SEVERAL WEEKS LATER

Rapunzel got up early to make breakfast for herself and her mother, she made them both some pancakes with strawberries, she gave Pascal a strawberry to munch on.

"Enjoying that?" Rapunzel smiled at him. Pascal responded with a nod, enjoying the juicy berry she'd given him, it being all over his face. "Thought so." She laughed. She made some tea for herself and her mother. "Mother, breakfast is ready." She called to her mother's room. There was a long silence so Rapunzel decided to go see what was wrong. Gothel had just recovered from the attack so it was unlike her to be unresponsive at this point. "Hm, maybe she went out?" Rapunzel mumbled to herself. "Mother?" She called again, slowly opening her bedroom door. Gothel was there on her bed, trying to lace up her dress. "Oh, I thought you went out."

"Hm?" She asked, not really listening to her. "No, I can't get my dress laced up,something isn't right." Rapunzel walked over to her.

"Here, I'll help you." She attempted to tighten the lace around her chest but her mother gasped.

"That's too tight!"

"Sorry, I'll loosen it a little." She did so, tying it up.

"It doesn't feel right." Gothel squirmed.

"I can't tighten it any more, that's as far as it goes." Rapunzel replied.

"Ugh, I don't know. Maybe I'm getting a little chubby." She shrugged slightly.

"I don't see why you would, you never eat anything." Rapunzel stated.

"I do so."

"Yes but only small amounts, you never eat full meals like you used too. Is something wrong?"

"I don't know." She stood up and brushed her dress down with her hands. "I've felt a bit nauseous lately, it might be because of the... well... you know." Rapunzel went silent for a moment.

"Do you still think about that?" Rapunzel frowned.

"I can't help it, it's not something I can easily forget." She fidgeted a little, staring down at her hands.

"I know, I'm sorry I shouldn't have brought it up. Well I made some pancakes if you wa-"

"Oh, I'd love some actually." She hurried out of the bedroom to the table. Rapunzel looked very confused but shook it off and followed her. Gothel was already eating her breakfast by the time she sat down.

"You put a lot of syrup on these." She remarked.

"Sorry, is it too much?" Rapunzel lifted her fork. "You can have mine, I haven't put any on mine yet."

"No, i like it sweet. You did a good job of them." Rapunzel raised an eyebrow but she decided not to question it, this was the happiest she had been in months.

"Thanks, mother." She gave a faint smile. "It's nice to see you smiling." Gothel looked up at her daughter, smiling. They had gotten a lot closer in the last two months and were enjoying being together for once.

"Are you going out today?" Rapunzel asked, taking a mouthful of her breakfast.

"Um... no." Gothel hadn't left the tower much since the incident, not without some sort of weapon on hand at least.

"Well um, i was thinking of going for a walk-"

"NO, Rapunzel! NO WAY!" She snapped.

"Mother..." Rapunzel wined. "I'll be fine."

"No, you're not leaving, not without me at least. If those men hurt you I'll never forgive myself for it." She shook her head vigorously. "Not a chance." Rapunzel sighed, they were back to square one again.

"but mother-"

"I SAID NO!" She dropped her fork and stormed off into her room.

"I shouldn't have bothered." Rapunzel mumbled to Pascal who looked at her with an eyebrow raised. "She's not like that anymore Pascal, she will let me leave just not on my own." He didn't believe her but he crawled off to Rapunzel's room to take a nap on her bed. Rapunzel pushed her plate aside and walked into her mother's room.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." She clasped her hands together. "Please come back out, I hate it when you hide away in your room all day." Gothel had her back turned to Rapunzel.

"I can't..." She said shakily. Rapunzel walked around to face her, she was holding a small trash can that she kept in her room, in her hand.

"Are you okay?" She asked, dropping her arms by her side.

"No, I'm sick."

"You were fine a few moments ago."

"I know, I don't know what happened." She put the can down on the ground and shoved it away with her foot. "Maybe i stood up too fast after eating." She shrugged.

"If you'd stop storming off you would be fine." Rapunzel mumbled but Gothel turned her head and scowled at her. "You promised me you'd be more open with me but anytime even the slightest bit of confrontation occurs you storm off. I want to be here with you but you're making it difficult."

"Open about what? Everything is fine!"

"Okay, whatever." Rapunzel groaned, standing up and beginning to leave to room. Gothel sighed, springing to her feet to chase after her.

"Rapunzel wait- oh." She tripped, almost falling. She held her forehead in her hand.

"What happened?" Her daughter asked, twirling round to look at her.

