A/N: This is meant as a companion piece to Sins of Angel's story Hair (found here: .net/s/7002564/1/Hair#). It is truly beautiful and well worth the read. Enjoy the story.
The emptiness in her heart had been soothed, for a bit. Of the past 20 years, 18 of them had been spent in an earnest search for her stolen daughter. When she was finally returned to her the Queen could not help feel like a part of her had returned. It was different though.
She had her daughter back, yes, but she had missed so much. The 18 years that her daughter had spent growing up would never come back. It had been taken from her by another women who called Rapunzel (as the girl told them to call her) her daughter.
When they spoke the distance was palpable. She saw the easy nature she had with her father. He was not trying to fit himself into a hole already occupied in his daughter's heart. She, however, had to struggle to make her position noticed.
For the past two years this had plagued the Queen's heart. She never felt like she could bring up her feeling of distance and longing to her daughter who now had a life, and soon, a family of her own.
One day, as the Queen paced in her own library staring at the book lined walls, a guard rushed in. Panting, he told the Queen that she was needed urgently in her daughter's chambers. The Queen ran, almost as quickly as she had when the guard had first told her of her daughter's return.
When she arrived her daughter's fearful eyes locked on her the moment she stepped in the door. Rapunzel strained to rise from the sweat soaked sheets to meet her mother's caress.
"What's wrong, my love," the Queen whispered fearfully.
Rapunzel's flushed face broke out in a tentative, if strained, smile. "It's time," she managed to get out before her face contorted in agony as another contraction hit her.
The Queen stood quickly and began giving instructions to the nervous guards and maids that were gathered in the room. The moved swiftly bringing what she needed. Through the labor process she smiled when she caught the site of her daughter's husband Eugene and her own husband pacing nervously back and forth in opposite directions. She pointed this out to Rapunzel as they waited for her body to be ready for delivery who smiled tenderly at the men in her life.
When it was time the Queen raised Rapunzel to a more elevated position easier for child bearing. Rapunzel strained arduously as her body split in agony, clutching her mother's hand the whole time. After much pain, tears and exhaustion Rapunzel finally delivered her first child. A daughter who promised to be as beautiful as her mother and her grandmother were.
After the necessary introductions were made to her father and her grandfather Rapunzel fed her new baby girl and took a nap. The Queen went around the room preparing everything for her daughter and her new granddaughter making sure everything was within easy reach.
After a restful nap Rapunzel woke up to her daughter's fidgeting and soon quieted her. She saw her mother reading peacefully next to her. She cradled the baby in her arms and began questioning her mother, as any daughter might, on how to maintain the well being of her daughter. Rapunzel talked of all the firsts she and her mother would soon enjoy; the same firsts that the Queen had never been able to have with her own daughter.
"Thank you mother," her daughter whispered after her daughter had fallen back asleep and passed her to her mother to put in the bassinet that had been placed near the bed. The Queen touched the face of the daughter she had lost and smiled gently looking longingly into the eyes that she had so longed to find a connection with.
As she held the fragile likeness of her daughter in her arms she smiled. The hole that had for so long been longing for something to fill it, the distance from her daughter, had finally disappeared.