On a chilly evening in late September, Belle's water broke while walking back with Adam from the library, and he ended up rushing her to the closest bedchamber to make a delivery.

As Mrs. Potts, Madame Armoire and Babette stayed with the princess to ensure she had everything she needed to be comfortable, Adam waited anxiously outside with Lumiere, Cogsworth, Maurice and Christophe, pacing up and down the hallway as though his life depended on it.

"Master," Lumiere said to him, "Perhaps you should sit down. You're going to wear a hole in the floor with all that pacing."

"How can I sit down?" the Prince replied fretfully. "Belle is in pain." He practically jumped as he heard her cry out from inside the room. The baby was a few days early - what if something went wrong? What if Belle ended up getting sick or dying in childbirth the same way her own mother had?

"Don't worry master," Lumiere continued as though he could hear his thoughts. "Belle will be fine. She has Mrs. Potts looking after her remember? She's delivered lots of babies in the castle and none of them have gone wrong yet."

"But why is it taking so long?!"

"Well, most babies take half a day to be delivered," Cogsworth pointed out. "Belle might be in there for another ten hours at least. Mrs. Potts herself was in labor for twenty when she had her twins."

Twenty hours? The Prince thought that waiting two hours was unbearable enough but twenty? He sank his hands in his face and groaned. Christophe, who was watching his reaction, let out a chuckle.

"I remember when Adam was born, Vincent was very much the same," he said, trying to lighten up the mood. "We were just about ready to tie him up over in the East wing, he was just so worried about Catherine. And when he came to see you after neveu, he was so scared that he was going to break you, he wouldn't even let himself touch you at first."

"Ah yes, Vincent was a good king, and loved his family very much," Lumiere said fondly, "He just wasn't the same after Catherine passed away."

Adam ignored them and proceeded to walk another round up and down the hallway. He could hardly care about what his father had been like during his own delivery. Nobody seemed to understand that that it was his wife who was crying out in pain in there, and he couldn't do anything to help her!

Another hour passed and then another. Close to midnight the Prince started yawning and begrudgingly accepted Lumiere offer to take his chair so he could sit down and rest for a bit. The next thing he remember hearing was a high-pitched wailing sound, and then he opened his eyes to see Babette standing outside the door with her white bonnet askew on her head.

"Master," she said to him breathlessly, "Ze baby is here."

Belle felt utterly exhausted as she lay against the pillows, sweat still dripping from her face from the delivery. It was safe to say that the birthing was not at all as easy as it seemed in the fairy tales. It was long and tiring and the pain itself was unbearable and something she hoped she would never have to experience again. Still, she forced herself to smile as Adam walked over to the bed to see her.

"How are you?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she replied weakly. "It hurt a lot, but it was worth it just to see the baby's face."

"Here we are," Mrs. Potts said as she came around the bed to hand Adam a warm, swaddling blanket. "You two have a beautiful, healthy baby boy."

A boy? Adam was surprised. In his mind, he had always imagined they would have a daughter, a Belle in miniature with all the intelligence and grace of her mother. He had imagined walking into the parlor to see two pairs of doe brown eyes looking up at him from the hearth, a mother and daughter reading their favorite storybook together. But a son?

When it really came down to it, he had never seen a more beautiful face. Mrs. Potts showed him how to support the baby, putting one arm under his back and bending his left arm so the baby's head could rest on the crook of his elbow. He had a tuft of brown hair, a squishy nose, pouty lips, dark blue eyes and barely came up to the length of his arm he was so tiny.

"Belle, look at him!" he said after taking him in for a long moment.

"He's so handsome," Belle smiled. "Just like his papa."

They spent several minutes admiring their new baby before Maurice, Lumiere, Cogsworth and Christophe entered the room, unable to wait a moment longer to see the prince and princess's firstborn child.

"Oh, what a lovely little boy," Lumiere was the first to say.

"What are you going to name him?" asked Maurice.

"Well," said Cogsworth, "It is the tradition in the master's household that the father be the one to name the firstborn."

"Adam darling?"

"Huh?" Adam looked up, confused. He had almost forgotten that there were other people in the room with him; he could not take his eyes off his baby. "My father's name was Vincent."

"No master!" Lumiere chuckled. "What are you going to name your son?"

"I like Vincent," said Belle. "It means to conquer, doesn't it?"

"Yes," Christophe nodded. "And what a fitting name considering that the both of you have conquered so much in your first year as prince and princess."