"I felt a bit dizzy for a second there."

"You need to sit down." Rapunzel assisted her back to sitting on the bed. Rapunzel thought to herself. "Mother, are you sure everything is okay. You've been a bit off lately."

"I don't know Rapunzel, i haven't really felt myself since-" She stopped. She froze for a second, thinking hard about something then shook her head. "Oh no."

"What? What is it?" Rapunzel queried but Gothel stood up slowly and walked over to the full length mirror in her room, she stared into it, examining herself. "...Mother?" Rapunzel said quietly as Gothel ran her hands over her chest slowly, pushing her breasts together a little, this caused her to make a pained face then she stood to the side, looking herself up and down.

"No, please don't let this happen!." She whispered to herself quietly but Rapunzel heard her.

"Mother you're scaring me now, what's wrong?" Rapunzel got up, slowly approaching her. "Please tell me!" She begged.

"Rapunzel, I thin- I think that... I might be-" She couldn't quite string the sentence together.

"Be what?" There was a long silence as Gothel stared at her slightly bloated reflection in the mirror.

"I think i might be pregnant." She spoke quickly, practically forcing the sentence out of her mouth. Rapunzel's eyes widened, it took her a second to comprehend this in her head.

"Mother how would you-"

"It all adds up, my appetite has been on and off, the tiredness, the nausea, the bloating-"

"Your mood swings?" Rapunzel added, earning another sharp scowl from her mother, she quickly broke eye contact and looked away, proving her point. Gothel closed her eyes and bared her teeth, cursing herself.

"Please let this be my imagination." She used her hand to lean against the wall, looking down at the floor. Rapunzel bit her lip, she wasn't sure if there was anything she could do or say in this situation that wouldn't make things worse. "It can't be though can it? I haven't even had my... you know... since it happened." Rapunzel nodded knowing what she meant. "I just thought it was stress."

"Maybe it is, maybe it's all to do with stress? It's possible right." Rapunzel tried to reassure her but she wasn't sure she believed that herself.

"It could be but, given the circumstances I'd say it's a long shot." She said, beginning to cry.

"Why are you crying?" Rapunzel tilted her head, there was a seconds silence before Gothel yelped out;

"I DON'T KNOW!" in a sad tone. She dropped down on the bed next to her daughter and hid her face in her palms. Rapunzel wrapped her arms around her and held her to her chest. "It must be true, I can't even control my own emotions." Gothel continued, beginning to show signs of a panic attack.

"Mom it's gonna be fine, please calm down you're not thinking clearly."

"How can I be calm? This is just the worst possible situation. This is all karma, i knew this was coming, not this exactly but something bad at least."

"Who says it has to be a bad thing, sure what happened to you was horrific and i wish it hadn't happened but... I mean it could be good for you, maybe? You'd finally have your own child." Gothel shook her head.

"No child deserves to have me as it's mother. At least you have the pleasure of knowing I'm not your birth mother but this poor thing will."

"STOP!" Rapunzel spat, Gothel jumped back a little. "Stop calling yourself a bad mother, what happened in the past is a different situation but I think you could be a really good mother to your own child. Regardless of what happened in the past you still love me right?"

"Of course I love you." Gothel took Rapunzel's hand. "You're still my daughter whether I birthed you or not."

"Exactly, if you can love me knowing I'm not truly your own then think of how much you could love a child that is your own. You have potential you're just not letting it show!" Her words hit Gothel like a bat, she was right, she couldn't deny that she loved Rapunzel like her own. "You'll be an amazing mother if you just stop letting your stubbornness take over you."

"... Maybe..."

"I know it!" Rapunzel took both her mother's hands. "I love you regardless of blood relation, I know this one will love you even more."

"I don't think i can do it, Rapunzel. Not on my own."

"Why not, you raised me on your own?" She questioned.

"Not raising the child, I mean the pregnancy thing... I've never been pregnant before, I don't know if I can do it."

"But you're not alone, you have me. Whatever happens im here for you, I'll look after you just like you looked after me all those year. Except less confinement." Rapunzel tried to joke but she only got a 'mnph' reaction from her mother. "Come on, let me be there for you. Don't shut me out, you need me more than ever now." Gothel hated to admit it but she was right, she did need her surrogate daughters help. She would need her help to keep herself young and alive for one and need her logical thinking to help her through it all.

"Okay, you're right." Gothel admitted. "I do need your help, one of us has to think logically." Rapunzel giggled a little.

"I'll be by your side the whole time, I promise!" She hugged her, earning a hug back.

