu.

Elias shrugged. "I know this is your first holiday away from home, and I can't take you here tomorrow so I figured tonight would work."

He looked back down at his menu but I just stared at him, completely dumbfounded. He said it so calmly like it wasn't that big of a deal that he took his maid/secretary out to a French restaurant because he knew she was homesick for a holiday she had only spent with one person every year since she was born. I looked down at the menu, at the pastries and crepes and sandwiches and entree's, some which my father would make for me or I'd prepare for him. I put the menu on the table and Elias looked up at me over the top of his. I reached forward and took his hand and he stiffened at my touch.

"Thank you," I whispered.

He gave a small nod but I felt the slightest pressure in my fingers as he squeezed my hand, and for the first time I felt okay.