"Well, Vincent it is then!" said Adam. If Belle liked that name, then so did he. Maybe it would be in good respect to his father in a way.

"Ahem," Cogsworth said, clearing, his throat. "You know he needs at least four more names to send off on the official royal documents, yes?"

After the delivery, Belle fell asleep almost immediately, but Adam was wide-awake. All he could think about was that little life - his Vincent, lying in the crib just a few feet away from them. He only remembered one other time when he had felt this excited and that had been over a year ago, when the spell had first been broken.

The Prince could barely sleep that first night after the enchantment. Being human had awakened so many sensations in him; every time he moved he was aware of how his hands felt against the bed sheets or the way his hair rubbed against his neck. And it was all thanks to one person: Belle.

Just thinking about her now was enough to make his heart pump loudly inside his chest. He never thought it would ever work, that someone as beautiful as her could ever learn to love a monster like him. Even now he was half-afraid that something bad would happen when he fell asleep, that he'd wake up to discover that the curse breaking was all a dream and Belle had never existed.

After lying like this for several hours, he decided that he simply couldn't sleep tonight; his newly transformed body wouldn't allow it. He sat up and winced slightly as his bare feet touched the cold marble floor. Where would he go? The kitchens? The gardens? The library?

It felt disorienting, walking through the castle corridors. It wasn't just the fact that everything looked so bright, it was that everything seemed so much bigger. He supposed losing a foot in height was largely a factor, but still, it felt a bit bizarre, knowing that things were going to look this way from now on. When he finally reached the entrance to the library, he was surprised to see that someone was already in there: Belle sitting curled up on her favorite armchair, dressed in a white nightgown, reading a book.

"Hello," he said to her in surprise.

Belle looked up at him, startled. "Oh, hello."

"Can't sleep?"

"Oh no," she blushed. "I just wanted to do a bit of reading. I'll go now."

"Wait, you don't have to do that! What are you reading anyway?" He took a few steps forward to read the cover of the book she was holding, surprised to see that it was a political history textbook. "I didn't know you were into French politics."

"I'm not."

"Then...why are you reading it?"

"I just," she brushed a stray hair away from her face. "I'm sorry, it feels silly, but I just don't know anything about you. I've only known you were a prince for a few hours, I don't know anything about your heritage or who your parents are."

The Prince raised an eyebrow. Now he understood why she was at the library this late. "You don't have to worry about that Belle," he assured her. "I was a bad Prince and I got what was coming to me. Anything else that happened before then, well it's not important now. I'm still me. I'm still your beast."

"But you weren't always called Beast," she refuted. "You must at least have a name. Do I call you your majesty now, or - ?"

"No!" he exclaimed, wincing at the thought of her addressing him by such a formal title.

"Then what should I call you?"

The Prince ruffled his hair back hesitantly. He did have a name of course, but it had been so long since he'd last been called by it, he wasn't sure he was ready to use it again. But he knew it was only fair. He'd kept the secret of the spell from her for this long; she had a right to know that much about him. "It's Adam," he said.

"Adam?" she repeated.

"Yes," he replied. "But, uh, you don't have to call me that if you don't want to."

"No, it's your name, Adam. I want to use it."

There was a moment of quiet understanding between them. "Here, how about we read another book?" the Prince suggested as he sat down beside her and closed the textbook. "One that isn't, uh, a history textbook?"

"What do you have in mind?"

"Well, there's the one we never finished. Le Morte d'Arthur."

She smiled. "Sure."

He decided to be a gentleman and get the book for her since he could stand on the ladder now without it collapsing under his weight. Together they cuddled up on the couch and read the rest of the book until the early hours of the morning when they both fell asleep in each other's arms. The Prince woke up some time later to find Belle curled up against his chest, and took a moment to run a hand through her soft brown hair and kiss the top of her forehead before snuggling closer to her. Here with the woman he loved, the girl he had waited for ten years for tucked in his arms, this was where he belonged.

That morning, Adam realized for the first time in ten years that he had someone to live for, someone to protect and love for the rest of his life. Now, it amazed him to know that he had someone else to add to that list; his son Vincent. Presently, he walked over to the crib he had made with Maurice to see his little boy blinking up at him curiously, wearing a white dressing gown under his blue blanket. Belle had wanted to put a bonnet on him too, but Adam had refused. No son of his was going to wear a lacy feminine-looking bonnet if he had anything to say about it.

"Hey Vincent," he said to him, "I'm your papa."

