"Ouch!"

"I know it hurts, Belle, but just hang on a few more minutes!"

Veronica, Lydia and Adam were able to remove Belle from the kitchen door. When they did, Belle was in a lot of pain because of movement of the quills. The good news was that two of the quills were left in the door, but the bad news...four quills remained in Belle's left hip. Veronica carried Belle out to the parlor, where Adam met Maurice when they first met. Lydia and Adam followed them into the parlor. Veronica wouldn't let them near Belle until she was feeling better. Veronica had managed to only remove one of the quills so far.

"Don't touch." Belle said, it was painful removing the quills in her right hip.

"Belle, we need to remove these or you're going to have an infection!" Veronica said.

"Will you keep it down!" Lydia urged, "Do you want to attract attention from the sleeping servants!"

"You're the one who got my daughter into this mess!" Veronica urged.

"Would the two of you knock it off!" Adam said. Veronica and Lydia turned to see Adam staring at them with a serious look. They were more surprised to see Belle raising her left hand and grabbing Adam's left hand. That's when Lydia saw her rose diamond ring on Belle's hand, she didn't know what to think.

"Veronica, I need to talk to you in private." Lydia said.

"Can't it wait?" Veronica asked, "My poor daughter is in pain."

"No, it can't wait!" Lydia said as she grabbed her friend's sleeve and dragged her out of the room.

"Thank you, Adam." Belle softly said. Adam just smiled at her and got on his knees.

"And I thought it would be nice to have them back." Adam said.

"Neither of us were expecting this." Belle said, "I think they didn't expect us to be right behind the door either."

"I am sorry that this happened." He said, "As far as I knew my mother, she wasn't this...protective of herself."

"Accidents happen." Belle said as she smiled. Adam adored the Belle's smile because he always felt that her smile was for her. He looked back at the quills that remained in Belle's right hip.

"Let's see if I can remove the quills." Adam said as he stood up.

"Please be gentle." Belle said as she held a pillow, that she had been holding onto ever since they got into the parlor.

"As you said to me one time," he said, "hold still." Belle remembered telling Adam that when he saved her from the wolves when he was still a beast. She didn't move a single inch as Adam gently held onto one of the quills.

After dragging Veronica out of the parlor, Lydia released her sleeve. She couldn't believe that she saw her son sticking up for her best friend's daughter!

"What's with dragging me out like that?" Veronica asked as she looked at her sleeves, to see if Lydia ripped them.

"Did you see that?" Lydia asked.

"See what?" Veronica asked.

"Don't play dumb with me, Veronica." Lydia said, "Your daughter grabbed a hold on my son's hand and...he held it back." Veronica heard a little disappointment in her friend's voice. She could sense what this was heading towards.

"You're thinking...my daughter...your son?" Veronica asked, but she could see the answer in Lydia's blue eyes.

"You saw the way they were when we first saw them." Lydia explained, "My son going over to your daughter rather over to me."

"I...somewhat understand what you're feeling, Lydia." Veronica said, "But they're now grown up."

"That's a bad excuse to make me feel better." Lydia pointed out; Veronica knew that it was, but she didn't know what else to say to her. "You saw it! You saw how your daughter is acting towards my son!" Lydia saw Veronica put her head down, that's when Lydia saw what Veronica truly felt about her daughter being with Adam. "I'm sorry, Veronica. I shouldn't have sound so...so..."

"Serious? Honest?" Veronica said.

"I guess those would be the words I was trying to look for." Lydia said, "I think seeing them together gave us both a shock."

"You're right." Veronica said, "I think just seeing them was enough to shock us."

"Belle's wearing a ring." Lydia said, Veronica shot her head up and looked straight at Lydia's eyes. "It's my rose diamond ring."

"Hmm, you're thinking your son proposed to my daughter?" Veronica asked.

"Adam knows how precious that ring was to me," Lydia explained. "He wouldn't give that ring to someone else unless..." She couldn't say anything else, but Veronica could sense what she was feeling.

"Another job of being a mother," Veronica said, "is making sure that their child is happy. This...did come to a surprise to us, but..." she looked at the door of the parlor, "if they're happy together, then we shouldn't get in the way of it." Lydia listened to her friend's words, she knew that Veronica was right. She took a few deep breaths, hoping it would calm her down and make her feel better. "Lydia, you've always had a hard time calming down, so I expect you to take your time."

