"Thank you, mama." said Princess Rapunzel to Queen Rebecca.
"You're welcome dear. I know you want to be the best princess ever, but it will take some time to learn everything you will need to be the great princess you can become. I'll be giving you lessons on being a princess and the tutors will help with their specialties." Rebecca put her arms around her daughter and hugged her close.
Rapunzel's arms were on her lap and it was too awkward to hug her back so she just leaned into her mama and tried to relax. She was so tense all the time. One of the things she had lost with her magic hair were all the little things she did to comfort herself, like worrying the hair near her shoulder. Her mama's arms around her reminded her of another thing she did when things got to be too much and things had been too much for so long now.
"Mama, I miss my hair." said Rapunzel, sadly.
"I'm sure you do. It takes time to adjust to such a big change. It's only been a week and half."
"I hope so. I trust you, if you say so. I just feel so tense. Back in the tower, sometimes I would spin around and wrap myself in my hair, then lie on the bed and that would relax me. I miss that particularly right now."
Pascal padded out to her shoulder and nodded, affirming that Rapunzel did that, though sometimes accidentally, like when she practiced her ballet.
Rebecca began rubbing her baby's shoulders and thought for a moment, putting her chin on her daughter's head, what her daughter was describing sounded somewhat familiar. "Oh, I know! You like to be swaddled."
"What is swaddled?"
"It is something we do for babies to comfort them. We wrap them in a blanket and let them relax and sleep."
"That sounds so good right now. Would you swaddle me, Mama?" asked Rapunzel desperate for some respite. There was so much to do as a princess and she was getting so tired. She would get overwhelmed so often, and have a breakdown. Mortimer was trying to keep her schedule easy, but no one really knew what her limits were and they were finding them the hard way.
"Okay, if it would make you feel better. Now is a good time for some quiet time anyway. Let's go to your room."
They walk from the queen's sewing room to the princess' apartment. Rebecca looked at the bed for a moment and then made a plan. She removed the blanket from the bed and had Rapunzel lay on the top sheet. Rebecca folded the near side of the sheet over her daughter then had her turn onto her side so Rebecca could tuck the other side under her nice and tightly.
"How is that?" asked Rebecca as she helped her daughter unto her back again.
After a deep sigh of contentment, Rapunzel said with closed eyes, "Good. Thank you. Could I put my head on your lap?"
"Of course, dear." Said Rebecca, giving her miracle baby a kiss on the forehead, stroking back the short brown hair. Rapunzel sat up with a little help, Rebecca sat on the bed and Rapunzel lay back again and closed her eyes. Rebecca stroked her baby's short brown hair and cooed a lullaby for her as Pascal climbed onto her shoulder. Rebecca could see the tension leaving her baby's face as she relaxed under her touch. After a while Rapunzel opened her big, green eyes that were filled with such depth, it touched Rebecca's heart.
"Mama, I lo-. I l-. I... I'm sorry. You are my sunshine." Rapunzel finished sadly, turning her head away.
Rebecca turned her daughter's head back so they could see eye to eye. "Don't be. It isn't your fault. We will get through even this. You are my sunshine."
Rapunzel could see the disappointment in her mama's eyes and it made her insides twist. She so wanted to tell her parents and Eugene that she loved them. But Mother had totally and completely betrayed the love they had shared.
When she had thought she had been left on the beach by Eugene, she had finally learned what it was like to have her heart wrenched from her chest. Mother's betrayal had ripped the entirety of her insides out her of her body. Eugene's death had pulled even the will to live out of her. Rapunzel knew that her parents loved her, they had shown her that by sending up the sky lanterns every year. She knew that Eugene loved her; he had come back from death to be with her. Pascal was always there for her. But something at the core of her heart, the root of her soul was scared to love again. Afraid to love so deeply again, because it hurt so much when it ended.
"Would you stay with me, please?" Rapunzel pleaded.
Rebecca smiled and nodded, got up and put a pillow under her daughters head. Pascal settled himself on the pillow next to Rapunzel's head while Rebecca settled into the chair by the bed, and picked up the latest book her daughter was reading. Before Rebecca could finish the first page, Rapunzel was asleep.
Author's Note: Rapunzel seems to like to wrap herself up in her hair, she did it rolling down the hill, and making a hair fort to hide in even though she did it by accident doing ballet and Gothel did it to her to make her helpless. I was reminded of the swaddling of babies and wondered if Rapunzel might be using that as a self-comfort mechanism since she is alone so much. She does so much with her hair and without it she has to change so much of how she does things, she doesn't really know why but she is noticing that things are different and is trying to adjust under very trying circumstances.