Vincent immediately started to cry in response, causing Adam to jump back in surprise. "He's going to wake up Belle! What do I do?" he panicked. All he could remember from Mrs. Potts was that babies cried when they were either cold or hungry. He quickly picked up his son and wrapped him tightly in his blanket, hoping it was the first scenario.

"Shh," he said as he looked back at the bed to ensure Belle was still asleep. "It's alright petit, it's alright. You've got some powerful lungs don't you? Just like your papa?"

At the sound of his father's voice, Vincent stopped crying and stared up at him curiously. "There you go," he smiled. "Feeling better now?" He still felt a bit worried that he would start making noise again, so he decided to take him out to the balcony to give him some fresh air.

"Regarde," he said as he pointed to the sunrise. The sky was red and pink in the sunrise, and a fine mist was creeping in the forest. Soon all the leaves would be gone, and winter would be here again. "Maybe when you're older I'll take you out riding and we can watch the sunrise from my favorite part of the forest," he said to him. "I'll teach you how to take care of your horse, how to saddle him, I'll teach you chess, archery, fencing, carpentry; you'll like those things, won't you, Vincent?"

"You know he'll catch a cold if you keep him out here for too long," a voice interrupted.

Adam turned around to see a familiar looking woman with flowing blonde hair standing behind him. "Enchantress!" he said in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Why, to see the new arrival of course!" the Enchantress replied with a smile, "A boy is it?" She glanced curiously at Vincent. "Ah yes," she said as she gently laid a hand over him. "And what a fine son I see him growing up to be."

Adam felt a little uncomfortable as the Enchantress continued to coddle his son. "You're not...uh, going to cast a spell on him, are you?" he asked her nervously.

"Oh, heavens no!" she laughed as she looked up at him. "You must forgive me. The real reason I am here is to say goodbye. You see, my work here is finished."

"Finished? As in, you're...leaving?"

"Yes," she nodded. "You see, now that the spell has been broken, and you and Belle have married and started a family together, my services with you are no longer needed. I am free to go and help another soul in need."

"Oh," the Prince said in surprise. If the enchantress was really leaving him that would mean that there would be no more spells, no more magic. The ten years he had spent as a Beast would only be a distant memory. This also meant that he only had one more chance to ask her his question before she left him, forever. "Enchantress," he said, "Why me? With the powers you have, you could have helped someone much less fortunate than I. Why then use them on someone like me, a prince?"

"Do you think that the worth of a man is truly defined by how poor or rich he is?" the enchantress replied with a smile. "No. For eons, we enchanters have studied your kind. You humans do not realize exactly how special all of you are, to feel and think as you do, to love, to grieve, to empathize. Over ten years ago, I saw a Prince who was doomed to stray from that path, so fixed in his selfish ways, he had turned a blind eye to the true beauties of the world. I knew I had to save him and so I used my magic to strip away his human form, taking away everything that made him who he was. I watched the way he struggled for ten years, so desperate to earn back his humanity. He could have remained a Beast. He could have chosen not to change. He could have even refused to free Belle that night, so fixed he was on earning back his own freedom. But he didn't," she smiled. "For he had come to see the true value in life, well enough to give it to someone else. And so my faith in humanity is reassured and my task here is complete."

"Will I ever see you again?"

"Perhaps one day yes," she nodded. "Even I cannot predict what will happen in the future. But that is not for us to discuss now. For now, enjoy your time with your little one, Prince Adam and do not forget the things I have shown you, the things you have to be thankful for on this day. Farewell."

"Farewell, enchantress."

With that, the enchantress nodded her head and disappeared in a flash of dazzling light. As the Prince watched the sparks fade into the morning sky, he thought about exactly how fortunate he was. About two years ago, he believed that he didn't that have a future. He thought he was condemned to spend the rest of his life as a beast, locked away inside an enchanted castle with no means of escape. Now, as he stared at his son, he realized this was his future. He had a family now, and the possibilities open to him were endless.

"Come on Vincent let's get you back to bed," he said as he carried him back into the West Wing. He put him back in his crib and looked back to the canopy bed to see Belle staring at him with half-open eyes.

"Who were you talking to?" she asked sleepily.

"An old friend," he replied.

She yawned, too tired to process this properly and nodded her head before drifting back into sleep. Adam smiled as he walked towards her, brushing a strand of hair away from her face and kissing her on the cheek. The enchantress's story could wait. Right now Belle needed her rest. He would tell her everything in the morning.

FIN