"I'm fine now." Lydia said, "Let's go back in there, without arguing. I know Belle's waiting on us." Veronica smiled, to show that she was no longer angry with her.

Veronica and Lydia walked back in the parlor, Belle was still lying on her right side on the couch while Adam was sitting his armchair across from her. Both of them were surprised that their mothers came back, especially Adam. When he raised his voice and his mother and to Belle's mother, he felt bad about it.

As for the two women, they tried to keep their surprise and shock hidden. Veronica went over to Belle, but to her surprise, the quills were gone and there was a small pillow on the area where the quills were. Veronica removed the pillow to see the damage, there were four holes that the quills had made.

"It doesn't look like you're bleeding." Veronica said as she went over to a little table. She waved her hands, sparkles appeared on the tabletop and bandages and a blue medicine bottle appeared on the table. Veronica gave the bottle to Lydia; she went over to Belle and squeezed the bottle. The bottle squirted a orange liquid on Lydia's left hand, she rubbed the liquid over the puncture areas, Belle flinched from the medicine having its affect on the area.

"This will hurt for a while," Veronica said, "but you'll be healed in a matter of hours." Veronica took the white bandages as Adam helped Belle sit up. Veronica wrapped the bandages around her daughter's waist. Adam kept his eyes away from Belle's injury, to show respect for her (and her mother). Veronica was a little surprised that Adam was trying not to look at Belle's injury, but she can sense that Adam didn't want to offend her or her daughter.

"All done." Veronica said as she tied a knot in the bandage, Belle just stared at her mother.

"Thank you." Belle said, she still had a hard time believing that she was staring at her own mother. "It's been years since I said that to you." When Belle said that, Veronica and Lydia dropped their heads.

"I know," Veronica said in a sad voice, "I'm so sorry that I didn't tell you the truth when you were a child."

"And I'm sorry, Adam." Lydia said, Adam was a little surprised. Why was she apologizing?

"What for?" Adam said.

"Same reason Veronica said," she explained, "in fact, neither of us should've kept the truth from the two of you."

"But we kept it from you because we didn't think you would believe us," Veronica explained, "also because we had a big duty to protect the Clarinet of Life."

"We didn't want your lives to get in the way." Lydia said, "We also didn't want to lose you...even though both your fathers are human."

"Lydia, don't say it like that." Veronica said.

"Can you not blame me?"

"No," Veronica answered, "but I don't want Belle to start thinking."

"About what?" Belle asked, Lydia just slapped her forehead and covered her eyes. Adam leaned in and whispered in Belle's ear.

"Remember what I told you about my father? That's what she's referring to." Belle's eyes shrunk a little, she remembered that Adam told her that his father was abusive and controlling.

"Lady Lydia," Belle said, "I'm not thinking anything about that. I would rather not." Adam and Lydia looked at Belle and then to each other.

"You definitely know when not to ask questions." Lydia said to Belle, "Your mother raised you well, your father probably did too."

"They did," Adam said, "I should know from experience."

"What do you mean by that?" Lydia asked.

"Something that I'm not going to tell you." Adam said, Belle was a little surprised. Why didn't he want his mother to know about the curse?

Adam didn't want to tell his mother anything about his curse because of what she told him before she 'died'. Before Lydia was taken from him, she said that no matter what he did in life, he would never, never ever, disappoint her. Adam felt that he probably had when he closed off his heart to everybody and became cursed to become a beast.

"You were CURSED?" Lydia asked in shock, Adam's eyes shrunk, how did she know?

"How did you...?"

"I usually don't like to use my mind-reading powers," Lydia explained, "but I had to use them this time. You were cursed?"

"Belle, please leave." Adam asked, "This is something I need to talk to her...alone." Belle nodded, got up and left the parlor. Veronica was surprised that Belle did that, as far as she knew about her daughter, Belle wouldn't leave things alone...unless it had a good reason.

"Veronica, you too." Lydia said, Veronica looked at her friend. "Go. Shoo!" Veronica jumped like a startled cat and followed her daughter. Adam was now alone in the parlor with his mother. How was he going to explain it to her?