Chapter Text
Molly sent two-year-old Bella some books from Heaven: Winnie-the-Pooh, the original stories from before Disney got them. However, Angel went through them before reading them to Bella, and he found a note in Molly's handwriting stuck on chapter seven: “Gotta warn ya Tony, ya might not like this one, Love Molly.”
Angel read the chapter and understood why Molly would think that: the characters wanted to kidnap Baby Roo. He'd have to thank Molly for the warning.
Angel skipped that chapter but read the rest of the Pooh books to Bella, who enjoyed most of the stories. She had a few questions, such as what condensed milk was, but struggled to pronounce it.
“Condensed milk,” Angel said in a slow, careful voice. “Latte condensato.”
“Latte gustoso?” Bella asked. “Yummy?”
“Condensed milk's really sweet,” Angel told her, “might not be the kind of sweet you like, Bellina. More of a...tummy ache kind of sweet.”
Along with chocolate milk, Valentino had also once tried to share condensed milk with Baby Bella, as Val liked that stuff (and made crude jokes about it, thankfully never around the baby).
Bella thought about this, then asked, “Have some, Mama? Per favore? Please?”
So later, Angel got some condensed milk for Bella (from a can, not the tubes that Val would have gotten). He gave Bella the smallest spoonful, and almost right away, she spat the stuff right back into the spoon.
“Yucky! Disgusto!”
Angel would have told her that spitting was bad manners (he'd had to tell her so before), but at least she spat into the spoon this time and not on the floor...and he was glad that Bella would not grow up to share Val's tastes.
Later, Angel and Bella were playing with Bella's stuffed toys: Purple Bunny, Molly Teddy, Cuddle Duck and Piggy. Bella suddenly said, “Wanna read story 'bout them, Mama. Libro di storie sui mi amici.” Molly's letter to Angel and Bella had mentioned that both the Pooh author and the illustrator had based the characters on their own sons' toys.
“Aw, Bellina,” Angel said, “there's no storybook like that...yet!” He'd noticed Bella's lip wobbling. “You could write your own someday, you're already so good at the alphabet, so you'll be reading and writing in no time.”
Bella liked to sing the alphabet, but she always whispered “vee” as though merely saying the letter would summon the Vees like some evil ghost.
That was how Bella started to write her own stories, using little booklets that Charlie and Angel made for her.