"I'm sorry about snapping at you earlier, if you want to go out i won't stop you but im not letting you go alone, that's my last word on it." Gothel pulled out of her daughters hug.

"Really? That's great!" Rapunzel sprung to her feet, excited "I'll go grab my bag, thank you mother!" she kissed her then ran up to her room to grab her bag, she liked to pick up things she found like interesting stones and other cool stuff she found.

"O-kay..." Gothel stood up. "I guess we're going right now then?" She asked herself since Rapunzel was already in her room.

Rapunzel pranced around the forest, collecting little things she found interesting or pretty, Gothel followed behind her clutching her dagger under her cloak just incase. The young blonde picked up a rock and frowned at it, going very quiet.

"Are you alright?" Gothel asked her, noticing her change in behaviour.

"It's shaped like Eugene's face, I miss him." Rapunzel got teary eyed. Gothel didn't know what to do exactly, it was her fault that Eugene was dead so hugging her didn't seem appropriate.

"Look, I know there's nothing I can do or say that will ever show you how much I regret what I did-"

"You're right, there isn't." Rapunzel interrupted sounding angry, not looking at her. Gothel stared down at the dagger she used to kill the young man and squeezed her eyes shut, she reached her arm down and slid the sharp blade down the side of her thigh, her pale skin split open and the blood oozed down her leg. She cringed in pain, leaning against a tree trunk. Rapunzel looked up at a bird's nest in the trees, the mother bird was feeding its chicks and trying to prevent one from jumping off the side. Rapunzel sighed and looked around at her mother. "I'm sorry mom, I didn't mean to snap at you- What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just catching my breath, honey." She panted, still in pain. "It's okay, I understand you being mad at me. I don't deserve your forgiveness, I don't even deserve you and will never understand why you still want to be with me." Rapunzel looked down at the rock.

"I guess I'm just not over him yet. I don't think I'll ever be." She held it to her cheek. Gothel limped over to her.

"I felt the same way when my own mother murdered Elijah, it hurts for a long time but you'll get over it eventually, in my case it resulted in me murdering her two months after it happened so I'd say you'll crack any day now." She joked but Rapunzel wasn't amused.

"That's not funny." She put the rock in her bag and wandered off, Gothel painfully followed behind her, without noticing, Rapunzel had led her to the exact place she'd been assaulted 2 months earlier. When she realised she swallowed heavily, looking around to make sure they we're alone. Rapunzel felt around the side of the river for little pebbles she liked to collect, she always would ask Gothel to bring her them when she left for long periods of time. Her mother's breathing sped up rapidly to a panicked state as Rapunzel kneeled down in the exact spot it had happened, it all came rushing back to her like it had happened just yesterday. She clutched her stomach with one hand and held herself against a tree with the other, beginning to feel nauseous again. A slight noise in the distance broke her silence.

"Rapunzel we need to go, now!" She said calmly.

"I'm still looking around." Rapunzel replied, her arm was deep in the water, feeling around for anything of interest.

"No, Rapunzel, NOW!" Her strict tone had formed into a desperate whimper. "PLEASE!" She cried out, frantically looking behind where the noise had come from. Rapunzel stood up, perturbed at the rapid change in her mother's behaviour. She tried to speak again but her chest tightened and she could breathe. She dropped to the ground and coughed hard, accidentally making herself sick. Suddenly Rapunzel realised, there was only one explanation for her bizarre behaviour.

"It happened here." Rapunzel whispered to herself. "I'm so sorry mother I didn't know. Come on we'll go home." She rushed to Gothel's aid. She helped her back to their privet little part of the woods where the castle was and Rapunzel sat her down. "I didn't mean to upset you, you should have told me and i would never have went there." She slowly ran her fingers through Gothel's curls, pushing them out of her face.

"It's my fault for thinking i could face my fear, I'm just weak." She said, raspy.

"No, don't be silly. I wouldn't be able to face that either, it doesn't make you weak." Rapunzel handed her some bottled water. "Here drink this, you're getting over excited."

"Rapunzel I don't think I can do this." Gothel said, out of the blue.

"Do what?"

"Have a child, I just can't. I'm going to lose my mind." She rubbed her head.

"It seems like this now but it'll be different when it actually happens. You're the strongest person I've ever met. I feel like if you were going to give up you'd have done it a long time ago. If you can get through losing Elijah, your family and looking after me for 18 years then you can do this without a problem." Her daughter reassured her.

"Ugh, maybe you're right. I need to get over this fear. I can't let it overcome me like this." Gothel agreed. "Ignore me, I'm just hormonal." Rapunzel nodded.

