Work Text:
Gold isn’t a man not to notice things - the pretty young girl in town’s pregnancy is a local gossip favourite, the sudden noticeable absence of her newborn child even more so - but he forgives himself his displaced attentional vigilance when the baby is left on his doorstep, having been asleep at the time.
The CCTV on his house had picked up the entire thing for his shuttered eagle eye, however.
Moe French hadn’t thought of that when he’d left his daughter’s newborn son on Gold’s cold front porch. He hadn’t thought of much - the moron - especially not how suspicious it would look when Gold had a new baby and his daughter had none.
What would the town say? That he’d paid little Miss French to have the child for him? That he’d given it to her himself?
Oh, he does so love the rumour mill, but this is different. This is about a child.
Even he, as foul and loathsome as he is, knows children are precious, sacred to the mother and a revelation to the father.
Of course he tries to return the boy - he is so very small, and quiet, perfect really, especially for Gold to carry and care for - but he is thwarted at every turn, and despite his usual manners, he knows this requires some delicacy. He can’t just storm into the hospital and put the baby in the girl’s arms.
Then the thought strikes that perhaps the father hadn’t been high-handed, concerned for his young daughter bringing up her child when she’s so fresh from childhood herself, and that the girl, the mother of this sweet boy, wanted to give the baby away. To him.
His disgust for her mounts. He tries to remember that she’s still just a teenager, that the child was probably an accident, that she has her reasons, but the baby is so perfect, with his tiny fingers and toes and his large eyes.
All Gold can see is himself as a lad, cold and abandoned, and he decides against finding another home for the child. He takes him in, he gives him the name he had always wanted for a son, and he keeps him.
And while Gold dotes on his boy, plays with him and feeds him and kisses his knocks and bumps, he promises himself that he’ll make the girl realise what she’d given up.
One day, he’ll make her pay.