The next few weeks had been hard on them both, a combination of Gothel struggling to come to terms with her pregnancy and trying to get over her abuse, Rapunzel was trying her best to help her conquer her frightening experience and look after her, it was hard with the growing changes that were happening to her mother, the mood swings were probably the hardest part to deal with, one minute she could be totally fine and the next she was either angry or crying over nothing, not to mention she was always in pain from her changing body. Starting to get a bit too tired to go out all the time Gothel has begun allowing Rapunzel to leave the tower on her own on the condition that she was armed with something, she got her daughter a lock back blade to carry around when she was out although she was only allowed to go small distances, she'd usually take Pascal with her so if anything did happen he could run back and let Gothel know.

Gothel was sitting at the table hovering her hand over some soup that Rapunzel had made her, she'd been trying everything to get her to eat properly but she only snacked on fruit and sweet things, her morning sickness was bad and she'd lost her appetite completely. She tried to get close to it but the smell of it just made her nauseous. She finally pushed the bowl away.

"I can't do it, the very smell of it makes me wasn't to throw up. No offence..." She said to Rapunzel who was leaning against the counter in the kitchen exhausted from trying everything she could think of to make her.

"It's okay I know it's not your fault but I've tried everything I can think of." Rapunzel rubbed her temples, she could feel a headache coming on.

"I told you I'm fine just snacking on stuff." Gothel tried to reassure her.

"You can't just eat apples and syrup for the next 6 months, there has to be something that doesn't make you sick?"

"I can't help it, I'm usually not picky with food but I'm just off everything." She shrugged, getting up and walking over to her daughter. "What's wrong?"

"My head hurt and I'm tired, I haven't been sleeping much. I worry about you." Rapunzel wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the ground, Gothel's jaw dropped ever so slightly.

"Rapunzel, you don't need to worry about me." Gothel unknowingly pushed Rapunzel's hair out of her face which caused the teen to look shocked, Gothel was usually super possessive with her hair, she'd never pushed it away before. "Go on upstairs and lie down, you need some sleep. I'll be fine, You don't want to grow bags under those pretty eyes." She gently pinched Rapunzel's cheek.

"Uh, okay." She nodded and headed to her bedroom. She couldn't believe she just complimented her, for the first time Rapunzel felt like her mother actually did love her, she wasn't sure if being pregnant had brought out her true maternal instinct but she had shown Rapunzel more affection in the last couple of weeks than she had in the entire 18 years they were together. It felt nice, warm actually, a feeling she hadn't felt since Eugene treated her with such affections. It may have been a pain but being pregnant was probably the best thing to happen to Gothel in Rapunzel's opinion, it just made her so sweet and loving, she didn't want that to end. Rapunzel lay down in her bed, her hair was braided like it was when she visited the castle. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and without realising how tired she was, she instantly fell asleep. Gothel was thinking the same thing downstairs, she was sitting by the fire with her fingers pushing on her own temples, whispering to herself.

"This head is not my own, what is going on?" She too couldn't understand why she was acting so strangely, it's like someone took her strong yet twisted mind and swapped it for someone more caring and compassionate. Not realising she'd been holding her breath she gasped for air as she began to feel faint and leaned back in her chair, gripping the armrests tightly. The room was spinning, she wasn't sure if it was the lack of food she'd been eating or low blood from multiple gashes she had been secretly making in her skin each time she thought about the terrible things that she did or was somehow involved in, it gave her a sense of relief that she couldn't quite explain and was becoming addictive, a thrill of sorts. Rapunzel knew nothing about it of course, she got enough lectures about not eating properly, she couldn't deal with more about the harm she was inflicting on herself. Gothel slowly looked down at her very small but now protruding baby bump, it was now noticeable in her third month, being naturally very slim, it was easy to see. She rested her hand over it and whispered quietly down to it. "What have you done to me? What have you made me become?" She was being playful but serious at the same time, she genuinely couldn't compute why she was the way she was. Gothel got up and headed to Rapunzel's room to check on her, her daughter was in a deep sleep, seeming to be in the middle of a dream. Gothel sat on the edge of her bed, careful not to wake her, she gently ran her fingers through Rapunzel's bangs and sung her healing song, hoping it would make her feel better. It restored her youthful looks and calmed her dizziness but she still had the same thoughts in her mind. She pushed the hair out of her daughters face then kissed her softly on the cheek.

"Sweet dreams, princess." She whispered to Rapunzel as she headed out of her room, closing over the curtains behind her.